Yea~~ I did it!! :)
Wow!!! What a journey.
I have learned so many things that I did not even realize that were out there on the web. It will be a welcomed journey to continue on learning these things and perfecting how to use them personally and in the classroom. I really am going to use delicious and invite others with in the department to join and pool our sites that we have discovered together. I think it would be a great tool for all to use and to have for years to come.
Google calendar is going to be great for me! I love the way I can view it from different perspectives and can also make other calendars that show up on my original one.
What really surprised me is that I can now make a small video with pictures and music. I really like Animoto. I can share what could have been boring pictures to a small video that is entertaining.
I think that all of the things that I have learned will take me more into the future of teaching. It has really opened my eyes up to new ways to present and pull together information. I have the 23things bookmarked and will visit it often to go back and review and refresh my memory if needed. I hope it will still be there. If not I will search using the many tools that I have bookmarked and learned.
I would definitely sign up for future programs if they are made available.
Thank you for the journey!!!!! It has been GREAT!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Thing # 23 - Creative Commons
The Disney video was really good on showing how copyright laws work. The 23 things blog credits that are under the current participants blogs shows that it is modified from another persons works. It originally had 43 things but was shortened for this class. Creative commons is a good site to help you out with copyright. I am going to share it with one of my friends that is an English teacher. She is always complaining about how the students don't give credit for their works. I will make sure that if I do use anything that I will give credit to the author and make sure that the students also do so when they do their projects. It is good to know that we have creative commons and our librarian for resources.
Thing #22 - Podcasts
Did you find a podcast that you might subscribe to and listen to regularly?
I started out listening to a learning spanish podcast that was okay but it did not keep my attention to keep on listening to learn. It was pretty blah. Then I found Good morning America that had various podcasts. GMA podcast. I listened to the one about summer frozen treats that were good for you. I didn't know that some ice creams had fiber and it was pretty interesting about how some are making low fat and calorie desserts to have the texture of those really GOOD ones that are bad for us. I added this site to my google reader because I like little excerpts about different things and interviews with different people. I do think that I will come back to it often because I listen to the tv while getting ready during school and sometimes wish that I could hear some of the things that they are going to talk about after I have to leave. This will give me the chance to do so now!
I didn't like many of the podcast directories because they were overwhelming with so much information. I guess since I didn't have something really in mind is why I had such a hard time choosing at first.
Truthfully this thing has not inspired me yet. I will have to come back and play with it but I just need to know more and feel a little more comfortable with it.
I started out listening to a learning spanish podcast that was okay but it did not keep my attention to keep on listening to learn. It was pretty blah. Then I found Good morning America that had various podcasts. GMA podcast. I listened to the one about summer frozen treats that were good for you. I didn't know that some ice creams had fiber and it was pretty interesting about how some are making low fat and calorie desserts to have the texture of those really GOOD ones that are bad for us. I added this site to my google reader because I like little excerpts about different things and interviews with different people. I do think that I will come back to it often because I listen to the tv while getting ready during school and sometimes wish that I could hear some of the things that they are going to talk about after I have to leave. This will give me the chance to do so now!
I didn't like many of the podcast directories because they were overwhelming with so much information. I guess since I didn't have something really in mind is why I had such a hard time choosing at first.
Truthfully this thing has not inspired me yet. I will have to come back and play with it but I just need to know more and feel a little more comfortable with it.
Thing #21 Video
Summer Vacation 2008
WOW! I can't believe how easy this was after downloading the pictures. I downloaded some of our pictures from last week on vacation to flickr and that is what took the longest. (There has to be a faster way than just doing one picture at a time. If someone has a tip please let me know. I just didn't see it I guess.) I just love the video and I know that I will be playing around with this one for a long time. This is just wonderful to see your pictures set to music! What beautiful memories!!!!! I just love it.
WOW! I can't believe how easy this was after downloading the pictures. I downloaded some of our pictures from last week on vacation to flickr and that is what took the longest. (There has to be a faster way than just doing one picture at a time. If someone has a tip please let me know. I just didn't see it I guess.) I just love the video and I know that I will be playing around with this one for a long time. This is just wonderful to see your pictures set to music! What beautiful memories!!!!! I just love it.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Thing #20 - YouTube
This is really a neat site. I looked at commercials and other things. I really like it.
