My 5618 Module 9 Flowgram

Flowgram Presentation

I definitely would say that the Flowgram was the most beneficial for teaching. The PPt. was okay but after creating and viewing flowgrams, I think that my students would really enjoy them. The first PPt. that I created was not my best work. I found it challenging to find the right image for the content that I wanted to convey. After switching around the slides a little and adding just a few words, I felt that it was improved. But after adding the audio in flowgram, I really felt that this ordinary, not so elaborate, little presentation could really be effective. I'm not sure that I will ever use just a plain old PPT again unless it is an interactive tutorial. This type of instruction, captures more learning styles. Not only are the visual students engaged but also the audio learners. This would also be a great learning tool for the kinesthetic learners by letting them create their own. For that matter, all students could benefit from creating flowgrams. This is certainly something that I am going to try to incorporate into my curriculum.

Teacher Pop Thing 19 cont....

Teacher Pop! Thing 19 cont....

Reflections

I finally understand wiki's and RSS feeds. By creating my blog lines account, I can keep up with sites that I normally have to check everyday.

This has affected my Lifelong learning goals by reminding me why I went back to school in the first place. I also caused me to think about what lifelong learning really means. It means that we should always do our best to keep up with all new technology and beliefs about education. We have to know our students and to know them we must understand the world that they live in.

I think that if I were not already a member of Myspace, some of the toys and tools we worked with would have surprised me. I did enjoy the videos that went along with discovery exercises. They were really cute and broke things down. I especially liked the one about the social bookmarks. I did not understand what they were until this class either.

Other than giving us prizes for completing the Things (like the mP3 players on the learning 2.1 site LOL), I'm not sure that there is anything that you could do to improve the program. However, it would be a great idea for a class of its own, WEB 2.0 101? :)

It will no doubt influence my teaching. I plan to use the podcasts that I found for my students that have trouble with various concepts. They are excellent for that. I definitely hope that I can spend more time exploring these tools. I think that if this was a class of it's own, students could have that luxury. There would be more time to explore the 23 or more things.

I have subscribed to the blog created by Orli Yakuel one of the founders of Goto WEB2.0. If this link does not open up to Orli's blog, then go tot the bottom of the got to web 2.0 site and click on about us. This will take you to pictures of the founders. Click on Orli's link. This way I can keep up with any new tools or sites that are added without having to scan the directory every time.

I will definitely share this with my administrator and other colleagues. Sometime seeing someone else exited about something really gets you going. I try to be as positive and helpful as I can in my day to day teaching.

Thing 22

The podcast that I chose to listen to is an online tutoring podcast for math. I found it very interesting because there were several concepts addressed that are covered in 5th grade math. For example converting percents to fractions and adding and subtracting decimals. It is really cool. I subscribed to the site in my bloglines account. It is the first feed that I am really excited about! :) I will definitely check it regularly! I got this from the Educational Podcast directory (very user friendly). I found this directory and the Learn Out Loud Directory to be the easiest to navigate. I think that is because they are already set up for educational purposes. I would really like to explore the idea of podcasts. More so for using them rather than creating them, because of time constraints.
Here is a link to the site I chose:
Your Tutor Online

Thing 23

I have listed below the two places that I found that let me know that this project was based on the work of someone else. I like the idea of the 43 things. I think that one of the reasons that I went back to college in the first place was because I missed learning. I can actually remember saying that.
I think that in the future I might use Creative Commons to teach my students about the importance of citing your references and understanding plagiarism. It seems that plagiarism never gets addressed in the lower grades. Often times, students are allowed to use the words of someone else exactly for the sake of teaching about research. I am going to teach my students the importance of using their own work and their own words.

*Note: This project is loosely based upon the website 43Things (which allows you to set and track personal goals) and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006).

Credits

Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers is based on Learning 2.0 - 23 Things, a staff development program for the Mesquite Independent School District. That program was based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.

Thing 21 Video

This was so much fun. I just kept thinking how cool it would be to let my students create one of these for a project! Wow! Maybe an all about me??? This was very easy to work with once I created a gmail account. It is definitely something that I will use in the future. I love the way the music goes along with the transitions. One thing that I will keep in mind before I create another one is that I should change the size of the pics and make them smaller so the download time would be less.

