One last thing

I really enjoyed this class but I have to be honest, it was a lot more work than I realized. I know they said up front that it would be a lot more work but I just didn't realize how much that would really entail. I learned a lot including, but not limited to, Creative Commons, RSS feeders, a wiki, slideshow, and bookmarking.I realized I needed to be more aware of picture copyright and to use Creative Commons. I always heard of an RSS feeder but didn't take the time to figure it out and use it. It was easier than I thought. I like having so many things in one place (google.com). I had heard of a wiki but I didn't know what it was because I never explored it on my own. I enjoyed making a slide show and know it can be useful for my own personal blog as well as for classroom use. I use the Delicious bookmarking system all the time.

I learned a lot of things from this class even though it took me a year to finish it. I am thankful I could finish it and can use what I have learned in the future.

Thing #23

Classroom 2.0 has an exorbitant amount of valuable information for educators. Like it said on 23 things, we can begin to “feel overwhelmed by the amount of content” so we need to “remember that [we] are not supposed to keep up with everything on a site like this, but rather to skim, explore and focus on those areas which are of real interest to [us].”

An article that caught my eye on Classroms 2.0 was about teachers using cell phones in classrooms. I never thought that cell phones could be used for educational purposes. There was a forum that listed ideas for best practices as well as pros and cons. I teach first grade so I cannot use it but I showed this to my husband who asked me to e-mail it to him. He is going to try polleverywhere.com by having the kids text their answers and it will show up as an anonymous poll to see where the class as a whole is in their understanding of the information.

I signed up for Twitter about 1 year ago and only got on approximately 2-5 times and never did much with it. I didn’t really see the need for it since I update my facebook page. Someone explained that Twitter is just updates so you can do it more often and follow others (kind of like the main idea without all the details). Teacher’s guide to twitter has helpful information about how to start and make the most of your Twitter. I think I would use it to follow other K-2 teachers who post valuable and interesting information. Other teachers I follow may post ideas or videos or something else I can use in class.

Thing #22

I have a facebook page but thought it was wise to keep it private (only friends can view). You might be able to search me (Rebecca DuLac Hogg) but I don't believe you can see my profile unless I add you as a friend. I use facebook for communicating with my teacher colleagues (reminders and questions and news). I mostly use facebook for communication with friends, family, and our church youth.

It is very important to know how social networking works because of legal issues. Some teachers have had inappropriate/unprofessional pictures taken of them and posted on facebook. We were told teachers could get in trouble whether they posted the pictures themselves or someone else posted them. So if your profile allows friends to see it, those friends should not be parents if you have questionable material on your profile. If your profile allows friends of friends to view it, they can see anything that you have not restricted. This will not be a concern for me though =).

I prefer facebook over myspace as facebook is organized to my learning style. Facebook is also more aesthetically pleasing than myspace. I have to admit, that I can't see a real classroom purpose in facebook unless a teacher made a page only devoted to their class with a separate email. They could communicate with other classes who did the same. However, there are better ways to incorporate classroom technology than using facebook (see previous posts).

Thing #21

Google has a lot of useful things.

I have created a Picasa album that includes classroom and personal pictures. Here is a link to some of my photos from last year. I try to upload them and have them all together. I want them all together so I can add them to a newsletter, send to someone for the yearbook, or print to put up in the school for parents to view. The pictures are always available whether I want to update a blog from home or school or anywhere. It is helpful that there is a private or public link so I don't have to "bog down" the e-mail server with attachments.

Google Earth is a great resource for a non-fiction representation of the world. The images are from the real world and provide the same or different perspective of places they already know about (schema). You can say to them: "Black Elementary is in Mesquite. Mesquite is in Texas. Texas is in the US. The US is in North America. North America is in the World." However, showing them real images (zooming in and out) instead of a globe or your words provides a whole different meaning to them.

I use Google Calendar but I wish it had a birthday reminder feature. I believe I saw the birthday reminder in Google Labs so hopefully it will be seamlessly integrated into the current Calendar as an option.

Thing #20

I have used Google Docs before but had trouble when trying to collaborate with my team mates. The idea I had was to send them the lesson plans so they could add their ideas or suggestions or to make revisions/corrections. This helps save paper and prevents papers from getting lost until you are ready to print them out and file them.

I could use google docs to help prepare a blog post for our classroom (prewriting/brainstorming). Using google docs would help show students how to be organized. If students made a document in our class, we could collaborate with another first grade class in Mesquite or the US to edit and revise. This could also be used with voicethread or blogs, etc.

I used googledocs to make a vacation planner (spreadsheet). I made it while I was at home and saved it under my google email so I could edit and retrieve it when needed. This was much more efficient and easier to access than e-mailing the document to myself. In the past when I e-mailed a document to myself, the revision e-mails would pile up and I could get confused on which one had particular changes if I didn't take the time to delete the previous one(s). I also made a google document with ideas for our vacation that I could add to the spreadsheet when or if I wanted to.

