Reflection

I have had a fantastic time with this workshop! It is very well developed and executed. I had some trouble understanding how to embed a few things to my blog, but I figured them out in the end. Even though I spent countless hours trying to figure things out, it was still well worth it. You definitly learn by doing. I even surprised myself and found things I normally wouldn't have. I am hoping to incorporate a classroom blog or wiki in the upcoming school year, if I don't forget how to do all of the cool stuff that I have learned. You know how it is at the beginning of school with all that there is to do. Hopefully, when things slow down, I can get these new things started.
This program was truly something that I needed to do. I have learned so much. Technology is not one of my strong points. I needed to learn more to stay up with all of the kiddos. My fifth grader was blogging and podcasting this year at school. I was very lost and sad that I had no idea about those things. My son was smarter than me on the computer. Teachers need to keep up with the times so we can effectively do our jobs...which is teach. We don't need the kids to teach us. Even though I teach first grade, I need to know about the technology that's out there to use. I feel much better about myself now that I have completed my things.

Thing #23

I have learned so much with this workshop. I can't believe how many different social network sites are out there. I think it's pretty smart to geer some social networks towards interests of subjects and topics, not just for your friendships. I have really liked exploring with Classroom 2.0. I like the way you can search to find information of interests with the click of a topic. This site is definitely a good one to use for educational purposes. There is so much going on: online tutoring, instructions, ideas, questions and answers. What a great way to get more resources.
I like the way the nings are displayed because the page is sectioned off in different areas of discussions. I can pick and choose what section to look at more carefully and what section to skip. I like to view comments to see if it's something that I want to continue to read or not.
I added a badge, some pictures, and comments to my profile on the ning network.

Thing #22

I joined Facebook a few weeks ago because of this workshop. I had intentions on joining earlier, but never got around to it. I have also questioned the privacy of my information being out there for all to see. I did apply all of the settings to be for friends only use, so hopefully that will help. I have had many friends asking me and telling me to get on Facebook all of the time...so I finally did it! So far, I have really enjoyed exploring all of the different features that it has to offer. I have found many friends on Facebook that I haven't seen or talked to in quite a while. I love getting to see pictures of them and their families and getting to chat a bit. Some of my friends have all kinds of added applications on there post. I am not there yet! I have been exploring who is out in the Facebook world and finding all of my friends.
I have come across so many old and new friends, collegues, administrators, and relatives. I can't wait to get my home page all dressed up. I have seen many things to add to facebook to jazz it up, but have not figured out how to do that sort of thing. I can't believe you can even add videos to this stuff. One of my friends posted a video clip of his daughter singing and dancing.
The social networking thing is a lot of fun! I do think even if you don't care about it for yourself, you need to understand it and be able to use it so that everyone is safe. Kids these days really get into this stuff. As a teacher and a parent, I feel that I need to be able to keep up with the times. Adult supervision is always best in any situation.
Students could use this type of networking to help them with homework or any type of project. They could feed off of other students ideas and answers. Sometimes two or more heads are better than one.

Thing #21

Google has lots of things to offer. I never knew it had so much. I really like the igoogle site. A year ago, I had a page similiar to this on my computer before it crashed. I used it as my wallpaper screen. I really enjoyed it, but have not put it back on. I am so glad that I am getting it back together. This one is a little more personalized than the one I had before. I will probably add a few more gadgets, but for now it is as personalized as it's going to get. I really like how I can get this screen opened and see all of the things that are of interest to me in one spot. I love getting the People Magazine news on a daily basis. I am a huge fan of knowing about real people and their lives.
My link is: http://www.google.com/ig

I also experimented with the google calendar. I was very impressed with this calendar. I put in a few dates to see how it all worked. I think this would be a very useful site for just about anyone. It would keep me very organized with my personal agenda.

Another tool in google that I looked at was google books. This site was a great site because you could search any book for information. It gave you an overview of the book, ratings and reviews, and other editions of the book. I searched Diary of a Wimpy Kid which showed 42 reviews. Many people rated it a 5 star book. The web version of this book has been viewed by 20 million online readers since it was launched on Funbrain.com in 2004. It is now averaging 70,000 daily readers. This site was very informative about books. I will be able to use this site when needing to learn more about new books.

