Reflection

I thought I never get done. I spent so much time playing, reading, and exploring that my assignments took longer to complete. I am so glad that I took this course during the summer. I'm not sure I would have had time to finish each thing and get all that I could out of it during the school year. I had a blast learning all of the different programs. I want to stay updated on all the new technology programs and use them in my classroom. I would definitely recommend this course and take another one like it. This course allowed us to get connected with networks and gave us the resources. I was never a member of a social network before this course. I surprised myself in liking it. I was amazed to see a lot of people on Facebook that I had connections with. It is a fun way to keep in contact with my friends. I want to set up a blog for my parents to keep them updated. This will be a great communication tool. My favorite is the google tools. I can't wait to put my documents that are already on my school computer into Google docs so that I can access them from any computer.

Thing #23

I did not know these other networking sites existed. I like that they are based on your educational interest. One blogs leads to another and your linked to more groups. I came across a networking site for elementary teachers that gave some ideas about reading groups. I also found a neat teacher tool on Classrooms 2.0 that allows you to create your own games. I could use the game site with those who are struggling with math and make a flash card game. I like how you can post a question and receive several answers or different insights. These networks will be a great resource.

Thing #22

I have never had a social networking account. I was always afraid of joining these type of sites in fear of invasion of privacy and the safety of my family. This was my first time to explore and create an account. I am still not so sure of putting my information on there, so I just put my name and posted a picture of my kids. I never knew so many people were on these networking sites. There are a ton of Mesquite ISD employees on Facebook. I thought this was a great place to post a question or a comment and get responses from many sources. I thought Facebook was a little safer than Myspace. I do think that Myspace has more useful features when it comes to creating your home page. It seems more like the blog page that we created for this class. You may be able to do more with Facebook. I just didn't see any of my friends pages that were done with music, video, etc... This would be helpful to our older students with projects, homework, and assignments if they could get help through networking. I also like it as a parent, you could be a friend of your child's networking site and keep tabs them. :]

Thing #21

Google has a lot of neat things to offer. I thing my favorite is the iGoogle. I like how you can create your own personal home page. This is a fast way to check up on all my favorites at one time. EVERYTHING is right there!! I tried the Google Calendar but I could not get it to work. I was really looking forward to exploring it. It would again to a great tool in keeping parents up to date on early release, fundraising money due, picture day, weekly studies, the list could go on and on. I will definitely check back. When exploring Google Alerts, I tabbed Dallas Cowboys and technology in the classroom. I haven't received any emails yet. I'll keep checking my new iGoogle home page. :) I typed in a book my daughter read in class on the Google Book Search. It gave an overview of the book, had a list of reference from web pages, other editions of the book, and it also had a place for reviews, this book had none. I liked this tool because I can get the other editions and keep her reading. I never knew there were so many tool available in Google.

Below is a picture gallery I used on Picasa Web Albums. You can also email the photo gallery. These are just some silly pictures my son had on his camera and our Disney trip.

Blogger Pictures

I used the Google Notebook and searched Summer Vacations in Texas and found some places we might want to visit this summer. It is nice when you have all of your information on one page. This will allow me to discuss the choices with my family and make a decision.

http://www.google.com/notebook/public/17414772244332203176/BDRStDQoQ-Pj5yKAk?hl=en

Thing #20

The google document would be a great place to do grade level newsletters. There have been many times we are running around trying to think of last minute things to put into our weekly newsletter. We could start the newsletter on Monday and we could all collaborate week. This is also a convenient way to access and allow family to view/edit your spreadsheet of addresses. I could pull up my addresses on my cell phone. Wow, imagine that! I would also like to try to use google document to challenge my students. I would like to post story starters with a topic, picture, comic, and have students begin the writing process. Once it is started then the collaboration begins.

This a spreadsheet that I use for the school wide conduct folder. I made this form on my PC and it was very inconvenient at the beginning of a new six weeks when I did not have my laptop with me. I am hoping my school Mac will be able to read this spreadsheet when opened.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rXw1yXIUhh2HnlN5gBG1OXQ&hl=en

The google document I decided to do was a poetry folder piece using the Fry's Phrases. This will give us as a grade level to add phrases each week.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfd75p6f_2gfkphtdc

Thing #19

Voicethreading is another way to share/teach others what we are learning in our classroom. Kids would get a better understanding of what they are learning by creating a voice thread, being able to watch, and edit their own work. I would like to use this activity with my struggling readers. I would take photos of word cards and sound out each letter, then put the letters together to make the word. I would then match the word with the picture.

