This has been a truly motivational class for me. It gave me the knowledge and courage to make my own classroom blog. It was something I have always wanted to do, but I never had the know how on even where to start. You can find my blog here, at The Schaadt Scene. Though it is only the beginning of one, I am very proud of it and can see many possibilities for it in the future. It’s a great base. I can not wait to add the 30 days calendar to it. It will be so easy to put in school dates for both the parents of my students and myself to use. Voicethread is another tool I can not wait to add to my blog. I have already spoken to another teacher about doing some creative things with that tool. She is all for it. Using podcasts along with making my own will be a great learning tool I can use in my classroom. It can also be used as an assessment tool for students if I have them make one too.
Not only will what I learned help me be a better teacher, but it has also made me much more aware of better ways to use the web. Delicious for example. I am really looking forward to the time spent on me taking my favorites from three different computers and putting them on Delicious. It is so frustrating not being able to find a site that I know I have on another computer. I will also use some of the picture editing programs. I enjoy taking pictures and scrapbooking, so these tools will come in handy.
Thank you very much, Diane, for such a wonderful class! I have always enjoyed learning from you, and I am looking forward to the follow up class to this one! hehe
Making the wiki was very easy to do. There are many similarities between what you do to make your blog and what you do to make a wiki.
I was chatting with a friend on instant message tonight about wikis and blogs. She said it all in a very smart way that made sense to me. “…blogs are more for the poster to post something and then for people to comment on. It’s more of a one-way street really. Wikis are user-generated where all those who sign up and are given high enough access can add content, erase content, contribute in a more active way than a blog… so not only are wikis interactive like a blog, it’s the level of interaction that distinguishes a blog from a wiki.” (from my friend, Amy)
I had no idea what a wiki truly was. I had only looked at Wikipedia and used it a few times. I knew people could add to it, but I thought it was a one and only kind of site. Now that I viewed many other wikis, I have a better understanding of what they really are. I had fun searching through some of them. I see these being useful for planning between teachers in my building too. I’d love to maybe create a 3rd grade teacher wiki. Communication would be so much more efficient. We could post ideas and links to sites we use in our curriculum. The possibilities are really endless. Once again though, I don’t want to take on more than I can chew. I now have a classroom blog that I still need to do a ton of more work on. Do I want one more things to maintain and check daily or weekly? There is so much out there. I can see management being an issue with me. Still, I see the value in them. I have more pondering to do in regards to wikis.
This thing literally took me minutes to do. The reason being in my “Hello, World!” post, I posted lyrics to a song that seemed to fit my life. I wanted to put the video into my post as well. I spent probably 1-2 hours trying to figure it out. With a ton of help from fellow bloggers, I finally got it. Rembering to use the embedded url and to put it into the HTML tag was key. Also making sure the plugins were turned on helped too. hehe Now that I have done it, it’s very easy to do!
Since I already had a google account, the signing up process was very easy. I posted a comment on a multiplication video, showing the patterns in 3’s, 6’s, and 9’s. It was something I had never seen before. Youtube in not restricted in my building. I use it once in a while for teaching the class. We look up math videos to help us learn. Videos on science and government. We even enjoy it for the musical side of it all. They enjoyed a video so much they asked if I would put it on my blog so they could share it with their parents.
I use it for myself too. Over Christmas break I watched some videos on using a pasta press to make homemade pasta. Recently I have taken up hula hooping. Watching the videos teach me many new things I would not think of on my own. Since I normally find the comments offensive and definitely not appropriate for school, I am glad I can check on the text comments arrow to hide them. It solves a ton of problems. Youtube is a great learning tool, you just have to be careful, as with anything.
I choose this voicethread because I can see how I can easily use it in my own classroom. We are working on writing our own poems, so this is great! I doubt I will be able to get this started right away, but I was also thinking of how I could use it in science or social studies. Students could write about facts that they have learned. Or we could even write poetry about the topic we are studying and not keep it just in our language arts program. Then add the doodling! All the possibilities. I have never seen this before. Amazing!!!
I am very excited to find this site. I have always wanted to put a calendar on my school blog where I can enter school dates and such. This is perfect!!! I have a lot of changes I want to make to my blog this marking period.
I have used different brainstorming programs before. I just tend to always make them myself. This is hard to read, but I made one for writing for my students. It contains good writing strategies that we talk about often in our writing and mentor texts.
I am also looking forward to making flashcards on knowtes. I use them a lot for vocabulary and math facts, so I do believe this will be helpful. My own children make flashcards also, so I am going to teach them how to use this site.
I am not sure if I totally understand Creative Commons yet. I understand what copyright means, so I think I am getting a handle on CC. I am now paranoid on everything I have done and will be doing. There are so may rules! lol I have never thought of others using my materials, pictures, etc. I do not mind though. I do know I will be looking for the CC icons from here on out or looking for any other kind of rights on using photos, etc. I have never sold anything, so I know I am not guilty there. I will be more careful though and think twice before I copy/paste something.
I was very surprised in this lesson. I have always thought you had to pay to get these along with having an iPod. I am very eager to explore the world of podcasts now. I know how much I search in youtube for certain things and this is somewhat similar. One more way to find and learn more information. Also, as I mentioned in another thing, I am very eager to have my class make some of their own. I am planning on trying it myself as well.
When I went to the MI Learning Podcasts, many of them seem way to high for 3rd graders. I did find this podcast about music though. Since I use a lot of music in my classroom for various things, I might be able to use this in my class.
This one made me laugh. I took two years of French in high school. I have always wanted to go back and refresh my skills, but I have never wanted to spend the money on a program since this is just for fun for me. I was pleasantly surprised to find this podcast. I will give it a try!
Since I am not good about keeping up on current events, this one might help me since it is a quick and easy way to hear what is going on out in the world. I can listen to it when I have the time and not worry about watching a clock and missing something.
I am really excited about using this site for my class. I have a listening center for my students. This is an easy way to get audio stories to use. I am also passing this on to my friends and family who have young children. It’s so easy and at your fingertips.
Podcasting is such a motivational tool for learning! I can see the importance for my students in both listening to one and creating one for themselves. I can use them in the classroom along with posting them on my own blog for students to use at home. It seems to me that you can almost find a podcast on any topic. I definitely want to explore making these up to go along with my own curriculum.
One thing I teach my students is the different reading genres. I was thinking how much fun it would be for them to each read a book from my classroom library. Have them write up a book review for other students. I could post them on my blog so other students could listen to them and find a book they would want to read.
I do a vocabulary activity called “Word of the Week.” This podcast reminded me of it. My class gets so much out of it that I thought I may listen to this one for my own benefit.
