Week 8 Thing 19

Well, this was another activity I could spend hours on. I had such a good time looking at some of the places I have lived or visited. The only disappointing part is that the pictures were taken so long ago. I know I'm a nerd but I was hoping to see my car parked in front of my apartment but the Google Earth picture was taken in 2003. Enough about my nerdy depression:) We have pen pals in the United Kingdom so I looked up the town they are from. It was so cool to see the landscape and I love how you can clip on the little icons and pictures or videos pop up with information about the area. I can't wait to show this to my class. What an amazing learning experience that will be!

Back to Week 6 Thing 15

So I really didn't want to post the video that I made for our homework during week 6 thing 15 because I felt like a total nerd interviewing my grandma. It's one thing to show 6 year olds but not the whole world:) So, I thought I would post our latest creation instead. This is a video we made as a class to thank our pen pals in the United Kingdom for the pictures they sent us in the mail.

Week 8 Thing 18

Desert Habitat

View more presentations from Kim Weaver.

This Slideshare fits in perfectly with the new IB planner we are starting on Monday. We will be studying habitats starting with the desert. I think this will be a wonderful introduction for my class and the best part is I didn't have to create it:) This would be a cute summative assessment for the planner on habitats as well. Each student could pick their favorite habitat that we studied and create three slides for it. One slide could focus on what the habitat is, one for how the plants and animals had to adapt to live there, and one for how humans impact the habitat. I guess my only question is...how is this different from Power Point?

Week 7 Thing 17

The podcasts were fun but seemed like they were geared more toward an older audience. Of course I was only searching the free podcasts. I'm sure if I downloaded some there would be more to choose from. The read alouds were really cute because you could hear all of the distinct character voices. This could be a center in my room. I guess my class does need a lesson on listening skills. It really is sad how difficult it is for kids to just sit an listen. I am very intrigued by the idea that they can create their own pod cast. I have a group of five advanced first graders who work on research projects based on our curriculum's theme. Having them create a pod cast to present their project would be fun and different. Plus they could hear what they sound like while presenting and we could work on some simple public speaking skills.

Week 7 Thing 16

I love YouTube and have been using for my own personal enjoyment for quite some time now. Last year was the first year I really used it in the classroom. I chose this video because this is one that I showed my class last year and this year. Obviously, we are in the process of hatching chicks and this is a wonderful visual for the kids. I also showed them a short Little House on the Prairie YouTube clip last week because we are studying how families have changed over time. I know I said this before but I also love how you can embed the clip into your Blog so you don't have to deal with all of those sketchy advertisements that pop up.

Week 6 Thing 15

This assignment came at the perfect time. I know I have typed this a million times but the kids in my class had to interview a family member and ask questions about what school was like when they were six. I was in Texas over the weekend for a wedding so I got a chance to sit down with my grandma and tape a quick interview. I just showed it to my class today as an example of what their project can look like. They loved it! The best part is that this was so easy to do. I was also talking to a mom in my class and they have the same flip camera that they used for their daughters project.

Week 6 Thing 14

This was a lot of laughs once I got past listening to myself talk. I feel like a rock star wearing these head phones with the mic on it. I love the idea of using this with kids to retell a story, with hand drawn pictures of course. We don't want any copyright problems:) I think it would be fun to have kids comment on their favorite part of a story that was posted as well.

Week 5 Thing 13

You have no idea how thankful I am for this class time today!! It was stress free and I got so much accomplished, not to mention all of the help I received instead of watching tutorial after tutorial. As far as the Google Docs goes, I'm going to say the same thing as every other person at an IB school. This would be perfect for our planner documents since they are always being changed and edited. This is so much easier than sending a Word Document as an attachment because everyone can make changes instead of me being the only person making changes.

