Can it be possible that I actually finished all 23 Things, plus Thing a and Thing b? I can blog in the dark, I can blog while dogs bark. I can NING, I'm Delicious! I've got a wiki here, working on a wiki there. I am so socially networked it's crazy! I have flickred my picasas and read my feeds.
I can't remember a class that was so intimidating going in, time consuming, at times frustrating, yet absolutely mentally challenging and fun! It is truly worth it.
It is hard to limit a discovery to my favorite as it seemed everything was new. Professionally, I think the Google docs will help me the most in my position. Once I create a wiki for work or adapt the one I have to include work that will be nice. As much as I love to read, it's hard to keep up with, not to mention cost, books. The feeds are a super way to stay updated with what is going on. And you are getting current thoughts.
This class has taught me that even though I thought I was a lifelong learner, I am not sure in what world I was learning. Obviously not the tech world. Whew, I never knew all that was out there. As I said in several of my posts, with all this available how can learning in 09-10 be anything but exciting?
I plan to keep checking my feeds but honestly I have to make a schedule to remind myself. I am planning on either adapting this blog or starting a new one that is more open to literacy. I think one with teachers would be fun.
I think the take-away for me is that the internet is an incredible tool that we are not using to the fullest (hmmmm like our brains maybe). I was very skeptical whenever anyone would mention technology being used in the classroom. Always afraid of being replaced! How ignorant could I have been?
If there is an update class like 46 Things or something I would be very interested. Maybe during the year would be a little easier. I thought the summer would be easier but the time was short if one is still working. Certainly worth it though. I wouldn't change a thing. You ladies did a superb job! I am proud of myself for finishing and have such a sense of accomplishment. I even added the badge to my facebook page! What a nerd I am!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Thing 23
I had no idea there were so many different social networking sites. I was already a member of Racenation which is for athletes (again I use that term loosely as far as I am concerned). I had also joined Linked In but never quite figured it out. Plus, it didn't seem like too many people had even heard of it. I finally joined Facebook. Now I am the happy member of NING and Classroom2.0 oh, and let's forget 23Things. They all have their own individual twist.
When I explored Classroom2.0 I came across a video called It's Time to Change Learning. It really validated technology in the classroom. One thing the guy said was that we needed to adapt to the kids (and technology) not have the kids adapt to our old way of teaching. Pretty good stuff.
Another good post I checked out was Reading Revolution. Here two classes, one rural and one inner city used NING to discuss books they had read. I thought that was a unique way to get other people's perspective on a book rather than the same old classmates.
I joined two groups on Classoom2.o, Book Club for Educators and Elementary Reading Teachers
I found Nancy Willard's article on Schools and Social Networking interesting. She shared some of the same concerns I have. She works with middle schoolers so she would have diffferent problems. However, she stresses that social networks should be carefully monitored at school (sort of a duh). I would probably only use NING or those that are limited to educators. I like that they are ad free! They can access the other more social ones one their own time.
When I explored Classroom2.0 I came across a video called It's Time to Change Learning. It really validated technology in the classroom. One thing the guy said was that we needed to adapt to the kids (and technology) not have the kids adapt to our old way of teaching. Pretty good stuff.
Another good post I checked out was Reading Revolution. Here two classes, one rural and one inner city used NING to discuss books they had read. I thought that was a unique way to get other people's perspective on a book rather than the same old classmates.
I joined two groups on Classoom2.o, Book Club for Educators and Elementary Reading Teachers
I found Nancy Willard's article on Schools and Social Networking interesting. She shared some of the same concerns I have. She works with middle schoolers so she would have diffferent problems. However, she stresses that social networks should be carefully monitored at school (sort of a duh). I would probably only use NING or those that are limited to educators. I like that they are ad free! They can access the other more social ones one their own time.
