Mythbusters

One Last Thing

To sum it all up:

I think that my favorite things have been delicious, flicker, my RSS reader and imagechef. I think that those are my favorite because at this moment they are the ones that come to my mind. If I can remember them, then I think those will be the ones that I will try first to incorporate in my life/lessons. I have learned so many things from my reader and I know that I will continue to check and read some of the articles in order to keep on top of the ever changing world of technology.

For many years now, I have put on my PDAS that I want to incorporate new technology. I have been given a big dose of it this summer and I intend to implement it and use it in the coming school year. I will enjoy using what I have learned in my lessons. I want to continue to learn and grow. Learning is a lifelong endeavor and is what keeps us mentally acute.

I will take away from this course a tool box filled with things that I can use in my classroom to keep my students interested and learning new skills. Anything to do with technology immediately sparks an interest in the lesson!

As far as improving the course, the only thing that I would suggest is updating the blogs that you have as a list to subscribe to. Some of the blogs had not been updated in several years. Otherwise, I think that it was full of discovery and learning.

If you offered another class similar to this program, I would sign up and take it during the summer. I don't think that I would be able to handle the amount of required work/reading during the school year, but I would definitely sign up.

I will continue to monitor my RSS reader to keep up with the newest technology. Networking with a Ning will help me keep me up to date with the newest ideas and technology that teachers around the country are using. I think that this course has opened my eyes to a whole new world of networking, blogging and interacting with the newest technology.

Thank you very much for offering this course.

Thing #23

I think that social networking will continue to expand and will encompass the educational community. On Ning, I saw multiple sites of classrooms connecting across cities, states and countries. There were private sites that were connecting classrooms from China, Japan, China, Australia. I see these kind of sites as penpals of the highest order because students do not have to wait weeks or months in order to get a response to a question, comment or observation. Responses are instantaneous. As these types of interactive sites become more common, I see students becoming part of a global community of learning and interacting with different cultures. As our world shrinks even more, we can become more tolerant of each other.

I also feel that Ning and other sites for networking will be a valuable tool for professional growth as we exchange thoughts, ideas, and reflections. Instead of lecture/speaker type staff development, I can see a definite trend toward online learning and development. I think that it could very well be the way staff development is conducted in the future. It is imperative that we keep up with the technology. I found a video of great quotes to inspire teachers on a Ning tech integration site. (Some man inserted his picture in the slideshow so ignore him)

Visit 23 Thingsters

Find more photos like this on Tech Integration

Thing #22 Facebook

I decided to sign up for Facebook. It is a totally new experience for me to be involved in an online group of this nature. I looked up my son and he actually let me become a friend so that I can now keep up with him better. I gave out several requests to friends and family and I am waiting for a reply from most of them. Now that I am actually a member of a social network I can see the benefits of how families and friends across the country could stay connected by using a social network. My facebook account will help me stay connected with my children and my grandchildren. I now see that they can be a very useful tool in our society that is becoming more and more fluid. I grew up in a neighborhood where I knew everyone and they knew me. I had a physical network of people that I knew and socialized with. I think these electronic connections are replacing our neighborhood connetions. I chose facebook because I felt that it had more positive things to offer and because my teenagers use facebook to network and I want to keep better track of them. It also had the most useful features such as the ease of uploading pictures/videos and seemed to have more options available. Eventually, I think that teachers will be doing as much online teaching as they do physical teaching. You could answer homework questions and even post information about upcoming events on a social networking site. I think that more and more technology is in our future.

Thing #7ab - RSS Reader

To my surprise, I have really enjoyed my RSS reader. It makes it really easy to keep track of the most interesting articles that are on the sites that I am monitoring. I am getting really adept at skimming and scanning the feeds and picking out only the items that I think will be worth my time reading. I found several things of interest in the past few days. I read about a book recommendation engine that seemed to be quite useful to find books that I will enjoy for school and entertainment. I also found a tool that will take out all the ads and clutter around a YouTube video so that you can safely view it in the classroom. The site is View Pure. It is well worth the visit to this site.
Another site that I think my college students will be able to use is NOOKstudy which gives them online access to over 500,000 textbooks and will allow them to write in study notes etc.. I have already found many useful tools from the readers. I'll keep on reading.......

