Third Grade Teacher

The course was extremnly enlightening and inspiring.  I had no idea what was in the web world.  I do feel overwhelmed and want to go back through the course and digest it slowly.  I hope we will have availability to the material.  There were many times when I just had to say, “stop looking,” to myself, or I knew I would not finish.  I want to go back and conquer a tool at a time.  So, my next step is to use a wiki while reading a novel.  I want to go back and study the wiki examples that were posted. 

I got Will Richardson’s book on Wikis and blogs.  Now, I realize what is good about social networking on the Web….you can find practical applications.  So, I plan to continue checking my RSS feeder.

Of all the “Things” we have worked with, I am the least enthused about Social Networking and blogging.  I’m sure this a generation thing, but what I gleamed, after more than an hour, did not seem to warrant the time spent.  I did find a blog post on “100 Free Web Tools for Elementary Teachers” which I bookmarked, and I look forward to spending time analyzing.  Otherwise, after an hour or so I had read a lot of interesting blogs but not any with really useful information.  I still look to books written by experts to get quicker to the point.  I have ordered Will Richardson’s  book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, and can’t wait to read it.  To me, a book is a faster and more efficient way of getting information.  Also, my school gives excellent tech support (Shelly) which for me is a more efficient way learning.

I found Thing 24 and can’t wait to work with it.  It is a site called Live Binders.  You organize information online just like you would in a binder.  It will be an awesome way to let parents know what we are doing in English.  I will have a tab for punctuation, capitalization, spelling rules, jingles, and writing.  I intend to put the online binder on my edline page. 

I also read a great article which contained Ten Problem Solving Games for K-8 students.  I reviewed several of the games and thought they were good.  Our school is encouraging teachers to fill free moments with problem solving activities, so I was particularly interested in this website.  There was a link to a site with reading and math help for tutorials.  I got some ideas about increasing reading comprehension.  Click here to link to the site.

STOP!!  I can’t take any more!!  The possibilities are endless.  I love Will Richardson’s description of Pageflakes as a “dynamic, constantly updated page of content about what’s happening.”  It could be what is happening in your classroom, what is happening in the school, what is happening in the community, or what is happening in the world.  After looking at several pagecasts I realized the importance of design.  The easiest and most appealing, for third graders, was “Elementary China Webquest.”  Often the pages were too complicated and I went into information overload and just closed the page.  In my third grade classroom I could make a page about weather and track the temperature, humidity, sunrise, sunset, etc. and use this information to make graphs and charts.  Pageflakes will work wonderfully for assigning current events assignments.  I think creating a pagecast around a novel would work well including pictures from flickr, podcasts, vocabulary, current links for the setting, and etc.  Can’t wait to dedicate some time to this….for now on to Thing 22.

I love Google Docs.  I found it easy to create the document, to add a table, and to edit the document.  Actually, I was so glad I had the spelling doc on Goggle Doc because I needed to retrieve it from another computer, unexpectedly, and there it was.  I did have a little trouble with the changes I made disappearing for some unknown reason.  So, I will be using Google Doc to create a weekly spelling sheet to share with the other third grade teachers.  I can foresee using Goggle Doc to schedule conferences.  I post a table with me available times, I send the link to my parents, and they fill in the time that works for them.  I have enjoyed being able to kept track of my own progress while taking 23 Things and would like to create a project for my students where they keep track of their progress on Google Doc.  This would probably work best with a Social Studies Unit.

I found it easy to do a bare bones podcast, but I fear it would be a different story when I add video.  I liked learning about Zamzar and think that will be useful site.  Actually, the podcast I made is an example of the way I would use podcasting in the classroom.  I use jingles to learn the parts of speech and parents are usually curious about the jingles.  I would like to include a podcast of each of the jingles we use on my homepage.  To make the podcasts interesting and entertaining I would have the kids do a dance or create motions and produce a podcast of them performing the jingles.

I will definitely be using YouTube in my teaching this year.  The videos have the ability to bring to life things we are talking about in the classroom. For example, while reading Little House in the Big Woods we read about a prairie and a log cabin.  Watching the video I embedded will show the students exactly what these words mean.  After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.  I found some wonderful videos of totem poles to use in our Native American unit.  I also watched a really fun video of a totem pole carver.  The students will enjoy watching how to carve a totem pole.  I found it quick and easy to find relevant material on YouTube.   TeacherTube was not as enjoyable because of all the ads, and I found it harder to find quality videos.  I did watch one on mixed numbers and improper fractions that was well done.  As far as producing video, I would like to see my students produce something about their heritage.  With more and more cultural diversity in the classroom I think videos demonstrating their diversity would be interesting.

Again, I feel overwhelmed, this time by the amount of information offered by podcasts.  I spent much time clicking and watching videos.  I appreciated when there was a written synopsis of the show, so I could decide if I was interested before watching.  One show I listened to had a commercial at the beginning of the show…..this was very annoying.  One podcast that I found particularly interesting was “Grammar Girls Quick Tips.”  All the episodes I listened to were short and enlightening.  I also found “Word of the Day” to be an interesting podcast.  Each day a new word is presented.  It is pronounced, defined, and used.  I think this could be an excellent podcast to use in the classroom.  “Our City” is a podcast done by students.  Students around the United States tell about their city.  I thought this was a good use of podcasting in the classroom.

I subscribed to two podcasts.  One, Learning Matters will be an excellent way of staying in touch with current issues in education.  I listened to a discussion with the President of the American Federation of Teachers on how to spend the money that has been allocated to education in the stimulus package.  The other, Frontline World, will be an excellent way of getting in depth information on current political issues.

The first way I thought of incorporating podcasting in the classroom is as a tool for reviewing concepts.  I watched Ms. Edmison’s explanation of lattice multiplication on her class podcast.  How wonderful for a student who needs extra support to be able to watch the teaching again.  Also, if a student is absent they could watch from home and stay on track.  The other obvious way of using podcasting is as a reader theater, where students do the broadcasting.  The teaching would be student led making it more meaningful.

I love reading and found the “Library Thing” website fascinating.  I clicked on numerous contributors to see what they are reading and read several discussions…..all interesting and of course found several books that I think I now need to own.  I’m getting ready to read Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett and as it happens a discussion group called “Group Read: Pillars of the Earth” is starting to read the book in mid July.  I will definitely follow the discussion.  Under “Library Thing Local” I found out that Pat Conroy has written a new book, South of Broad.  He is going to be reading from it in August at the Jimmy Carter Library, an event I would like to attend.  This will be a great site for finding out about local events.  I will be visiting “Library Thing” often.  I am glad it was included in our course.

YES, Delicious is what I’ve been looking for…. a way to organize all this wonderful material I’ve been discovering.  I have been wondering how I would get back to some of the sites I have stumbled upon.  And so great to be able to retrieve the information from any computer.  I realize that tagging will be very important, just like filing something in a file cabinet, if I want to find it later I need to file it properly.  As I explored the site, I noticed the sites that had the most hits were usually the most valuable.  It will be very useful to see the sites that other teachers have found on subjects.  Using Delicious will make finding  new material much easier.  It will be a way of offering students sites to look at on the web.  I’m happy to think I might actually be able to organize this ocean of information.  This is the link to my bookmarks.