Thing #23

I enjoyed the 23 Things program. My favorite discovery during the program was the mashups. There are many different possibilities, and it is easy to incorporate Flickr into the activities. I know my students will love being creative while designing their mashup that coordinates with our lesson! I also enjoyed creating a rollyo. I will use this tool multiple times during the year to help monitor and limit the material that my students find while researching on the web.

Incorporating technology into the curriculum is something that I am very passionate about, but I was starting to feel that I was using the same technology and activities each year. As a lifelong learner, I wanted to learn more this summer, and this self-paced online program allowed me to do this at my own convenience this summer!

I was surprised at how easy it was to create a blog, and I even created a personal blog from this experience. Each activity is something that I can take back to my classroom and use with my students this year. I thought that we needed a lot of external technology to use in the classroom, but this program showed me several different things to do with my students with the computers that we have in the classroom.

This program was designed very well. I think the only thing that might make it better would be to encourage students to comment on each others' blogs more often. I have not taken the time to read through every one's activities except for the discovery exercises that required us to do so. I learned a lot from reading other people's blogs, so it might be beneficial to incorporate more opportunities to do this.

I hope that more learning opportunities like this are available in the future. I would love to continue to learn more. My learning experience with 23 Things was beneficial to me and ultimately my students since I learned so many amazing, interactive activities that will allow me to incorporate technology into my classroom!

Thing #22

I've never heard of Nings before, but it is very clever to be able to create your own social networking site. I've recently moved to a new school, and my past coworkers and I email each other all the time. They have questions for me, and I am always asking them questions as well. I think that Nings would be great for teachers to share ideas and answer each other's questions. We always learn more when we collaborate, and social networking allows us to collaborate with teachers everywhere.

Thing #21

I use Photostory a lot in class. It is very user friendly, and it is very quick to create a videocast. I've used this program to make an end of the year gift for my students. I make a video using pictures from everything we've done throughout the year. My students have also made a video about heroic people we were studing in social studies. They created a living statue about the person, took pictures of each other, added a caption to their picture, and then narrated their part of the video. I also gave my students digital cameras to share during our class field trip. Students took pictures of anything they thought was interesting, and then we turned the photos into a video that the students narrated using Photostory. The video I'm including here is a videocast that my class created one year in December. We were studying word choice in writing, so my students chose a specific holiday item they wanted to describe with words. We used image chef to turn their words into a picture of the item. Last, we uploaded the pictures and each child narrated their creation to form our class video over holiday word choice.

Thing #20

Since I am a visual learner, I try to find short videos that talk about the concepts we are learning in class. This is especially important for my ELL students to see exactly what I'm talking about. Unfortunately, YouTube is blocked from our campus computers, but I am interested to see if TeacherTube is blocked. I did enjoy learning about different ways to still show the videos on a blocked server.

When I searched YouTube, I found a few neat videos on earthquakes from National Geographic. We always study forces that change Earth's surface, but since my students haven't seen an earthquake first hand, it is great to allow them to experience exactly what an earthquake is and does by video.

I searched TeacherTube for a video on capacity. I found this video that students made describing their experiences with volume and capacity. I thought this video was wonderful because it also shows teachers the different ways that technology can be used in the classroom to reinforce a lesson. I a student was absent or the teacher wanted to review the concept, this video would be an excellent tool to use.

Thing #19

There were a lot of neat sites to choose from, but I enjoyed Picnik. Taking pictures is a hobby of mine, and I loved this photo editing site. There are a lot of editing tools that are free with the program. It is amazing seeing all of the different creations that can be made with pictures. Some of my pictures even look very professional after editing them on the website. I think that in a school setting, this would be a wonderful website for students to add text and edit pictures that have to do with concepts they are learning in class. Students could maybe even keep an online photobook of pictures that coordinate with the concepts they are studying and could then be used as a quick review for the students. I also like anything that has to do with pictures since I teach ELL students.

