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.

Thing #18

Ok so I am definitely a youtube fan. Anything and everything I need to know, I look it up on youtube. I remember when I was crazy about bows for my daughter I looked up "How to make bows." Also, when I have a question about photoshop I look up "How to make black and white" or "How to make my blurry picture better." I basically look up EVERYTHING. I remember one day watching back to back episodes of Gray's Anatomy (my husband was not happy :) )
For this Thing, I looked up a couple of videos on "Writer's workshop" and "Making Words in Kindergarten." I really enjoyed watching different teachers share their ideas and way of doing things, because it taught me that everyone does things different and there is nothing wrong with that. I don't think that I could teach exactly like another teacher, but it is nice to get a few ideas from them. Another video I watched was: "How to fix pictures with photoshop." I love to watch these type of videos because I absolutely love photography, and my goal is to learn photoshop. I would love to take pictures of my family and fix them up nicely!
I would recommend both Youtube and Teachertube to teachers. Before this course, I didn't even know Teachertube existed, but I really liked the classroom management videos. I also simply typed "SCIENCE" and many videos came up explaining different concepts of science. This is the kind of website teachers need to know about!
The video I decided to post is RED. This video was sent to us during anti-bullying week and I fell in love with it. Hope you enjoy!

Thing #17

I have to be honest and say: I've listened to one podcast my whole life, and it was for an assignment. I remember as if it was yesterday... My teacher, from Spain, told us we had to listen to a 45 minute podcast and were going to be tested on it. I remember sitting there falling asleep, (I couldn't understand the type of Spanish they were speaking) bored out of my mind. Surprisingly, I made a 90 :)

Anyways, I told myself that I would never listen to another podcast! 

I have to say THANK YOU to this course for engaging me back into the world of podcasting! I logged into Itunes and clicked on podcasts. Then, I began choosing the type of podcasts I wanted to listen to. First, I picked Kids and Family and right away was drawn to "The Mighty Mommy's Quick and Dirty Tips for Practical Parenting." (http://quickanddirtytips.com/) Of course, being the mother to 2 babies, I am always up for learning tips on better parenting. I wasn't able to listen to all the podcasts, but I did listen to How to Enjoy Summer Vacation Without Losing Your Mind. I thought this podcast was interesting because it talks about having expectations for your children. (Who would of ever thought about this! Their future teachers I am sure will appreciate it! )

Another podcast I enjoyed was "How Stuff Works" http://www.howstuffworks.com/ This is such an interesting and fun podcast! They have stuff such as How Lightning Works, Is the Dead Sea dead? I only listened to the first 20 minutes of How Lightning Works Because it was 40 minutes long, but I am definitely hooked! I know my husband is going to follow my podcast addiction as well because he is always trying to figure out these type of questions :)

The last podcast I listened to was http://storynory.com/  Storynory is an education website where you can listen to different stories read. I think I am going to use this podcast in my listen center, and of course continue to research more educational websites to use in my classroom. 

Thing #16

I found Library Thing to be very fascinating. It reminded me of Goodreads which is a site I had to sign up for while taking New Jersey Writing this summer. I haven't really been able to play around with Goodreads but from the time I did spend exploring it, I have to say that Library Thing reminded me of it. I really liked how you can type an author's name (I typed Mem fox and Eric Carle) and find reviews and summaries of their books. I think this website is useful because many times I have come across books that are not age appropriate, and with this site, you can see the reviews and summaries before introducing it to your class. I could see how this website could be addicting after a while! I clicked on Zeitgeist and found top authors, books, most reviewed books etc. Then, I clicked on Groups and found an interesting discussion group on religion. I am not one to argue religion, but I have friends who would love to get into the conversations. Also, I liked the 75 book challenge. I would LOVE to have the time to read 75 books this year! But with two babies, getting my master's degree and getting ready for next year, I will be lucky to read 5. This is definitely a website I would recommend to librarians and  book lovers!

