I was really hoping that the problem with not posting would be solved by now, but oh well. I'm almost finished. I'm going to go ahead with thing # 22 while I'm working on thing 21, which is taking a little bit longer.
At first, I was confused about Nings, until I read "7 Things You Should Know About Ning." I really found that piece very imformative. I would love to create classroom project Ning where where my students and I can work together on projects. My students only see me once a week and Ning would be a great way for students to work with each other from home and be able to contact me with questions. Project information can be posted along with schedules and deadlines and informational websites they can use. I really would like to have the opportunity to implement Ning this year with my class.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
BTW
By the way, A Portal to Texas History will be a great site for us to use this year as we study Texas History. There are so many great things on there.
Thing # 20 - Embedded video
The first video is from my favorite BBC comedy, Black Adder, and was found on YouTube. I tried to embed one called, "Pay Attention," that was about how our students are learning. I kept getting an error message. I'll try another one from TeacherTube. The one I found was cool. It was a rap about fractions. Very fun.
Thing # 20 - YouTube and TeacherTube
I love TeacherTube! It has so many videos that can be used for school. There was a video about a rap about perimeter. Third and fourth graders would have so much fun learning about perimeter and remember what they learned. Students and teachers could have so much fun learning using this tool. I found a wonderful video entitled, "Pay Attention," all about how technology, such as ipods, podcasts and even cell phones, can be used to teach. It was very enlightening. There is so much technology out there that our students are already familiar with and it would be so easy to tap into that. YouTube also had some really great teaching videos about different things. I'm adding a fun one to my blog when I figure out how to embed. For now, I'll post. These are wonderful educational tools that I will most definitely be using this year.
Thing # 19 Second try at posting
As Junie B. Jones would say, "I am getting frustration in me." I've already typed this blog once and pressed the publish button and it didn't, so here goes again.
I found Web 2.0 awards list very surprising. It had different categories with the first, second, and third place winner in each. There were a lot of different categories. There were a few categories that I found could be used in a classroom. Comiqs was a pretty neat site. Students could use it to make a comic summary of a topic or book they are reading, creating pictures and text. I thought that they MyHeritage site was cool. My students are too young to use it, but I could have them do a research project at home and they could have their parents help them. Of course it had De.li.cious on it, but Rollyo and the other sites that we have been learning to use. Over all, I found it very informative and useful. I hope this posts. Fingers are crossed... again.
I found Web 2.0 awards list very surprising. It had different categories with the first, second, and third place winner in each. There were a lot of different categories. There were a few categories that I found could be used in a classroom. Comiqs was a pretty neat site. Students could use it to make a comic summary of a topic or book they are reading, creating pictures and text. I thought that they MyHeritage site was cool. My students are too young to use it, but I could have them do a research project at home and they could have their parents help them. Of course it had De.li.cious on it, but Rollyo and the other sites that we have been learning to use. Over all, I found it very informative and useful. I hope this posts. Fingers are crossed... again.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Thing # 17 again
I'm starting to see the use in Rollyo. Students can use a rollyo search that you've set up to gather information instead of randomly searching through google. I usually gather appropriate websites for students and add them to my favorites list when we do research. This will be a good way for them to access these websites from home or another computer. The BGood video was highly informative and gave wonderful tips on navigating Rollyo. I will definitely be using rollyo in the future. It's late at night and I'm tired. : )
#17 Rollyo
I was finally able to access the tutorial video. Here is the link to my Rollyo Searchscroll.
http://rollyo.com/kristifout/gtnewsinformation/
I truly hope that worked.
http://rollyo.com/kristifout/gtnewsinformation/
I truly hope that worked.
Question
I need help answering a question. Is there a way to attach a slide presentation to a blog? Is that even possible? If anyone knows how to attach a slide or can tell if it is even possible, that would be great. Thank you!
Thing # 18 - 2nd try
Hopefully this will post this time. I found Open Office very fun. It was not much different from Microsoft Office. If someone was just starting with a new laptop and was unable to purchase Microsoft or just didn't want to spend the money on it, Open Office would be a wonderful alternative. It runs pretty much the same with only a few minor differences. I found a couple of difference on the spreadsheet program and on the presentation program, but those are easy enough to learn. It saved relatively easily as well. I made a quick presentation for fun to see how it worked. If I can manage to attach it to my blog, I will.
