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.