Week 6, Thing 14

VoiceThread was really neat, and I look forward to using it in my classroom. Earlier in class I had come across a blog of a teacher who uses it to encourage writing. I think it would be an incentive for students to illustrate and then narrate a written piece of work. In third grade we also introduce and practice summarization of text all year long. I teach it summaries with a chant I created and graphics to help them remember all the needed elements. I'm thinking of putting in the graphics, and then having the students record what the graphic represents. Then, I can also have them record a summary of a selection with VoiceThread. I just think adding the technology and the opportunity for them to speak into a microphone and hear themselves would be a huge motivation.
I, however, was not a fan of hearing myself after I recorded, nor would I use this for personal use.
Want to hear my salient thoughts? click here.

Week 5, Thing 13

I really liked the Google Documents for those Word docs, or Power Points that we are working on as a grade level. It gets so complicated emailing these docs, back and forth. This will allow us to have as Brittney says "a living, breathing document."
This is something that I will not use in the classroom with kids, but I will use this professionally.
I think it would also be great for our IB planner documents so they could be accessed at home and worked on on weekends and in the summer. After all, isn't it every one's dream to have work available to them anytime?

Week 5, Thing 12

Wiki's... So I actually think I have an idea of how this could be used in a practical way to make my life easier, and kill a few less trees in the process. I I am going to use my wiki for keeping track of the IB planner meetings we do at school. Instead of keeping a binder full of a hundred papers I have to riffle through, I can keep my grade level organized.
I also got a few ideas from other teacher sites on how to use a wiki in the classroom for literature circles.

Week 4, Thing 11

I really liked Wordle. I could not figure out how to use the Library Things tags in Wordle, but I thought it would be neat to do that at the beginning and end of a class read aloud. Students could predict what they thought the text would be about and at the end of the book you could discuss if they agreed with the key words, or see if they could think of some that were not listed.
I also thought it would be neat for students who always use the same words over and over to put it in a Wordle and then "show" them.
I thought Wordle was much easier to use than Tag Crowd, and I liked how easy it was to change the formatting and colors. I word clouded my blog and thankfully class and students were bigger than overwhelm!
City of Ember Wordle

Week 4, Thing 10

I loved the bookmarking! I thought that this was a really practical, useful, time saving application. I loved it for the suggestions of websites (reminded me of I-tunes) and the organization piece. I liked that I can bookmark from any computer using my account. Bye-bye to that days of a gum wrapper that I wrote down a great site url on.
I can see using this in the classroom when you are doing a class inquiry to bookmark sites you found informative and student friendly.

Week 3, Thing 9

I don't know how a person is to do their assigned job with all of the blogging, RSSing and twittering that are intended theoretically to make life "more simple."
I was again OVERWHELMED by the millions (literally) of people who are this site talking about nothing, including the teachers.
I found more people in search of answers, than people supplying answers. I did however, love the graphics on Twitter!

Week 3, Thing 8

I decided to post to Mrs.L because Laura and I talk frequently about what we are doing in this class. I also really liked how she took a new tool like Glogster and used it to create a great website page for parents that is both informative and creative.

Week 3, Thing 7

Okay so this posting is long overdue... ya missing a week in a class where I can't keep my head above water was a genius idea!!!
On the positive side, the video did explain to me what a P.L.N. is, and an RSS, which was awesome that I finally understood something in this class the first time I heard it. Yeah!
I can imagine that there are some good resources out there, and like that I can see what is new and what I haven't read.
Now for the negative, I can't keep up with the offline P.L.N.'s I have in my own building, so where I'm going to find time to keep up with a new network of hundreds? Well ...that's where the overwhelm comes in again. :-)
I am glad though that now when I hear P.L.N., and RSS, I can knowingly nod my head rather than looking like a "Little House on the Prairie" throwback.
And maybe, one day soon, this will all click and I will become a Twittering, RSS junkie.

Glogster

Week 2, Thing 5

I was really overwhelmed reading all the information on Wikipedia and had no clue what they were talking about. Then I decided to just play around and see if I could figure it out using my tried and true system of trail and error.
I loved all of the neat things I was able to create, including Warhol like images and trading cards for my students.
I will definitely keep using these sites both personally and in my classroom!