Thing #20

Google Doc seems to be pretty neat! I could see how this site could be very handy. I like the way you can create a page, then come back later to add, edit, or finish it. We could use this type of site to create our weekly first grade newsletters or our monthly Thomspon PTA newsletter. We could create the first grade newletters early in the week and tweak them at the end of the week so information in not forgotten. The PTA newsletters are only sent out monthly, so we could do the same for it, just not as quick. I like the way a teacher could give feedback to a student's essay or paper within the googledoc. Since I teach first grade, this would not really work, but if I taught the older students I would give it a try. I thought it could be great for peer editing in the older grades as well.
I created a table for parents to fill out on the first day of school to let me know the way their child gets home from school. I will also create one letting me know the way they will get home for the year since it is usually different after the first day of school.

Thing #19

I enjoyed exploring voicethread. This site seems to be a great classroom tool that could have many great aspects to incorporate into education. I chose a clip of 2nd and 3rd grade students who were practicing reading. I liked the way the teacher recorded their readings so they could go back and hear themselves. I think this is a great activity to work on not only reading, but fluency, expression accuracy and confidence. Our district has a hard time with fluency so doing an activity like this several times a year could be very helpful for students in the younger grades. Even though these students were reading familiar text, they were still struggling with words. This type of tool could also be used to create rewrites of stories. Students could write, illustrate and read their new stories on voicethread to embed on the classroom blog. Presentations could be viewed by anyone and everyone who looks at our blog.

Thing #18

I had a lot of fun doing this activity. I love YouTube. I normally just look for silly things to view to get a little cheap entertainment. I never knew it had so many educational aspects as well. I found that the TeacherTube was very good as well. I like being able to use these clips from YouTube and TeacherTube through my delicious account. Sometimes things on Youtube are not school appropriate so being able to tag them into a different location makes it much safer to view at school as an educational tool. One educational site that I found to put on my blog was a School House Rock clip about interjections. I loved watching these when I was young. Some of the songs have really stuck in my head all of these years. I could use these types of clips to teach all different grammar topics. Another educational site was the Electric Company clib. I use to love letting my students watch this show to help them learn how to be a better reader. I can now still allow them to watch through YouTube. The how to video that I found was how to do a backflip. I chose this video because it physically taught a skill. My daughter is working on her backflip so this was good for her to watch. The video that I chose for fun was the Evian Roller Skating Babies. I saw this video and just loved it. I really like to watch babies do silly things that they normally don't do. These kinds of commercials crack me up!

#1- School House Rock video about interjections.



#2 Electric Company video about word chunking.



#3 How to do a back flip.



#4 Just for fun! I love this skit from Mad TV about orders not being complicated or too crazy!



#5 Just for fun! I loved this commercial about Evian Water. The babies are so hilarious! Hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

Thing #17

When I started viewing some of these podcasts, I didn't see that they would work very well for me as an educational tool since I teach first grade. A lot of the math and social studies podcasts that I explored were geered toward the older students. I did come across a few good ones that I liked and thought that I could use in my teaching. One of them was DragonflyTV. This was probably one of my favorites. I liked how it had many different podcast episodes on many elementary age appropriate topics. Not only did it show podcasts, it also had science experiments and games. The categories to pick from to view were: Brain and Body, Earth and Space, Living Things, Matter and Motion, and Technology and Inventions. The kids would really like this site and would learn so much from getting to view it in the classroom.

Another podcast that I liked was Why? The Science Show For Kids. This was a podcast in which kids could ask questions and Dr. Dave Brodbeck would answer them on their level. He gave very explicit answers so the kids could understand how things work. I viewed the podcast of How do bees make honey? It was very interesting to listen to his answer. I think the kids could learn a great deal through this podcast especially if it is a topic in which you are trying to teach in the classroom.

