My K12 Learning Blog

This experience has been amazing.  I have been able to bond with my colleagues and I have learned a ton.  I have worked hard and learned a lot.  I hope to implement many of these tools into my teaching and I think that this class has made me a better teacher.  I am glad to hear that the class is being amended some as it is a heavy load to bear for some especially those of us in lower school.  I would also suggest that although many things must be done independently that some group instruction would be helpful for the non tech teacher to help them feel comfortable.  I look forward to exploring new things and having my own wiki-space and blog in the future.

I researched Classroom 2.0 and Ning.  Classroom 2.0 seems to have a ton of info and it may be very useful to me in the future.  Ning did not impress me very much but I do think it would be a resource if I was doing a class project.  I enjoyed looking at the States Ning and it gave me some great ideas for the future.  Oh the the places we go.

I enjoyed learning about Pageflakes and think it would be easier to use than a wiki-space.  The students could  not edit it but that might be a good thing.  I think next year  I would use it as a homepage for my classroom so all the things I use on a daily basis would be at my finger tips.  When teaching a unit on dinosaurs, I could have all dino related items available on each computer for the kids to research things and i know they would be going to safe places that I have chosen for them to use.  I will use Pageflakes a good bit I hope and look forward to exploring more.

I think Google documents is AWESOME!!  I am doing some spreadsheets for my parents and I think this is so cool.   I can edit it and my mom can then look at it while i am doing it even if I forget to e-mail it.  It is a wonderful thing for the forgetful.

As and educator, I look forward to using google documents in many ways this summer. 

The first thing I would use it for would be to help the faculty retreat committee plan and organize the retreat.  We are currently using it to organize our book we are making and we have found it to be very helpful so far. 

The second thing I would use it for would be as a pre-planning tool.  I could write lesson plans over the summer and be able to access them whenever/wherever I wanted.

The third thing I would do is use it for an assesment toll during the year that all of the second grade teachers could access and use for each subject they teach and be able to make comments.  The ideas are endless.  

Download Video: Posted by CMS at TeacherTube.com.
I think it amazing all the things that are out in the cyber world.  My husband loves You Tube and he watches stuff on it all the time but it never occurred to me that I could use it for teaching.  I enjoyed looking at Teacher tube (which i think is a much safer choice) and I  am looking forward to spending time this summer coming up with things my students and i could do to post videos on Teacher Tube.  In the past producing videos did not appeal to me but now I think about the process more than the product.  The kids would love the idea of being on TV and would not know about all the learning they are doing in creating the Project.  I can’t wait to do my on Earth Day video next year.  I found a great video by a Creekside Middle School that I with I had known about this year because I would have used it.  i have tagged it to my delicious account for next year and i am embedding it into my blog too so I will be ready.  I can’t wait!!!!!

The podcasting experience was quite pleasant and much better than trying to subscribe to one. 

I really enjoyed using delicious.  I feel like this is an amazing tool and I will look forward to using it a lot in my next few years of teaching.  once it is on your desktop,  it is a great way to keep up with things.  i love that you can access your account from anywhere and that you don’t risk losing anything.  This thing is a winner.  Here are my tags, I don’t have many yet but I will keep adding and soon I hope to have a bunch.  Delicious account 

Of all the things we have explored in this class I find this one the least useful.  While in theory, 43 things is a smart idea, in practice I do not see any useful application for me personally or professionaly.  I worry that with all this technology there is a chance that people will be so connected that they will disconnect from each other because they will no longer be able to talk face to face.  The cheers are cool but I would rather send a personal note to a friend or give them a real hug rather than a virtual one. I think if you explored the site you could find some great ideas but you could do that by talking to your friends too.

I enjoyed learning about Library Things.  I am an avid reader and I can’t wait to explore and see what other people are reading.  I am not sure that I would use it in my classroom a lot.  It would be a good resource when I am doing author studies and I could find out information quicker there than when I use Google.  The site itself is amazing and a way to connect with people of similar interests.  I have a very full life and do not have a lot of extra computer time but if I did I am sure I would find myself on this site a lot.

I explored several of the tools but oddly enough the one I thought I could use the most was Ta Da List.  It is social and would be very useful for my family when planning trips etc.  I also think we could use it in the classroom to help the kids with organizing themselves.  It would have a lot of applications for many different things. 

I also looked at Quizlet and although it would be amazing if i taught highschool I  do not see many aplications for this for me at this time but maybe later.