Thing #23

Wow! Phew! I did this class in one weekend, instead of 2 months! For me, this is the best way for me to learn new things, and learn I did! I started out this class with the thought, "It's free and I can earn 3 CEU's." Boy, did I change my mind as I went through this journey.
Years ago, I used to teach computer classes on Saturday morning to elementary students on an apple computer. I though I was so savvy, and up to speed with technology. As the years passed, I became aware of the fact the the technology was moving faster than I was, and it became quite scary! Before I knew it, my students were way ahead of me, and I have not been able to catch up! They were coming to me with computer knowledge and experience, that I became the student. They were helping me! If I had a question or problem, I would ask them. They knew their way around a computer, and were experts!
This class has been a great experience for me. I have more knowledge about what is out there in cyberspace, and I am loving it! There are so many avenues that I can take to expand and enrich my knowledge as a professional and in my personal life. I am fearful of some of the things that kids can get into on the web. I am so glad that my own children are grown-up and responsible for their own Internet usage. I hope that parents are monitoring their children's computer usage very carefully.
The one thing that I am most excited about is the wiki and pod casting. I am planning on taking one tool at a time, use it until I feel successful enough to move on to the next tool. I am hoping to use the pod casts with my students to read their oral reports, reading the tall tale they created, or the poem they wrote about a color. Nevertheless, I feel more knowledgeable about the tools of the Internet than I did before I started with Thing #1.

Thing #22

There are so many useless videos on YouTube, that I am very particular about what I view on this website. I dislike many of the videos that are on here. I find them very inappropriate and a waste of time. The ones I do like are the instructional videos on knitting, sewing, cooking, etc. YouTube is blocked from usage in our building due to the inappropriate content that our students could possibly view. Our district has banned so many websites, that we can hardly pull up anything these days. We can get Teacher Tube some of the time. It depends what we type in to view. There are so many wonderful ideas on Teacher Tube. My favorite is Grammar Punk. I love the ideas he has for teaching grammar, and have used them in my classroom. I would be afraid to give the kids an assignment that uses YouTube. I am sure that I would hear about it from parents. I don't think it is appropriate for school when there are so many other sights kids can use to find out information.

Thing #21

Respond with a blog post reflecting on this question -- After exploring these services, how do you think you might use them in your life at school, work, home, or out from your mobile phone?How do you think you might use Twitter to connect with your Personal Learning Network?

Twitter can be used in the classroom to keep up with current events, to find out results of play off games (my class are really into sports these days,) the presidential elections, etc and would use it sparingly. Personally, I probably wouldn't use Twitter because I am on Face Book, and this reminds me of the postings I see on this website. I really don't care to know if my niece is feeding her baby at that moment,or my girlfriend is painting her living room. I hardly have the time to get into Face Book to see what is going on with my friends and family. Sometimes I would use Twitter on my Blackberry for news items, but that is it! I am wondering how many avenues do we have to have to find out how our friends and family are doing! Privacy seems to have gone out the window! No wonder letter writing barely exists these days!

Thing #20

My del.icio.us user name is kmhteach50. Bookmarking can be used by my peers to find websites that I use for power point presentations, grammar websites, etc. Hopefully my peers will add to del.icio.us as well. We can save so much time by using this one website, rather than emailing each other with this information. This is what we do now, and it takes time to go to individual website, when we could be using one spot to store our websites to share with each other.

Thing #19

In my opinion, tagging is a wonderful way to organize information and websites. I am so tired of looking through favorites, emailing what I find at home to myself at school, or losing websites by mistake. The advantages are that you can go to one site to find your tags, and you can do this anywhere. The information is at your fingertips. Being specific when assigning tags, is a good way to wade through information. Looking through my Word program is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I can't remember how I labeled it, and have to spend so much time looking through all of my files. Again, I worry about inappropriate material or viruses being tagged on social networks.

Thing #18

Social networking has unlimited possibilities. It is a good thing to see what others are doing across the globe! I found some of the groups to be more specific to their own group of educators. There were others that offered ideas, and strategies to use in the classroom. This is also a place to ask questions to teachers who are doing that specific thing in their classroom. I would worry about viruses, and inappropriate people accessing my information. Social networking felt a little strange to me when I was looking through some of the sites. It felt like I was "out there" without any protection. It felt a little creepy. It almost seemed too easy to use with the potential for misuse.

Thing #17

The website that I chose is Etsy. I love this website! Here is a place where you can buy and sell handmade goods. I am a crafter, and it is a great place to buy supplies, and to get ideas to create new things. The only thing that is hard about Etsy is that there are so many things to look at on this website! I could spend hours here looking, and buying! It is a bit overwhelming, but addicting. I purchased something as I was browsing through for this activity. Ugh! This was a personal tour, so no, I wouldn't use it in school.

Travel IQ was a lot of fun! Definitely one for school! I can't wait to use it again!

