Thing #14

Wow! That was a very inspiring story by Vickie Davis. It was fun to hear how the kids were so inspired about learning by just adding more technology like Wikis to the curriculum! The article really reeled me in to wanting to know more about using Wikis in the classroom.
I really love the Primary Math Wiki by Cassidy. It was easy to read because of using simple bullets. The kids could easily follow this for themselves. I love the idea of having the answer to the math problems hidden. Then when you were ready to check your answer all you had to go was run the mouse over the problem. AWESOME! It blew my mind! How do you do something like that?????? Also, this teacher was great connecting other teachers and classes together to share ideas, thoughts, and postings! She could make a community come together very quickly. The next wiki that I would like to comment on is Schools in the Past. Wow! I admire the way that this teacher got parents, students, and grandparents together to share information. This is a quick inquiry research project. She made a complicated activity very simple to do! Last of all, Kindergarten Counting Book
wiki was a great way to use the digital camera. I thought about doing this to show our 100 day creations that we have made in the past. It was very creative! I like how each student got to take ownership of his project by adding his name near his picture creation.

Wiki are a great tool for the classroom. It will allow all of us to work together to better our children! LOVE IT!

I am starting to get a lot of stray text or link codes on my blogs, any ideas?

Thing #13

Tonight I spent time exploring Delicious on the computer. It is a social network. I feel like I need more time with it but I thought it would help me organize websites and information better. I could retrieve sights easily and quickly with the use of tags. As far as using it in the classroom, I can read and work on the computer at night and still have access to the items tagged at school. I would love to use this with my team so we could forward and share articles/blogs quickly. This would save time during our planning time. I don't know if I would use it in the classroom with students because of the filling our the registration form,but maybe the parents would read article that I bookmarked to help them with their child. It was an interesting night but I need more practice! I like the i-movie I tagged about monarch butterflies in mesquite.

My link to my account is: http://delicious.com/Blazin2009

Thing 7A

Google Reader, Not habit forming, yet! I have to remind myself every few days to read from the Google Reader. Most of everything, I found interesting had to do with Michael Jackson. It has been a tough week seeing people you admired as a child die. I feel really old! So the New York Times got most of my attention this week about Michael Jackson. I found myself thinking how one man could change so much over a short time. And how your freedom taken away can isolate a person.I really felt empathy. My daughter, who is 7, wanted to know more about the sequined glove that she heard about so this article was helpful.I thought the glove was white? Not sequined?
Happy Reading!

Thing #12

HA! HA! HA! I laughed for a long time about some of these tools. My favorite by far was the Blabberize Tutorial. The thought of making things animated using my own words and voice is a hoot. It is set up to communicate and teach you exactly how to create a animation quickly and easily. It would be so much fun to share with people using your e-mail! It would make them L.O.L. I played with Wordle too. It was very simplistic. First Graders could use this tool in the classroom easily.

Thing #11

I feel like I would use the activities in Thing #11 in my classroom. I had fun with the trading card. I made one for my daughter because I would not trade her for the world. She is a collector's item! I think my first graders would enjoy getting a trading card with their picture. I went to Big Huge Labs. I picked out a color. Then selected a picture from my computer. It downloaded the picture quickly. I typed a short title and description for the trading card. It took very little time. Next, I made a cute Post-it-Note at Sign Generator for you guys to remind you to keep up with your Google Reader reading. I thought this would be fun to put on my students writing assignments to encourage their writing! This was short and sweet too, easy to apply in the classroom! My husband will love this next one of the Aggie pennant.I found it at Image Chef. It would be great for College Week. They could make them for our bulletin board or our door. This was another quick,easy and fun thing for your class.

HAVE A GOOD NIGHT!

Thing #10

My slide show is about leaders. This is a topic we talk about a lot in First Grade so I thought it would be useful. I selected animoto with music for my video presentation. It contains 11 photographs and cool music. I really enjoyed the Brown Bear Video. My own kids got a kick out of that, they wanted to watch it over and over.