Thing # 17 Rollyo
This was a pretty neat lesson. I was able to easily create my own Rollyo search sites and publish (I hope I did that part right). It seems very simple and should be very useful. I'm having some trouble putting the rollbar on my bookmarks and posting a link to my site. The name that I created for my searches was GTNews&Information. I'll keep working on trying to find a way to post. The video of Bruce's 23 Things Rollyo Video won't download on my computer. Still frustrated. Will write more later.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Side Note
It is hard to study or blog with your 2-year old sitting on your shoulders peeking his face around at you. Very cute, but hard to work. :)
Thing # 16
Wiki's are cool! I had no idea what a wiki was before this lesson. I can really see the applications being easy to use. My favorite ideas were idea one and four.
Idea 1- collaborative note taking, where everyone pitches in and adds a fact or two about a topic. This one would be easy to set up and can be used on just about any topic. My GT students are going to be studying Enigmas this year and they could 1.)list all the enigmas they've heard about, ( i.e. bigfoot, lockness monster, chupacabra, nazca lines, marfa lights, etc. ).2.) Then they could each add what they think they know about the each one. 3.) After researching, they could add what they learned about them. 4.) After they have finished with that, idea four can come into play with trading cards. They can make a trading card on each of the enigmas that they learned about.
Idea 1- collaborative note taking, where everyone pitches in and adds a fact or two about a topic. This one would be easy to set up and can be used on just about any topic. My GT students are going to be studying Enigmas this year and they could 1.)list all the enigmas they've heard about, ( i.e. bigfoot, lockness monster, chupacabra, nazca lines, marfa lights, etc. ).2.) Then they could each add what they think they know about the each one. 3.) After researching, they could add what they learned about them. 4.) After they have finished with that, idea four can come into play with trading cards. They can make a trading card on each of the enigmas that they learned about.
Thing # 15 - short installment two
I found the vision of Library 4.0 exciting. A lot of us might have seen science fiction movies where all of the information in a library is contained on one disk. Or a hologram leads visitors to information. Technology is advancing ever faster and it makes complete sense to that our libraries should keep up. I've seen seen a lot of advances in our little school libraries and workshops such as this one advancing them further. It will be interesting to see if the libraries of the future really resemble the libraries in our science fiction novels and movies. If only I had a time machine.
Thing # 15 - Third Try- short installment one
I have now spent over an hour trying to publish this one post. I've written it three times now and it still will not post. Here goes again.
The video, "A Vision of Students Today", was very well done. The classroom used looks exactly like the classroom I went to class in. I find it amazing that even though all of the research shows that students learn best in an environment the exact opposite of this one, that we are still teaching students this way. A better college classroom environment might have more college professors, less students per class and differentiated instruction. Goodness knows how much that would cost.
The video, "A Vision of Students Today", was very well done. The classroom used looks exactly like the classroom I went to class in. I find it amazing that even though all of the research shows that students learn best in an environment the exact opposite of this one, that we are still teaching students this way. A better college classroom environment might have more college professors, less students per class and differentiated instruction. Goodness knows how much that would cost.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Thing # 14
I had some fun playing around with Technorati. It was a little difficult at first to find just the right key words to search for what I really wanted. I decided to search for gifted education. A lot of the blogs it led me to were just education, some talked about gifts (as in presents), and one talked about the 10 types of jobs that Harry Potter could do; one being physical Education. So I was still really having to search through a lot. I did find a large number of videos on gifted education that really looked instructional and helpful. That part was helpful. Overall, I found that while Technorati was a little difficult for me to use, there were some ways that it would be helpful. Like finding videos on the latest in gifted education or testing.
Del.icio.ous was, to me, much more user friendly. I would much more likely be using that one in the future. Being able to tag and categorize will really help keep me organized, which when having 5 different grade levels to teach, is very important.
Flickr will also be something that I use in the future, personally and with my students. It was very user friendly as well.
Del.icio.ous was, to me, much more user friendly. I would much more likely be using that one in the future. Being able to tag and categorize will really help keep me organized, which when having 5 different grade levels to teach, is very important.