Week 5 Thing 12

So, I was one of the people who linked my Glog to WikiSpaces for my word documents. What a hassle. Pbworks seems to be much more user friendly (maybe because I had all of the teachers in the class, thank you Nancy and Lori, helping me). I like Pbworks because there aren't any advertisements on the page. That was my problem with Wikispaces. Every time I embeded my blog, the advertisements would cover half of it. I would have to pay $5 a month just to get rid of that stupid feature. Pbworks has made it very easy for me to update my classroom website with spelling words, class calendars, pictures, and even Wordles. Anyway, I am very proud of all of my hard work. Feel free to take a look:) From Mrs. L's Laptop.

Week 4 Thing11

Wordle is more trouble than it’s worth. Actually, I shouldn’t blame Wordle. My computer is going to be the death of me! I just spent 40 minutes trying to create a Wordle based on my blog and all I kept getting was a big fat X. I tried going through their troubleshooting steps twice but nothing worked. I finally had to drive over to a friends house to use their computer. OK, calm down, breath deep.

I felt certain that the Wordle based on my blog would be full of umm’s and like’s. Good thing this is based on my typing skills and not on my speaking skills:) I found that my two biggest words used were “kids” and “people”. I guess that means that what I’m blogging about is in fact geared toward my profession and how these web 2.0 tools can be applied in the school setting and not about me, me, me. I have to say, once you get going on Wordle, it’s hard to stop. I was able to create one for the books in our Scott Foresman Reading curriculum. Which means this would be relevant for my first graders. Just like the tutorial mentioned, I can have the kids write a short summary, draw a picture, or sequence a story they read that was on their reading level based on the words in the Wordle. If the book was at their reading level, then the Wordle will be at their reading level too!

Week 4 Thing 10

As soon as you said “if you don’t happen to be on your regular computer, how do you even remember all the sites you’ve bookmarked?” I was sold. Do you know how many times I have found something useful at home and had to e-mail a link to myself just so I could use it in class? It’s ridiculous. This is amazing. I don’t think I will ever be this organized again. This organizational system is fool proof; there is no way you could lose a valuable website because of the multiple tags you can place on it, which I recommend. The more tags you have, the easier it is to find next year when you are teaching habitats again and can’t find your saved documents because you labeled them something that was relevant at the time, but makes no sense now (not like I’m speaking from experience or anything, ha ha!).

Anyway, I find this to be more useful for me as a teacher than for my first graders. However, I do have some high kids that are currently working on a research project. I suppose I could put websites that I have approved and that are kid friendly on my delicious account so that they could do a modified search for information instead of being flooded with a bunch of inappropriate junk that they can’t even read.

Week 3 Thing 9

Please don't kill me or think I'm an old lady who is unwilling to change with the new technology of the day, but I didn't like Twitter. Most of the tweets I read were about tattoo removal websites, how to get a $60 Starbucks card, and teachers complaining about how bored they were on a Saturday night. No offence, but I don't need an update on what people are doing during the day. However, I could see how this would be useful for answers to my questions because you would get information and links to websites right away from 20-30 people. I just found Google Reader to be so much more beneficial for gaining new information. I know when blogs are updated and I love that people can actually explain things and give you a link whereas Twitter limits you to a sentence or two.

I’ve gotten off my soap box. Please let me know if I totally missed the point:)

Week 3 Thing 8

Well, I checked out a lot of blogs from our class and realized that many people haven't been keeping up with their assignments. Ha! Ha! I decided to post a comment on Priests Postings because we seem to be struggling with the same things. Our struggles usually result in trial and error and then talking to each other at school to see if we did the assignment the right way based on each others interpretation. I know...total nerds. What can I say, I have never taken an online class before and it's nice to have someone to talk to about it:)

Week 3 Thing 7

Every week I feel more and more behind the times. I never knew anything like this, RSS, existed. This is so cool and I think I got a little carried away. Before I knew it, I subscribed to 19 websites and blogs:) I had to go back and really narrow that list down.

The guy on the Google Reader tutorial mentioned that you could type in key words like recipes. What a good idea. I am now salivating and making a grocery list because I have 10 new Betty Crocker recipes on my page. I also really enjoyed Cool Cat Teacher's blog with her list of the Top 10 Things Teachers Need. Who knew you could sharpen your old scissors by cutting sandpaper?

