dumpr continued

I am still having fun on Dumpr.net. You guys have to look at this!

This is the coolest site ever, dumpr.net. My friend Kristen used it and I just had to do it also. You can do all kids of things on this site! Check it out........

Put a fork in it..........

I am finished with the 23 things. Had a great time and learned SO MUCH! 18 hours of staff development has NEVER been so fun. Thanks!

Thing # 21.......again

Oh gosh if this works I will be so happy! I am pretty sure it was a problem with .wmv

Thing # 23

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? I think that it's absolutely amazing that I have set up a blog myself...and that I have learned about tagging, feeds, delicious...things I had NO CLUE about before. I feel like an advanced internet user now!
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? It has increased my desire to use technology so much more in the classroom. If anything like this is offered again I will jump on it!
Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? YES! I am going to start a blog for my kids and parents. The suprising thing is that anyone can do this!
What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? NOTHING
If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate? YES YES YES

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? EDUCATED!


THANK YOU FOR THE MOST IMPORTANT, INFORMATIVE, and most of all FUN staff development that I have ever had the pleasure of completing!!!!!

Thing #22

I liked Nings because I was able to find some cool lessons on the site. I am a fan of any site that shares info between teachers. I think that all of us are tired of re-inventing the wheel!

I looked mostly at Nings for Teachers. This will be a great resource for lessons and ideas.

Thing # 21

Yet again this is another awesome tool! I can make whole lesson hooks and closing pieces with this tool. I can't wait to use this for our life cycle unit.

The problem is..........I CAN'T GET THE PODCAST TO POST!!!!!!! I will be back.....

Thing # 20 continued

I did it! I got the video to embed! It took a minute for me to figure this out but once I did it was so easy!!! Now that I know how to embed videos I will put them in my lessons! This new "thing" that I know how to do is going to work very well with our smart boards.

Thing # 20

thing # 19

Web 2.o awards....Well I have to say that I love Pandora! It's like this site has a brain! You enter a song or artist that you love and the site picks music based on that choice that you would love also. You may not have even heard of the artist....but 9 out of 10 times I loved the choice that the site made for me. I LOVE THIS!! Everyone should use this!

I know exactly when I am going to use this site...we do a unit on "Friends Near and Far". In this unit each first grade classroom becomes a country, and in my room we are always Italy. I am always looking for fun examples of music in Italian for the kids to listen to....well I have found a perfect site for getting this music----and it's free!

I will also use this tool at home for fun and at school when writing lesson plans and need some awesome background music!

thing # 18

I looked at google docs earlier in the 23 things and thought it was great. I am a die-hard word user but the advantage to google docs is that everything is always saved. I like the idea of being able to access my work on any computer...anywhere. Another huge advantage of google docs is the huge array of templates that they offer. I think when using this tool you have more options than just ms word. I love the family budget template...I need to use it!

Thing # 17

Rollyo is a super-cool way to search for things without wasting time. I had fun setting up individual searches but I really don't see me using this. I think that it's actually redundant with yahoo and google working just fine for me. It's a neat idea though.

Thing # 16

I love the Wikis! I will make one this year and we can do it in the classroom- my first graders might need help at first but I know they could contribute to this. This 23 things training is going to revolutionize my use of the computer lab at school...that is for sure.

I added my blog and comments to the sandbox wiki for sbisd. It looks like everyone is loving this training too and having a blast.

I will definitely use the wikis in my personal life as well when planning trips with friends or parties, ect. Very useful!

Thing # 15

I was shocked when I watched the video of the college class and the comments that they made. I hadn't thought of college this way because it has been a while since I graduated. When watching the video the professor at the chalkboard did seem archaic. As I watch my husband now go to college on-line...I think about how much easier this would have been for me. So much more convenient and cost-effective, and I wonder if this is the wave of the future. Will all college be online in our lifetime? There is definitely something to be said for a class with an excellent prof and wonderful discussions.....but a cattle-call of 250 listening to a TA drone about literature is an awful experience.....one that we all as college graduates share. Is on-line school the answer? I love the idea of the library 2.0 but I am torn with the prospect of everything going to online.

The thought of getting rid of the traditional idea of libraries makes me sick...when I think of children feeling those magical feelings when they enter the library and get lost in a book.
But- when I go to the library I never look in the books for what I am searching for...I head straight for the computer. Interesting.

Thing # 14

So I clamied my blog at Technorati and as you can see...I added a gadget to the blog where technorati users can add my blog to their favorites.....VERY COOL. This site will be so helpful to me this year because I am going to use it when I research for lessons.

Tagging information is SO helpful because it saves so much time and creates organization within your internet use. As a teacher I am always trying to stay more organized and I know that this site will help me.

