Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Thing #23

1. Favorites: creating my avatar, mashups - using BigHugeLabs, making my trading card and comicstripgenerator, and embedding TeacherTube videoes for my classroom.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? I feel like I have a "start" on several ideas (life with the Ning, Rollyo, and my wiki and pbwiki spaces) - it will be interesting to see what comes of these items and how I will be able to build on them. The Google Reader, the Google Notebook, and delicious are practically going to be daily uses for me during the school year.
3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? Of course! Where do I begin? Some of this I answered with Question 2. A lot surprised me and at times overwhelmed me because there is SO MUCH information out there it is incredible. It feels a little discouraging because I feel so far behind this wave of technology, I wonder if I will ever "get there." I have had a blog for a long time, but did not know how to use it for much more than posting pictures and paragraphs. Now I can do a lot more and I have connected with other math teachers that have already given me great ideas for my classroom!
4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? I am not sure - some of the things were very user-friendly, while others were like 10 things lumped into one thing. Maybe they could be spaced out. At times, I had 6 or more internet tabs going, and I would get all mixed and forget what I was doing in the first place. Also, I was surprised at how long it took me to complete each thing (not every single one of them, but the majority), I GREATLY underestimated my time! I would have appreciated a longer time to complete things (maybe another week or so). All in all, there probably is not much to improve on unless things could somehow be a little more simplified.
5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? Probably - although I am not sure I fully grasped everything on this one, and will be building and continuing to learn what I have just gone through here. I would certainly look into it though, because this was fun!
6. How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities? It was fun connecting with other teachers out there, getting feedback and ideas from them!

Thing #22 Nings

I think Ning for Teachers is pretty neat. I have a myspace, but I never used it often and do not like it very much; although, I keep it around because occasionally I re-connect with an old friend here and there. Lately, I have been using Facebook which I think is a lot of fun, super user friendly, and a brilliant network. So this concept of Ning is very familiar to me, but a different look at it. I created a space (or a Ning?), and linked it to this blog so I can network with other middle school math teachers. Could be interesting and very useful. It takes 48 hours to receive confirmation of the linking with my blog, so I will have to wait and see how it looks and works. I see great networking with fellow teachers all over the world. I wonder if it can be used within a classroom only setting as well? - where students could login and comment and add work? I can see something like that being used with language arts (commenting on books, etc), social studies, and classes that often have discussions. I will have to do some more looking into this one and looking at what others on the library2play list have found.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Thing #21

A podcast in the works...this one is a little difficult since I do not have a microphone or video camera and the fact that I teach math, I have to get a little creative (creativity is not easy for me). I think it would be neat to borrow a video camera (maybe there is one at my school I can check out?) and record the students teaching a mini-lesson for a review for a test and they can watch themselves.

So, I started with the switchpod, but I found it difficult to use. Then I tried Photostory. It was SO easy and user-friendly! This was really fun to create. Thought about a fun song, grabbed a bunch of pictures from Flickr and went to town with Photostory. Hope you enjoy.

Thing #20

I am very familiar with youtube, but the teachertube is a little newer for me. I did various searches on instructional videoes I could use for our 6th grade math curriculum and found quite a few things. I posted a couple and am thinking about organizing them into my wiki space and rollyo. Using short video clips are wonderful instructional tools that can be used in power points, for introducing lessons, and showing/explaining math problems. The more technology I can incorporate into my lessons, the better job I can do reaching the variety of learners in my classroom.

Line up those Decimals!



Simplify Fractions!

Thing #19

Web 2.0 Awards List: I can use this website when I want to see if something is ranked or compare it with other sites before I decide which one to use. I can also use this site if I have an idea and need help thinking of a way to display or use it with technology. It definitely could help you brainstorm when you are not sure what you looking for!

Thing #18

For me, Google Doc looks easiest to use since I already have a Google Account and use gmail. It's making it easier for me to keep all this new information I am learning all in one place. I can see advantages to using the Google Doc because it will download the document when you receive via email and then it's right there! You don't have to open up another program on your computer! Also, makes for easy sharing and collaborating with others. Disadvantages? I do not see any at this time. I am not sure how often I use documents any more, but right now my brain has cobwebs in it, being that it is summer time! I probably use documents all the time!

