Thing # 23 ....The Last Thing....

Loved doing on-line training (I love self paced learning). Everything was great. I had a great time blogging and commenting on other blogs. I think that this is a wonderful tool for all teachers and many of us will use the tools learned here and add them to our classroom. I have a problem with technology but I feel that this was slow paced and had clear directions. I hope everyone is having a great summer. I feel that you all are going to have a great year.

1. I like Animoto and the Comic Strip sites.

2. I need to keep up with technology and ask my librairean for help (she is the greatest).

3. Photo Story was easier than I thought. It was very user friendly.

4. I know that everything we did was on-line, but it might be nice to get together and have a lesson plan party. Teachers can bring thier favorite lessons and share with others. I could bring cake :)

5. I would love to participate in another program like this. It's a great way to get hours, especially in the summer.

6. Sophistication in Learning



Have a blessed life:~)...

Thing # 22

Wow, almost done. I went to Nings for Teachers. I read a response about classroom management. It was nice to read about new techniques and new ways on dealing with students. This is a good place to vent and get advice from other teachers. Nings for Teachers is good at giving different view points about a variety of subjects. Reading some of the posts let me know that I am not alone. Here are some examples on how I would use Nings for Teachers:

1. TAGS- lots of good tags on the right-hand side of the screen. Good for creating lesson plans or finding information.

2. Vent/ask questions- explain a particular problem you are having in your classroom and/or make a comment. See who response to you and gives you advice.

3. Help others: give people advice and/or lessons that work for you. Teaching is sharing.

One more thing!!!!!!!!!!

Thing # 21

Thing # 20

I really liked youtube history videos. Many of them were from the History Channel and I can use them in my classroom. Since I am on my home computer and not on the school's computer; I had some trouble putting a Youtube picture on my blog. Teacher Tube is awesome! The video I chose was one about history (no big suprise). I liked that it was simple and to the point. I will defiently use Teacher Tube in my classroom.

Thing # 19

It was great! I really liked looking at all the cool websites. My favorites were Comiqs.com and My Heritage.com.

1. I like that students can create thier personal family trees. Also, students can upload thier personal pictures on Comiqs.com and create a comic strip. This gives a feeling of ownership for the project.

2. This site is useful to libraries and students by informing them about new and exciting sites they can use for projects and homework assignments.

3. One idea is for My Heritage: students will create thier personal family trees. Next, students will place thier trees on a wall. They will then have pieces of string and connenct thier family trees with those who have similar backgrounds. We will discuss cultural diffusion in the classroom after the activity.

I will be on the look out for those who will cost money.

Thing # 18

To be honest I will probably not use any of these systems. I like the fact that it is free but if I already have the same kind of system on my computer, why use these? I do like that the PowerPoint presentations had more to offer than my own computer, but it doesn't mean I will run to Office Suite in order to create a power point presentation.

Thing # 17

Rollyo is good. I couldn't put it on my computer because it wasn't working. I'll try again later. I do like that teachers can create a place for studnets to search and not get bombarded with thousands of websites. I will definetly use Bruce's video to help me create lessons for my students.





http://rollyo.com/firefox.html

Thing # 16

I like the wiki's. I feel that it is a great place for students comment on particular historical items. The only thing I do not like is that students use wikipedia as if it is a real encyclopedia. The bad side to wiki's is that they can be changed. To a historian, this is not o.k. In order for a particular event to be a fact, it must have at least 7 sources. Since wiki's can be changed, I feel that they are more for commenting rather than a good source to gather information. Teachers need to be aware of that before they start letting students loose on the Internet for information.

Thing #15

"To a temporary place in time," was great. I like the way Schultz placed each of her innovating themes into sections. I totally agree that Libraries are communities. Students always want to go to the library, most just to get out of class, but some do want to use the resources for projects or personal information. For a long time, books have been commodities and I totally agree with Schultz. I'm "old-school," I like the feeling of books in my hand and turning their pages, but this way is starting to decline. Libraries are becoming more complex and it takes a well educated, enthusiastic, and prepared librarian to take on the challenge (the best are at Spring Branch)! I agree, soon we will start collecting librarians because they are the gate keepers for educational technology.