I also really enjoyed exploring Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tricks. This one is very good on teaching the rules about grammar issues. This would be great for teachers to view to get a better understanding about the different rules that you are going to teach in the classroom. It could also be good for the kids to view. Sometimes hearing it from another person makes it easier to understand. I will be using this site when I have questions myself about grammar usage or rules.
I added two of these podcasts to my google reader so that I could keep getting updates about new podcasts. I want to keep updated so that I can use these these podcasts to help my kids get a better understanding of what they are learning in class.

Thing #16

The Library Thing site seems to look very helpful to people who love to read. I like how you can search for books, sort books, edit book information and apply "tags" on the site. This site seems to be like an on-line book club. It allows people to rate and write reviews about books that have been read by others. Each page shows who has the book and what they thought about it. This site is one of the largest book club sites on line. I like how the site allows people to connect with others who read the same books. I think this is a great site to use to find books that are good to read personally, as well as professionally. I really enjoy reading books that are recommended by others. Even though everyone has different interest, I find that I enjoy my book a lot more when I have had others inspire me to read it. I guess you could say, I like to read a book with a good review. I will be using this site for educational and professional purposes. I will look through when needing books for my classroom and see which books have the best reviews.

Thing #15

I thought playing in the sandbox was pretty easy. I could not get the table of contents created after following the directions with the special code and the headings. I will continue to work on getting it up and working. I had a lot of fun making things for my wiki post. I used some things that I already had, as well as, I created a few new items. I sometimes go a little crazy when I figure out how to do something. I hope that I can remember how to do all of these new things when school starts because there are a few things from this workshop that I want to incorporate into my classroom for next year. I hope my links to the things that I used in my wiki are correct. I had a hard time trying to figure out how to link it so I just typed it in myself.
My sandbox page title is Wacky About Wiki.

Thing #14

The wiki sure did open my eyes. I never knew what all a wiki could do. I certainly did not think it could be used as a learning tool. We always used it to sign up for a library time. I was pretty impressed with learning how a wiki is a tool that can be used in so many ways in the classroom . I also thought it was interesting reading how a blog and a wiki are two different things. A blog is just someone's thoughts or opinions that are posted and commented on. A wiki is a tool that is more open structured and allows others to change what someone else has written. It's always under revision. One wiki I found pretty impressive was Go West. It was created by a group of third graders who did a study of Westward expansion along the Oregon Trail. It was very well done. You could tell how much the students learned during this study project. I liked the way the wiki was set up that under each tab you could click and see more activities and learning that went on. This wiki was very detailed with lots of features. I would want my wiki done similar to this one. I think you could create a wiki similar to this one on any type of research project in any subject area. The kids would learn a great deal and would enjoy learning this way.

Another wiki that I liked was Primary Math. It was neat seeing how the teachers put all of the students math skills that were learned in a wiki for others to see. You could see a lot of learning going on, as well as, kids having a lot of fun learning this way. Any teacher could do a wiki like this. It is somewhat like a portfolio wiki. I would like to do a wiki like this in my classroom. It could be done with math, science, language arts...anything works. I tried to look at wikis that were geared toward the primary grades since that's what I teach. I also wanted to be able to take the ideas learned and be able to incorporate them into my own classroom next year.

The last wiki that I really liked exploring was Schools in the Past where students intereviewed their grandparents and parents to find out how schools have changed since they went to school. I think the comparison of school then and now is a great way to get the kids involved with this project. I like the way they had to interview their family about what school was like back then, and compare it with school now. This was done by first graders, which is the grade I teach, so I found this one to be interesting. This is another great example of how wikis can be added in the classroom easily. I just need to get better and more comfortable with computers so I can incorporate this type of learning in my classroom.

Thing #13

Wow! I never thought there would be so many websites available on the internet. There is pretty much a website for any and everything. Once you get the bookmarks and tags created on delicious, the more time you save when needing to look something up. I will need to play around a little more with this program to find more things of interest to me. I had a little trouble getting started, so I didn't get as much done as I had hoped. I am a little nervous about people getting to see all of the things that are of interest to me, but I will get over it. I do, however, enjoy looking at other peoples interest. I like how you can get to this account from any computer. Since I always run into trouble with my home computer...I need to be able to get things done from a backup computer. When I get more time to get back to this site, I will add more bookmarks. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't log in with my blog title so you can find my account using coplinkids.

