Major Project Blog VI: The One With the T-Shirt

The shirt used for the pattern

The shirt

I finally got to sewing together my first t-shirt. To get started I looked around online for patterns and decided to use this pattern. In the pictures you can see that I used one of my shirts as the base for cutting out the pattern. Sam thought that using fleece would be a good idea because it does a good job of staying put whereas other fabrics like to move around. She also forgot to mention that the fabric doesn't really stretch, so the shirt is a little tight on me. It's not pictured but when cutting out the fabric the shirt would lay inside out. The reason for this is because the seams lay flatter when shirt is inside out. If you look in the pictures you will notice that the fabric is wider than the shirt that's being used for the pattern. This is because of seam allowance. Seam allowance is the area between the edge and the stitching line on two separate pieces of fabric or material that are being stitched together. The reasoning for this is because the material gets tighter when you stitch it. 

The sleeves

 The video that shows me working on the shirt can be found here. There were some off screen adjustments. When sewing the sleeves I accidentally sewed a part of the shirt that I shouldn't have. The sleeves are pretty hard to do (curves are STILL hard to sew). Luckily I had Sam there to help me out and fix my mistake. After the shirt and sleeves were together, Sam told me that I don't need to worry about hemming the shirt since the fabric used doesn't fray. I found the project pretty tough to do, but I think that it was an interesting challenge. I really enjoyed working with sewing and I plan on continuing to do so after this course is over. I'm excited to be able to help Sam with some of the cosplay, but I think that I will leave the more difficult cosplay crafts to her.

The finished product

Blog Entry XI: Productivity Tools

One thing that I hear often when it comes to teaching is how there is so much to do and not enough time for it. A lot of people don't really know that there's a lot of time and dedication teachers spend outside the classroom. The large amount of work that needs to be done in time frames can prove to be quite overwhelming for some teachers. I think that technology helps with this issue. Yes there will be some extra time spent learning the technology, but I think that the outcome is well worth the investment. SMART Boards for example, may take some time to learn, but will overall benefit you in the classroom. As someone that wants to teach math, I really like the idea of using SMART Boards in the classroom. It helps save time during instruction because I don't have to rewrite problems on the board. I can simply open a file and all of the example problems I want to discuss with my class pop up. SMART Boards are easy to use and can definitely help increase productivity because it helps you prepare in advance, which gives you more time for classroom discussion. In Jake's presentation, he mentioned the usage of a SMART Board and how it can increase productivity in the classroom. This is something that my math teacher did when I was in high school. 

Google for Education offers so much to the classroom I can't see myself not trying it out. It's free, offers easy organization tools for lessons and grade books and offers easy communication between students and teachers. Being able to connect with parents easier is great for productivity as well. Whether it's a private discussion between you and a parent or it's an announcement for all parent, there are apps available that can be used by both teachers and parents for easy communication. This article provides seven free apps that can be used to connect parents and teachers. Some of these apps also have other features such as grade and attendance tracking. 

Jake also mentioned in his presentation that educational technology is at its most useful when it is not the goal of the lesson, but a tool used to solve a problem or meet a goal. Instead of thinking that teacher productivity cannot be improved, we should use technology as a tool to help improve productivity to create a better learning environment. It's not an easy task to accomplish, but it's possible and something that all teachers should work towards.

Blog Entry X: Blended Learning

Some people describe blended learning simply as both teacher and computer based instruction. I personally like Stacy Hawthorne's definition of it. She defines it as a setting where learning occurs at any space and any time, where students become accountable for their learning and time and create questions that they seek and evaluate the answers to. Two definitions that I think are important to blended learning is that it is an environment where collaboration is essential to success, and mastery is shown through projects and presentations. I like these two definitions because of my experiences as a student. I've always enjoyed collaborating with my classmates. I think that learning and understanding different viewpoints on topics from your peers is essential to learning. Group discussions have always helped me understand topics easier. I've never been a fan of tests. As one of the teachers mentions in this video about blended learning, not every student learns the same way or at the same pace. Because of this I think that it's important to assess our students in different ways; and projects and presentations are great alternative methods to measuring student learning and understanding.  
I liked how blended learning was implemented into the instructional technology course. First we have our online blog posts, which are similar to the online discussion boards. We also do not meet for class every week, This is good because I think that there are some things that are better learned face to face in lectures and then there are some things that are just learned better by plunging into the topic and reflecting upon it. What I appreciated most about this course is the amount of time we have to complete assignments. As graduate students, we have busy lives. The extensive amount of time we have been given to complete our assignments throughout the course gives us the opportunity to work at a pace that we are comfortable with.        
Even though I support blended learning, there may not be some people who are comfortable with the idea. I think what stood out to me the most was Hawthorne's response to this in her presentation. She mentions that not only should blended learning benefit students, but it should also benefit teachers as well. If you're not comfortable with it, if you're not ready to change your teaching model or try out a new tool then you can't do it because you won't be successful. 

