Picnics

Summertime means picnics in my neck of the woods! And picnics mean food, bingo, softball, golf, tennis, and horse shoes! I love big picnics because there is just so much to do all the time! I love playing all day! Then eating awesome cook out food and snacks! Everyone is just having a genuinely good time being together and being active! It's really reassuring to see! If you don't picnic... start!

E-folio

My E-folio is finished!!! It was a lot of work! But I know it was well worth it and something I will use and will help me later on! It wasn't that hard because I had already made a web page and they were really similar it was just a lot to do! Scanning the documents was tricky at first because they didn't want to save as .jpeg files! Once I got a hang of it that was easy though! My video didn't work when I tried in the library on my actual page, but it worked in my hdrive, so we'll see! I hope it works on Dr. Leight's computer!!!!!! YAY IT'S DONE!

Tennis!

The weather has been so nice out lately! One of my favorite activities in the summer is to play tennis. I love being outside enjoy the good weather and just hitting the ball around! My dad and I will go out a lot when I'm home and just goof around but at the end of the day I know I got a good work out! My room mate up here plays with me every once and a while and it's just so fun!

Sweet Goggles

I really enjoy swimming as a form of exercise but it stinks because you can't listen to music... until now! There are goggles out there that can hold your mp3s and play music while your swimming. They cover your ears and the ear phones play the music. On the back of the head strap there is the play, stop, next, and back button. They are really cool. One of my friends has a pair and they work really well!

Pens

The Pens swept the Senators!! I was super excited! Cup dreams seem to be coming true! So many players have stepped up in this post season. Pittsburgh takes all their sports really seriously (well maybe not baseball) so it's really exciting to see the Pens doing so well! I hope they keep it up and we win the cup this year!

Dell Axim

The other day in class we got to play with the Dell Axim. It does so much for such a small device. It has excel, word, games, contacts, messaging, and much more. It was really easy to use and very user friendly. I was surprised at how much memory this small hand held has. I really enjoyed playing around with it and when I'm a teacher it would be nice to have one of these!

Swimming

Now that the weather is getting nice everyone is going to start going to the pool again. Swimming is and excellent way to get exercise. It is a really great cardiovascular workout. It's also nice because if you go to an outdoor pool you get to enjoy the weather and not sweat! People have to be really careful around the water though. Most accidents around the water could easily be avoided if people take a couple minutes and educate themselves on basic water rescue and practice safe and responsible water etiquette.

Baseball

It's baseball season! I live in Wexford which means I am 20 minutes from the city. Baseball for us really isn't about the sport... simply because most of the time if you're counting on the Pirates you're going to be disappointed! It's more about being outside and having fun, eating park food, and watching the home team. Winning really isn't a big thing because they don't do it too often. I'm pretty proud of the Pirates right now. They have 7 wins and 11 losses... which isn't bad for them at all!

Podcast

Podcasting is a great tool for teachers who lecture. If students miss a class, they can just get the podcast and know exactly what happened in class that day. Podcasts are pretty easy to make. A few problems I ran into were audacity wouldn't download. Also, the desktop computers in Bailey library do not let you use microphones if you are not an administrator. One last thing was it took a pretty long time for the file to convert and show up in Mike's mailbox!

NikePlus

NikePlus shoes are shoes the connect with your iPod. Your iPod will tell you how long you have been running and how far you have run. It looks so cool! I feel like that would help avid runners go anywhere they want and have someone telling them just how far they have gone! This technology rocks! I want a pair... BAD.

Digital Video

I finished my digital video project. I'm really impressed with myself! Editing and adding slides and stuff was really easy once my video was imported to movie maker!! I thought it would be a lot harder then it was! There are so many cool things you can do to your video! The one thing I didn't understand was why my mp3 file would go to movie maker.

Shoes!

I have health foundations this semester and learned something really interesting! You are suppose to get a new pair of shoes every 300 miles you walk in them! I have had my favorite running shoes since about 8th grade, I really don't want to get rid of them! But I learned that you have to because the inner core stops being resilient and you can really mess up you body. As much as I don't want to I guess it is for the best to get a new pair of shoes. You should also write the date you bought the shoes on the back of the actual shoe and keep a log of how far you run every time you run so you know when to get a new shoe!

Interactive PowerPoint

I just finished working on my interactive PowerPoint for class. It turned out pretty cool! I like that you can make it a quiz format and get the class involved. I don't know how often I will use this in P.E. though. It would be really good for class presentations though. Or to have my older students make them for a project. I really like the final product of my PowerPoint; they're really cool!