Thing #15

I absolutely LOVED delicious. I was a bit lost at first (I am not good with technology at ALL!) But then I started playing around with it and ran into "create a stack." It took me just a little longer to realize that I could add my a list of my favorite websites and a link to them. I decided to create a page with my favorite recipes and the link to them. I added some of the best recipes I have found online that either my family or I have tried. This is such an amazing website! My plan is to send this link to my sister so that she can see all the new recipes I find or the ones I have used that she loved.
For my professional practice, I think I could make a list of all the wonderful websites I have found this summer and share with teachers in my campus and off campus. This would be a great way to share resources! If I was in the upper grades, I would share my link with my students and do some kind of "Our class favorite sites."
This is the link to my page :)
http://delicious.com/claudyfer

Thing 7A

The most interesting information I found by far in my reader was a recipe titled: One-banana banana bread. :) I absolutely love cooking! I love to look up recipes, adjust recipes to my family's liking, and simply experiment on my own. Banana bread is an all time favorite for me and my husband. Before having our babies, we used to bake or I should say attempt to bake banana bread all the time. When I saw the title "One-banana banana bread" I knew that would the article to read.
Here is the link:
http://80breakfasts.blogspot.com/2012/07/one-banana-banana-bread.html

Thing #14

The two tools I played with were:
http://30boxes.com/
http://www.mixbook.com/
http://www.wordle.net/

  I didn't really take too much time playing with these tools but the time I did spend was great. I was drawn to mixbook because I love to make pictures slideshows and collages of my family. It turns out you can create picture books and pay to have them printed, which I thought was pretty cool. I didn't see a way to share your album with others, but this tool also allows you to create yearbooks for your class, which some teachers like to do.   I thought Wordle.net was an interesting website. From what I saw, you can simply create "word clouds" with different fonts, colors and color schemes. What I really liked is that you can print them out or share them with other people by saving it to the wordle gallery. For example, if I wanted to make a poster ( which I did) with different reading words such as: characters, main idea, setting etc. I could make it, print it and share it with other teacher friends. The last tool I played around with is 30 boxes. This tool is simply a way to keep organized. The tool allows you to enter birthdays, email addresses, to do list, remainders etc. I didn't think much of this tool but I plan to spend more time learning more about these three tools and the ones I didn't get to explore.
As far as social features, I think Wordle. net, as I mentioned before, is a great way to create posters and share with other teachers. I still have to go back and see what other features this tools offers, but I really liked the "word clouds." I was also thinking that if I had an upper class, I would share my calendar from 30 boxes with them. I think this would be a great way to keep up with classroom assignments and even classmates birthdays.

Thing #13

For this picture, I used Image Chef http://www.imagechef.com/ I had lots of fun playing with this program! They have many templates that I could see myself using in the future :) This picture was created using: http://metaatem.net/words/ or spell with flickr I really wanted to try this site to make my kids names and last name, and it looked great!

My last picture was done with: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php If you look at my computer pictures, you see my kids EVERYWHERE! So I wanted to create something with my husband and I. I enjoyed making it because I really wanted to show my husband the end result. I was trying to think of a million ways I could use these image generators. I was thinking maybe for social studies or science. Towards the beginning of the year, my kindergarten class is not able to do much with technology, but towards January, I could possibly try using one of these picture generators with science pictures or "Our family" unit in Social Studies.

Thing #12

Kizoa slideshow: Take me to the snow - Slideshow

I made this slideshow because I am trying to convince my husband to take me to Colorado next summer. I really want to be in cold weather for a week while Texas is in the 100's weather. I think it would be unique and wonderful! 

Thing #11

           
 Picture by By Cynthia Ahrens

I am not a fan of flickr. I had the hardest time finding pictures! Maybe I wasn't searching the way I was suppose to but this is a learning process. I played around with it for a good 30 minutes and I still didn't get too far. I will continue to search for images and see If it can win me over :) 
I downloaded this picture because I am looking for ways in which I can create an inviting reading area in my classroom. I really like how simple and cute this reading area is. I love that there is not only a place where students can read, but also a teacher chair for read-alouds. 

Thing #10

Have you noticed the CC logo on any websites you visit? Did you wonder what it meant? Honestly, I have never noticed the CC logo on any of the websites I've visited. Then again, I usually just get on the internet to get the information I need and that's all. I never really explore websites the way I should. 

Do you think CC will impact the way students learn and create projects? How? I think this will definitely impact students learning and their creation of projects. I remember being in high school and hearing "be careful with copyrights" "You can get in lots of trouble if you don't know about copyrights" But I don't remember any of my teachers ever taking the time to explain the details. I am glad that now students will be able to know what they can use take from websites. 

Do you use digital images, audio or video clips from the web in your teaching (or professional practice)? I am a big user of video clips, but I only use the ones provided by MISD. I do, however, use different images I randomly find in the internet. I am glad that I now know what CC means, and I will be looking for it when I visit different websites. 