Thing #17

Rollyo - I liked Bruce's video about using Rollyo. I posted a couple rollyo search rolls, one that I created for fractions and one that was already set up for middle school math. I also put them in my links section of my blog. I think it is a good way to organize websites that my students can use on different topics that I teach throughout the year.

Thing #16

Okay, love it! I absolutely HATE email because I just cannot keep up with it. Recently, I signed up for gmail because it does a great job organizing emails when others reply to an original email. However, this wiki stuff is great - having it all in one place to look at instead of trying to find emails about something upcoming; such as, the scenario of the group of people planning a camping trip created by the CommonCraft guys. I think this wiki stuff is a great tool to enhance learning and lesson planning for our students! I am hoping there are other math teachers out there who get into this 2.0 and all these great things I am learning with the 23 things this summer. Then we can all share with each other and use each other's ideas and feedback. And i really liked the main comment on the sandbox discussion page about being able to eliminate some meetings because we could have a quicker more efficient discussion space. And what about using this space for grade levels planning school supplies, that way we don't ALL have to meet and talk about school supplies (last year we could not find a time where everyone in the level could meet; math, language arts, social studies, science, etc).

I created a pbwiki and wiki page for a 6th grade math classroom (not sure which I want to use). I am not yet sure what I am going to do with this, but it's a start! I did a search in pbwiki for math and also 6th grade math, but there were no results found. I did the same search in wiki and found a ton of stuff, but I don't think you can view anyone's page unless you become a member? So, I saw a lot of pages that were set up (items on the side, like a side-toolbar), but nothing actually on the page when you click the links. So, it's hard to see what others are using it for, but you can tell some of them were by subject and grade levels.

Thing #15

I read quite of a few of the discovery resources for 2.0 web, library, and future libraries. Wow...I wonder what a library in 10 years from now will look like. This "thing" has really made me think about the last time I went into a library (not our school library)! I think it was about 3 years ago and only because I wanted a couple books on CD to take with me on a very long, road trip. I remember it being very old and out-dated in there. I really do not use the library any more. If I want to read a book, I order it or go to Barnes & Noble! If I read a ton, I certainly would use the community library all the time because that would be much better on my wallet! However, I rarely have the time to read anymore. If I need information, I certainly do not go to the library because it is all on the web! Then, began thinking about our very own school library. Come to think of it...I have observed few kids reading, and many kids on computers. That is the way our society is going. And I have mentioned before that our librarian is the best and has completed this "23 Things," so we are all looking to her for what is next! (no pressure Ms. Laucher!). I did find a "2.0 classroom" blog and added it to my blog roll.

Thing #14

1. I did the search with "School Library Learning 2.0" and also "middle school math." I found that searching under tags gives me ANYTHING that has to do with my keywords: videoes, blogs, blog posts, photos, etc. Obviously, blog posts only searches blog posts and same with the blog directory. Tags are for looking everywhere! I also noticed one of our library2play summer buddies had register their blog. :)

2. Just found it interesting that Paris Hilton and Britney Spears are both listed within the top 7 "top searches" on popular blog, searches and tags! I think it is cool that you can look at "what's popular" by category, like news, music, blogs, movies; although, I cannot see myself ever checking back to this site for "what's popular."

3. I really liked using Technorati to search through blog posts and tags. I think it will be helpful in finding math lesson short videoes (which is what I spent most my time doing in this discovery quest). I know I need to get better at making tags so that others could use what I find also (whenever I find really cool stuff). I registered my blog, so we can see if I can become helpful somewhere out there.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Thing #13

The common craft guys are my heroes! Really, they are awesome because they explain everything on MY level. My bookmarks were exactly the same way as shown on that video - chaos! Delicious is a great website to organize favorite bookmarks. This will certainly be helpful when finding good and useful websites for math. My favorites will not be so messy now with the tags. I really like how I can access it from any computer because I can find and tag something when I am doing school work at home and then easily access it when I am back at school the following day. It is like using the same computer! It will or would be awesome to know other 6th grade math teachers that are using delious also because we can look at each others findings without having to do any searching of our own! It is all about cutting the amount of time you do anything anywhere you can because there is never enough of it! I really look forward to using this one more!

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Thing #12

Yes! I am HALFWAY there!!! Let's see...five days left...I can post 2-3 things per day and still finish on time!

