One of the tools that I found very beneficial to my students' age group was the collaborating drawing tools. I found that my students were able to easily maneuver through and thoroughly enjoyed the program. I also found that there was a lot less fighting when working on a project together as they all had their own workstations and could make changes as they saw fit.
My school is also introducing Moodle to the district. I do know much about the program, but we are actually having an inservice about it this week. I look forward to learning about the program and implementing it into my classroom, with my students, and with my parents next year.
I also found that podcasting and digital story telling were very interesting to learn about. I think my students will have a great time using this tool, however I did not get the chance to try it with my students this year. For students, I think the more technology that you have in your classroom, the more the majority of them are interested and motivated to complete their work.
I know we did not talk about SMART board technology at all in class, but I am hopefully going to get one in my classroom next year and I believe many of these programs will be taught with much greater ease and efficiency while being implemented with the advantage of the SMART board in my room. Students in the past have loved the board and I can't wait to show them these new programs in an easier fashion. This is how I will be implementing these programs in the future.
I do use FACEBOOK and Twitter for my personal/professional needs as I keep updated with friends and professionals in my field. I do not think that it would be appropriate for my students at this age, but I have to admit there are many of my students who have their own FACEBOOK page. I just do not feel it is appropriate to be socially "friends" with my students on these programs at their age.
The programs that I found were not beneficial for my students were blogging, twitter, del.icio.us, and wikis. I don't feel that these few programs were beneficial to my teaching style and with my age of students. I feel that the blogs and twitters were meant for students of older ages if not adults most of the time. I also thought about the wikis being used with my students, but I found it difficult to learn and maneuver myself, let alone a 7 year old child.
I have already started talking with not only my technology expert in my district about my PLN and the things I would like to have implemented at school, but also with my school principal and other colleagues. I figured that if I am finding the tools useful for my classroom, why wouldn't I share these tools with others who might find them useful as well. I think that I should also be showing them tools I am not planning to use, as they might be able to see it or use it in a different way then I am seeing it. They might even convince me to use one of the tools I don't see as useful at this time.
The value of my personal learning network is that this is what I will be taking back to my district and classroom as a new way of teaching. I am always looking for ways to better my teaching and technology is lacking in my classroom as of now. I am very excited to learn more about the programs in my PLN over the summer so that I can implement them successfully and comfortably next school year.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Following people on Twitter has been quite interesting for me. I did not think that I would get as much information as I would have.
I have been following some educational sites dealing with behavioral management skills and different ways to successfully handle behaviors in the classroom and I have found some very important and useful skills I have not heard about before. I found it most useful to follow these professional people to better myself and my teaching.
I also found Twitter a great way to catch up with and keep up to date with my friends. I also kept with with some educational news sites.
I have been following some educational sites dealing with behavioral management skills and different ways to successfully handle behaviors in the classroom and I have found some very important and useful skills I have not heard about before. I found it most useful to follow these professional people to better myself and my teaching.
I also found Twitter a great way to catch up with and keep up to date with my friends. I also kept with with some educational news sites.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
del.icio.us
Personally, I have not used delicious as much as I have wished. It seems quite tricky for me to navigate around, so I have not been as motivated to look through the site.
I did look through many of my other classmates links and found many of them that I added to my own list of links. I found that many people tagged links on technology which I didn't even think to tag before. I added some of them to my list as well. I also found the "free" links to be quite interesting so I plan to add those as well. It is great to be able to share with others so that as well all know, "two heads are better than one," and the things we don't even think about searching for come up in others' tags, then you think "why didn't I think of that."
Why I was looking for sites to tag, I chose to find a lot of links on behavior and behavior management because that is what my PDP research is about. I also plan to find and tag more links that relate directly to my curriculum so that they can be easily assessable to my teaching throughout the year. As I looked at others' tags, I did get many more ideas to tag. I haven't done any of that curriculum tagging yet, but plan to do more over the summer when I can sit down with my books and get information for each content area. If I was to teach children about tagging, I think I would go through the same steps we did in this class because it was a nice and easy pace that we learned at.
Tag bundles are very useful for because then you can get all your information in one place and makes your time spent getting information more efficient. If using tag clouds, like I stated before, I used mostly my behavioral management links because that is part of my PDP research. I added annotations to my links because it made them easier for me to remember what it was I had interest in at each site.
When trying to see who had a lot of the same links that I used I was quite surprised to find out that many of my classmates were on the same links.
I think that there were so many web 2.0 tools I have learned about this semester that I would like to use in my classroom and district. I have not yet talked to administration yet about these tools only because our school has been busy with many other changes that I did not want to interrupt. If I was to recommend some to my administration, I think that I would set up a lesson or how I am going to use it in a lesson so that they can see a visual of what I'm recommending. I would hope that this would convince them of the value by not only reading the information about the tool but also seeing an example of it.
I did look through many of my other classmates links and found many of them that I added to my own list of links. I found that many people tagged links on technology which I didn't even think to tag before. I added some of them to my list as well. I also found the "free" links to be quite interesting so I plan to add those as well. It is great to be able to share with others so that as well all know, "two heads are better than one," and the things we don't even think about searching for come up in others' tags, then you think "why didn't I think of that."