Thing #18

Using Open Office and Google Docs was pretty easy. I think a disadvantage would be just getting everyone used to it and comfortable with the programs. I can also see some teachers that have just gotten comfortable with the newer version of Microsoft Office not wanting to learn something else. I do like how user friendly and compatable the programs are. We have the newer version of Microsoft Office on our teacher computers at school, but the older version on our three student computers. Since my students use all of the computers in my classroom including my teacher computer, sometimes there are programs opening projects that were saved using the newer program on the older computers. I know that the students can change the file type to be compatable, but Open Office and Google Docs would be compatable everywhere. I also like that it is FREE software!

Thing #17

I was amazed by creating my rollyo. I had no idea you could create your own search engine for students to use. This is amazing! It was very easy to create, and now I can post a link to my rollyo on my classroom webpage. This is a wonderful way to control the amount and type of information that students can get to using the internet. I think this is very beneficial for elementary students since a lot of search engine results are not always appropriate for younger age students. I started my rollyo with just yahooligans and ask for kids websites, but as different projects come up during the school year, I can add more websites to my rollyo.

Thing #16

Wikis are very easy to use. I searched the Teacher/Librarian wiki and found a lot of useful resources to use in the classroom including audiobooks. It was also very easy to edit the sandbox portion of the Spring Branch Library Future wiki.

Allowing students to edit wikis will encourage students to socialize and collaborate to share information. I think that giving students the opportunity to write their thoughts will also increase their reflective writing skills.

I would like to have a classroom wiki for books that we are reading. Students can respond to reflection questions about the books as well as post their own opinions and thoughts about what they have read. Students can also use a wiki to post discussions or summaries about concepts that we learn in class. This will be a wonderful way for me to check their understanding of the concepts in a way that is fun and interactive for students. I could also split the class into groups to add their groups job to the wiki. For example, if we are studying the water cycle, I could have an evaporation, condensation, and precipitation group. They could each add the information about their part to the wiki. In the end, we would have a class description of the water cycle.

My only concern with wikis is the capability to edit anyone's comments. With strict monitoring and ethical descussions, I hope this won't be too much of a problem.

Thing #15

I believe the video A Vision of Students Today is priceless. It is the truth about the students we teach and the changes that need to be made in education not only to reach these students but to also prepare them for life out of the classroom.

In the article "Away from Icebergs", I agree with the point that libraries don't need to be a "just in case" collection anymore. Most of the information that students obtain comes from electronic sources. A lot of people would argue that libraries are still needed for children's books and novels, but these items are now available through electronic sources such as Kindles, iPad, and the Nintendo DS. While I do see the importance of teaching students library skills to find hard copies of books, students also need to be given the opportunity to interact with electronic forms of information as well. A few of my Master's classes required textbooks. Instead of purchasing a hard copy of the book, I downloading an electronic version of the book for a specified period of time at only a fraction of the cost. Where was this at when I spent thousands of dollars on textbooks in college that I never looked at????

I also like the idea that "Into a New World of Librarianship" mentioned about Library 2.0 transforming the library setting into a "social and emotionally engaging center for learning and experience". People learn from social interactions and young children need to learn how to socially interact. They should be able to get excited about the information they gain from the library and have the opportunity to share their opinions and views with others.

Thing #14

Technorati is a great website for searching for blogs and information on blogs. I like that you can decide if you want to search for your key words in a blog, tag, blog post, etc. It is great to be able to find the information you are looking for in an organized way. I did try searching for "school library learning 2.0" as a blog, post, and tag, but I couldn't find anything. I did search more specifically for other subjects, and I found blogs pertaining to them.

Thing #13

The bookmarking websites are great resources to find information. The delicious site was the most useful. I enjoy cooking, and I was able to find specific recipes very quickly.

I also thought of classroom implementations. I was concerned about a site that came up as a result of an animal search that I did for when my students research animals. This made me wonder if the website would be blocked through the district. On a positive note, I typed in "perimeter" and I found wonderful websites that I could use in the classroom to teach the math concept. The websites could also be used by students for extention activities or individual practice. Here are the links to the perimeter websites:

Fun Brain Perimeter & Area

Perimeter & Area

Perimeter Explorer


Social bookmarking is a great tool to quickly find specific information.

