Thing #9

Oh my, I never posted the link to my WIKI

http://misd23sandbox.wikispaces.com/Destined

:)

I thought this was really cool because it allowed me to create a page about myself that I could share with my parents/ other teachers. I had fun writing facts about myself and posting a picture. I will for sure spend more time on it and add more information and pictures to my wiki.

Thing #23 The end, to a great beginning :)

• What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? I really enjoyed all the tools I learned in this course. One of favorite exercises was exploring tools during THING #14, such as LetterPop, 30 boxes and Mix book. 

• How has this program affected your lifelong learning goals? My goal is to ALWAYS stay on top of the latest tools that can engage my students. This course made it possible for me gain new ideas to be integrated into different lessons. 
• Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? When I saw "23 THINGS" I was not very excited to begin the course. I kept thinking of all the time it was going to take, but was pleasantly surprised throughout the course! I love all the tools and I am still formulating ideas in my head on how to use these tools this coming year. 
• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I think the course is great! I can't think of any ways to improve it. 
• If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? Yes I would! This took time, but it taught me concepts I never thought insisted! 
• How will what you have learned influence your practice as a teacher or school librarian? I am not the type of person that uses technology much in my classroom, mostly because I am not sure how to. This course has influenced me tremendously! It has taught me tools that could be used to enhance my lessons and engage my students! it's been amazing :) 
• How do you plan to keep up with new developments in web 2.0? Recommend a way that you have found to be useful. I have been keeping up with my google reader and plan to continue keeping up with it. I think it's going to take some time to stay informed and research from my part as well, but I WILL do it. I was also thinking of listening to some technology podcasts on ITUNES at least once a week to learn of any new developments.

Thing #20

I REALLY, REALLY, think google docs is a great tool. I have heard many teachers say: "I sent it through google docs" or my principal say "you can find the letter on google docs." Now I see how it's used and how it works. I created a document I saved in my computer at work, but that still needs work. I needed to have a document in which I could inform my parents the reading level their child was currently in, so I created a simple "your child is reading at level __________" and "By this time, your child should be in level _________."
I can see how this tool would be great to share documents with other teachers. So many times I would email other teachers in my campus or in other schools documents I created, but now the process will be much easier. With each tool, I think of a million things I could do with it if I taught older students. I really want to figure out ways in which to accommodate some of these tools for my kindergarten class, so I am thinking about contacting other teachers who might have used them already. For now, I was thinking about uploading the documents saved to my computer and sharing them with my teammate. Also, I was thinking about sharing some documents (calendars, newsletter, etc) with parents. If anyone knows any ways in which to use this tool with my kindergarten class, let me know!

Thing #22

I spent a good 30 minutes exploring Classroom 2.0. I tried to sign up but it told me that I need approval from administration. I am still not sure what that means, but I am still waiting on an email. :) From what I saw, I thought Classroom 2.0 was very interesting. The first thing I did was click on GROUPS and found a Kindergarten group. The Group was titled "Kindergarten teachers" and I found topics on "Daily 5" and "Teaching Reading and Writing." Overall, I think this would be a good site to keep up with, however, I still love me some facebook!  I think Facebook is easy to use and makes it easy to create a class group. As with other social networking, you just have to be very careful with your postings! I know teachers who have gotten in trouble for accepting friend request from their students and posting comments that were not kid friendly. Still, I think social networking is a great way to keep in touch with students and other administrators around the world. 

Thing #21

TWITTER... I am a little embarrassed to say this, but the only thing I could think of when hearing the word twitter was: KIM KARDASHIAN. So many times I heard, "Kim Kardashian said on her twitter..." this or that. My thought was always: "What a waste of time!"follow her on twitter? I don't think so! Of course I never really knew what twitter was about. My husband had made an account for us a long long time ago. I remember him saying: " Five people are following us" Scary thing! Following us? Still, I didn't take the time to investigate the stalking. So I created my account and posted a simple "hello" message. I kept thinking that this is a good tool to stay connected with other educators and authors. I found Eric Carle and I was super excited! I love Eric Carle and all of his work, and so he was the first person I searched for. I am very excited about spending more time on twitter and seeing if anyone will follow me, and of course, following other educators and interesting people. I really like the stories (or news) I saw on twitter, which I didn't expect to find. I also liked how you can search categories such as sports, art, books, etc. 
I could definitely see how teachers can use twitter as part of their teaching. Students could follow each other and follow their teacher for updates on homework or so on. Also as I searched through the categories, I found Science, Government, and Technology. I think high school students could be asked to follow science or government twitter accounts to stay on top of what's going on in the world. 

Thing 7b

http://staff.prairiesouth.ca/sites/kcassidy/

What I really enjoyed seeing while experimenting with my reader was the websites Mrs. Cassidy is going to use this upcoming year. I really like her blog and I noticed the sites she plans so use this coming year, such as Audioboo, Storymaker, Storybird and Sketchcast. The one site I went into was Storybird. I was drawn by the first  words I read: "Short stories you can share, read and print." Let me jst say:  I LOVED THIS SITE! Students can go in and read stories created by others, or use other people's art to write their own stories. I will for sure attempt to use this site with my kindergarten class, wish me luck!

Thing #19

The first thing I did was listen to What is VoiceThread Anyway? As soon as the video started playing, I thought about the very first video I watched for the class that explained the 7 1/2 Habits of Effective Lifelong Learners. As I watched the video, I kept thinking "This is very cool, I wonder how they made it?" I figured we would eventually see it again :) What I really like about VoiceThread is how you have the option of sharing through audio, images, text or videos. Also, I like that I can use powerpoints. As I watched the clip, I really liked the part where people comment of a child's drawing. Being a kindergarten teacher, I always think "I can't use that with my class!" But I have learned that there are many ways to adjust to your grade level. I was thinking I could (Towards the last six weeks)   engage my students in a VoiceThread. My idea is to take a picture of one of our favorite books and have my students give their opinion about the book. I think that would be a great way to start a discussion and introduce my students to this awesome tool.