Thing #23

The best about the 23 Things activities was that it gave me a concise overview of many of the Web 2.0 tools that are out there and available to me and to my students on the Internet. Can I pick a favorite? There are three, I think. RSS news feeds have been great fun for me and for use in my world cultures class. Also, the on-line image makers will definitely be a part of my class assignments. Finally, I definitely plan to have my students use wikis next year.

The 23 Things assignments have been a reminder that life-long learning goals must constanatly be revised in order to adapt to changes that are happening in the world around us, specifically in the technology that is so much a part of our educational lives today.

I suppose the biggest take-aways were the many ways of managing the masses of information that is available to us. I knew of some, but I enjoyed the concise presentation of many.

I don't really have any complaints about the format of the program. The only problems I had were including images on my blogs. It would be helpful to include more specific directions for those of use who are less technologically adept.

I would take another program like this, depending on my summer schedule. This summer, everything worked out to make this extended program possible. It has been a great learning experience.

One sentence: The program was challenging, enjoyable, and usable.

Thing #22

With as many social networking sites as there are for teachers, as mentioned in the Ning overview, Ning could help solve some of the problems of ". . .the growing burden of managing involvement in multiple personal networks and ikeeping track of perhaps dozens or hundreds of 'friends across networks." Educator Ning and Ning for Teachers seemed to include many areas of interest for teachers.

An idea from #7 in the 7 Things You Need to Know About Ning would be for students to connect with students in schools in different parts of the country to share ideas on common areas of studies and interests. Teachers could also connect with the teachers of these students to form a network.

Thing 21

This was an interesting assignment. I have some NPR podcasts downloaded to my Ipod, and the information here gave me more insight into how they work. PhotoStory and IMovie are both great ways for students to create presentations of what they have learned. My 6th grade students created both this past year, and they found IMovie more enjoyable and challenging.

This is one student's IMovie on The Republic of Senegal.

Thing #20

On YouTube I found a video of the song "Waltzing Matilda." In addition to just playing the song, an explanation is given for the Australian words used in the song. The students will love seeing this and singing along during our unit on Australia.





Another video I found on TeacherTube is called "Hey, Hey Hetshepsut!" The students will love this when we study Egypt.

Thing #19

It's true--So much to see; so little time. It was very interesting and informative exploring these Web 2.0 award winners. I chose Pandora in the Music category to look into in depth. What a great idea to have your own personal radio station with all your favorite music. I was especially interested since I saw an interview last week with the founder of Pandora. It's clear that what is available now is only a preview of what he will create in the future. I will enjoy using selected music in my classroom while students are working, not to mention my use of Pandora for my personal use at home and, hopefully soon, in my car.

Thing #18

I really like the availability of these free online productivity tools. I didn't even realize that Open Office was on our laptops. I especially like the feature of Google Docs that allows real time chat while collatorating. I can imagine sharing in curriculum planning between teachers of different schools. That would be quite a change from everyone meeting at one location to write curriculum. Also, teachers of the same department could work together from their own rooms with their own materials to produce lessons. Another great idea!

Thing #17

Rollyo is a great tool for student research to move students away from Google searches--a huge job! I intend to create a link with search results for each of my social studies. I have included the link to the first unit on Latin America and will continue to add more sites before the unit begins. I will include the link on my web page for the students, as well as on assignment sheets during the unit.

http://rollyo.com/search.html?q=Search+for...&sid=634309&x=42&y=23

Thing #16

I definitely plan to have students use wikis next year. This will be an excellent platform for them to share their thoughts about books they are reading during the year. Also, when they are working on group projects, it will be a way for group members to collaborate on their work outside of class time. It will be important to incorporate groundrules for working in their wiki, just as there are groundrules for their working together in groups in the classroom.

Thing #15

I enjoyed reading the perspectives of bloggers, librarians, and the futurist on the Library 2.0. It is clear that libraries are changing. The library in my school has certainly changed in appearance and in the amount of technology available to students. Before school everyday, every computer and ipod is in use, and the seating areas are also filled with students reading books. Most of the students are there by choice, although many are working on class assignments. I was reminded of this when I read the futurist's perspective of the library of the future.

Our librarian has done a fantastic job of training teachers so that we are able to train our students in the many uses of the technology that is available. If libraries are to be centers of community and collaboration, students must learn how to use the technology in the goal of life-long learning and not be simply overtaken by "technolust." It is also important that they are constantly reminded that not everything they read on the Internet or in blogs is necessarily correct or more than one person's opinion.

The following article, "The Medium is the Medium," by David Brooks in the New York Times is an interesting approach to the future of libraries.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/opinion/09brooks.html?_r=1&ref=davidbrooks

Thing #14

In exploring Technorati, I found little on school library learning, specifically, and on education in general, in the posts and Blog Directory. After using several tags, I found 6 blogs on the subject of technology in the library. Why are there so few on the subject of Education? I wonder if many people in education are more involved in "doing" rather than blogging about their work.

I read an AOL News article this morning on Nate Henn, the Invisible Children worker who was killed in the Uganda bombings this weekend. Because of Thing #14, I noticed, and undertood the significance of, the list of several tags at the end of the article. At this point, it seems that de.licio.us will be the most useful of the tools that use tagging.

I saw an interview recently with the creator of Pandora Internet Radio. As I was working on this "Thing," I went to the Pandora web site and looked at their videos on "personalized advertising" on a "personal radio station." The implications are incredible, and possibly frightening. Brave New World??