Thing 20

There are things that I like about Youtube and things that I don't. I like that there are numerous videos on every topic imaginable. I don't like the idea that anyone can post anything. It is not always a good site for students to browse through. But there is an alternative. Teachertube is a great place to find resources that you can use in the classroom. Most schools do not have a block on teacher tube like they do You tube so it is easier to access. I chose 2 videos to embed in my blog. The first one is a video that was posted for a module in 5611 this Summer. It is called "Do You Know Web 2.0". I like this video because it really makes you think about the future of education and civilization. I also chose a video called "Web 2.0 Into the Wild". I chose it because it encompassed many of the tools that we have learned about in this class and with the 23 things. There are many ways that Youtube and sites like it can enhance learning in the classroom. Teachers can download videos to enrich concepts already taught. They can also allow students to create works of their own and upload them to the site. It is a great way to showcase hard work and to share it with others.

Thing 19

Thing 18

It is important for educators to know about these sites for a number of reasons. One, is to keep up with what is going on with their students if the students that they teach are old enough to have a page. Secondly, it is any easy way to keep up with other teachers and old friends who otherwise you might not have time too. Thirdly, you can create groups of people from within your friends that function like tags. That way you can look these people up if there is something that you want to share with your educator friends only :)


I already have a Myspace page and I love it. I think that if it is used wisely, it can benefit the author. I already have several of my teacher friends as "friends" on my site. I am placing a link to my Myspace page here, but it usually does not work. I keep mine set to private so to view me you have to ask to be my friend.

Miss Lorrie Anne

I tried to set up an account with Facebook. I ran into the same problem that I have with several other applications. When I use lcooksey14@apmail.apsu.edu, the verification link is not recognizable on the net. My blogger account is the same. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Thing 17

Wow! I remember learning a little about these social bookmarking sites this summer but I really did not understand until now. This is an excellent idea for teachers to share important information with one another. The cool thing is that if you can get your colleagues on board you can create an easy one-stop shop for web related resources. In a world where collaboration is becoming more important every day, this type of tool is going to be a great asset.
As far as the classroom goes, most of my students do not have e-mail addresses. But if I were teaching older students this would be great for group work. For example, you could use it when doing projects for literature, science, history, or just about any subject that needed research. The students could share their information. It would also be great for checking references on research papers. You could require the students to label all their information under a tag in their bookmarks.
I'm really excited about using this tool with my fellow teachers.:)

Thing 16

I chose the Google start page because it was the easiest for me to set up. Since I already have several Google items, I can access all of them from one central page (blog, calendar, etc....) As I have mentioned before, the Google calendar is a wonderful tool to keep up with various dates and times that are important to me. For me, a to-do list would be more work than it is worth. Although, I must say that we all need to keep in mind the greatest thing about these tools is that they will allow us to go totally green and not use paper. Keeping a to-do list current would take up the time that I so desperately cannot afford to lose. But, for someone who has several meetings a day, it would be a godsend :) The cutepdf tool would definitely be one that I might use for creating documents that can easily be exported and imported without worrying about compatibility. Zamzar also seems like a good idea. When we are working with many different document formats, it often happens that there are compatibility issues and Zamzar looks like an easy way to convert from one type of file to another without losing too much formatting.

Thing 15

I created a wiki this summer through pbwiki. It was for an assignment where I had to create a fictitious seminar that I would teach. Wiki's are easy to work with. After viewing the video on wiki's I thought of many ways that I could use one in the classroom and in grad school. For example, a wiki would have been an excellent idea for a group project that I was involved in over the summer. I also thought about projects and committees that I am on at school, what better way to collaborate that through a wiki. Any time that you have multiple people working on one project a wiki would be useful. I also liked the idea of book reviews via a wiki. I would really like to start a wiki for my class that allows the students to post a book review every time they read a new book. This will be a great idea, especially for my gifted students. I'm always looking for new ways to challenge them. There is also a 5th grade writing assessment. A wiki could be a good place to post prompts and previous good work. I can't wait to get started!