Flickr will also be something that I use in the future, personally and with my students. It was very user friendly as well.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Thing # 13
I really enjoyed watching the first tutorial "in plain English." It was very informative. I can see the applications for this being very useful to me. In the past, I've just added the sites that I'd looked up to my favorites list, which got very long and I'd still have to look through each one to find the information that I wanted. Using tags on delicious, my list of favorites will be much more manageable. I can't wait to get started using this more when school starts up again. Anything that can help make things more organized will be of huge benefit to me.
Thing # 12 - first post
Thing # 12 will be posted in installments as I work through it.
Question 1: After review all that was said on commenting, the one that stood out the most for me was to make comments meaningful. Don't just comment to comment. Ask question or thank the person for the wonderful idea that they might have posted. I think that most people who post really want to know if what they are saying is being seen or used. Is there anyone out there who has done something similar and gotten the same or different results. Can their ideas be improved? Maybe they have asked a question and need someone to help them find an answer.
I've read through several different blogs and have tried to comment on one so far, but wasn't able to for some reason. I was reading Mr. D's Flying Circus blog # 9 and discovered a wonderful idea that I would love to use for my students. He suggested that blogs could be used to look up author's of popular books. I think that students would love to look up the blogs of their favorite authors and ask them a question or make a comment about something that they really liked about the book.
Question 1: After review all that was said on commenting, the one that stood out the most for me was to make comments meaningful. Don't just comment to comment. Ask question or thank the person for the wonderful idea that they might have posted. I think that most people who post really want to know if what they are saying is being seen or used. Is there anyone out there who has done something similar and gotten the same or different results. Can their ideas be improved? Maybe they have asked a question and need someone to help them find an answer.
I've read through several different blogs and have tried to comment on one so far, but wasn't able to for some reason. I was reading Mr. D's Flying Circus blog # 9 and discovered a wonderful idea that I would love to use for my students. He suggested that blogs could be used to look up author's of popular books. I think that students would love to look up the blogs of their favorite authors and ask them a question or make a comment about something that they really liked about the book.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Thing # 10
Ok, this is the third time that I've typed this blog. I had this wonderful idea, that I would type my blog on Microsoft Office and save/copy/paste, so if I posted a blog and it got lost, I would just copy and paste it back on. For every post that you see on my blog site, I've typed it over again at least twice. Here's the problem. You can't copy and paste anything onto this blogsite. So that whole idea went down the drain. I'm just going to have to retype everything and hope that it pastes. So I'm going to do things in small stages. Here is stage one of Thing # 10
Thing # 10
After a lot of help from my husband, I have finally been able to work out Thing # 10. I found out that most of the things I was trying to do, wouldn't work on my computer. I found that Dumpr and Wordle worked very well for me. I posted what I did from Wordle on my blog page. The other I will try to post here.
The first six sites that were listed, I couldn't do anything with. After 2 days of trying and having my husband try, we figured that they just weren't going to work for us. Dumpr was very easy to use as long as the picture you are trying to upload isn't too large. I just used a small picture that I had already saved to my files and upload to the Art gallery one. It looks pretty cool. I can see my students having a lot of fun with this one. I'm hoping to be able to figure out the comic one at a later time. I'm still going to be working on it. If I can get it figured out later, I will add it on to this blog.
I think that Wordle will be pretty cool for my students to use as well. They can take a subject that they are interested in and make a list of adjectives for it and make a picture. They can use it to describe a place or subject that interests them and really play around with colors and layouts and fonts. This would make a neat cover for a report. Kind of start it with a short summary of random but connected words.
The first six sites that were listed, I couldn't do anything with. After 2 days of trying and having my husband try, we figured that they just weren't going to work for us. Dumpr was very easy to use as long as the picture you are trying to upload isn't too large. I just used a small picture that I had already saved to my files and upload to the Art gallery one. It looks pretty cool. I can see my students having a lot of fun with this one. I'm hoping to be able to figure out the comic one at a later time. I'm still going to be working on it. If I can get it figured out later, I will add it on to this blog.
