Celebration of Lights

Celebration of Lights
Originally uploaded by Dave Harvey Photography

Hooray!

Exploration 17: Reflection

Whew! I made it! (Okay, not quite by the end of "summer" but almost...)

This has been one of the best professional development 'classes' I've ever had! It was absolutely wonderful to learn about all of these awesome web tools that I knew nothing about. I may not have mastered them all but at least I now have some idea about them. I would really like to choose one or two and take a class and/or experiment with them to learn more...hopefully something will be offered this year. Now that I've done the initial self-exploration, I think it would be really beneficial to work with someone that knows these tools to try to learn more.

I think my favorite explorations were blogs, flickr, wikis, and google docs. I'd probably really enjoy LibraryThing, too, if I got to know it better. All of the explorations were worthwhile, though, and I am glad that they were all included.

Thank you, Kristin!

Oh My!

Okay, that is embarrassing! I clicked on one of the links in my post and it worked! My voice - on my blog!

Exploration 16: Podcasts

Today I explored podcasting which was a great experience for me as I have had little to no experience with it so far..in spite of it being used so much at Beverly. I feel glad to have at least gotten my feet wet. I was able to create an account with Gcast, record a podcast, and listen to it on my computer. I was not able to add a link on my blog, however, although I tried. I THINK you go to http://www.gcast.com/go/FO1OSPRZD to hear it, or perhaps www.gcast.com/u/rf04bps/main. I thought I gave it a title (Reading Fluency) but then it looked like it came up as rf04bps's podcast. I DON'T KNOW!!! This is when I started feeling like I usually do....HELP!

Anyway - it was fun learning about podcasting.

Exploration 15: TeacherTube

I previewed TeacherTube today... which is a pretty cool site, although I had some trouble with it. Luckily I have been to the site before and know that it is not always as difficult as I found it to be today...there were really long waits for it to find videos for all of the topics I tried, and it took a really long time for the videos to load fully. I was able to watch a student-made video about recess and an interesting video about guided reading.

I think this site has wonderful potential. It is an awesome resource for teachers to learn about many different topics, from other teachers, and also it would be very motivating for kids to be able to put together videos that would then be shown on TeacherTube.

Exploration 14: Gliffy

Today I learned about Gliffy. I was able to create a diagram - a floor plan of my room at Beverly, but had trouble finding directions on how to manipulate the items I put on the floor, i.e. how to rotate things. It was still pretty fun and I think if I were able to read up on how to use it more efficiently and/or had someone teach me how to do it better, I think it would be useful for making up flowcharts or diagrams of important content from nonfiction books I use with my kids. These would make excellent study guides.

I also tried to put my floor plan on my blog, but wasn't able to figure that out either!

Google Docs in action!

New computer!
Originally uploaded by MeFind

Exploration 13 Google Docs

I enjoyed this exploration about Google Docs. I especially liked reading the testimonials of people that have found it an excellent way to solve many different problems they had been having on the computer with sharing information. I also found the ways they mentioned that teachers have used it with students to be exciting, but then I think I understood it to say that the students had to be 13 years old... so that may not work for me, after all. Anyhow, it would be good to use when collaborating with someone else when writing a document or spreadsheet.

For my assignment, I created a document that is meant to be review for me of the many tools I have been learning about during this Web 2.0 exercise. It is more or less a list of terms and definitions. I left it partially unfinished and 'shared' it with my friend Cathy. Hopefully I did this correctly and she will be able to view it, make changes to it, and finish it. I was a little confused as to where I go to view it again... we'll see, I guess!

Internet-Safety-Web_01

Internet-Safety-Web_01
Originally uploaded by paul.klintworth

Internet safety is a must!

Exploration 12: Wikis

Today I learned about wikis. As usual, I thought the Common Craft introduction was excellent; both informative and entertaining. As I watched it, I was thinking about how a wiki might come in handy for my reading program. I thought it would be fun to have a wiki that my students and I could add new vocabulary words to as we encountered them in our reading. Then when I looked at the Battle of the Books wiki, I saw that that was one part of that one - Wonder Words, I think it was called. It looked like a good way for kids to comment on common books, too, not just keep track of vocabulary. I'd like to set something up for my students to be able to comment on books, perhaps either just with me through a blog, or perhaps with all of us as a community, like a wiki would allow us to do. I need to think about it some more...

I thought the Battle wiki did a good job of cautioning kids about giving personal information and/or even using their real names. I agree that reminding students about internet safety will have to be an important part of using any of these tools we've been exploring.

Exploration 11: Custom Search Enginges

As I spent a lot of time in Ann Arbor recently at parent orientation, I had U of M on my mind when I did this exploration. I created a custom search engine about UMich using some of the many, many websites given to us while we were there. The result was pretty cool. At the spot near the end of the exploration where you get to try it out, it was fun to put in topics and then receive links to sites that were just what you wanted. I can see how this would be really powerful in certain teaching situations. You could set up a search engine with all of the sites you wanted your students to be exploring.

