I spent some time using several mashup's found on the Big Huge Labs site. The one that I found to be just amazing and so simple to use was "Motivator" It takes your photo and lets you add a caption to make it look like one of those fancy motivational posters that the whole world has come to recognize. I made this one from a photo I took of a fence at a park in Downtown Chicago - the park with "the Bean." I can see using this in my math classroom right away. I would bet that if I wrote a formula on the bottom and a correcpoding photo on the top that the kids would pay more attention to it simply because of the formatting. It would be a good way to trick them in to paying attention to the important things. I can also see letting the kids all submit a picture and a caption and making a class set of these to use as a bulletin board or slide show. This mashup alone made Flickr much more worth it to me. I also played with the trading card maker and the ID Badge maker. Both were cute and something that might be nice to add to our student of the month program.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Thing 4
It's almost 3am and I should be sleeping but I got sucked into playing on Flickr for the past few hours now. I uploaded a bunch of photos, added titles to them all and taged them all as well. I even tagged this one with "KentISD23Things"
I tried numerous times to add a slideshow to this blog that would show my flickr pictures but it just kept showing photos that were not mine. Wierd. I was also unable to find my tagged photo through a Flickr search. *sigh* Needless to say I have decided to post this adorable photo of my children the old fashioned way - using the "add image" button. The reason I chose this photo is that it makes me smile. It shows me that there is still joy to be found in this sometimes miserable Michigan winter weather.
Back to my experience with Flickr. I found some math images there that were interesting and many of very high quality but I think that for the my purpose of finding images a google image search would suit me just fine and would take less work. For sharing images I see the value of Flicker. I got to see some pictures of my infant nephew that I hadn't seen for a while that had been posted by my sister-in-law.
In conclusion, Flickr gets mixed reviews from me. I'm going to have to play with it more on another day when it isn't 3am.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Thing 3
The VoiceThread presentation was interesting but I found that it did not fit my learning style very well. I found it almost agonizing at times to sit and listen. I would much rather read the information since I can read faster than most of the people were talking. In any event. . . here are my thoughts on the 7 1/2 Habits of LifeLong Learners.
The habit that is the hardest for me: View Problems as Challenges.
I tend to get discouraged when things go wrong, especially with my classroom technology. I always find a way to make things work but sometimes that means that the technology that was supposed to make my teaching easier ends up making thing much more difficult. I hope that in the next few years the technology available to my students in my classroom catches up with the rest of the world.
The habit that is the easiest for me: Create Your Own Learning Toolbox
I am the Queen of creating your own learning toolbox. I have many hobbies and each of the had their own toolbox. Most of my toolboxes for work come in the form of a 3-ring binder, with lots of tabs. I have one for each chapter in my textbook, for each supplemental unit that is not in my textbook, for my school contract and union information, for my flex-spending account. The list goes on and one. I have one for "The 23 Things" in fact. I have each the 11 big areas in its own tab. I am recording all the user names and passwords for all the new accounts I am opening up as I go so I will still be able to get to everything even after summer vaccation next year. I am also putting in that 23 Things toolbox copies of related articles and web site addresses that might be important in the future. Seems like I probably won't need the paper version of most of this since it will all be linked to my gmail account but I am one of those people who still keeps a paper gradebook in addition to our online gradebook. You just never know when the file server will be down you know. Paper, as archaic as it is, is still nice to hold on to and read every now and then.
The habit that is the hardest for me: View Problems as Challenges.
I tend to get discouraged when things go wrong, especially with my classroom technology. I always find a way to make things work but sometimes that means that the technology that was supposed to make my teaching easier ends up making thing much more difficult. I hope that in the next few years the technology available to my students in my classroom catches up with the rest of the world.
A funny story about a recent problem. . . I have a document camera in my classroom that I teach with almost exclusively. I rarely even write on the white board any more. I integrate streaming video (which I don't rick streaming but copy to a thumb drive before class) and also powerpoint presentations. Most of my teaching is done through the document camera. The week before Christmas break the document camera broke. Completely crapped out - wouldn't even turn on. My students came in and I was in the middle of writing their math answer key on a transpanency to put on my overhead projector. Many of them were calm and didn't pay much attention but a few freaked out saying, "What are you doing!? Isn't that a little old school for you? What happened to the camera? Are you actually going to use that?!" It was pretty funny actually. Made me staop to think for a minute that 10 years ago my first classroom had a chalkboard and there was one computer lab available for student use. Now all our classrooms have white boards, computers with projectors and there are three computer labs for sutdent use.
