Not being much of a football fan, the Super Bowl doesn't phase me much. We get together with friends, sample the munchies that get contributed, and I sit around and visit with other non-football type peeps (away from the area with the TV, mind you!). Maybe that is why I just discovered this commercial the other day. Let's see if I can remember how to embed from YouTube. It's entitled "Super Fan". I call it "Super Funny"...hey, I laughed out loud at it when I was at home by myself. That means a lot!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Thing #23
What were my favorite discoveries or exercises: Flickr is something that I find myself clicking onto a lot—it is my goto source for pictures to help with lessons with my ESOL kiddos. Online Image Generators are a lot of fun. Sometimes a lesson needs a little something to make it pop, and now I know how to create a graphic, and there are lots of different styles to choose from. Photostory, is the most exciting thing to me. I think I will try to teach my students how to use this during our study of space.
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? I see the importance of using technology more in the classroom. I am guilty of having the three computers in my room not being used effectively. I had a rotation for the students to work on Odyssey, but other than that, we didn’t use them so much. I am very thankful that I am on a team that got the Power To Learn Grant. Although it has taken a LOT of time teaching the kids to be independent and how to trouble shoot, they are very enthusiastic about using the technology to further their knowledge and sharpen their skills. Because of doing the 23 things, I am more willing to step out and try something new, and share it with the students for them to try.
Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? I really like the idea behind Rollyo. I liked being able to make my own search roll for the units that I do in the classroom to help my students be a little more successful at finding information they need on the web. We really like using EnchantedLearning.com, but the students can only take so many notes on the limited amount of information on that site. I hope that this becomes a reliable tool for me to use.
What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? The only suggestion I have is to maybe move the RSS feeds section down a couple, BUT, I do like that there was a good mix of “things”. There would be some easier ones, then there would be one that slowed me down some. There is a good mix of video presentations, to help learning be a little easier. I really appreciated being able to work at my own pace.
If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? Highly Likely
How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities? Masochistic!
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? I see the importance of using technology more in the classroom. I am guilty of having the three computers in my room not being used effectively. I had a rotation for the students to work on Odyssey, but other than that, we didn’t use them so much. I am very thankful that I am on a team that got the Power To Learn Grant. Although it has taken a LOT of time teaching the kids to be independent and how to trouble shoot, they are very enthusiastic about using the technology to further their knowledge and sharpen their skills. Because of doing the 23 things, I am more willing to step out and try something new, and share it with the students for them to try.
Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? I really like the idea behind Rollyo. I liked being able to make my own search roll for the units that I do in the classroom to help my students be a little more successful at finding information they need on the web. We really like using EnchantedLearning.com, but the students can only take so many notes on the limited amount of information on that site. I hope that this becomes a reliable tool for me to use.
What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? The only suggestion I have is to maybe move the RSS feeds section down a couple, BUT, I do like that there was a good mix of “things”. There would be some easier ones, then there would be one that slowed me down some. There is a good mix of video presentations, to help learning be a little easier. I really appreciated being able to work at my own pace.
If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? Highly Likely
How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities? Masochistic!
Thing #22 Nings
Nings are a great tool for people to use to search out other people with the same interests. Seeing these educator nings makes me realize that teachers have similar issues, no matter where they are in the country (or in the world, in some cases!) I have found that looking through nings is also a great way to pass the time while sitting at your grandpa’s house—especially when he only turns on the TV for a few minutes a day!
There were two sites that I especially liked for their technology information.
laptops
elementary teachers
This is a good way to have discussions on particular issues that a classroom teacher has to deal with (forums tab). You can find helpful information about something you might be about to embark on---some pointers on what worked well for a teacher, and what things blew up, and how they would do it differently. I wish I had had access to this information as a new teacher! As a student at UHCL, I look forward to using the librarian nings to gather ideas of how to be an effective librarian!
There were two sites that I especially liked for their technology information.
laptops
elementary teachers
This is a good way to have discussions on particular issues that a classroom teacher has to deal with (forums tab). You can find helpful information about something you might be about to embark on---some pointers on what worked well for a teacher, and what things blew up, and how they would do it differently. I wish I had had access to this information as a new teacher! As a student at UHCL, I look forward to using the librarian nings to gather ideas of how to be an effective librarian!
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Thing #21 Photostory
How fun is Photostory!?! I am so glad that I learned about this fabulous program before my cruise in January! When I played with Animoto last year, I thought that was neat, but was limited in the music (or at least you are with the free ones). You have so much more control on this program, and I love how you can narrate your own, and you can use your own music straight from itunes! (Oh, geez. How does copyright laws affect this?!?) I created a story using the pictures I took of my class from last school year. This might be a cool program to use for book reports. The students can find pictures that go along with their story and narrate a summary, or book review. It is very user friendly. My only issue was deciding what songs to play with the pictures. I could have spent hours more looking through my music. I could see that if you were having younger kids picking out music, you might consider limiting their choices! I was working on putting some pictures in a power point to put on the class Wiki, but now I am going to see if I can post a photostory instead. The music I used with this story: Theme song from the TV show "Saved By the Bell", and "Fun, Fun, Fun" by the Beach Boys.
