Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Thing #3
I have just completed 23 Things and realized that I didn't post about setting up my blog. It was a lot easier than I had anticipated to set up my blog. At first I didn't know if I would like having a blog, but it's actually pretty great! I think it would be cool for all teachers to have to have one and to comment on things they learn throughout the year as part of professional development!
Thing #23
I can't believe I'm finished!!! It's been a great journey of learning. It took me a while longer than I had anticipated, but I enjoyed every minute.
I loved learning about Flickr and Photo Story. I like having a creative outlet and being able to incorporate my photos. Google Reader was also great and I got into reading blogs a lot more than I thought. I've been able to enjoy my cousin's blog as well as some good ones about recipes and education. And, I'm really excited to use a wiki during the school year to help my team plan more efficiently. There are tons of resources that I could continue to list that will greatly enhance my classroom. Rollyo will be great for narrowing searches for my students, and the photo projects like Flickr and Photo Story can be a great avenue for them to express what they've learned on a particular subject. I don't think there was anything in the 23 Things that I didn't like, that wouldn't benefit my classroom! Great job in selecting 23 pertinent and interesting things!
23 Things has allowed me to continue learning over the summer. I knew a fraction of what I do now about resources on the internet. I believe I will continue using these resources to learn more about education and news and new concepts. The internet provides so many learning opportunities that I can enjoy at my own pace at any time.
I really like the format and concept of this program. There was always enough of a tutorial to help figure out how to do things like including pictures and videos, etc. into my blog. Everything was easy to do on my own. I really liked the In Plain English explanations of things.
There are so many take-aways from this program. I can use almost everything I learned with confidence in my classroom. Before doing 23 Things, I used the Promethean Board in my classroom about 40 - 50% of the time and was hesitant to try any projects on the computer in the library. Now, I'm really excited to have computers in my classroom this coming year and will probably sign up for computer time in the library so that my students can do more of these hands-on, technology projects. I also can't wait to use the 3rd grade camera to add creativity and participation to class projects.
I would definitely take more classes like this if they were offered and am excited to share what I've learned with my teammates, my students, and my school. I really have enjoyed this program and have really liked being able to discover things on my own time with a little help from online tutorials.
23 Things is a wonderful learning experience of internet discovery and self discovery.
I plan to keep my blog going and continue to learn from the other people I have connected with through these 23 Things. Will I still be able to access 23 Things during the school year? I have kept a list of my favorite websites, but it would be great to have access to the blog for more internet insight.
I loved learning about Flickr and Photo Story. I like having a creative outlet and being able to incorporate my photos. Google Reader was also great and I got into reading blogs a lot more than I thought. I've been able to enjoy my cousin's blog as well as some good ones about recipes and education. And, I'm really excited to use a wiki during the school year to help my team plan more efficiently. There are tons of resources that I could continue to list that will greatly enhance my classroom. Rollyo will be great for narrowing searches for my students, and the photo projects like Flickr and Photo Story can be a great avenue for them to express what they've learned on a particular subject. I don't think there was anything in the 23 Things that I didn't like, that wouldn't benefit my classroom! Great job in selecting 23 pertinent and interesting things!
23 Things has allowed me to continue learning over the summer. I knew a fraction of what I do now about resources on the internet. I believe I will continue using these resources to learn more about education and news and new concepts. The internet provides so many learning opportunities that I can enjoy at my own pace at any time.
I really like the format and concept of this program. There was always enough of a tutorial to help figure out how to do things like including pictures and videos, etc. into my blog. Everything was easy to do on my own. I really liked the In Plain English explanations of things.
There are so many take-aways from this program. I can use almost everything I learned with confidence in my classroom. Before doing 23 Things, I used the Promethean Board in my classroom about 40 - 50% of the time and was hesitant to try any projects on the computer in the library. Now, I'm really excited to have computers in my classroom this coming year and will probably sign up for computer time in the library so that my students can do more of these hands-on, technology projects. I also can't wait to use the 3rd grade camera to add creativity and participation to class projects.
I would definitely take more classes like this if they were offered and am excited to share what I've learned with my teammates, my students, and my school. I really have enjoyed this program and have really liked being able to discover things on my own time with a little help from online tutorials.
