23 Things #19

I see bookmarking as being very useful as far as organization. Right now I have many web sites out there I would like to use more but have no organization to them. When it comes to finding one in my e-files it is just easier to search again for a new one. It also would be very helpful to share with others that have already found great sights. This also is a safe place to keep my addresses. Every summer our computers are ghosted and files are lost if they are not put in a safe place.
It is important to assign names to tags that are specific to the topic. There could be many different subjects under a heading so you have to narrow it down. You also have to think about naming it without using commas, spaces, and underscores. You want to think about who you want to look at it.

23 Things #18

WOW! It is amazing what is out there. You can find information on just about anything from educational tools to sports. I can see using a PLN as being very useful. If you have a question about how to teach something, different ways to approach teaching something, or just want more, you can find it. Exchanging lesson plans is a great idea. Others are so willing to share their knowledge.
Just today my son and husband are going ice fishing. They went on a sight and found comments from fishermen on where the fish are biting today and where the best ice is. Very helpful for them.
As anything, I always am a little afraid to put my name out there because of liability. If I say something is it going to come back and get me some where along the line. That is the only problem I ses with PLN.

23 Things #17

I picked Maps from the web 2.0 list. I visited google maps, live maps, and google earth. I found all of them very easy to use. I liked how you could see the maps in all different ways, from states and cities to the terrain. These are very useful to use in the classroom. I especially like google earth and have used it with a smart board. It is great for Social Studies. What ever you are talking about, from the first settlers and how they came here, Native American tribes, studying Latin American countries, you can touch the smart board and drag directly to the area you are discussing. It is a great tool.
For fun I looked at the food sit on the Web 2.0 and I found some great recipes.

23 things #16

It is very clear how college students feel about what they are getting for their education. Paper, pencil, memorize, and give it back. Yes that is the way I learned many years ago but everything is so different now. I heard them say things have to change and I agree. The job market is so different now and our children need to keep up. Technology is very important. When I went to school I had to sit in my seat and not move unless I was told to. I could not speak unless I raised my hand and never did I talk back to the teacher. Now students get up to get a drink when they want, speak out of turn, have a snack, and talk to their neighbor. When disciplined, parents will side with their child. In my day parents never disagreed with the teacher if they called to say you did something wrong. I feel as teachers we have to let them explore and give back in a manner that suits them. But I feel the discipline needs to be there. Everyone should have to hand write a paper once in a while but they also need to use computers and other tools that are out there. There has to be a combination of both. There is a time in any job when you have to respond in writing to a note that comes across your desk or work space. Email is great but students need to be able to talk effectively to someone face to face. I feel our school is working on technology at all levels but we are still behind. We have to teach to all students with different learning styles and differentiate. As teachers we should be learning about all the new things so we can help our students. Colleges in my opinion are way behind and some of the older professors need to step it up. On the other hand students need to take responsibility and learn some discipline, good behavior, and sit still once in a while.

23 things #15

I think pod casts would be great to use in the classroom. Students could go out and research things they are interested in. They love to use computers or any sort of tech so they would like to get involved. I loved the pod cast I visited where the students were pod casting daily on what their class was doing. Students could reteach what they learned in a pod cast for their parents to see. Students could make a daily homework pod cast, classroom newsletter, what they learned this week, etc.
My administrator would be behind it 100% as long as it was closely monitored for appropriate content.

23 Things #14 Learn about podcasting

The first 2 pod casts I visited were for professional development for educators. http://practicalprincipals.net/ were 2 elementary principals talking about different uses of technology. I found some of it interesting because they discussed some of the things we have learned here. They also talked about using SKYPE which I had just installed on my computer because I got a web cam for Christmas. They were a little sappy when they started each podcast because they were talking about their personal life, but once you got past that some of it was interesting.
http://ldpodcast.com/ was very interesting to my because I teach students with special needs. This podcast had many different postings discussing different disabilities such as ADHD and many more. I will refer back to this podcast again.
http://nancykeane.com/booktalks/podcast_list.htm is a podcast for students. It listed many books alphabetically and gave a book talk about them. This would be helpful for those students that can never find a book to read.
http://www.mrcoley.com/coleycast/index.htm is a podcast made by students. This was very interesting. Students do a pod cast daily about what they are doing in their classroom. I listened to students teaching about the parts of speech. This would be great to share with your own classroom and have your students learn from other students.
I enjoyed exploring about pod casts.