The video that I choose to link here was about the band Journey. It is an interview with the band and their newest lead singer, Arnel Pineda. The band was looking for a new singer and one of the members was surfing You Tube one night and came across a video of Ariel singing some of Journeys songs and could not believe his ears. He contacted the singer and the rest is history. It is a neat story of how a singer in a tribute band is discovered from the Philippines and becomes the lead singer of the real rock band Journey here in the United States. I loved this band when I was in college and have bought the new CD with Arnel singing. It is unbelievable the uncanny resemblance of his voice to the original singer Steve Perry. The story is neat and makes you feel that anything is possible! Don't stop believing!!!!
I think that the site would be good for the library if the students would use it to really spice up and be creative with presentations. I think most would use it correctly but I don't know how the library would filter all the junk out.
The video that I choose to link here was about the band Journey. It is an interview with the band and their newest lead singer, Arnel Pineda. The band was looking for a new singer and one of the members was surfing You Tube one night and came across a video of Ariel singing some of Journeys songs and could not believe his ears. He contacted the singer and the rest is history. It is a neat story of how a singer in a tribute band is discovered from the Philippines and becomes the lead singer of the real rock band Journey here in the United States. I loved this band when I was in college and have bought the new CD with Arnel singing. It is unbelievable the uncanny resemblance of his voice to the original singer Steve Perry. The story is neat and makes you feel that anything is possible! Don't stop believing!!!!
I think that the site would be good for the library if the students would use it to really spice up and be creative with presentations. I think most would use it correctly but I don't know how the library would filter all the junk out.
Thing #19 - Beyond MySpace: other social networks
Well I guess I will try this again. I was saving and the server went down on me. I had been having trouble with uploading the ning badge here so I just placed it on my own my space page. The network that I am part of is the ning network now of MISD 23 things. I uploaded photos from flickr and the badge to my space. The other network that was of interest to me was Project playlist. I think I will give the site to my students use to place music in their slide show project that I have them do in geometry each year. It will be more creative and fun with a little flair!
Thing #18 - My Space
I really took a long time with this one. I have been leery of making an account in the past but here is my space account. I had some difficulty with the site at first. While trying to make an account when verifying it was acting weird and I had to do this several time before it would take the code. Then when I tried adding friends the ones that I do know they have to accept you and I have sent them invitations but have not received any responses. Adding pictures was easy. I just added a couple from vacation and might add more later. I don't know if I will use this account much but you never know. Being at the high school level I will have to talk with a couple of teachers that have made sites just for their students and see how it has gone this past year. Oh well I guess that I am showing my age now!
I think seeing how the students communicate is important but having a family and the busy schedule that we have I don't know if I would keep up with it as much as some of the younger kids or adults do.
I think seeing how the students communicate is important but having a family and the busy schedule that we have I don't know if I would keep up with it as much as some of the younger kids or adults do.
Thing #17 - Tagging and social bookmarking with Del.icio.us
Social bookmarking is another new one on me. I didn't realize that there were sited that would allow you to do this. It is really neat and all your book markings can go here instead of sending yourself emails at work about a neat site that you found at home. You can have one place to bookmark everything instead of the computers you use at home and at work. The site that helped me understand the most about social bookmarking was the one on YouTube - Social Bookmarking in Plain English. I really like the way that the guy gives you the information in little pictures. It is basic and to the point!
When school starts I am going to try and get our department to use del.icio.us to bookmark sites on the various courses that are within our subject area and see what happens. The demo on you tube made me think of this. We are always emailing one another sites but this sounds like the best way to combine everything and would be a great way for new teachers to get started by just joining in at the beginning and have some resources to use that we have all found useful. We can all contribute and view the information from any computer since our rooms are used during our conference periods.
From the library aspect it could be a tool that students could use to generate sites that they thought were helpful or a teacher could post sites for them to get started on certain things like research papers. It really seems like an endless source for information that can be added to and retrieved from anywhere.
When school starts I am going to try and get our department to use del.icio.us to bookmark sites on the various courses that are within our subject area and see what happens. The demo on you tube made me think of this. We are always emailing one another sites but this sounds like the best way to combine everything and would be a great way for new teachers to get started by just joining in at the beginning and have some resources to use that we have all found useful. We can all contribute and view the information from any computer since our rooms are used during our conference periods.
From the library aspect it could be a tool that students could use to generate sites that they thought were helpful or a teacher could post sites for them to get started on certain things like research papers. It really seems like an endless source for information that can be added to and retrieved from anywhere.
