I am finished!!!

This class was a lot of work but I learned so much. Honestly, at times I was so frustrated and then I would figure it out and I thought this class is so cool. One of the things that I liked about 23 Things is that not only can you apply what you learn to the classroom but you can also do a lot for your personal life. I can't wait to use Voicethread with my kids. The grandparents will love it! 

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? 

My favorite discovery was all the online image generators. While some of the other "things" were fun I was surprised by all the options you had to modify photographs. You can probably tell by my blogs on the subject that I enjoyed changing my photographs. I think that kids would really have fun as well. 

How has this program affected your lifelong learning goals?

This has really opened my eyes to all kinds of applications that are on the Internet. And even better they are free. I plan on spending more time on the 23 things and explore more. I feel much more comfortable with technology thanks to this class.  

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I had no idea all the options that Google had. One reason might be because MISD had it blocked for a while but I was happily surprised to see all the options they have.  

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

I don’t want to ask other groups to do more works but maybe have more interactions between the students might be good. 

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

I would, especially if it was offered online. 

How will what you have learned influence your practice as a teacher or school librarian?

My ESL students will benefit from this class because I will use technology more. For example, I am going to have student use Wordle to list what they already know about a topic so I can test previous knowledge. In teaching vocabulary I am going to have students sometimes use the computer to show what they have learned.  Also finding all the resources available for teachers to learn more about teaching will help my students as I gain ideas!!!

How do you plan to keep up with new developments in web 2.0? 

I am hoping that if I keep checking what you are doing in this class then I can keep up. Also, some of the readers I subscribe to will help me. 

 Honestly, I am not going to be able to start today and spend as much time as I would like using all the things I learned. Dang that TAKS test!!! However, I do plan on learning more. I feel that with this class I have just scratched the surface and I am ready to do so much more! Thanks for opening up my mind to such new ideas!!!!!     

Thing 23

I enjoyed Ning and Classroom 2.0. There is a ton of information out there. It was a bit overwhelming. You can easily spend hours going from site to site. One of the coolest ideas I saw involved letting students use their phones to text each other while reading Romeo and Juliet. The idea is to let them recreate the dialogues Romeo and Juliet had but use their cell phones Talk about a way to combine Shakespeare with modern technology. I don't even teach Romeo & Juliet but it made me want to!!!

I found Surfnet which has a lot of fun stuff. Parents, kids, and teachers could all benefit from spending some time here. It is easy to find a topic and get several resources. for example, I found this link to this Antarctica website. Easy!!!  One thing that I liked was the fact that there were teachers from all over the world. I am hoping that I might be able to find a school in Mexico that maybe I can communicate with.  My kids would love that!

I can see how older students could gain a lot from social networks. Younger students would need a ton of direction and guidance or else they would get lost. I can see how you could find several resources to help complete assignments. I guess at the minimum it can link students to additional sites. 

By the way the 23 Things ning network is great. Love the countdown!! Hopefully, we can continue to share ideas. 

Right now, I am going back to learn some more. I think this time I'll go to back to Teacher Librarian and waste some more time!

Thing 22

I have a MySpace and a Facebook account. They are both fun time-killers.  I believe that Facebook is easier to use and  as far as finding people it is great. I have found people I went to school with and relatives. As far as keeping in touch I believe it is a great way to communicate with people. There are people that I would never just call out of the blue on the phone but I can see what they are up to and banter back and forth. 

I like MySpace. It seems like it has more options to make it individualized. However, I have to be honest I have not spent that much time adding things to my account. I answered the basic questions and have changed a few things but I don't care to do much more than that.

As far as using Facebook professionally, I believe there are some limits. Since I teach at the elementary level I would need to limit my interactions to ones with parents. Also,  the account I believe would need to limited to professional use only. I would not feel comfortable having any personal information listed. I could also see using MySpace to list information about the subject you are teaching. A teacher could list links and make blogs about assingments or other homework resources. With Faceobok you could also list assignments for the week.

Even though there are several horror stories about MySpace and Facebook I believe that they can be great tools. Just as with any form of media parents have to monitor what their kids are doing.However, if used responsibility it can be a lot of fun!

Thing 21

Wish I was there!!!

I had fun with all the Google extras. The calendar was a nice tool. Even though I do like my calendar on Entourage. However, this could be a great way to organize information. And this would be a tool that if you were willing to share with others could help parents and students. Especially int the older grades teachers could use this to mark assignments and due dates. When I was having to organize TELPAS I could have shared the calendar with other teachers and our principal. 

