Thing 23 I Made It!

How has my thinking changed between Thing 1 and Thinkg 23? Oh boy, that's a big question. I used to think I was something of a with it mom because I IM'd with my kids....that made me with it and in the know. Isn't that funny? I knew nothing. So I could IM...I didn't set it up, my son did. I didn't know how to find it, my son taught me over the phone no less. The other son, who makes his living in computers, would sometimes have to take over my computer from Lansing and fix what ever thing I had broken. Now I can muddle my way through and have some success on my own. More importantly, I now have tools that I know I can use in my classroom with my special needs students successfully. No longer are they limited to just playing learning games. While I will continue to use those games, because they are a very powerful motivational carrot for me to dangle, I will add the technology I've learned here. Already I have made a template for the trading cards titled My Favorite Thing in School. Most of the kids have already had their picture taken at their favorite place in school, doing their favorite thing. They have already written their stats and why this place is their favorite thing. All we have to do now is put the two together.

My big take away is this: I need to figure out a way/place to get a grant for my classroom to add a mini computer lab to my room. If I could have just 4 new classroom computers I could change the way I teach my kids. I would have them using the computer daily instead of on Wednesdays from 8:50 to 9:30 only. For now, we are going to be making books on line, writing on a blog, using the camera to enhance our learning, the list goes on and on and is only limited my my imagination and the kids limitations.

I have very much enjoyed reading everyone's blogs and seeing how they are thinking about the same things I have been learing. I did notice that many have stopped blogging and I hope that they somehow find the time to continue the Things.

I am hoping that we/I will be able to continue to access this 23 Things so that I can return again and again to repeat a lesson because I know I have missed many points the first time through. I think it's brain overload or TMI at the time.

I also plan to continue the blog, changing it to my classroom blog or a blog about my classroom since I think I'd like my classroom blog to be private to begin. I'm not sure I'm still processing how I will do that.

I have also started up a web page for my classroom. I am in the minority at my school but I plan to use if for the school year and see what my parents say about using it. Here is my very basic web site http://schoolcenter.fhps.us/mcintyre

Thing 22 On Line Video

You Tube
I like You Tube and I dislike You Tube.
I have a favorite You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxT5NwQUtVM
it's called the mom song. It cracks me up every time I hear it. So I guess I use You Tube for entertainment. I have never searched it for any thing of substance. I figure since I can't use it at school I should spend my time looking elsewhere.

I really liked TeacherTube. I found a lot of video's that my class could relate to. My class really learns well when the topic is applied to music. I found several topic applied to music, like the states and their capitals http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4dc94d5749d44d4c6c73&page=1&viewtype=&category=, the water cycle, some math raps, 9's multiplications facts. I'm sure there are more. I will use these in my class if they're not blocked. I'll have to find out. The draw back is that they take a long tim to download. You could not do this on the spur of the moment...

You Tube is blocked in my school district.

Thing 21 Your Heart Will Be all aTwitter

I can see why teenagers/college students and others might be attracted to Twitter. I think it would be fun to use with family who are scattered about and you want to keep up. I can see my 2 daughters using Twitter but me? Not so much. I really can't think of what I'd use this for in my classroom. Shoot sometimes I can barely understand what they're saying vebally...how frustrating would it be to try to get it on to Twitter? I would not use them from the mobil phone. My kids are always yelling at me now to turn on my phone. I can hear one of my sons now saying mom why do you even have a cell phone if you're not going to turn it on? I guess I'll pass on this one too.

Thing 20 Bookmarking with Del.icio.us

Ok call me crazy...call me paranoid...this is moving me out of my comfort zone. I do not want all of my bookmarks placed on del.icio.us for the world to see. I do not want to share with friends. I guess I do not play well with others. Nope just not liking this at all. It sort of creeped me out I accidentally downloaded all my bookmarks to the site...and then I spend a few minutes deleting them all. There were way more book marks there than I thought possible. What I'd really like to do is go in and remove me totally from del.icio.us.
here's the site to prove I went there...it's empty....http://delicious.com/subscriptions/pndmac
and will remain so for now.

So let the comments roll!

Think 19 Introduction To Social Bookmarking

I think tagging will be useful for exactly the reasons stated on the video from Commoncraft. My favorites are a mess. Often times I'll have something bookmarked at school and wish I had the bookmark at home. Each summer the tech dept comes in and ghosts our computers and unless we save our bookmarks somewhere else, all is lost. This will eliminate that...although I suppose they'll come in and remove the add ons that we add to our brower.

Negatives? not having one? Maybe that I don't know many people who use one? I've never actually heard about them prior to reading tonight so possibly people I know do use them. I'm going to have to ask my kids.

I did notice on on the Mozilla Firefox browser, however, that they have incorporated tags and recent bookmarks into our bookmark tab. So that is nice.

Thing 18 Building Your Personal Learning Network

I first explored Ning. Oh my. Is there some way to search for what you want to see? I saw a lot of alumni sites but none from any of my alma maters...like Rockfored, GRCC, MSU or GVSU. I also did not see any for the district where I teach. I had no idea how to find what I wanted to see. I did see some weird sites and wondered what was up with them. I'm not listing them because they are too weird to even post...think sick. I did a little exploration of Ludington Talks and found out they are in the middle of a big controversy over Wind energy. That was pretty interesting and I could see where it would be a great site if you were living in Ludington. My husband and I love to vacation in that area so I'll be checking back from time to time.

I then went on to explore MACUL. That was much easier to sift through and I actually spent quite a long time on their site. I loved the videos. I got lot of ideas on what I could do with my kids. In fact we're currently in the middle of a writing project that will lend itself nicely to a slide show, now that I've found some examples and can see what other teachers are doing.

The MaCul site also had a forum with many categories such as: MACUL news, Cool Tools , Technology and the Curriculium and more. On Cool Tools you would find postings about a cool website, tech-tool, or resource. People posted links for others to use or explore.

The problems I see with the PLN are getting the staff to use them. In my district we all have the opportunity to create a classroom web page and list it on our school web page. We use Schoolcenter which is totally user friendly. Not many elementary teachers in the district have a web page. I wonder why? In our school it is the specials teachers, art, music, computer lab and PE who have web pages....also one 3rd grade teacher and now me. Oh boy. How would you get the staff to use a PLN? Who would start it and update it?

Thing 17 - More Web 2.0 Winners

I explored http://www.revolutionhealth.com/video/index your home for health and balance. I liked the layout of this site. I also liked that it has reputable sources listed for their references such as Mayo Clinic, The Cleveland Clinic, and Harvard Health Publications. I was able to quickly search out trigger finger, a condition I have just been diagnosed with, and read all about it. Everything listed on the site matched what my doctor had told me plus a bit more information.

There is a health recipe section. I browsed through severeal recipes and quickly noticed that the recipes do NOT list calorie count, grams of fat or fiber or sugar and salt. I am a label reader so I did not like to see these items missing.

There is a section to search for doctors, hospitals or dentis in your area. There are also blogs to check out. You can become a member and keep your health records on their site.

Overall, this seemed like a pretty good site. I would visit it again.

As for the question could I see any applications for its use in a library setting? Whose library? In my school, elementary, no not for students. It may be useful for teachers looking up lice or other childhood ailments that they might have to deal with during the course of a school year. In my library yes...the public library certainly.