Thing #16 - Get organized with web 2.0 tools
I am using the start page that I created in igoogle. I like that you can create and make it personal to your interests. I play around on it way toooooo much but it is fun! :)
The online calendar that I have fallen in love with is google calendar. It is awesome for my busy schedule with the kids. I have already filled it up to the date school starts. I really like the features that let you see the day, week, and monthly view but the agenda is something that I think that I really am going to like since it is a list form. Time will tell.
The to do list remember the milk might be helpful to others but for me I think it would be way to much work! I think the google calendar is all I need.
For the site I would recommend is google calendar. It is something that I have been looking for and is very easy to use! I also would have to say to others take a look at engrade. It is a grade book site that allows parents and students to view their grades from the computer and has a calendar of what is going on in your classroom. I am going to take a second look at it and if I can get the percentages and schedule of our six weeks and semester grades to work I will be using it this next year. I wish MISD would make grades available to parents online. I know that being able to see my sons grades this past year in another district has made it to where I can see what he is doing or NOT doing. Come on MISD step up to making this available to our community. It would be a great tool and I know they would appreciate it along with the teachers! :)
The online calendar that I have fallen in love with is google calendar. It is awesome for my busy schedule with the kids. I have already filled it up to the date school starts. I really like the features that let you see the day, week, and monthly view but the agenda is something that I think that I really am going to like since it is a list form. Time will tell.
The to do list remember the milk might be helpful to others but for me I think it would be way to much work! I think the google calendar is all I need.
For the site I would recommend is google calendar. It is something that I have been looking for and is very easy to use! I also would have to say to others take a look at engrade. It is a grade book site that allows parents and students to view their grades from the computer and has a calendar of what is going on in your classroom. I am going to take a second look at it and if I can get the percentages and schedule of our six weeks and semester grades to work I will be using it this next year. I wish MISD would make grades available to parents online. I know that being able to see my sons grades this past year in another district has made it to where I can see what he is doing or NOT doing. Come on MISD step up to making this available to our community. It would be a great tool and I know they would appreciate it along with the teachers! :)
#15 Wikis
I really liked the wiki site Wikis in Plain English to explain what a wiki is. It let you know how easy one can really be and how it could be better than email.
Playing around in the sandbox was interesting. Reading different opinions and adding your own for others to see how you feel also lets you see that others do have your opinion and makes you think in ways that you may not have about the subject. I commented on the 2.0 aspect and really do think this is our future. In the math dept. we already use smart boards to present and create our lessons. We are still learning but the process of learning something new has sparked a new level of teaching for me. We do not use our books very often and do not issue them unless a student does not have internet access at home. They can gain access at home to their book when needed. This PFK online class is also icing on the cake. I really like what I have been learning and hope that I can incorporate at least a few new things this coming year.
Playing around in the sandbox was interesting. Reading different opinions and adding your own for others to see how you feel also lets you see that others do have your opinion and makes you think in ways that you may not have about the subject. I commented on the 2.0 aspect and really do think this is our future. In the math dept. we already use smart boards to present and create our lessons. We are still learning but the process of learning something new has sparked a new level of teaching for me. We do not use our books very often and do not issue them unless a student does not have internet access at home. They can gain access at home to their book when needed. This PFK online class is also icing on the cake. I really like what I have been learning and hope that I can incorporate at least a few new things this coming year.
Thing #14 flow charts and mind maps
Wow I didn't know these things existed out there for free. I think that I am going to try and use Gliffy for a small project that is in the geometry curriculum. The students have to arrange a floor plan with certain types of furniture and they could use this site to do it! The other site that I looked at was mindmeister. The first thing that came to my mind was I could use it on showing quadrilaterals and all their properties when we discussed this topic. I could let the students take turns typing in info and then print it for all of them. This kind of gets the blood flowing for wanting school to start! ... but lets not get ahead of ourselves! ha ha. I just came off of a two week vacation in Florida and am nice and rested!! :)
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Thing #13
I really liked Zoho Writer. It was very user friendly with many features that in microsoft office you have to search for. Being a math teacher I really liked the symbols. It was like being on the text book software for creating tests. I downloaded a picture and played with the symbols making a few equations. I also played around with the smiley faces! :) I couldn't get it to publish to my blog but I did manage to share it to my email account! I think this will be a great way to share pictures and other documents with my dad since he does not have microsoft office if I need to. Microsoft better watch out because I really liked Zoho and I bet others will too!!!
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