Thing #7b

In my Google Reader I found an article about Should Schools Require Students to Purchase Specific Technology? This article was about how there is a lot of technology, hardware, and software for educators and students to use in school, but some schools are trying to push certain brands of technology tools onto students. Whether it be ipod touches, iphones, or laptops, many students can use other tools of technology to do the same kinds of programs. It stated that it shouldn't matter what brand the technology is, but what the operating sytem can do. People should be able to use whatever they feel comfortable with using. Some schools were requiring students to use ipod touches and iphones for their studies and projects when many smart phones can do basically the same thing. A study was done about the different types of educational applications available on the iphone had some type of counterpart on many other different systems. Why spend money when you don't really have to?

Thing 7a

I read a story from my google reader titled To Shred, or Not To Shred. It was about how schools use a lot of paper during the school year, even though it is usually recycled, it is still a waste. It also is discerning because the amount of time and effort the students put into all of the work is lost because it is tossed later on in the year. The article discussed creating blogs for classroom use instead of using so much paper. It is a way to get student work published without wasting so much paper and time and effort is valued. The blogs also create a way to get feedback and interaction among others not just teachers. The blogs can also stay as long as needed. They do not have to be erased or deleted after the school year. They can stay to continue getting feedback. I really never thought about this topic, but it is so true. This type of student work is definitely what I see in our future. This blog was a very interesting read for me.

Thing #12

I experienced a little while with wordle. I really liked this activity. I brainstormed all of the different things that people read. Students could do this type of activity easily after learning about a major topic in any area of curriculum. They could write words describing a character from a story, titles of books written by the same author, different types of waters on earth, or using words to describe a scientist. These were just a few examples off the top of my head. I could see being able to use this easily throughout all subject areas. This would be a great activity to assign at the end of a unit to check for understanding. I think kids of all ages would love this type of assignment.

I also played around with the PollDaddy website. This was a lot of fun! I thought that this was a pretty neat way to get kids to take a poll. We are always doing graphs in first grade, this is just a another different way to do it. After the poll, the class could discuss the results. This could be done with any question for any subject area as well. My principal had us use polldaddy at the end of the year last year to vote for our school theme for the upcoming school year. While I did the poll, I have never seen how to make it all from the website.

Thing #11

I created this mosaic through Mosaic Maker using pictures that I had in my favorites from flickr. I had a pretty easy time trying to figure out how to put this all together. I didn't do a lot of pictures because I didn't want it to take up too much space. This could be a cute way to display the students in a classroom to a blog. My students always like getting their pictures made, if they were displayed on a blog... they would really be excited! A mosaic of classroom activites or projects could be another good way to display things going on in the classroom. I just need to get a little more confidence in this blogging stuff before I dare try one for my classroom.

Lucky Maltese Dog-One Year Old June 2003

Maltese Puppy

Now That's A Bed Full Of Yorkies

Yorkie Puppy

Rock 'n' Roller Coaster

Fracture-Filled Diamond



I created the comic strip with Comic Strip Generator. This was a lot of fun. I am not sure that the choices of comic strips are all appropriate for school, but it was fun to look through them all and try to be creatively funny.


I used the Futune Cookie Prophecy Generator to create the fortune in the cookies. Students could type a positive message to send to another student to build confidence and self esteem in others. They could also make up a positive fortune about a student to exchange with them in the classroom. This could be done during a friendship discussion or about the student of the week.



I created the Etch A Sketch with the Etch A Sketch Generator. I tried to be creative on how this toy was such a hit back in the day. Now, kids of all ages love the computerized toys.


I really enjoyed these generators. I think I could have spent all night creating, but there's got to be a stopping point...and this is it!