Thing # 13

Delicious!! This is an awesome site and I love the Delicious toolbar on the browser! This is such a cool website and I really love how you can access it anywhere. I love how easy it is to just TAG a site and how Delicious will organize it for you. I tagged some life cycle info for my class and I also did the same for my blog and some Twilight sites. This will be VERY helpful in the classroom because I don't always remember to bookmark...and if I do I can't find the exact thing that I want.
All teachers need to know about this- we do so much online research especially for our science and social studies units...and this will keep us all organized. I also love it to use at home!

Thing # 12

When reading the Cool Cat Teacher Blog, I had never thought about making "meaningful" comments on blogs before....and the author would appreciate that and have fun with it. It really is more of a conversational platform when there are meaningful comments being me. In my experiences so far with blogs I read and don't comment. It's permanent which can be frightening....
I also liked the comment...

'You become part of the life of the blogger you are reading". This is so true!!

I also learned quite a bit from the "10 techniques to get more comments on your blog". You have to invite the readers to respond....ect. Rewarding comments also helps!

I visit the John D Harris blog lately...he is a teacher at our school who is seriously ill...and his sister-in-law writes a fabulous blog daily keeping us all posted. I have wanted to comment but haven't...but now I will.

I also visit the Twlight blogs each week, but this week I will make comments!

Thing # 11

So in this discovery I looked at Librarything. This was a super fun site.....yet again I had no idea that things like this were out there! One of the groups that I thought would be useful was Parents, Kids, and Reading. I think that this would give me a great resource to share with the parents of my students...as well as a guide for me. Elementary books for kids is also a great place for children to go.

And of course for my own pleasure I looked at the Twilight fan and discussion groups. This could be dangerous for me because I could get lost for days reading these!!!

Thing # 10

In this discovery I learned about image/text generators. How fun!! I was thinking that I could use these in my classroom for center icons or labeling the kid tubs!

Check it out!

Thing # 9

In this discovery I looked at news feeds and libabry blogs. I found Blogline to be very user friendly and organized.
Syndic8, Technorati, and Superglu were hard for me to navigate, especially Superglu- it seemed to be much harder to search for info.
One feed that is especially userful that I found was Free Technology for Teachers. This included a math dictionary for kids, math movies, and all kids of other cool places for kids to explore in many curriculum areas.

NEWSFLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wanted to say congrats to my darling son Brady on giving up his bottle today. I love you baby! Mommy is so proud!

Thing # 8

I have been researching the RSS and reader apps. These are too cool. I had no idea! This class is really educating me on how to use the internet to my specific needs!


What do you like about RSS and readers? This is so amazing...while I was watching the tutorial I thought about how many times I had wished that I could have all my favorite internet places all together!


How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life? I will use this in my personal life simply to check out all the things that I am interested in on a daily basis....same at school- we can set up a reader for the class!

How can libraries/teachers/administrators use readers or take advantage of this new technology? As a teacher I can take advantage of the Google reader as a tool for teaching my kids.....we will now use this for the daily news! And now with the new active boards I can project this in whole group.

Thing # 7

So I have been researching Google Alerts and and Google Docs. Love these! With the Google alerts I could definitely put in our units of study and we could check them daily in our computer center or morning journal time....and the kids could journal in a blog-style way! This would be especially important when dealing with current events.

Thing # 6

This was really fun! I can't wait to experiment more with it. This mashup was called Flickr Jigsaw. I also loved the trading cards. I am not sure how I will use the mashups in my library center but I will certainly use the trading cards in my computer center. The kids are going to love this!!!

Thing # 5 continued

I couldn't get the life cycle picture to upload.....so I thought I would use my favorite subject....MY SON BRADY!

Thing # 5

I enjoyed looking at and learning about Flicker! I found both my parents...I had no idea that they were on there. Also- I use Facebook frequently and I never knew how the "tag" thing worked with photos. I am so excited to have this mystery unlocked! I think that I am going to love blogging!

I decided to upload this beautiful picture of black-eyed Susans from Flicker. We study life cycles in 1st grade....it's actually my favorite part of the curriculum!

Thing # 3 and the Avatar

I had SO much trouble setting up the Avatar but then I saw that there was a problem, so I saved it to the desktop and in no time I had the avatar posted!! So my blog is set up....pretty easy aside from the avatar, and we are on our way!

Things #2 and #3

THING #2: About the 7 1/2 Habits...I find that the one that would be easiest for me would be using technology to my advantage, #6.
I think that the hardest habit for me would be #3, viewing problems as challenges. I tend to get so stressed about things that I don't stop and say....how can I fix this?

THING #3: The blog was so easy to set up! I was amazed....I always thought that it was much more complicated.

Learning to Blog

I am very excited to learn about blogging. My husband loves to blog and blog about the Texans and all things football. I think that this would also be an awesome way to communicate with the parents of my students...it would be super fun!