Thing 14

The tools that I chose were Bubbl.us and Mind Meister. The main difference between a mind-map and a flow chart is that when you are using a flowchart, you are following a process or processes. When you use a mind map you are relating cause/effect relationships and words or ideas that are related in some way. You link them by relationships. I have used and will continue to use mind maps in social studies. For example, I did a unit on the Civil War. During this unit I discussed the causes of the Civil War and the effects of Reconstruction on the South. The mind maps that used really helped the students keep track of important ideas and concepts and helped them to link those ideas and concepts together. I chose Mind Meister because it was really easy to use. I chose Bubbl.us because it seemed like students could have fun creating their own mind maps here. I thought that it was really cute and funny that when you delete something it blows up lol:)

Thing 13

I really like the idea of using Zoho Writer. I would definitely prevent all those error compatibility messages that we get when documents are not created with the same version of Word. Zoho is very user-friendly, since most of the formatting and options are the same. I like that you can add emotions right from the toolbar. This application is amazingly easy to use. Some of my computers at school only have Open Office on them and that is not the easiest to deal with. I am going to suggest that we think about allowing the students to download and create from Zoho instead. The only drawback for me will be the fact that the students have to have an e-mail address. In fifth grade, many do not. As I type, I am increasingly more amazed at the capabilities of Zoho. The best thing for me is that it is so user-friendly. Maybe, I won't have to be smarter than a fifth grader to use it! lol
I tried really hard to post to my blog from Zoho. For some reason, it said that my username and password was incorrect. But I do think that is a great idea. I also like that you can allow others to view your documents just by adding them. This is a really cool tool!

Thing 12

http://www.google.com/calendar/render?gsessionid=ylitzBUQsx6UQZKrOk3g3w
The above link is to my Google calendar. I have tried to create one before but for some reason it would not hold my dates. This calendar will be useful to me now because I can put in important dates like my school calendar of events and the due dates for the two grad classes that I have this semester. I have many friends that use Picasa. The Picasa program is useful for educators because you can edit pictures from within the site and it is very easy to navigate, possible easier that Flickr. I did not create a Picasa album because I have already began using Flickr and at this point I am worried about time constraints. I plan to go back at a later date and create one. I also like the idea of alerts and that ability to have them come from your calendar. It is like having your own little personal assistant. I could use any of these tools for my class. The calendars would be great for the students to have. I could use them on a website or I could print them for the students that do not have Internet access. The Scholastic free teacher website offers the calendar as an add-on to your class page. I personally think that is a great idea. The students could benefit from a calendar of their own, if they have an e-mail account.

Thing 11

The easiest way to add feeds to my reader seemed to be straight from the search for feeds option on my bloglines subscription. It just made more sense to me to search from one central location rather that navigating to another. I could not get Feedster to load. I kept getting the page load error message. Google blogs search was fairly easy to use. It provided a plethora of blogs that met the search critereia that I entered. Technorati was fairly user-friendly. It seemed to return more matches than the others. Some of the interesting things that I found while searching unders edcuation were blogs about OJ Simpson and blogs about granparents dying. I guess the most confusing one for me was Feedster, since it never opened lol! The only other way that I knew how to search for feeds was by doing a sinple Google or Yahoo search. I'm still working on becoming more savy with these tools! :)

Thing 10

The thing that I think I'm going to like about having an RSS feed is that it will cut down on the time that I spend searching sites that I go to often. I find that the hardest thing to do as a teacher is to keep up with all the correspondence and e-mails, especially since I am involved in grad school as well. In my professional life, I can use it to keep up on new trends in education and recoomemdations from other teachers by subscribing to educational support blogs. In my personal life, wait a minute, did someone actually say personal life? Haven't had one of those since about January of 2005 when I began my undergrad lol:) This technology will be ideal for teachers who have a classroom blog or subscribe to other classroom blogs for ideas. The cool thing about the RSS feed for your own class would be that you would not have to consantly check to see who had completed their assignments, it would come to you!

Thing 9

http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Motivational+Poster
I created this poster from a picture that I took at the boat dock in Danville. I like the option of changing the tint and the font color. I think that it would be cool to take pictures and use them as instructional posters in the classroom for science and social studies. For example, when studying the parts of a flower, a picture of a flower created as a poster would give an true visual of the parts. The students could be asked to take pictures of flowers around their home or school and bring them in. Another cool idea would be to have the students take pictures at a historical site and allow them to create works that are their own. That would be so exciting.


http://dummies.book.cover.txt2pic.com/
This is the link to the second image that I created. I just could not help it, I think everyone knows that this image is all in good fun. This type of creation would be strictly for personal use. I'm not sure that my fifth graders would have any academic use for images such as this; however, I just had to post. Anyone who has ever felt this pain, please reply. I hope that this is not a Jerry Maguire moment lol :) If this is offensive in any way to anyone, I'll remove it. :)

Thing 8

Puzzles are excellent for student who need to work on fine motor skills. It would make it even more exciting if the were working puzzles that encompassed things from the classroom or from their own interests. Also mashups could be used for student of the week pictures or for creating classroom bulletin boards both in the classroom and on online blogs. It does not concern me to post pictures that I have taken. When you grow up in a small town like I have you learn early what it is like to have little or no privacy. Pictures can be used as positive tools. They can represent professional works and like I stated before, students' best works; although I can see myself using this in my personal life more than my professional life.

