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.