Thing #16

I really enjoyed watching these three videos. The biggest learning that I am taking away from these videos, is that as educators, we need to allow students to show what they know their own way.It really surprises me that at the college level, creativity is still not allowed to be used in the curriculum. It is apparent that creativity is being lost in our educational system. The message is the same as it was in the 1970's when I went to college to become a teacher. The creativity back in those days were centered around Bloom's Taxonomy, right and left brain theory, and the Habits of Mind. These theories are still alive today and can be applied in our world of technology. Are we able to use all of the new tech that is out there with our students? I'm afraid not! Our system is so focused on state testing, full plates of curriculum, state standards, district mandates, that there just isn't enough time in one day to do all of the tech things we would like to do. It is even difficult to allow students to choose what they want to write about, because I have to ask them to write at least 20 pieces of writing for their portfolios. Before they can write them, there has to be many hours of instruction. Also, there is only one computer lab in our building, and 500 kids that have to filter through it each week. The computer teacher also has curriculum to address with each student! This leaves little free time to explore the world of technology.As an educator, I try to allow my students to go outside of the parameters that I have created for them. I guess my job as a teacher is to figure out how to incorporate what is mandated with technology. It is very frustrating, and again leaves me with guilt and incompetence.

Thing #15

Our school is just starting to learn how to do a podcast. One of our teachers taught us how to create a podcast during a professional development day. He had his students do a podcast on a writing piece that they wrote. Students went to various pod casts to listen to their peers read their writing piece. I am going to have my students do a podcast on a series of poems that they wrote last month. I would not find my principal pushing me back from doing this with our students. He would find it very educational and encourage us to do so.

Thing #14

The podcast that I enjoyed the most is the Book talks Quick and Simple by Nancy Keane. In this podcast, she has an enormous list of books that she does short readings and a short discussion about the book. Designing a podcast to do short book talks about 5 or more books would be useful when doing literature circles. Kid have to choose a book from a chosen selection. These books could be pod casted, and students could listen to the podcast and decide what book they wanted to read for lit circles. This is a wonderful idea!

Thing #13

I did not know how to create a slide show, nor did I look for ways to do this activity. This class has forced me to learn how to do this, and what fun it is! I can't wait until I have grandchildren so I can download pictures and create slide shows for my friends and family. I am a member of Face book, so this is a place where I can use this tool. As for school, students can download pictures of their vacations, put them on slide.com, and we can show them to the whole class. As a teacher, I can download images from the Internet into a slide show presentation to tie in with a lesson. Very useful, and very easy to use!
Here is the sight where I created my slide show of my daughter's wedding adventure.
http://www.slide.com/r/MIGWPSC7qz96pGYZLi6XKaZPQf6qj-zc

Thing #12

I played around with bubbl.us and found it to be a little tricky to use. I am going to learn how to use this thing because I love the idea of going to a website to make graphic organizers. I spend so much time cutting and pasting on pre-made ones, copying them, shrinking them, copying them again, etc. etc. etc. I am thrilled that I can go here and create graphic organizers to use with my students. It's too bad I don't have an Elmo, because all I would have to do, is pull it up and show it on the screen! This is a wonderful website.

Thing #11

Google Docs opens up a whole new world for all of us. I can see how useful this is for students who do not have computers in their homes. The documents they create can be posted here, and don't have to be saved on one specific computer, and can pull it up anywhere they are, and on any computer! Wonderful! I am a professional tutor in the writing lab at GRCC, and many students do not have computers at home. They must save their documents to the computers at GRCC, come back to school to use their computers to access their work. Google docs can save all of us time. As a teacher, I can post my docs here, and use my computer at home to access them. Granted, I can email them to myself, but there have been times that I forgot to do this, and was not able to do my work at home. Do I think Microsoft works will be affected? No, because Bill Gates is one smart cookie who will come up with something that will be comparable to this. Also, there are some docs that should only be stored on my school computer, and cannot and should not be posted on Google docs for the whole world to see!

Thing #10

What fun! I created Language Arts wiki, and invited my language arts colleagues to join me in adding language arts teaching ideas to my wiki! I wrote one idea about how to teach the trait of voice. This is going to be so much fun to do! I have been teaching for twenty something years, and have many years of experience in teaching writing to elementary students as well as college students. This going to open up a whole new world for me as I post more ideas about the teaching of writing.I found it to be easy to use, as well as easy to use its tools. I had no problems at all! I again agree with Sunshine Spot, that I too feel secluded in my classroom, and with such a heavy load, it is difficult to get out there and talk to other teachers. This seems like a great way to communicate with other educators. What an easy way to share ideas in our building as well without have a meeting! I am excited! Yippee!

