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.