WOW! What a journey. I had so much fun learning all the 2.0 stuff out there. My favorite discovery has to be just becoming more tech savvy. I can embed, tag, and blog now. I have always been a "static" user of the internet. Never getting involved in putting anything out there for sharing. This class has made me realize that internet learning is a two-way street. I will continue to search for blogs that I want to participate in and click on all the links that take you to some great resources to share with others. A few things that surprised me were the time I spent getting off track. I sat down each time and said, "I am only going to stay on long enough to complete this one THING and then I am going to do something else." A few hours later, and many sidetracks, I am still engrossed in my adventure. My husband says I am addicted. It is true! If you are a lifelong learner, you can get so absorbed you lose track of time. I think the format of this class is great. I wish the bookmarking tool (delicious) could have been introduced earlier so that I could have started bookmarking sites from the beginning. I would absolutely take another course like this one if it was offered. I am planning to take what I have learned here and incorporate some into my teaching. I would like to set up a blog for my students and create slideshows. I will also use teachertube.com for resources.
Overall, I am very pleased with this course. I was looking for something to do over the summer and this was perfect. I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much during the school year just because of time constraints. I had lots of free time to get lost! Thank you to Mary for all the support and great feedback.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Thing #23
My overall impression of Classroom 2.0 was great! If you want to get in on an educational discussion that is the place to go. People are very generous to share their links to great educational materials. I found some great links for Math resources and several great ideas about using podcasts in the classroom. Social networking is a great place to bounce ideas and find out what other educators are doing. I enjoyed reading the discussions and think for my own personal learning, I have found some new and valuable resources to use instead of doing a google search for everything. I do think social networking has a place in learning. I think with clear expectations and very careful monitoring it could be used with students as a means to communicate outside the classroom. I liked the Ning network as well. I signed up to become a member of passionate teachers. Their network is private so i am waiting on approval. I will continue to use these tools to further my own knowledge about 2.0 and plan to try to incorporate it in my teaching.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thing #22
Well, I have finally been forced to create a Facebook account. I have held out so long because I guess I just don't have the time to spend telling everyone I know what I do every second of my life. I think social networking has its benefits...finding your lost love from high school (which I did), finding out you aren't the only one that has gotten old and fat since high school, or just chatting with friends. I am still a pick-up-the-phone kinda girl. I think as teachers we should know that almost every kid has a myspace or facebook account and we should learn how to get around in it. They are using it day and night and it is the new generation's communication tool, I just haven't really gotten into it. As for educational purposes, it is a useful tool for teachers to have discussion and it is a good networking site if you have a purpose for locating someone or something you need, however, as far as myself communicating with students via facebook, I am uneasy.
What I liked: finding people I haven't seen in forever. Reading friends chats about things going on in their lives. Easy to set up.
What I didn't like: Sending friend requests and having to type those difficult to read texts. There is not enough identifier info to locate some people.
Here is mine. Request to be my friend. It is too sad to have a sight that says I have no friends!!!
What I liked: finding people I haven't seen in forever. Reading friends chats about things going on in their lives. Easy to set up.
What I didn't like: Sending friend requests and having to type those difficult to read texts. There is not enough identifier info to locate some people.
Here is mine. Request to be my friend. It is too sad to have a sight that says I have no friends!!!
Thing #7B
First, let me apologize for the length of this blog. However, I have to share this with those of you who wonder if we, as teachers, make a difference in the lives of the kids we come into contact with.
I am teaching 5th grade acceleration this summer to a group of 8 students who scored between 1800 and 2000 on both administrations of the Reading TAKS. Needless to say, there are as demotivated as they can be in their third week of having to spend 4 grueling hours a day doing the thing they all told me they hated on the first day: READING!
