Summarizing My Thoughts!

Wow, I'm not sure that I can even begin to thing about my favorite things about this class. But I'll try! I really enjoyed the Animoto. It was so easy to create and it makes me look like I am really high tech with my friends and family!! I also liked Flickr. I'm so not a scrap booker, but I can create albums online for others to look at. Which is way better than albums sitting on my book shelf! I also enjoyed my Blog. I didn't think that I would like creating one much less "blogging", but I had fun. I can't wait to use it next year with my students.
I have so many goals for next year and the years to come with technology. I really want to do some Podcasts with books for my students and have them do some too. I want a book blog for students to share their favorite books or I could also do a Wiki page.(Don't I sound so techy??)
I was really surprised at how easy it was to create and interact with all of these sites. I was nervous at the beginning, but once I started it was pretty simple. Of course I can say that now that I have completed them! Like I already mentioned I was concerned about setting up my blog and keeping up with it, but now I'm really proud of everything I have done. I didn't think that I would learn so much. I considered myself a high tech person, but I really knew so little about what was out there! I'm still in awe of my google customized page. I love going to it and reading all my favorite subjects at one time. I was also surprised at how much time I spent "playing". I didn't take the warnings seriously!ha
The only thing you could do differently is to let the students know that it will take more than just 15 minutes a day to complete all the assignments! At least it did for me and I know some other people as well.
Of course I would love to take on another class like this!
I am going to do so many things differently than I have in the past. Of course I think that I will take things slow at first! I don't want to overwhelm my students!ha I see so many new ways to reach out to the students in an outlet that many of them enjoy. I'm hoping that more of my students will be willing to join in book discussions and publishing their writing if they are just posting it on a blog and not raising their hand in class. Those are the students that I have problems with meeting their needs because they don't let their needs known. I hope that my new found ideas will help with this problem.
I am going to keep up with the RSS feeds and of course my friends that took this same class. I have learned from other classes that I have taken if I don't use it, I lose it! So I'm going to continue learning and practicing!
Thank you for this experience. I have truly enjoyed it!

Thing #23

Here is the example that I found that shows the Learning 2.0-23Things blog was based on someone else's work and modified from its original.
Learning 2.0 is a discovery learning program created by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.

Obviously now that I know the rules I will abide by them. I'm happy that there is website like Creative Commons that walks you through the process. The world of copyrighting (is that a word?) can be very confusing!

Thing #22

I visited The Educational Podcast Network and Learn Out Loud. I liked both sites but I liked that EPN was free. Learn Out Loud did have some free Podcasts, but of course the ones that I was interested in all cost money. I did find an interesting Podcast that I added to my RSS feeds. It is a quick book talk. I am linking Dairy of a Wimpy Kid. This is a great book for boys to read that are having problems journaling!
These Podcasts quickly give a summary of books. I think that my students would be interested in these because I am constantly telling them about books and it would be a great way for them to know more about the books before they choose. I'm thinking this would be a great way to start new literacy groups. I call them Book Clubs and the students think they are really grown up!LOL I think it would be great to have my students set up their own podcast over a book they have read or a short story they have written. This would be a great way to have students know they will have an audience for their writing! I'm so excited!!

Thing #21

This is great! It was super easy and I loved being able to pick music to put with the pictures! I am so going to use this for my students' pictures on field trips, PTA performances, projects. The list is endless. I'm so excited!!

Thing #20

I thought this would be a good song for a person named Short Stuff!
YouTube is a great place to spend many hours of laughing. I enjoy looking up the bloopers from newscast!
As far as education wise I would use them as an instructional video. I found some interesting writing videos for teachers.
My only concern is that YouTube has all kinds of inappropriate videos. I had to wait until my children went to bed to do this assignment. Even looking up funny songs with singing animals, there were naked girls gone wild singing funny songs. I'm so not ready to discuss that!!

Thing #19

View my page on 23 Thingsters


OK, so as you can tell I added the Ning badge and widget. I also added some photos and left some comments for people. I looked at some of the other social networks. I have never been a member of one, but I am interested in GoodReads. I was looking at some comments that people were making about books and I have found some more books to buy!