One Last Thing

This has been an amazing journey - one of frustration at times, but definitely worthwhile.

*What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I loved learning how to blog and set-up a wiki which I used during our research unit. I love Google docs and my reader, and playing around with some of the fun tools such as flickr.

*How has this program affected your life long learning goals? I love taking classes and never want to stop learning. This class took me out of my comfort zone and has boosted my confidence in the area of technology.

*Were there any take-a-way or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I must say, I never imagined the amount of information out there for teachers professionally or for use in the classroom. I never, never thought that I would ever be on Facebook, and fell in love with it.

*Would could you do differently to improve upon the program's format or concept? I can't think of anything. Your timeline was great - I just needed to follow it a little better; the "how to" videos were great, and your comments and encouragement were great. You definitely need to take it with someone - collaboration makes it fun.

*If you offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? Absolutely.

*How will what you have learned influence your practice as a teacher?
There are many things that I will use in my classroom. This year, we set up a Wiki and blogs for our research unit on the Civil War. I want to include more computer time in the classroom - not just once a week in the computer lab.

*How do you plan to keep up with new developments in web 2.0? I plan to subscribe to some additional feeds to my reader and visit it often.

*Where do you go from here?

Next year, I plan to set-up a classroom blog. I will use the wiki and blogs for research. I will continue to follow articles from my reader, incorporate youtube in the classroom - the resources are limitless and I am excited to explore them further.

It has been a great experience.

Thing #23

I found 2.0 overwhelming. I joined it because I found some useful articles and some videos that I could use in the classroom. I need to spend more time browsing to fully understand it. I liked Teacher-Librarian Ning better. I like the book reviews and someone offered several links to search for books that could be used in the classroom. I am confused about Ning and thought it was a difficult to navigate. I think that it would be a good way to set up a private network between students, parents, and teachers. I still like blogging better - baby steps!


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Thing #22

Ok - I said that I would never do Facebook or MySpace. Never say never. I am now on Facebook and love it. It was so much fun finding friends and friends of friends. I connected with a teacher that I used to work with. It was also fun seeing what my grown children were doing on line. I think that it is a great way to stay connected to people when our time is so limited. However, now I must find the time to visit the site. I only explored Facebook. I have heard that Facebook is more family oriented than Myspace and most everyone I know is on Facebook. I understand the importance of knowing about social networking but I'm not sure how to use it in my classroom with my 5th grade students. I would rather have a class blog and communicate with my students that way. I have several students that loved blogging with me when we were studying the Civil War. They could communicate with me after school and then would remind me to look at the blog and comment on what they said. I know that it is important to communicate outside the classroom with our students but I'm just not sure that Facebook is the way to go for 5th grade. I love it for me.

7b

While browsing through my Google Reader, I came across an article about differentiating instruction. We all know that we need to differentiate for our students but it is not always easy. It was interesting though that the article discussed using technology in the classroom to enhance differentiated instruction and not going to the computer lab once a week. In addition, it had ideas for differentiated instruction and links. It is well worth reading.

Thing #21

I love the Google tools. Google Alerts was very easy to use. I set an alert for TAKS (since we are testing this week). It delivered articles about TAKS as well as practice tests, workbooks, and flashcards - very cool. I also love Google Book Search. You can read excerpts from books and it then gives you options for where to purchase the book. I wasn't sure about children's books. When I searched for them it took me to Borders so I will need to examine it further. It was great for me personally. I also looked at the Google Timeline and it would be a great, quick, and easy way to keep up with current news.

Thing #20

I love Google Docs and can see many ways to use it. I think that it could be used to organize assignments and put due dates for parents to use. I think it would also be a good way to manage parent conferences. Grade levels could use it to communicate in between meetings on things such as field trips, etc. It would also be a good way to collaborate on lesson plans, especially on research units. I see it as a great time saver. While talking to my daughter who is working on her masters, we also decided that it would be a great way for groups to collaborate on group presentations without having to meet every time. I could not think of something to create for this "thing" so I did a vacation check list and sent it to everyone. Each one was assigned things to bring and I then shared it with them. They can edit as necessary. I love this sharing of documents.

Thing #19

I love voicethread and can see several ways to use it in the classroom. The pictures that are already there would be great to use for creative writing. Students could create their own pictures and stories in groups or as a class. In addition, students could use voicethread to create final projects after a novel study. They could then comment on each others. I like the idea of using it for writing prompts at the beginning of class. This would enable them to have many stories started and they could expand on them at a later date. Pictures based on what they are studying at the time could also be used for writing and making connections. While browsing, I searched and found a voicethread that would be great for introducing the book Sign of the Beaver. The teacher introduced the book and had them make predictions using the voicethread. I thought that this was a great way to have a class discussion about what we are reading outside of the class. I enjoyed this and will probably use it. I did not spend much time on the "how to" so I hope that it is user friendly.