Thing #10

I liked creating this slideshow. Although, I couldn't link my slideshow in the text because everytime that I made my link, I would get a different slideshow than the one I created. Even when I would put my link at the bottom where I gave credit for my pictures, I would still get the same wrong slideshow. This was my first slideshow ever to create. I guess I am a little behind on the times. The slideshow that I created shows the importance of being able to read. The pictures are of different things that people grow up and read in everyday life. When students see how reading and math are used daily as an adult, they understand the importance of learning the skills in that subject area. I could have added a few more pictures of important reading material, but I didn't want anything to mess up. I am a little slow at these activities since I am not as familiar with them.
Magazines: by Confession: I Love Magazines! by Astrid

Candy Recipe Cards by the Felt Mouse

Word of the Father by Billy Reed

Street Signs Have No Spell Check by Datsdof

The Internet is not a newspaper by mfophotos

Thing #9

The flickr advance search tool under the cc licensed photos is a really neat tool to use when needing pictures that are copyright legal. I found lots of cool pictures that I could use for good lessons in the classroom. These pictures could serve as an introduction to a lesson or as visuals during a lesson to get a better understanding of importance. I think that by using these types of pictures in a lesson would really be useful visuals for student learning. I know the students would also get a kick out of this kind of technology being used in the classroom. My students love when I use my computer to look up things for them to see. So, if I could use pictures to show relevance in a slideshow, they would be really engaged in my lesson and their own learning. I found this picture titled: Magazines by Confession: I Love Magazines! by Astrid, to use in a lesson about the importance of being able to read. I feel that if a student can see all of the different things that a person is able or needing to read in life, they will see the importance of needing to learn how to read.






Candy Recipe Cards by Felt Mouse

Word of the Father by Billy Reed

Street Signs Have No Spell Check by Datsdof

The Internet is not a newspaper by mfophotos





I used Spell with Flickr to produce the college word. This program could be a neat tool to use for spelling, word wall, or making words lessons. I could see how the students could use these letters to create different words to practice in our language arts subject. I use magnetic letters and paper letters all of the time, but this would be an added bonus to use different font letters to change up the activity. Kids really love to manipulate with letters!

Thing #8

Creative commons seems to be a neat idea since copyright laws are so confusing. I like that there is a site to go to that has creative ideas that are able to be shared, reused, and remixed without getting into trouble. This type of program allows pictures, songs, films, stories, and drawings to be shared for different purposes especially when creating a lesson for a classroom.
I have never noticed the CC logo on any websites that I have visited, but I will be on the lookout from now on. I think that when the students in school learn about this tool, they will be able to create many cool things with their technology learning projects. They will be able to reuse pictures, songs, drawings, etc. to make their projects ideal.
I have not used any type of digital images, audio or video clips from the web in my classroom just yet, but I will next school year.

Thing #7

After reading many different blogs, I have realized that the comments play an important role in the blogs. Whether it be, explicit directions on what works, interesting ideas about the readings or to give a different view about a topic, the comments are relevant and meaningful. Getting feedback is an advantage to both the reader and the blogger. The comments that were made on one of the posts that I read really made me think about how important it is for teachers to keep up to date with the current trends in technology. When teachers use new technology in their instruction, it allows the students to learn so much more because they are actively enaged in the lesson. The post was titled: The Future of Student Bloggers which was about an ex-student who was introduced to the use of web 2.0 in the classroom by his english teacher. He realized how important this became in his learning so he started blogging about it. Cheyenne (11 years old), commented on the blog, which really made me think about what the future holds in education and technology. Cheyenne is only in elementary school and is already blogging, uing eportfolios, widgets, and wikis. The students now days are so computer literate that they thrive on learning through the use of technology rather than worksheets and textbooks. These old styles are simply boring and out of date with the kids. The students today are going to grow up and have a future career using technology and they want to get started in the learning. Cheyenne is a very bright young lady! This post shows how kids know so much more about technology than we give them credit.

Title #6

Readers seem to be pretty neat. I like the way I can get my hands on so much information just with the click of a button. I also like how the information is specified for my interests. I don't have to go and look through so many other sites to get what I want. All I have to do is search for what I am interested in and add it to my reader. The updated information will be in my RSS. What a lifesaver of time! Now, all I have to do, is practice managing this system. I do get a little overwhelmed when I have so much to read. I will just have to skim a lot more and only read the important things that are more of interest to me.

