Week Eight Thing Nineteen

I absolutely LOVE Google Earth. I have spent so much time playing with this tool. As a military brat, I have lived in many different places and many differet houses. It is very interesting plugging in the addresses of my old houses. It is amazing to see how neighborhoods and cities change over time.

I have also thought about how I could use this in the classroom. I have a globe in my classroom, but I now believe that this will be a better way to show my students where another country is located in relation to where we live.

I have also been amazed by all of the various ways that you can change the view of a location. Being able to see streets, landmarks, or geographic features is so detailed.

Week Eight Thing Eighteen

Slideshare seems like a great tool to use in the classroom. I can see how easy it would be to build my own Slideshare or even make one with my students. I was searching for a Slideshare that would be relevant to what I am currently teaching. I could not find any that I liked. I did, however, find one focused on Halloween Safety Tips. This Slideshare is geared towards parents, however, I think that sharing these ideas with students could still elicit great conversations with children.

Week Seven Thing Seventeen

My fiance listens to podcasts quite frequently and I have listened with him. I have never bothered to ask how he came about having these interesting recordings on his Ipod. I don't think I honestly cared. I enjoyed them when I happened to be in his car while he was listening to them. Now, however, I am excited because I now know how these come to be on his Ipod!

I went on the Learn Out Loud website and clicked around and found an educational podcast. When I clicked on "subscribe," I was taken to ITunes and realized that I can search for podcasts on ITunes and just subscribe to as many podcasts as I would like. I am currently listening to a This American Life broadcast about Health Care. I would love to listen to Educational podcasts, however I could not find one that seemed relevant to my situation. I will keep searching for one. I do think, however, that even listening to current podcasts focused on current events could be beneficial for anyone because I am, after all, expected to be a role model for my students. Shouldn't I know what is going on in the world? So, I have decided that listening to a news podcast while grading may be a better use of my time than perhaps watching the latest episode of Gray's Anatomy.

Week Seven Thing Sixteen

Youtube is a wonderful tool. I honestly mostly use it for laughs. "Charlie Bit my Finger" has been my favorite video for a year. For this assignment, I watched it again and started thinking about the life lesson that can be taken away from this video. I often do feel like someone is biting my finger. Hopefully never literally, but there are often painful things in my life. It is my choice to stick my finger back in or completely walk away. Sometimes it is easier to laugh at life when you just go with it and accept it for what it is.

Week Six Thing Fifteen

After speanding time making a video using Movie Maker, I had an idea of a video that I wanted to make with my kids. As an IB school, we are required to teach using inquiry based methods. Because of this philosophy, we also use this term while teaching. I thought that this activity would be a great way to show my students what they all believe "inquiry" is. The majority of them clearly do not know what it means. I had a feeling that would be the case. Therefore, my next project will be making a video with my students showing what Inquiry truly is. Hopefiully we will be done in time to show it at our school assembly at the end of the month. I would love to help my students become experts on Inquiry.

Week Six Thing Fourteen

This summer I had the chance to take a class on multimedia tools to use in the classroom. We spent quite a while looking at Voicethread and I loved this tool! I can remember my mind just reeling. I could was daydreaming of all of the ways I could use this in my classroom. 4 months later, I still have not used this. Now that I have spent more time on Voicethread today, I feel that it is a more attanaible goal. I can use this to showcase book reports and allow students to comment on what they have learned.

I have to admit that the task of leaving a comment on a Voicethread was quite scary. Yesterday I had to make an announcement using our PA system and I nearly paid someone else to make it for me. I hate leaving messages on machines or hearing my voice in any way on a recording.

I believe that this fear will subside the more I use Voicethread. So, the Voicethread below is the actual one I commented on. Look for the picture of my avatar to see my comments.

Week Five Thing Thirteen

I have been using G-Mail for over a year now. I, however, had no idea that IGoogle, Google Reader, or Google Documents existed. I have been sharing ideas with LaDale about using Google Documents with our teammates in order work on our IB planners. Every week that we meet to work on planners, we have to take turns getting on the server and opening the planner in order to have just one person on the document that can edit it. The rest of us are just looking at a "Read Only" copy. Using Google Documents would make a lot more sense because we could all be on the document and could edit it together.

I have to admit, however, that giving students the ability to edit Google Documents makes me nervous. I love the idea of being able to edit their documents. In a perfect world, I would assign a writing assignment to my students and then I would add comments to their documents. They would then use my comments to make a final draft. I would have them print their rough draft, peer edit, teacher edit, and final draft. Again, in a perfect world....with limited computer time...this would be difficult to do.

Week Five Thing Twelve

I have been using Wikispaces this last week in order to link my Glogster to pages with text for my class website. So far, I feel comfortable with Wikispaces. I am, however, wanting to learn more about PBworks. I can imagine that PBworks will be very easy to use with my students and parents. The PBworks wiki with this class has been very easy to navigate.

I am very inspired by the RBE Global Horizons wiki. This seems like a very interactive site with photos, calendar, and upcoming events. I would love to have a common space where my students can reflect on their learning and parents can check up on them and read their reflections.

Week Four Thing Eleven

I have used Wordle before and did not have a problem using it. This time, however, was not as easy. I had to close all of my programs that were running at the time before I could get Wordle to work. Using this with my students would be very eye opening for them. We are currently researching United States regions. I would love to have my students paste text from a website that they are using to find information about their particular region.

