Thing # 23: Summarize Your Thoughts

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I had a few favorites that I discovered along my journey. I loved del.icio.us and organizing my favorite websites, learning how tags work and using them along the way, googledocs was great and invaluable to me, and I also had fun making my avatar.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
This online course has pushed me to venture into unchartered territory on the web that I may never have gone and discovered on my own.

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I loved exploring del.icio.us and being able to organize my websites. I never knew there were sites out there that did this.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program's format or concept?
The format of this program fit my learning style perfectly! I am glad I had the opportunity to complete the 23 Things in the summer instead of during the school year. I probably would not have been able to find the time since I do not stay up as late once school is in session. Some of the earlier Things (like #7) had quite a few sub-things to complete.

5. If we offered another discovery program like this one in the future, would you choose to participate?
I would definitely consider participating in another online program like 23 Things!

6. How would you describe your learning experience in one word or one sentence?

ENRICHING!

Thing # 22: Nings

I checked out the Ning for Teachers site and joined. It was a great place to go and visit. I never knew there were places like this out on the web. It was fabulous! To be able to talk with other teachers from all over and discuss lesson plans, classroom management advice, create blogs, and view other blogs. There was so much to do, I spent most of my time exploring and reading other teachers' blogs. One blog had a discussion on what your "secret curriculum" as a teacher would be. I liked the one teacher who said they would like "to have all my students learn to be their best at everything and to smile and enjoy the journey". I think that every teacher should encorporate some, if not all, of this into their "philosophy" of teaching. Ning for Teachers is a great opportunity to connect with other teachers and share your thoughts and ideas on so many topics for not only teachers, but all different kinds of people in the field of education. It was fascinating!

Thing # 21: Podcasts and Audio Books

I loved the Common Craft video: "Podcasts in Plain English". Those guys are so talented in my eyes with how they are able to explain things in such a fun, unique way that the viewer goes away with complete understanding. Podcasts are convenient and easy to use. I used photostory to make a podcast on the pictures my partner took when she went to the FIRST Robotics competition back in April 2008 in Atlanta. She returned with a bunch of great photos and stories to tell the students. I took the pictures and put them on the computer and shared them with the students by opening each one individually and my partner would explain what was going on. With photostory, I created a podcast that put most of the pictures together with music in the background and we can use it as a "hook" to introduce our robotics unit. Check it out below! Wow! I cannot believe I am almost done with 23 Things!
OK I have spent two days trying to get my photostory to download below, but I am unable to. I do not have administrator rights so it kept refusing to complete the download of the program from the microsoft website. I will have to wait until I get back to school and get the program on my computer.

Thing # 20: Explore YouTube and TeacherTube

I am so excited that I learned how to download a video to my blog! It was very easy! I went to TeacherTube and found this video on PreAlgebra because we are going to begin a math unit with our students this year dealing with Algebra. They had a bunch of instructional videos for this topic.

Thing # 19: Web 2.0 Awards List

This thing was so much fun to explore. It was great having award winning links right at my fingertips. I saw many familiar tools on there like: del.icio.us, google docs, technorati, flickr, rollyo, craigslist, and youtube. I went to myheritage and tried to find my family's website, but there were too many listed so I need to contact my cousin in Oregon and ask him what our site address is and try to visit and share family photos etc. What a great site to show our students and have them begin a family tree and keep in touch with relatives all over the world! I also explored SpanishPod and this looked interesting. I am going to go back and get more info., but it looked like a free site to learn Spanish at your own pace. The only way you pay is if you want to buy all of the podcasts on one DVD. My daughter is taking Spanish in school and I would love to learn the language, but have never had time to take a class offered by the district. Maybe this is my answer! I looked at Docstoc and found it to be similar to google docs so I did not spend much time exploring there. I will go back though because I want to see if the site will be able to download our newsletters since google docs does not take any over 500 KB.

Thing # 18: Online Productivity Tools

I went and explored Google Docs simply because I am used to and familiar with Google. I did not know this kind of feature existed. I like the concept of being able to access my lesson plans or other documents from any computer once they are saved to Google Docs. It was very easy to access and utilize. Uploading documents and organizing them into folders was simple! I was disappointed, however, that it would not accept documents over 500 KB which include all of our newsletters we send home weekly. Maybe there is a way I can work around it - I am going to persevere with this one and try to be able to get our newsletters there. That would be so convenient! I have already begun putting our lesson plans there so that I am ready when school starts. Then I can bring my computer back and not have to take it home as often to work on, I can just work on my computer at home and access Google Docs from the internet.

