One Last Thing

I have always been apprehensive about using the computer so this was a giant leap for me. I feel very confident in using the computer now that I have completed this challenging class. I made it and before the deadline. I may celebrate with a toast tonight! I feel like this has connected me with so many people to help me grow. I learned that I can't stay in my own private world personally or professionally. I must open myself up! Although, I feel like I am a great teacher I feel I can even be better now!The most rewarding part of this experience is feeling confident that I can use the computer. I learned new things each and every day! I would do it again and again. The only thing I would do different is to give us access to Sandbox before completing Thing #15. I didn't have access when I was ready to do the task. So I had to complete it the following night.

I will give myself time for the computer to keep up with the technology skills that I learned from this course . Thank you for this journey! It was very helpful!

Thing #23

I really enjoyed classroom 2.0 but I didn't understand how you could search for forum topics, I just had to browse from most popular or recently submitted. The one I spent the most time reading instead of skipping was Promethean vs Smart Boards. I enjoyed reading the commits. It made me thankful for our school district for providing Title 1 schools with this technology. I did see Promethean Planet referenced a lot. I do like promethean boards better because there appears to be more free things to use in the classroom. Using the Ning Networks related to education I found a networking group that I liked for my classroom. It was titled The Way We Are Classroom Project where collaborative learning takes place with children from different places around the world using E-Pal. I am just amazed everyday with the social networking out in cyberspace! Hope your having a great evening!

Thing 7b

My Google Reader site Infinite Thinking Machine lead me to an article about Twitter.com. I really think Twitter is more for me. I like that it is bite sized information and that it can be done via computer or phone. I think this is something my first graders could and would do. This is a plus for education it would foster interaction but not get in great depth or too personal. I really want to try this with my first grade students. I am wondering if we can get to Twitter in the computer lab. Just to practice. I really love all the video from Commoncraft.com. Those guys are helpful!

Thing #22

Tonight was a blast from the past. I didn't realize how many people I knew until I started searching on Facebook. I wondered how all these people have time to do all this social networking. Although, I really enjoyed looking up old friends and seeing their children. I saw many former students on Facebook. What a great way to see how they are doing and what they have accomplished for themselves. I was really weary of going into Facebook with all the negative publicity but it all seemed fine and harmless. Here is my profile.

Thing #21

Tonight I explored all a lot of technology Google has to offer! Wow! My favorite place to explore was Google Earth. I spent a wonderful hour just playing. This would be great for the classroom and really bring our history and map lessons alive. I love searching different places. You can really get close up and personal to people homes. I visited our family farm, our old house, and even enjoyed the stars. Very intriguing!
I love the Google Alerts, I had no idea their was such a website. That is amazing how it can locate the things that interest the reader without the reader having to do all the work! SUPER!
Google is amazing there is something for everyone! It is a fast paced world!

Thing #20

Yes, Google Docs are fabulous! This will save me a lot of time opening e-mails and cutting and pasting to an original document. Well my team has talked about making a grade level newsletter this would be perfect. We could each input on the same document that we are sending home to parents each week. Also my principal has been talking about a vertical reading wall but when never had time to collaborate on it so tonight I created a spreadsheet for us to use every six weeks. This will be perfect. My principal will be excited! Plus, I think this would be perfect for our weekly first grade reading log. Our reading logs would look similar but the teachers still have the freedom to program it and input their ideas. The best part about this is that Google Docs is on the Internet. You don't have to go out and pick up the latest version of Microsoft Office.

Thing #19

This was a new skill for me tonight. I haven't ever heard of VoiceThreads. I wish I would have known about this years ago. I will have my own kids record their thoughts about this summer adventures that we have together. So I can treasure not only the picture but their voice, spelling, and drawings. For the classroom, I loved the idea of showing classical art and having the kids describe it. They did this using the Norman Rockwell piece. I am always trying to figure how the kids can produce something with the information gained from research units so this would be perfect. I enjoyed the book A to Z in the Library.
I feel like this would help kids communicate better. There true feelings would come out as they are expressing themselves using more creative sources. Lots of good things to think about for the new school year!

Thing #18

I really enjoyed my time watching all YouTube and TeacherTube Videos. I really enjoyed the video on the Lady Liberty. It was very educational. It would be a great way to review facts on the Statue of Liberty in our Social Studies Unit. I highly recommend this for kindergarten, first and second grade teachers. It would be fun to use the information for a round of jeopardy. I would embed this video but it kept buffering which caused poor play quality. The second teaching video would be a wonderful addition to our science curriculum when we teach the water cycle. This video teaches a song to help reinforce that concept. Listen to it below.








For my how to I found an instuctional video on How to Make Classroom Posters with Microsoft Excel very helpful. This appeared easy to do and would have lots of great benefits for teacher and student use. It would be a lot cheaper than using the poster machine at my school. This would only take 4 sheets of 8 1/2 by 11 paper!

I laughed a lot during this entire process tonight but to end my night I like the video of 2 Funny Babies Laughing from YouTube. It just reminded my of my own two kids when they were that young. I just love how the simple things in life make us laugh! Good night!

Thing #17

Podcasts would be a valuable tool for my classroom. I really like the podcast with video or visuals more that just an auditory one. I found the Jamestown Podcast #72 would be a great way for me to implement a podcast for my students. I really loved the pictures that went along with the kids poems. Then the second podcast I enjoyed... First Grade Teachers usually don't find a lot for science but I found a goldmine using the DragonFly Podcast. It was kid friendly and had a lot of information that would help support TEKS. For my personal use I liked the Merrian Webster Dictionary with a word of the day. What a great way to learn new words. I will add that to my morning classroom routine for myself before the kids arrive each and every school morning. I am glad I was able to find so many fun things to use both professionally and personally too.

Thing #15

OMG! This took me two nights to complete! I think we needed the approval a few nights before so we didn't have to wait for permission when we were ready to work. After I got in, I had a lot of fun with it. I am happy I got to post my burning question about TOMS Shoes. I hope he makes his goal for this year! He has been an inspiration to me! I am hoping to get some co-workers to purchase shoes from TOM. I feel like everything is really starting to click once I get going and it reinforces everything we have learned. I enjoyed the Sandbox Pages after I finished it. My son shared a song using Blabberize. So it was great family fun! Happy Independence Day!

Thing #16

WOW! Where do I start? I wish I would have had this LibraryThing when I first started teaching school 16 years ago! I am famous for buying the same books over and over. This could have saved me some cash for other stories! I did join Library Thing! I really liked Children's Fiction Group. There were a lot of good posting on there.I will use this site when I get a brain freeze in the classroom and need other assistance when I am puzzled! Plus, I loved the topic list. I found the topic Books You Loved As A Young Child, it sent me down memory lane. I will have to read a few of those oldies to my daughter this summer.

I have been reading My Sister's Keeper so the Book Suggester was very useful. It offered other ideas for me when I am finished with this fantastic story. The Unsuggester was very unique, but true. I really wasn't interested in those types of novels.

I feel like my students would like to sign up for the Book Challenge. That would motivate her to read. So I love that idea. I am wondering if it would be effective in the classroom to for choice reading time. I might try it when school starts. It was a fun learning about LibraryThing!

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!