As you can see I gathered a lot of valuable information today;)

Week 2 Thing 6

Week 2 Thing 5

I absolutely loved this assignment. I haven't spent this much time goofing around on the computer in forever. I think I pretty much sent all of my friends a billboard, trading card, or a comic. How can you stop yourself when it's so hilarious.

There are probably a million ways to use this in the classroom. I love the idea of making a magazine cover for the class. I also thought it would be fun to take pictures from popular children's books and have the kids fill in thinking bubbles for the characters based on information from the story. We have a project coming up where the kids have to interview a family member. Wouldn't it be fun if the kids then made a trading card for that family member as a thank you? It could include some of the information the family member shared only with a super hero twist. I am getting way too excited about this:)

Week 2 Thing 4

I just booked my spring break vacation to Disneyland and that's all that's on my mind right now. Seeing this picture puts a smile on my face. I can't wait to feel like a kid walking down Main Street! I also chose this picture because Walt Disney is sort of our inspiration this year at Rockrimmon. Every year our principle gives us a theme. This year we are the Rockrimmon Imagineers. Doesn't that just seem perfect for this class? Walt Disney and his crew were some of the most creative and technologically advanced people. They were able to create a world that people only dreamed about. They made the impossible possible. Just when I'm starting to feel like some of this technology stuff is impossible for me to master, I surprise myself and get it done and even enjoy it.

Flickr is amazing! I have already set up an account and can't wait to start sharing my photos!

Credit: Joe Penniston

Week 1 Thing 3

My knowledge of copyright pretty much consisted of citing work that wasn’t mine in a research paper and attaching a bibliography. Who knew it was so complicated and who knew there were so many people reusing someone else’s work and not giving credit where credit is due. With all the variety in sources today I can see how copyrighting can be a little fuzzy. For example, I was under the impression that images I found on Google were up for grabs, unless they had “copyright” written across the picture so that you couldn’t use it anyway. I decided to test this theory. When I got onto Google I conducted an image search for recycling. Right away 24,000,000 images popped up. When I realized I could change the usage rights, I was amazed at what I found. When my search was refined to “images labeled for reuse” I was given only 393 out of the original 24,000,000 and when I refined it to “images labeled for commercial reuse” the number of images shrunk to 269. I prided myself on being a model citizen, but who knows how many times I have broken the law all because I had to have the perfect picture on my newsletter! Ha! Ha! In all seriousness, this needs to be brought to the attention of our students. My class is starting a research project this week and when they are searching for pictures to display on their projects I will be talking about the usage rights.

Week 1 Thing 2

I have to say, I really like the idea of letting my students see my blog. I think it especially comes in handy with videos in the classroom. I am relieved that you can post a video and you don't have to deal with the dangers of a link. This brings back a bad memory from last year. The first grade team was hatching chicks for our unit on Living Things. Well, sadly the chicks didn't hatch but we still wanted the kids to experience this magical event. We decided to show them some amazing YouTube videos of chicks hatching and how they grow inside the egg. You can only imagine what kind of videos might pop up when you search "chicks". Good thing we had enough sense to find and preview videos before the kids came in:)

Week 1 Thing 1

I have to admit, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I am not as computer savvy as I look:) Also, being a first grade teacher makes me wonder exactly how I am going to apply this in my classroom. Six year olds aren't exactly computer savvy either. I am keeping an open mind and remembering that these kids have been exposed to technology since day one. I am curious to see what they are capable of. During our discussion of a powerful learning experience we have had, I noticed that a lot of people mentioned hands on learning and real world experience. I agree that these are so important and I am excited to see how the flip camera will come into play in that area.

Quote of the day!

"Time flies when you're creating blogs!"
-Erica Priest

My First Blog

Boy am I behind the times! I vowed to never blog about anything. Now that I have to, thanks to Mike, it took me 45 minutes to get this far. Who knew people would actually want to read what I have to say:)