Thing 23

December 20th, 2009 by

Can it be true? Am I actually blogging about Thing 23? I think I’m having an hallucination! Finally, I’ve completed the work for this course. How do I feel? My first reaction is relief. My next feeling is, “I have learned so much.” My third response is, “Wow, I have a lot to learn.”

I have tried to make the most of this course as possible and implememted several of the web 2.0 tools and ideas in my classroom teaching as well as with colleagues. I have many ideas that I want to try in the future.

As far as the course goes, I can say without a doubt, that I put in well over 30 hours of work into it.  I don’t think it would be possible to complete the course and truly understand and apply in that amount of time. I had some knowledge of some of the tools and thought I had a slight advantage over someone with no prior knowledge. I most definitely think it is worth more than 2 credits.

That being said, I have no regrets. This is where education is going and even though I have taught for 24 years, I want to continue learning and believe I have no other choice than to continue my journey.

My imovie, Suzanne’s Web 2.0 Journey, is linked to my practice wiki. I was not able to embed it here. Ahhh……more to learn:)  It’s not perfect and I’d like to tweak it but truly do not have the time to make it “perfect.” After viewing it for the hundredth time, I realise I did not give credit to the musicians. (and I’m married to one!) The music is Om Namo by Deva Premal and Say What You Need to Say by John Mayer.

I originally tried to use Masher to create a movie but found it to be incredibly frustrating to use. Sometimes you get what you pay for with the free sites. I have used Animoto many times and wanted to try something new. I finally went to imovie and learned so much about the differences between it and Windows Movie Maker, which I have used for personal projects. They are similar but each have their quirks. This project forced me to learn these quirks. I compressed the video for web streaming but it is coming up with an http error. Now I have to figure out how to upload it to this blog or my wiki.

Below is the Masher video before I gave up on it:(

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Thing 21

December 16th, 2009 by

While waiting to be approved of for the Web 2.0 site, I found the following information about ways to use Wordle. I have used it but didn’t have many educational purposed for it. Following are a few of they ones that were new to me.

One thing lead to another which leads to another which leads to another and so on and so on …..As I looked through different Nings I cound the NCTE ( National Council of Teachers of English) which had vocabulary videos that interested me.  This lead me to Brainypics  which is part of Brainyflix.  This would be fun to help kids with their vocabulary, especially those preparing for the SAT

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Thing 22

December 13th, 2009 by

I took a course a few years ago and was introduced to NETS- they are the technology standards just like our power standards. When I came back to the states after living and teaching in Germany for 5 years, I was appalled at the lack of information schools seemed to have on this subject. It is not something new however, I do know that technology is becoming a bigger part of education than even 5 years ago. I expected to have an actual technology/computer class where students would get this information. Boy was I wrong. And the sad thing is that so many teachers are unaware of Digital Citizenship.

I love the interactive quiz on DC but my computer was doing something funky ( it couldn’t be operator error!) and I could only see half the screen. I know I missed the questions about what number to call in an emergency and the age you must be in England to be considered responsible for your actions on the internet. I think I did fairly well although I couldn’t see my score. ……will try again.

Below is a video done by a Japanese school. No worries, there are subtitles in English. There is a series of these on DC. It is hilarious to watch these beautiful children, but the message is loud and clear, no matter what language you speak.

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Thing 20

December 12th, 2009 by

I learned about Google Docs last year and have been playing around with it a bit this year. My students are supposed to do Independent Reading and fill out a response form. 600 pages equals an A. Last year, I copied the reading response forms and they filled them out. I took them home, read them, commented on them, totaled the number of pages and 6 hours later…..started on the next class. Okay, I’m using a bit of hyperbole, but it took an incredible amount of time and used a ton of paper. Nevermind the fact that I was constantly running out of the sheets and had to copy them constantly.

Now I use a Google Doc that I created using a template. These are posted on my website. The kids select the genre they read, then click on the link, answer the questions on the form, click submit, and it comes to me. All I have to do is look it up on my computer, total the pages, and voile! No paper used. My only problem now , is that I still keep an excel spreadsheet with the total number of pages. I can easily total how many pages in each genre have been read, but not for each student. I’m wondering if there is a way around this. I don’t want to have to create a spreadsheet for each student, or should I? I welcome suggestions.

I also have not figured out how to share the documents with other teachers for their own use. I know how to share but the completed forms always come back to me. How do I share them so that the other teachers can make them their own?

Below is a link to one of the forms I use.

Reading Response- Realistic Fiction

My team is also playing around with this. We have made a Google Group and uploaded documents to share, such as a test, and we can edit, modify, differentiate it without ever meeting formally. We are still perfecting this, but we are on the right track.

