WebQuest and Ramblings...

I entered the world of WebQuests last week, and I've come to this conclusion: How amazingly awesome!  I went onto this website (which I think is the best page for WebQuests) and it made it so easy for me to search for my specific topic because it has it's own "search engine."  So I went on and chose "Math" for "9-12" grade, and found an awesome WebQuest that I actually did for my Geometry class my Freshman year!  What a great idea:  I remember my teacher giving us this assignment, and the instructions were covered in two pages... WebQuest is that solution that all of us who are sensitive to "tree-killing" need!  In addition, WebQuest allows teachers to add a lot more information than what a couple of worksheets can offer.  The assignment consisted of making up a fictional geometry story, so I used The Wizard of Oz as my inspiration.  The main idea of my story was that certain shapes (i.e. triangle, parallelogram, square, etc.) were needing to see the great, wonderful Oz in order to fix something, whether it be a shortened side length or an angle that needed to be changed... Anyways, this website gave students EXAMPLES of mathematical story books that have been published out in the real world and so much more things that my freshman Geometry teacher never showed because giving instructions on paper has its limitations.  At first, when we got into WebQuests last Tuesday, I didn't think it was all that great... but after playing around questgarden.com that following Thursday, I see all its benefits and why it's so great.  The only problem I can think of is dependent on the students themselves.  Should we expect every child to have access to the internet?  Is the school that I will be working for going to provide every class with at least one computer for those who cannot access the internet anywhere else?  WebQuest is such a great idea, but are we getting a little ahead of ourselves in wanting to implement internet-based technology when there are so many children (and schools) out there that cannot afford these specific commodities?

On another note, I've figured out what super power I want.  When I was younger and had more of a "bad side," I wanted to be invisible.  My family and I lived in Philly and we were pretty broke... So broke that I constantly asked myself, "why did my parents have 5 children? That's too many!"  Therefore, I wanted the ability to be invisible... so I could steal money and get away with it... Thank goodness I grew up and developed many-a-morals.  So in my teens, I wanted the ability to fly -- Who could deny that capability?  Now, after this past, strenuous week, I want the ability to manipulate time.  I wish that the Earth really did move much more slowly.  How do we do it-- as students, I mean.... How do we keep up with our responsibility of being pretty much the "perfect student" when there are so many other tasks that need tending to... like working and making money in order to survive and have some sort of roof over our head... and don't forget about the times when LIFE HAPPENS... like, your car breaks down... or your family who's 3 hours away has a horrendous emergency.  I wish I could just FREEZE time... to just stop everything.  Sometimes I think teachers (especially professors in college) are invincible and just plain NOT human--  There's never been a time in my college career when "life happens" to my professor and he/she had to cancel class -- they're PERFECT (like robots!), and it shocks me as I continue taking classes semester after semester after semester...  This is the way society tells us to be, and that's what we are: multi-tasking students -- we have so many responsibilities, and it amazes me that we're able to do all that we do at such a 'young' age.

The Year Of The Rabbit

(The red envelopes above are 
called Lì Xì in Vietnamese)

I usually go home to celebrate Chinese New Year with my family, who are in Franklin, TN.  As I write this blog on my laptop in Knoxville, TN, I am extremely homesick.  Chinese New Year is such a fun and special day for me.  I can picture and smell the special celebration food that my mom cooks every year... and every year I cannot help but sneak in a tiny nibble of something before she presents the food to our ancestors, who are represented through the Buddha Shrine that we have in our 'prayer room' -- Today is a day that I'm usually surrounded by over 30 relatives ranging between the ages of 3 and 78... I already miss those red envelopes filled with money that the "adults" of the family hand out to all of us "children" (yes, I'm proud to say that I get to continue being a 'child' until my career as a teacher kicks off... and all my life, I've tried to prove to everyone that I am just SOOOO GROWN;  however, I enjoy being considered the kid in this case:)... Coupled with these red envelopes is the usual "talk"...