Why I was looking for sites to tag, I chose to find a lot of links on behavior and behavior management because that is what my PDP research is about. I also plan to find and tag more links that relate directly to my curriculum so that they can be easily assessable to my teaching throughout the year. As I looked at others' tags, I did get many more ideas to tag. I haven't done any of that curriculum tagging yet, but plan to do more over the summer when I can sit down with my books and get information for each content area. If I was to teach children about tagging, I think I would go through the same steps we did in this class because it was a nice and easy pace that we learned at.
Tag bundles are very useful for because then you can get all your information in one place and makes your time spent getting information more efficient. If using tag clouds, like I stated before, I used mostly my behavioral management links because that is part of my PDP research. I added annotations to my links because it made them easier for me to remember what it was I had interest in at each site.
When trying to see who had a lot of the same links that I used I was quite surprised to find out that many of my classmates were on the same links.
I think that there were so many web 2.0 tools I have learned about this semester that I would like to use in my classroom and district. I have not yet talked to administration yet about these tools only because our school has been busy with many other changes that I did not want to interrupt. If I was to recommend some to my administration, I think that I would set up a lesson or how I am going to use it in a lesson so that they can see a visual of what I'm recommending. I would hope that this would convince them of the value by not only reading the information about the tool but also seeing an example of it.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
I believe that Twitter can benefit my personal life to help me catch up with old friends and colleagues. I also think that it would help me professionally as I can follow educational researchers, current colleagues, and other professionals.
Working with 2nd graders, I don't think that I could use microblogging sites such as Twitter, but I could see how it could be used with older students. I think that you could you use this tool with class discussions, research, or posting summaries of students' assigned reading.
I did look at classmates information on their tool that they researched but I have found many of them hard to use with such young children that I teach. I still think that the collaborative drawing tools that I researched would be the most easily used tool with my students. I have so many ideas for my students to add to my curriculum including drawing tools!
Working with 2nd graders, I don't think that I could use microblogging sites such as Twitter, but I could see how it could be used with older students. I think that you could you use this tool with class discussions, research, or posting summaries of students' assigned reading.
I did look at classmates information on their tool that they researched but I have found many of them hard to use with such young children that I teach. I still think that the collaborative drawing tools that I researched would be the most easily used tool with my students. I have so many ideas for my students to add to my curriculum including drawing tools!
Friday, April 23, 2010
21st Century Skills
When reading through Alan November's Four things every student should learng....but not every school is teaching, I do agree with the things he is saying in that children are ignorant to the fact that they are can be hurt very badly by the Internet. I don't think that children realize the severe consequences that can come of their actions on the Internet. Children need to be educated at an earlier age about the safety precautions they must take. It shocked me this year when my 7 year old student told me they have a FACEBOOK page. I couldn't believe it. I think that next year, I will make sure to start educating my young, little 2nd graders to prepare them for the Internet, if they are not already out there sharing information. And, if they do have important information out there, I will hope to teach them about taking care of themselves from now on while "playing" online.
David Warlick talks about fueling the questions. I think that my students are very well engaged in this skill because they ask questions about EVERYTHING. Sometimes, I feel that it can be quite overwhelming to me, but then I need to take a step back and just answer one question at a time. To me, the computer lab is the most stressful teaching situation that I encounter during the week. What I need to do, and remember is that the children are learning all of these things for the first time and all their questions are helping them become more educated everyday. So, I do feel that students are fueling their minds in our computer labs and classrooms everyday.
David Warlick talks about fueling the questions. I think that my students are very well engaged in this skill because they ask questions about EVERYTHING. Sometimes, I feel that it can be quite overwhelming to me, but then I need to take a step back and just answer one question at a time. To me, the computer lab is the most stressful teaching situation that I encounter during the week. What I need to do, and remember is that the children are learning all of these things for the first time and all their questions are helping them become more educated everyday. So, I do feel that students are fueling their minds in our computer labs and classrooms everyday.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Social Bookmarking
I think that social bookmarking is quite interesting. I never realized that there were sites that would make it possible for you to bookmark on one computer and then view them on any other.
I think the main difference between Dingo and delicious is that Dingo has the ability for many people to add bookmarks to the same page as delicious shares bookmarks from a number of people but not necessarily on the same homepage. I hope that I am understanding and stating this correctly.
BuddyMarks seems to me like the Dingo site where a bunch of people can add to one "common" ground. I think that I could use this in my teaching career by all of my co-workers of my grade tag websites of interest and that relate to our curriculum. This way we don't have to worry about saving this information in our "own storage" of our school accounts and running out of space.
Personally, I think that delicious is a great website, however, I think that I would use Dingo and BuddyMarks because it seems to be easier to collaborate with my colleagues.
I think the main difference between Dingo and delicious is that Dingo has the ability for many people to add bookmarks to the same page as delicious shares bookmarks from a number of people but not necessarily on the same homepage. I hope that I am understanding and stating this correctly.
