One Final Thing

I enjoyed the 23 things course. It was very time consuming and I was very worried about the blogging aspect of this course. I have never felt very comfortable with writing, so this was a struggle I had to overcome to complete this course.

• What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? I really enjoyed learning about the photo sharing and image generators. I think these will be great tools for use in my classroom as well as my personal life.
  

• How has this program affected your lifelong learning goals? I have always considered myself a lifelong learner, so it didn't really change my outlook on lifelong learning. I do know that the course has motivated me to use more technology in my classroom.
  

• Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? I learned some news things about some old things I already knew about. I had a flickr account and was very familiar with flickr, but I had not considered all the options I had for using it in the classroom. This was the case for some other "things" as well that I had previously known or learned about but I had not considered all the ways for using it in the classroom setting.
  

• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I thought the program was great. The assignments were very easy to understand. Maybe an email from the facilitators every now and then letting us know we are on track or just checking up? Also, once or twice it a week and a half went by before I was marked off for some assignments. Maybe this could be done a little more often?!
  

• If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? I would absolutely love to participate in another program like this one!
  

• How will what you have learned influence your practice as a teacher or school librarian? As I stated above, the course has motivated me to incorporate more technology into my classroom.
  

• How do you plan to keep up with new developments in web 2.0? By looking at many of the sites that I have subscribed to. I have even set up some alerts regarding technology in the classroom to inform me.
  

Thing #23-Other Social Networks

I joined classroom 2.0. I spent some time looking around at some different of the different sites. I was hoping I could find something directly related to Elementary math, but I did not. I did find some interesting sites related to professional development. I also found it pretty interesting that you could be able to communicate with other teachers around the world about specific topics that are going on in my own classroom. I really enjoyed looking at a neat site that would be great for some of my gifted students. It was called the Gifted Kids Network. It had many resources related to the gifted student. There was information for teachers as well as parents. But there were also many resources for the student. I thought this would be a great tool for my gifted students I have in my classroom this year.

Thing #22-Social Networks

1. Why is it important that educators know how social networking works?
Educators need to know about social networks because they are very popular and students today are very familiar with how they work. While their primary use is outside of the classroom, teachers need to have an understanding of their place in students lives.

2. What new insights did you gain about these popular sites?
I was familiar with the sites before, and my main observation is that they require a significant amount of your time to keep them up to date.

3. What did you like or dislike about each of the sites you explored?
The like is that it is nice to keep in contact with friends and family who you do not see on a regular basis or who live far away. This is a simple and easy way to keep up with those who are not a part of our daily life. The dislike is that when the information is posted for "all the world to see" your information can be accessed by practically anyone. Even by using the private blocking options of the sites you can still be found through search engines.

4. Which site had the most useful features?
Facebook has the most useful features because it's programming uses information you provide to recommend people you might know to be your friends.

5.Can you see an educational application for any of these sites?
I really do not see any educational application for the social networking sites at this time.

Here is a link to my profile

Thing #7b-Google Reader

A Good, Old-Fashioned Book

The author makes some good points about books today and how they may not be used like they once were. I think this is true because the way people get their information today is constantly changing. With the internet comes so many more options. I believe that the good, old fashioned book will always be around, but its role is definitely changing. Traditional classroom learning has always included textbooks and I believe that will continue to be the case for the near future. But educators must be flexible and forward thinking when planning for students of the future. Getting the most out of the options available will certainly include a greater use of the internet and online learning in the future.

Thing #21-Google

I chose to look at many of the google tools that were listed. I thought many of them would be useful in both my personal and professional life. I set up a google calendar
for my own personal use. But I can see a great use for the google calendar in the classroom. You could set up a class calendar that could be shared with all of the students and parents to be informed about what is going on in the classroom. This would be especially useful if you were working on a special project and you could include specific deadlines dates on the calendar. I also set up google alerts to inform me about news related topics regarding education. I also have it informing me about some of my favorite sports teams. Another google tool that I explored was Google SketchUp. This tool could be used in the classroom in several ways. I explored a little bit a created a triangular prism. This could be used with some of my higher level students in my classroom when we are doing our unit on 3D figures.