23 Things #13 "Sharing the Vision"

I created a little slide show called "About Me" on Zoho Show. That was the easy part. I have been trying for 2 days, about 2 hours, to import it into my blog but have failed each time. I have a feeling that my slide show is out there in the virtual world more than once but I am moving on. I hope someone can help me to get it on my blog. I would appreciate some help from anyone who is willing. Making the slide show was very easy. I could see students writing and sharing stories with each other using clip art or adding their own pictures. Again I feel it would have to be closely monitored. I am sure the students will have no trouble posting their slides on a blog. I could probably learn from them.
OK. Thanks to my friend here at school, she showed me what I was doing wrong. So I now have a slide show. It was so simple I could not believe it.

23 Things #12 "Productivity Anywhere"

I logged into Remember the Milk and 30 Boxes. I saw a definite advantage to both of these. Remember the milk - Great for creating lists of things you need to get done by a certain time. It will remind you by email of those things. 30 boxes - I liked this one better. I could use this at work. I am a teacher of special needs students and have many meetings to set up and go to. This calendar would help me remember ahead of time where and when I need to be.
The problem I see with both of these is taking the time to put the information in. A program is only as good and organized as the person using it. My New Years resolution is to try and maintain this calendar for all the things I need to do. Wish me luck!

23 Things #11

I just went into googledocs and put in some notes from a training I am going to with 4 other teachers. We have to do assignments together outside of training. I am going to email them and give them access to those notes through googledocs. We can all add to these as we go along and not have to meet each time we need to do something. This is makes it so much easier. Microsoft should be a little nervous. It is very user friendly and I think students without access could easily use library computers and others to do this.

23 things #10

I found it to be not too difficult to create a wiki. I just added my grocery list that I use every year for my classroom Thanksgiving Feast. I copied it from my documents and pasted it in there. Personally it would be fun to share and adjust recipes on a wiki. My husband and I love to cook and are always looking for new ideas for recipes. It would be fun to put a recipe on a wiki and invite others to add or change any ingredients to it for different results.

23 things #9

I visited Biz wiki, Wikipedia, and the unofficial wiki for the ALA conference Chicago 2005. I found all 3 of these wiki's very easy to get around and find information. They had easy to read main pages that were set up in a way that was easy to understand. Each had categories to pick from to narrow your search down and they also had a place to type in what you were searching for. Biz wiki had a short video clip at the beginning to help you understand how to use it. It also had a place where there were frequently asked questions. Wikipedia also listed featured articles which were interesting. I loved looking at the Chicago wiki and reading about all the things in the city. I go there quite often but I did find some places I did not know about.
In the classroom a wiki could be set up about a certain subject. Example: the first explorers. The class could have access to it and be able to share what they learn and also correct or change what others have put in it. They all could study and learn independently from this wiki.
The only issue I have with a wiki is someone else editing what others put in and others copying what is there.

23 things #8

I had a hard time initially with thing #7 narrowing down my search to what I wanted. Then I started saving all kinds of things but was still very broad. I have managed to go in and narrow things down a bit. The easiest blog sight I found to get info from was Technorati. It had it broken down into many categories of which I chose a couple. I also went into my favorites and opened them to find the RSS feed and narrowed some of those down to more specific things I was interested in. This one has been difficult for me but I am going back and revising and narrowing down to more specifics for me.

23 things #7

I really do like this RSS. I found myself saving all sorts of things. Now I have to go back and find my favorites. I had a little trouble because I was using 2 different computers when I was working on this but I think I have figured it out. This will come in very handy at work when I need info on a certain topic quickly. As a teacher of students with special needs it will be nice to find articles relating to some of my students disablilities. At times our students need current events for Science class. It could also be used for writing assignments, having students find articles that peak their interest and do a writing about the article. This would be a useful sight for that. I see this being very beneficial for high school students and teachers also for current events.
At home there are endless possibilities from articles about remodeling to all sorts of cooking ideas both of which my husband and I have big interests in.

