So… I’m off to the NECC Conference in a few weeks, and I am so excited.  I want to absorb everything I can, so I can share everything with the teachers and parapros at my school.  I went online to create a personal schedule for the conference, but honestly…I found so many things that interest me.  I am having a hard time choosing. 

On a side note, I got the opportunity to participate in a webinar by Gail Lovely.  I got so many great ideas.  I am going to try some of them out with my students, and I’ll post an update. 

What have I learned? I have learned that I am more tech savvy than I realized and that jumping in with both feet is sometimes the best way to acquire a new skill! I’m much more apt to try something new, knowing that if it doesn’t work - that’s okay! One of the most important things I’ll take from this course is how to view everything I teach with new eyes. I have started looking at my curriculum to find ways to integrate more technology. I’m really interested in taking what I’m already teaching and making it so much more effective and engaging for my students! There are endless ways to enhance my teaching, and I can’t wait to implement them!

How have my students been impacted by my learning? I have a class of students who see themselves as real authors. They have a love of sharing their work with the world. I have brilliant pod-casters, and they are confident that other people want to hear their ideas. As if all of that isn’t exciting enough, my students’ parents are learning about 2.0 tools from their children. Immediate and distant family members are more involved in our learning, and they feel like part of our classroom! My students have such an amazing view of the world now. No person is too far away or too unreachable for them! They are responsible communicators, sharing thoughtful comments and realizing that what they post online never disappears.

I think my classroom has evolved amazingly through this process, and I’m eager to continue this amazing journey! Thank you, Shelley!

I was thrilled to find some amazing ideas. One elementary math teacher shows how to solve problems, and allows students to ask questions/share ideas through audio comments. I thought this was great for parents and students!

Another teacher had a great idea too! She had her students choose an item of interest from a set of Time for Kids magazines. The children created a VoiceThread after further researching that topic. I really enjoyed the VoiceThread on global warming.  An oceanographer living in Germany commented on the VoiceThread. I was thinking how exciting that would be for the students! I was also intrigued with how other students in the class challenged their peer’s ideas about global warming. That encourages more research and more learning! Wow!

Another great find on Ning, was a teacher who was looking for other elementary school classes willing to Skype with his class. They are studying the 50 states, and he thought interviewing kids in all 50 states would be a great way to enhance their learning. What a great idea!

Overall, I think Ning is a great resource. I’m still getting a feel for it, but I think I may join and see what I can learn from other educators. What a great way to network with other teachers and start up collaboration between classrooms!

I definitely think Ning has value for educators and students. Kids are very interested in social networking, and it might be interesting to see how they may communicate in a private class or grade level Ning site. It would be fun to read the same book and have a book discussion, etc. I know that Ning offers ad-free social networks for grades 7-12, but I wonder if that applies to younger children. I think my students would enjoy this a lot, and I like the fact that I could have control over who joins, privacy, etc.

I wonder if a social networking site for teachers at my school might work… Could some issues be addressed through social networking? I noticed that some administrators on Ning were having a discussion about how to shift procedural type information/discussions to a private social networking site, thus leaving faculty meetings for sharing teaching tools/strategies, etc. It is an idea that warrants further thought…

I did add some educational tools as well. My favorite tool is the I-pod that is tuned to my students’ podcasts from their blog. How awesome is that? I also added a clock, a calculator, and a calendar. Another fun feature is the chat board (a message board). This is a place to post messages for my students. They can also ask questions. There is a section where I can post my bookmarks. I can even upload them from delicious! Students can also see the weather forecast and postings of events geared towards children and families here in Atlanta. There is a to-do list feature that we can use to collaborate on finishing projects.

This is a great organizational tool. It provides my students (and their parents) with a home page for information, tools, and communication. Some parents complain that there are so many podcasts, links, and blogs to keep up with; however, Pageflakes helps to resolve that problem. All of the blogs and links that students may need throughout the year can be organized here, and parents that are not as tech-savvy as others can have a constant feed of podcasts. It provides information that they need in a centralized location, and it encourages the chldren to explore the links on the page.

There are a couple of things I am still exploring. First, Radio Disney doesn’t work on Firefox. I think that the radio goes back to the default station settings when using a browser other than Explorer, so I may remove the radio before sharing this with my students. Secondly, I want to know more about the message board feature. I want to prevent outside people from posting messages. The “share” feature may take care of this. Rather than publishing the page to the world, I could share it with the families in my class.

I think it would be great to use Pageflakes to create a page for the third grade teachers. We could share our bookmarks, post ideas, collaborate on to-do lists, and add events to the calendar.

I really enjoyed working on my first Pageflake, and I look forward to discovering lots of uses for this great resource!

 As I was exploring Google Docs, I thought of several ways to use it. 