Thing 7

I really enjoyed creating my Flickr account. It was basically self-explanatory and as usual, I just had to play around for a bit to get the hang of it. :) I probably will begin using these photos for my personal use. I could use them for student's work in the classroom as long as I did not add pictures or faces. I don't mind posting my photos. I like the idea that we can copyright them through Creative Commons, a site that I first discovered this Summer. I have never used any other online photo service, but I am sure that this is not the last time I will post here. I probably would not post any pictures of myself or others without permission. But I do like the idea that I can make come private and some public.

Thing 5

School 2.0 is coming and we as educators had better be ready. In my opinion, we will see a day where students will be issued laptops like they are issued books now. I believe that textbooks will become obsolete and that because we are a country trying to recycle and conserve this is going to be very important. I remember when a calculator cost over $100.00. In the late 70's that was a lot of money. The point that I am making is that the students that we are teaching now will think of a computer like our generation think of a calculator. All technology eventually be comes affordable.
After reviewing Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail and Learning 2.0, I began to realize that the students of tomorrow must also be ready to learn and work in a collaborative world. Gone are the days of there being only 1 way to solve a problem that only the "smartest" students could figure out. I believe that WEB 2.0 is going to change the face of all communications in education and allow for more students and individuals to showcase their intelligences.

Thing 6

Oh my! I have found the most wonderful site. I took Spanish in high school and can read and understand a few words, but I have always wanted to learn enough to speak a little. I found the following site and could not stop interacting with it. It is FREE and that always speaks to me. The name of the site is Mango Languages and it is absolutely user friendly! Here is a link to it http://www.mangolanguages.com/main . I highly recommend it to anyone with ESL students in their classroom. In my county there is no translator during parent/teacher conferences or for any correspondence. I usually go to Babel Fish for translating written parental correspondence, but I always have the student read it and make certain that it translated correctly (I don't want to send home any crazy messages lol). I could use this site in the classroom. It would be helpful for my ESL students because there is a group of lessons for that as well. I continue to be excited about all of the new tools I am finding. I just wish there was a site that could recharge me so that I did not have to sleep lol :)

Thing 4

After reading through some of the blog spots like coolcatteacher, I found some really interesting ideas. I realized that blogs and comments are important because you can get and share excellent ideas from people that otherwise you would never have contact with. The really cool thing that I found was that you can be reviewing one blogger's site and end up finding links to things that you never imagined. The only downside is that you can never have enough time to view everything that you would like to. I found another helpful link to a teacher's site from reading comments on coolcatteacher. This particular teacher uses the blog to help the students learn important writing skills. This is something that I would really like to do. I'm just not sure that it would be accepted by my my school system. I also got cracked up at a comment that said something about using blogs to say everything that you never have enough time to say in a grad./undergrad classroom. I can completely relate to that comment, as I am never at a loss for words lol!
I found it interesting that adding a list of comment rules might increase the amount of comments you receive on your blog. Up until now I have not thought a great deal about blogging so in turn I never considered rules:)
I completely agreed with the commandment 3 on the Ten Commandments of Blog Commenting site about showing emotion in your comments. Often times I find that it is most difficult to convey your feelings with words only. I use smileys :) a lot in my discussions with others online.
I believe if you have a blog that you truly want to be a success, you have to find time to read the comments that others leave. I have already read all of the comments that have been left on my blogs posts. It does not mean you have to respond to every one but by reading them, you can gain insight on things that are important to you as a blogger. That s also why it is important to only leave meaningful comments.
The following are the blogs that I responded to:
Kelly Brown I selected Kelly because I have known her all my life. We are from the same hometown and her kids go to school where I teach. I wanted to let her know that even though school seems like a lot of work; it will all be worth it someday. I also think that it is important for those of us who are already working in the education field to provide a positive view of the profession and not always complain.
Lynette Miller I chose to comment on Lynette's blog because we have had many discussions since the beginning of graduate school. We are both non-traditional students that returned to college and had to face some daily obstacles to complete our degrees and see our dream through. I think that we understand each others need to be successful at whatever we do often at all costs. I just wanted to let her know that however intimidating the assignments may be; we will get through it!
Ebony Freemon I responded to Ebony's blog because I had a couple of classes with her in my undergrad and she always seemed very serious about her career and education. She made a comment in one of her posts about students being able to have a way to express themselves without ridicule. I completely agree. Too often we want our young people to let their feelings out but often we do not give the type feedback that is encouraging. I think that anonymous comments would be great to help with this issue.
Stacy Averill I commented on Stacy's blog because I loved the pic. she posted of her son. I also wanted to ask how things are going in another class we have together.
I also plan to leave some comments for Kristan Bland because we have known each other since we began our journey down the road to get our degree. This will be a great way for us to keep in youch and discuss and compare things we use in our classrooms.