23 Things #6

I was always told if it had a copyright do not use it. I was not aware of the fair use law. That does still bother me in a way because who is determining what is fair use. Everything is so vague and there is no cut and dry situation. When it comes to pictures online our tech instructors are always showing us ways to use photos from the web. I thought, as far as photos were concerned, if it was online it was fair game. Our District also has board approved movies that we may show in the classroom. My philosophy has always been if they allow it, I may do it, but if they do not, I don't. The School System rules are the last word for me. I will still continue to allow students to use photos from web sites, being very selective as to where we get them from, but what we do always stays in our classroom. We never publish anything outside of the school.

Photo

23 Things #5
WOW! I went to bed last night and everything outside was green and woke up to about 10 inches of snow and a surprise day off. Not a bad Friday at all. Now I can catch up on my 23 Things.
I had a little trouble with this but once I got going and kept trying I finally got it.
I can see using this for many things. At school it could be used to help with poster projects, creating awards with pictures, and creating fun classroom newsletters.
My husband owns his own business. This would be great to put photos of his work on a blog for advertisement.

23 Things #4

I see many ways I could use Picasa Web Albums in my classroom. Next week, for example, my class is cooking a big Thanksgiving Dinner. Monday we are going to the store and the rest of the week we are making food. In Friday I bring ny grill to school and we cook a big 28 lb turkey on the charcoal grill. Friday all the students parents come to eat lunch with them. All the while we do this I am snapping many pictures of all the activities. They could go in a photo album for parents to see right away. I have photo releases but I would like to know if others have taken pictures of students and created albums online - is there any issues?
Another way is just following curriculum. All the different units we cover in Social Studies alone: Native Americans, Early Explorers, Central America, etc. I could have albums with pictures I use with these units ready to go and with easy access.
I am stepping way out of my technologically impaired box.

23 Things #3

The hardest habit for me is "accepting responsibility for your own actions." The reason I have put this in parenthesis is because it is not a hard habit for myself but as a special education teacher it is a hard habit to get my students to understand. They always are quick to blame someone else for why they are not learning. It is either their mother or their friend or little Johnny sitting across the room that is why they did not do it or why they do not get it. Even though it was written in their planner they forgot to do their homework or Mom did not put it in my backpack. It is such a hard habit to teach to someone. Any suggestions?

The easiest for me is keeping the end result in mind. I always look to the goal or finished product as I am doing something. Most of our staff also do this with our students. When they assign something there usually is a rubric that explains what they am looking for and how many points it will be worth. Everyone knows what is expected.

23 Things #2

My feeling on WEB 2.0 is WOW! How quickly you can receive information by using the technology given. It scares me sometimes with students because you never know where some of them are going. It is great for teaching as long as you have access and it can be closely monitored. I feel it is great for students but they still need to know some of the old fashioned ways of learning. Sometimes things are too easy now. A good and effective combination of both would be great.

23 things #2

I feel a good blog first has to catch your eye. The layout and color is important to attract attention. This could get more readers. A blog also should contain usable information that others can share and respond to. For example a small business could be advertising and possibly get some business or find others in the same line of work to share helpful information with.

Blogs could help my existing school website because it would get information to parents much faster. It also would save time for the teacher. Instead of sending individual emails one blog can be read by all. Parents could respond to things quicker and even get other parents feedback. (That may or may not be a good thing). This only will help, however, if enough people have internet use at home.

I feel blogs are an easier way to self publish. Not only will it be read by many but the feedback of what you publish would be given by many. This would only make you become a better writer.

23 things-the first thing

This is my first time on a blog I am ashamed to say. I hope to become more comfortable using all the things out there I can use in the classroom. Being an older teacher, computers were not around when I went to school. I have had to learn with my students on some of the things I have done. I am looking forward to venturing out of my comfort zone and gaining more knowledge of how I can use more technology in my classroom.