Thing #18

Youtube and TeacherTube are amazing. They have a wealth of information, some more interesting than others. I had a difficult time finding things that I could use for reading but probably need to refine my search. I did find several videos on the Civil War, the War of 1812, and the 1775 American Revolution.
I also found a video explaining the Continental Drift that I really liked. The how to video that I decided to use was How to Surf. I have always wanted to learn. It is a step by step video beginning with how to swim on the board - pretty basic. The best part was finding the video of Susan Boyle from Britains Got Talent. If it had not been for YouTube, I would not have heard her and what an outstanding voice.

Thing #17

Podcasts could be addicting. I spent hours looking at several of them. I had a hard time finding specific subjects that I was interested in but I will keep working on it. I did look at Just One More Book which I loved. It was fairly easy to navigate and I could use it to introduce a book or use the picture books to introduce a lesson such as visualization. It also had a great list of poems that could be used in a poetry unit. I think my students would enjoy listening to someone other than myself reading. I also looked at Education Podcast Network but I need to spend more time searching around this. I could not find much that I could use in 5th grade. I also really liked the Our City Podcast. I think that students would like listening to other students talk about their homes and learning about different regions. Podcasting could be used as a project for students after research or a novel study to show their understanding of the content.

Thing #16

I really like Library Thing. I see many uses for this and plan on using it in the future, not only with students, but for myself. Several uses for the classroom include: a place for suggested reading so students can read reviews and add their own comments. It could be used in book club and have group discussions when we are not meeting once a week. I stumbled upon a novel that we use in our Civil War literature circles and decided that it would also be a good way to review books prior to using them in the classroom. I like the idea of group discussions for me - it would be like a huge book club. I will definitely return to Library Thing and use it for many things.

Thing #15

I understand the concept of Delicious but found it very difficult to navigate and therefore, very frustrating. Hopefully, it will become easier with practice. I liked searching through Delicious and was excited to find great websites for research that we do in 5th grade. When using Google, these sites did not come up. In addition, I found lesson plans for a novel study that we do at the beginning of the year. It could be a great way to organize research material. I did have a problem when I searched the American Civil War. There was one tag on the site that was inappropriate which made me think that students could not use this website. I see it as a way for me to organize information to use in the classroom. The link to my Delicious account is http://delicious/vkuykendall

Thing #7a

I think Google Reader is great. It is a little overwhelming because I want to READ everything and then decide if it is something to keep. I need to learn the art of skimming. The article I decided to comment on fits in with what we are doing. It is "Ten ways to get beyond the Powerpoint" and gives ideas on other ways to teach using technology. To me, that is what this class is all about - how to use technology in the classroom.

Thing #14

I enjoyed most of the tools that I viewed. However, I found some to be cumbersome and probably would not use. I did like the timeglider. I see it as a great way to study socials studies using time lines, especially for the Civil War. The time line could be generated with the most important battles highlighted. I also saw a way of using polldaddy to find out how students feel about things. This could be posted in blogs for them. I like the idea of polling students about their favorite books. My favorite tool that I looked at was quizlet. This would be a great way to study vocabulary in social studies, math, and science using the flash cards and taking the quiz. I played around with a lesson plan that was already in place to study the U.S. state capitals. It had the flashcards, a quiz, and a game and was fun. We could us it in the computer lab to review vocabulary.

Thing 13

Ok - this is probably the easiest "thing" that I have done yet. It was also fun. I probably should have placed my kids names in a horizontal manner instead of vertical...next time. I could see using spell with flickr to play with when reviewing for spelling tests. Also, the trading cards could be used to to make up what we think characters in a book would look like and their character traits. This was fun.