Thing #21 Google APPs

I created alerts for news articles concerning Texas Education and Mesquite ISD. I think that it will help me keep up with the news about what is happening in education in my city and state. I think that it will prove beneficial in helping me stay in touch with the education community and concerns that I might have with what is happening that might impact me and my classroom.
Staying organized is always a challenge. I am the events keeper in my household and if we miss or are late for an important event, all fingers point in my direction. I am the one that makes sure that our family stays on track. I think that the Google calendar will assist me with the goal of making every event for my daughter's senior year. I began the calendar and feel that I will use it frequently because it will send me an email reminder that I have an event that I want to attend (or am required to attend). This tool will be extremely useful.

Thing #20 Google Docs

I created a document for the beginning of the school year and sent it to collaborate with a colleague. Google Docs will be great for sharing documents with the grade level without having to print and send it to each one on the team. Each teacher will be able to look at the document and correct errors and then let me know that they had proofread the notice. It will be very convenient for that use. Occasionally we have letters or forms that have to be sent out in a short space of time and google docs will give us an advantage in getting it printed and out to the parents in a timely fashion.

I uploaded a spreadsheet and a powerpoint. The spreadsheet was easy and quick. It will be easy to access it from school and home without having to carry a flashdrive or hard copies of the document. However, I think that the Powerpoint feature would be very difficult to use. I uploaded one of the Powerpoints that I had already created on my computer and it would not let me show it from google. I had to download it to the computer to get it to play. The templates for Power point presentations would be hard to use. There were so many of them to choose from. I would have to know exactly how I wanted it to look before I even began to search for a format for my presentation. There was also not much storage space before I would have to ask for more storage. I think that for presentations that a flash drive or an external hard drive would be more efficient.

Thing #19 Voicethreads

I really like the way that Voicethreads give students the option of adding their pictures and comments to the slides. It will be interesting to see how the students respond to posting their comments about a book that they have read. Is it possible to have them post their comments, but have it remain private? Privacy issues are a main point in determining if something is appropriate for use in the classroom. We now send home a release form at the beginning of the school year to have the students and parents give permission for their artwork to be displayed on the internet. I was impressed with one voice thread about The Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning. The students gave their impressions of the book and what they thought of the characters and even mentioned how many books were in the series. It would be a good class project to do something like this in my classroom.

Thing #18 YouTube

I spent way too much time enjoying these videos. I found so many videos to teach content in a way that my students will enjoy. I have to say that this is one of the best things that I have found in this class. I will be using YouTube and TeacherTube often to get across to my students key points that they need to know. I found some kind of amusing or eye-catching video for many of the boring things that my students seem to struggle with. For example, how interesting can you make the Preamble to the Constitution? Well, it is very dry and boring stuff with little meaning to a 5th grader, but I found an amusing video from Andy Griffith that I think will spark their interest.
Also, I found a main idea song to help my students remember the point. I even found a series of videos on how to play the piano. How amazing is that?? In a world filled with movies, video games and high tech gadget; these sites will help me gain and retain interest in what I am trying to teach.

Thing # 17 Podcasts

I have used podcast in my classroom for several years now. I have had the students create their own podcast and they have posted it on my classroom blog. The students really enjoy this activity. I have them create/read a script or report and then I post them for us to enjoy. I have used podcast for messages/reading to my Special Ed students who need extra support by having things read to them. Podcasting is a very useful tool in the classroom. I looked at the Webster Dictionary podcasts and subscribed to the elementary word feed for the word of the day. I will be using this at the beginning of Language Arts class to introduce the students to new words and have them expand their vocabulary. I also looked at the History site and enjoyed listening to information about the true story of Pocahontas. I can see that these podcasts would be very interesting for teaching US History. Great sites to use and implement to address different styles of learners.