Thing #12

I thought that it was interesting that one article mentioned inviting others comments. I never thought about this before, but I like that idea to open up your blog to others and invite their ideas and comments. I think this would be an excellent idea in the classroom. If you have a classroom blog, you could create a post about a book the class read or a concept that was just learned in math, science, or social studies. You could end the post with a question for students. When students have time, they could comment on the blog by answering the question. Does anyone know if it is possible to register students to make comments without having them create full accounts or blogs??? I just think this would be a great way for students to work on their reflective writing if it's possible to set them up on the blog somehow.

I also liked the idea that you should respond to what the person has posted to show that you are listening and care about their ideas.

Commenting on others' blogs was fun. I saw some great things and got more ideas to use in my classroom.

Thing #11

Library Thing is a fun way for teachers and students to learn about books.

I put different children's books into my collection. It would be neat for students to be able to learn a little about a book they are about to begin reading. They can also post reviews and thoughts about the book after reading. This will help them reflect on what they've read and allow them to share their thoughts with classmates. I also like that the website gives you book recommendations. This will help students find more books they might be interested in.

Thing #10

I liked exploring the different image generators. I used trading card maker to make a trading card about Pecos Bill. When we study different people in social studies, my students could make trading cards about each person.



I also like image chef and wordle, but this website is blocked at school. The technology department allowed us access to the website for a day. We were studying word choice in writing around the holidays, so my students each chose a holiday item and wrote all the words they could think of to describe the noun. They went into image chef and typed the words to create the picture of their noun. We uploaded the pictures in Photostory and the students narrated their picture. We were able to create a fun holiday movie with image chef to help students improve their word choice.

I also like the comic creator. I think this is a great tool to use when studying direct quotes. I know comics don't have the quotation marks and other punctuation in the speech bubble, but students could add them to demonstrate their understanding of direct quotations.

Thing #9

I tried using the different blog searches, but some of them were blocked. The one that I liked the most was Technorati. When we read a new story in class, we often talk about the other. I searched for different others, and found blogs about them. Eric Carle's blog was very neat, and I thought this would be a good way to let the students discover information about different authors.

Thing #8

It was easy setting up my RSS, and I love that I can go to one place to read all of the new updates to the blogs that I follow instead of going to each individual blog. What a timesaver!

I think that in the educational setting, having an RSS will save teachers, librarians, and administrators valuable time (something that we are always trying to manage).

Thing #7

I didn't know about all the google tools that are available. I like Google Earth, and enjoyed playing around on it. This will be a useful tool to teach geography and get students motivated about maps. We could also look into different areas that we study about during the year.

The advanced searches that google has will also be helpful in class. I like that you can search for a power point about a topic to use during a lesson.

Thing #6

Mashups are so much fun! I played around with Bookr since I like my students to create books during the year. In December, we study similes, and I had my students create a mini book over winter/holiday similes. I made an example of one on Bookr, and I can't wait to use this project with my class this coming winter!



I wanted to play around with embedding objects into the blog and creating links, so here is the book as a link too.

Winter Similes by By: Stacy

I think that using Bookr will get some students excited about writing! I will also explore and play around with the other mashups!

Thing #5

I've never used Flickr before, so I looked around for awhile. It is a really great website. Since I teach ESL students, I could use the pictures a lot during lessons. We have a lot of teachable moments when students stop me and ask what a certain word is. I often forget some of the words that they aren't familiar with. I can easily bring up Flickr to find pictures for them.

We also do a habitat project in science. Students get to choose an animal to research and create a PowerPoint about. I think it's wonderful how Flickr groups pictures in the Common Collection, and the tags and groups will help students find pictures of their animals. This past year, I had a group researching sharks and horses, so I found pictures that they could have used in their project!

Thing #4

I finished setting up my blog, added my avatar, and sent the email to have my blog registered.

Thing #3

Creating a blog was easy! I played around with the templates a little, but I would like to learn about more ways to customize blogs for my classroom blog. I've never created an avatar before, so I was surprised with all of the choices and combinations that could be made.

Thing #2

The habit that I find the most challenging is to begin with the end in mind. A lot of times I just do things that I'm interested in and don't necessarily know where I want to go with everything. Sometimes I think about the end, but things change along the way. The easiest habit for me is to view problems as challenges. I like puzzles and trying to solve problems. I will get frustrated after awhile, but for the most part, I enjoy trying to work through problems.