Major Project Blog V: Metal and Tech

Sam's Sewing Machine

I mentioned in the previous blog that I had already started working with a sewing machine. What I like about sewing machines is that they are very friendly towards beginners.Their ease of use and speed are what makes them more efficient to use compared to hand sewing. Sewing machines also use two strands of thread at the same time as you stitch. For this reason the stitches are more secure compared to the hand sewn stitches, especially when it comes to thicker fabrics. The main complication I had when working with the sewing machine was threading it. Trying to thread the machine without a guide is complicated. Luckily I found a video on Youtube that helps explain how to thread it.

Meet Blob-O

I decided to make a video of me using the sewing machine. I uploaded the video to Youtube and it can be found here. I decided to speed the video up so that it ran 4 times as fast as it normally does. I did the video editing in a program called Adobe Primere Pro. I found this program to be very useful. It does cost money to download and install, but luckily Adobe offers a 7 day free trial.
The adorable little fellow to the right is Blob-O. He is the finished product of what I was sewing in the video. Even though sewing machine's exist, hand sewing still has its uses. The ladder stitch, for example, was supposed to be used to close the fabric up. I made a mistake by not flipping the material inside out before I started sewing. Because I made this error, it didn't matter how the fabric was closed since the stitches would show. If you look at Blob-O's eyes, you'll notice the stitching pattern to be different than the usual straight stitch. The sewing machine has a lot of different sewing patterns programmed into it for use. Sam told me that the one used on Blob-O's eyes helps seal the ends better. I decided to just go with a straight stitch for the mouth.
Sewing machines are definitely more efficient to use than hand sewing. I still like hand sewing though. It's something that is enjoyable and can be used to help pass the time.

Major Project Blog IV: The One Before the Machine

Straight Stitch

I have already began practicing how to sew with the sewing machine. Before blogging about my experiences with it I wanted to first sum up my experiences with hand sewing. I learned how to do 3 different types of stitching techniques. The three I learned are: the straight stitch, the ladder stitch, and the back stitch. In my last blog I mentioned that I would be practicing a back stitch. Sew4Home provides some great information on hand sewing techniques. The straight stitch does what sewing machines do. It is also a good technique to use in smaller spaces where a machine may not be able to reach. The ladder stitch, which some people see as the most useful type of hand stitch, is used to create invisible seams (used on stuffed animals and pillows). The back stitch helps create a strong seam, and is often used on dense fabrics or to repair seams.

Before getting started I watched a tutorial about how to sew using

Canvas fabric

the back stitch technique. I don't think that this technique is difficult, but it does take more time to do than a straight stitch. In the tutorial it is mentioned that the key to a nice looking back stitch is to keep the stitch length consistent. The material I used to practicing this is canvas. This material is actually easier to pierce with the needle compared to the fleece and felt materials. I've also become more comfortable sewing with a thinner needle. As mentioned before thinner needles are harder to use but pierces through materials easier than larger ones. The video identifies two types of methods when sewing, scoop and stab. For this stitch I used the stab method. This method takes a little longer to do compared to the scoop.

Back stitch practice

Curves are hard to sew

   Hand stitching has proven to be quite entertaining. I'm glad that I made the decision to hand sew before I start working with a sewing machine. At least with the sewing machine I won't have to worry about poking myself with the needle as much. So far sewing with the machine has been just as enjoyable as hand sewing. I'm looking forward to doing more with it.