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The Stages of The Talk:

(1)  The adult pulls out a beautifully decorated 2011 lucky red envelope filled with a mystery monetary amount [remember, there is a recession, so forget about what you got the year before]

(2)  The adult slowly hands the envelope to you

(3)  You reach for the envelop, grab a hold of it, but you know to never pull back right away... Note that the adult's hands are still grasped onto the envelope.  Therefore, the envelope should now physically be in your hand as well as the adult's.

(4)  As the envelope stays floating between you and the adult, it is now time for you to open your ears and respond with a "yes ma'am/sir" as the adult lectures you about the following:

  (i)  Continue to work hard in school in order to build a bright future for yourself
 (ii)  Be nice and respectful to your elderly
(iii)  Try your best to make the right decisions in your life
(iv)  Fill in the blank -- Remember, your family is unique... so who knows what unique lessons/morals they'll reveal to you!

(5)  After agreeing to be the best person you can be, the adult will release his/her kung-fu grip on the envelope and you may now respectfully thank the adult and walk away... Make sure to not open the envelope in front of the adult -- Obviously, you are more appreciative of "the talk" than how much money the adult decided to give you

(6)  Open the envelope in a discrete place and break out into your personal celebration dance!  Don't forget that the amount of money you get should never be compared to the amount of love the adult has for you.

(7)  Spend your money wisely, especially in this economy... May I suggest you start up a $avings account?

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Chúc Mừng Năm Mới (Happy New Year)

High School: To Prepare or Scare

So I just found out that we needed to write a post BEFORE class started today, but I swear I checked the website and somehow overlooked this request... Ah-ha!  I found the "problem"-- the blog assignment was written under announcements rather than in our Section 004 classroom website under February 1st (which is what I'm used to, but I'm not going to point any fingers... *cough cough* Beard).  I only kid -- it is my job as a student to make sure I complete my assignments in a timely manner.  Now let's see what's going on in this noggin of mine...

HIGH SCHOOL:  I realized something a long time ago when I was a freshman at UT in 2004... I don't think high school really prepared me for the fundamentals of college life and education.  I remember my teachers telling me things like, "You better know how to write in cursive because it's crucial for you to carry over this skill into college" and other statements that made college seem very strict with rules and regulations.  Instead of saying so much nonsense throughout my four years in high school, I wish they warned us about the TRUE foundations of college.  For instance, when I become a high school math teacher, I will make sure that I share my college experiences with my students in the best and most honest way that I possibly can... So instead of scaring them with all of the "you gotta do this and that and this, and also that," I want my students to realize that I am, what the young generation calls, keepin' it real.

So let's "keep it real" right now, shall we?  Before going to UTK, I would have loved it if my teachers warned me about the grading system in college since it is extremely different from high school.  From 9th to 12th grade, I was able to make straight A's... Because I was a genius? I think not.  I made the grades that I made because I had so many chances to "up" my test grades (the ones that I obviously did not make an A on) by acing the many, many, MANY quizzes and homework that the teacher assigned us.  In college, however, most of my overall classroom grades were strictly based on 3-4 exams... Wait, let me repeat that: 3 to 4 exams! Thanks for the warning senior teachers.  I truly cannot wait until I can share with my future students about what college is really like:)

Website Evaluation

This particular website while having a great aesthetic layout would not be a suitable resource for information simply because it is incomplete. What reading is available is useful but would have to be supplemented by the students by a site that is not in construction and therefore has complete,detailed, and accurate information. There is also a slight issue of possible dated material since this site has not been updated since 2007. Most likely there has been little or no new enlightening data on the subject since it is history but would still use caution and search for a more updated or perhaps currently relevant site. A positive aspect of the site is it does include an in-depth photo gallery, along with copyrights for the texts and pictures. All in all this would be a great resource if it is ever updated to the point of completion. As it stands it is simply a generalized overview of a very limited depiction of a partial history of Henry VIII.