23 Things is a wonderful learning experience of internet discovery and self discovery.
I plan to keep my blog going and continue to learn from the other people I have connected with through these 23 Things. Will I still be able to access 23 Things during the school year? I have kept a list of my favorite websites, but it would be great to have access to the blog for more internet insight.
Thing #22
For this "Thing" I looked at all the Nings that Library2Play had posted. I felt like they could all be very useful, but I think my favorite was Ning for Teachers. What I particularly liked about Ning for Teachers were the lesson plans and ideas for the classroom that were shared on the Ning. I love the idea of having a place to go specifically for elementary teaching resources. The Nings are great because it seems to be an extension of a blog. It puts your blog in a space with messaging forums, other similar blogs, and resources. I will definitely use Ning for Teachers this year as I search out lesson plans and ideas for my classroom. There is always so much to learn from others, especially for the classroom, and I'm excited to have a great resource. I also liked that there were featured lessons and popular topics which seemed very pertinent and interesting.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Thing # 21
I got to Thing 21 at the perfect time! My husband and I just got back from a week long trip in Costa Rica so I was able to use my pictures for my Photo Story. I found it really easy to upload the pictures and edit them as I wanted in Photo Story. After that I downloaded music through iTunes hoping I could use a specific song for the project, but I was unable to make it work. I don't know if it would have worked if I had just downloaded a song from a CD onto my computer and then used that. Maybe you can't copy iTunes songs to projects like Photo Story? I'm not sure. I may try to do a test Photo Story with a song saved on the computer from a CD to see if that will work. I really like Photo Story. It's great to be able to make a movie of pictures and add music and narration. When I tried to upload the video to my blog I wasn't sure if it worked because in this mode as I type, it doesn't show the actual video. However, once I published it, the video showed up. I then edited the post to add this commentary. I really think that Photo Story could be great for a project for my students especially because they could take pictures or select pictures from Flickr and then add their own commentary to show what they have learned about a particular subject. I have now downloaded Photo Story to my personal computer in hopes of using it for more collections of pictures.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Thing #20
I looked up a YouTube video about educational technology and found this video which I have embedded here. I think it captures a lot of the message of 23Things and shows that the educational world is changing dramatically as the amount of technology increases.
I'm also really excited how easily I figured out how to embed a video. I anticipated having problems figuring it out, but it seems to be easy!
I also checked out Teacher Tube as I hadn't really explored it before. I liked what I found, but wished that some of the descriptions were better. I always feel rushed for time when I am searching things for my classroom becuase there are so many subjects to cover and so little time. I felt like I looked at several Teacher Tube videos on one subject before I could find one that would have been suitable for my class. I'm not giving up on Teacher Tube though.
I'm also really excited how easily I figured out how to embed a video. I anticipated having problems figuring it out, but it seems to be easy!
I also checked out Teacher Tube as I hadn't really explored it before. I liked what I found, but wished that some of the descriptions were better. I always feel rushed for time when I am searching things for my classroom becuase there are so many subjects to cover and so little time. I felt like I looked at several Teacher Tube videos on one subject before I could find one that would have been suitable for my class. I'm not giving up on Teacher Tube though.
Thing #19
From the Web 2.0 Awards I chose to check out Wetpaint. I created a page in hopes that my 3rd grade team would get on board once school starts and use my site as a medium for sharing ideas, websites, promethean board flip charts, pictures, calendars, upcoming events, important team leader tidbits, etc. I think I was hoping that Wetpaint or any of the other wikis would be more like iGoogle where you can have a calendar, weblinks, and constant updates. I think I'm looking for a cross between iGoogle and a wiki where we could have weblinks on the side, a calendar, and a place to post and discuss things. Wetpaint has a ton of ads that are pretty annoying, but I'm not really wanting to pay to get rid of them. I'm hoping that my team will at least look at my Wetpaint site and try to post some ideas on it. My thought is that 1) everyone can see what's going on at the same time instead of emails being sent out, 2) changes can easily be made, 3) everyone can post, comment, add links and ideas at their own convenience, so it's effective even when we aren't physically together during planning. We could even add links and sites as we find them instead of having to say, "I'll get you that link," and forgetting to bring it to planning. I like the community feel of it and the sharing. I think it could be very beneficial for my team.
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