Well, Imagine that! I did it. I continue to be amazed at what I can do. Of course the big question is can I do this next week, next month or next year?
When I first went to Wikipedia and read about RSS I thought oh no I'm in serious trouble. I could not makes heads or tails of what they were talking about....so I decided to do the kid approach and just jump into the assignment and see if doing it would help me to understand the assignment better and it did.
I ended up signing up for 10 feeds. Are they all considered news? I mean Woot? Technically that's not news....well, it may be to some I guess....but I think of it more as a store. My kids love Woot so I thought I'd just start there. It was easy.
I stumbled upon the site Weblogg- ed by Will Richardson and recalled that he was a guest speaker at a conference that our district held for us last November, so I added him. You can view him @ http://weblogg-ed.com/. He's a pretty interesting speaker, although I didn't necessarily agree with everything he had to say.
I also added Curtis Granderson's Blog. Although he's not my #1 Tiger, he is second and I find him to be a great read. You can find him here: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=granderson_curtis.
I'm not sure how I'll use this in my classroom but I think that when I show my husband how to use this with his favorite pages he'll be a happy man.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Thing 4 - flickr continued
I decided to go back in and make a baseball card because I came up with an idea for school that I'm going to try with my students. The special ed teacher next door is a whiz with her camera. Her pictures look professional. I approached her and asked if she'd like to have our classes make baseball cards with some back to school information on them. We decided to have the kids use first name only, age and birthday, how tall they are (a good measuring lesson) and their favorite part, place or subject in school. We'd take their pic with them doing their favorite thing and then they'd have to write a bit about why it's their favorite.
So last night I made my own...as you can see...and discovered that I can't just print the card out I have to send it to be printed and it costs a buck for a wallet size plus shipping. Drat! I don't suppose there's any way around that?
second thoughts Aug 26th....so last night my son told me how to print from Flikr without having to send away for the prints...and paying for them....bless his heart!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Thing 6 Blog about Technology
I remember back in the stone ages when my son was 2 or 3, he's now 28, and I guess you'd say the dinosaur version of Game boy came out. It was some kind of toy, I've forgotten exactly what it did, but it boasted having "new" computer technology. When I bought it for him for Christmas my friends all gave me grief. I remember saying that computers would be his future and that it would be much better for him to grow up using them than to learn as an adult. Never in my wildest imagination did I imagine all the uses there would be for computers. And I was right, he uses a computer like it is an extension of his body.
I worked for Amway Corporation back then. I remember when they built a room for the new computer they were getting. The room was sealed and temperature controlled. It was a very big deal. The purchase of the computer opened up a new department at Amway called Data Processing. The ladies in Data Processing had funny little machines that they used to type information onto data cards which were then fed to the computer. I tried learning how to type on the machines but it was like a foreign language to me since it was all in bytes or some such thing. I made too many mistakes and they didn't want me to work in that department either.
Someone else posted a list of all the things we did not have as children that are now a part of our lives. When I think of what is available today that was not available when my own dad was alive it boggles the mind. My dad passed in 1999, nine short years ago, and I wonder just how many changes there have been in technology in that short time? So I Google d Technology available since 1999 and found that there are only 2,500,000 scholarly articles available for technology since 1999. Shoot Google was only one year old in 1999, and I know my dad had no clue what a Google was.
My good friend retired a year ago and moved to the state of Washington. We email frequently. I sent her the address to my Blog and said check it out. I also, in the same email, attached a photo of me brushing out a calf at a fair. So I asked her how she liked the picture of me and Norman (the calf). Her reply? I read your Blog but I did not find the picture of you with a cow. (Now when she checks my Blog again I'm sure that she will give me all kinds of grief for posting this little story). But she is a reluctant computer user and does not particularly like it so it was not a surprise to get that response from her and I know that she is not alone in her dislike of most things technical. My mother-in-law (also deceased) refused to drive the last van my father-in-law purchased. Why? Because the gas pedal could be moved to fit the driver preference. She couldn't deal with that technology so she drove the truck instead.
What about the technology at the Olympics? I watched swimming the other night and I swear the other guy beat out Michael Phelps but the computer says nope, Phelps won. Would he have been declared the winner when judged by the camera? What about the swim wear the Olympians are wearing? They're space age technology and apparently are shaving seconds off the swimmers scores and the swimmers are consequently setting new world records. I doubt if Mark Spitz could have envisioned today's swimmers wearing space age technology.
