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.