Thing 7b
I have to get better at checking my feeds. I had over 900 that hadn't been read. Wow, it took a long time to read them all! Seriously though, if you don't' keep up it does get out of hand. I did actually read two that were interesting. The first one really caught my eye because it was titled, Hey Leader, Tell Me Story. The gist was that if Hollywood were to make a movie of your school (or district, classroom, really) would it be a drama, comedy, hero's journey, inspirational tale or a tragedy. Very thought provoking. The author likens it to story elements. We have the power to write the script, choose the characters (to some degree) create the setting, etc. Her point was that people are driven by stories not data. It's when we hear the story of a teacher who moves mountains to get kids to improve, that we get motivated. Really good thinking. I hope it's true.
The second one was actually from the Star telegram covering the social studies TEK debacle. I was curious to see their coverage as opposed to the Dallas Morning News. Too depressing to really comment.
I do check my New York Times Best Sellers regularly. I love to see what is on it and whether I have read itor not.
The second one was actually from the Star telegram covering the social studies TEK debacle. I was curious to see their coverage as opposed to the Dallas Morning News. Too depressing to really comment.
I do check my New York Times Best Sellers regularly. I love to see what is on it and whether I have read itor not.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Thing 21
I have to laugh about Google being a verb. I am glad it's been officially recognized. My daughter always says, "Let's just google it." She finds everything that way. I have used Google earth for a while as my map of choice. I have gotten updates from my son's college team through the year, but I am not sure it was through google alerts. Now, I'll have to check into it.
These tools were great. I had heard others talking about creating their own google homepage but I didn't know how to do it. I had the Google search page as my homepage, not real exciting. Obviously, I didn't know what I was doing. Now that I explored igoogle it makes a lot more sense. The best feature is your email shows there and I can delete without having to open/close a tab. Great! My page is a work i progress.
I have used Picasa for a while now but never the albums on Picasa Google. I have been invited to view other's but never did my own. Crazy. I created my own, called Why I Love Estes Park. I had a lot more pictures to add but it took a LONG time to upload them. So, I'll do it in stages. I think this is a great tool to share pictures with parents. All those pictures we take. Goodness, we spent a fortune getting them all developed, multiple prints for each child. Now, create an album of all the activities the class does and all parents have all the pics.
These tools were great. I had heard others talking about creating their own google homepage but I didn't know how to do it. I had the Google search page as my homepage, not real exciting. Obviously, I didn't know what I was doing. Now that I explored igoogle it makes a lot more sense. The best feature is your email shows there and I can delete without having to open/close a tab. Great! My page is a work i progress.
I have used Picasa for a while now but never the albums on Picasa Google. I have been invited to view other's but never did my own. Crazy. I created my own, called Why I Love Estes Park. I had a lot more pictures to add but it took a LONG time to upload them. So, I'll do it in stages. I think this is a great tool to share pictures with parents. All those pictures we take. Goodness, we spent a fortune getting them all developed, multiple prints for each child. Now, create an album of all the activities the class does and all parents have all the pics.
Thing 20
This is true confessions of a staff development attendee. It always bothers me, as a presenter, that people attend staff development and don't implement.I am ashamed to say I have been one of those!! I attended a training, quick but still none the less training, on google docs back in October. When I signed in tonight, I even had some documents I apparently had saved! Go figure! I never used that knowledge and now I am kicking myself. It would have made so many things easier this past year.
Writing curriculum would have been helped if I could have shared a document with the others on the team, they could have commented, edited, etc. and we could have moved on. Although, google docs does take the fun out of emailing and forgetting to attach, then emailing to remind the person there was no attachment, then sending it again! Wow, I may be even more productive now!
I used a google doc to send to the participants in the class. It might not be the best format but I'll soon see if I get comments from my contributors. I also created a spreadsheet calendar to share with my husband. This seemed to have had more features than google calendar. I do so hope they are not one in the same and I was just too dumb to figure it out!
I plan on using a document format with the people in my literacy class. I want to creat rubrics and collaborate to create them. I really like the idea b's babble had to create a spreadsheet for acceleration. Finished My First Year had a great idea for a newsletter.
The only frustration I had was that I kept getting an error saying that Firefox couldn't support googledocs. So, I did it on explorer
Writing curriculum would have been helped if I could have shared a document with the others on the team, they could have commented, edited, etc. and we could have moved on. Although, google docs does take the fun out of emailing and forgetting to attach, then emailing to remind the person there was no attachment, then sending it again! Wow, I may be even more productive now!
