First and foremost, I thank the facilitators for the opportunity to explore and learn about these 23 things in a safe, self-paced environment. I felt like the expectations from myself would be higher because of my job description but that is the entire reason I took the class! I don't claim to know everything and there is no possible way I can know it all. They best thing I can do is to learn more! That is just what this course did for me. Having the RSS feeds I chose in my reader will help with keeping me educated on the latest and greatest. It seems by the time I hear about something new at a conference, other districts have tested, implemented, and required it of their teachers!
There are so many ways for me to continue this learning process. The number one "thing" I am excited about is being able to go back and review any of this online information at any time! What a gift from web 2.0! During this last month, I lost a very close friend. From the second week of class until Sunday (when we held her final memorial), I have been an emotional roller coaster. The time I worked on this course was a good distraction, but my time was limited. So, I didn't continue with the stretch activities in an effort to complete the course by the required date. I love exploring on the web. It's what I do! This class is here as a powerful reference for me to do just that!
Thank you again for the wonderful opportunity and the great experience I had with this class! Have a great rest of the summer folks!
In honor of all the summer haircuts....
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Drumroll, Please. Thing 23
The Ning Network sounds like some sort of television station! I started a Ning two years ago before I really knew what a Ning was supposed to do! It is called IWANNAPLAYCOMPUTERS and I wanted everyone to join and give some great gift ideas USING technology. I am always creating books, calendars, movies, etc. for gifts and I wanted to know what others did. It never took off, though. As life goes, we got too busy to ever really pursue anything with my Ning! Back in February, we went to TCEA and our department had a Ning about the conference. This was the greatest use of a Ning for our department and a FREE resource we were able to share with one another. I really felt like I experienced the conference so much more because of the others sharing their thoughts with the world! Imagine how this could work in a classroom all year. The students would have a social outlet to use that is user friendly, and safe as it is monitored by the facilitator.
The Classroom 2.0 Ning has an incredible amount of information and resources. One thing I liked is the Visual Vocab app I found posted on the Ning. Since we are all fairly new at integrating iPods/touhes/Pads, etc., we need to see these new resources! There were also a ton of ideas to use with the kids in the classroom.
When I first found the Ning, I just thought it was like creating a web site, but have since discovered it is SOCIAL NETWORKING. It is an interactive site with friends, co workers, family, etc. It has so many uses and I hope we will be able to use it for free, or very cheap, in education!
The Classroom 2.0 Ning has an incredible amount of information and resources. One thing I liked is the Visual Vocab app I found posted on the Ning. Since we are all fairly new at integrating iPods/touhes/Pads, etc., we need to see these new resources! There were also a ton of ideas to use with the kids in the classroom.
When I first found the Ning, I just thought it was like creating a web site, but have since discovered it is SOCIAL NETWORKING. It is an interactive site with friends, co workers, family, etc. It has so many uses and I hope we will be able to use it for free, or very cheap, in education!
Monday, July 19, 2010
Thing 22
Since social is my middle name, I decided to focus on the networking part of this thing! I already have accounts set up for My Space and Facebook. The cool thing about that, however, is that for the first time in my 23 things coursework, I was able to check these accounts without feeling like I was off task! Yipee! Social networking is one of the most incredible inventions of our times! We truly are separated by only six degrees. Networking has long been a way to get jobs, make connections, and change our lives! That is what these sites are doing for our society. Understanding how these work can help us understand the needs of our kids better. If we know what interests them, we can create lessons that "speak their language".
I use my site primarily for social networking with friends. I am not on these sites to meet new people or use the site to learn much. This has changed throughout my exploration of the sites! In the instructions of the lesson, we are told to add authors, schools, etc. A couple of years ago, while reading Wes Fryer's Blog, I was sold on this idea. Yet again, I didn't make the time so here I am rediscovering. Wes Fryer give examples of students setting up Skype interviews based on the usage of Facebook to track down authors, inventors, and others that can assist in educating students! It is an amazing way to connect and bring real people into the classroom where you never before would have had the opportunity!
I am biased to using Facebook as it's features are more simplistic and do not require an artistic or creative eye to develop! MySpace takes much longer to load pages and everyone has to be friends with the stranger named Tom. I like to add only those I know (LOL).
Integrating education in the use of these sites could impact our schools. First of all, they are FREE tools. All we need is Internet!It was once told to me that Japan utilizes these free resources for their students. I don't know the validity of that comment, but I have seen smaller school districts with less money implement more free materials with great success. Creating profiles of book characters is one of my all time favorite ideas! Questions could be posted and comments easily left starting incredible discussion groups. Students can utilize a MySpace page to upload all types of media created in the classroom. What better venue to access than his/her own space? Check out my spaces and places!
