Dawana’s Summercore Experience

I used PowerPoint a lot in college, so I thought I knew it all….yeah right!

Check out my PowerPoint, decked out with all of the new skills that I learned in the Varsity group from Lynne!

*Please note that when I sent my You Tube video to Zamzar, it wasn’t converted properly, so it starts to play correctly, then you can’t see it well when the PowerPoint is in full screen. When it is not in full screen, you can see the entire video. * (Lynne and I discussed this problem and decided that Zamzar “screwed up”)

A8 Dawana PowerPoint

I found a PowerPoint presentation on The Tale of Despereaux online. A Newbery Medal winner in 2004, I did a literary unit on this book in college. Upon graduating and teaching 5th grade, I used the unit I created in school 2 years in a row in my classroom. It was fun to see another person love & cherish the book that I’ve fallen in love with too!

Fall in love with the mighty mouse here: Tale of Despereaux

We learned how to subscribe to an RSS Feed. Now, we can have an update on all of the websites that we may like to visit- whether it be news, photos, sports or music, all in one place!!

Click here to visit our fabulous RSS feed.

Today, we learned about tabs…and just when you think you know about Microsoft Word- Wham! Summercore smacks you in the face with great stuff. My husband will be amazed too (I think). We both make a lot of documents in Word and having control over the tab key now is so empowering!!

A5 DawanaSue

Then, we learned about embedding photos, and how to make photos watermarks…I got a little excited about that and continued to practice tabbing- and added a photo (that floats) as a watermark!

A5 Dawana More Tabbing

Today, we learned about Delicious. What a wonderful tool to put all of your bookmarks in one place so that you can access them when not at your computer. Or, if like my computer…yours may soon crash!!

Check out my Del.icio.us

Here you will find a lovely spreadsheet made by Sue and myself during Summercore on Monday…all in a day’s work. SueDawanaExcel

Here are links to a few webquests that I found interesting online. Click on the text to take you to the webpage to read more:

Butterflies I liked this webquest because the teachers used a jigsaw method to allow the students to share information and I liked that they had students research the entire life cycle of the butterfly and compare/contrast butterflies and moths.

Severe Weather I liked this webquest because it allowed students the opportunity to find out about 2 types of natural disasters- not only their causes, but how to prepare for them.

Taken from http://www.weddingcuts.com/imagesb/wedding-signs/wedding-sign_lg.jpg

We had everything all ready…The date had been set, invitations had been sent, a block of hotel rooms had been booked for family that was coming from far and farther away- New York, Nebraska, Indiana…

It hadn’t rained for months in Florida…months. The rehearsal day arrived and it was beautiful. Nice and hot-your average Florida day. Sweltering to our family who weren’t used to this type of heat. The outlook was good. Saturday would be perfect. Right?

Friday. The day of the family bbq. A nice day out at Ft. Desoto Beach…and it’s raining- nothing big, just light rain. I’m gonna go to bed, wake up tomorrow and this’ll all be gone. This is Florida- it hardly ever rains all-day-long!!! And then:

I had a choice. I could either cry, or suck it up and deal with it. So…it was raining. So, we’d no longer have the outdoor garden wedding we’d planned for (and paid for). So, we’re off schedule and the florist is late. The point is we’re here. (Finally) The day is going to happen. (Finally) And we couldn’t be happier. True to Florida form, the rain, which had been falling for now 1 1/2 days decided to stop as soon as the Pastor pronounced us husband and wife- so we got amazing pictures and some memories to last a lifetime.