One Last Thing

The whole thought of taking an online class initially scared me a little. Once I got start things seem to become easier or I just got used to working through things when they didn't work the first time. It seems I had to learn to become a student again.

What I enjoyed the most about this experience has been blogging and my reader. I am able to get the information that I am most interested in at my finger tips instead of going to all their websites and then share my thought or knowledge about any subject. I plan to continue using my reader. Adding those things of interest and deleting those that seem to clog up my reader.

I think the wiki page may have been one of the most challenging thing. I think I read to many of my colleagues blogs about creating a sandbox. It was difficult but not as much so as I thought it was going to end up. I guess I was up for the challenge.

I began this school year using YouTube in my classroom so I was becoming more comfortable adding some technology in my classroom. I thought I was ahead of the curve.But once I learned how to use some of the generator my students were impressed and want to know how to use them to create on their own. I'm really excited to share with them what I have learned. What concerns me is that some of the generator are blocked by the district. I understand sites have to be filtered..... I just wish we were able to share more of what we have learned with our students.

I plan to move on to twitter and find out what it's all about. Maybe you should add thing 24......I'd do it! I really hope you offer another continuing class but if not I hooked...... I'm sure I'll continue to explore on my own.

Thing #23

Visit 23 Thingsters


O.K to be real honest Ning was overwhelming. There was so much to look at and so many directions to go. I looked at some of the social networks that teachers had created for their students to discuss books they were reading in class. It was exciting! I going back after this posting to look at more. I'm excited about implementing a social networking group for my students to do something as easy as their reading logs.

Thing # 22

For a long time when people asked me if I had a myspace or a facebook I told them no and that I didn't plan on setting one up. Well when I started looking at them I decided to set up a facebook account. It was great.... old friend and people I hadn't talked to in long time were requesting to be my friend. I do think it is a great way to connect with colleagues and friends but I also think you have to be careful what you put on for others to see.

I think it is very important that we as educators become familiar with these sites. Our students spent hours of their free time creating and chatting on these sites. My Facebook is private but can request me as a friend. Look for Renae Flores.

The last of #7

Once I start going through my reader before I know it I've spent two hours catching up. I really enjoy reading the Tech&Learning blogs. The blogs I'm most drawn to are blogs taking about cell phones and the future. Our students have cell phones already. Most of them have a better cell phone that I own.

Of course I enjoy reading runner's world and women's health and fitness. I use to read these blogs before I had a reader. Now it's just easier to access them.

Thing #21

I have always used Google as my search engine but was amazed at all the things Google offers. I set up my work calendar in Google Calendar and set up a home page in iGoogle, now I have the news I want at the press of a button. One of my students show me, previous to this application, how to use Google Earth and I was surprised how it worked and showed a photo of the exact location. I'm going back after I write this blog and check out Google Labs.

Thing #20

I enjoyed exploring Google Docs. If I hadn't sighed up for this class I would have never knew it was out there. I like the idea of being able to start something and get back to it at any computer. You save it to google docs so you don't have to e-mail it to yourself. I also see that it could be a great asset to use in my classroom. It's so easy to use my students can use it to do their journals and write papers. I also think it would be a great way for teachers to share ideas about lesson plans.

With Google Doc the old excuse of "I don't have any paper or pencil" is over.

Thing #19

I like Voicethread. I would could see myself using it to collaborate with other classrooms using a picture or a photo, like they did in Going and Coming, to create a story together. I also could see myself using it to describe photos that I send to out of town family members.

As a student who had trouble remembering how to work tedious math problems......I wish my math teacher would have had something like this for me to use as a homework helper once I began my math homework.

Thing #18

This was not a new thing for me to explore. Every time I am looking for a way to put a spin on a classroom lesson I start with YouTube and TeacherTube. I have found both sites very helpful. When I was looking for a project to do with students in my dyslexia class I found this video. I show it to my class to for them to begin brainstorming about which famous person with dyslexia they would like to research.

Thing # 15

I like the idea of the social bookmarking. I work from a couple different computers so this helps with accessing all the sites I use without having to look them up in google. Here's my delicious.