Thing #16 Library Thing

The library was a great site for finding books to read. Whether for the classroom or for pleasure, the library thing can help you find a book that you will enjoy. I think that it would be a useful tool to use to enter and categorize all the books that I have in my classroom library. As I unpack them this fall, I could enter them online and have a resource at my fingertips to help the students locate a book that they would enjoy reading in the classroom. It would also help me with my guided reading books. I could categorize the books by reading level and number of copies in order to easily assign books to individual student to read and report on. I think it would be useful on a personal level to keep track of the books that I personally have and to know where the books are if I have loaned them out. I think that it was a good experience to look at this site.

Thing #15 Delicious

Delicious was indeed delicious! I had such a good time tracking down sites for the subjects that I teach. It was really easy to set up an account and begin searching. I added so many sites with labels that I now need to get them organized. It was easy to type in the categories and search through the results. I didn't have any trouble getting the sites and looking at them. These bookmark save me so much time and effort. Before now I would look and look for material and sites using google and other search engines, but this was so easy and gave me a wealth of places to look for the things that I am teaching. It was awesome!!! If you would like to join my network, it is teacher708. I will be adding to my bookmark on a continuous basis now that I know where to look. This has been my favorite thing that I have learned so far. Thanks for the information.

Thing #7a - RSS Reader

I have been checking my Google Reader frequently and I have found an abundance of articles, videos, links, hints, and useful information. It is time consuming to go back and read all the interesting entries, but I have found that the effort has paid off. Today I checked my reader and found an entry that had videos that every teacher should watch. I watched them and found that it was informative, inspirational and sometimes touching. I would recommend that you go and view them at Seven Videos All Teachers should watch. It will be worth the time. I also read a blog that gave me the top ten sites for creating videos. Another helpful posting was an article on how to download videos with another one about sizing videos when they are embedded. There are more and more sites available that explain/show you how to implement technology that will interest your students in your lessons. I am amazed at the speed that technology is moving. It is a challenge to keep up with the possibilities and then make use of them in reality. Time is the biggest factor for me. I don't have enough of it!

Thing #14

I really enjoyed playing with ToonDoo. I created a cartoon. There was a lot of variety in the characters, tools, settings and pictures that you could use to create your own cartoon. It would be fun to use in the classroom to create comic books for book reports, social studies events, etc.. I could use this in numerous ways because it was easy to use and easy to save. There were lots of different types of characters that you could create as well as using a photo to make it a cartoon.

I also went to Wordle. I enjoyed the different ways that you could create sentences and make them into an abstract. It would be fun to type out sentences and see if the students could figure out what it meant. I loved doing the jigsaw puzzles in JigZone, but I'm not sure that I would ever use it in the classroom.

Thing#13 - Images

It was fun, yet time consuming to explore all the different tools that are available on the internet to create pictures, animations and all sorts of attention-getting effects. I am interested to find out if they will work on my computer at school or if they will be blocked. I intend to use these tools with lessons that will get my student's attention and keep it during a lesson. These type of entertaining graphics will also show some of my personality to my students as I choose the different types of art/pictures.

I want to add that not all sites were compatible with an imac and not all programs would run on firefox.

Personally, I will now be able to put some interesting things in my e-mail, send e-cards, and basically add my personality to my on-line interactions. It will be interesting to see how my family and friends will react to the new face of my correspondences. I hope that I can continue to explore and use the sights that I have become acquainted with. It create interest and depth to my postings.

I am posting a couple of things that I created.

This is a collection of old school houses that I found interesting.


1. sedgwick school, 2. Old School, 3. Old School IIII, 4. 19 High School 12, 5. The School 'Marm', 6. back to school, 7. Abandoned School, 8. One Room School House on the Prairie, 9. The Old School House, 10. School on Sunday, 11. R.I.P. - James McMillan School (1894-2008), 12. School's Out......., 13. Thorington School House (Gold Key)

Thing #12 - Slideshow

I created a slide show on cause and effect things. I found some great pictures on Flickr that really explained the concept. I went to RockYou and put together a show for you to watch. For a classroom I would add more detail and more explanation. It appears to be a great tool for putting together a quick slide show of your favorite pictures, artwork, etc. Many picture companies such as Kodak offer free use of their slide show tools if you sign up for their services and offer discount rates on prints. These sights run on the same premise. There are lots of opportunities to upload, use and share pictures on the web. There is an ocean full of opportunities. I hope that you enjoy the show.

