Thing 23

This has been such an eye opening journey for me. I have learned so many different oppourtunities to teach my students and for them to teach others. With the applications like YouTube and Wiki Spaces to blogging and podcasts, we as teachers need to use these tools to engage the children of the future. I know that most of these applications that I have learned about, are so easy for me to integrate into any curriculum.
I hope that the Waterford school district will update their internet streaming so that these youtube and podcasts can be accessed easily from our computers.
Thank you so much for this great webquest. I will be sure to pass these incredible learning tools along to other educatiors so that they can enhance their learning into the 21st century!

Thing 22

This is the WikiSpace that I created:

http://missnovotny.wikispaces.com/

This is a resource that I will update based on the newsletters that we send home every week, assignments that are due and any other updates that can be passed on to the parents.
I am pretty excited about this!

Thing 21

I really enjoyed the Wikispace "Comparing Seasons".
http://comparinghemispheres.wikispaces.com/Seasons

I think it is a good visual way for students to learn. It is a way for teachers to actually "type" out their lessons and add visual aids to support the concepts.
In this wiki, it is actually typed by the students. They did research on this topic and they created their own wikispace to explain the hemispheres and their seasons. Along with information, the students typed questions on their following the facts, that extend the reader's learning.

I would like my students to create a wiki space with information that they have done research on. Maybe we can do it with a science or social studies topic!

Thing 20

I really enjoyed searching through iTunes for podcast subscriptions. I didn't realize that there are SO MANY different categories to search through. I was able to subscribe to a really interesting podcast that I will start downloading on to my iPod and listen wherever I may be.

I ended up subscribing to the HowStuffWorks.com with their podcast "Stuff They Don't Want You To Know". It is a history podcast that brings up topics that people talked about in the past: conspiracies about the government, theories about dinosaurs, etc. It is a great discussion based podcast that brings people together from all over the country to talk about these unexplained topics.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/stuff-they-dont-want-you-to/id336931685

Thing 19

I think that podcasts are such a great way for teachers to integrate technology into learning. I think that podcasts are a great way for students to learn about a concept in class and then review the material taught, at a later time. I have heard about professors at the University of Michigan using podcasting to tape their lectures and post them online to students who needed to review material for assignments and tests. Now, I'm sure many schools and universities are using podcasts as a supplemental learning device.
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I found this podcast that I think is so cool. It is an actual talk show called Crazy Dave's Kid Show. It is a radio podcast that is taped every Saturday morning, where parents help kids call in and they discuss different topics with Dave, the radio host and other kids from all over. What a neat way to share opinions with other kids.
http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podcasts/archive.php?iid=2980

Thing 18

I found this SlideShare presentation about "Breaking rules in education". Its purpose is to make teachers and others realize that it's time to "think outside the box" with education and to realize that learning happens anywhere, anytime and anyplace.

Break The Rules In Education

View more presentations from Frank Calberg Services.

Thing 17

I was able to explore the tool 30 Boxes, the online calendar. I really liked the fact that after I signed up that it could connect to my facebook account and other personal databases to get friends and family birthdates, holidays, big events, etc. I really like the 30 boxes tool because not only can I use it with my personal life, I can use it at work as well for school appointments. This is a great tool and I may choose to replace my outlook calendar with this 30 boxes tool.

Thing 16

I think that google documents are one of the coolest conceptst that I have ever heard of on the internet. To be able to collaborate with others on a document at THE SAME TIME is such a smart concept. This can be used for teachers to edit lesson plansif they are doing grade level planning. This can also be used if teachers are preparing a presentation for a staff meeting or other type of meeting, they can edit their presentation while at different locations. Students can also use this when preparing for presentations for school, especially with powerpoints.

Thing 15

I think RSS is such a great tool that I have been checking up on since I created my bloglines account. I feel like I am connected now to many different media outlets and getting up to date information on news, music, weather, and education. I will continue to use this in the future.

Thing 14

http://delicious.com/missnovotny

I think that this website has opened a new door for me as a teacher. I sat and compiled a list of some really great resources that my students are able to use during a trip in the computer lab. I love that I can continue to add websites that I have found and websites that others have found as well that our kid friendly. This by far one of my favorite web resources that I have found.

Thing 13

I have never heard of Social bookmarking and tagging until today. This is the coolest thing i have learned so far through this webquest. I had no idea that I could save my favorites onto a webpage and access them at anytime. I also did not know that I could share it with others. I am thinking this would be a good time to create a list of bookmarked websites that my students can go to when they get to the computer lab!

Thing 12

This is such a cool widget...