Online Shopping

I love online shopping! I think it is so convenient and easy! I have certain sites saved and my information saved to those sites. You do have to be careful that no one else has your information though. I really like being able to sit in my dorm room clicking on my computer buying what I want and having it sent where ever I want. I also like that you get receipts via e-mail. I also really like that with most online purchases you can return what you bought online to the actual store!

Praxis I

I took the Praxis I exam last March. I took the online computer version at a Sylvan Center. I liked the online form of the Praxis I better then the paper format of the SAT or ACT. I really liked having my results, besides the essay/writing, right away. I think they should make all standardized testing on computers. It was easier, faster, and I got to choose if I wanted to take a break or keep working. I think a lot of students would like the individual style of the online test appose to everyone does everything same time style of paper standardized testing.

Laptop

I got a laptop as a graduation gift from my daddy before I came to college. I have a Dell and I love it! It is so crazy how much it can do and hold. It has my pictures, my school work, my music, wireless internet and my printer all combined into one portable machine. I can't remember how I got along with out it! My lap top is so much faster then the desk top I have at home and I'm so happy about that! It boggles my mind how so much can be jammed into a light weight, awesome machine! Computers sure have come a long way!

cadrio equipment

I try to go to the arc 5 times a week. My favorite thing to do is the elliptical. I could do it forever! It doesn't hurt my knees or my back. I love that it shows me so much information. As I'm working out, I can see how long I have been on the elliptical, how many calories I have burned, my rpms, the level I am working at, and my heart rate. I think it is awesome how the machine knows all that just by me entering my weight, age, and how long I'm working out at the begining of my workout!

My Cell Phone

I have a really old cell phone but I still love it! My cell phone has a limit with the amount of letters I can use in my text messages and I have to save it and make another text to finish long texts, that's how old it is! I think it does the trick though. I think people who have blackberrys or iPhones that aren't business people or aren't constintly online are a little overzellious. All I need my cell phone to do is call people, text, send picture messages and have a camera! I would like to get one that looks a little bit less like a brick though!

Website

I have been working on my website for the past couple days. It's pretty easy but I have come across a couple things I needed to look up. It was hard for me to open my website from my computer at my dorm. It kept saying I could only open it to edit it in Microsoft Office Word. I had to open it threw Microsoft Frontpage. It's kind of difficult to edit on a computer that's not the laptop in the Field House. It is a lot easier to make a website then I had originally thought. I hope it the rest of my website goes well and looks as good as I hope it will!

Digital Cameras

I just recently got a new digital camera and I love it! It seems these days that you are hard pressed to find someone who does not have a digital camera. They come in so many different sizes, colors, and ability levels. My camera is really skinny and I love that about it! It fits in my back pocket or in my wristlet so I can take it anywhere with me! It also holds like 300 hundred pictures, which is way more then I need but it is nice to know that it has that much memory!

Google

I love Google! I use Google at least three times everyday! It is so cool to be able to find anything just by putting in a few key words! It's so helpful for school projects and everyday things I'm just wondering about. I use it for song lyrics, weather, reports, and obscure facts! Google has made my life a little easier... I won't lie!

The Future of Technology

As I was studying for our test this afternoon, I read the "What to expect in the next 10 years" part. This really blew my mind! It is so cool to think that within the next decade we could have smart machines. I would love it if my coffee maker learned how I like my coffee and made it like that for me everyday! Also, I think it would be so fun to use virtual reality as a means of teaching. I'd really like to see that happen and just how it would be implemented into P.E. programs.

iPhone

I think that the iPhone is really cool for most people! For me personally though the iPhone would be a total waste of money! My phone can text, make calls, and take pictures and that is more then enough for me! I think it's great for business people so they can keep track of everything and have the internet and everything else but for everyone else I think it's just excessive! I feel the same way about Blackberrys. My bestfriend just got a blackberry pearl and has to pay for the datapackage and she doesn't even use the internet on it!

Including Audio and Video into Teaching

Today in class we learned about including audio and video into our teaching curriculum. I think this is an excellent idea! I always learn better when I can see the proper way of doing something. With videos, teachers can pause the tape and point out certain things that the students should pay close attention to and then resume the tape so they can see for themselves. This is also an excellent thing for students who are visual or auditory learners because they can see and hear what is going on. Also, this is good for students who may have a hearing disability. I think videos are an excellent way to help students understand the concepts we are teaching!!

About Me

My name is Devin. I'm from Wexford, PA. I went to North Allegheny High School and am now a Sophmore at Slippery Rock University. I have one sister who is 22. I have a yorkie named Snickers and she is AMAZING, I really like her. I love the Steelers and the Pens. I am German, and I absolutely love being German.