Photo credits:

Day 222~Cause and Effect from dr_nik

Cause = water bottle
Effect = growth
Posted at 1:54PM, 19 February 2005 PDT ( permalink )

Burger-scale-diet

Onion and Tear
from Sjaaks

Law of Cause and Effect

Thing #9-The Sandbox

I went and played in the wiki sandbox. Constructing my own wiki page was not a problem. What was a problem was finding the Home page and adding my link to the sandbox pages. I haven't quite figured it out yet. I guess that I will be able to go back and do that later. The wiki page was easy to create and I was able to save all my information on the wiki. I have a few questions about creating a classroom wiki. If I did one and let students go in and edit the page, how would it work? Do they all have to create an account so that they could join my wiki? Would they use the same usernames that they created for comments on my blog? I have a lot of questions about how the wiki would actually work for them.

My wiki page is located on the 23 things page. I uploaded some pictures that I found on a creative commons page that I found interesting for cause and effect. I will get with my technology facilitator about creating a wiki for my class.

Thing #11 - Photo sharing

http://www.flickr.com/photos/iqmatrix/3556755666/
I can see endless possibilities for using cc images & videos to create lessons and presentations. There are teachable moments in almost all the pictures that I downloaded. I already create my own Power Points and flip charts for my classroom use. I will now be using the cc images and videos to make them more interesting and powerful.

I chose to look for cause and effect pictures. I spend a lot of time teaching this reading skill. I am including a couple of the photographs that I found interesting that I will add to a flip chart that I have already used to teach it in my classroom.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aoisakana/165445144/
This cause and effect picture speaks for itself. I think that it is very visual and one that most people can relate too. I think that in education when we can link a visual picture with a concept that we are trying to teach that the information has a greater chance of being remembered. I would remember this visual.

Thing #10 - Creative Commons

I definitely learned something new. I had no idea that creative commons existed. I was totally unaware of the law. Honestly, I have never noticed the cc trademark on the websites that I visit. I have used images from different websites that were labeled free, but was unaware that I can reproduce most images, videos, audios that are on the web for the classroom. I will keep that in mind so that when I am putting together lessons that include technology, I can use cc media. 86

I feel that creative commons will help students in the creation of projects so that they can use videos, audios, and images.
I do use images and audio that I create in my classroom, but I have not used anything that I found on the web. Now that I know that almost everything is usable in the classroom, I am sure that I will make use of this copyright law.
If I create teaching material then it belongs to me. If I find it on the web then I will give credit to the author/creator. If I purchase it, then I am able to use it for my classroom. 196

Thing #8 - Wikkis

I knew absolutely nothing about wikkis until now. I looked at the wikkis that were suggested and found them to helpful and some of them were quite interesting. I like the Salut to Seuss sight. It contained a plethora of information about Dr. Seuss and his books. I also liked the voiki wikki. I am going to try to go back when I have some time and make a voki. The book study for The Discovery Utopias was also an interesting sight, but my favorite one was the one from Woodward Academy that was created by a fifth grade class. The wikki was about the book, Turn Homeward Hannalee, I liked the layout of the page with pages for vocabulary, questions, chapter summaries, etc.. If I were to start a wikki, I think that I would like it organized like this one. I think that I would have more of a reader's thoughts or reactions section where the students could write their own reading journal. A wikki would be a great idea for a novel study.

Thing #7 - Commenting

I read all the articles about commenting on other blogs. The ones on the right way to and the need to make comments. I went to the ones that I had adopted and commented and then I started looking at my RSS reader and looking for something that sparked enough interest for me to put myself out on the web and express my opinion. One that really struck a note with me was an article on Free Technology for Teachers. The blog post was about how restrictive our web access is at school. I felt strongly enough about the article to add my own opinion. If you have time you can check it out. There are some really good blogs out there that are full of relevant information.

