Tuesday, July 22, 2008
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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