When I visited MSU last Monday we walked by the College of Education and I told the kids that I took so many computer classes when I was attending MSU that I had a math/science minor. I always found that funny. I had so many classes in computers that I received a math/science minor. It's on my teaching certificate so I suppose I could be asked to teach one of those subjects in middle school...and I would not be able to do so. Everything I learned in those computer classes has long been forgotten which I'm sure is a good thing since all of it is outdated. That's my worry for my special ed students, is what I'm going to teach them this year going to be worthless before they hit high school or will it ease the way into what's coming in their future?
I worked for Amway Corporation back then. I remember when they built a room for the new computer they were getting. The room was sealed and temperature controlled. It was a very big deal. The purchase of the computer opened up a new department at Amway called Data Processing. The ladies in Data Processing had funny little machines that they used to type information onto data cards which were then fed to the computer. I tried learning how to type on the machines but it was like a foreign language to me since it was all in bytes or some such thing. I made too many mistakes and they didn't want me to work in that department either.
Someone else posted a list of all the things we did not have as children that are now a part of our lives. When I think of what is available today that was not available when my own dad was alive it boggles the mind. My dad passed in 1999, nine short years ago, and I wonder just how many changes there have been in technology in that short time? So I Google d Technology available since 1999 and found that there are only 2,500,000 scholarly articles available for technology since 1999. Shoot Google was only one year old in 1999, and I know my dad had no clue what a Google was.
My good friend retired a year ago and moved to the state of Washington. We email frequently. I sent her the address to my Blog and said check it out. I also, in the same email, attached a photo of me brushing out a calf at a fair. So I asked her how she liked the picture of me and Norman (the calf). Her reply? I read your Blog but I did not find the picture of you with a cow. (Now when she checks my Blog again I'm sure that she will give me all kinds of grief for posting this little story). But she is a reluctant computer user and does not particularly like it so it was not a surprise to get that response from her and I know that she is not alone in her dislike of most things technical. My mother-in-law (also deceased) refused to drive the last van my father-in-law purchased. Why? Because the gas pedal could be moved to fit the driver preference. She couldn't deal with that technology so she drove the truck instead.
What about the technology at the Olympics? I watched swimming the other night and I swear the other guy beat out Michael Phelps but the computer says nope, Phelps won. Would he have been declared the winner when judged by the camera? What about the swim wear the Olympians are wearing? They're space age technology and apparently are shaving seconds off the swimmers scores and the swimmers are consequently setting new world records. I doubt if Mark Spitz could have envisioned today's swimmers wearing space age technology.
When I visited MSU last Monday we walked by the College of Education and I told the kids that I took so many computer classes when I was attending MSU that I had a math/science minor. I always found that funny. I had so many classes in computers that I received a math/science minor. It's on my teaching certificate so I suppose I could be asked to teach one of those subjects in middle school...and I would not be able to do so. Everything I learned in those computer classes has long been forgotten which I'm sure is a good thing since all of it is outdated. That's my worry for my special ed students, is what I'm going to teach them this year going to be worthless before they hit high school or will it ease the way into what's coming in their future?
Monday, August 18, 2008
The 5th Thing Motivational Poster
My creation
Originally uploaded by dougjmac
I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to make for this post. I checked out a lot of Big Huge Labs and decided on motivator because I think my kids can easily do this with my help. I think we could take pictures of our favorite things or activities in our school using a digital camera. the kids could write a short sentence stating why this was a favorite and add it to the picture. Because I have so many reluctant writers in my class this could be an easy, fun activity to use with them at the beginning of the year.
I have deleted this post and reposted it trying to make my picture bigger. I realized after posting the ref pic that I need to make them bigger.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Thing 4 - Flikr - Grant vs Big Rapids
I think I'm just going to continue to be surprised all along as I do this class. The first thing, as you all remember, was to get a G-mail account. I had that thanks to a nagging kid. Now I open Flikr and imagine my surprise when I discover that we have an account and that there is a picture of my husband's football crew. I have no idea how we got the account. My husband did not do this. I doubt that the kid did it...so how did it happen?
Anyway, here is the picture of my husband's crew. The cute one of the left is our son. The cute one in the white hat is my husband. Now I know I have to give someone credit for this picture and honestly I can't find who took it...I know some guy from The Big Rapids Pioneer newspaper took the picture but I've searched and can't find him. So....thanks to the guy who sent us the picture and sorry that I don't know who you are. I did, however, find that this pic was taken September 16, 2005.