One story I found interesting in my reader was from The Dallas Morning News-Mesquite section. story was of interest to me since I am a teacher in this district, as well as, my own personal kids went to school in Mesquite this past year. This story focused on how the Mesquite School District was very close to recognized status, but will probably not get it due to science scores. Since science is not tested every year, students are expected to remember things taught in the previous years. Individual schools did better overall this year. Mesquite is expected to have more exemplary or recognized status.

Thing #5

I enjoyed getting to play on Google Reader. It seems to be a great tool to use so that you don't have to visit all of your favorite websites to keep updated on information. This definitely saves lots of valuable time. I love how once you subscribe to a feed that the new information comes to you.

I found the article titled Cell Phone Learning Support System to be very interesting. It was about a system that delivers instructional content of a course and the learning materials to the students through their cell phones since students live such "digital lives." The CPLSS offers the course syllabus, class schedule, assignments, quizzes, and other learning materials for the class. These materials are offered in text, audio, and video formats to students cell phones.

This reminded me of a news story that I saw one night about Highland Park High School. A teacher was having her students text her throughout the lesson their ideas, thoughts, questions and answers. She was using a tool that all of her students enjoyed using to engage them in the class discussion. The students were actively participating and learning in a fun and creative way.

Thing #4

Reading these blogs were very interesting to me. I really loved the Mark's Edtech Blog on SSR. I can see how the third graders would enjoy this type of SSR. Kids love working on computers and are so engaged in any amount of time spent with technology. I would love to start this type of SSR in my first grade classroom towards the middle of the year since a lot of first graders might not be ready for this early on in the school year. I definitely will incorporate creating a classroom blog sometime during the school year. Not only are the kids reading blogs, but they are working on writing, typing and communicating skills. Wow! What a lot of learning!

I also was impressed when reading the Patrick's update Blog. This blog gave Patrick a sense of self confidence. I liked the way others gave him encouragement to boost his self esteem. What a wonderful way to build a student's self worth and confidence. Some children do not live in a positive environment so the blogs could create some type of positive feedback for someone in need.

Another blog that I liked was the Duck with a Blog. I found this one to be cute since it was created by second graders. This blog lets people see how even children as young as second grade can get on board with this blogging stuff. I think this could be great fun for children of all ages and what a super way to learn!

Thing #3

I got my blog all set up! I am very excited, as well as a little nervous, about the upcoming discovery exercises and activities.

Thing #2

My son's 5th grade teacher this past year had a blog set up to communicate with parents about upcoming events and academics. I really loved it because I knew everything that was going on and coming up in his class. He even had the students blogging and doing podcasts at the end of the year. My son loved learning how to do all of these new technology types of things. I think blogs are a great way to get kids to interact and express themselves with others on academics. They are also super for being able to reflect on their own learning as well as writing. Kids are always willing to engage themselves when technology is involved.

I think teachers need to keep up with technology so that students can be actively engaged in learning in the classroom. Hands on learning is very important, but if teachers don't know how to work things on computers, how can they incorporate it into the classroom?

I am hoping that after this workshop, I will be able to engage my students with the use of technology in my classroom more effectively. Technology is what students of all ages are interested in so it is important for teachers to use it in their classroom.

Thing #1

The habit that is most challenging for me is the ability to view problems as challenges. I get very frustrated with technology so my problems don't seem to be challenges. They just seem to frustrate me, which in turn makes me waste lots of time. I am not like that with real life situations, only computer challenges. I guess you could say I am computer illiterate. I just know the basics about technology. Hopefully, after this course, I will be able to do lots of cool things with technology.

The habit that is easiest for me is teaching or mentoring others. I love to teach others new things. I guess that's why I became a teacher. It makes me feel good to know that I have helped someone or taught something to someone.

The most important habit to me is using technology to my advantage. This course has a lot to offer. I want to learn as much as possible since technology is not my thing. I need to understand all of the different things going on in cyberspace so that I can be a better teacher as well as a better parent. My own personal kids already know more about technology than me. I really want to get a better understanding about what's out there so I can incorporate in into my classroom to engage my students in learning. Kids of all ages really get into the use of technology. First graders amaze me with the information that they already know about technology. Technology is what students of all ages are interested in so it's important for teachers to engage learning with the use of current technology.