Below is a voicethread I found on teaching fact families with dominoes.

Thing #18

This was a fun search activity. There are so many great things on YouTube and TeacherTube. Now I know how to show my students these great literature clips without going to the YouTube site. I am so excited and can't wait to use them.


SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK NOUNS! I forgot all about these videos. I could use this to teach my first graders about nouns.




ELECTRIC COMPANY SILENT E! After finding the School House Rock Clips, I just had to search for those Electric Company videos that I watched in elementary. They are fabulous!



TV on my iphone! Never knew I could connect to live tv through my iphone. This shows me exactly how to do it.



Here's my funny! My kids introduced me to Fred. This clip is very funny, Fred needs his meds!

Thing #17

Podcasting! I absolutely love Dr. Dave Brodbeck's podcast site, Why? The Science Show For Kids. The podcast are labeled as episodes and the question being asked. Under the episode it gives a brief description of how he answers and the examples he uses. Kids podcast their questions and then he answers the question on their level. His podcast are between 4-5 minutes. Greatness and very kid friendly! I will use this podcast site with my students.

Another podcast site I visited was Just One More Book. This site is a children's book review. They walk through discussing pages, I was hoping the story would be read. Not may favorite, but okay.

I checked out the 60 Second Science podcast. This is not a podcast for younger students. It does give you a lot of information in 60 seconds on an adult level.

Thing #16

The Library Thing is a great place to find resources for different topics. This can be used with researching projects, author studies, and getting opinions of others. I tagged a book that I have been reading and read the reviews. It gives the book a different spin. This site is awesome for those who love and have time to read novel after novel. That would not be me.

Thing #15

Wiki was kinda hard for me to set up. I could not get my wiki to post on the misd23things wiki site. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but hope to find out soon. I also had trouble with the table of contents. I did the [toc] at the top but I never saw the box on the top right like everyone else had. I did use Heading 2 for all of my sections. I also wanted to add pictures beside the text and I could never figure out that either. All of my pictures are at the bottom under my Web 2.0 Stuff. This was the most difficult for me, I wanted it to be cute and colorful. I just spent so much time on parts I was struggling with that I became aggravated. I will spend time playing with it this summer and become more familiar with it.

http://misd23things.wikispaces.com/Excited+About+Wiki

Thing #14

And I just thought wikis were for signing up for a time in the library!! I now know there are so many things that can be done on wiki. The three wikis I chose to discuss were all very different. The first wiki was designed for community input on a topic, the second wiki was all photographs, and the third wiki so detailed and well produced. I tried to stay away from the older grades and focus on the younger. This helped me with ideas. The wiki that I am just amazed with is the Go West wiki. The organization and all that went into creating it. I would love to do something like this with my first graders. I could start out small at the being of the year modeling with learning maps. After teaching all of maps give them a topic and they could create or add to the wiki.


Wiki - Schools in the Past
I loved this! It was a community wiki. Mrs. Cassidy's 1st grade class set up a wiki on schools in the past. She gave readers detailed instructions on how to use the wiki. What amazing information that classroom receive throughout this project. Mrs. Cassidy had different topics that could be commented on:

*playgrounds
*library
*number of students in a classroom
*what was studied
*school rules
*Was there any thing else that was different?

As you read through the comments, you see that other added and gave more detail to what was written. The last topic was replied with the wiki being different. This person who responded to this wiki was a teacher and gave a link to her wiki site.

Wiki - Kindergarten Counting Book
This wiki was done using photos that were taken to show how the students captured items 1 to 100. The students counted out items, labeled them with the number, took picture, loaded it on wiki and typed in their name and number. This seems like a lot of work for parents to do. Most parents in our neighborhood would not have access to all of these procedures. This looks more like a teacher wiki with student help at school.

