Thing #11

Flickr is a really cool images website that will make my use of pictures from the web safer for vocabulary activities. The website is just as easy to use as google images. I love the advanced search so that I can limit my results to images that I can safely and freely use in my classroom.

I really liked the Teacher Dude's idea on how to use Flickr to let the students have control over the pictures. I think this would be a fantastic project for students to contribute to my class WIKI each week for our vocabulary words. Since students would use different ways to search, we would have a ton of examples of the vocabulary words we are studying. I look forward to Thing #12 where I will actually be able to use an embeddable slideshow. Depending on the ease of creating a slideshow I will teach this to my students next year.

Badminton image provided by pasukaru76 on Flickr.

Thing #10

I'll admit that I am one of those teachers who wasn't really sure on the copyright laws. I just assume that everything I am using is fair use because I give credit to where I got it from, and I am using it to benefit my students. The only thing I use regularly is google images to have pictures that go along with vocabulary words. Since I have started using picture games like memory my students test scores have improved.

I have heard of creative commons before because we had to watch a video on it this summer for back to school training. I think it is a fantastic idea because someone like me doesn't need to copyright my stuff. I wouldn't say that I contribute much to the web, but if and when I do, I am willing for anyone to share and use my ideas. I think most teachers create things with others help and would agree to share anything they put on the web. I got into the business of teaching to educate. If something I am doing can be used in other classrooms effectively, then I want to share it without someone questioning if I would sue them.

I have not actually seen the CC on anything (or perhaps I am not very observant). Since I have not learned much about the CC, I did a little research to find some cons of the idea:

Jocalling lists cons such as the license only lasts for 14 years and is renewable once before it is completely released to public domain. It also points out that once you have put a CC on something, you cannot later change your mind.

Overall it seems like if your intent is to share your creativity for the enjoyment or advancement of others, then CC is a great idea. If you are more concerned about making money off of your ideas, then stay away from CC.

Thing #9

I personally loved playing in the Sandbox. It gave me a lot of confidence in being able to create a wiki over the summer to use in my classroom next year.

The steps for me were actually very easy because it is standard editing just like in a word document. I dabbled in webpage making when I was younger, so a lot of the basics are easy to understand for me. I had to use the tips and hints page when it came to linking because I hadn't yet discovered the difference between an external and internal link.

The one thing I did find frustrating was that sometimes my preview didn't look exactly like it was before I hit save (spacing issues). So I know I'd have to spend a good chunk of time perfecting things on my class wiki for 2011-2012.

I haven't yet built confidence on how to manage a wiki with over 100 students participating, so I might delay this until next year. :)

Check my first attempt wiki out -- TeacherFriendly

Thing #8

Do you think there may be a wiki in your future?

-I am fascinated with how easy it seems to build a basic wiki. I would love to integrate a wiki into my literature circle groups. I teach 4 sections of reading, but as it is right now the students can only collaborate and discuss with the students who are in their same class reading the same book. It would be awesome to open up the resources so that students could interact across the classes. I think this is something I could try with our last six weeks books just so I can get my feet wet and revamp the idea for next year to include for all of our book groups.

K Counting Book I love the simplicity of this wiki. I think this is a great example of how wikis can be used at any grade level. This is definitely as educational as any counting book. From what I can see, the pictures are collaborated by the entire class. I think it would be great for the teacher to require the students to group things by 10s in the picture to start showing the visualization of that concept. The only other thing the teacher could add is some support for parents; however, this might not be the purpose of her wiki. I love it.

Code Blue This is a great example of what I would expect from my students. The kids have reached out for a variety of resources to explore while studying the human body. This really puts the control in the students hands because they can pick a topic of interest. It is hard as a teacher because in research there are students who will look at too many sites and students who are helpless in finding anything. This allows the students to work off each other. I think the way different students find information on the web is also imperative because there is so much out there, we are always missing things by the words we choose to use in search engines. I don't like the look of the website because to me it is very plain and cold. I would as the teacher add pictures or something to separate the sections. This is a great resource to being research though.

Room 115 This is by far my favorite wiki that I came across. I love the idea of the one stop resource for parents and students. I have many parents that complain about lack of communication on events. This would be somewhere that is visually pleasing with a wealth of information. I spend so much of my time conferencing with individual parents about resources students can use to bring up grades or practice concepts. I also have lots of parents who would like better communication when it comes to homework. This would be a great way to maximize my time by only having to present the information one way. As a beginning teacher last year, I exhausted myself trying to please everyone. I think next year it would be great for me to start off with an informational wiki and set the expectation that the parents and students visit it and stay informed. Obviously, not every one of my students has the internet, but I think it would be helpful for those that do.