Thing #19

Voicethread can be used professionally in place of or in addition to a resume. Using this technology will often set you apart from other applicants because you will have used something unique that no one else did. This shows the value you place on technology as an everyday tool in life.

Of course, Voicethread has many other uses including those in the classroom (elementary through professional). The students can hear their own voice and get excited about learning. It makes learning interactive and unique which is our goal in education. Not only will the students be excited about what they are learning, the parents will often be more involved because they can see the results of their child's learning and share that.

Thing #18

About 2 years ago I discovered www.teachertube.com. I have shown and utilized the informative videos on this site to compliment/enhance lessons with my students. When I taught third grade I showed videos on multiplication. Teachers on their showed different methods and it reached a few of my students who did not understand how to multiply. I showed a clip about prediction for our ELA lesson. There are a lot more videos now than there used to be but you still have to weed through many to find ones that are helpful or you can actually hear it clearly.
On www.youtube.com there are videos for pretty much anything you can think about. How tos, movies (illegal I believe), tv clips, pets, music videos, etc. I can learn a lot and show a lot to students but of course it is important to preview before and make up questions to ask while they are watching or after. Also, it is important to teach the students that they should not believe everything they read, hear, or watch but to do their own research.
This and videos like it are helpful for me to learn other ways to explain teaching concepts to kids:

Thing #17

I went to LearnOutLoud's Why The Science Show For Kids Podcast and added it to my Google Reader. I don’t agree with the some of the science things he teaches so I will not be using them in my classroom. I learned that you can subscribe to podcast without having an iTunes account or iPod. I tried to subscribe to Famous American Podcast from Jamestown Elementary but the Subscribe button wouldn’t bring me to a link to add to my Reader. Since I couldn’t subscribe to this site, I googled “1st grade podcasts” and found Ms. Berthaiume's 1st Grade Class which I subscribed to. I found http://langwitches.org/blog/2009/12/11/podcasting-with-first-grade/ which had a great example of “interviewing” characters in a book. The students can make up the questions they want to know before and during reading and the answers are found while reading. They learn to become more fluent readers, to read more naturally and with tone and inflection. The teacher mentioned these are the things they learned from Langwitches Podcast above: listening, speaking, presenting, comprehension, storytelling, performance, voice acting, oral fluency, media, and technology.

I would love to do this in my classroom but I need to learn how to do and edit, etc. Thankfully in Mesquite ISD we have people who can help us!

Thing #16

While exploring www.librarything.com I can see that this would be a great site for my husband and my students. I enjoy reading but my husband really, really enjoys reading so much so that he has a large library in our house. He could organize his books and find new ones that others recommend that he might like. He might luck out and get FREE books because they have a Early Reviewers program where you receive free books in exchange for giving them a review. I could have a record of my classroom books. My students will be encouraged to read because we could make a class/individual goal to read a certain amount of books. We could make a list of books we want to read and books we have read. We could even have a contest with the other classes of the same grade and make written recommendations (typed by them) to each other.

Thing #15

I have had a delicious account for almost a year so I figured out some of the ways to tag by trial and error. I really like that fact that I can login anywhere to get my bookmarks. I used to save them in an e-mail but I do not like doing that as they are not very organized that way. I learned something new-that you can share your bookmarks with others and explore through theirs! Technology has more and more things to discover all the time.

Thing # 7b

In reviewing the various articles that come though my Google Reader I found this http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=1073716. This could have been a devastating decision but thankfully he can stay in the US. I hope he works hard to help those who are in the same situation he was in and that he grew up in. Stories like these or people who have escaped the threat of death and are granted asylum here in the US can be a great teaching opportunity for students. We can show students the history of the US and how we are a blessed nation that can help each other and others from around the world. It gives them the opportunity to expand their worldview and learn from history.

Thing #14

After exploring www.weebly.com I discovered www.education.weebly.com which is a site dedicated to teachers and schools. According to their site you can “easily create a classroom website & blog, manage your students' accounts, accept homework assignments online, [and] keep your parents up to date.” This is great especially for keeping parents up to date or to see more than their child or I can communicate. However, I do wonder who has daily or weekly internet access. We have 4 computers in our room but 3 of them will be used a majority of them throughout the day for Waterford. I could set aside 1 day a week that we can all write something or take turns writing something on the website and learn how to upload and post pictures. I could also use www.weebly.com for my own personal website if in the future I would need or want one.

Using www.30boxes.com I can feel better about my life being organized and knowing people’s birthdays. I enjoyed having a to do list but it gets crazy when I have so many papers in my purse and desk that I can easily lose it. By using www.30boxes.com I can stay more organized and possibly, just possibly, feel less stressed.

I think we could use www.timeglider.com sparingly in class for social studies. If we are studying about a particular person or event we can make a simple timeline. This is good for logical thinking in the brain.