Thing #20-Google Docs

Google documents are a great tool for the classroom just because of its simplicity. Since they are stored online and accessible online, you can get to them from any computer. It allows you to be able to create documents at home and still have access to them in the classroom. It is also easy to create a document for a project so that students could access it from home or at school. This just provides another aspect of learning that allows the students to use the internet for non traditional assignments. In addition to assignments, we could use it for our grade level newsletter. This would allow different teachers to provide information about their specific subject area, from home or school. Its also a great tool for teachers to use to share ideas for the classroom projects or lesson plans. Teachers of the same grade level or subject matter can contribute ideas and information while the students are allowed access to the material necessary to complete the assignment.

Thing #19-Voicethread

A voicethread is yet another unique tool that can used in the classroom. Since today's students are, for the most part, web savvy it a great way to add a personal touch to an assignment. I have used voicethread before at the conclusion of a research unit. Each of the students was asked to do a voicethread to provide a brief synopsis of their project. Then other students could listen to it and make comments or provide feedback. Since the subject matter was the same it allowed students access to a different perspective and therefore helped to reinforce their learning. In addition the students have a lot of fun with it because their fellow students are making comments.

Thing #18-Video Sharing

Once again, I typed in Elementary Math as my search topic. I was very pleased with the number of video results it came up with. I spent WAY too much time looking through the many videos related to topics I currently teach about in my 4th grade math classroom. I found videos related to measurement, probability, geometry, problem solving and basic math. I found several videos that a teacher has posted with rap songs she has created that are related to math topics. I could see using some of these in my classroom. The video that I included in my blog post was about right angles. My students will be learning about right angles in just a few weeks. I like how it told what a right angle is, showed examples then show "real life" images that had right angles and gave you time to look for them. I think there are many uses for using podcasts in my classroom in the future. I look forward to working towards incorporating them into my lessons.

Thing #17-Pocasting

I looked through all of the directories that were given. I started by searchin for podcasts that were related to elementary math. I didn't come up with many results on most of them. I found the EPN, Education Podcast Network, was the best directory for me and the need of my students. I looked at several podcasts that were related to elementary school math. The Math tutor was one that I looked at. I found the podcast to be somewhat useful, but kind of boring. I looked at a few podcasts about teaching with a SMARTboard in the classroom, but I did not find them to be very useful. I have viewed many podcasts on iTunes before, one particular podcasts that I enjoyed was a course about teaching math in the elementary school classroom. Overall, I think podcasts could be useful to me as an educator, but I am not convinced they will be helpful to my students in the classroom.

Thing #16-LibraryThing

I found the LibraryThing to be very exciting. In my classroom learning I already use a number of books. I began by typing in the name of Marilyn Burns, an author that I prefer. I am very familiar with her works and have incorporated her books into many lessons in my classroom. Once I got to her page I recognized a number of books by her that I have used in the past. By clicking on those, I found links to other similar resources that were also available. I know I will use this tool again because it allowed me to easily find numerous resources that I could incorporated in my classroom lessons that I might not have otherwise known about.

Thing #15-Social Bookmarking

I enjoyed getting on Delicious and looking for websites that I could use in my classroom. I get on the internet often and search for ideas for lessons, worksheets I can use or websites my students might benefit from. I found many of the same sites and ideas on delicious, but it was very helpful to be able to actually bookmark them on delicious and tag them. The tags will be very helpful, because they will be a reminder when I go back to look at them. I also found it very helpful to look at some of the tags and follow them to find links to other sites I had not seen or used before. I am going to be getting another computer in a few week so, it will also be nice to have all of my bookmarks saved on delicious instead of being saved to my computer. I see delicious being a great website I will utilize in the future. Here is MY Delicious, you can go to it and see what I have already started bookmarking!

Thing 7a-google reader

I found an interesting article regarding the recognition of students via the internet entitled Robbing Students of Recognition. I think the article opens up a very interesting debate. There is no question that we have responsibilities to protect the students but I have to agree with the author that we need to also have a responsibility to promote their accomplishments. Locally, we have no problem promoting students accomplishments via newsletters and community newspapers, but I agree we become reluctant when utilizing the internet for the same reason. As use of the internet and its relative popularity continue to grow i hope that we will understand that there are so many more positives with the use of the internet that greatly outweigh the negatives. This will not lessen our responsibility to the students and our inherent obligation to protect them, but I am hopeful, as educators, we can recognize the many positive aspects and therefore positive outcomes of utilizing the internet for student recognition.

Thing #14-2.0 Tools

Well, being a math teacher, I was kind of partial to the math quizlet. My first choice was to pick flashcards and then I selected math. I was actually quite excited to find out what all was available from this site. It contained a variety of lessons which included interactive games, multiplication facts and quizzes that would automatically track your scores. Knowing how computer savvy a lot of today's students are, this is a great tool to reinforce learning objectives that we are going to be teaching anyway. What a great way to mix traditional learning with the use of technology!

