My name is Andy Watkins   I am a fourth grade teacher at Athens.  I teach in town, at Lynch-Bustin Elementary.  I graduated from Mansfield University in 2002.  I then began to substitute in the Valley for 5 years.  I have just recently received my first full-time teaching position at Athens. My hobbies include golfing, hunting, and owning my own business.  I have owned my business, Custom Carved Rocks, for 6 years.  Custom Carved Rocks is a business that engraves into stone and other sub-straights.  I really enjoy this line of work because it incorporates the use of many different techniques to acquire the desired outcome.  

      Besides my hobbies and business, I have been happily married to my wife, Michelle, for 4 years.  We started dating right out of high school and haven't been apart since.  We have two kids (dogs), Jack and Jill.  They are Cocker Spaniels, Jack and Jill are brother and sister.  They enjoy making a mess in the backyard and tearing apart their toys in the living room. We live in Athens on Riverside Drive and are very proud to be apart of this wonderful community. 

      My career objectives are to gain a better insight into educational technology and further my education.  One day I hope to be in the Administration part of education, but I feel that I need to be grounded in the classroom in order to be a great Administrator. 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to our podcast: "The Water Cycle"  by: Matt, Penny, Sue, Gregory, Colleen, & Andy

 

 

 

 

 

PowerPoint Idea 

 

PowerPoint is a useful tool for a number of reasons. This idea is

 more or less the way I look at using PowerPoint in my fourth grade classroom. 

         It allows the user to create lessons that are extremely unique, differentiated, manageable, & green.  By creating lessons on PowerPoint you expand the cababilities of reaching every child, by means of offering them an eye appealing layout with the opportunity to add sounds and graphics that get their attention. 

         You can easily differentiate any activity once you create the concept and layout.  PowerPoint is a huge time saver when it comes time to find, That one file!  You can save each lesson as you would normally save any Word document, plus you can reuse it for the rest of your career!  

         Think of all the papers we use day to day, we use a "Whole Lot!"  By creating lessons on PowerPoint, or even better, having book manufactures create more whole class lessons and activities we could save a "Whole Lot" of trees from being destroyed. Also, it's cheaper to replace a DVD/CD, than it is to replace a book, or aleast it should be! 

 

 

*The following link includes templates and examples of Jeopardy, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and Hollywood Squares games and

other lesson ideas that were created using PowerPoint: http://teach.fcps.net/trt10/PowerPoint.htm

 

 

 

Lesson Plans    

Podcasting: 

 

         Podcasting is a great way to entertain while educating.  My main focus of Podcasting in the classroom deals with introducing new ideas by building upon background knowledge and tapping into prior knowledge.   I feel that podcasting has the ability to convey messages or information in a morden/fast paced format.  Podcasting offers the user the ability to pack a lot of content into a very small file.  I'm currently using a form of digital media in my classroom, United Streaming.  I use United Streaming to introduce new concepts that we will be covering in class.  I find that students enjoy watching and listening to the videos. I believe this has much to do with the way it is presented to them.  After speaking to a fellow colleague of mine, we both are very interested in trying to create a podcast in the form of a morning announcement, but with our own spin on things.

 

 

 

Online Collaboration: 

 

        I feel that Wiki's can be a useful tool for sharing lessons, ideas, & concepts. It is often that you could use someones help with a problem, concern, or even when you are having a brain fart.  By collaborating online it allows the users to give ideas and take ideas.  After using a Wiki, I think it should be a must for districts with a large online student population.  I feel that the students and the teachers would both benefit from the use of Wiki's.  Other great reasons are: to help your students with issues they are having with homework, to be there when they my have forgot something or need a reminder, the uses are unimaginable.    

 

 

 

Expert Systems (the non-linear PowerPoint): 

 

        Non-linear PowerPoints are new to me.  I really like using PowerPoint, I have used it for the past ten years, but until taking this class I never realized the concept ever exsited.  I can think up many great ideas to use the non-linear slides for, they can be useful in reinforcing key concepts that need reinforcement.  It also promotes differentiated learning, by reteaching the concept if the user got the question wrong. 

 

 

 

 

Virtual technologies and tools:  

 

          Virtual tours offer student's an opportuntity to see life as they have never seen it before. Video Games are Virtual technology. Need I say more?  What child do you know that has never played a video game of some sort before? I don't have the statistics, but just wait.... done.  Check this out if you don't believe me;

newsroom.msu.edu/site/indexer/1943/content.htm.    By haboring virtual tours, you allow students from all social-economic backgrounds a chance to experience more places than their restrictions allow. Without a doubt I can find a hundred and one ways to use this stuff. 

 

"Hey class, let's visit the White House, swing by the state of Hawaii, and stop at the state capital in Pennsylvania in the next 45 minutes."  Your students will think you're crazy! 

 

 

 Vitual Tour Links:       http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/whtour/        http://www.vthawaii.com/

 

          http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/vc/visitor_info/CapitolTour/Capindex/index.cfm   

http://www.elvis.com/graceland/vtour/    http://www.space.com/php/popup/virtualspacetour/noad_astropedia.php

 

http://www.remember.org/auschwitz/    

 

 

 

                                             

 

 

Technologies:   

 

Links to useful WebQuests: found by  A. Watkins

 http://www.wfu.edu/~mccoy/NCTM99/weather.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/4051/titlepg.htm?tqskip1=1&tqtime=1108

http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/fairytales/

 

 

    Webpages:

 

         * My Classroom Website: http://www.athensasd.k12.pa.us/metadot/index.pl?iid=12588

 

      * Links to content specifically useful to you:                                   

          www.abcteach.com                        www.readinga-z.com                                                                          

 

               http://school.discoveryeducation.com/teachingtools/teachingtools.html