Monday, June 30, 2008

THING # 23

Finished doing the online survey!

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
My favorite discovery was the comic strips. I feel that I will be able to create some that will enable my students to do critical thinking but still allow them to have a good time.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
I think I will be able to become more proficient with the computer and be more creative in the classroom
Were there
any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
Even though some of these were very challenging and confusing I am taking away some ideas and materials that I will use in the up and coming year.
What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

Better directions and go through and check for blocked sites that we are to use.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
yes

How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities?
Challenging and entertaining.


Off to post on others

THING # 21

Audacity and Photostory are very creative and fun programs. I feel that both programs are very beneficial to the student and teacher. There were problems figuring some material out. The biggest challenge was uploading the audio.





I feel that the Audacity could used as a good warm up tool or even a closure.


A down side to this is that uploading of my wav.file took a very long time but that is the drawback of "free" sites. At this time it still has not downloading and we are pushing an hour and a half. GRENDAL was a witness to our attempt as well as the summer school tech person.


Here is the link for audacity of my recording. You can also click on my title THING #21 and it will open the file.

http://www.box.net/shared/sqhed524gg

THING # 22

Ning is a very interesting concept. I have seen from the students Facebook and MYSPACE. Nings would be useful to teachers by enabling them carry on dialogues and pass information back and forth. I think NING could be a great tool but with limited time I just don't see me doing this. I will go back from time to time and look at these sites. With the possibility of this becoming a forum the sites could get blocked.

Teacher lingo was blocked when I tried looking at it so I used the library sites. SO that was not beneficial to me.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

THING # 20

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=30937b99c0d247e9c383
I used the link so that after you view the blog you can play

I have enclosed the link of the video I think would help break up the monotony of teaching supply and demand. It is clever and the music makes it run smooth. This is one of the most complicated units to teach.

I think having the ability to find videos will be entertain and also break the "routine" in the classroom.

I have experience with youtube and find some content entertaing but also understand the reason for the blocking of the site.

THING # 19

WOW I found a great website called Instantbull.com this wold be very helpful for teaching the stock market in Economics and making it entertaining. You can see the message board that people have commented on. I have used the NY Stock exchange and NASDAQ.

For my personal use I think Craig's list is great for jobs,houses and things for sale.

Some other sites I found interesting is peertrainer and Google earth and the ever famous you tube. you tube can be entertaining but also ridiculous.

Thing # 18

I feel the biggest advantage with Google.doc and Open Office is the ability to share with fellow teachers. Students will also be able to share information when assigned cooperative learning activities. Also that it is free is a big plus.

The disadvantage that I see is that some teachers are creatures of habit and will not accept the change of Microsoft office to Open office and also the concept of sharing.

THING # 17

Rollyo is a great concept. Creating a search engine for the material that you would want the class to have access to. It frees up time from searching over and over and allows the student to use the time wisely ( hopefully :) )

I could see this as being very beneficial to the English teachers that have research assignments but also any subject that assigns research. It could used in the ISS or District AEP.

THING #16

Activity one -- I posted my ideas on the SBISD sandlot.

Activity two-- I will use Wiki to share ideas and material with my colleagues. I can also use this to have the students brain storm and use as a pre test on material. The one frustrating thing is that is took a long time to save material.

THING # 15

After reading Library 2.0 I was confused with the full idea and concept but thanks for the help from GRENDAL the concept became a bit clearer. Library 2.0 would benefit students in many ways. One of the ways that will help the students is to see different sources instead of just print from the books. As a teacher we would have to have the students understand the difference between fact and opinion. Not everything on the Internet is true or fact. They must question the source that they are using.

One question that pops into my mind is with Library 2.0 is how much freedom will the students have with firewalls? With all the testing and special schedules time would be limited to use and cover all material. I know that monitoring will be essential to make sure students stay on "task".

Monday, June 23, 2008

THING #14

I do feel that grouping blogs can be very useful. Using keywords and subjects will assist all students. Also some words that I might not think of or ideas that somone else has could link you to ideas or words. I still feel that Technorati is very bunched together. It is useful but the way it is set up makes it confusing.

THING # 13

del.icio.us
Furl
Ma.gnolia


Great resource being able to save bookmarks and access them from anywhere is GREAT! A big plus now is being able to get bookmarks anywhere will encourage me to administer test HA HA just kidding :). Have to use some humor like the TEN Commandments advised us to.

Using key words will also be helpful to finding material for me as well as the students

THING # 12

I have blogged before and I think the Ten Commandments are so helpful.
I feel that the 2 most important to me are be polite, remember that a large group of people will read this. The second one is to use emotion with smiley faces this hopefully will help with not reading to much into the tone or context.

I have blogged on other pages and links. One draw back to our personal interests is that sometimes the site is blocked through the fire wall.

THING # 11

When I look through this assignment I found it to be very resourceful. I put the books that I read at my leisure when i was growing up in my catalog.

I feel this would be beneficial to group books togehter for assignments or group work. I could see putting books in a group to help studnets thte only downfall would acess for all students to get teh books.

I looked in groups and found Government and Economics

THING #10





I could spend hours and hours playing with the comic strip generator. This would be good to use in power points and adding messages or material in the captions.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Thing # 9

I guess I am old fashinoned but I enjoy using Google search engine. I feel this is the easieast and the one I enjoy the most.

I was impressed with the Topix and will try and use more often. I have used Atomic learning before in my classroom.

I felt like TECHNORATI was confusing. I felt that there was to much material crammed in the space presented to us.

THING # 8

The thing I liked about the RSS section is the ability to navigate fairly easy. You are also able to get categories and have a bunch of links that you can research.

I will be able to use this in the classroom by linking Google Reader with links that can be useful to myself and the students. In my personal life I can use this for entertainment.

This would be helpful to the librarian if I found any websites and forward to her to send to all teachers.

THING # 7.

I found a lot of the Google tools very useful. The ones I was most intrigued about was the Google Alert. I like the concept of being reminded of important events, web posting by being sent an alert. The Calendar will also be very useful to me I can keep track of all my assignments for every subject taught, meetings,games and practices. This will get me better organized

Thing # 6


I found the trading cards fun and exciting! I could see myself using this to create review cards, have the students create cards or images of themselves

Thing # 5


I found this sight to be helpful. This sight will enable me to find and post pictures and have the students write their opinion of the picture as it relates to government or the subject matter.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

THING # 4

THING 4 was to get blog registered

THING # 1

Thing # 1 was to read about Library2play

THING # 3

The avatar was a little difficult having to navigate back and forth. Creating the character was funny and humorous. I have a feeling that I will be changing my avatar character throughout. GOIBOK was very helpful to me.

Thing # 2

I feel that the hardest goal obstacle to use in my classroom is going to be the use of technology. There is good resources available but not enough equipment to use.

The easiest one will be accepting responsibility and teaching and mentoring.