Thing #13- Image Generators

I think the image generators are a tool to use that really take advantage of the internet. By using the word maker like the one above, I was able to write one of my user names by using six pictures of the different letters. This allowed me to make a very customized word that I could use in a variety of applications. Since people are publishing their works and there are programs becoming more available that can search through the large amount of information out there, it makes it easy for the average user to take advantage of all that without spending too much time sorting through everything that's available.



The sign above is another example of an image generator. The sign maker is really a simple tool that will allow you to write messages that you would probably be using anyway, but gives you a lot of options to customize them. This is a great tool to use in the classroom for lessons on the promethean board or for focuses and closures. It's easy to use and just simply allows you to be creative and customize it and add a little flare to classroom learning.

Thing #12-Slideshow

The theme of my slideshow is Geometry. I thought it would be

neat to create a slideshow that I could use for a geometry lesson.

As I stated in my previous post, I thought I could have my students

write a paragraph about a particular picture using the geometry

language they had learned. I thought it would also be a good idea to

show some of the photos as we are learning about a particular

objective related to geometry. For example, if we were learning about

intersecting, perpendicular and parallel lines, I could use the picture

by giopuo to show examples of the different types of lines.

photo credits: Geometry lesson by Kevin Dooley;

Villa Romana del Tellaro, Sicily-Geometry by giopuo;

Tourist Geometry by Tillwe;

Geometry for Dummies by Thomas Claveirole;

Thing #11-Flickr

I enjoyed looking through all of the photos on flickr. I already had a flickr account, so I was pretty familiar with it. I teach 4th grade math, so I was trying to think of a topic we would be learning about here in the near future. So, I chose to search for pictures related to geometry as my theme. I was surprised at the amount of pictures I was given! It was really neat to look through all of the photos that were related to geometry and think about how I could use them in my classroom. I thought it would be a neat idea to have the students look at several of the chosen photos and write a descriptive paragraph using many of the geometry related terms they have learned.

photo credit: Thomas Claveirole

Thing #10-Creative Commons

Creative Commons will continue to make it easier to use the vast resources that are available on the internet. Teachers and students alike are using the internet more and more in the classroom and for putting projects together. As use of the internet becomes second nature, part of the learning curve needs to be a better understanding of Creative Commons. Not only will students be using the internet to collect information, they will also be submitting their own creative works such as pictures and videos to a very large audience. Teachers need to understand and look for the CC logo and be able to explain what it means to students and their use of the internet. There is so much information out there that is readily available, but with those seemingly limitless resources comes responsibility. Not unlike teaching the importance of preparing a good bibliography for those resources that were used in a research project. Creative Commons should streamline the use of the many resource materials available because the owner will have allowed permission for its use at the beginning.

Thnig #9-Sandbox

Well I completed my wiki without too much trouble. Actually, that's not really true. I had to print the instructions so I could refer to them more times than I really wanted to. But once I got going and understood it a little better, it wasn't really that bad at all. Sometimes learning a new thing can be a little bit intimidating and I guess it was a little bit. I don't mind using technology and I know there's a place for it in the classroom and in my daily life. But the things I have used and incorporated have been made for me and ready to use so actually having to make it from scratch was a little bit overwhelming. In the end it all worked out and I'm glad I was able to become familiar with the process so that now I can make one on my own. View my page here: ckutie's wiki

Thing #8-Wikis

I enjoyed looking at all of the wikis. I wondered, before I began exploring the different wikis, what I might use one for in my own classroom. I now have several ideas for the use of wikis in my class!

I liked the way the Room 15 wiki was set up. This wiki was started by a sixth grade class to share book reviews and other student works, as well as share classroom information. This wiki was organized very well and the overall appearance looked better than some of the other wikis I saw. If I were to create a wiki for my classroom, I think this setup would work best. I think having a classroom wiki that provided a variety of information about the class would be a great idea.

I also chose to look at the Primary Math wiki. Being a 4th grade math teacher, this one initially caught my eye. I thought the concept behind this wiki was a good idea. It is setup for primary math students to share their learning. This wiki was very basic and simple.

I thought the Salute to Suess wiki was a neat idea. This was a project where students had to read a Dr. Suess book and make a project to post on the wiki. I thought this was a very creative idea to get the students involved in learning about a particular subject.