I am excited for Spring Break to get here so I can get my literature circle wiki under way!

Thing #7

As a teacher that would like to use blogging in the classroom, I think the need for comments is very crucial. I would like to have my students interacting with each other electronically. If I just post information without any interaction, there is no proof that my efforts are even being utilized.

Having said that, I know the first thing I would have to do is teach the importance of commenting. One of the sites had a lot of important tips and techniques that would help students understand that "yeah" and "right on" wouldn't be sufficient enough to serve as a comment: How to comment like a King or Queen

This site continues to express the importance of the blogger to be reliable and respond to posts. I think this could be an amazing way to have students respond electronically to books we are reading in class. This way they can learn from each others opinions and feelings towards a book. I try to get my students to discuss their opinions in real time, but they are very uncomfortable with "putting themselves out there". I think commenting on a blog could teach this idea of conversation and learning from each other.

It was much easier to comment on teacher's blogs that are taking this class because I felt a safety net with putting my opinions out there. I think it will be very cool when I run into these same teachers in the future at trainings. It felt a little awkward commenting on a complete stranger's blog. For one, there are many more people out there other than just the blogger reading my thoughts. I think the more I do it, the more I will feel a part of the conversation. This is a great learning experience to know how my students may react with blogging in the classroom.

Thing #6

I was excited to let my reader pile up for a couple days and scroll through for articles that interested me. During the school year I am never able to dive into a book of my own choosing because I am constantly reading books for my masters, year long literacy class or for my literature circle groups in class.

This reader has been very beneficial to me because I am able to scroll through articles that I am interested in to find one I'd like to read. I hope that one day I can have computers in my classroom for every student so that they can each setup readers to read 2-3 times a week in class. My goal this year is to have the students setup a reader that they can access if they are interested during their computer time, library time, or at home.

I ran across an article this evening that really caught my eye. I thought it would be appropriate to discuss here because it brought up a lot of points this class has already taught: Can Money Buy You Happiness?. The article basically states that a recent study claims that peoples happiness rose as their salaries grew to $75,000 a year and then reached a plateau. The article continued and asked students 13 and older to comment on their reaction to this. They also asked for students to post their feelings on the issue of money and happiness.

The best part of reading this article was reading the comments by students. It was amazing to me to read all of the points being made by students. I won't share my own personal opinion on whether money can buy happiness, but I will link my favorite comment from a teacher standpoint: Aaliyah. She brings up a very good point since this question was posed to students.

Thing #5

I recently had a friend post on Facebook that she loved her new Google Reader. To be honest with you, I assumed she was talking about a Kindle or other computer device for reading books. I am so glad that this class has made me look into what a Google Reader actually is.

Since growing up and having to pay 14 bills a month, I have bookmarked each website that I have a bill for on my homepage of my internet browser. On pay day I go through all of the websites and pay my bills so that I don't forget one.

RSS feeds and readers are going to be another way I one-stop organize for my reading. I love the idea of going to one website to browse all of the articles I'd usually be interested in reading. I actually found that I read MORE because there were more articles in one spot that I was interested in reading. I also listened to a podcast for the first time. I am young and am not against podcasts, I've just never looked for them. What a cool experience!! I know my students would love these things. I can totally set some of my athletic students  up to use a reader for sports articles. If I were to start doing SSR as blog, articles or podcasts, a reader would be such a time saver. It would eliminate students from saying that after 15 minutes, they still cannot find something they would like to read.

An article I would have probably never run across without my reader is MacArthur Foundation Honors 23. The article was very vague on what the MacArthur foundation is, so I followed some links in the article to get more background information on this foundation and what it does. They "award unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction." The recipients received $100,000 a year for 5 years with no strings attached. The hope of the foundation is that these individuals continue to change the world with no worry for money to back them for 5 years. I think this is an outstanding honor and idea. The original article gave a brief description of the 23 award winners this year. Most of these winners study in arts and sciences. I enjoyed reading this article because these weren't typical jobs. These people do things that students don't know about. Our big push in Mesquite is on FutureQuest, so I think it'd be fantastic to expose this foundation to students to show them that you don't just have to set goals to be an athlete, doctor or lawyer. I find that many of my 6th graders are stuck thinking there are only a few types of jobs out there.

My reader is something I look forward to visiting each day and updating frequently.