Thing #16 PhotoPeach and Evaluation

PhotoPeach is my new FAVORITE thing!!!  This is a super easy tool for students to create a video.  At my school, we are really striving to use small moments in our writing.  I create my video to spotlight a couple of small moments that I could write about.  I have several surprises during that day, each of which could be written into a personal narrative.  Beach Surprise

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?  I think I will have to admit that PhotoPeach and creating wikis were two tools I've NEVER used before.  I found them to be so useful and simple to create.  I want use both in my reading and writing groups that I currently serve.  I think kids would really feel freedom with the ability to blog and be creative in their thoughts just like I have been.  
2. How has this type off program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?  Well, I LOVE TO LEARN and this type of activity has forced me to sit down and do things I've wanted to do before but have just not had time to do.  One of my goals was to use technology with confidence.  I feel thougth this project I have gained the confidence I need to lead teachers tn their quest to plan and execute meaningful lessons that incorporate the collaborative and technical aspect needed for 21st Century Learners.  

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?  
Well, I have to admit that I was very skeptical when I first began this "journey," but I have found that I do indeed like Google Docs!  I have never felt comfortable using this tool in the past, but being able to spend time creating and exploring, I found that it was much easier than I thought.  I also really enjoy blogging.  It seems to allow me to purposefully babble about things that I am a geek about!  
4. What could I do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?  I am glad I had this class at this time in my graduate studies, I think this type of "solo" activity has forced my hand to sit down and work through issues that teachers face on a daily basis.  I had to problem-solve and become innovative with many of the tools that I thought before were out of my leaogue.  The pace the THINGS seemed to flow just right.  Just when I needed to be stretched, a challenging tool was paired with a tool that I was very familiar with.  

Thing # 15 Skype

I am planning on using SKYPE this coming Friday (10/11) to have a conversation with a teacher that just had a baby last week and is at home on maternity leave.  I will call her at home and let her introduce her precious little girl, Presley Jean, to the class!  I know the kids will be so excited!  We did this a couple of years ago when she had a little boy... it was precious...

My school is also participating with Mary Pope Osborne, author of the Magic Tree House series, on a SKYPE call on which she will introduce her new book.

I've been an active learner this past summer and during this school year from webinars that have been produced as far away as Connecticut and as close as in Richmond!  I think this method of communication has opened the door to possibilities never known to us before.

After exploring 50 Ways to use Skype in the classroom, I came across a teacher in that used a combination of GoogleDocs and Skype to work with another class to edit their writing papers and to compare and critique songs written by a 7th grade class... I called my 4th grade teacher friend, Sarah, we are going to explore this scenario for our school to encourage writing for an audience and the importance of editing and revising!  SO EXCITED!!!

Best Day Ever!

Thing # 14 Podcast & Bookmarking

podcast n. a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player.

 iTunesU

Texas Education:  PoweronTeaching 
1)  Students making vocabulary video -- 4th grade bi-lingual class   using flip camera to create quick videos to act out the words.  Super idea and a great way build not only vocabulary, but confidence too!
2)  Students using movie-maker to create movies for science safety in a 3rd grade dual language classroom.  These students create puppets at home with their families, then worked collaboratively to create and plan the video that explained science lab safety. 
3) 21st Century Teacher Preparation Course - from Abilene Christian University -- describes how student teacher candidates work to untilize digital storytelling into their "assignments" so that the likelihood of using TECHNOLOGY when they become a "certified" teacher they will USE technology seamlessly   They set up before and after school sessions so that they, the student teachers, can come and help each other with the issues they've encountered.  This sets them up for success in the real world of education so that they will be able to talk with their colleagues when they encounter issues.  
 
Although these "podcasts" were really "videos," I really enjoyed seeing and using this resource.  I want to explore deeper the for ideas concerning writing.  

This could be explored for HOURS ~ Maybe this upcoming summer after GRADUATION!! :)  

As far as bookmarking is concerned, I use LiveBinder for my personal and professional resources and have for about one year.  At my district we are introducing SkyDrive Pro as a resource for bookmarking and keeping files.  I just had training on it today, and my hands are still shaky!  I'm sure it will take a bit getting used to, but I really like my LIVEBINDER ... it's like a sweet sip of SAAAAWEEET TEA!!!  