I didn’t know that I could embed the document into my wiki. I mention earlier that I would like to survey my students on how they like using the class wiki. Now I can embed it and get the results immediately.

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Thing 19

December 12th, 2009 by

I learned about Zamzar last year ( when YouTube was blocked) and discovered a wealth of relevant information. I actually stumbled on TeacherTube when searching for grammar videos. Remember Grammar Rock for the 70′s? It’s there and the kids still love it! Now that I know about Voice Thread, I can have my students comment on certain videos. Embedding is my new favorite thing to do! My team and I decided we needed a place to keep all the information we share in a place where we can all access it. We decided on a wiki. I’ve embedded several videos already and it will be there for us forever! By the way, our wiki is called, are you ready……Queens of English! Ha!

Learn to knit a hat! I took a class but never got to the top of the hat. Now I know how.

How to write a Descriptive Essay. If you like Mel Gibson, you might enjoy this one.

Here’s to the crazy ones! A perfect tie in to The Misfits by James Howe.

My family used to go to Helen, Georgia. It is sometimes called Little Norway. It is terribly commercialized now, but it used to be a quaint place for a getaway weekend. I have fond memories of this place.

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Thing 18

December 9th, 2009 by

PODCASTING

Well, I thought this would be an easy one for me. I have an older computer so do not have the latest version of Garage Band so cannot do a podcast easily. I know there is a way around this, but I don’t know what it is. Then I decided to try Audacity but found it frustrating and not user friendly. I finally thought I’d take the easy route and used Vocaroo. I know how to embed and guess I thought I could embed into the D112 Podcast page. I was wrong and kept losing my recording. Whenever I downloaded, I don’t know where it went. I finally did the Zamzar thing, (this has saved me a zillion times) and it worked. What I thought would be about an hour’s worth of work turned into several frustrating hours……but….I learned!

Vocaroo_vGX93RSopKU26hBST

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Thing 17

December 9th, 2009 by

I have used Podcasting indirectly with my students. Our librarian (yes, I know this is politically incorrect, but that’s what she is) asked if I would be interested in doing podcasts for books in the library. I jumped on the bandwagon immediately. I created a google form to help the kids write a short script and also for accountability. They used this to record their book reviews. These podcasts are all available on a school owned I-pod that the kids can check out. They can listen to the podcasts to help them find a book to read. The goal is to get them posted to a website and eventually available for the kids to listen on their own personal Ipods. She did the work and I facilitated. I need and want to learn more. Some of the podcasts I listened to are the following:

Online Education Database

The adverstisement for this was, “Skip the Tuition” and “100 podcast from the best colleges in the world.” You can learn just about anything this way. I looked for a Master of Arts in Music Education for my husband and found one through Boston University. He was a performance major but now needs the education side for his resume. We are looking into this further.

Podcast for English, Literature, Literacy and Drama

As an English teacher, I found this one to be a wealth of resources. I listened to several author talks and know the kids would love to listen to their favorite authors speak. Most talked about themselves and what brought them to writing. A great motivator has just been discovered! I’m even inspired to get back to my own writing.

Education Podcast Network- Just Vocabulary

This is a great one for learning new vocabulary or even for ESL learners. If a student is studying for the SAT, this will definitely help with vocabulary. I love that I can listen to a podcast while doing other things on the computer. It’s the ultimate in multi-tasking:)

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Thing 15

December 9th, 2009 by

Options for Building Your Teacher Website and Why YOU Should

Cyndi Danner-Kuhn, says, “Every educator needs to build and maintain his or her own teacher Website.” I agree with her completely and have tried to do that this year. My parents seemed impressed and grateful that they ( and their child) have access to homework, assignments, and more. I use weebly.com which is very user friendly.

My English Website

My English Wiki

My Humanities Websie

My Humanities Wiki

What I don’t like is that you cannot embed anything with the free version. I also have a wiki, so I can do that there. But I wonder, is it necessary to have a website and a wiki  for each subject or would it be easier to have everything in one place? I’m sure I will make changes for next year and will be creating a Google form or Poll Daddy for my students to complete. I will ask them for their input on my website and wiki. I want it to be useful and helpful to both students and parents. I researched other teacher websites for ideas on how to design and organize my own site. I sure wish I had “attended” this conference prior to making my website. I struggled with which free site to use, what information should be put on the site, how to organize it and make it user friendly. Cyndi suggests having someone else look at your site. Tell them to find a specific page and see if is easy to locate. If not, you know you need to make some changes. If it’s easy to find, fantastic!

Show this to every reluctant teacher/parent you know!

Song written by Kevin Honeycutt from ESSDACK.