Two points I think are important about commenting are: 1.) Ask a question to get some reader feedback (a comment)... of course...assuming that anyone is reading your blog in the first place which brings me to point 2... 2.) Find other blogs of interest, and make a comment on their blog because they may in turn, read my blog and answer my question(s); therefore, making a comment on my blog! Brilliant! I already have questions on some of my posts - I just need to get some people reading them!

Non-library2play blogs: I went to the Google Blog Search and typed in "middle school math teacher." I found one blog by a girl who teaches middle school math (go figure). She has not updated her blog in quite sometime, but I did post a comment to her as I noticed we also have some other things in common. In reading her blog, I discovered another blogger who commented on one of her posts who is also a middle school math teacher. I went to his blog and again, found that I have a lot in common with this blogger also! I posted a comment as well! In his blog, he talked about a book called Joke of the Day: 180 Classroom Appropriate Jokes for Middle School which I actually already purchased for $2.99! I like the idea of being able to liven things up a little bit in the classroom, and I would love to get the kids laughing a little. There is also another book he had listed (included in this link by the same author) that looks great too. I will check into that as well (it's not as cheap as the joke book!). His blog is very interesting: http://teach.ideasite.net/2008/05/another-blog.html and added to my Google Reader! ;)

Thing # 11

I made a book list, mostly of books I've read or am currently reading. I searched "math" and "middle school math" and found some results. I added a few of the books to see if anyone's read them or find them helpful in the classroom. I joined a couple groups. I joined a math teacher group, so this could be helpful and useful to use in my classroom. I think it would be neat to have a "student" section on my book list on my blog so my students could look at math books I recommend (fun math books - there ARE a few out there!). :)

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Thing # 10

(created by Trading Card Maker and the image from Flickr)







(created by Comic Strip Generator)

This one was fun. I am reading a book right now called Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow. Currently the chapter I am reading is about worrying, so that is what is on my mind. So far, this is the easiest "thing" I have done and did not cause me any anxiety! I can see this being useful in the classroom for attention-getters in powerpoints for teacher instruction.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Thing # 9

Google Blog Search was certainly the easiest for me to use, it is so similiar to the familiar Google Search that I live by! I thought topix.net was another cool one because it searches newfeeds that are recent. So often, I do a Google Search for something I just heard on the news, not only do I get a ton of results, but much of it is old and/or outdated. Cool, but not something to use in my math classroom. Atomic Learning is also VERY easy to use AND we get staff development hours when we use it!

Technorati was a little confusing at first, but really helpful in finding specific blogs. I searched, "middle school math" and found many websites to look through, some had math activities.

I didn't try bloglines because it required an email and password to create an account, and I am getting confused with all the new passwords and accounts I am getting all over. I am trying to simplify, so I skipped that one. I thought syndic8.com and the rest were too confusing and/or hard for me to use. Really, a lot of this was too much for me to look at and very overwhelming. I felt like I was looking all over the place at everything and not too sure what I am looking for. I cannot even keep up with my email (personal AND school/work). I have a feeling that some of these assignments on 23 Things I will use right away, while others will be a work in progress. Or I may never need it, who knows? I think the important thing here is to learn what all is out there and use all that I can.

Thing #8 RSS Feeds

"Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit everyday." This comment comes from our assignment page on Thing 8, and I knew right then this would be difficult for me because I do not visit websites or news information sources daily. But I did have a little fun looking around! I already have a google account and gmail, so I used the Google Reader to subscribe to my RSS feeds. I like having it all in one place. This is great for blogs that I like to keep up with because before, I would keep checking and checking them to see if anything new was posted. Then, I would forget about it, and of course, that is when something would be posted. Now, I can look in one place and see if anything new has happened without having to check websites. This definitely saves time and much more efficient. As for school uses, I added someone's blog who teaches math (I am not sure if this will be useful or not). I also added this website http://www.teachers.tv because I did a search on secondary math and found this video http://www.teachers.tv/video/26366 for probability that was entertaining and could possibly be used in my classroom or something I could get ideas from it. I also subscribed to the funniest/most watched youtube because I could use a short clip to introduce a topic (attention-getter); although, this will most likely be for my personal use since our school server does not allow us to use youtube, so I also subscribed to the teacher tube. I am not sure how useful this service will be for me (yet anyway) in the math classroom unless someone out there has some good math sites that I could use with this. Or a good idea? (I am thinking teacher use only, not students - someone correct me please or enlighten me if I should be thinking otherwise).

