Thing 20

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Thing 23

The 2008-2009 school year brought many changes. I moved from a high school setting in one district to a middle school setting in another district. My plan of attack was simple - get acclimated. This class was something I signed up for last school year when I had no idea these changes would come about.

Personally, there are a million things I can think to use these tools to assist me. I love the picture editing but as a teacher I am always hesitant to post anything on the internet. I am always afraid that personal things will end up in the wrong hands. The picture albums would be wonderful, but again, I hate the idea of having to review each picture with a fine tooth comb searching for anything that might be offensive to someone. Possibly, I am overly concerned but it is something I worry about.

Professionally, I have found some things that I could quickly add to my curriculum. The videos from youtube, though our building does not allow youtube, is a nice sidestep. I also had no idea how simple it would be to create a podcast! Cool! I would like to get involved with a blog group that focuses on language arts curriculum at the middle school level. This is an area I would like some support in.

Pedagogically, I appreciate having this new information and a way to practice these skills. I would like to improve my ability to work with the wiki. For some reason, I really struggled with this "Thing". Other resources will be useful once I get into regular use of these tools.

I would like to introduce my colleagues to some of these tools but I am still wondering how to achieve this goal. Some of the "Things" immediately made me think of specific colleagues and how useful they would find these "Things" in their classrooms. I wonder if they are not already using them. I really like that Mr. Dornberg has offered us the "more things" to continue our learning process. In my opinion, this "to be continued" idea will help us to maintain a PLN.

Thing 22

I like the opportunity to participate in online learning but I lack the motivation to complete assignments in a methodical manner. Unfortunately, I need an imposed deadline to work in a timely manner. I would use the online learning as a means to maintain my requirements for my teaching certificate.
That was a major motivating factor in signing up for this course. I would hate to see this option taken away.

Thing 21

I have chosen a youtube video addressing the abuse of women in Afghanistan to further support my ELA curriculum. Using video pieces is wonderful. This helps maintain student interest in a topic and presents information in a variety of ways.

Thing 19

I listened to Dan's Mathcast, NPR, and National Geographic podcasts. What I don't like about podcasts is that I have trouble staying focused when there is only talking and no video to follow. I know for certain that my students struggle to stay on task when just listening to information. I prefer the "vodcast" as it is easier to follow. Some of the educational podcasts consist of curriculum information introduced in a song to help students memorize facts. This is useful but you have to be comfortable singing in your classroom in order to get the students to sing along. You have to model what you expect of the students and that means my horrible voice singing in front of the entire class.

Thing 17

I have really struggled with wiki. At this point in the game, I am considering throwing my keyboard at my monitor! I do think that wiki would be useful if you were able to master this tool. I would assume the wiki would differ from the blog when the audience is not so interested in the author's opinion and thoughts but instead in finding resources for a topic. Bergman's Science wiki was wonderful! These students truly appear to LOVE science and how excellent is that?! It is a perfect example of how to use wiki in your classroom and how to effectively involve the students. The difficulties that I foresee include mastering the use of the wiki. I have struggled so I would guess that my students would also have difficulties. Possibly I am being presumptuous

Thing 13

This is a picture I edited using the picknick tool. I didn't think the free frames on dumpr were very cool compared to this so I made an executive decision and used this photo. I hope Mr. Dornberg won't mind! These tools are a lot of fun! Again, I can see that my students would also have fun playing with these edits to pictures. If I were to set up a classroom theme related to a curriculum area and then asked students to upload and edit pictures on topic I could see this being useful in the classroom. I'm still thinking this one through. I think kids would buy into it and so I would like to think of some practical uses in my classroom. This could be turned into a fun project.