Thing 23 -Reflections

Reflecting on my journey~

I have learned so much! Thank you 23 Things and Wayne RESA! This started as a way to get SB-CEU's and turned into a desire to know more "things!"

In the last few months, our school media specialist was talking about Delicious, Wiki's and Podcasts. I didn't know what they there were and without 23 Things, I probably still wouldn't! A part of my problem is that I wouldn't have taken the time. As I worked on each "thing," I began to explore different sites on the Internet. I was amazed at how many people were already at these sites and have been for years! I have a new appreciation of the creativity that is out there! I don't know whether to feel ahead or behind!

What does it all mean? As shown in the last video, we all have to begin to think of things differently. This applies to my job and in my personal life. So many of these tools can enhance our lives and make them easier. What did we do before e-mail? Now, I see that on Wednesdays I get about 15-20 e-mails in planning our weekly "Chinese Night." Yesterday, I thought to myself, "Should we have a Wiki for this?"

I know that so many of my students use the Internet everyday. They can easily navigate it and have done many of the things we've had to learn: blogs, You Tube videos, and played with widgets! They are Web 2.0 participants! I can see that some students are starting to download class novels on their ipods and they're creating their own virtual flashcards online. I knew I needed to incorporate more technology into my teaching and now I have the tools and the desire to make it happen.

How has your thinking changed between Thing 1 and Thing 23? I've started talking about podcasts and wiki's in my everyday life! I am seeing situations and thinking about which of the "things" we've learned would be a good fit. It makes me want to teach my students about podcasts and Wikis before the end of the school year.


How will you continue to learn about Web 2.0 tools?
I haven't Twittered yet!

What are your big "take aways" from this experience?

• I like blogging and want to set up my own personal blog.


• Flicker has become a useful way for me to share pictures with my friends and family. It also makes me want to explore my interest in photography.


• My students are going to gain skills by adding to our class Wiki.


• Bloglines, if I get in the habit of checking it, is my answer becoming more aware of current information in my career, hobbies, and society!


• More of my free time might be spent reading other people's travel blogs and watching their You Tube videos!!

Really, I know I could keep going. I don't think I've had any professional development that has had this kind of impact in both my personal and professional life. Can we do 23 more things?

Thing 22 Creating a Wiki

I've created a Wiki! You can check it out and add to it if you'd like!

Math in Our Life Wiki

Well, this was so easy! I still have to create my users by adding my students and passwords so they can go in and edit. I will need to give them a brief tutorial in Wiki's, but they can do this at home for extra credit! Who knows, I may just open it for the public to view!

I think it would be exciting to see students add new things! I think if it's successful, I'll add other topics such as graphs, decimals, percents, integers, etc. for each unit and change things up a bit. I also think students could be creative and it could go in different directions.

A wiki is different from a blog in that it's not "group collaboration" as indicated in the article we read. My students can login to the wiki and edit it by uploading an example of fractions in their everyday life. They may choose to add a favorite recipe from their grandma that they've scanned. They may make a short video of themselves using fractions in making cookies or make a link to a cooking website. When my friends, Tami or Pam, go to my blog, they can write comments, but they cannot edit my pictures or add a cat widget! ;)

When is one more appropriate to use than the other?
In both cases, people from around the world could login and have discussions.

It seems that since other people can't "edit" my blog, it's more personal and I can make it the way that I want with my own agenda. With a Wiki, it may start out with one intent (like a question) and end up going in a very different direction based on the participants.

Thing 21- Wiki's

Describe a wiki you found that inspires you to create one of your own.
I have traveled with students around the world and really liked the "Comparing Hemispheres" wiki. I love the fact students halfway around the world can collaborate so easily on a document. I have a friend who's an English teacher in Austria. I bet they'd be interested in such a project related to ELA!

I also like the "Wikihow." It made me think about the technical writing assignments that we do and how students could post their "How to" paper at the site and see how it evolves!

What hurdles might stand in the way of your using a wiki? The obvious of things being deleted, intentionally or by mistake. Can you imagine a person deleting your part of the group project? That would be a new excuse, "Someone deleted it!"

What would it take to remove the hurdles? I agree there is some organization that would be involved and additional instruction if it was used with students. I think there are many useful skills that could be taught in addition to the original curriculum objective. It was neat to see one of the wiki's had a podcast, student made slide show, graphs, and a timeline! I think students would be very interested in trying this! Students would just have to make sure they had a hard copy of their original work in case it got deleted!