• First, the form feature allows you to create questionnaires that can be used in a variety of ways.  Students may share their ideas on particular topics, and they are able to see them collected in spreadsheet form.  This can be turned into graphs or charts for learning purposes.  I think room parents would love the forms as well.  They could send them out to see which parents could send in items for parties or projects, and the spreadsheet organizes all of the information.  I would much rather send forms like these to parents than use so much paper!  This would allow parents to quickly complete the forms and submit them.  They are less likely to get lost or get eaten by a locker monster!
• I like the fact that presentations can be created with Google Docs.  Students can collaborate on presentations by adding in their own slides (and they can even work from home).  This would be a great project for the beginning of the year.  I usually have students bring in photos of their families, summer trips, etc.  With Google Docs, students could work together with their parents to create a slide for an “All About Our Class” presentation.  During our geometry unit, students bring in objects of different shapes.  Instead of bringing in items, students could take photos at home and add them to the slide show.  Side-note:  Just as I finished this bullet point, a teacher came in and asked if we could work on a presentation together as a grade level.  The presentation is for “Move Up Day.”  I immediately showed her how to use Google Docs.  Now, I can add my slides from home tonight.  Hooray!  While meeting face-to-face is fantastic, time doesn’t always permit that kind of collaboration.
• Another idea I had was for third grade teachers to revamp old tests and quizzes using Google Docs.  This prevents us from constantly emailing changes to each other.  It also allows us to access our documents from anywhere! 

I love tools like Google Docs because they make our lives easier.  Why didn’t I think of this idea?  I think Google Docs allows for even more collaboration between teachers, parents, and students.  Now, I need to end this post and get started on my part of the “Move Up Day” presentation!

I found a great video on lattice multiplication that really sparked my interest. I think it would be wonderful to videotape projects, performances, and lessons and post them on my blog for students to view. How great would it be to have an array of tutorials available to help students and parents?

I think it is fantastic that this video of Coral demonstrating the lattice algorithm is available for not only her classmates but other children as well. I use a lot of cheers and songs to help my students learn math processes or other information. It would be so helpful to make those available in order to share our learning with others.

Practice the Lattice Multiplication Algorithm along with Coral:

This YouTube video has given me some problems, depending on the browser.  Sorry if it doesn’t work for you!

I plan to practice my “reporter voice” more, so I will be as great at podcasting as my students are!  Check out my podcast!

After listening to quite a few podcasts, I was really struck by the variety of podcasts available. I think that I will continue to explore what is out there, so I can find some more favorites.

The word “podcast” is greeted with cheers in my classroom. I started experimenting with podcasts a few months ago. Starting in January, we have a star student each week. As part of the star student’s duties, he/she must create a podcast to tell about what we are learning and share exciting details about our week. I use a podcast template that my students helped me to create. Each student fills in the template to create a news report. In addition, my students have posted podcasts of their class council speeches. After electing our class council, the officers met to discuss some of their ideas. Before meeting, they insisted that there should be a podcast of the meeting to give the class (and parents) a glimpse into their discussion. I was so proud of their desire to use a podcast as a forum for sharing their ideas.

Podcasting has created some unique opportunities for my students. They are very aware of the fact that they are writing for a large audience, and they put forth their best efforts when thinking about what to include in their star student podcasts. Because they read the scripts they have written aloud, they have taken care in editing their work for clarity. There have been many occasions when our star student will say, “I can’t read this word that I wrote here. I must have spelled it wrong.” My students have really gained insight into writing as a form of communication, rather than just as an assignment. They also rehearse reading their scripts, and gain valuable reading fluency practice. By podcasting class council meetings, it is obvious that our students are remarkable communicators and leaders. I was impressed by their thinking and their ability to see value in each child’s ideas.

Podcasting has given my class a sense of accomplishment and a desire to share more of our classroom with the world. They are already discussing new ideas. They want to “spice up” our weekly podcasts with music. They also want our future star students to give the podcasts a “news report” feel to them. The end of the year is fast approaching, but you would never know that from listening to their excitement about podcasting book clubs, class meetings, and poetry readings. Their enthusiasm is boundless!

I do the idea of the site, though: posting a list of goals and providing updates on your progress. My students do this with their portfolios. Each quarter, they fill out a personal report card and set goals for the next quarter. At the end of each quarter, I meet with them to have a “conference.” They talk about their previous goals and how they have progressed. They also discuss the grades they have given themselves on the report card.

It might be fun to post three class goals on our blog at the beginning of each quarter and have the students provide feedback on how we’re doing. This would create a team mentality. If some students show an interest in posting their personal goals, they could post them (along with updates on their progress) to get “cheers” from parents, teachers, and classmates.

While I’m not sure that the 43 Things site is for me, it did give me some great ideas to use in the classroom!

The suggester was really neat! I got lots of suggestions for other children’s books I might like, based on the book I entered. The unsuggester was funny. It was pretty much dead-on about the books I wouldn’t want to read! I looked at the groups and noticed that a sixth grade class had set up a group. What a great idea! They were telling about books they would love to have if they were stranded on a desert island.

Several teachers I know have mentioned wanting to have a book club for teachers after school, but this site would allow teachers to participate when they had a few moments. . . rather than having a set time after school when we all have so much to do! I love to read, so this site would provide me with lots of book recommendations. I can find great books for relaxation reading at the beach and books that might be fun to read with my students.

I am looking forward to doing some more exploring on LibraryThing!