I think that Wordle will be pretty cool for my students to use as well. They can take a subject that they are interested in and make a list of adjectives for it and make a picture. They can use it to describe a place or subject that interests them and really play around with colors and layouts and fonts. This would make a neat cover for a report. Kind of start it with a short summary of random but connected words.
Thing # 10
I'm still working on Thing # 10. I'm having a little bit of trouble getting any pictures downloaded. I can see the classroom potential in it. Students would be able to make comics to add to reports, or make fun covers for reports. They could make cards for parents, teachers or friends during their down time. It could be a lot of fun for them. As soon as I figure it out, I'll post some pictures.
Thing # 11
Second try at posting.
I found LibraryThing to be very useful. My personal classroom library contains more than 300 books. I'm very anal about my classroom library. Each book is cataloged, categorized, color coded, and has a posted AR level. In the past, I've had to hand catalog and then type each book into an excel spreadsheet and categorized (I'm obsessived about my books). Then, I put a color coded sticker on each one (color coded by grade level and genre). Finally, I put an AR level on each one. If there is a program out there that would make this process less time consuming, that would be awesome. This program will catalog for me, but what I didn't see on it was the ability to categorize. If I missed this, please let me know. I would love to be able to use this and print out a categorized booklist. This has been very helpful though.
I found LibraryThing to be very useful. My personal classroom library contains more than 300 books. I'm very anal about my classroom library. Each book is cataloged, categorized, color coded, and has a posted AR level. In the past, I've had to hand catalog and then type each book into an excel spreadsheet and categorized (I'm obsessived about my books). Then, I put a color coded sticker on each one (color coded by grade level and genre). Finally, I put an AR level on each one. If there is a program out there that would make this process less time consuming, that would be awesome. This program will catalog for me, but what I didn't see on it was the ability to categorize. If I missed this, please let me know. I would love to be able to use this and print out a categorized booklist. This has been very helpful though.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thing # 9 - Second try
Here goes again. I found Blogline's Search tool to be the easiest for me to use while Technorati was the hardest for me to use.
I found that there is a whole community of educational tweeters. I didn't know that tweeting could be used in this way. Until recently, I didn't even know what tweeting was. I found it amazing that the internet could be used this way (I know... I'm way behind the times, which is sad because you'd think that at my age I'd be more computer savvy). It is very cool to be able to go online with other educators and discuss what is working or not working or to discuss the latest information on technology, teaching strategies, or educational news. This was a very eye opening lesson for me and one that I plan on continuing to learn.
Please let this post. Aarrgg.
I found that there is a whole community of educational tweeters. I didn't know that tweeting could be used in this way. Until recently, I didn't even know what tweeting was. I found it amazing that the internet could be used this way (I know... I'm way behind the times, which is sad because you'd think that at my age I'd be more computer savvy). It is very cool to be able to go online with other educators and discuss what is working or not working or to discuss the latest information on technology, teaching strategies, or educational news. This was a very eye opening lesson for me and one that I plan on continuing to learn.
Please let this post. Aarrgg.
AARRGGGG
Is anyone else having the trouble posting that I am having. I pour out my thoughts onto the screen and press publish post to have it all disappear and have to start all over for a second and sometimes third try. I am becoming irritated and frustrated. Watch this post, when I couldn't get thing 9 to post.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Thing 8 Try #3
I do not know what is going on, but I've typed this blog 3 times and it keeps disappearing. It will take me forever to get through all 23 things if I keep having to go back and retype it 3 or 4 times before it will show up. I really do not know what I am doing wrong. Here goes again... for the 3rd time. And by the way, my answers get shorter each time I have to retype it. Just so you know.
What do you like about RSS and readers?-- I like how convenient RSS and readers makes it to find the latest news and teaching techniques. By having my favorites sites available, I don't have to go searching for them each time. It will bring up only the latest information.
How do you think you will be able to use this technology in your school or personal life?-- This is very useful in helping me gain new information on the latest teaching techniques and strategies for my GT classroom without having to spend hours searching for it.
How can teachers use readers or take advantage of this new technology?-- Teachers can use this technology by using it to stay up-to-date on the latest in teaching strategies or newest information on the law as it applies to teaching. It can be used to find out what the state and federal legislatures are doing to change education or the laws regarding education. There are many applications for this technology.