DeAnna's Facebook
DeAnna's MySpace
I use my site primarily for social networking with friends. I am not on these sites to meet new people or use the site to learn much. This has changed throughout my exploration of the sites! In the instructions of the lesson, we are told to add authors, schools, etc. A couple of years ago, while reading Wes Fryer's Blog, I was sold on this idea. Yet again, I didn't make the time so here I am rediscovering. Wes Fryer give examples of students setting up Skype interviews based on the usage of Facebook to track down authors, inventors, and others that can assist in educating students! It is an amazing way to connect and bring real people into the classroom where you never before would have had the opportunity!
I am biased to using Facebook as it's features are more simplistic and do not require an artistic or creative eye to develop! MySpace takes much longer to load pages and everyone has to be friends with the stranger named Tom. I like to add only those I know (LOL).
Integrating education in the use of these sites could impact our schools. First of all, they are FREE tools. All we need is Internet!It was once told to me that Japan utilizes these free resources for their students. I don't know the validity of that comment, but I have seen smaller school districts with less money implement more free materials with great success. Creating profiles of book characters is one of my all time favorite ideas! Questions could be posted and comments easily left starting incredible discussion groups. Students can utilize a MySpace page to upload all types of media created in the classroom. What better venue to access than his/her own space? Check out my spaces and places!
DeAnna's Facebook
DeAnna's MySpace
Thing 7b
I discovered online Art! I must have been last in line when God passed out art skills. When our abilities are limited, we tend to shy away from certain areas. I have always sensed a lacking in that area for myself. It was confirmed my first year of teaching when I tried to draw a ghost. One of the students yelled out, "that's not a ghost, that's a sheet". Yes, I drew a sheet ghost. You know what I'm talking about. My insecurities have carried over into my current position. I am not approached by many art teachers to assist with technology nor do I have any ideas. So when I scrolled over this blog, I was intrigued. There are 10 sites that allow you to implement art on the web in different ways!
The Art Pad records the picture to create a lapse time effect! I have always seen this on TV or videos and wanted to be able to do it! This is amazing!
Another site, Doink is fun. You can create flash style animations. We have a few drawing tools already on the images on the computers throughout the district, but there is so much more I need to learn to truly assist our art teachers with technology integration. At least there is always Promethean!
The Art Pad records the picture to create a lapse time effect! I have always seen this on TV or videos and wanted to be able to do it! This is amazing!
Another site, Doink is fun. You can create flash style animations. We have a few drawing tools already on the images on the computers throughout the district, but there is so much more I need to learn to truly assist our art teachers with technology integration. At least there is always Promethean!
Thing 21
So I am blown away! I had no idea there was such a thing called Google Books! Wow! How awesome. There were several things I shared about on my laswt post that fell under this post section so I will avoid duplication by discovering the new tools I've never used.
Google Books. Enough said. There are several books out of copyright I could access at my fingertips! I think this could be a great tool for students. There is just something about reading online that motivates students more and more! This can be useful for students to critically evaluate books before going to the library. Often times, I have heard teachers ask about how to hold the student accountable for his/her learning. Choosing our own reading material is one of the BEST ways to do this!
Another new tool I discovered is Google Alerts. This reminds me of an RSS feed, but better. There recently was a current event in the news I was trying to follow. I went back every day to see if anything new was posted. I created an alert to get updates! This will be so nice to feel like I am not chasing the wind! Current events are so important to discuss in lots of classrooms-this tool will allow the students to become a part of the world and follow something all the way through!
I used Picasa this past year for the first time and fell in love. Here a couple of collages I made!
Google Books. Enough said. There are several books out of copyright I could access at my fingertips! I think this could be a great tool for students. There is just something about reading online that motivates students more and more! This can be useful for students to critically evaluate books before going to the library. Often times, I have heard teachers ask about how to hold the student accountable for his/her learning. Choosing our own reading material is one of the BEST ways to do this!
Another new tool I discovered is Google Alerts. This reminds me of an RSS feed, but better. There recently was a current event in the news I was trying to follow. I went back every day to see if anything new was posted. I created an alert to get updates! This will be so nice to feel like I am not chasing the wind! Current events are so important to discuss in lots of classrooms-this tool will allow the students to become a part of the world and follow something all the way through!
I used Picasa this past year for the first time and fell in love. Here a couple of collages I made!
Thing 20
Our department began using Google Docs and it has made such an impact on our organizational skills, collaboration abilities, and has changes the way we gather data and provide information to campuses. For our bi-monthly meetings, we build a team agenda. When we need to gather inventory items, serial numbers, etc., we create forms. As a department, we track numbers of teachers and students that are trained throughout the year to be sure we keep our jobs! We are also able to break this information down by types of staff development such as how it was delivered and whether or not it is interactive, etc. We do this by simply filling in a form! It is magnificent!