Thing #7-Commenting

The importance of commenting just very simply gives you a wide variety of ideas and opinions. Sometimes when people blog they are very passionate about their perspective on a given topic and may not have considered other viewpoints. When done correctly and in good taste, commenting can spark continued discussion and healthy debate on a given topic. The internet and the immediacy of information today allows for bloggers and commenters to engage in discussion that might not otherwise take place. A good blogger, and a good educator, should be open minded to different perspectives and welcome the opportunity to increase their knowledge.

Thing # 6-Readers

I've really enjoyed the information in the reader because it's good to gain different perspectives and insight that can be used in the classroom. There is vast amounts of information available to those who will take the time to look for it. That can sometimes be the negative too, in that so much information can be a bit overwhelming at times. Setting up a good reader can be useful because it allows you to sort through the information and pick only the things that you have found helpful. Taking the time to set it up right can save time later by limiting the amount of information and taking away that overwhelming feeling. Of course to do it right you need to revisit the content in your reader from time to time and make sure that it is still meeting your needs.

Thing #5- RSS

The internet is here to stay and today's students are using it more and more as a part of their daily lives. If used correctly, it can play a major role in the classroom and be an integral part of education today. Bob Sprankle talks about how the internet's role has changed in just the last year.

The importance of the internet will continue to become a greater tool for use in the classroom. Even though not all students have access at home, the availability of internet access throughout the community continues to increase. Students today do not know a world without the internet, regardless of their access to it. The hurdle in the short term will be the adults in the students lives, both parents and teachers, who are continuing to learn and understand the internet and the positive role it can have in education. Used in the proper context, the internet offers nearly limitless access to research information that would otherwise be extremely challenging to obtain. The internet will no doubt continue to play a bigger role in education in the future, not only for research assignments, but for day to day learning as well. Overcoming the fear of the internet and understanding its true potential and place in the classroom will be the challenge for educators as we move forward. Younger teachers joining the profession will more easily adapt to using the internet as a part of the classroom setting. Hopefully veteran teachers and administrators who are in the position of making decisions will embrace all that the internet has to offer and use it to their advantage to further the education of modern day students.

Thnig #4-Blogging

I think blogging is a great teaching tool. Writing is a big part of the 4th grade classroom because the students take a TAKS Writing test. Hearing the students voice in their compositions is a big part of the score they receive on the test. I think blogging is a great way to get the students to write and share their voice. It encourages students to take ownership of their learning in an innovative way. It also allows the students to get encouragement and feedback in a different format. I really enjoyed reading through all of the blogs that we were given. I especially liked reading through Duck With a blog. I enjoyed the student's responses. The students got to express their thoughts in a new way. You could tell that they really put thought into what they were saying.

Thing #2-Web 2.0

I began teaching 13 years ago. Technology in those days mainly consisted of going to the computer lab once a week and learning how to use the computer. It is certainly challenging as a teacher to keep up with the constantly changing technology, as well as learning how to incorporate the use of it in the classroom. But as teachers it is our responsibility to keep learning about all the new and different uses of technology out there and teaching our children how to use if.
The way I use technology in my classroom today has changed drastically. One of the main ways is using the Promethean board in my classroom. It is amazing how having the board in my classroom affects students behavior. The students love being able to use the board and will do anything to have their turn at using it.
I am looking forward to learning about some of the new technology that is out there. And I can't wait to bring it back to my classroom and share it with my students!

Thing #1-7 1/2 Habits

I believe that all teachers should strive to be lifelong learners. For any teacher to be successful, they must constantly be learning themselves. Especially with all the new and constantly changing technology out there

The habit that will be the most challenging for me will be Habit #4, to have confidence in myself as a competent, effective learner. I do not have much confidence in myself when it comes to writing, especially, so the blogging part of the course will probably not be the easiest part for me. It will take some confidence for me to not procrastinate when it comes to writing my blogs.

The easiest habit for me will be to use technology to my advantage. I am very comfortable with using technology. I am usually up to date on the lastest technology. And I am very comfortable with "playing around" with technology to learn new things on my own.

The most important habit will be to view problems as challenges. I know there are going to be some things that I may have trouble with, but I need to remind myself that the challenges will provide me opportunities to learn. And that I am not doing this alone and I have resources out there to help me.

I am very excited about learning some new ideas from this class that I can take back and use in my classroom!