I thought it would be fun to take text from my Wedding website and put it in Wordle. I copied the text from the "About Us" page that my fiance wrote. I really wanted to post this Wordle and could not get it to work. I looked up ways to Print Screen and could not get it to work on my computer. I am wondering if there is an issue with my computer or if there is another way to save the Wordle image.

Week Four Thing Ten

Delicious really confused me when I first downloaded it. I can see how this would really be helpful once I figure it out. I added all of my favorite sites and tagged them in categories. I have to admit, however, that I need to get used to going to that site instead of opening up my favorites list. I have recently been on NetTrekker with my students and I am curious if this could work the same way. In NetTrekker, I can assign websites and searches to a folder for my students to open and read. Could I have students and teammates look at my bookmarks and add comments?

Week Three Thing Nine

I have been saying that I will not join Twitter for several months now. I have had no desire to "tweet", follow other "twitterers", or do any other activity that starts with twit or tweet. I have, however, taken a plunge and joined Twitter. I have spent a while on Twitter and here is my problem...how do I find 20-30 people to follow? I was amazed how my g-mail address book was search and those contacts were added to my list, however, only 4 of my friends are on Twitter. So, any ideas? I am still not sure that I am going to be converted in a Twittering teacher. We shall see.

Week Three Thing Eight

I posted on Erica Priest's blog about Wordle. Erica is a fellow Rockrimmon teacher and we have briefly discussed our findings. It is interesting reading her reflections. I have used Wordle a few times. In truth, I learned about it from Nancy White during a technology class this summer. I loved Erica's idea of using Wordle to have students make predictions about a reading selection and then testing those predictions.

Week Three Thing Seven

Wow! I feel like my eyes have been completely opened. I have just spent an hour looking at different blogs that I could add to my Google Reader. I really enjoyed reading Learning is Messy. It is interesting how Brian Crosby focuses on current issues that are affecting Education while also addressing the current events in his classroom. It is encouraging to read about other teachers who are working through the trials and the joys of using technology in the classroom.

I have to admit, however, that I am still confused about RSS and PLNs. I understand that PLNs are "Professional/Personal Learning Networks," but I don't quite understand what they look like or how they work. I read the tutorials and watched the videos, but I am still fuzzy. Is Google Reader a RSS? Am I part of a PLN because I use Google Reader?

Hopefully someone can make this a little clearer for me...

Week Two Thing Six

Week Two Thing Five

I could spend days making glogs. I can just imagine using this in my classroom and allowing my students to open up my glog to go directly to links that I want them to or even looking at pictures from a field trip. I also love the idea of my class creating their own trading cards for books that they have read. I can envision my students creating one card for each book they read in a quarter in order to build to their deck throughout the year.

Week Two Thing Four

I have admired many pictures on Flickr before and I love how easy it is to navigate around the site. After reading about Creative Commons last week, I understand the way this process works a little more. I love being able to search for photos that have specific copyright claims on it. This photo in particular reminds me of my trips to Italy. I grew up traveling with my family and learned to greatly appreciate architecture and unique city features. Similar to Google Earth, Flickr can be used as a tool in which to show students various perspectives.

Week One Thing Three

Copyright laws have always seemed like jibberish to me. I have always known that some people can understand the Copyright language, but I only learned what I needed to learn to get by. While the “Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video“ was very informative, it seemed very dry and a tad vague. If the laws were more cut and dry, I understand that we would be more limited, however, it feels like there is quite a bit of gray area. We are expected to use "Best Practices" and are basically able to use most material as long as it is an "appropriate" amount. What does "appropriate" mean? Wouldn't that look differently depending on who is using the material?

As a teacher, I know it is my responsibility to make sure that my students understand these laws. This means that I must understand them first. I actually found the Youtube video “Wanna Work Together?“ to be a little clearer. I understand now how to interpret copyright stipulations. I also believe that, now that I know how to determine which copyright restrictions you would like to put on your own work, I could teach students how to allow Creative Commons on their work. I can imagine that having them go through the Creative Commons process for their own work would empower them to own their work and collaborate with others.

Week One Thing Two

Looking at other blogs can be quite overwhelming. "Peanut Gallery: Ms. Gold’s Classroom Blog" has given me many great ideas. During the week of Back to School Night, I spent a lot of time working on my class website. I believe that the website I completed will be helpful for parents, however, this sample blog is more informative and interactive. How great would it be for parents to be able to click on each blog title and find documents and links in such an organized way? I just wonder how long it would take to create a blog that is this complex.

I also loved "817 Math." As an IB school, we are expected to present opportunites for students to reflect on their learning. This blog looks like a fantastic way to allow students a space to process what they are learning.

Week One Thing One

For the most part, I would say that I can work my way around technology. I feel comfortable operating my document camera and projector. Well, now that I think about it, I have had to rely on the technological skills of my fourth graders numerous times when I don't remember to press that button or plug in that cord. It is amazing how much they already know when it comes to operating and using technology.

I suppose I am most looking forward to learning something that will challenge my students and being able show them new ways to use technology in order to learn. I believe there are many valuable tools that we will learn about. As just a second year teacher, I am always wanting to learn new ways to improve my teaching.

As we move quickly towards a period in our society when everyone will be expected to use various forms of technology, I hope to be a teacher whose students will leave 4th grade being that much more prepared to succeed in their future lives.