I found that I had to revert to the old editor in order to get the video button to link my photostory. (Yes, it took me a while to figure that out, but I was going to figure it out dadgumit!)
I found that I had to revert to the old editor in order to get the video button to link my photostory. (Yes, it took me a while to figure that out, but I was going to figure it out dadgumit!)
Thing #20 YouTube, TeacherTube, Zamzar
I searched Library 2.0, and came up with a parody of the A&E show, “Dog, the Bounty Hunter”…titled “Kat, the Library Fine Bounty Hunter”. While I found it slightly amusing, I decided that this wasn’t something I wanted to embed on my blog. You can look it up if it interests you! I also found a Bookcart Drill Team competition video…do we have one of these is SBISD? After watching some irrelevant things, some funny, some disturbing, I found one that struck a chord with me, simply titled “Web 2.0 Technologies”.
In math, we are about to begin addition with regrouping, and I found this great video on Teacher Tube to explain how to use the program of Kidspiration to model for the children how to add using base 10 blocks.
In math, we are about to begin addition with regrouping, and I found this great video on Teacher Tube to explain how to use the program of Kidspiration to model for the children how to add using base 10 blocks.
Thing # 19 Web 2.0 Awards
I discovered a tool titled “Flock”, which is a social web browser. Due to all of the exploring I have had to do with 23 things, I was not intimidated at all to explore, click, and I UNDERSTOOD what I was reading! If you become a Flock user, you can put all of your web stuff together in one location. Pictures, websites, RSS feeds, keep up with your latest webmail, people you follow, keep up with your blog, and on and on. Currently, I am thinking that this will be a great place to keep all of my library tools. Places I find while researching, RSS feeds related to my studies, pictures that I may take, or pictures of library set ups (such as Book Fair ideas!?!). You can also connect to a wide variety of media streams from here, such as; youtube, facebook, truveo, flickr, just to name a few. When you close out, this program asks you if you want to save your tabs before you quit, so you can return right where you left off.
Flock was very easy to download, and it has tabs for the different screens complete with directions of how to use each screen. There is also a Twitter Search area, so that you can search tweets for the subject you are investigating. One huge disadvantage to this program is that it is loaded onto one computer, so at the moment, your access is limited by your location.
Flock was very easy to download, and it has tabs for the different screens complete with directions of how to use each screen. There is also a Twitter Search area, so that you can search tweets for the subject you are investigating. One huge disadvantage to this program is that it is loaded onto one computer, so at the moment, your access is limited by your location.
Thing #18 Online Tools
I have been using Google Docs this semester with my 2nd graders. With the grant that we got from SBISD, we have ASUS laptops (we call them “minis”), and those did not come with the Microsoft Office package. The students are all set up with their own gmail address, and once they have learned the basics of Microsoft office, they took on Google Docs pretty easily since they are quite similar. This is great for mini-projects such as a slideshow or making a handout for what they have learned. I have used this with group work in Social Studies, Science and Reading so far. Because the students can share documents and presentations with each other, there doesn’t have to be a group of 4 huddled around 1 computer waiting to take turns to do “their part”, they can each be working on their own computer, working on their part of the project, and this helps with eliminating wasted time.
I have also had the students use Google Docs to share their projects with me so that I can easily see from ONE place what their status is as far as finishing. I don’t have to log onto each student’s account, I have them all listed in one place! One disadvantage that has reared its ugly head is that sometimes group members have “tweaked” some part that someone else did, and this has caused some hurt feelings. We have had to establish some rules similar to kindergarten block center of “if you didn’t build it, you can’t knock it down” to “if you didn’t type it, you can’t change it without permission”.
In a nutshell—advantages: free, more than one can work on the same project at the same time on different computers, similar to Microsoft Office programs, and it automatically saves, so the user doesn’t have to worry about where/how to save the project!
Disadvantages: have to set up each user with a google email address to start, items can be edited or changed and you may not like how it was changed, it saves to a server that you do not have control over!
I have also had the students use Google Docs to share their projects with me so that I can easily see from ONE place what their status is as far as finishing. I don’t have to log onto each student’s account, I have them all listed in one place! One disadvantage that has reared its ugly head is that sometimes group members have “tweaked” some part that someone else did, and this has caused some hurt feelings. We have had to establish some rules similar to kindergarten block center of “if you didn’t build it, you can’t knock it down” to “if you didn’t type it, you can’t change it without permission”.
In a nutshell—advantages: free, more than one can work on the same project at the same time on different computers, similar to Microsoft Office programs, and it automatically saves, so the user doesn’t have to worry about where/how to save the project!
Disadvantages: have to set up each user with a google email address to start, items can be edited or changed and you may not like how it was changed, it saves to a server that you do not have control over!
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