Blog Entry IX: Assessment

Formative assessment is a very powerful and useful strategy used by teachers in the classroom. For a reminder on what formative assessment is, it is a procedure that conducted by teachers during the learning process of a topic. By using this kind of assessment teachers can gather information about student learning and can modify their teaching and their learning activities to help students learn during the learning process. This is completely different compared summative assessments. Summative assessments are often focused on educational outcomes, such as an end of a unit exam. There are a wide range of ways to use formative assessments in the classroom. Examples include: exit slips, homework for a lesson that was covered in class for that day, reflection journals, 3.2.1s (3 things I learned today, 2 things I found interesting, 1 question I still have),  group discussions, self assessments. This pdf created by Natalie Regier provides readers with 60 examples of formative assessment.  
Creating assessments for your classroom is not an easy process. Creating quality assessments may take some time. How reliable is your assessment? Is it consistent? How valid is your assessment? Is it measuring what it's supposed to be measuring? Since I don't really have any experience in the classroom, I cannot say what is more important between formative and summative assessments.  Despite me not being able to say which is more important, I think that when I am given the opportunity to teach I will focus on formative a lot more than summative. I say this because the consistent assessing of students will allow me to get to know my students better and help me create learning activities that they enjoy engaging with. This will help me become a better teacher faster. Measuring student growth helps them become better learners and they also learn that there is more to school than just letter grades from big tests. 
Today technology can play a role in formative assessments in the classrooms. Students enjoy using technology. I think that it's great anytime you can implement the use of technology into your instruction. In the topic video, Scott Kinkoph demonstrated the use of PearDeck and EduCanon. He used these programs to present and formally assess information to his students. What was great about the video is that all of his students were participating. This is something that you don't see too often classrooms. Getting students engaged is the key, and technology can  definitely help with that.  Last semester I had some experiences with Kahoot. For those of you that don't know, I'm that student that likes to sit in the back of classroom and try to keep away from classroom discussions. I found Kahoot to be quite entertaining and found myself always participating when it was being used. I look forward to finding more resources like Kahoot, Peardeck, and EduCanon in hopes that I can effectively use them in my classroom.

Blog Entry VIII: Learning Space

Teaching methods are evolving and the usage of technology in the classroom is increasing. Along with these changes comes the thought of creating more comfortable learning spaces in the classroom for our students. Learning space in classroom can play a huge role in the encouragement of student learning and engagement. I think what might be the most important factor when it comes to improving learning space for students is trying to make the space comfortable for the students. When thinking about learning space there are many things to consider. Some of the basic things to consider are: How comfortable are the seats? Is there carpet or a rug in the classroom? How's the lighting in the room? How much of that lighting is natural lighting coming from outside? Is it easy to move the furniture around? Do you have any positive visual displays hanging in the classroom?  

As for online learning spaces, Google Apps for Education is a tool that can help enhance student learning. There are many apps that students can use to collaborate with for classroom activities. Google slides and Google docs are two prime examples of programs students can use. Being able to edit, collaborate, and share ideas in real time while being in different areas is very convenient. The best part about these apps is that they are free to use. They are also easy to use and are compatible with any device.  

The University of Akron is also working on enhancing learning spaces for the students. Bierce Library is a great example of this. Bierce has lots of computers for students to use. There is a writing commons, where you can get tutoring for your papers in person or online. There's a Starbucks for those of you that may be getting some work done in the early morning. There are booths and study tables. Bierce also has many study rooms for students who may be working together to complete a project, or rehearsing a presentation. There are dry erase boards, power outlets, and adaptive equipment that can be used in the rooms.  

Taking a step away from the traditional classroom set up may not be as easy as it sounds. Everyone that has already been in school has a predetermined mindset on what a classroom should look like. For this reason they may think that it's not necessary to change the space. Another problem that may come with the changing of the learning space in the classrooms is the cost. Unfortunately not all schools can afford new equipment, technology, or furniture necessary to enhance learning spaces. Even if these things aren't affordable, you can always brainstorm with what you already have. Sometimes something as simple as moving the desks around in your classroom can help. 

Major Project Blog III: Practice Makes Perfect

After completing my first pillow, Samantha (my critical friend) and I decided that I should spend some time working on my straight stitch technique rather than moving on to something new. I was working on making my stitching closer. The tighter (or closer) the stitching is, the cleaner the seam is going to look. This is why sewing machines are so great. The machine stitches very close together.