Google book search is a great teacher tool. Once you are teaching a subject you can find all types of resources. For example, I typed in rainforest and got a pretty good list of books.  Personally I was thinking that you could combine this with Library thing. If you find something on Google Book Search that you could like to remember place it in your library account. 

The picture sharing is also a great tool. While I enjoyed making photo albums I also liked searching through the pictures available. It seemed easier that Flicker to me. You could have students look up certain topics and see what pictures they find. In keeping with the rainforest theme I did find this:

Pretty amazing tree, huh? 

I will admit I am having some problems with Google Earth, both on my school computer and at home but I will keep trying. This was a great activity because I did not know all the features that Google had. I wish MISD would loosen their restrictions on Google. 

John

Thing 20

I can see a lot of things you can with Googledocs. As an ESL teacher I have to share information with teachers and perhaps we could use Google docs to share that information. I can see with TELPAS and writing collections perhaps coming up with topics for the students that would qualify the requirements. With students could you create worksheets for them to access. Perhaps have students use this as a way to brainstorm ideas and the would have a saved copy. Finally, I was thinking that with all the paperwork I need at both campuses using Googledocs may be a great organization tool. That way I can easily access some documents at both campuses. Also, last year I lost my TELPAS checklist so I saved that to Googledocs.

I also wondered if for personal use if you could maybe collect addresses for family members or maybe even gift lists. For example, invite people you have to shop for at Christmas to list their wants, sizes, etc. While this is not my talent I also thought that my husband could use this. He is always coming up with starts and bits and pieces of lyrics to songs. He tries to write them down and sometimes he loses his lyrics. Maybe this could be a way to organize his creative thoughts and he could come back to it and revise as he needs to.

Thing 7b

National Public Radio has a world quiz. The interesting thing about it is that it is not just a quiz but it also give you information. For example, I found out that Costa Rica and a territory is a great place to hide my money. In another I learned about scientists trying to find where a small asteroid landed.

And speaking of money my quote of the day reader had this quote recently: 

"If you can amount your money, you don't have a billion dollars." J. Paul Getty

I also appreciated my History is Elementary blog about the distaste for progress reports. A bonus for me in my current job is that I don't have to create those. 

In conclusion the reader is cool but hard to keep up with daily. 

Thing 19

Voicethread is awesome! I honestly wish I had time today to create a something but maybe when I have finished my taxes and Easter weekend is behind me.

I watched the one in which the young girl got a haircut and I just love it. I have a 6 year old and a 3year old and I can see taking pictures and letting the kids make comments. Their grandparents live anywhere from 30-90 minutes away so using Voicethread could allow parent to see somethings they might miss. Also, it made me think that you could take older pictures and have parents or grandparents make comments. What a great way to preserve memories.

Professionally, I thought you could have students give comments on historical documents or pictures. Since I teach ESL I thought this would be a great tool in having them practice their conversational skills. You could show them a picture and have them describe what is happenings, like the Norman Rockwell painting did. Or they could be given a picture or just a word that would help them with their  academic vocabulary and have them tell you what they know about. Maybe this could be a sort of digital KWL chart. 

Thing 18

I love you tube! You can find videos about anything. You were wise to warn students to set up a timer because you can spend hours looking up random junk. You pull up one video and then there are all these related videos and before you know it an hour is gone!!!

I was overwhelmed when I typed in English as a second language but I did find Genki English. There are several videos that has some really good ideas that could help all students. In looking at the related video I also see that there are multiplication songs by the same teacher. I then decided to look up something I might cover in class so I typed in Washington D.C. since we teach some of the landmarks in Washington D.C. to our third graders. I was able to find a couple of good videos that gave information without being too dull but also not too flashy.

On my how to video I decided to see if I could find a kid friendly how to tie your shoes since my daughter is in need of a lesson on this skill. I was able to find some that had simple directions and even some that mentioned bunny ears. However my favorite was Sponge Bob and the Loop de loop song. 

Teachertube was fun. I found some educational stuff but I also found some fun stuff as well. There was  a video that was a spoof of Baywatch that was silly but funny. Also I found a Hannah Montana bones song that I thought some kids would like to watch. In case you didn't search there are some videos from MISD. Who knows, you may be on teachertube and not even know it!

For my random video I picked a youtube that I came across a few weeks ago. It may cause a tear or two to be shed.....



And then I found a video that one of my schools made about a year ago.....

Thing 15

I can see the advantages of using a delicious account. I teach at two different campuses and I have had a few experiences in which I have bookmarked a site at my computer at Rugel but not at Moss. If I had saved it to my delicious account then I could access the bookmarks wherever I might be. That would be nice to have except for the fact that it is a blocked site on MISD. 