Thing # 12 & 13 Discovering and Using YouTube

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube:  Founders of YouTube from left to right: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim

These are the three guys that founded YouTube ...  In 2005, they couldn't get a video from a dinner party to upload or find a copy Janet Jackson's "garment malfunction" online....  YouTube was originally going to be an online dating site  Quite interesting ... today it is owned by Google and is the third most visited site on the internet!

Using YouTube is a fabulous way to share information, build students' background knowledge, and open up doors to places and activities that some would never get to experience without the use of the internet.

My son recently turned in his homework for his science class ~ YES, Mrs. Helbert is his teacher!!!

Joey Tests Buoyancy

Thing #11 Planboard & other Web 2.0 tool

PLANBOARD:  What a wonderful Web 2.0 tool!  This is a lesson planning person's DREAM!   This program allows you to set up lessons, create your own template, embed your links, share with others all your lessons for the week.  We upload our lessons to edmodo at my school right now, but I think using this program might make more sense.

I have 11 groups of students that I see pretty much on a daily basis.  I will be using this share with teachers what I am doing with their students so that we can hold each other accountable.  I am also going to share this with the teams that I plan with.  I've got to explore more, but there is even a way to get ideas from other teachers that use Plan Ahead to teach different topics or standards.

I have tried to use GoogleDocs to work on lesson plans before, and it just didn't work out.  I'm excited to give this a try!

Planboard example

I also found this really awesome site for teaching vocabulary ... It gives some Web 2.0 tools that I have never heard of before.  My principal has given me a job to work on vocabulary instruction on our campus.  This is a starting point :

http://www.podls.com/strategies/view/?ID=1376928046

Thing #10 YoHo Show

I do believe I really like this program ... YoHo Show.  I created a slideshow to use in my staff development for writing This tool seems much like PowerPoint, but seemed to have a lot more "bells and whistles."

vertical writing presentation

I would like to explore using this tool more.  It was very straightforward and seemed to be more user friendly than GoogleDocs.

I intend to use this tool to store and create staff development presentations.  I'm wondering if it will be blocked by our schools firewall.  I sure hope NOT!

Thing # 9 Playing with Wiki!

Using a Wiki to gather information is such a great tool.  In my Learning Contract, one of my goals is to use technology to my advantage.  I think that Wiki is just the tool that will help me meeting that goal!

I never really thought of using it as a method for students to respond to until now.  I've used Edmodo for book studies for teachers during the summer, but I am now thinking that a wiki might be a better tool.  I can post the question/video for teachers to view, then we can see everyone's response.

The notion that everyone can post on it and it archives their thinking is great!  I am wondering how this works with OneNote as my school is going heavily in that direction.  Does anyone know?

Thing #8 Wiki's ...

We use wiki's at our school to schedule computer times in the labs.  This is such a great method, but sometimes teachers (YES, TEACHERS) erase other people's names.  Our librarian has to now make it private so that she is the only one to that has access to it.

I created a Wiki for our 5th graders to use to encourage them to read the Texas Bluebonnet Books.  We will have a Bluebonnet party at the end of the year and to be eligible to participate, they will have to have read at least 5 books and participated in the wiki.  I'm going to ask the librarian to put the link on her SYMBALOO so that the 5th graders can have easy access to complete their entries.

Jane Long's Bluebonnet Book Wiki

I will eventually add a poll so that the voting can be done on the wiki.

Thing #7: Image Creator

WORDSIFT ~ in one word ... AMAZING!!!

I have used wordle to make word clouds before, but OH MY GOODNESS ... this program takes vocabulary development, main idea and summary to a whole new level!  I copied a one page sample of a passage to see what would happen.  The passage was on rattlesnakes.  When the Wordsift was created from the words I pasted in, this is what was created ...

snake wordshift


On this word shift, you can find images, videos, a virtual thesaurus, as well as many options for shifting the words.

My school has a very large ELL population.  I think this is going to be a great tool for teachers to use in Science and Social Studies as well as ELA teachers working on main idea and summary.

Thing #6 Netvibes

WOW!!!  I've always wondered how sites like these work.  I found it very interesting that I can have all the sites that I visit at my fingertips without ever leaving one page.  What a great way to organize yourself.  The site, Netvibes, itself, was kind of hard to navigate.  I want to organize it another way, but found it took so much time.