I used a google doc to send to the participants in the class. It might not be the best format but I'll soon see if I get comments from my contributors. I also created a spreadsheet calendar to share with my husband. This seemed to have had more features than google calendar. I do so hope they are not one in the same and I was just too dumb to figure it out!
I plan on using a document format with the people in my literacy class. I want to creat rubrics and collaborate to create them. I really like the idea b's babble had to create a spreadsheet for acceleration. Finished My First Year had a great idea for a newsletter.
The only frustration I had was that I kept getting an error saying that Firefox couldn't support googledocs. So, I did it on explorer
Thing 19
With each new Thing, I think, okay this is the best. I know many of these have been around for a while and that I am technologically delayed BUT, the more I see the more I question why teachers and students are so bored in school in 2009. As part of the Reading Team, I am trying to keep a list of all these cool tools to try and implement into the curriculum. At the same time, I could spend an entire day searching and completely miss things that someone else found. So, we really need teachers and the tech facilitators to help us. I am hoping the future Reading wiki will help enable this.
About Voice Threads,pretty cool. I have been giving all of this a lot of thought and I hear teachers comment on how their gifted or higher kids would love these (and other tools.)Without a doubt, but the gifted and higher kids have already found these on their computers at home and/or are the ones creating half the stuff! What a way to excite the struggling child! Think if they could do a voicethread for an alphabet book for a younger child. The struggling child is the one who needs a lot of motivation. I am not saying, don't use it with gt kids, but let's not leave our sturggers out.
Coming and Going I think would be a wonderful way for teachers to track oral language development in primary children. They could have them talk about a picture at the beginning of the year and then revisit it each six weeks. What a way to see growth in language. Back in the day we used tape recorders. How it would have been nice to have this.
If one is going to do "Morning Work" I think What is Bellwork is good. Personally I like it when the kids come in and just read. I love his idea but think it would work better during writing or at least not every morning.
Library A-Z was actually what got me thinking more about the struggling reader, especially those learning the letters and sounds. In addition, you could take digital pictures, create a very basic book and have the child read it. OR you could read it and the child could read along for fluency OR....the list goes on.
The best example so far of incorporating all the technology we have looked at so far is K-12 art, poetry, and music from Erin Berg. WOW! 2nd graders in Utah created the art with digital cameras and then explained itheir art. Ninth graders in Colorado used a wiki, wrote poetry for the art and then fifth and sixth graders in Texas wrote music using Garage Band. Incredible! Check it out.
About Voice Threads,pretty cool. I have been giving all of this a lot of thought and I hear teachers comment on how their gifted or higher kids would love these (and other tools.)Without a doubt, but the gifted and higher kids have already found these on their computers at home and/or are the ones creating half the stuff! What a way to excite the struggling child! Think if they could do a voicethread for an alphabet book for a younger child. The struggling child is the one who needs a lot of motivation. I am not saying, don't use it with gt kids, but let's not leave our sturggers out.
Coming and Going I think would be a wonderful way for teachers to track oral language development in primary children. They could have them talk about a picture at the beginning of the year and then revisit it each six weeks. What a way to see growth in language. Back in the day we used tape recorders. How it would have been nice to have this.
If one is going to do "Morning Work" I think What is Bellwork is good. Personally I like it when the kids come in and just read. I love his idea but think it would work better during writing or at least not every morning.
Library A-Z was actually what got me thinking more about the struggling reader, especially those learning the letters and sounds. In addition, you could take digital pictures, create a very basic book and have the child read it. OR you could read it and the child could read along for fluency OR....the list goes on.
The best example so far of incorporating all the technology we have looked at so far is K-12 art, poetry, and music from Erin Berg. WOW! 2nd graders in Utah created the art with digital cameras and then explained itheir art. Ninth graders in Colorado used a wiki, wrote poetry for the art and then fifth and sixth graders in Texas wrote music using Garage Band. Incredible! Check it out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