Photo Credits (it took me eleven photos to tell the story)
1. Al Gore by Juame Lopez
2. Faces by salimfadhley
3. Obama w/child by magicians
4. JFK and Obama by BL1961
5. Gates by Niall Kennedy
6. Oprah by Alan Light
7. Armstrong by W. Jarrett
8. Warren by Buried next to you
9. MLK by Tonythemisfit
10. Pope by Paul Resh
11. Trump by Ping Ping

Thing #9

Fascinating Stuff! I really loved the new information that I learned tonight using Flickr Creative Commons. On Creative Commons it makes it easy to search CC so you don't have to get permission to use others work. Plus, I learned that tags need to be only one word or use underscores instead of spaces. You can have lots of tags for one photograph. I enjoyed the process of learning to post a picture on my blog. But I am wondering "Can I use this in Comic Life with my students? This is amazing, you can get so many pictures for free. I can't wait to use these in the classroom! I selected the theme of "leaders!" for my topic. The attached picture below is President Kennedy and President Obama. I really like the art work. It is a photograph in displayed in a gallery. It represents hope and change for our nation. The give credit to:BL1961. The reference website is below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkadog/3194197590/

Thing #8

No, I have not noticed the CC but I will definitely be on the look out for them in the future. I feel like with CC students who are not creative get a chance to use and remix and put a new edge on things. Instead of reinventing the wheel you can build on it. I am an amateur at all this media stuff but I have tried it, I'm hear to sharpen my skills. I feel like there is more positive to come from Creative Comments than negative. I like the saying from the video " You don't give it up, you just share it!"

Thing #7

Commenting is a time for me to share my opinion or vote. My voice is heard. Wow! In just days I have been connected to people as far as Africa. It builds on online friendship with people who hold the same interest, beliefs, or views. Commenting helps share information in a instant! It all seems to be encouraging and positive.

This course is very interesting. It has encouraged me to read and reflect, maybe a little more than I wanted to do this summer! LOL

Title #6

My favorite website or blog had games on it for kids. It is the Canadian version of PBS Kids. I could see how this experience could consume a lot of my time. There is so much out there! I found a blog called Innovate or Die by Anthony Chicetta he really knows his vision and seems to know how to get there. Yet, I feel very apprehensive about this new revelation in learning. But I know students are in a very fast paste world so we need to catch up and get on board. I really admire those teachers who are visionaries. I am trying to follow in there direction. I am on board!

Title #5

I loved reading the article about Teachers Without Borders. I really want my students to participate in the Edunova project in South America. It would be cool to have bloggers across the world. It would be a new twist to our pen pals in the past. It would be nice to go and help a country that isn't as fortunate as ours. I appreciate our district in giving us this opportunity to learn new things!

Thing #4

This was my first time reading blogs. I really like that they were easy to read. Most were pretty casual. As a person who has been teaching for 15 years this really requires me to get out of my little box. If only, I had this freedom to write and express myself over the years. I probably wouldn't freeze, stumble, and shy away from writing. This shed a whole new light on education and we see writing for our students. The posting that I like was about Duck Theories. I love how the second graders responded to it. This will get my students excited about using the internet and blogging, if they can respond to the world!

Thing #2

In the 21st century kids get information quick and fast. As a teacher I can't be slow at giving/receiving that information so this will help me a great deal to move learning a long faster and make it more interesting. It will create more active and engaged learners. I feel like this will help me relate to my students in a new and fun way.

Thing #1

Well this summer I am committed to being a lifelong learner by taking a class that I am very nervous about. When I watched the clip/video of 71/2 Habits of Highly Effective Learners that I knew it was about breaking out of the box for me. I needed to get out of my safe zone and open my mind to the 21st century of technology and communication. It is a very exciting way to communicate to the world. The most challenging part will be just finding time to do this for myself with a busy schedule this summer. But I am taking it one step at a time. I am trying to think positive and reassure myself. The easiest part will probably be keeping my goal in focus and that is to learn and appreciate new learning and growth. The most important habit is going to be doing it daily and not getting behind. I feel like the checklist will help me a lot! Chat with you soon!