These widgets are so neat. When I had a myspace account a few years ago, I used to add these widgets all of the time. I am so used to using the EMBED code and making changes to HTML because of myspace. These widgets are so much fun and a great little daily learning activity.

Thing 11

I think that commenting on others posts is very important. It is so neat when a single post can become a forum with different ideas and opinions from others. It also helps people take constructive critisizm on their ideas and projects that they want to share. I love to comment on others blogs and share my ideas with them.

Thing 10

Here is one of my favorite video clips that gives a history lesson at a glance.





I love that YouTube has every clip of any show that someone wants to search.
I was also able to download this video using KEEPVID. I never knew you could actually download the YouTube videos. What a great idea!

Thing 9

I visit YouTube on a regular basis. Whether I go on to watch a clip from one of my favorite TV shows or watch a music video, I am searching this website a lot. I have actually learned a lot from YouTube. There are many "how to" videos that are useful for things around the home. I have used YouTube to help program a garage door opener, fix our furnace, etc. I even know a friend who rebuilt his entire car engine from watching YouTube clips.

There are so many things to learn from YouTube. I believe YouTube can be used to teach things from math concepts to science experiments. From video clips that travel the world to video clips that go back in time to teach history, this website can be used to teach social studies. It is a huge resource.

Unfortunately, our school district has video streaming for this website blocked.

Thing 8

I went to the Big Huge Labs link and created this photo using the :"Hockeneyizer" tool.

This was a neat tool because it used polaroid pictures to create one image. I selected a picture that was taken on an island in Greece last summer of me sitting on a long stairway. I thought that this photo tool would make it really interesting!

The only thing that was frustrating about this tool was that the polarioids at first, cut off major parts of my body in the photo. I had to use the "shuffle" tool about 5 or 6 times to shuffle around the polaroids to get them in the perfect positions.

I was able to create this picture in about 5 minutes! It was very fun.

Thing 7

There are so many ways that I could use Flickr in the classroom. I take pictures of my students working in math, reading and writing workshop. I also take pictures of my students doing holiday crafts for the classroom and their families. I could complile these pictures and upload them to Flickr into an album. This album can be used to store these pictures for the yearbook, an online album whos link could be posted onto our class website.


The only issues that I may face would posting pictures to Flickr without a parent of my student signing the media waver. As long as all parents give their consent to classroom pictures posted to our online classroom album, I think Flickr would be a great way to store and display my class pictures.

Thing 6

Flickr is a program that I have used before today. I have made many albums with friends photos and created different animated ways to display them.

I decided to type in the search box "Beautiful" to see what would pop up.

I picked this picture because many people might think twice about this picture being beautiful. These boats docked along the rockwall before what looks like a storm, is just beautiful. This picture reminds me of Greece where our family summer home is located. When I look at it, I feel a warm breeze come over me!

What a beautiful picture!

Thing 5

RSS could be a very confusing thing to some people. If I did not have the help of the youtube video, I could see how setting up folders, and sifting through blogs could be very confusing and time consuming. Since I was able to see all of the different ways that I can search for the blogs, I feel now that I am connected to many different media outlets that can keep me informed with different topics and genres in the web world.

Thing 4

I have never heard of the acronym RSS until I reached thing 4. I think that RSS is a great way to get a snippet of information from many different blogs. I was a little overwhelmed by the number of blogs that I saw when I signed up for Bloglines, but after a few minutes I was able to narrow down a few that I could organize into my folders.

Thing 3

I am coming up with four ideas as to how I can use a blog for my classroom. After reading the ways that educators use blogs, I like these ideas the most.....

1. Create a blog to communicate class/school information with parents. Post field trip information, field trip forms, parent helper calendars, general classroom guidelines and more.
2. Create a blog that has children reviewing children's books.
3. Create a blog where students post about math concepts learned throughout the year. Blog can provide examples and solutions of math problems and concepts being studied.
4. Create a blog where students must choose a social topic to educate others about. Students use a variety of multimedia to educate and persuade others to take action or become a part of the solution to the problem.

The only problem with the #1 idea is that many parents do not have the internet at home. I would have to determine who these parents are and send a hard copy home with them. This would be an advantage to the school.....they would save ALOT of paper!

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Why are you participating in 23 Things?

I am participating in 23 things because I am interested in finding how I can reach my students in a new century where technology is prominent. I know that my students are consumed with i pods, internet and video games when they get home from school each day, so I think that I can learn how to make learning more exciting with the use of this technology.

I think that blogs are a good way of sharing facts and opinions to the public. It gets a conversation going and encourages others to respond. It is a way for people to see things from other points of view. It is a way in which we can teach students to participate in discussions and learn from one another.

I am really excited to see what is ahead in the 23 things webquest....