How The Tides Have Turned: Evaluating A Website Evaluation Site

After looking at several websites in the Google Directory, I stumbled upon this great evaluation site that was not only extremely informative, but it's what I consider an "easy" read.  This website is more geared towards the older crowd such as the middle school or high school students.  In particular, this website especially serves as a great foundation for 'beginner' researchers who have just started to dive into the world of writing a significantly long and in-depth research paper.

The website gives great details on how one can make sure that the online resources chosen are reliable.  What grabbed my attention right away was the first few paragraphs that described how we all should think when it comes to pre-evaluation of a source -- It brought up things that I honestly think never crossed my mind.  This skill eventually leads to screening sources much more quickly.  If I would ever need my math students to do any sort of research, I would definitely have them read through this awesome site (Frankly, I find that most of the evaluation sites on the Google Directory are extremely helpful for my age-range group of kids:)

Wikis & Class So Far...

So we've been learning about wikis... and I must admit, I thought that the word wiki was only associated with Wikipedia.  Now I know that wikis are pretty much a ready-to-edit website and can be great for collaboration among teachers and students.  As of now, I've been hands-on with learning about wikis through pbworks.com and it's definitely been a bit of a challenge.  In fact, I just gave up 5 minutes ago with editing my personal page -- I wanted to place two separate pictures of my cats on the right side of my last paragraph (one on top of the other), and I can't seem to get my page to look "right."  It's really late, so I will try to fix it in about 7 hours when class starts. Yes, I'm always up extremely late -- I'd like think my brain works better after midnight:)  After editing my page many of times over a period of about 2 hours and then quitting because I was "so over it," it hit me: I spent so much time trying to figure things out on my own, that I could've probably saved a lot of my time if I read/watched some tutorials on how to edit my workspace.  I mean, that is what the Help link as well as the tutorial videos are for.  Could it be that I just have no patience for watching tutorials?  Am I a part of the "A.D.D. Generation"?  And does the question mark before this sentence go before or after the quotation marks?... and I diverge...  I've always thought that I could figure most things out myself, so I seem to always forget to look elsewhere for help.

I've recently discovered that I freak out more easily over assignments in this technology class more than I ever have in my past classes.  I think it's because I'm still insecure about my techno skills, and if it seems that I did something wrong, I'm automatically in flustered-&-frustrated mode.  Take for instance my small "freak out" two days ago.  I edited my professor's pbworks.com workspace, and I thought I did something wrong.  Instead of taking another 5 seconds to explore more of this wiki website, I automatically e-mailed Professor Beard about wrongfully editing his webpage... After clicking on the SEND icon of my email, I went back to my professor's workspace and found out that I did everything correctly.  So here I go, e-mailing Professor Beard once again about "ignoring my first e-mail" and whatnot.  This scenario definitely served as a great lesson:  Be patient and really dive in & explore before jumping to conclusions.  I hope that by the end of this semester, I'll be able to shake off this insecurity.

After two weeks of taking this course, I can say that I'm very comfortable with the environment.  The step-by-step instructions coupled with the classroom website has definitely kept me on track with TPTE 486.  I almost don't know what I would do without the class website!  I was afraid that we would zoom by all of the lessons that we must cover within this semester, but I like the speed of the class that it's moving at.  Overall, I give this class a "so far, so good..."

Let's Reflect ~ On What I Expect ~ On This Subject

I started my day by waking up last Thursday (January 14th) and packing up my books for my first day of classes.  Before I walked into the classroom, I read the title of my textbook, "Preparing to Use Technology: A Practical Guide to Curriculum Integration."  First, I thought to myself, "Seriously, this book is the SECOND edition!  Have we really been using technology in high school long enough for there to be a 2nd edition on using technology in school?!"  So obviously, I walked into class scared because I consider myself to be technologically-challenged.  After a fun interactive get-to-know-the-rest-of-my-classmates game, realizing that the professor was very laid-back, going through the syllabus, and a few Hershey Kisses later... I walked out of the class feeling just as scared as I walked in -- Hahahaha.