What do you like about RSS and readers?-- I like how convenient RSS and readers makes it to find the latest news and teaching techniques. By having my favorites sites available, I don't have to go searching for them each time. It will bring up only the latest information.
How do you think you will be able to use this technology in your school or personal life?-- This is very useful in helping me gain new information on the latest teaching techniques and strategies for my GT classroom without having to spend hours searching for it.
How can teachers use readers or take advantage of this new technology?-- Teachers can use this technology by using it to stay up-to-date on the latest in teaching strategies or newest information on the law as it applies to teaching. It can be used to find out what the state and federal legislatures are doing to change education or the laws regarding education. There are many applications for this technology.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Thing 8
I am extraordinarily irritated by this blogging right now. I spent 30 minutes trying to write a blog for thing # 8. I saved it and published it, but I don't know where it went. It didn't go onto my blog page and now I can't find it and really do not wish to write all that all over again. I have done that so many times already. I need help. I don't know if this will post or not either.
Thing 7
I don't know what my computer is doing, but I've tried to post this blog twice already. Here goes again.
My homepage on my computer is iGoogle. I bookmarked a calendar to my homepage. I found that Advanced Search and Scholar would be very useful in researching topics in my classroom. Students would be able to really narrow down their chosen topic and save time. Lessons and webquests could be made around Google Earth to help them explore our planet. Combining a webquest or lesson using Google Earth and mappr, students could really put together a great presentation showcasing what they learned about Earth. They could even combine the trading card application and make their own fact cards about the planet. There are so many ways that these applications can be combined to make outstanding presentations, all the while keeping their searches narrow. I really think that we will have a great time in class using these.
My homepage on my computer is iGoogle. I bookmarked a calendar to my homepage. I found that Advanced Search and Scholar would be very useful in researching topics in my classroom. Students would be able to really narrow down their chosen topic and save time. Lessons and webquests could be made around Google Earth to help them explore our planet. Combining a webquest or lesson using Google Earth and mappr, students could really put together a great presentation showcasing what they learned about Earth. They could even combine the trading card application and make their own fact cards about the planet. There are so many ways that these applications can be combined to make outstanding presentations, all the while keeping their searches narrow. I really think that we will have a great time in class using these.
Thing 6
This was so cool. I can't speak to how I would use this in the library, since I'm not a librarian, but I can totally see how we can use some of the applications and share site from flickr in my GT classroom. The trading card app was awesome. We did a study once of Cryptozoology and enigmas. We could have used this to make trading cards of the cryptids that we studied. This will most definitely be used in my GT classroom. Here is one that I did for practice.
thing 5 picture
I forgot to download a picture from flickr and post it to my blog. Last year, we studied Ancient Egypt, so I chose a picture from flickr on that topic. I hope that I did it correctly.
Thing 5
Second try. I've already tried posting this and I don't know where it went, but it didn't show up in my blog window, so here goes again.
Flickr will be a very useful web tool to use in my classroom. I teach the gifted and talented children for my school and can see this being very useful in the types of projects that we do in the GT classroom. Technology is a big part of the GT classroom and finding new ways to utilize technology is great. I can't wait to get started using this in our Challenge Lab.
Flickr will be a very useful web tool to use in my classroom. I teach the gifted and talented children for my school and can see this being very useful in the types of projects that we do in the GT classroom. Technology is a big part of the GT classroom and finding new ways to utilize technology is great. I can't wait to get started using this in our Challenge Lab.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Thing #4
I tried registering. I hope that it will work. I've run into many difficulties trying to get these first four things done and hope that I won't have as many problems continuing with the rest.
Thing 3
Thing #3- avatar. Moments ago, I posted a new blog about creating an avatar. It didn't show up on my post. Where did it go? I hope that this one shows up.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Thing 2
Post # 1: This is my very first post. Posting and talking about anything online is very new to me. I found the information in Libray2Play on the 7 1/2 habits very informative. My plans for this study are to use it in my classroom with my students. I am not a librarian, but I hope that learning to navigate blog sites and the web in general will help me become a more effective teacher.
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