Blogging Withdrawal

I've decided to just keep blogging all summer! I joined a digital photography RSS today. I also sent my lesson plans to Anwatin Goes Digital by cut/pasting the lsn plan template into Google Docs and then sent it that way! Way to go, huh? and it was easy as well as efficient! Keep reading all summer long!!

Thing 4

Thing 4 - Going Deeper: Online Productivity Tools"

Wow, who would have thought about a calendar with the ability to show real people's faces looking up, down, to the side, etc. No wonder Jeannie D. or "Information Woman" chose this for her calendar. Up until this year, just jotting down a grocery list, list of cards to purchase, etc & stuffing it in my purse or pocket was fine with me. Well now everyone can have their own customized home page. I personally liked igoogle best simply because I use Google all the time almost exclusively for everything I do even though Netvibes is the most popular while Pageflakes is the main competition of Netvibes. I used to use Yahoo most frequently, but gave that up some time ago. I haven't decided yet if I will make igoogle my permanent home page. My current home page is the MPS one. At school as I mentioned previously, the HIA web page is the home page. I do like to see the current temp and weather forecast. The current daily world news is also very interesting as we teachers never get to listen to the news. I could see myself using the calendar although my experience with the online calendar at HCL has been less successful. We have to go through an entire time consuming process to check the availability of a date for the meeting room whereas b/f we could quickly flip open a schedule book to check. None of us like it; it's not working for us. Our new head librarian has taken to printing out the weekly schedule to make it more manageable for us to use! I think the County should look into another online calendar that would make for sense for our needs. Come to think of it, an online calendar that could be color coded for both schools & the HCL job would be ideal. Back in the day when each of our 3 children had 2 summer sports I would hand write out the color coded calendar. That was quite a feat, I only delivered the oranges to the wrong playing field once! At this point in my life w/o an ipod I think the "To do Lists" would be too much work. I could very easily revisit this "Thing" at a later date. I think students would really do well with online assignment calculators. Having a pop up message about an upcoming due date would not only help the student be better organized & more prepared, it would assist the teacher's planning & not being a nag. Paper assignments can be lost or misplaced; some of my students claimed to have lost their entire folder whereas a student can always go back and look up the assignment on the computer. Students could quickly check their "to do" lists b/f class just as they do with their gradebook.

Thing 3

Thing 3 - Going Deeper - RPC & Dribbling Lessons
I have gone over the Research Project Calculator previously in depth and should have blogged about it at that time. I can see how using the RPC which I will do next year, can and will make projects more manageable. Yes, there is an overwhelming anount of information to go through and work with. I think that's why I "skipped" over this "Thing" previously. I have looked at Fact Monster, Google for Educators, CIA World FactBook and have made rubrics using Rubistar. I have worked with other educators in my Hamline classes making a presentation on using Moodle in the classroom. In the past 5 years I have used graphic organizers to help students organize their information and try to keep it straight. What used to be easy about teaching research was that I could teach each reference book in context; you know, ency., dictionary, almanac, include copyright and citations. Now looking back, that was easy. What's difficult now, of course, is that there is just so incredibly much information out there, how to organize it and use it to meet one's purpose and needs. The RPC gives structure, form and deadlines to a project. By following the 5 step model students should be able to be successful in their research process. What is hard for me now is that my students are new to America & find these sort of assignments more difficult to process. The students who have further advanced English skills translate for me so all students can be successful. The RPC will help me be better organized as an instructor. Once my students learn an online skill, they can really move with it to produce outstanding projects. I have found that technology is a universal language. My students even without English skills are much farther advanced technologically than students I have worked with in other buildings. I can explore the additional sites listed under "Do" in this "Thing". I will definitely use Google docs to make managing research projects easier for me as a teacher. In the past I have purchased Dr. David Walsh's Media Literacy materials & have used them to teach Media Literacy. Our district also purchased a unit for Media Specialists to use a number of years ago that I still use parts of. Every school in the district received these materials, which of course are stored at school now & I don't remember the name of.

Thing 23

Thing 23 - Teacher Web Page. All MPS staff are required to have a web page. John McC is the teacher for this class in MPS. My web page, which I just looked at, needs to be updated again. The address is: http://hia.mpls.k12.mn.us. Look on the left hand side under "staff information" for my name. Mr. Lyfu runs our website. He has done a fantastic job. I want to add some suggested summer reading to this page as well as the media standards. Our students love looking at our HIA web page. Our homepage comes up automatically upon login @ HIA. Oftentimes if we have 5 min. of free time or during ALC, students can be seen reading about the teachers or looking at the pictures. Students are very proud of our school. I need to learn how to link my web page to my blog like HIAMATHMAN did. Pertinent, up-to-date information needs to be on a web page, general knowledge that students & parents need to know is also very helpful.

Thing 22

Thing 22 - Online Learning - If there is one thing I have learned this year, it is about Online Learning! If I don't know a definition I can quickly open a new tab & go to wikipedia or an online dictionary and look it up! I agree, I do have new tools I can use to find information. I can read articles online, put them into my delicious acct, or just bookmark them, I can share them with co-workers, I can blog to other MILI participants about them, I could make a story about them, & you're correct, I know I can do it w/o FEAR! I didn't have the time during the school year, but as a lifelong learner, I continue to learn. It doesn't matter if it's during the summer, late at night or early in the morning; as long as I have my laptop, I can do anything! I have come to depend on Atomic Learning, I learned about Educause in this course & the "7 things You Should Know About" series (I've printed some of them out) and I really like how easy to understand the Common Craft (I think that's the name) video snipets are. I can research a product online, I can pay bills online, I can purchase online, my life is truly changed because of my laptop. I even used Flickr in Maureen M.'s Digital Storytelling class and know how easy that is to use. I feel that I'm a success even though I wasn't able to do everything during the school year. I will be able to take what I've learned & use it successfully next year. Thank you.

Thing 21

Thing 21 - Podcasts & Podcasting - Our podcasting guru in MPS is Mike W. I took a PC class from him last summer & had to make a short PC. We also used podcasting last week in our Destiny Sandbox class with Diane W-R wherein we made a book review using flip cameras and then put it in our Destiny Library catalog. I will continue with this medium but currently find myself more comfortable with GarageBand and am currently working on iphoto. When I am more confident with those 2 mediums I will revisit Podcasting for more intensive work. My middle school students will definitely LOVE podcasting. I do not subscribe to any podcasts on a regular basis but will definitely continue to work on my 23 Things throughout the summer.

Thing 16

Thing 16 - Electronic Portfolios - I am currently in the middle of an efolio unit right now. We started the first day we were able to go back into the lab after testing for most of the 4th qtr. We only had 2 days in the lab all quarter b/f school was out but most of my 7th & 8th graders were able to set up their efolio.mn accounts. I am really fortunate as the school year @ my building does not end in June. Almost all of the students attend summer school. It is a refreshing, hard working attitude on the part of our students that makes them such a joy to work with. We will continue where we left off working on our efolios. I have taken 2 courses from our District expert John McC which have been very helpful. Efolio was changed to a newer version that I don't think is as easy to use. I do have the beginning of an efolio made to use as an example for students. I think electonic portfolios are vital for students today. They change buildings or districts often, we no longer have paper resources & students can work on building their portfolio throughout high school giving them a finished product which to use to apply for colleges around the state. Efolio is the way to go!