How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology? Well, I am not sure about other librarians, but our librarian is tops in technology. I can only imagine what she can do with this (and she has already completed the 23 things). She is always sending us interesting information on anything she finds in our subject areas, about school, related research, etc.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Thing #7 "Cool Google Tools"

I love the "Notebook and the "Google Advanced Search." I found some awesome websites for math. I put "adding fractions" in the search engine and found a battleship game the kids can play as they add fractions. Creative. (pick the "easy" level for 6th grade!) Then, I saved it into my "Notebook." I think these two items will be very useful to me now that I know about them and how to use them! I really need more computer games like this one, where the computer checks the work of the student - less time student is waiting for me to check his/her work, more accurate than a buddy check, and certainly immediate feedback. However, what I REALLY like about the Google Advanced Search is that you can search for powerpoint on your subject. I love that, because I really do not enjoy making powerpoints, and I can use one that's already been created when I am in a bind or a hurry! AND I could introduce a new math topic, for example, simplifying fractions, and the students could research powerpoints to learn more and write what they learned including examples.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Thing #6 Mashups!



Well, I know this is copyright-friendly because they are my own pictures from various places I have been to! I went to http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ and created a mosaic. I then downloaded it to my computer instead of leaving it as a link so you can see it on my blog. I completely got lost in Thing #6 because there is so much to do and look at- it's a little overwhelming. I am not done with this one! I signed up for Tripprmap which will let me have a world map that I can post my pictures from Flickr of the different places I have been. However, I think this is going to take some time to set up as not all of my traveling pictures have been imported to Flickr.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Thing #5

Can you estimate the amount of pennies raised for a charity at the Rockefeller Center in New York?

Coin pic


Answer: approximately one hundred million pennies! Do you know how many dollars that is? hint: think about how many pennies are in one dollar! (I teach 6th grade)

So...Thing #5 has been the most time consuming for me so far. I thought it was fun to look through a bunch of pictures on Flickr until I had to find a picture using keywords from my subject and curriculum which is Math - oh, how exciting! (not really). I realized quickly, I'm going to have to get creative when it comes to my subject area. I started thinking about how math is in everything - and I thought about money!

Then I thought about the math involved in recipes (measuring ingredients)...like to make ice cream!
Dippin' Dots Ice Cream!


Dippin' dots

...And cookies!


hershey kiss cookies

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Thing #4

Sent the email to register my blog.

Thing #3

Well, setting up my blog was no problem. I aleady have a blog, but thought I would start a new one here - a more "teacher-ish" one! The hardest part was remembering my password since my last blog entry was in August 2007. The Avatar was fun to create. I wanted to hurry and pick something so I could move along to my next "thing," but had to look at all the fun options anyway. I play bass guitar for my church, and I love surfing and the beach; although I am not to "big" on her pink clothes, but there was no other option with the electric guitar! :( I think I will keep my avatar at the top of each new post so I can change her when I want (although I am terrible at keeping things up-to-date; such as my sad-looking other blog!). For some reason, it took me a few minutes to figure out I had to click on "add a page element" once I was in the "layout". After that, it made sense, and I will easily be able to do it next time. I realized I could click and drag my page element with my avatar in it wherever i want it to be seen on my blog. I never knew how to do that before. I am excited now because I have a lot of friends that have really cool blogs, and I always wondered how they did all this stuff and could change things around. I have a feeling I'm going to learn it all here! This class is perfect - I get staff development hours to learn how to blog!

Have I looked at other blogs? I checked out some of the other teachers' blogs who have already done the "23 Things" to make sure mine is on track and looking okay. I am sure I will be doing much more of that as the weeks progress.

Thing #2

After listening to 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners (similar from the book 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey), I can relate easiest to the first habit listed, "Begin with the End in Mind." I must have a goal and determine what I want the end result to be before I jump into anything. I do this almost daily in my teaching career when planning lessons for math. The hardest "habit" for me is "Use Technology to Your Advantage." I have various technology items for personal use; such as, laptop, internet, i-pod, camera, etc. However, I hardly use any of these items to their fullest potential, and I certainly do not use them to my advantage in the classroom. I know technology in my classroom is supposed to make my life easier, but I do not often take the time required to read the "whole thing" and then implement it into what I am doing.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Thing #1

Sounds fun! I'm ready!