Thing #9

Well, I have heard many things about wiki, but wasn't sure about how to use them, what they were for, and the importance of them. I mostly looked at ones that were in my personal interest area.
The three that I will use are:
http://crafts.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Category:Knitting I am always looking for free patterns, where to buy supplies etc. This wiki offers anything that you want to know about several crafts. This one is a treasure! It is well-organized, user friendly, and pleasant to the eye. Some that I looked at were not very attractive, and found things very disorganized. I couldn't find what I was looking for, even though I googled knitting wiki, it came up.
http://www.knitting-and.com/wiki/Main_Page
This was another good one for knitters. Many, many free patterns are available, as well as vintage patterns. Lots of fun to browse through, and download!
http://fitness.wikia.com/wiki/BantaDiet
This wiki has a lot information about different types of diets. Included in this wiki are menu's, exercises, videos about fitness, foods, etc.
Now that I know what a wiki is, I think I would like to make my own on Language Arts ideas for teachers.
As for my students, they can create their own wiki at school. They can become experts on anything they want from the curriculum and create their own wiki with information that they have gathered. Students can also choose a writing piece from their portfolio, post it on their wiki, and students can pull it up and read it. Wiki would also be good for peer editing. Students post their rough drafts on their wiki, and a peer can edit it! This is just the beginning of many ideas that I will come up with as I become more familiar with wiki.
I agree with Sunshine Spot that technology is becoming easier and easier to use, and a way for students and myself to grow technically.

Thing #8

My biggest learning when searching through RSS feeds, is the amazing amount of information that I can receive is in one spot! I can't believe how much time I spend surfing and shuffling through various websites. I really like the fact that the topics are in bold letters and many are on the same page so you do not have to continually sift through different areas on one website. The information is readily available, and easy to find especially in Topix.net. I found the RSS Mountain to be a bit too much to look through. It seems a bit overwhelming, and when I put a key word in, it pulled up so many things that did not interest me. I felt that I would have to spend an enormous amount of time searching through this website.

Thing #7

I am so thrilled that I found out about reader. I signed up for some of my knitting websites that I look through quite often. It takes so much time to search for patterns, tools, etc. This will be so handy to use in the future. I can't wait until I can take the time to add more of my favorite websites.

We can use this to tag websites that can be used to look up information. Many times I have to search for answers. My students have many questions about social studies items. Students can have their own reader, which will give them the ability to tag sites of interest. I have many sports fans in my classroom who love to look up stats, and the latest news about their team.

Thing #4

I absolutely love the whisperywhitewednesday photos! White is so pure, clean and serene! The photo by queenbeeamy of the white button shirt, (only one button showing in picture)is very clever and creative. She names this photo "Basic" which is what a white button down the front shirt is, "Very basic!" Everyone needs this in their wardrobe, like we all need the basic black pants.

Thing #6

kmhteach50 said...
I agree with Spring Is For Learning New Things. We must take baby steps in learning about new technology, and it's OK! We are not expected to know everything right away, but at least give it a shot. I am lucky to have many tech support people in our district that are willing to help at a moment's notice. My life is so much easier with technology at my fingertips. Sometimes I think teachers feel it is easier to ignore technology, rather than try to use it to one's advantage. There are so many things on our plates these days, that it is easier to ignore it, than it is to learn it. So I say take advantage of those peers in your building who are knowledgeable. ask questions, and try new things. You will be admired for the ambition you put forth to learn new things, and looked upon as the teacher who has tunnel vision.
May 8, 2009 5:40 PM

Thing #5

Oh my gosh! What a wonderful website! I can use this site to make my own banners for my classroom. The kids can use the banner program at Image Chef to make a continious time line to hang up around the room. We can do a continious review of the events we have learned throughout the year. They will need to know this stuff for the 6th grade MEAP test. Awesome!

Thing 3 Life Long Learning

The easiest habit for me is the teach/mentor. This has always come easy to me. I have always been put in the position of mentoring and teaching. I worked as an adjunct professor, working with pre-service teachers. I am always asked to mentor new teachers in our building in language arts. Working with the newbies, the seasoned ones, and the teachers in between has always been a thrill for me. Many ideas are shared and the collaboration brings many new ideas to the surface.
The hardest habit is looking at a problem as a challenge. It is easy to forget that problems can be solved if the mindset is positive. There are no barriers if I am working through something "challenging" rather than finding a solution to a problem. It is easy to stew about problems, and it is easier to put forth my best efforts to overcome challenges.

Thing 1 and Thing 2

I have seen these video clips before, and it never ceases to amaze me what our children are learning today. The first place to start is in our schools. We do not have all of the technology needed to perform such tasks. Many of our students have these things available on their home computers. Looking at the numbers mentioned in the "Visions" video clip are outstanding! Each time I see this clip, the numbers change. Our world is moving so fast that these numbers change daily. As educators, we need to keep ourselves updated so that we can at least have some knowledge about what our students are facing now and in the future.