Video Directed/Edited by Shawn Gormley


Using E-Books to Motivate Writing

In this presentation, Colin Hill demonstrates how using an e-book can be an immediate method of displaying children’s work to the WWW, helping sharing work between school and home. This immediate work motivates children in their work, as they know that their families (near and far) get to see their work, as well as the wider global community.

This is another freebie that I am going to play around with. I teach 7th grade Humanities and there is a huge project that is put together at the end of the year. It is an autobiography in which the students compile all of the 40-60 pieces of writing they have done through-out the year. At the moment, my idea is to make an ebook of the actual assignments as a reference for my kids. After I learn more, I am considering having them make digital autobiographies via My E-book.

After playing with it for the last half hour, I am very frustrated. It seems like it should be user friendly but I am having trouble manipulating with the mouse. I had the same problem with Glogster. I am going to take a step back, take a break, and try again at a later time. Sometimes that is all that is needed. Otherwise, I’ll go crazy!

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Thing 16

December 5th, 2009 by

The Tools I Explored

BeFunky – http://www.befunky.comThis is fun and easy. Here is a picure of my niece and I. I used the motion color feature.

Motion Color

Motion Color

My Hubby and I as Cartoon Characters

My Hubby and I as Cartoon Characters

Blabberize – http://blabberize.com

My dog, Zoe, introduces my English wiki.

Box.net – http://www.box.net

This seems to be a lot like Google Groups but I like it because you can upload documents into folders. You can not do this with Google Groups. We are experimenting in the English department.

Gliffy – http://www.gliffy.com/

I don’t like this as well as Inspiration but if kids want to use it, they can without purchasing any software.

Glogster EDU – http://www.glogster.com/edu/

This is fun but can be difficult to use when you are dragging items all over the page. I made a poster to introduce myself to my Advisory students. One caution, make sure you use the edu! I didn’t and there are some inappropriate topics and pictures on the regular site.

JigZone – http://www.jigzone.com/

This is fun. I’m not sure if I’ve found the educational value but I put it on my wiki to introduce the next novel. Can you guess what we are reading?

Click to Mix and Solve

Picnik – http://www.picnik.com/

Another fun way to alter pictures. My niece uses this via Facebook.

PollDaddy – http://polldaddy.com

Create custom polls and surveys to embed in any web page. It’s a lot like Survey Monkey. I am going to use it to get some feedback on my wiki from the kids.

Quizlet – http://quizlet.com/

I’ve been using this site for quite a while. I use it for our study of Greek and Latin stems and vocabulary for our novels. Here is a sample. Word Within a Word list 31.

SlideShare – http://www.slideshare.net

Upload and share Powerpoint presentations in an embeddable format.

Voicethread – http://www.voicethread.com

I love this. It is easy and I’m learning so many education applications. Here’s one I did with the novel, The Giver.


Weebly – http://weebly.com

Super easy to use. I use it for English and Humanties.

Wordle – http://wordle.net/

Create colorful, graphical ‘word clouds’ from text that you provide. I have used this just for fun, to point out how many times words are overused ( like, really, very, and then….), and one student used it to demonstrate his knowledge of noun types.

Xtranormal – http://www.xtranormal.com/

This is so goofy but the kids love it. The characters talk like robots and sometimes massacre the English language with their accents. It is easy to make a simple movie. Several students used it to teach the different types of nouns. I used it to explain my Homework Policy.

Library Thing- www.librarything.com

Hello! English Teacher meets Library Thing. I got lost in here! So cool.

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Thing 13

December 5th, 2009 by

Okay, so social bookmarking has been something I was unsure of. I started using Delicious prior to taking this class and love how I can access my bookmarks from anywhere on any computer. I had not tagged anything until now. I also like the tag bundles. They sure make it easier to find specific sites, especially when I can’t remember the exact name of the site. However, I must admit that I haven’t taken advantage of the social part of bookmarking. I definitely see the value of sharing and realize that I don’t have to recreate the wheel. My problem is an age old problem. TIME! I love this stuff but never seem to have enough time to research and explore. Yes, social bookmarking should save time, and perhaps after I am more accomplished, it will. I am not giving up:)

As for Diigo, I have not decided what I think about this site. I have the same feeling as I do about using Facebook and Twitter. Do I really need to have two bookmark sites? At first I thought the highlighting and bookmarking were cool, but after reading some of the sticky notes, it seems be just another way to chat. I haven’t found valuable information in that way. I know I am still learning and I welcome your ideas and suggestions.

By the way, I have not been able to tag my Diigo sites with “D112Learning2.0″ to the wiki. I can usually figure these things out but am missing something here. Help!

http://delicious.com/suzanneott

http://www.diigo.com/user/suzanneott


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