I hit a stumbling block when it got to the part where I was supposed to either put the engine on my website or "get a link where google will host it for you." I couldn't figure that part out - sorry! So, I didn't figure out what I was meant to do so that others could try out my engine. It was at this point that I got to feeling (like usual) that I am in waaay over my head!!

Exploration 10: LibraryThing

I explored LibraryThing today. It is a pretty cool tool!

I set up my account and added just a few books, in order to experiment with it a little. The books I've been reading are teen fiction (The Twilight series, by Stephanie Meyers) so when I looked at recommendations, I got some interesting teen responses. I tried to add a LibraryThing widget to my blog, but was not successful.

I think this tool would be really fun and useful, both personally and professionally. It would be interesting to solicit book reviews when I'm looking for something new to read, and also to hear others' opinions of books I like and don't like. Similarly, I think it would be motivating and fun for kids to create a library of what they've read and to be able to hear opinions and recommendations from peers.

Exploration 9: Del.icio.us

Again - learning something new has shown me how much I don't know! I established a Delicious account and added the buttons to my tool bar. Then I was able to import my bookmarks. Next, however, when I viewed my bookmarks...I got overwhelmed! I poked around a little, trying out this and that, but started to hyperventilate, so I decided to comeback and visit another day! Maybe I'll watch the two videos again and see if I pick up some new tips, now that I've learned at least some of it.

I can definitely see how this site would be useful, both for keeping track of my own bookmarks (which do tend to get disorganized as I bookmark too many things...) but also for networking with others to see what they have found on subjects I am interested in.

Exp.8: Locating Useful Blogs and Feeds

My progress is slow...two steps forward, one step back!

I enjoyed browsing around at all the many blogs out there, but didn't find any (yet) that seemed that useful for school purposes. Sure, there are lots of fun ones for just surfing and reading about celebs! I also was able to read about the place I'm going up north, which was pretty cool. I didn't find any that I really wanted to add to my Google Reader Account, although I tried adding a different weather site, but didn't really like it and then I couldn't get the "manage" sites(?) (I can't remember the correct lingo) to load, so I couldn't then delete it from my account. I'll have to try again later. I did add CNN, which looks interesting.

Explorations 7 - RSS Feeds

I enjoyed setting up a Google Reader Account and looking around at the different feeds to possibly add. I added Cathy Reef's blog just to try adding someone I know. I also added some of the bundled sites they suggested but would like to find some that are related specifically to my interests. I had some trouble finding a weather site I like, but think I have that figured out.

I think this would be a good way for students to follow the blogs of their teachers, if they had more than one keeping blogs...

Explorations 6 - Generators

These Generators are quite interesting. I had fun trying many of them out. I think it would be fun to generate i.d. badges for students or use PhotoFunia to make pictures for students to include when creating projects in school. Privacy issues must be addressed, however. It would be important to make sure that it is okay to put digital photos of the kids onto the computer before starting to manipulate them. Also, I really liked word clouds!

These sites, like many of the sites I've been experimenting with, are causing me to grow frustrated with my lack of knowledge regarding my own photographs on my computer. I guess I need to get some lessons from one of my teen-agers about where my pictures are on the computer and how I access them because whenever I try to use them, I only end up able to view a few of them rather than the many that I know are on here somewhere. This is not surprising. I have had a very difficult time switching to digital photography, as a general rule. For some reason, it is not coming easy for me at all.

Graduation Day

Graduation Day
Originally uploaded by rhondajohn2002

Here is a motivational poster Cathy and I made using Big Huge Labs.

Exploration 5 - Fun With FlickR

I especially liked Big Huge Labs and think it might be fun to use with students. They might like to see some of their accomplishments brought to life through a poster. It might also be fun to use Spell with FlickR for work, although I need more practice with it to figure out how to apply it.

Put Your Nose in a Good Book

cat reading
Originally uploaded by raider of gin

Choose a book about an animal today - tell us about it...

More tests!

Hello again,
Still experimenting... Trying different color texts to try to separate my posts a little better.

Seaholm Graduation, 2008

Like me, my son, Matt, has always loved reading. Here he is speaking at his high school graduation, June 1st, 2008. He used a quote from a famous friend of reading, Dr. Seuss.

Late Night Reading

I must admit that I've been staying up late at night reading in bed. It is one of my favorite parts of summer. The best days are when can stay up late reading and read for a while in the morning when I wake up, too! Right now I am reading New Moon, Stephanie Meyer's sequel to Twilight. It is very good!

Everybody loves reading!

Experimenting

Hello again. Just trying to learn how to use this blogging system.

Mr. Piper congratulates Matt.

Matt graduated from Seaholm High School June 1st, 2008.

Hello World!

Welcome to my new blog! Please disregard my previous blogs. I was having some trouble getting things moving, so I've decided to start fresh...