I could see how this could be helpful for  a teacher. You could use the list to create bookmark lists for you students. Especially with the tag bundles the students could know what sites you would want them to research.  Even if you can make collections for your own use so that you can access your chosen sites year to year from various computers would be helpful. My delicious account is very random so when you check out http://delicious.com/cdawson71 just remember that this is still a work in progress.

Things 17

I have watched podcasts before but I have never made one of my own. I checked out he podcast Webster's Word of the Day. I thought that was pretty cool because it takes no effort but you can enjoy it. I also went to Just One More Book which I already found things that I could use in class. For example, there is information on Gary Soto and any teacher who uses his works could benefit. Geek! Ed! was interesting as well. you can learn a lot from this site. 

I have already used podcasts. On Itunes I sometimes get the free podcasts they have available. For example, a few weeks ago they had one about the making of "The Breakfast Club" and it was fun to watch about one my favorite teen movies.

Also, you can download Sesame Street podcasts. They have a "Word on The Street" that is great for the little students. I show the video to my first/second graders and after we discuss the word they draw a picture for me. I have been surprised at how well my kids remember the word and its meaning. 

Maybe one of these days I will make a podcast.

Thing 7a

I really like my History is Elementary reader. She does a great job of finding interesting links about history. If you check out this link about the Great Depression be sure and have your sound on. While her comments are okay the music with the pictures are incredible....

Thing 16

Okay, Library Thing is really cool. I went ahead and created an account and found a couple of books. If you are interested her is my library. 

My favorite thing was the groups. For all you Twilight fans there is a group for you. They even had parodies for the phenomenon. 

Students could use this site to find out other works by authors, look for books on a topic. Teachers could also make lists of books that would be okay for a book report project. Also, check out the 50 book challenge.

Personally, you can make libraries of the books you read, your favorites, or just keep a list of books you want to read. 

My mother-in-law loves to read and I am going to tell her about this site!

Thing 14

I really liked wordle. I have always used wordsplashes in my class. This is where you have a student read a passage and then have them right words all over a paper that have to do with the topic. I could definitely use this in a classroom by having them do what they have always done, just this time on the computer. 

I also liked the tadalist. I made a list of places I would like to go visit for fun. This has a ton of possibilities. You could have students make list of writing topics, steps in a procedure, make a list of words they don't know in a reading passage, and so on. 

What I like most about these sites is that they are free!!!

Thing 13

This was a lot of fun!! I went to most, if not all, of these sites and it was interesting to learn all of the tools that are available out there! 

My favorite was probably Trading card maker . I made one for both my kids. With trading cards I was thinking that in the classroom I could make cards for parts of speech. I could also make trading cards for characters in the story or historical figures and have the kids complete details. 

I also loved the Spell with Flickr. I have seen where people have created those with photographs so it was really cool to quickly put in a whole bunch of words, which I did! I don't really know the academic implications but it was cool!!

Another site that I thought was neat was Flickr Color Pickr. The only way I can think of using this academically is when I help my ESL kids with color words maybe they can pick something out to review colors. 

Custom sign generator had a ton of options. I did have problems getting some of my pictures to work.  I would need to reduce the size of my pictures. 

Finally, I had a lot of fun with Imagechef.com. You could do a lot of encouraging things for students. This could be a great way to create fun notes for kids!

Honestly, I have spent way too much time on this thing!!!

Thing 12

  This slideshow was a cool thing to create. I am looking forward to making something  more personal next time. I used  http://rockyou.com/ to make my video just because it looked pretty easy to use and it was.  I had a hard time finding music that I thought worked with the subject but I like the song so I hope you appreciate it.  You can find it here.       

Thing 11

Okay, Flickr seems pretty cool. There are a ton of pictures, some of which I have to admit I am thinking why did someone post that? On the positive side there is a lot of really talented photographers out there. I especially like how you can search using Creative Commons.

I decided to look for pictures about tornadoes since my 4th graders have a unit on storms and specifically a fiction story about two kids hiding in a storm cellar during a tornado. It was very easy to find pictures. however, in trying to look for pictures of Texas tornadoes I was not as lucky. I was able though to find some really cool pictures. I have included one for you. i have not included it but I was even to find an old storm cellar that I will use next time we read the story.

I really like the idea about using Flickr for vocabulary by Teacher Dude. I would have to modify the lesson somewhat but I may use this for my ESL kids. I also like to idea of taking pictures and creating works of fiction as in Doorbells of Florence.