I was a little overwhelmed at the amount of information that is out there.  The tab feature is most helpful due to the fact you can be very specific on your RSS feeds that you gather.  When searching for topics on my writing tab, I found a McREL webinar that I've registered for.  Without these exercise, I would not have known about the program.  I would like it to be more "searcher" friendly.  I do not have time to sit and look through every item.  I found myself adding sites that I may or may not ever use.

I want to create a tab for my son on my computer so that he has his "personal" page for all of his sites that he visits on a daily basis.  Students in classrooms could use their teacher's netvibes to do research on specific topics, but I think I like the web 2.0 tool Symbaloo better for that purpose.

 Kim's Netvibes

Just wanted to follow-up with the webinar I found on my RSS feed ~  WONDERFUL presentation.  Some really great ideas and spreadsheets that I will be able to use when I am planning my change unit for our Systems class.  I'll share with everyone on Monday night.  :)

Thing #2

My first experience with blogging came from my sister's friend who started blogging when she was recovering from a miscarriage.  She used her blog to let her friends and the world know her struggles and eventually the joy she and her husband experienced when they adopted a little spitfire of a girl and a docile little boy.  As time has past and the kid have consumed her world, she does not blog as much.  My cousin, on the other hand, had a blog about her struggle as a mom of a child with autism.  Another friend carried us through her journey of discovering her 5 year old daughter having a brain tumor, surgery, and being left blind in one eye.  Every year she updates the blog on the anniversary of her x-ray to always give everyone a good report.

Well, since all these "blogs" have stemmed from tragic beginnings, I never really thought I had any reason to have a blog.  The ability to write and talk about myself always seemed very daunting to me, but her I go ...

off to the blogging universe!

Thing #1 Lifelong Learner

THING #1  Lifelong Learning ...

When I Googled "lifelong learning,"  it had over 30 MILLION hits in 30 seconds!!!  What a TOP TOPIC!!!

I consider myself a lover of learning ... and have always attempted to instill that in my students.  I think I had a wonderful example of LIFELONG LEARNING in my grandmother.  You would find her, at 86, at Brazosport College in Lake Jackson, TX, attending a wood carving class or visiting her friends (some 10 years younger) at the nursing home on a daily basis up until the last 3 months of her life.

When I look at the 7 1/2 Habits listed of Lifelong Learners:

1,  Begin with the end in mind.

2.  Accepting responsibility for your own learning

3.  View problems as challenges

4.  Have confidence in yourself as an effective, competent learner

5.  Create your own learning toolbox

6.  Use technology to your advantage

7.  Teach/mentor others

1/2 PLAY!

My grandmother really demonstrated that you had to "accept responsibility for your own learning."  She would seek out the classes she wanted to take and never doubted herself as an "effective, competent learner."  She made many things we, my family, treasure to this day.  This was all done before "technology" really became prevalent as it is today.  I'm almost certain that if she were alive today, she would be a hot mess on Facebook!  :)  

Because of this example, I have never wanted to give up or consider there to be something I could not learn.  I want to teach and lead by example and leave a legacy to my son and step-daughter just like Grandmommy left for me.

Learning Contract

Thing # 5 Mashups

I found mashups to be something quite UNIQUE!!!

The Flickr Montage was very interesting.  I have seen these posted before, but had no idea how to create anything like this.  I do believe people are so ingenious when it comes to writing programs and HTML codes that enable the computers to work so fast.

I also thought the flickr.coverpop was awesome.  I especially liked the stick figure in peril and the flickr.coverpop peace tiles.

You could spend HOURS just creating and exploring these mashups.

My daughter uses djearworm --- now I know what she is talking about :)

Thing #4 Flickr

My Vacation to Hawaii

This summer my husband surprised my family by securing a once in a lifetime vacation to HONOLULU, HAWAII!!!  

We boarded the plane on June 26 and spent 8 glorious days exploring the island of Oahu.   We rented a car, so we were able to drive to every possible adventure the island had to offer.  I do believe the highlight of the trip for me was ... well, I don't know if I can just capture one highlight.  The breath-taking view from the coast was one that still lives in my mind when I close my eyes, the powerful waterfalls, the sea turtles swimming wild in the ocean and basking in the sun on the deserted beach, climbing Diamond Head ... the list goes on and on and on!

This summer was one that I will never forget and wish everyone would get an opportunity to experience at least once in a lifetime.  

Kim 

Thing # 3 Photos

These are some of my favorite women in the world! 

  Love my beautiful mother, sister-in-law, and sister 

My wonderful aunt, niece, and daughter!