Do you ever share content on the web? I don't ever share anything, but I would love to be able to share with other kindergarten teachers ideas and worksheets I come up with.

Thing #8

The three wikis I investigated were: Go West, Kindergaten Counting Book and Schools in the Past. I really wanted to explore wikis created by lower grades and these were the three I found. I really liked Go West because I could picture a third grade class I taught during my student teaching doing this. I really liked the organization and visuals. As I explored the wiki, I was asking myself, "was this really made by a third grade class?" All the information was organized beginning with introduction, information on the oregon trail and fun facts. As I clicked on clothing, food and recipes, I was impressed by the information added and the pictures. Overall, I think this wiki was amazingly organized and put together. 

The second one was Kindergarten Counting Book. I was a bit confused by this wiki. I scrolled down and found pictures added by students (all the way to 100) At first, I wasn't sure about what I was looking for, but then I realized that the goal was for each student to add a different picture to represent a different number. I was trying to picture if I could do this with my kindergarten class, and I think it's definitely possible. Maybe I could do some type of addition wiki with them and add pictures of different manipulatives we used to add. Also, I would love to create a wiki on reading concepts, such as characters, main idea, visualizing etc. 

The last wiki I explored was Schools in the Past. I enjoyed this wiki because it was information on interviews made by first graders. I love to see writing on topics that are meaningful to students, and I think this was definitely meaningful to them. I think this wiki was a less organized than the others, but I enjoyed reading its content. 

I am for sure going to try creating a wiki with my students. My plan is to get together with the other kindergarten teacher and come up with ways in which we can engage our students with technology, and I think this will be a great way. 

Thing #7

I think it is very important to comment to other blogs. Can you imagine keeping up with a blog that nobody is interested in? I think comments keep blogs interesting. Of course, I noticed some comments that were not very nice nor relevant. I do think commenting is important because author's want to know the opinion of others. If I want to comment, it will be to give my opinion or to ask questions about the topic. Also, to let the author know that his/her ideas are amazing, which I think is a way to encourage them to keep blogging. 
I commented on western's sky blog to let her know that I would be reading the book she recommended, because her recommendations are awesome! I am sure she will be happy to know I appreciate the time she takes to rate and recommend books she is reading. 

Thing #6

At first, I was having a hard time getting the hang of this, but after a while, I found myself researching more and more blogs to add to my feeder. It's truly amazing how many blogs are out there that give ideas and valuable information about teaching, cooking etc. The one blog I knew I had to add was Amianne's blog, http://mywesternsky.blogspot.com/ 

Amianne is a librarian for MISD who also teaches the New Jersey course I took this summer. She is passionate about books and makes the most wonderful suggestions. During the New Jersey writing course she introduced me to amazing books I could read to my kindergarten class this coming year. I wanted to add her because I want to be aware of any new book recommendations she makes. Another blog I added was  http://80breakfasts.blogspot.com/ This is a blog on different kinds of breakfast I can  cook. I knew I had to add this because of my 2 year old who is a picky eater! 

Anywho, I think this is going to take a good part of my day from now on, pretty addicting!

Thing #5

WOW! Google reader is really cool. I won't lie, it was a little difficult for me to figure out how to read through all the information and articles, but I was able to overall find some interesting information. After learning about this, I began searching teacher blogs.
I found a blog Mrs. Cassidy’s Classroom Blog or http://staff.prairiesouth.ca/sites/kcassidy/   that was rated Best for hands on blog by scholastic. What I really enjoyed about her blog were all the videos on fluency, good use for IPADS and working together. She also has many websites that she recommends for teachers. Mrs. Cassidy is a first grade teacher, but I sure will accommodate some of her ideas for my kindergarten class. 

Thing #4

Ok so blogging is new to mew. I have heard time after time "check out my blog" and had not idea what they were talking about. After reading the sample blogs and now writing blogs myself, I really like it. I was reading "Why I Don't Assign Homework" and I had things I agreed with and things I did not. I like how the author is free to express his opinion on homework and still is giving purpose to his writing. His words are clear and easy to read, it makes great sense overall. This is what I have noticed about blogs- they are very easy to read. For this reason, it grabs the audiences attention. Also, how many times have you wanted to respond to the book or article you are reading? I have! maybe to say, "I think you are completely right" or simply, " I don't agree." In blogging, this is possible! and it opens a door of meaningful debating and conversation. Commenting to blogs also makes the reading more interesting because it allows for the audience to see what other people have to say on the subject.