I see how this could be a great tool to let out students learn about. However, we need to shoe them how to use this education so that they do more than look for goofy pictures.

My picture is Tornado and lightning by by tlindenbaum and you can find it at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindenbaum/328304747/

Enjoy!

Thing 9

Whew, that was work!

It took me a while to get started. I messed up and started to create a separate wiki. However, once I had my wiki in the sandbox it went pretty quick. I was feeling somewhat goofy when I completed it so bear with me. I liked doing this activity even though I need to figure out how make it look better. Are there more options as far as how the text looks, etc ?

One more thing, I have a table of contents but in my table of contents it says {toc}. I can't figure out how to have a table of contents without the {toc}. You can see what I mean when you visit Mymixedtape.

I looked at the other wiki pages and they look great. Good job 23 thingsters!!!

Thing 10

This is the first time I have heard of creative commons, which kind of bothers me considering my masters is in ed tech/library science. It is good to know what to look for and how that can help not only me but students. 

I will start looking for it more when I am browsing the Internet. I am always worried about using videos and /or pictures due to copyright issues but being able to look for CC material will make me more at ease. Hopefully, I will input that into more lesson ideas. This is probably something that needs to be mentioned at the beginning of the year when we get our annual copyright lesson. 

While this "thing" wasn't exciting it was very good information to have. Thanks!

Thing 8 Stretch

I decided to check out Dallas Stars at Wikipedia.  The information seems pretty accurate. However, the history just made my head hurt. Some of the comments were interesting while others just seemed trivial. 

I have had problems with Wikipedia before as far as finding inaccurate information. I usually just look at Wikipedia for very basic information and if I want to know any more I find other sites. 

Thing 8

After seeing  all the great examples I can see how much wikis can be used in education. I did have to use/create one for a class. It was an online class I was taking and for a group project we were each given a subtopic and through our wiki had to create a research project electronically. It was a great way to complete an online course but I really didn't see much use for it in the elementary setting. However,  now I have seen some great applications.

The first one I checked out was The Kindergarten counting Book. This one is very basic but it serves its purpose.My five year old thought it was really neat but she didn't care to watch it for long.

I really liked the Room 15 Wiki and how it was organized.It was not too "busy" so even a parent without much computer skills could know what was going on. It also had practical information along with fun creative areas.

Thousands Project is a great idea. Each month  question is presented and their goal is to get 1000 answers for each question. Some of the questions have been, "Where would you like to visit if money and time were not an object?" and "What are the best books you have read?". It is from a 5th grade classroom and it is interesting to not only see the answers but if they actually reach 1000. 

I was kind of disappointed with the Salute to Suess site. The only good thing that I found were the worksheets and the student gallery.  I just didn't like how it was set up.

I am not sure what I want to do yet. Maybe I could do something to help the kids with vocabulary.

Thing 7

I really do not post comments much but I do understand the importance of it. There have been a few times that I have made comments and then been disappointed that no one responded to my comment because I thought it was comment-worthy. 

What kills me is when you see people take other people's opinions and go crazy. I remember this summer I would check out some soap opera blog just because the people took the show so seriously and they would electronically destroy someone else because they didn't agree about Rick dating his sister's stepsister who was once a man but is now married to the millionaire (or something like that). I remember reading them just for the entertainment of the blog, not the tv show.

It is great to know that someone is reading your comments and they can give you a different insight. Sometimes the comments can be just as important as the initial message. It is just important to remember that some people will only make comments to hurt someone else. So just remember take some comments with a grain of salt. However, sometimes a blog can be written in hopes of gaining encouragement and when that happens then technology is a good thing....

Thing 6

Okay I love the reader.  I love getting all this information and sorting and "tossing" what I don't need. I feel like I am playing trivial pursuit with all the useless stuff. For example, do I really need to know what people believe is fixing to happen on General Hospital? Heck no, but it sure is fun to check out in 30 seconds. 

The Craft reader at Family fun is just that, fun. It has all these great things that other moms do that I know I will never complete. For example, they had a shoe organizer that was a great idea but it would take me 30 minutes to do ( like I have 30 minutes) maybe in the summer time?!?!?

On an educational note I have enjoyed History is Elementary. A few days ago she had a blog about teaching the Civil War and how some parents may react to it. It was interesting. There was also information about thunderstorms in battles and even though I love history the complexities of battles don't appeal to me much but this was good stuff!

Also, I have quickly skimmed over 2 cents worth and he has a pretty interesting take on technology and education and since this course are both of those things you might want to check him out.