Thing #17

When I first going through some of the podcasts I wasn't impressed. They seemed a bit ancient I guess. For me they lacked something initially. As I continued to go through them I found a couple that I could use in my classroom. I already do a word of the day in my reading classes to help with vocabulary development so I think my students could benefit from Merriam-Webster Word of the day. I could assign them all different words and have them share them with the class. I also liked the Authors on Tour podcast. As an avid reader I could listen while I am doing other things to find new books to read.

Thing #16

I really like Library Thing. I recently began reading books by Dan Brown and when I finished I want to find other authors and books that were similar. This site allows me to do exactly that. Now there are so many books on my list to read I can't wait to get started. I think this site will be an asset to my students. They can use the site to find books they like, read book reviews and even comment on the books they have read.

Thing #7b

Honestly I haven't been very diligent in checking my reader so there was a vast amount of postings to weed through. As I went through some of them I decided to trash them, the blogs just didn't hold my attention. Here are a couple that really caught my attention. On Cool Cat Teacher the blog where it talks about as an educator "I will not ask my students that which I will not do myself".

I know that the New York Times is a bit of a pain to access but I enjoy the health section. The article about day light savings time explains why students may be sleeping in class.

Thing #14

I looked at all the tools and found some great ones to use with my students for review and other ones that would help them be creative. We just did a read aloud with The Diary of a Wimpy Kid. My students enjoyed the book and want to do some comic books of their own. I think Pikistrips and ToonDoo are tools that my students would enjoy using. I also really like the Quizlet tool. It would allow everyone in class contribute to reviewing.

Thing # 13

I started the image generator project looking for pictures of 9 beaches in Bermuda using Flickr. Creating the mosaic made me long for summer. When I saw this beach scene in Image Chef I had to count the days until I get to sit on the beach. I could see my students using these generators to create their own story.
MySpace, Hi5, Friendster and more - ImageChef.com">

Thing # 9

I read some blogs of my collegues and was very apprehensive about beginning thing 9.
Most everything I read talked about how challenging and time consuming creating the sandbox wiki ended up. I think the problem most people had was with the direction. I ended up prininting out all the information I could find and constantly going through it to find out how to do something. I still had trouble trying to embed my animoto into my sandbox so I just but in some of the pictures.Check out my wiki Running for Fun.

Thing #12

I had a lot of fun doing this project. I plan on using this in my class to address tone/mood, inference and critical thinking.I think my students would enjoy using animoto to tell a story using photos and music.I had a hard time being able to get the animoto into my blog but it worked as soon as I went through Foxfire.

Thing #11

O.k the first photo from flicker is titled running to catch the ice cream truck by Alice Marie Designs. Th second is titled running by Phil Hilfiker. I really like the idea of using images to tone/mood, inference and writing. I look forward to using a collection of photos I found all based on running but in different situation. I will use them soon to have my students compare and contrast.

Thing 10

I never heard of Creative Commons until this activity. I think it's great that you can share materials. I mean I know about copyright laws and I sign the sheet at the beginning of the year like every other teacher but I have been know to make a copy of something and use it. I don't think the copyright police are looking for me.....if so they haven't caught me yet. Anyway, back to creative commons. I think it's a great way to be creative by using something that is already out there........lets all stop trying to recreate the wheel. I'll definitely be using OER Commons.

Thing #8

I never knew wiki extended past looking up information on the internet. I knew it was a collection of information that could be factual or not and that people could change and update information. I was told by colleagues that it can be a good source of information but not to treat it as an exact source of knowledge.

After browsing some of the wikis I was excited to see it being for classroom notes, projects and schedules as in FHS Wolves Den. I could see this working in my classroom if all my students had home computers. The wiki that I thought was set up well and easy to follow was Room 15 Wiki. Though you had to navigate from the existing link to the new link this wiki looked professional done. Everything had easy icons to follow. Schools in the Past I thought was a great idea but it was hard to follow. Everything was organized just by topic and lacked illustrations. It was set up more like a blog. I really liked the code blue wiki or at least the link on Yucky Gross and Cool Body Systems. These are the questions that my students ask all the time. I'm going to use this link in the future.

