Thing 23

Oops, Just realized that I forgot to blog on Thing 23. Thought I was finished, but I guess I got a little ahead of myself.
First, sharing what I've learned. This is a tought one. To share what I've learned, from my experience, only works for people who are interested in the learning. I will be happy to share any information or insight I have gathered with anyone who is interested. I find that trying to force the issue doesn't work in any way, shape, or form.

I know I began this class with a bit of a negative attitude and I'm leaving feeling inspired and optomistic. I'm hoping to continue to explore Web 2.0 and with the encouragement of the other teachers who took this class with me, I think that will happen. I'm also hoping to look for some technology grants. I'd like to get a smart board, if possible, and maybe even someone to come into the classroom for professional development. I've never written a grant before, but I know that I will be exploring this option over the winter break. I'm a little excited thinking about this. And, I've just thought, that perhaps I can use the message/help board for help in the grant writing process. Suddenly, possiblilites seem to have opened up. I'll be exploring some of these over the break to see if connecting over the internet really works. We'll see.

Thing 22

I will definately participate in PD courses on-line although I do have to say that I was fortunate to share this PD experience with other teachers in my building. We helped each other when something was confusing and we didn't quite understand how or what we were doing, which is one of the advantages and disadvantages of taking a PD class on-line. I enjoy the personal interaction when I'm trying to figure out how to solve a problem which isn't necessarily available when taking an on-line class. I like the convenience of working on-line at my own pace whenever and wherever I am. Whether or not I'll continue to blog is another question. Right now, I don't thing I will continue to share my thoughts. I didn't see the advantage of blogging from this experience. People aren't interacting with the blogs. As far as this class went, I'm finding that I enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to when I first began this experience. In the beginning, I thought it was confusing, too much work, too many user names and passwords to remember. I didn't understand that everything was under the umbrella of google and that I would only need the one user name and password. I learned much more than I realized. Perhaps it was the wikis, podcasts, and vodcasts that struck a cord. It was exciting to download the video to show to the student who didn't understand what the reading was about. I told my students today that if the books they were creating came out good, they could create a podcast so that their parents or relatives could hear them read their stories over the internet. They were so excited! I'm hoping this will encourage them to put their best effort into their work and they will create something of substance. I would never have thought of doing something like that before taking this class. If someone told me to do it, I would have thought of it as one more thing to add to my impossibly long list of things to do at school.

I do have to say however, that I'm not sure I would have been as optomistic about this class had it not been for the teachers I worked with and collaborated with. It helped make the class more fun and interesting especially when we began sharing ideas. Bottom line, I would recommend this class to others and I'm looking forward to 23Things Part 2.

Thing 21

I am very excited about using videos in the classroom and I have started using them already. I was reading with a student a story about sheep shearing and weaving. I asked her if she knew what it meant to shear a sheep or if she knew what weaving was. When she said no to both questions, I told her I would show her. I went to youtube and downloaded sheep shearing and Navajo weaving. Not only was she excited, but the rest of the class wanted to know what we were doing and also became excited watching the videos. The only problem I have is that I have to show these videos over a monitor which means a small group can comfortably view them at one time.

Thing 20

I'm sure my students would enjoy listening to some podcasts. They would enjoy the storytelling and music podcasts. I'm also sure they would enjoy creating podcasts. They like listening to themselves read so I'm sure anything that would have them reading a story would work well. I also think it would be great to have them podcast a "How To" when explaining how they got an answer to a math problem.
Podcasts that I listened to were Earth and Sky for Kids, www.earthsky.org/kids, Colonial Williamburg, http://history.org/media/podcasts.cfm. This I believe, http://www.pbs.org/podcasts/ and Robert Munsch http://www.robertmunsch.com/booklist.cfm.


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Thing 12

Oops!
I created my flickr picture but I forgot to reflect on how I might use this in the classroom or share with other teachers.
I suppose I could use it if I took pictures during field trips and uploaded them to my computer at school. Then, the students could label the pictures. We could then present the slideshow during Open House for parents to view, or students could share their slideshow with family and friends from other schools or cities that have internet capability.

Thing 21

Thing 19

WOW! I had no idea there were so many podcasts on the web, or out in the cloud. I listened to, This I Believe, Colonial Williamsberg, EarthSky, and Robert Munsch. I like This I Believe, but I also like listening to it on NPR when I'm in the car driving around. It's insightful and thought provoking.
Podcasts are ok. I find them a little difficult to listen to especially when the speaker is a bit dry. I would prefer a video, otherwise known as vodcast so I can have a visual along with the audio.
I think podcasts and vodcasts would work great in the classroom setting for science and social studies. I love the idea of watching then recreating a science experiment in the classroom especially when most of my science experiments seem to flop and I don't know why. I can also use an explanation as to what is happening behind the science. For example, I know how to create volcanoes, I just don't know why putting baking soda and vinegar together create an explosion. I love the idea of letting students visit a living history museum via vodcasts. The downsize is having the available technology in the classroom to access these sites. The other is the overabundance and wealth of information. One podcast or vodcast links to other podcasts which link to more podcasts and the list is unending. I find myself getting too overwhelmed with this gigantic sea of information until I feel like I'm drowning.