Wiki - Go West
This wiki was put together by third graders to show what they had learned about Westward Expansion along the Oregon Trail. Student had learning webs, time lines, writings, drawings, slide shows of themselves, glossary, thinking maps, recipes, fun facts and teacher reflection page. This wiki is loaded with a great deal of student learning. This is exciting to see. Students product with teacher guidance.

Thing #13

Never knew there were so many website on different topics. This will definitely save me time when searching for items. It is also a little scary to have everybody view your interest. You get to see what people are interested in and learn more about people. I booked marked a lot of the web sites I came in contact with during the course. I like the way I can access my delicious account from any computer. There have been many times where I needed my bookmarks on my on my laptop and they are on my teacher computer at school. This is a great example! I will be adding my educational bookmarks in August.

http://delicious/troutmannews

Thing #7b

Do we rely on technology too much? That was the blog I read today. The writer discusses a training he went to out of town and how he relied on technology. He had printed off the direction from Google Earth and also took his hand held navigation system to make sure he knew where he was going. He used his satnav to get around town when he arrived. He googled directions to places and he followed them, but when he got there the place he googled never existed. He was of course relying on the satnav to get him to the restaurant. Point is we rely on technology for everything. I can relate to this because I have no since of direction. When I head out of Mesquite you better bet I have at least two different maps printed off of the internet and I have my navigation system in my car programed with the address.

Thing #7a

I found a blog and a video clip on the benefits of google apps for educations. The video discusses how technology has advanced to help us collaborate and connect with others for free. Using real time collaborations, retrieving and connecting with your content at anytime. We can get internet connection from anywhere and on many devices. Google has free apps for students, faculty, and staff. They a have said using these apps can make our lives easier and save schools money.

Thing #12

I created the poll on Laura Numeroff books at polldaddy.com. It was easy. This is a good way to have students vote without knowing what their friends voted for and of course have discussions on results. They had several different types of surveys available. The next project I worked on was a photo newsletter of my own kids on Letterpop. I was so excited to post this on my blog, but could never figured out how to post it. I had to create my own URL address for it to be viewed. If you would like to see what I did you can go to http://letterpop.com/people/troutmannews . I don't like that you cannot view this on a blog. When you are finished with your newsletter it gives you the option to email it. Those like me want to share it on blogs, where everything is in one place. There might be a way I just could not figured it out. I tried the site picnik.com it said it was done loading, but the apps continued to load and would not let me navigate off that page.

Thing #11

The three activities I did were pretty easy. I had to keep shrinking my letters in the word Thompson so that they would all fit on one line. I used the Spell with Flickr site. This site would be fun to use for spelling and word wall words. The students could create the words, cut the apart, and put them back together. I enjoyed using the Trading Card Maker because it was a personal picture. I would love to do this with all of the activities that my kids do. Friends and family would love to view and keep up to date on how and what they are doing. I also used the Happy Face Generator. It could have more faces to choose from. Pretty simple. I tried to do this one at school and I kept having to override, then it would kick me off. Not sure you could do much with this website at school.

Thing #10

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9229859@N02/1277634907/ LEGO Truck by bucklava
http://www.flickr.com/photos/infowidget/2441037026/ Poster by infowidget
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kb35/2433191904/ Mascot by KB35
http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenpomme/1775236447/ Print Poster by pomme_rewny
http://www.flickr.com/photos/neubie/665223620/ Recycle Bin by Neubie

The slide show was not hard, but getting it on my blog was overwhelming!!! Took me forever to post. I did not see the side bar labeled "more". Clicked on it and saw the blogger sign. Clicked on the blogger sign and it walked me through the process. I wish I had know what to be looking for. Would have saved me some time.

Thing #9

Love how you can use the advanced search for certain items and knowing you are safe from copy right. There were many pictures that I could use in lessons. I found these pictures on recycling. This would give the students a broader range of understanding, more visuals, writing prompts, and just a great way to introduce units.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9229859@N02/1277634907/ LEGO Truck - bucklava

http://www.flickr.com/photos/infowidget/2441037026/ Poster -infowidget

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kb35/2433191904/ Mascot - KB35

http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenpomme/1775236447/ Print Poster - pomme_rewny

http://www.flickr.com/photos/neubie/665223620/ Recycle Bin - Neubie

Thing #8

Creative Commons is exciting. I love that you are able to use and share pieces. This will enable us to personalize blogs, slides, create lessons, etc... without being in fear of copy right. I feel this is a great way to teach internet procedures and help students keep their work safe. I have never noticed the cc logos, but will be on the look out on each site I visit.