Thing #13

Delicious is great! My favorites list is rediculously long, and this will be the perfect way to organize them. I plan to use tags to categorize sites for my various units. Instead of scrolling down the favorites list to find the site with the words and music of "Waltzing Matilda," I can go to the Australia tag on my delicious page. All of the other social studies teachers can add their sites, and we can share them. Excellent for finding information and saving time!

Thing #12

There were many interesting and important comments about blogging. I would like to have my students blog concerning books they are reading, so I especially took note of the comments on student blogging regarding etiquitte. This is especially important for middle schoolers. Also, I think the use of an alias or nickname is important for students.

Blogging, in general, can be useful if one has something relevant to add to a discussion and finds other responses useful or informative. In reading various blogs, it seems that some bloggers like to be heard more than they like to hear. I would definitely stay away from them.

I replied to two very interesting blogs. The first was by Roger Ebert discussing his 50th high school reunion. Since my own H.S. reunion is approaching in October, I related to many of the examples of how his classmates have stayed the same and how his community has changed. The other was a review by Marti Schwartz of a book, Teaching Grammar (do I have to?), by John Norton. It was an excellent review with many examples of practical and useful ways to teach grammar without the dreaded fill-in-the-blank worksheets. I would like to read the book.

I have commented on Ms. T's U.S. History Story, Thing 12 on blogging. Time for blogging presents the biggest challenge to me personally at this time.

Now that I have finished all 23 Things, I have had gone back and commented to four other blogs, Whirled World, RKnapp, Melanie's Things, and Camille M. I seem to have an issue with the Camille M. posting, and will return to it later to see if it has been posted. A message appeared that my comment would be posted when it was approved.

Thing #11

LibraryThing seems like a great site. I belong to a book club and really enjoy discussing books we have read. LibraryThing will be an excellent site to read reviews of new books and to discuss books with others. In my L.A. classroom, the students could create accounts and discuss books they are reading with their classmates. I will definitely try this activity.

Thing #10

Well, I took my time exploring, but it was more frustrating than fun. Some of the sites didn't seem to work, and I didn't find some sites very user-friendly. I had a Wordle ready but couldn't find a way to save it to my blog. That was the first disappointment. I changed to Sign Generator, and was able to create the sign shown above. I can see many possibilities to use these image generators in the classroom if I can master using them.

Thing #9

Once I started searching for RSS feeds, it was hard to stop. I subscribed to several that interested me personally and several that will be useful for school. I found subject from travel to local news to teaching grammar and creative writing. I realized that I chose ones that expressed ideas I tend to agree with. I guess most of us do that. I wish I had unlimited time so I could read many different opinions.

Thing #8

This was fun! I like the technology of RSS to streamline my information-searching time. Like everyone, my time is extremely limited, so finding favorite sites in one easy step is great.

Today, I chose five blogs of personal interest and the Houston Chronicle as an on-line news source. There are many blogs related to education, language, world cultures and events that I can add for use in curriculum preparation and instruction.

Teachers and administrators have a wealth of information and opinions to learn from and to interact with using the sites they can quickly bring to their fingertips.

Thing #7

Although I "Google" every day, I enjoyed exploring the Google tools that are new to me. The two I chose to use are Google Alert and Picasa Web Album.

I have set up Google Alerts for two topics for the summer, and I can see excellent possibilities for gathering unit information during the school year.

I was especially interested in Picasa Web Album. My niece is vacationing in England now, and she is posting her trip pictures daily for her family and friends. It's a fantastic way for us to enjoy her trip with her now rather than later. I am anxious to transfer all of my family's vacation pictures in an organized way to my own Picasa album.

Thing #6

After wading through the Wikipedia article with difficulty, I really enjoyed exploring all of the ways to use the information and viewing many of the examples of each. I saw several that I can use with my students next year.

The Mosaic Maker would be an excellent tool for the students to use to create unit pages for their studies of regions of the world. A mosaic of sites from pictures found on Flickr to show the diversity of the physical features of a continent would be great.

The students could use Mappr to display pictures of important sites on a map of a region.

I really like the activity of students making Trading Cards of animals unique to a region. I will definitely include this in my plans for next year.

Thing #5

Flicker is a great site. My students used it for two different projects this year and were very successful. They were surprised to be able to find so many pictures not copyright protected. Our librarian stresses the importance of that, but they tend to think they have to go to Google to find what they need. By the end of the year, they immediately started with Flicker.

This picture of Scottish Highland "coos" brings back fabulous memories from our vacation two years ago.

Thing #4

After two minor setbacks, I finally accomplished Thing #4. Now, I'm happy to be starting the fun things. Some are familiar, and some are new, so let the games begin.

Thing #3

Setting up the blog was not difficult, but dealing with the avatar was another thing. First, the word reminded me too clearly of the movie which I hated. I know. . .I'm one of a very few on the planet who felt that way, but I was not excited about creating an avatar for myself. That may have had something to do with my initial problems with the process, but I was finally able to accomplish it. In the end, I was very happy I was able to accomplish Thing #3 without help, and I was glad to see that the hardest part is over!

Thing #2

The 7 1/2 Traits were very interesting. For me, the easiest one is to begin with an end in mind. I think it comes naturally to me, but, also, my training as a teacher in writing curriculum, units, and lesson plans has shown me that if you don't begin with the end result as a goal, you could end up anywhere.

The hardest trait for me is to playfully use technology to my advantage. Is that one or two traits? I have willingly, with our librarian's fabulous help, introduced new technology, such as Keynote and IMovie, to my 6th grade GT students, but, although the students had a great time, it was really work, not play, for me. One of my main goals in taking this inservice is to become familiar with technology available to my students and to me so I can playfully enjoy it with them.