This is a lot of information that I am taking in and while it is fun there is no way I could really keep up with all of it everyday. However, it is kind of like getting a newspaper, skimming the fun stuff and then recycling the paper when you are done!

Let me leave you with a quotation from my quotation blog:

"If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door."

Paul Beatty

Thing 5

Okay, this is really cool!  I signed up for the three required sites which I thought were good choices. I like scanning the Students 2.0 because I think that these teenagers have some wonderful insight. 

The RSS  I liked best was NPR Geo Quiz. You can find it under fun and games. For example I probably found out more than I wanted to know about blue cheese and France but now when I am on "Millionaire" I'll know that answer!  There is just a lot of fun geography tidbits you can hear. I also liked the NPR poetry blog. It is cool to hear these readers with GREAT voices read poetry. 

When I was looking at the NY Times I thought that this would be great for someone who has moved but still wants to know what it happening in that area of the world.  For example, if you move from NY to Dallas you can subscribe to the city links and get information about only NY happenings/news and then just scan what is of interest to you, like I do with the DMN Metro section!!!

Finally, this fall I went to Jeff Anderson's staff development over teaching grammar. He has a Great Sentence blog that has teachers add great sentences that you can use to teach great writing. Check it out!

This "thing" was a good "thing"! 

Thing 4

The sites I went to were:

1.Second Graders Write About Our Missing Duck: This was so cute! I loved the fact that the writing was done by kids, without adult correction.

2.PowerPoint Reform: a first chapter-I love bullets!!! This was good for me to look at just to think outside the Power point box a little. While it was not entertaining it has good information that I would share with older students.

3.Patrick's Update: 5th Grade- I have to give this kid credit for having the strength to publish what he did. I started reading the comments and I hope the kid took the time and read the comments to his blog and gained some confidence. I also liked being able to read the other student blogs.  I would like an update on Patrick!

4. Weblogg-ed (Will Richardson): Why Can't We Do This?-I thought this was interesting since I heard that Austin was considering something like this. I couldn't get the Colbert Report piece to play that was in someone's comments and I bet it was good.

5. Students 2.0: Teaching Brevity-This blog made me nervous about what I am writing. While I enjoyed the article and the teacher's comments my favorite part was Linda's comments about laboring over her writing and hitting submit and then t is out in cyberspace. Ugh-what an awful feeling....

The way the writing is dose depends upon the person doing the writing. Also when it comes to blogging you should be writing to elicit a response. If you are putting things out into cyberspace but not wanting people to comment why put it out, why not just keep it your desk at home? When you think about Patrick's comments about his fear of failing the comments people made are so important to the story. As far as the skill of reading goes when it comes to blogs I am not sure how different it is. You still need to keep the audience and purpose in mind. Since people may not know the other people commenting the "honesty" as to what is being written may need to be taken more into consideration.

I think blogging could definitely facilitate learning. Bloggers are able to ask questions, share ideas, and get help. Different viewpoints can be posted, and while they may not be correct all the time, it can enable the reader to do some critical thinking. 

Thing 2

I really enjoyed the article and it made me wish I did more with my kids and technology. I know some teachers who blog with their students and parents and I think it is a great tool. I also have a friend whose daughter is in a class in which the teacher has a blog and sometimes she checks it out just to hear the students "vent", which sometime is pretty entertaining.

I really like the idea of using podcast more. For some reason I had not thought of using podcast for extra-curricular activities, such as band , but that is great. Imagine being a parent or grandparent who may not be able to be at an even for whatever reason but due to podcasting will be able to watch their child. I know that I have used podcast I found before to help kids learn vocabulary words. 

Students are going to be on the computer anyway. We might as well "invade their space" if it means greater communication between student and teacher. If technology improves student/parent/teacher communication then it should be utilized. 

Thing 1

Probably my biggest challenge would be to spend the time to create a toolbox. Even though it would make everything easier the ideas of being that organized does fit my personality too well.

Viewing problems as challenges and not just problems will probably be the most important for the course. There are a lot of things we will be doing and there will be problems, some due to out own fault and some not. The key is to stay patient and work through the problems. I tool some ed tech courses in college and I know that when it comes to technology the key is to not get frustrated when learning new technology. However even though I have experience with this it will not be the easiest habit. 

For my easiest can I pick 1/2-Play! does that mean I can take a break and play Wii Fit with my kids and then get back to work :)

I believe that I am a life long learner, you really have to be these days. I just finished my masters and I am now coming up with the kinds I need ti lean about since I now have so much free time (ha ha ah). 

Things are changing so fast if you don't progress in learning you will fall too far behind.