Thing 23 Digital Native (getting there anyway!)

I began this journey because I felt very inept in my digital surroundings (hence the blog title!). I had no idea how inept I was!! I didn't know such amazing things existed or that many of them could be so easy to do!! I am so proud of myself and the "things" I have accomplished!
I have my own classroom blog that I can chat and share information with my students on all summer long.
I have my own class wiki that served as an awesome study group for our last test. Every child that went on the wiki got an A or a B on the test!
I know how to embed a YouTube video onto my blog (and by my own estimation makes me very cool).
I can create documents online and open them on any computer using Google Docs. I can also create PowerPoint Presentations online, make flow charts, and any other office type task and open them anywhere! I can find great presentations to use in class on Slideshare.
I can organize all of my sites and see what my colleagues are using on del.icio.us and find a picture of anything on Flickr! I can then take those pictures and put them on my blog or any number of other things like movie posters, switching faces...
I also subscribe to RSS feeds and Podcasts, which I am actually starting to get the hang of and enjoy!
Most importantly I have been able to help others! I explained to a co-worker how to make a blog and she now has a great one of her own for the swim team! My little sister just went back to college and had to spend time at a classmate's house because she doesn't have PowerPoint so I introduced her to Zoho. My husband received a promotion and kept forgetting where he left documents so I showed him Google docs, and many of my students now have their own blogs!! I can teach others about Web 2.0 tools!!
My digital journey is just beginning and I can't wait to see where it takes me!! Thank you 23 Things for helping me become a better teacher by allowing me to communicate with my students on their (mine now too) digital frontier!

Thing 22

My favorite poem and my favorite show all wrapped up in one!! The Jabberwocky performed by the Muppets!!



I tried to download a video from teachertube onto Zamzar but it didn't work. It said it didn't support viewkey or something. Maybe it was just the video I selected. I'll try another one. I am so excited to know how to do this! I can download videos onto my class blog for my students to watch. I was so excited I dragged my daughter and her "not-boyfriend" in here to watch the video on my blog. (I'm not sure that they grasped the amazingness of both my ability and the awesomeness of the Muppets!)

Thing 21

YouTube is not banned in my building and I actually used it for the first time this year in my science class. We watched both lunar and solar eclipse videos and the kids loved it! They were very excited to be using something so cool in class and were all paying attention! My teaching partner also encouraged the students to post their social studies project videos on YouTube! The kids loved it! They go home and watch all kinds of crazy videos and they love it. Using it in class makes it meaningful to them because that's what they do at home! Check out the solar eclipse video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K42UqWGdA_o&feature=related

Thing 20

Subscribing to the news feed and the tag(s) was very cool! I love that I can just scroll through the days headlines to keep current! It's such a timesaver! The tag cloud is something I could get lost in for a long time! It's very interesting to see what people are looking at and saves time! I found several great sites that I added to my del.icio.us account! www.teachertube.com is something that looks quite interesting and apparently 1621 people think so too! I visited my bloglines account sporadically, but had not subscribed to anything I needed to check regularly. I think that will change with the new feeds I've added. I feel much more comfortable using it, and really see the benefit.

Thing 19

http://del.icio.us/lauramcmaster
I had a lot of fun with this site. I think it will be very beneficial. I can never remember what sites I like and this will help me keep them organized and accessible where ever I am! I also like that you can see where other people are going and what they think! This is very valuable for our Professional Learning Communities. I am looking forward to playing with it more and adding more sites to my personal page.

Thing 18

Tagging looks fairly straight forward. I tagged my pictures in Flickr and felt fairly successful. I do see the drawback, however of not be like minded. I may tag something as one thing, but someone else may not think to use that same tag. Generally, it seems to be very beneficial. If I tagged a site as gardening, flowers, butterflies, and spring, chances are someone else may have one of the same as well. I'm not sure how specific I need to be. Would horticulture, delphiniums, and perennial be better? Or would I use all 7 tags? I guess this is where the tag cloud comes in handy.
I do like that I can access my sites anywhere and see what others find useful. The idea of a folksonomy is quite appealing.