Today something happened that rocked my world. I have gone home every night and talked to my husband about these kids. I have wondered if what I am doing in these few short weeks is really going to make a difference for their TAKS test. I am not spending our time together drilling them on how to answer TAKS questions or teaching them how to write a summary in the margin for each paragraph. No, I am sharing my love for reading with them. We begin each day with a Read Aloud. (I often think they are still asleep, but surprisingly they really are listening). We end each day talking about books they might like to read. I bring in books from the library and my own collection and show them what I like to read and what my former students have told me is good. On Tuesday this week, I shared one of my favorite read alouds, Roald Dahl's Witches. If you have not read it, it is worth picking up and at least reading the first few pages out loud. After I read them the first few pages, the next day we went to the library. Almost every single one of them checked it out and one kid even went to the public library and checked it out. I tell you all this because today during out 15 minute snack time, several students started talking about the book. They were laughing and comparing anecdotes from the book. I was amazed! I let them continue on, just listening to their excitement. As the conversation began to end, they all looked at me and I had tears in my eyes. I told them this was the reason I was a teacher. They all looked at me weird and then I explained to them that just 14 days ago they HATED reading and now they were actually loving it. They walked out of my room today, believing they have changed. I would love for them to all pass the TAKS next Wednesday. But even if they don't, I have taught them something far better than passing a standardized test, I have taught them that Reading is worthwhile, something they can enjoy, and fun!
Read this blog entry that talks about reflecting on what you want to improve about yourself or your teaching. I agree, when we stop doing what we love, it is time to walk out the door!
I am teaching 5th grade acceleration this summer to a group of 8 students who scored between 1800 and 2000 on both administrations of the Reading TAKS. Needless to say, there are as demotivated as they can be in their third week of having to spend 4 grueling hours a day doing the thing they all told me they hated on the first day: READING!
Today something happened that rocked my world. I have gone home every night and talked to my husband about these kids. I have wondered if what I am doing in these few short weeks is really going to make a difference for their TAKS test. I am not spending our time together drilling them on how to answer TAKS questions or teaching them how to write a summary in the margin for each paragraph. No, I am sharing my love for reading with them. We begin each day with a Read Aloud. (I often think they are still asleep, but surprisingly they really are listening). We end each day talking about books they might like to read. I bring in books from the library and my own collection and show them what I like to read and what my former students have told me is good. On Tuesday this week, I shared one of my favorite read alouds, Roald Dahl's Witches. If you have not read it, it is worth picking up and at least reading the first few pages out loud. After I read them the first few pages, the next day we went to the library. Almost every single one of them checked it out and one kid even went to the public library and checked it out. I tell you all this because today during out 15 minute snack time, several students started talking about the book. They were laughing and comparing anecdotes from the book. I was amazed! I let them continue on, just listening to their excitement. As the conversation began to end, they all looked at me and I had tears in my eyes. I told them this was the reason I was a teacher. They all looked at me weird and then I explained to them that just 14 days ago they HATED reading and now they were actually loving it. They walked out of my room today, believing they have changed. I would love for them to all pass the TAKS next Wednesday. But even if they don't, I have taught them something far better than passing a standardized test, I have taught them that Reading is worthwhile, something they can enjoy, and fun!
Read this blog entry that talks about reflecting on what you want to improve about yourself or your teaching. I agree, when we stop doing what we love, it is time to walk out the door!
Thing #21
Ok, igoogle has lots of cool toys & games, but I was trying to make it educational. I did find a gadget for recording the daily moon phases. Love it! Also, I found word-of-the-day and an art of the day gadget. I was thinking about using these tools in my classroom next year for writing and discussion anyway, so having it all in one place is nice. My igoogle is a work in progress. I also liked google calendar. I can see this as a useful tool for sharing with other teachers, students, and parents. It is cool that I can put it on my igoogle also. Students can go there to check out due dates for projects, etc.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Thing #20
I was already familiar with google docs before this class. I have used it several times to create documents. I was not using it as a collaboration piece, but several applications come to mind. 1) I am going to create a progress report for for our special area teachers to input their grades so that they don't have to send me a hard copy of each students grade. 2)Also, we are required to give our CMC teacher grades each six weeks. I am going to create a form that I can share with her that will save us all time. I can see this as a great collaboration for my grade level as well. 3) We can create our tutoring lists, share our lesson plans, create our weekly calendar, etc. This would also be a great application for the students. 4)I can see creating surveys and polls and having students graph the responses. Here is a link to a document I created for my weekly conduct sheet. I wanted to upload something so I just put this out there. Check it out. If you have any more ideas for google docs uses, please share.
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