BuddyMarks seems to me like the Dingo site where a bunch of people can add to one "common" ground. I think that I could use this in my teaching career by all of my co-workers of my grade tag websites of interest and that relate to our curriculum. This way we don't have to worry about saving this information in our "own storage" of our school accounts and running out of space.
Personally, I think that delicious is a great website, however, I think that I would use Dingo and BuddyMarks because it seems to be easier to collaborate with my colleagues.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Using WIKI in my professional career
I believe there are so many ways to use WIKI in your classroom. I would be able to use WIKI with my students in many different ways as in brainstorming ideas for a project or sharing information they're learning on a research project or any book they are reading.
I have found many different WIKIs that are informational about behavioral management and that fits perfectly with my PDP(professional development plan) that I am currently working on, so that will help me our greatly toward my overall goals. I would also be able to use WIKIs to communicate with other professionals about any educational/professional questions/concerns that I might have.
I think that WIKIs are different from blogs and RSS feeds because it allows you to add or change things that are already written. I don't know if this is neccessarily a good thing in every circumstance only because I have seen some WIKIs such as Wikipedia that you can tell have been written by opinion and not fact.
I have found many different WIKIs that are informational about behavioral management and that fits perfectly with my PDP(professional development plan) that I am currently working on, so that will help me our greatly toward my overall goals. I would also be able to use WIKIs to communicate with other professionals about any educational/professional questions/concerns that I might have.
I think that WIKIs are different from blogs and RSS feeds because it allows you to add or change things that are already written. I don't know if this is neccessarily a good thing in every circumstance only because I have seen some WIKIs such as Wikipedia that you can tell have been written by opinion and not fact.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Uses for blogs in education in the future
I feel that blogs could be used in many ways in education. Students can use blogs to learn about the world around them and what their future entails. Blogs can help students to communicate their opinions as well as learning the opinions of their peers, educators, and other people around the world.
I think that blogs can be a way of research for many students. This is a way for students to be up to date with the 21st Century Themes such as politics, current events, health issues and information and so much more. Students would be able to communicate with their family, friends, and many other people via blogs to continue their learning. I think that collaborating with not only their peers, but other students around the world and with adults about issues that are current will keep them informed about many different issues.
Blogs also keep our students up to date on the technology that is out there for their use and keeps information at their finger tips.
Teachers could use blogs to have students comment on the reading they are assigned, ask questions about issues they don't understand, and explain the things they are learning.
I think that blogs can be a way of research for many students. This is a way for students to be up to date with the 21st Century Themes such as politics, current events, health issues and information and so much more. Students would be able to communicate with their family, friends, and many other people via blogs to continue their learning. I think that collaborating with not only their peers, but other students around the world and with adults about issues that are current will keep them informed about many different issues.
Blogs also keep our students up to date on the technology that is out there for their use and keeps information at their finger tips.
Teachers could use blogs to have students comment on the reading they are assigned, ask questions about issues they don't understand, and explain the things they are learning.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Value of blogs
I believe that the value of blogs is to communicate your opinions and knowledge with others. I think that by blogging, you can share your thoughts and others can share theirs with you.
I think this would be useful in a classroom setting with a research project. For example, if the class was learning about weather, students might blog about what they have learned or discovered and questions they have so that the students can then bounce ideas off each other.
I think this would be useful in a classroom setting with a research project. For example, if the class was learning about weather, students might blog about what they have learned or discovered and questions they have so that the students can then bounce ideas off each other.
Useful professional blogs
Here are some blogs that I have found that I plan to follow, however I am not sure if I am posting them correctly:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjA4YzRjNTVlY2Q4OGUyMGFhZjEwOGNjNGNiZWMxYzY
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/13/obama-focuses-on-education-reform-in-weekly-address/?fbid=ngHJttkrfsl
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/education
I am still looking through many different blog sites for good blogs, but these are three that I found very interesting to follow.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjA4YzRjNTVlY2Q4OGUyMGFhZjEwOGNjNGNiZWMxYzY
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/13/obama-focuses-on-education-reform-in-weekly-address/?fbid=ngHJttkrfsl
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/education
I am still looking through many different blog sites for good blogs, but these are three that I found very interesting to follow.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
What I hope to learn about technology
I hope in this class that I learn about the technology out there. I don't know that much about the new things that have come out and frankly, I don't know what most of the "required accounts" we had to get even are. I am glad to be in this class because I want to know what technology I can use in a 2nd grade classroom to better my teaching. I mainly want to know what technology is out there that my students are using that I don't even know about yet. I feel like at age 7 and 8, they are going to pass me up with their knowledge of technology.
Introduction for Technology class
My name is Melissa. I teach 2nd grade at Johnson Creek Elementary school in Johnson Creek. This is my 3rd year teaching 2nd grade and also at my school. I love this age because the children are so curious about life, school, and everything! I live in Jefferson, WI with my husband and our daughter Violet who will be 1 year in April.
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