Thing # 14

Technorati was cool and simple to use. I found the "Library" site (it was cool). I never thought of using blogs or tagging before but I feel that I am getting better at it. It is really important to tag. Not only does it make life much easier, it makes creating lists and lessons much easier. Sometimes I find great websites at home but can't remember the name once I get to work. This is definitely cool.

Thing # 13

This was a great way for me to remember all my favorites. I didn't even know this site existed. I looked for History/World History tags and found a lot of cool new ideas. This is a great way to research for lesson plans and activities for my classroom. I really like the fact that I can use any computer to see my tags.

Cool activity:
1. Find great websites about World War II or whatever you like (tag them of course).
2. Next, create a WebQuest about the subject.

Students would have access to these websites and could explore and read information about any subject. All your tags can be found in one place and easily put into your Web Quest.

Thing # 12

I feel that the Commandments of Blogging are the most important. Everyone should read them and follow them. Unfortunately, since everything is on the Internet, I believe there is a wall between the blogger and those who make comments. It's easy to post a bad comment with "vile" words and publish it anonymously on the web. You don't know the person and you can be as vivid in your comments as much as you like. The two most important are "never be condescending and never flame." Make your comments but no name calling. Never flame, keep your "cool."

I visited "History Teacher's Discussion Forum." It's a good place to vent:)...also it was a good place to see that I am not the only History teacher who feels that the History curriculum needs to be redone. The History Timeline only get bigger and students need to understand the world around them better. It's sad that students will not get the information they need because there is not enough time to cover what we need.

Thing # 11

LibraryThing was great. I'm a Jane Austen fan and I added 5 books on my list. I read some of the posts and it was very "cool." It's great knowing how many people love Austen's books and have great comments to them. In my history classes, this might be hard to do. I do not assign a book to read in my class because of the amount of history that I have to cover. I have been known to let students read particular books for extra credit. This would have to be extra credit assignment. For me, I will visit this site more often. Jane Rules!

Thing # 10

I really need to write down how to upload an image. Once I think I have, it's gone. My brain forgets simple directions. Anyhow; I like the trading cards because it was easy and I can really create some great lessons with this. If you can't read my caption it say "Well behaved women rarley make History." I think it's true. Some ideas that are running in my head are:
1. Concepts: students need to find images and write basic concepts for each chapter.
2. vocabulary for LEP students. pictures and words really help them in the classroom.
3. Game review: Pictures and Descriptions are separated from each other and the students need to match them up.
Here is the website for the trading cards. HAVE FUN.....http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/deck.php

Thing # 9

Another list:~)

1. Bloglines's Search Tool was good.

2. Google Blog Search was the easiest.

3. Toppix.net was hard. I could not get the information that I wanted. Also it lead me to some werid bloggers.

4. I found a feed for History people like me. Also a History Teacher feed was great , but was not always active. Unusual ones are people who are upset with the presidential race. Lots of "hate" going on and no "love."


5. For News feeds I used CNN.com for them. I kept to the big news sites.

Thing # 8

I'm still a list maker. Here are the answers to the questions.

1. I like that it works just like e-mail. You don't have to worry about the advertisements or searching through thousands of blogs. You pick the blog and read only the ones you like.

2. Class discussions is how I would use this technology. I would let the students read the blog and write a response to the information. They would share their information with the rest of the class.

3. Students could create an online editorial and respond to other bloggers or they can "vent" their frustrations about particular topics in current events.

I'm still new to all this so I decided not to create a public page. Give me another week. I may change my mind.
:~)

Thing # 7

Google is the best. I like its simplicity and how it's laid back. I took the tour for Google Calendar. It was great. I create lists all the time and I keep my personal weekly/monthly calendar near me at all times. Google Calendar has a place for everything, but my only problem is that I'm old-school; I need a pad and paper to keep me organized. Google Alerts are good. I forget lots of things and alerts would certainly keep me on track.

Thing # 6

I really like making the trading cards. I believe students are very visual and trading cards really help in their learning. I'm still very new to the downloading pictures and using a Mosaic maker. I need to play with it more. Mashups are nice but I still need to learn to upload photos. Learning never ends.

Thing #5

Flickr is cool. I like looking at the pictures and downloading some on my computer. I will use it when I need a picture for my classroom. I selected the picture with the American Flag because this is an election year and students should see and begin to have opinions about the presidential race. I don't let the students know what party I'm with. I always try to give both sides of the issue in class discussions. Hope you are having a great summer.