Thing # 17: Rollyo

I have to say that Bruce's Rollyo Video was superb! It gave an excellent explanation of Rollyo and step-by-step directions on how to get started and use this wonderful tool. I loved it! I went ahead and set up an account and saved my first search roll on Physics (our first unit of study for the year). It was very easy! I am going to set up a search roll for each of our units in 4th grade. We use the internet with our students when we introduce physics and our other units because there are some great sites that put physics in motion and that makes it more fun and interesting for our strategy of teaching physics to our students. They really enjoy the sites that have simulations where they get actively involved in the learning process. It is nice to be able to go to a place and organize the sites to all be there at once. Students also have the ability to access rollyo from their school or home computer which is fabulous for us because we usually have to send them home with a list of the internet addresses to go visit and show their families. Now we just have to give them the rollyo address and all of the sites will be there for them. How convenient!

Thing # 16 Wikis

The Common Craft Video: "Wikis in Plain English" reminded me that I attended a session at a conference on this and I did not really "get it". When I saw it this go 'round it started making sense. I am the type of person though who needs to have hands-on experience with something like wikis in order to completely feel comfortable with it. I can see this being used personally with planning our family reunion. With relatives scattered all over the United States, planning a reunion with wikis makes so much more sense than using emails. My cousin in Oregon tried to get us all together this summer and he started last year to get it organized, but it mostly went by word of mouth and emails. In the end it was cancelled because of lack of organization. I am going to ask him if he has ever heard of wikis!
In the classroom I would love to see students use a wiki when working on a group project. Our students get together once a week for an entire day and a wiki would be a great way for them to keep in touch during the week and keep the planning going. If students did not have access to a computer at home then I am sure we would be able to work something out with our fabulous librarians for students to have computer time while back on their home campuses.

Thing # 15 Library 2.0

It just seems so logical to me that Library 2.0 would be the direction that our libraries are moving towards in this day and age. The video "A Vision of Students Today" had such a powerful message. It reinforced within me the old saying "times .... they are a changin'. Library 2.0 is the way of the future. In a way though I feel saddened that our students futures and their childrens' futures will involve less and less of going to the library and checking out real "books". There is just something about that and it bothers me. One of the statistics mentioned on the video was that one student read only 8 books vs 23 web pages and 1281 facebook profiles also they wrote only 42 pages for class vs. over 500 pages of email. I just hope that the 1281 facebook profiles they read and the 500 email pages they wrote were of some educational value and not just fulfilling their social life obligations.
I value the fact that Library 2.0 helps users find information, gather knowledge, and create content. Do I dedect a little Blooms or what? Library 2.0 is accessable from anywhere and this makes it so convenient for people who cannot get to a library or it is closed. It helps to build connections - you can actually gather opinions from people all over the world from your own living room! Library 2.0 ensures that library services are constantly updated and reevaluated to best serve library users. This is all just so different from when I was growing up and going to school. Students now-a-days literally have the world at their fingertips and that is so cool. Research is nothing like it used to be. The user of Library 2.0 actually has the opportunity to give feedback in order for them to stay current and make the library relevant to what they want and need. Students can actually shape this and take ownership in so doing. Yes, indeed, times they are a changin' and I am trying to go along for the ride.

Thing # 14 Technorati

Technorati definately saves time when searching for blogs. It is organized and user friendly. I looked at blogs, posts and tags and found my search for "School Library Learning 2.0" more efficient in blogs. I have been exploring this for most of the afternoon and it has been very consuming. I am still not much of a "blogger" yet and really see myself using a site like del.icio.us instead. I did find, however, that the video options in technorati will be of possible use in the classroom to incorporate in the science lessons we teach.

Thing # 13 Del.icio.us

I absolutely love del.icio.us!! It is so up my alley of organization! I got signed up on del.icio.us and was able to install the two buttons no problem on my task bar - it was so easy. I then spent time exploring and tagging various websites of interest. This is going to be so useful in organizing our units and the corresponding websites to go along with them. I love how you just type in a topic and all kinds of sites pop up in a list to choose from. The tag button on my task bar makes it simple to bookmark and leave notes about the site. What a useful tool for teachers to have! I can't wait to share this one when we get back to school!

