Thing #5

Using My Google Reader

I am just now coming back to this post (after many days) because I had spent so much time using my reader after to subscribing to our required blogs that I truly did feel overwhelmed as was warned to us by our facilitators. I have a hard time reading the newspaper as I would like to every day to find items to share with my students, so maybe this will help me out just a bit as well as keeping me connected with other educators and the most current information in the education world.

One good thing was that I was able to listen to some of the NPR broadcasts at the same time as reading through the blogs.

This blog is one of the ones that grabbed my attention because of my own past experiences with working with other teachers in a foreign country. I hope to continue to follow his work and learn more about the things he is doing to help teachers acquire technology to use while working with their students. It is very similar to this process of going through the "23 things" class and using what we learn to benefit our students.

Now that I am back in the swing if things with my reader (and after reading what was expected in thing #6), I am off to tweak my reader and "read" some more...

Thing #4 The Reading/Writing Connection

I have a ton of work to do to update my blogs to even remotely come close to being as good as some of the ones I just read. I see many hours of exploring, adding, expanding and playing in my future.

I chose blogs that peaked my interest based on the titles and subject matter that was listed for each one. I started with dy/dan (Mr. Meyer): Why I Don’t Assign Homework
I was impressed with this blog because of the content as well as the format of his blog. How wonderful that there were so many comments on a topic one may not expect to be so controversial!

Next I tried to read Mrs. Edmison's Class: Questions for One of Our Favorite Authors: Grace Lin
but unfortunately it would not open. I wanted to see this blog because I wanted to see how the 3rd grade class used their blog to connect with an author (I'm making a connection for future classroom use) I'll have to see if I can google this one to see if I can find it to read it later.

Mark’s Edtech Blog: Is this SSR 2.0? was absolutely my favorite because of the simple and practical use of blogging in the classroom. This blog helped to awaken my thinking in how I will redesign my SSR time in my classroom next year. I can't wait to blog about my own experiences with this.


CoolCatTeacher (Vicki Davis): Spies Like Us was the most thought provoking and eye opening blog that I read. Wow to think of how technology is used in such harmful ways. It goes to show how we as educators really should stay abreast of all of the latest tools and the ways in which they are used. Better yet, we should make it a priority to engage students in constructive ways to use these tools.

And how great was Patrick?? Patrick's Update: 5th Grade
I can already see the benefits of this type of blog. I would love to hear this child's update in ten years or so. I am thinking of a student from my past class that could have benefitted tremendously by creating a blog similar to this. What an outlet for kids!

Duck with a Blog: Second graders Write About Our Missing Duck I loved this one! I am already thinking of how I can create a section within my classroom blog for my students to blog about books we have read, science experiments, math concepts, new topics in social studies. The possibilities are endless....

I hope I will make it all happen!

Thing #2

So here I am trying out Writeboard for the first time and am already so excited about the possibilities of using it as a Web 2.0 tool in my class to motivate some of my more reluctant writers in my fourth grade classes. How great for my students to be able to type in a composition and be able to have their peers go in to their work and revise and edit with them, and then be able to see their progress throughout the whole writing process. Very exciting! I am looking forward to this tool being one of my “3” tools that I begin to implement this year in my classroom. (I’m beginning to think I will be using more than just 3!)

Web 2.0…wow, I can’t wait to learn more about the “23 things” that can be used now that I am over my initial fear of “Can I handle this?” and “Will I be able to implement these tools efficiently?” Imagine the excitement of our students in our classrooms who already so fearlessly live in this time of technology. We might as well dive in…our students are waving us in from the deep end.

Thing #1

o Which habit(s) may be most challenging for you to employ as part of your Learning 2.0 experience? o Which habit(s) will be easiest, or are most resonant for you as a lifelong learner? o Which habit do you think will be most important for you as you work through this course, and why?

Thing #1
Yay! I am a competent, effective learner! Here I am again using Writeboard to gather my thoughts for my first blog on my new blog “Notes from the Chalkboard”

I began and began again while trying to put my thoughts down about the above questions. I finally decided that ONE habit basically answers each of the three questions.

Habit #6 (Use technology to your advantage) of the 7 1/2 Habits of Successful Lifelong Learners is the one habit that, for me, answers all three of the questions posed to us in Thing #1.

It is THE most important habit to employ during this course because that is exactly what this course is all about. I must overcome any fears of attempting new Web 2.0 tools in order to learn how to use them successfully and efficiently in my classroom. I use technology to my advantage on a daily basis and will continue to do so (as I have already) while making my way through this “23 things” journey. Of course along the way it will be easiest to employ Habit 7 1/2 (Play), and in the end I can’t wait to teach all of my new “skills” to my students (Habit 7).