Thing 20 Finding and Subscribing to Podcasts

After spending some time reviewing different podcasts using EPN, Podcast Alley and iTunes, I subscribed to 3 podcasts, one through EPN and the others through iTunes. I realized quickly that it was true that Podcast Alley does search everything, they seemed to have sex podcasts all over the place! Not good for the school environment or when searching for professional development!

I liked the visuals of iTunes and it was easy to subscribe right there! I would like to search some more to really have a feel for the different types of programs, but there seems to be a bit of everything! I have a mp3 player, but not the ipod brand. It might be easier to just have an ipod for the convenience. Regardless, it's nice considering podcasts, as well as music, can be listened to on the go or better when having to wait at the airport!

I subscribed to the Dave Ramsey show for my personal interest because I used to go to his website and listen to his talks or try to catch him on the radio at his normal time. It's nice to have his talks available to me any time I want and his talks are updated for me through my subscription!

Another site I subscribed to was the X minus One podcast. It's science fiction short stories that started with the old radio show, "X minus One" and then moved to adaptations of new science fiction short stories by respectable writers. I'm interested in hearing some of these to get new ideas of how to possibly use podcasts in our classroom for our science fiction genre study.

Thing 19 Podcasts

Which podcasts did you find interesting?
I enjoyed the History teacher's Study Cast for test review. I know this was one of the first examples from the two Wayne RESA videos, but it really struck me when I think about how my students with special needs (and others) benefit from repetition. I use "think alouds" to help kids understand how I approach a math problem and important questions they should be asking themselves an example would be when reducing a fraction to it's simplest form. I think it would be helpful for students and parents to hear my examples, mnemonics and silly stories or songs to help students remember new information.
http://www.liberty.k12.mo.us/~elanghorst/blog

One question I have is in regards to copyrighting, "Could I do a podcast using the silly stories from a book I purchased to help students learn their multiplication facts?" I tend to think the authors wouldn't like it being made available to the public, but what about if I sited the source? These stories are read each day in my classroom. How cool would it be for a student to go home and hear it again or their parents, "Six is chicks, four is door and it equals a denty floor." This doesn't mean much to parents or anyone else unless they've hear the story...then it would make more sense!

Another podcast that I enjoyed, was the Coleycast produced by students. This is really a cross-curriculum activity that could bridge and ELA class and say a SS or Science class. As indicated, kids obviously had to invest some time prior to the podcast to research, write, and practice what they'd say about a historical figure before they did their podcast. What a motivator! I also like the thought that kids who don't like to get up in front of a class could create a podcast of their project that could be heard by the teacher and/or the other kids in the class.

It's exciting that we just got an updated computer lab in our school that includes microphones to make podcasts. I know some teachers in our building are already utilizing this in their classrooms!
I had the fleeting idea of how useful it might be for a student who was absent to hear the class lecture. In my classroom, there are usually multiple interruptions, so it would probably take a long time to edit!! It would be good for me to get outside my comfort zone and try to create a podcast for my students or by my students by the end of the year!

Thing 18 Slideshare

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Critters

View more presentations from Alesia Kaye.

What did you like about the presentation you embedded?

I liked how it included pictures that Alesia Kaye took. It was peaceful and it looked like something that I could do! Though maybe my pictures wouldn't be so nice!

I made a quick Powerpoint about two years ago from a trip I had taken to Europe and the beaches of Normandy. I showed this to one of our 7th grade Social Studies classes. Using Slideshare, I could have posted it and other teachers and students would have easy access to it. I also like how this was so easy to embed. I wonder if could be embedded into a class webpage?


I was thinking it would be good to put pictures and text from trips I have taken and make them available to friends and family. I guess I'm wondering if Storyboard would be a better tool than a Powerpoint presentation.

I enjoyed looking at other people's Powerpoint presentations! Some of the work is already done if you find what you're looking for. Guess what? They have tags! It's kind of cool to click on other people's tags and see what they have found.

Thing 17 Productivity Tool

I explored "Knowtes" a productivity tool that allows you to make flashcards to quiz yourself or share them! I heard a friend talk about a website that allowed you to make flashcards...I'll have to see if this is the one she meant!

In our co-taught Language Arts class, we have studied prefixes and suffixes most of the year! We have students look up the definition and study for a test that matches the prefixes/suffix with it's meaning. Knowtes would have been a great website to have students join, add prefix or suffix flashcards to the stack and then study from them! These flashcards could be used with all subject matter!

Today we just got an e-mail about how we can have students use some Web 2.0 tools by setting up gmail accounts. A student would need an invitation to set up a Knowtes account. I set up an account that I plan to tell my students about it and they can subscribe and study for tests! The cool thing is they can work in groups on creating the flashcards!