Goals for the 2nd Week

Start of the 2nd week and I am feeling a little more at ease.  What an exciting year this is going to be with all of the new tools I am implementing!  I say exciting to be positive, but actually I am so nervous!  I have to keep reminding myself that if everything is not perfect, its OK, I will improve and the things I am doing are going to be so much better for my kids than what we did last year!

So my goals for this week are: 

1. Introduce the first real math video and class format.  We've been doing procedures and assessments so far.  I had them watch a video to learn how to sign up for Edmodo, and they seem to really like Edmodo :)  and I've had them working in groups since the first day.  All of these things are working nicely.  I had to put them in rows today for the assessments and I hate it!  Can't wait until Wednesday!
   
2. Make sure they get the hang of the ISNs.  So far we have the table of contents and their expectation/policies pages done.
   
3. Hope I don't overwhelm them with the Assignment Sheet outlining all of the assignments that they need to do in the next 2 weeks!  I quickly showed them the sheet last week and they seemed a little stunned. I will be controlling it for a while until they get used to it, then I hope to release more choice to them when I see they are ready.  

I keep going back and forth with how I am going to make my videos, I really like the idea of the one take videos using the 6 whiteboard slides, but found out that I really can't do it at home.  So, even though I didn't want to do this, I downloaded the Camtasia Studio 8 trial and of course fell in love with it.  I kept it totally basic and just recorded a screencast of a powerpoint.  Since my laptop doesn't have a microphone, and I am literally broke until 9/15, I figured out that I could record the audio on my tablet and just add the wav file to the recording!  It worked great!  Now I just have to get better at it.  I made a 7th grade video 1st and then the 8th grade video.  I totally sound like a robot in the first one, much more relaxed and the way I want to sound in the second. I will finish up the rest of the videos for my 2 week unit tomorrow during my prep.  I am keeping my videos EXTREMELY basic so I should be able to crank them out quickly.