Thing 23 Reflection Time

Taking this class has been so much fun! I've learned so much and have already incorporated some of my ideas. Personally, I have found that I like blogging and reading the blogs of other bloggers, especially my classmates. What a kick I got out of the photo editing site. Now I can do more than adjust lighting and take out red eye. I'm really geeked to take some pictures next week on our cruise to Mexico and then I'll upload them to Flickr. I plan on continuing on learning about the Web 2.0 apps, maybe checking into vodcasts and other ways for my students to demonstrate their understanding. And I'll try to be more open about the use of cell phones and iPods in school!

Having promised some teachers that I will help them set up a blog, I am hoping that wikis may be their next step. My district has unblocked delicious and I hope to show teachers how to save their bookmarks this way. I have already started uploading videos to the district's Light Speed and will search for more to use with my students. What I'm really excited about doing is working with my book clubs on the Roadrunner Blog that I have started. I want to hear from everyone this way, not just the same students who always share. Podcasting has caught my attention and I'm looking forward to trying that out with my students. Yodio was neat! I still have to figure some things out about password issues with my students, but I have certainly got the desire to see what can be done.

The video, Have you been listening? brought out a lot of emotion in me. I had that feeling that I had when I saw the scene of the Statue of Liberty in Planet of the Apes. That sense of we'd better get this right or something bad is going to happen. Our students are a digital generation and we need to address their needs. My granddaughter was planning to visit my computer lab and I told her that she could come to class with the kindergartners. Gabrielle, 4 years old, responded, "Oh then they can show me how to go online!" She knows where the action is! And so, I go back to an issue that has plagued me since I began teaching computer technology almost 11 years ago, what do I need to teach. Keyboarding, punctuation, and a host of other things? I keep trying to forecast what they will need to know. With this interactive global world upon us, I will need to be open to what I can do to keep my students excited and interactive in their learning.

Thanks, Jim, for a great class. Whenever I come to the ISD to take a class, I always wish for more time to practice what I learn. This time I got it! Good luck to everyone and I hope to "run into" you in the future, in person or in the virtual world!

Thing 22 Online PD

I have previously enrolled on Learnport a few years ago and took a class. I must admit I'm not a fan of self-paced learning. The online PD that I did like was the classes I took through Ed Online. I got most of the classes that I need to get my SB CEUs this way. What I liked was that I was able to take classes in technology and learn things that would help my teaching. The comment in one of the readings selected this time said that teachers need to be working on improving how they themselves learned in order to be better teachers. That hit home!

I love this class, even though it kept me hopping to keep up! I feel so much more knowledgeable about Web 2.0. It would be great to have another class as a follow-up and I would definitely sign up for it!

Thing 21 Thoughts on Video in the Classroom

I embedded Eric Carle's The Very Hungary Catepillar because one of the first grade teachers at my school does an Eric Carle unit. The other video is of Rick Riordan talking about his Percy Jackson series. I just got his Lightning Thief book in and one of my book clubs is using his 39 Clues.

I didn't enjoy using Vixy and Zamzar because it didn't work any of the times I tried. But maybe I'm spoiled because my district has paid for a subscription of Light Speed and last week I started working with it. Since You Tube is blocked at my district we will be using that and teachers wishing to use video will have to go through the media specialists to do this.

Video is a wonderful resource for all classrooms. I have been using Discovery Streaming Video for sometime. But the videos on it don't have apply to what I teach as much as the videos that I find on You Tube and Teacher Tube. I like You Tube to share authors, animal videos...things for my students. Teacher Tube is what I like for my professional use. Just like in this class, video make me brave enough to try new things. Before, I usually got stuck and discouraged trying to figure it out on my own. So anything I can do to be able to use video, and all the other great tech stuff, with my students is worth it. Our students want dynamic teaching and this is a great way to give it to them!

Thing 21

Thing 20

Thing 19...Podcasts

One of the podcast I listened to was: http://storynory.com, where there were several Easter stories. I let one of my kindergarten classes listen to one. The reader has an English accent and my students have problems understanding what the reader said. I liked it for myself, but it didn't hold my students' interest. I think at that age, they would prefer a vodcast.

As for my own personal enjoyment, I found podcasts of poetry reading at http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/audio.html. The poems were so beautifully read, by their authors that I had to recline my chair and sit back and listen with closed eyes. I will certainly use podcasts for my students, even if I need to record them myself. They love the humor of Shel Silversteen, that would be a great place to start! I have used the Robert Munsch site, http://www.robertmunsch.com/storytime.cfm, but at his site my students watch the Windows Media Player flash all the moving colored lights. I'm wondering if they would like it the same with nothing to watch at the same time.

I found a great book talk at: http://www.hopkintonschools.org/hhs/library/podcasts/Skulduggery.mp3. I'm planning on trying Skullduggery for my next book club and I heard the book talk and I think I'd get my students hooked on the book after listening to this really cool podcast. It helps that the reader has a Scottish accent.

I also listened to some student podcasts at: http://www.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio/listen.html.
These students did a great job at sharing what they were learning in their classroom. This would be a great activity for classroom teachers, but would not work well for me as I have my students for 1 hour a week where I teach library science and technology in two separate rooms. I just don't have the time for students to do all the preparation that the students at the above URL obviously had done. I know that some of this work I can do on my own time, but I will have to look for opportunities to find the time to see what my students can do with podcasting. I know that they will take to it!

Thing 18 Cluster Map