Thing #7

I never realized what a challenge commenting on a blog might present. After reading some of the information about blogging and how to invite people to blog through open question and responding to others comments I know now what an art form becoming a pro blogger involves. I've found it much easier to comment on blogs where I make a connection to the material that presented in the blog. Making meaningful comments is important. Commenting to just comment wastes time. There are so many other blogs to hit if that's the case.

Thing #6

Once I got the hang of adding blogs to my reader it was lots of fun. I'm linked to blogs that will help me grow as an educator as well as blogs that will help improve my quality of life. When I started adding them I kept thinking of other topic I would like to add to my reader. I like the idea that I can scan the topics to find those that catch my interest and skip over others.

I'm not only leaning about how to become a better educator by using technology in my classroom but how to become a better distance runner and healthier person.

Thing #5

Where do I start............. Every time I read a new blogI find something I want to run into my classroom and implement it into a lesson. Within the last couple of weeks my classroom as received a projector,a promethean slate and a Macbook. I am already playing with them and my students are draw in by the technology. They want to use it. They are all excited. The only draw back is there is just one slate and they all want to use it.

Today I read a blog about using cell phones for learning and found yet another avenue to explore or at least research. Not all my students have access to a computer on a regular basis but almost every middle school student has a basic cell phone.

Thing #4

After reading a few of the blog listed I realized the ones I enjoyed the most were the ones that seemed most like conversations. Blogs give you the opportunity to share your thoughts, experiences and even vent. What bloggers have to realize is that everything they post can be seen by anyone with internet access. The sample blogs were of course chosen for us to view Written by educators or students made them a safe read. With this in mind I decide to flip the coin and look a bit deeper than the blogs listed and what I found was that not all people realize that blogs are connected to them. Bloggers need to be careful what they say and how they say it. You need to keep in mind when blogging how the reader will interpret what you are posting. Will they understand what you are saying and will what you are saying offend them.

I really enjoyed reading the blog about using blogs for sustained reading time. I am always looking for new way to engage my students in reading. In desperation to just get them to read I have allowed them to even read gaming magazines. As a teacher who works with struggling readers I am excited about trying this in my classroom. I know that blogging will allow them to not only strengthen their reading but writing skills as well. In this age of technology I feel like I'm already behind in not having known/tried blogging with my students already. I know they can do it........they already have their cell phones downloaded with all the newest features.

Thing #2 - Thoughts about 2.0

The Machine is Us/ing video reminded me of an introduction to computer programing class I once signed up for in college. Everything had to be typed just right....right amount of spaces and exact language or it wouldn't work. I am glad that technology and the web is moving towards an easier more user friendly avenue.

Shift happens I'd seen before but seeing the statistic again still amazes me.The Vision video made me think about what I hear my students talk about before class. My Space, Facebook, Blogging and downloading things into their Ipods. I know the basics. I own an Ipod and can download music. I use the web to research and plan. I pay bills and make purchases online. I email and text daily but when something is not connecting right in my classroom, like the video to my projector.........one of my students will fix the problem. I look forward to the day that our students have enough technology available to them at home and school to be able to immerse themselves into digital learning.

7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners

As a new runner training for my upcoming half marathon I was able to take the tutorial and apply it to my training. I was able to see what my training schedule was missing and fill in the gaps. I believe we are life long learners in every aspect of our lives. If we don't strive to learn more............are we living?



Now to apply it to the 23 things.



The most challenging thing for me during this course will be not to get frustrated when the technology is not working for me.......this is my second time to try and post this. My life seems so busy these days. With school, family, training and a second job I try to allot all my time. So when I have to back up and start over I often look at it as I have lost time. I hate to be behind or late.



I think the easiest thing through this course for me will be to ask for help when things don't work. When I do become frustrated because it's not working there are a couple of teachers at my school who have already been through this course. They recommended I take the course and they also happen to be fellow runners so we already have multiple connections. If this blog doesn't work this time I may be calling on the tomorrow.



I think the most important thing for me to work through will be to think outside of the box. I want to learn more about what my students are doing on the web. I don't want to be like my parents. They still can't program their remote.