Thing #7

After reading and writing comments on the blogs of others, I have come to realize that other people views and comments are helpful. This is where you can ask questions and even get questions answered. Getting feed back is important not only to the blogger but to the reader as well. If you have an iphone or ipod touch I have a site that shows you step by step on how to down load and blog. I found reading the comments helpful. Finding out what problems other people were having and about new software that is coming out. When I first tried to post my comment, it said I had already made that comment. Kept trying and it finally popped up. I have also blogged on the flickr site. This blog has a beautiful picture of a ladybug on a leaf. The pictures on the website are amazing.

Thing #6

There is so much information to share! I spend so much time reading all of my new post. I do skim through some of it, but there's just some I want to stop and read in detail. On one of the blogs I have subscribed to, had a blog about Twellow which is the yellow pages of twitter. You can create a profile of yourself, add teacher to your profile and it will link you to other teachers. I am not on twitter, not sure of what all you can do on it. This is a new way of sharing ideas for your classroom and lessons. I just find it interesting that something so new has advanced so far. Maybe I will branch out and become a twitter soon. This course has opened so many new ways to communicate and get information from others. I had know idea what I had been missing out on.

Thing #5

Ok, the first two subscription feeds I did were easy. Had a little trouble with the others. Finally, did a little problem solving and playing around with it and it worked. The Google Reader is a great tool. I love how you don't have to go to your favorite websites, they come to you. I have a laptop with an air card and everything I do takes forever!! I will definitely use this. One of the sites I subscriped to was the NYT Week in Review. I chose this one to stay up on current events. The article I found interesting was The Tweet Smell of Success - Power of Twitter. I had no idea how many followers people could have in a short amount of time. People are promoting not only businesses, but themselves.

Thing #4

How many times do we try to get struggling readers interested in reading? I read Mark's Edtich Blog about his third grade students sustained silent reading and what they were reading during this time. They weren't reading chapter books, they were on the internet reading blogs written by students and teachers. They were much more engaged in learning. Mark saw them wanting to read more and respond to what they were reading. Wow, what a great idea!

One of the other blogs that I read, was the one about a 5th grader named Patrick. Patrick at the time of his blog was fifth grader who just wanted to pass and prove his brothers wrong. They had always told him how stupid he was and that he was going to fail. Patrick was on a mission to try harder and become a better student. Patrick received so many encouraging comments and praise from teachers and other kids who could relate with his struggles. I know blogging would open a lot of doors for our students and help us understand their thinking. I believe the comments helped Patrick on his journey to passing 5th grade.

Thing #2

I'm very excited about Web 2.0. It is definitely going to have a great impact in my classroom. This is an exciting way to keep students, parents, co-workers, etc... updated on what we are learning in our classroom. Blogging would also give the students a place to share/teach what they have learned and also give homework tutorials. Technology is the new way of learning. We need to start these programs early in our students, before long there will be no text books. Student can explore the visual, audio, and hands on approach to learning using these programs. It is not only important that we provide the tools but show our students how to navigate and find information they need. I want to start out the year with a blog page where parents/students go to read upcoming events, get spelling words, assignments, schedules, and post pictures of the students and their work. I would also like to have my students do podcast of themselves reading books or the stories that they have written. I am very excited about what the future holds for our students.

Thing #1

The most challenging habit is to have the confidence in myself to be an effective learner of all the new technology. I hope I can remember all of the steps in producing effective learning tools for my students.

Accepting responsibility for my own learning will be the easiest habit. I am ready to dive in, learn all that I can and use it not only in the classroom but with my family as well.

I think the most important habit for me will be using technology to my advantage when needing help. Just going through Thing #1-#3 has shown me that YouTube has a lot of great information and tutorials. I now know I can go to YouTube and get step by step instructions. :)