I FINISHED! It has been a journey going through 23 Things. When I started Thing #1 I was not sure if I was going to finish. I selfishly did not want to send my summer taking a staff development online. Looking back I would have missed out on learning how to use so many tools I never knew about. I think knowing about all that the internet has to offer will benefit my future students. I cannot wait (well maybe I can) but I am excited for school to start and to try some of the "things" in my class.
My favorite thing I did was Thing 10, creating a slideshow using New York pictures. The reason I liked this so much was getting to go and look at pictures of NY. Why? Because learning is more fun when you learn about something you like. This is so true for our students too. I want to continue to search the internet and find more tools that will be helpful. This class has shown me how technology is changing so quickly so as a life long learner I need to continue learning. I think the thing that is going to be most helpful this upcoming year is LibraryThing. I am going to start putting my books in LibraryThing as soon as I get back into the classroom.
I have to admit this class was a lot of work and I struggled to finish. I think it is something that all educators should take because there are so many rich elements in 23 Things. Our students know technology so well, so we should also know it!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Thing #23
Other Social Networks
It is awesome to have a way to communicate with other educators. Using educational networking is a safe way to network with other teachers around the world. I think learning from other people who have experienced something is a great way to learn. I will enjoy using Classroom 2.0. I am also excited to see different resources I will come across from Calssroom 2.0. As i was looking through the forums I found many topics that interested me. I especially liked the discussion on the smart board. I have a promethean board in my class and I am always looking for new ways to use it. There were several great ideas I am going to try next year. I also liked joining the 23 Thingsters. This way we will all be able to keep in touch and share how we have used what we have learned in 23 Things in our classes.
It is awesome to have a way to communicate with other educators. Using educational networking is a safe way to network with other teachers around the world. I think learning from other people who have experienced something is a great way to learn. I will enjoy using Classroom 2.0. I am also excited to see different resources I will come across from Calssroom 2.0. As i was looking through the forums I found many topics that interested me. I especially liked the discussion on the smart board. I have a promethean board in my class and I am always looking for new ways to use it. There were several great ideas I am going to try next year. I also liked joining the 23 Thingsters. This way we will all be able to keep in touch and share how we have used what we have learned in 23 Things in our classes.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Thing #22
Social Networking
I have a Facebook and a Myspace acount (I do not use myspace anymore). I decided to create a new professional Facebook account using my middle and last name. I added one of my favorite authors on Facebook Jarrett J. Krosoczka. I am awaiting confrimation of my friend request. I also looked up other authors but many of them did not have a facebook.
I am going to now add my team members on my "professional" facebook account. I am also going to add other first grade teachers I know. This will be a way we can communicate with each other and share ideas. My principal also is in 23 Things so I will add her. I like that you are able to add website on facebook. I will be able to see other peoples favorite websites or blogs all on their facebook page.
I enjoy using facebook more than myspace. It is just a personal preference. Myspace has more people on their social networking site but many of those are fake sites. For example if you type in Tony Romo, over 10 pages pull up claiming to be him. He probably doesn't even have a myspace but you need to be careful because anyone can create a myspace page.
I have a Facebook and a Myspace acount (I do not use myspace anymore). I decided to create a new professional Facebook account using my middle and last name. I added one of my favorite authors on Facebook Jarrett J. Krosoczka. I am awaiting confrimation of my friend request. I also looked up other authors but many of them did not have a facebook.
I am going to now add my team members on my "professional" facebook account. I am also going to add other first grade teachers I know. This will be a way we can communicate with each other and share ideas. My principal also is in 23 Things so I will add her. I like that you are able to add website on facebook. I will be able to see other peoples favorite websites or blogs all on their facebook page.
I enjoy using facebook more than myspace. It is just a personal preference. Myspace has more people on their social networking site but many of those are fake sites. For example if you type in Tony Romo, over 10 pages pull up claiming to be him. He probably doesn't even have a myspace but you need to be careful because anyone can create a myspace page.
Thing #7b
I was looking through my google reader last week and found an interesting feed. Google has come out with Google for Educations. I found the information about it on a site called Infinite Thinking Machine. Using this search engine you can find ready to use lessons and resources for teachers. Teachers must look through the information, like always, to make sure the lesson is appropriate and will fulfill the objectives. I am going to take some time this week to look through some lessons and see if any of them will be beneficial to my students.