2 other blogs
http://christmasplace.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/have-you-heard-about-the-synchronus-fireflies/
This is a blog from Pigeon Forge Tennesse, my favorite place in the world. I commented on a post about synchronous fireflies. Anything about that area is interesting to me.
Linked here is an interesting blog site that I found and I plan to comment on later in the semester: http://teachersteachingteachers.org/

Thing 3

There are endless ways to use a blog in the classroom. I teach fifth grade so the most usable way to incorporate a blog into my classroom would be for parental communication and to showcase student work. The students and parents could use the blog to check on up and coming events or reminders for assignments. Pictures of student work could be posted for everyone to see. The downside would be that there are 8 out of 17 students in my class that do not have any Internet access in their home, so it could really only be used as a back up for info. Since fifth graders have a writing assessment, I think that putting their best work on the blog would be very beneficial and fun for the students who have Internet access.
As far as using my blog in my teacher education program, the most helpful way would be for communication between myself and my instructors and classmates. The good thing about it is that you can express yourself and your opinions and feelings for others to view and comment on without face to face contact. It opens up the entire world to who you are and and makes it possible to collaborate world wide with others in your field. I can also use this blog to obtain and give advice and opinions to other teachers and those in the education field.

Thing 2

Well, I've been working on this blog for two days now in every spare minute that have. Creating the avatar was a blast. For those of you that do not know me, I have been a hair stylist for over 13 years. So that is why I chose the beauty salon background. My avatar actually kind of looks like a younger, thinner, much cooler, me:) I chose the short blond hair to match myself and picked out an outfit that I might actually wear. But the coolest things that I added were the earrings and the glasses. I actually wear green glasses and hoops in my ears most of the time. The entire time that I worked on her I thought, "oh my, those fifth graders would get a kick out of this." (lol)
I decided to use my posting name because it is what I hear all day long. I'm not sure I relate with anything else. haha!
Blogger is so easy that I think a first-grader could create one. I am having a blast and may be addicted. It is so much more personal than my MySpace because it is all about me!

Thing 1

I found the video about the 71/2 habits of lifelong learners to be very interesting and insightful. The habit that I feel is easiest for me is habit 71/2, play. I myself learn best when I am able to play with and manipulate what I am trying to gain knowledge of. For example, I have a terrible time following directions when putting things together. I usually just have to get all of the parts in front of me and find a logical way for them to fit. Another example is the assignments that I have right now with Photo shopping pictures. Wow, I never thought that it could be that difficult. Even with the book for "dummies", I'm still struggling. I find that it works better for me to just play around and explore.
The most difficult habit for me has to be viewing problems as challenges. Often times I let bumps in the road cause me to feel overwhelmed. For example, this summer I took 3 graduate classes in 5 weeks. By the end of the 5 weeks I had said to myself, "Lorrie, what were you thinking?" Although at the same hand, I believe that I do a good job of prioritizing and I am very efficient at setting and meeting goals. This was a hard question to answer.
I have had a very good time creating this blog and I hope to continue. It is extremely user friendly. There are so many things that I still want to add. I wish I had more time to devote to exploring (and playing with) tools that are out there. I hope that by completing this degree, I will have the knowledge to encourage many veterans teachers that are afraid of technology to hop on board and join the party! :)