Fleece Material

The material that was used this time around in place of felt was a fleece material. Fleece is harder to sew than felt because it's more pliable, therefore it doesn't always stay together as easily as felt.  The needle used this time was much smaller than the one used for the pillow. Even though bigger ones are more friendly for beginners due them not being too sharp and their ease of use, it was necessary to use a smaller needle for fleece because of the type of material it is. The fibers in fleece are woven; therefore you need a smaller needle to pierce the material easier. Sam decided that I should sew in a circle this time around because its harder to keep the stitches straight and consistent.

My stitching vs Sam's. Can you guess who did which one?

Sewing machines save a lot of time

I asked Sam if she could do some sewing this time around so that I could use hers as an example. As you can see from the picture above, her's is a lot more consistent mine. Lucky for her she's lightning fast with her stitching. Unfortunately I still move at a snail's pace. Even though my stitching is not as good as her's it has improved quite a bit since the last blog entry. In the picture below I compared the progress of my stitching to the pillow I created in the last blog. The stitching in the circle is a lot closer together compared to the pillow. Because of this you don't see the stitching as much in the seam. I also added a picture of a seam that was stitched together using a sewing machine so you can see the difference.

Progress!

  

 For my next entry, I plan on moving to a different type of stitching technique. The technique that I want to work on is the back stitch. The back stitch is more advanced than the straight stitch, but is still an appropriate technique for beginners to learn. I have already began searching the internet for information on this technique. I have already found a great Youtube video and a website that provides tutorials on how to do it. Thanks for reading!

Cool Tool Entry V: Geoboard

Geoboard is an educational app created by The Math Learning Center. The Math Learning Center, or MLC, is a non profit organization the contributes to the education community. Their mission is to inspire and enable individuals to discover and develop their mathematical confidence and ability. For more information on MLC you can check out their website or follow them on twitter @MLCmath.

MLC has created multiple apps to help enhance math education. The names of these apps include:
Geoboard, Pattern Shapes, Number Line, Number Frames, Number Pieces, and Number Rack. All of these apps are free to use and are compatible with both iOS (iPad and iPhone) and Windows.

Default Geoboard

 If you've never used a geoboard, or forgot what what they were I'm sure that the picture above will give you a great understanding or reminder of what they are. For classroom use real geoboards are usually made out of plastic and have pegs placed on them equidistant apart. Geoboards can come in different sizes and even in circular shapes and students wrap rubber bands around the pegs to create shapes. Geoboards are used to explore basic concepts of geometry and can be used for students in both elementary and middle school. It can be used to help students learn about algebra, perimeter, area, properties of triangles, congruence, translations, as well as many other topics.

As you can see from the pictures posted, the app has some nifty features. You have the option to choose from a square 25 peg board , a rectangular 150 peg board or a 13 peg circular board. The circular board can help open exploration into time measurement, angles and fractions. There are eight different colors to choose from and you can fill individual shapes with a transparent color. You can also duplicate, rotate, flip, or move shapes. The ability to leave notes on the board is, in my opinion, a great addition to the app. 
The app is easy to use and will take little to no time at all to teach how to use to your students. It also comes with a well made tutorial just in case there may be a question or concern on how to use a certain feature. Also with this app you don't have to worry about student's rubber bands breaking and you don't have to worry about any classroom mischief (like students shooting the rubber bands at each other). I think that this app is very convenient  can prove to be quite beneficial to classrooms that have access to the technology to use it. 

Cool Tool Blog Entry IV: TagCrowd

For my fourth cool tool review I decided to take a look at TagCrowd, which is a website that generates word clouds. Word clouds are images that are composed of words in a certain subject. The words that are used more frequently appear much larger in the picture compared to those that aren't used as often. 

TagCrowd homepage

The use of word clouds in the classroom can be beneficial to students. I think that one of the obvious benefits of a word cloud is that it can help improve a student's vocabulary. Using the word cloud allows you to see which word you may be overusing. From there you could use a thesaurus to identify some synonyms that you could put in place of that word you're overusing. Word clouds can also be used as an icebreaker or a "get to know you" tool. As a future math teacher, I think that  I would use word clouds as a pre-assessment tool for lesson vocabulary. This can obviously work in other subjects as well. 
TagCrowd is a free to use website, but you can donate money to the website. TagCrowd is very easy to use and takes little to no time at all to learn how to use. The website lets you create a word cloud by letting you type in words, by pasting in web page url, or by uploading a plain text document. As you can see in the picture above there are options that you can choose from that include language selection (over 15 languages to choose from), how many numbers you want to show up in your word cloud, and allowing the option to show the number of times a word is written. There is a "frequently asked questions" section to help answer some questions that users may have and there are contact and blog sections on the website. 
Unfortunately I could not find an option to customize the font style or color, which leaves the word cloud looking a bit ordinary. I also was not able to connect to the blog section of the website. Despite there short comings I find the website useful and is something that I could definitely see myself using in the classroom. 

