Welcome to Sheldon's Page!

 This is my "When I become a Teacher" Video. We posted these during our class reflecting on a video we saw about inefective teaching practices.

when i bcom tchr.zip 

This is me on my first motorcycle a 1981 Honda Goldwing.

                      This is my second motorcycle. It is a 2011 Harley Davidson Road King.

                      My Student is teaching me how to use technology in the classroom! 

      One of my students refused to keep a notebook. Notebooks are 20% of the grade in my class. He told me he was willing to loose the 20% rather than carry a notebook. "Besides", he told me, "I keep all of my notes in my i pod". I asked him to show me and he did. He also showed me how he even writes essays for History class on his i pod. Needless to say, I gave him his 20% and gave all of my students permisssion to use their i pods as notebooks if they choose to do so. The student has become the Teacher!  Below you can see a photo of the student's essay...taken with my i phone.

With Engrade....I'd have it MADE!!!

What a useful program! At first when I got the assignment to use this tool, I complained. I thought that I already have a electronic gradebook at school! Why do I have to use this?! I’m glad I did. I found that there are bettter tools out there than what I already use.

We used to have EZ Grade Pro. It was optional and some of the “Cool” teachers used it but it was not web based. It was computer based. I tried it and found it confusing so I stuck to the old paper grade book and calculator. It took me about 8 hours at the end of each quarter to compute my final grades, but with a little “Voodoo Math” …Hey what the heck?! Part of the job. Right?!

Enter: Infinite Campus. A new computer based gradebook that we ALL are required to use. I had a training session. I complained loudly and somehow muddled through the process of using the gradebook with the kind assistance and patience of Ms. Larkin I made it. When the end of the quarter came and I asked her the million dollar question, “O.K. now what about grades?” With the push of two buttons and adding canned comments, I was DONE!!! You gotta’ be kiddin’! This is TO EASY! So I became a believer, until……..

ENGRADE!!! This tool is amazing! It’s so easy to use. The quiz feature is awsome. You can do so much online. I am able to easily weight assignments, add quizzes and take attendance. It automaticly creates seating charts. (Man do I love that!) and to calculate final grades…..Oh wait! It does it WITHOUT even pushing a button. But there’s MORE! There’s a section for you to add your own comments and Parents can access it. Best of all it ends the annoying question, “Mr. Heil? Can you tell me my grade in this class? ” And my sarastic reply, ” Oh…failing Math too huh? “,(Just kidding!), …kinda’. With this program students and parents can access the entire program. The program even prints out a list with codes for each student based on ID numbers. All you have to do is print it, cut it into strips and issue it to each student.

You can also create assignments, a web page and whatever else you want to do! It’s all right there! I did a sample quiz with two questions on ER and IR verb conjugation. It was pretty cool. I could see myself actually using this program and liking it. I would probably use paper quizzes once in awhile because I’d miss standing in line for the copy machine while it jams and breaks and having that disgusted feeling, wondering if I will be able to copy the quiz before it is time to give it.  I’d also probably miss the joys of giving the quiz and using that RED pen I love so much and spending those hours of my free time grading it. God knows I have nothing else to do! Why should I let ENGRADE have all the fun of grading my quizzes and reporting the scores back to me?! Well…maybe I’d like to share some of the fun. What the heck?

I guess you can tell by the tone of this blog entry that I am pretty impressed with ENGRADE. I really like the features and I think I’d like taking my class to the computer lab for quizzes once a week. I’d also like how much easier it makes my job and how much time it saves me. With parental access it could eliminate progress reports and telephone/e-mails from parents who are concerned with their child’s progress. Everything would be at their fingertips. As for me? With Engrade….I’d have it MADE!

Here is a sample of what I created on powerpoint. I was able to create a flyer for the Puerto Rican Day Parade. What a nice thing to be able to do. Now I can make my own announcements and flyers. I can make them look professional and fun! 

 Sheldon_A2.pdf

We learned how to tell digital stories. This is my favorite way to use technology. Check out my story. I'm proud of what I have learned! 

Sheldonspainstorypage 

Check out my Blog!

Capitainiluminati

I made my blog user name captainiluminati because I have realized that I became a teacher because I hate ignorance and I would like to do something about it. I thought in my blog as captainiluminati I could convey that I am a captain in the war against ignorance and am combating my own technology illiteracy at the same time by taking this class.

Check out our Teacher Toolkit!!

"Teacher Toolkit" - OTF  

My TI Survey  This is a survey that shows how much I knew about technology in the beginning of this course. I know lots more now! 

Week 1 Feedback Form.

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