Thing #21
Google Tools
I did several things on goggle that I did not know about. First I created a igoogle page. I selected things that interested me like entertainment, news, weather and created my own page. I really like how it has all of this information on one page and it was all things that interested me. I also uploaded pictures to the album on google from one of my teammates wedding this past weekend. I like that I will be able to save all my school pictures on the internet and not worry about losing them on a computer. This will also be a way where I can quickly email parents pictures from class events. I also like to take pictures of projects we do in our class. I love to share pictures with other teachers and share experience I have had in my class. Another tool I liked was the calendar. I have started putting all my dates in my iphone but if something were to happen to it I would be completely lost. I also like the fact that you can share the calendar with others. It would be great for the office to know my schedule. I could put all my conference times in the calendar so if a parent called about their conference they would have accessibility to my calendar. I never knew google was more than emailing and searching.... But now I know!
I did several things on goggle that I did not know about. First I created a igoogle page. I selected things that interested me like entertainment, news, weather and created my own page. I really like how it has all of this information on one page and it was all things that interested me. I also uploaded pictures to the album on google from one of my teammates wedding this past weekend. I like that I will be able to save all my school pictures on the internet and not worry about losing them on a computer. This will also be a way where I can quickly email parents pictures from class events. I also like to take pictures of projects we do in our class. I love to share pictures with other teachers and share experience I have had in my class. Another tool I liked was the calendar. I have started putting all my dates in my iphone but if something were to happen to it I would be completely lost. I also like the fact that you can share the calendar with others. It would be great for the office to know my schedule. I could put all my conference times in the calendar so if a parent called about their conference they would have accessibility to my calendar. I never knew google was more than emailing and searching.... But now I know!
Thing #20
Google Docs
I created a newsletter to send out to my parents. Many times I have had parents call or email to ask for information on something. Most of the time what they want to know was in my weekly newsletter. Sometimes my students have a hard time getting papers home to their parents. For example, a student places their newsletter in their take home folder, rides the bus to daycare, goes to daycare, gets in mom's car then finally makes it home. Their folder has been in 5 different places in one day. Papers fall out without the child even realizing it. This is a much easier, more accessible way for information to be sent to the parents. I will continue to send a newsletter home because I know not all parents have access to the internet. Our team works on the newsletter together so we could modify to fit each classrooms use.
One idea I had was having a spreadsheet for each student. The spreadsheet would include grades and missing assignment. Parents sometime have no clue heir student is not doing well in a subject because they are not looking at graded papers or rubrics in the take home folder. I am not sure exactly how well this would work. i do know this would take a lot of time on my part but I think it would be worth it.
I created a newsletter to send out to my parents. Many times I have had parents call or email to ask for information on something. Most of the time what they want to know was in my weekly newsletter. Sometimes my students have a hard time getting papers home to their parents. For example, a student places their newsletter in their take home folder, rides the bus to daycare, goes to daycare, gets in mom's car then finally makes it home. Their folder has been in 5 different places in one day. Papers fall out without the child even realizing it. This is a much easier, more accessible way for information to be sent to the parents. I will continue to send a newsletter home because I know not all parents have access to the internet. Our team works on the newsletter together so we could modify to fit each classrooms use.
One idea I had was having a spreadsheet for each student. The spreadsheet would include grades and missing assignment. Parents sometime have no clue heir student is not doing well in a subject because they are not looking at graded papers or rubrics in the take home folder. I am not sure exactly how well this would work. i do know this would take a lot of time on my part but I think it would be worth it.
Thing #19
VoiceThread
What I really liked about voice threads was how it guides the students through their thinking. I have noticed this past year that you must guide students in their thinking especially in the younger grades. I watched the presentation on seeds. They would show a picture and then guide the listener to what type of seed it might be by asking questions. I think this would be a great independent activity for a higher level thinking in a first grade class. THese voice threads could also be an introduction into a new topic. These questions would get the reader thinking and open a great class discussion. I also love how students can respond to the voice thread. This allows students to take ownership of their learning. There are so many different ways students can respond. This also creates critical thinking because the students have to think about what they will say and think if their response is relevant to the topic.
What I really liked about voice threads was how it guides the students through their thinking. I have noticed this past year that you must guide students in their thinking especially in the younger grades. I watched the presentation on seeds. They would show a picture and then guide the listener to what type of seed it might be by asking questions. I think this would be a great independent activity for a higher level thinking in a first grade class. THese voice threads could also be an introduction into a new topic. These questions would get the reader thinking and open a great class discussion. I also love how students can respond to the voice thread. This allows students to take ownership of their learning. There are so many different ways students can respond. This also creates critical thinking because the students have to think about what they will say and think if their response is relevant to the topic.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