Thing # 12 Creating Community Through Commenting

This Thing involved quite a bit of informative reading. I really liked the blog called "How to Comment Like a King (or Queen)". I will admit that I am not sure I will be able to become a full time blogger with my busy life of being a Mom of four great kids, a wife, and a teacher. Despite that I gained some very useful knowledge for being a "newbie" to all of this. I like the concept of "If you don't care, don't comment". I am not one to waste my time on something if it does not have meaning for me and I am not passionate about the topic. I also thought the idea of the CoComment site was cool. This would be a great tool for me. I like to be organized and this site keeps track of all the places you have commented and lets you read recent comments to those posts. I tried to download it to my computer, but I have to have administrator rights so I guess it will have to wait until I get back to school in August. I went ahead and left a comment on Vicki's blog thanking her and commending her on spelling out the etiquette of blogging so simply.
The "10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog" was also informative, but it seemed to be geared for those who have time to blog A LOT and are trying to attract commentors to their blog. Don't see me there yet.
I enjoyed the "Ten Commandments of Blog Commenting". This was a concise, quick to read list of blogging etiquette - very helpful for "newbies".
I joined a blog called "The Ridgewood Blog". I grew up in this town and there was a drowning in the town pool last week that was such a tragedy. For years people have been trying to shut that pool down and I wanted to keep myself posted as to the status of it. I also joined Vicki Davis' blog because I found it to be very informative and user friendly as far as blogs go. She is an educator and has many related topics on her blog that are of interest to me.

Thing # 11 Library Thing

Library Thing was definately fun to use. I added a few of my favorite books to my list which was easy to do. I like how other members make recomendations of books that have to do with your same genre. It would be great to sit and catalog my books I have here at home and also my own childrens books. This takes time though to sit and utilize and because of that I am not sure how much I would benefit from it. I have inserted my list below. Now I am going to check out how to make a bookshelf - that looks really cool.
http://www.librarything.com/home/read2menow

Thing # 10: Online Image Generator

I had so much fun with image chef! This would really be useful in the classroom as a way to engage the students when we introduce a lesson. I also like the comic strip generator and can just imagine how our students would be so creative with this. There are so many images to choose from, students would have a ball, yet still be challenged because the text needs to be short and to the point yet portray something they have learned.
ImageChef.com Flower Text

Thing # 9: Useful Library-Related Blogs and News Feeds

My favorite blog search would have to be Google Blog Search. I love using Google and I use it all the time so it was simple for me to search for blog topics with the Google Blog Search. I used it to search mainly news topics. Bloglines Search Tool was also easy to utilize and get news feeds. I really like Houstonist to see what is happening around Houston.

Thing # 8 RSS Feeds and Readers

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) makes searching so much easier. Now the topics and news that interest me come to me instead of me searching for them. This is such a convenient tool! It just takes a little time to set up. I can enter a topic that we are studying in class and receive the most current info. on it. This is great especially for us teachers since it is so vital that we are always current on the topics we teach. I set up mine to receive current news, a recipe a day, joke of the day, Mike Falick's Blog, The World's Healthiest Foods, and weather. I am going to enter my topics I teach now and see what I can come up with. This is great!

Thing # 7

The Google Tools were fun to explore and took a lot of time to learn about each one. It was difficult to pick two, but I ended up setting up a Google Alert for NASA updates. On the Google Advanced Search I found some great power point presentations I will be able to encorporate into our Flight Unit and Rocketry Unit.

Thing # 6: Mashups and 3rd Party Sites

OK....i finally got my trading card done, but I have not worked on getting it to my blog. This definately takes a lot of time and practice. If anyone reads this and can help me move my avatar to the upper right corner of my blog page I sure would appreciate it. I am just plugging along and trying my best here. I am taking ALOT if notes in my spiral notebook which is right next to my computer. I did not realize I would have to set up so many accounts. How does a person remember all of the user names and passwords? I have just been using the same one.

Thing #5: Flickr

Flickr is awesome! What a library of photos! I teach a rocketry unit and this is a photo of a 2-stage rocket I found.

Thing # 2: Avatar

Wow! That was pretty difficult and I don't know if I can repeat what I just did. I will have to practice importing pictures more often. Hopefully it will not be as frustrating!!

Thing #2: Lifelong Learning

OK - I am starting to get the hang of this blog thing. I would have to say that Habit #7 is the easiest for me. I love learning something new and then teaching it to others. It is very satisfying to be able to AHA something cool that you have just learned and then pass that AHA on to someone else. This is a habit I try to instill in my students and my own children. It is vital that in order to truly master something, whether it be a math concept or how to make a bed you need to be able to successfully teach it to someone else in order to master the skill. Habit #6 would be the most difficult for me - using technology to my advantage. There is so much new techie stuff out there that sometimes it can be so overwhelming to me. I want to learn about it and be comfortable using it, but it takes time to "play" and learn. That is why I am so thankful that this online class is available for me to do this summer. I am very excited to learn about blogging and photostories and attempt to encorporate these into my classes in the fall!