Today, however, I actually am extremely excited about this course.  I'm a blogger now!  What kind of class assigns me to get online and create my own AWESOME blog site?  THIS CLASS!  I feel like I'm learning so much already, and it doesn't feel like busy work... It almost doesn't feel like doing schoolwork at all, because I'm finally "catching up with the times." I'm getting 'hip to the scene'... I'm starting to get 'down with the get down.' Ok, I know, that's enough.

So what are my learning expectations for this class?  Let's see... Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is to become familiar with all of the facets of technology available to be integrated into a classroom.  I don't remember anyone ever bringing a laptop to class during my years from K-12, so it will be very interesting to see how the dynamics of a high school classroom has changed with the implementation of technology.  By the end of the semester, I expect to be able to utilize effective software in order to create papers for my students such as worksheets, quizzes, and other assessments.  I am also interested in getting to know the "Pros and Cons" of supporting engaged learning through technology.  As of now, I cannot think of any cons, but one of the biggest pros for me, as an educator, would be that my students would hopefully have more 'fun' with learning the classroom material through the use of a digital game or through some sort of online program.  And we all know that fun = attention = memory storage (right?) ... That's why I feel that using technology not only brings in creativity to the classroom climate, but it'll hopefully show students that learning is not always all about constantly writing notes and listening to monotonous lectures.

This leads to the biggest expectation I have for TPTE 486 -- and it's that, for the most part, I'll be learning by being more HANDS-ON with my coursework.  Although we do have to read a textbook, I am having so much fun doing what we're reading.  For instance, I read Chapter 5, which touched on blogging... and after an hour of being hands-on in class on the topic of "web logs," I'm now officially a blogger -- and it's actually pretty fun.  By the time this Spring Semester ends, I know that I'll be so much more confident in my future career as an educator --> all because I'll be up-to-date with the tech world.  I'll end this long post by writing, "I'm very glad I had to take this class, and I can't wait to see what else I can use in/for the classroom."

A Small Autobiography

The name’s Judy, but most of my friends call me “Judy Tran”-- they all feel that saying my full name flows much better than just calling me by my first name.  I have two sisters, two brothers, and divorced parents.  My family came to America from Vietnam in 1982, thus, I do speak both English and Vietnamese.  Most people forget that I am bilingual because I miraculously have no accent.  In fact, although I was born in San Fransisco, California, I did not speak English until I was 6 years old because I began attending public school.  


I was raised in the harsh streets of Philly until my mom (she’s my superhero) decided to make a better living by moving to Nashville, TN.  I am very thankful for this move because I would not be who I am today if the ‘Tran Clan’ remained in Philly-- I went from witnessing shootings between gang rivalries to being spoiled by Southern Hospitality, and I do not take it for granted one bit.  Like “The Jeffersons,” we moved on up (or technically down) to the south side to Franklin, TN where I graduated in the top 5% of my class in 2004 at Centennial High School.  I will admit that I was a nerd and always cared about making straight A’s... and I’m proud to say that I’m still a nerd, but I’ve become more relaxed about making perfect grades.  I guess that just comes with age.  


It was during my junior year at Centennial when I decided that I wanted to be a teacher.  I was fortunate enough to have a Calculus Honors and Physics Honors teacher that inspired me to want to teach Mathematics.  Doing homework, taking quizzes and exams, etc. will never be fun, but I will admit that I looked forward to going to these classes every day because my teachers actually made class enjoyable.  This is why I want to teach.  I want to make learning more entertaining and engaging rather than the usual monotonous lectures.  I have had no experience as of yet in the teaching field, but I hope to be some sort of math assistant this summer at a Knoxville High School.  I absolutely love arts-n-krafts, so I hope to not only be a role model, but to also bring in a lot of creativity and smiles to my future students!