Thing #6- RSS Feeds

RSS feeds are daunting. The number and size of the sights are overwhelming. I finally narrowed down my selections to 10 of the best or more promising sights. The amount of information that is available is mind-boggling. I was unaware of the extent of blogs/blogging. One interesting article that I read today was about the FTC finding that explicit information is accessible to children. They found that 70% of the virtual sights for children allow access to inappropriate web sights. Most parents feel that their children are safe on these sights, when in fact they are not. The study calls for the companies who own these sight to be forced to change their policies and make them safe for children. Another article that made an impression on me was one that did a study on 21st century classrooms and whether we are preparing our students for the present or the past. One of the biggest problems that I am having is seeing an interesting articles and since I am crunched for time I put a star on it to save for later. Later has a way of never getting here........

RSS Feeds-Thing #5

I found several things of interest on the blogs that I subscribed too, but the most useful post that I read was under the techlearning blog. There was a site that had the 5 tips for parents to stop cyberbullying. I think that it would be very good to post a link on my classroom blog. On the same blog I found a very useful website for US state reports. I am always looking for good ideas in the classroom.

I also read an article on students 2.0 and found it quite amusing. This entry is asking where have all the students who were blogging gone? This was a group of high school students who were using all the 2.o technology in 2008, but have moved on. The last entry was made in 2009. The author of this entry is making a point that students have long since moved on in their lives and are learning new technologies while we as educators are still hung up on the same learning that our students have already mastered and have found other avenues of expression. Maybe this is why I get the blank stares and the "what are you talking about??" answers when I question my own teenagers about what I am learning. Point taken.......technology is not standing still....we are!

Blogging is Reading - Thing #4

The blogs that I read were either written to express ideas/opinions or to give information.
I thought that the article on SSR 2.o was interesting. It is not something that I would have my students do on a regular basis, but it would be something worthwhile to do occasionally. All the comments seemed to be positive on this blog. I think that having a blog that students read and write responses would have a positive impact on their reading and writing skills.

The article on Spies Like Us was disturbing. I can see this happening in our schools. We are all human and it is disturbing to realize that a student could record and globally immortalize a moment of weakness. How do we even begin to protect ourselves from this????

The article, Cyberbullies, is a reality in our schools now. The principal and counselor have checked on facebook, Youtube and other posting sites and have found elementary school students posting inappropriate comments, pictures, etc.. It is a form of bullying that is becoming more and more popular.

I think that homework is always going to be an issue. Whether or not to assign homework has become a personal choice.

The 5th grader blog was very enlightening. His passion was passing. I enjoyed this inspiring entry and the positive feedback that was given to this entry.

I found the articles on the blogs with the comments interesting. I found that some blogs were editorials and the comments were editorials on the author's viewpoints. Although I am always interested in telling anyone and everyone my opinion about a given subject, reading about other people's opinions.....not so much. (Note: I enjoy reading the newspaper, but always skip the editorial section.). If I started a blog that expressed my views on subjects of interest, then I would have to grow a very thick skin.........

**I did learn how to add links to my blog so that I can link anything that I feel is important to my blog

Learning 2.0-Thing #2

I am amazed at how quickly technology has changed in the 21st century. I work very hard to keep up with technology. Last year I created a blog to post information for my class. I used this to replace my weekly newsletter. I post homework assignments, spelling lists, pictures of activities, and updates about activities and events that are going on in the classroom as well as the school. Podcasts work well to create activites and interest in the blog. I feel this is only a beginning of the technology that could help engage my students. With all the video games, internet sites including UTube and Twitter, it has become increasingly difficult to engage our students in traditional classroom activities. I feel that it is imperative to give them lessons that are rich with technology.

The statistics quoted in the videos and articles have probably already surpassed what was predicted for 2006.In the current job market, a person seeking a job must fill out an online application. The company then uses key word recognition software to determine who they even want to interview. It is a totally different way to seek a job. The ability to effectively use technology is crucial. How different than when I was seeking employment and my biggest concern was presenting a good resume! As educators we must prepare our students for the challenges of a technological world.

Lifelong Learning-Thing #1

I think that learning is one of the most important things that we do as teachers. In order to be effective in the classroom, teachers must stay informed about strategies, goals, and technology. We must keep our students engaged and technology is the key in the 21st century. If I don't stay up with the challenge of learning new technologies, then I will lose out on one of the most engaging tools for effective teaching.

Once we stop learning, then we stop creating and life would become very boring. I want to keep learning, keep growing and creating.