The habit that is the easiest for me: Create Your Own Learning Toolbox
I am the Queen of creating your own learning toolbox. I have many hobbies and each of the had their own toolbox. Most of my toolboxes for work come in the form of a 3-ring binder, with lots of tabs. I have one for each chapter in my textbook, for each supplemental unit that is not in my textbook, for my school contract and union information, for my flex-spending account. The list goes on and one. I have one for "The 23 Things" in fact. I have each the 11 big areas in its own tab. I am recording all the user names and passwords for all the new accounts I am opening up as I go so I will still be able to get to everything even after summer vaccation next year. I am also putting in that 23 Things toolbox copies of related articles and web site addresses that might be important in the future. Seems like I probably won't need the paper version of most of this since it will all be linked to my gmail account but I am one of those people who still keeps a paper gradebook in addition to our online gradebook. You just never know when the file server will be down you know. Paper, as archaic as it is, is still nice to hold on to and read every now and then.
7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners
As I was listening to the VoiceThread presentation I wanted to see the 7 1/2 habits in writing. This is a very cool slide show that I found that goes right along with it. I'll be posting which habits I think are easiest and hardest in a few mintues.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Thing 2
In my opinion. . .
- What makes a good blog?
Posts that are to the point and not wordy just for the sake of being wordy. Pictures also help as many readers are also visual learners. I am not a fan of patterned backgrounds or annoying music playing in the background. If a blog hurts my eyes just to look at it I ususally don't take the time to stick around to read it.
- How do blogs enhance existing web sites?
Many web sites have links to outside blogs which I have found make the web site seem more personal. It's a way for me to see how others who are interested in the same things I am are using our common interests in their lives. It is also a way for me to see how different people are who may be interested in the same something that I am. I always enjoy looking at blogs by teachers so I can see how they are using them in their teaching. - Are blogs an easier way for people to self-publish?
Yeah. Of course. Blogs are a way for anyone with access to the internet to get their ideas out there for the whole world to share. You can't get much easier than that.
Thing 1
So after reading the article, A Day in the Life of Web 2.0, I find myself thinking what I have been thinking for the past couple of years. This all sounds great but in the real world my abilty to integrate technology is severly limited by the available technology in my school. If I had a computer lab available to me everyday - more of this would possible. If all of my students had computers at home - more of this would be possible. If more of my students lived within walking distance of our public library - more of this would be possible. If my district did not have a 3 mile thick firewall on everything that we do on the internet within our classrooms and labs - more of this would be possible. I would love to believe that by learning more about these 23 things that things will be better for my students but until the technology within the school and the community catches up with that of the Web 2.0 I am not sure how much change I can really make.
I am not dismissing the fact that my own children (ages 4 & 6) will be impacted by the Web 2.0. I feel though that I, as their mother, will have a greater impact on their ability to utilize these things in their education than their classroom teachers will. I suppose that this backs up the importance of the parent as every childs first teacher.
I am not dismissing the fact that my own children (ages 4 & 6) will be impacted by the Web 2.0. I feel though that I, as their mother, will have a greater impact on their ability to utilize these things in their education than their classroom teachers will. I suppose that this backs up the importance of the parent as every childs first teacher.
Monday, December 15, 2008
23 Things – The First Thing
I am in my 10th year of teaching middle school math. I have always been considered one of the techies in my building. I tried to sign up for "23 things" last year but it was full so I missed it. :( A few weeks ago Ron was a speaker at a full district professional development day in Lowell. I was reminded of the "23 things" online course and thought I would give it another try. I hope to learn ways to better integrate the use of technology in my classroom. I hope that I can learn how to actually pull off what Ron made look so simple in his presentation. My biggest fear is that I will spend time integrating technology only to be faced with the cold hard truth that only half of my students have internet access and many do not even have a computer to work with at home. I want to make things better for everyone not just those how are financially well off.
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