The cloud that is generated when I type in the url for my blogspot

Major Project Blog II: Introduction to Sewing

I finally got the opportunity to start learning how to sew. To start things off I decided to start off with learning about the most basic sewing technique, the straight stitch, or a single and short embroidery stitch. I decided to turn to Youtube to learn the basics of the straight stitch. After reviewing the video I asked Samantha, who is my critical friend for the project, how I should start my project. Sam came to the conclusion that sewing a mini pillow together would be a great hands on experience for a first timer. 

Supplies for the pillow

Lucky for me Sam has enough crafting supplies to open a mini Jo-Ann Fabrics store stashed away in one of our closets. She supplied me with felt fabric, polyester fiberfill (I call it stuffing), a needle, thread, and some sewing pins. She decided to start me off with felt because it's an easier fabric to sew and she gave me a larger needle so I could thread it easier. The pins are there to help hold the fabric in place as I sew.

Threading the needle and straight stitch sewing

Straight stitch shown before the flip

Towards the end of the sewing Sam noted that I should leave a part of the fabric open for the stuffing and so that I can flip the fabric inside out. She said that this is common because the stitching won't show. She also tipped me off with the thought that you don't want to keep the fabric too open because it will be a pain to sew the pillow closed when the stuffing is inside.

Sam demonstrating the ladder stitch

Sam taught me another sewing technique to close the pillow without the stitches showing. This technique is known as the ladder stitch. The ladder stitch (often referred to as the hidden, slip, or blind stitch) is a technique that is mostly used on dolls and stuffed animals. Steps on how to sew using the ladder stitch technique can be found here.

In my first major project blog I noted that one of the benefits of sewing was that it can help you focus better. I bring this up because I have a history of finding it difficult to focus on one thing at a time. This often leads me to straying away from whatever my current task may be.When it came to sewing the pillow I can say that I was definitely focused on it without hardly any distractions affecting me. Maybe it was because I wanted to be extra careful so I didn't accidentally poke myself with needle. I hope that my focus when sewing continues and that it could eventually lead to an improvement of me being able to focus outside of it. Despite what I believe is a very poor stitching technique I have to say that sewing the pillow was an entertaining experience and I am looking forward to doing more!

Final Product

Blog Entry VII: EBooks

Technology is always providing us with tons of new educational opportunities. When both education and technology are brought up together I think that the topic of ebooks is something that is thought of quite often. Implementing the usage or creation of ebooks into classroom instruction can prove to be beneficial. 

As a college student two questions come mind when I first think about textbooks: How much does the book cost? And How am I going to get my hands on the book? An option to get an ebook version makes things convenient. Due to being electronic the book can be cheaper and it is always available. Just this semester I had to wait 2 weeks before getting a textbook for one of my classes. By that experience you can tell that the option to not have to wait for a book is very appealing to me. Even in grades k-12 access to ebooks can help lower expenses. 

Ebooks can be used by teachers regardless of their area of curriculum. Not only can you use them for different subjects, but you can also use them in any grade level. Software that creates ebooks also provide a great opportunity to get students interested, promote creativity, and keep them engaged in classroom activities. Ebook creation can be used to create formative and summative assessment, project based learning. There are plenty of ideas that students can use when creating their own ebook. They can create "How to" books (how to build something, how to cook something, a step by step process to solve a problem), "About Me" books, poetry books, both fiction and non-fiction books. Ebooks also provide an opportunity for students to share their work outside of the classroom.  

Whether it's the possibility of including audio, videos, enhancing font size, saving trees, lightening backpacks, getting students more involved, or other unmentioned benefits, ebooks offer a ton of them without hardly any downsides (I personally can't think of any). I think that students would really enjoy getting the opportunity to use and create ebooks. Ebooks are definitely something that all teachers should consider researching and working with.