Anyway, here is the picture of my husband's crew. The cute one of the left is our son. The cute one in the white hat is my husband. Now I know I have to give someone credit for this picture and honestly I can't find who took it...I know some guy from The Big Rapids Pioneer newspaper took the picture but I've searched and can't find him. So....thanks to the guy who sent us the picture and sorry that I don't know who you are. I did, however, find that this pic was taken September 16, 2005.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Thing 3 - 7 1/2 Habbits of Highly Successful Learners
Well, I think the easiest habit for me is to teach and mentor others. I love teaching special ed and I think I'm good at my job. I like the challenge of figuring out how my students learn with the disabilities that they have. I love it when we (my student and I) have a break through in that disability and suddenly the whole thing makes sense to them. It's as if the world of "school" has suddenly come alive for them.
The hardest thing for me would be use technology to my advantage. I know that I can use technology to make school easier for my special needs students, I just don't know what to use or how to do it.
The hardest thing for me would be use technology to my advantage. I know that I can use technology to make school easier for my special needs students, I just don't know what to use or how to do it.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Thing 2
Yesterday my oldest grandson, my niece and I took the "Grand Tour' of Michigan State University. The kids took the tour as I imagine high school students of today take a college tour. My niece was awed by the size of MSU, my grandson was awed by the fact that he qualifies for Honors College and all it can offer to him. I, on the other hand, viewed MSU through much different eyes than I did as a student or even as I would have 2 weeks ago.
As I walked through Wells hall I kept remembering the video from Thing One, A vision of students today. You all will remember the video clip opens showing an empty auditorium and the statement "Today's child is bewildered when he enters the 19th century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented classified patterns subjects, and schedules." Marshall McLuhan 1967 and I thought OMG! When will we change the way we're teaching our future?
I began to look around in each building we entered, looking for technology. I realize that it's summer and equipment may be locked away somewhere but I wanted to see it being used at my alma mater. We did watch a power point presentation prior to our tour and I couldn't help but notice that the presenter was not showing the full screen but rather was allowing all the pages of the power point to run along side of her presentation. She didn't seem to notice and I thought boy, she needs to become a bit more proficient in her Power Point presentations. Now, I think that's a simple piece of technology to use but I'm guessing she didn't feel the same way.
So, on one hand I'm nervous about this class and on the other hand I'm excited about this class. I do not like being moved out of my comfort zone although I realize I have much to learn. I want at the very least not to sound like an idiot when around people who speak technologically around me.
For my students (all LD except for 2 with autism) I want to begin to expose them to as much technology as I can. My fear is they will learn something and then it will change and they will once again be lost. I know their learning styles and know that they need many more exposures to a topic or item for them to learn it. I'm wondering how I can apply what I learn here to be able to change my way of teaching. We shall see...
As I walked through Wells hall I kept remembering the video from Thing One, A vision of students today. You all will remember the video clip opens showing an empty auditorium and the statement "Today's child is bewildered when he enters the 19th century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented classified patterns subjects, and schedules." Marshall McLuhan 1967 and I thought OMG! When will we change the way we're teaching our future?
I began to look around in each building we entered, looking for technology. I realize that it's summer and equipment may be locked away somewhere but I wanted to see it being used at my alma mater. We did watch a power point presentation prior to our tour and I couldn't help but notice that the presenter was not showing the full screen but rather was allowing all the pages of the power point to run along side of her presentation. She didn't seem to notice and I thought boy, she needs to become a bit more proficient in her Power Point presentations. Now, I think that's a simple piece of technology to use but I'm guessing she didn't feel the same way.
So, on one hand I'm nervous about this class and on the other hand I'm excited about this class. I do not like being moved out of my comfort zone although I realize I have much to learn. I want at the very least not to sound like an idiot when around people who speak technologically around me.
For my students (all LD except for 2 with autism) I want to begin to expose them to as much technology as I can. My fear is they will learn something and then it will change and they will once again be lost. I know their learning styles and know that they need many more exposures to a topic or item for them to learn it. I'm wondering how I can apply what I learn here to be able to change my way of teaching. We shall see...
23 Things The First Thing
Wow! I made a Blog!
During 23 Things I hope to learn to use technology, in ways I currently know nothing about, to hook my special ed students on learning not only about technology but reading, math, science, social studies, writing, critical thinking, etc. You know all the things they need to become successful students. I want to give them tools to be successful in their future.
During 23 Things I hope to learn to use technology, in ways I currently know nothing about, to hook my special ed students on learning not only about technology but reading, math, science, social studies, writing, critical thinking, etc. You know all the things they need to become successful students. I want to give them tools to be successful in their future.
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