This past year, MISD has set up a Mesquite account with google which allows the collaboration of an organization. All of our information has been loaded into Google to allow for easy sharing. The greatest thing about this is that we have included special accounts for all of our secondary students! This is making a huge impact on our district, teachers, and students! This past year, a middle school teacher had her students create Google sites and work an entire six week project online. The students poured their hearts into this project. They collaborated with one another, critiqued each other's sites, and provoked others to Think throughout the project. The kids were working at all hours on their projects because they could do it from home! This one step into Web 2.0 caused our department to create a position for a facilitator to work strictly with Google Apps.
This tool can be used in so many different ways. Among teachers, newsletters can be a snap! Each teacher can add any information they want to produce each week and it can be created online! Using the spreadsheets, lesson plans are a snap! Each week, our team would meet, write in pencil, send someone off to type up the plans, and we would do it again the nest week. With Google Docs, this step is eliminated. We simply type in our assigned subject and the plans are done!
For students, using presentations can be more collaborative. The students can add their own individual page to the presentation and it can be built by the entire class! MISD is so new at all of this, but so excited. I can't wait to get everyone trained on the newest capabilities.
I have to say one more thing. The Google Calendars are amazing. My family and I have a shared calendar that we put all of our baseball, soccer, and football game times on! This calendar has kept me from failing to let someone know a date or time! My friends and I are always trying to schedule time together, but we are all busy. We created a friend calendar to share with each other to send out invites for girl time!
As administrators, these tools can make our life so much easier if we learn it and let it! The classroom will follow the lead of the campus! Just think, the entire Calendar of what we will do throughout the year online, interactive, etc. There is so much to look forward to!
This past year, MISD has set up a Mesquite account with google which allows the collaboration of an organization. All of our information has been loaded into Google to allow for easy sharing. The greatest thing about this is that we have included special accounts for all of our secondary students! This is making a huge impact on our district, teachers, and students! This past year, a middle school teacher had her students create Google sites and work an entire six week project online. The students poured their hearts into this project. They collaborated with one another, critiqued each other's sites, and provoked others to Think throughout the project. The kids were working at all hours on their projects because they could do it from home! This one step into Web 2.0 caused our department to create a position for a facilitator to work strictly with Google Apps.
This tool can be used in so many different ways. Among teachers, newsletters can be a snap! Each teacher can add any information they want to produce each week and it can be created online! Using the spreadsheets, lesson plans are a snap! Each week, our team would meet, write in pencil, send someone off to type up the plans, and we would do it again the nest week. With Google Docs, this step is eliminated. We simply type in our assigned subject and the plans are done!
For students, using presentations can be more collaborative. The students can add their own individual page to the presentation and it can be built by the entire class! MISD is so new at all of this, but so excited. I can't wait to get everyone trained on the newest capabilities.
I have to say one more thing. The Google Calendars are amazing. My family and I have a shared calendar that we put all of our baseball, soccer, and football game times on! This calendar has kept me from failing to let someone know a date or time! My friends and I are always trying to schedule time together, but we are all busy. We created a friend calendar to share with each other to send out invites for girl time!
As administrators, these tools can make our life so much easier if we learn it and let it! The classroom will follow the lead of the campus! Just think, the entire Calendar of what we will do throughout the year online, interactive, etc. There is so much to look forward to!
Thing 19
There are so many different tools out there on the web, that I have learned to just type in my generic username and password and sometimes, it just lets me in! Apparently I have set up an account for voice thread in the past. I love this tool. It is actually something I wanted to use more my first year as a facilitator, but as I was learning so much, I had forgotten about it! I am so excited to "rediscover" this tool.
This is a great tool for collaboration within our district. Teachers on different campuses studying the same topics can begin a voice thread and gather different perspectives from other schools. I think we tend to think more globally (as if that is a better way to collaborate), than locally. It is so much fun to use these tools and starting with what we know is usually the easiest. When we don't know where to begin, we don't begin at all! Many teachers know teachers on other campuses and this can jump start the usage of these tools.
So, voice thread is a great site to upload images, share ideas, thoughts, and provoke questions. There are several ways to share these thoughts-webcams, telephone, or microphones! The interface is extremely easy. The free account won't let you upload much, but I will check into creating an educator account for the future! How exciting!
This is a great tool for collaboration within our district. Teachers on different campuses studying the same topics can begin a voice thread and gather different perspectives from other schools. I think we tend to think more globally (as if that is a better way to collaborate), than locally. It is so much fun to use these tools and starting with what we know is usually the easiest. When we don't know where to begin, we don't begin at all! Many teachers know teachers on other campuses and this can jump start the usage of these tools.
So, voice thread is a great site to upload images, share ideas, thoughts, and provoke questions. There are several ways to share these thoughts-webcams, telephone, or microphones! The interface is extremely easy. The free account won't let you upload much, but I will check into creating an educator account for the future! How exciting!
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