Thing 17

This is a very cool site too!! I am teaching my new science GLCE's and do not yet have resources for many of the new topics, and I've found much of what I need on this site! I found a great presentation on the digestive and nervous system (9 slides long)that I am going to show my students tomorrow! What a great resource. Many of the presentations are way over my head (74 slides long), but there a lot that are perfect! I am looking forward to utilizing this site in my classroom! www.zoho.com helped me begin making a presentation, but www.slideshare.net already has many! Another timesaver.

Thing 16 (again)

I also like www.librarything.com
I am always fogetting what books I have (and who I've lent them to) so I am hoping this site will help me organize/catalog my books! I like that you type all/part of the title and all of the info comes up. You can also tag each book so I can just click and see all of the books I have for my science fiction unit!! Very cool and a huge timesaver! I don't have to dig through my shelves trying to remember what books I've bought or what I used the previous year!! Woohoo!!

Thing 16

I love the http://www.bubbbl.us/ site! I could use this to organize ideas for my students or my students would love to use it for their prewriting! It was easy to use and fun too!

Thing 15

I love this!! I can never remember if I've saved a document at home or at school and it's usually not in the place I need it to be! I've also lost several jump drives trying to tote them back and forth all of the time! Google Docs is easy to upload documents to and I love that I can send them to other s so they can improve/add to them! We had a staff meeting today and a 23 Things classmate shared this with the group. It was met with mixed reviews, but once you play with it and see how easy and time saving it is it will become indispensable!

Thing 14

Our librarian keeps hinting to me to make a podcast with my class. We recently presented Native American projects and she said, "That would make a great podcast." I've always said yes and moved on because I had no idea how to do it! I think this would be a great way to do a school/classroom news broadcast! The students would love it and they know more about technology than I do! With so many step-by-step sites out there and all of the free resources I think we would be very successful! I am definitely going to see what resources we have at school as far as microphones and what software we have already!

Thing 13

O.K. I really struggled with this one! I went to EPN and didn't find anything I'd want to subscribe to. I went to the other site and found parenting, comedy, cooking, but again nothing I'd want to subscribe to!! I finally found what I was looking for through itunes. I subscribed to NPR Science Fridays, The Moth Podcast, Stuff You Should Know, and Oprah.com's Spirit Channel (sappy, I know!). Many people commented that they listened to podcasts in the car...does that mean they download them to an Ipod? Is there any other way?? Finally I am a fan! The NPR SCience Fridays will help me keep up-to-date on new happenings so I can keep my students current too!

Thing 12

The podcasts were very cool and seem like a great way to share information! I love Grammar Girl: http://grammar.qdnow.com/
If my students all had access to the technology this would be a great way to share booktalks, lectures, etc.

Thing 11

I made a wiki that will serve as a group study guide for our upcoming test.
https://discussion-zone.wikispaces.com/

So far the students have not added too much and one of them has gone on and erased everything!
I like that everyone can edit the page, but it's hard not knowing who is adding (or deleting) what. I'm hoping it will serve as a study guide for struggling students, but we'll see.
I think I prefer the blog because I know who is posting and when, but the wiki is good for an informal setting.

THING 10

I really enjoyed the student run wiki. It was like a school newspaper, but in a wiki format! I currently teach our school newspaper and this would be a great addition! Many times we have to cut articles that don't fit or are old news. The wiki would allow our reporters to easily add information as often as they'd like and it wouldn't cost the other students anything to read it! I also liked that wiki's enabled classes from different geographic locations to collaborate. As long as I knew how to make and maintain a wiki I don't see any problems!

Thing 9

I couldn't download pictures onto the first site, but was more successful on the second! http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ I tried the movie poster, but the creative juices must be sleeping because I couldn't think of a single creative thing to say! I will go back to it. I'm not sure how I would use this in my classroom, but it is very cool to see all of the different things you can do! Trading cards would be very cool for the children to make!

thing 6 picture

Thing 8

What fun to play around with! I thought the spelling one was great fun! I can't wait to figure out how to save them and put them onto my blog or another dcoument! I was helping my 9th grade daughter study for her science test and had her play memory with pictures of aurora borealis (that's what we were studying!). I could not get the sudoku one to open any pictures, but was amazed with the others! The one with the color schemes was very cool too!

Thing 7

I uploaded a picture of an oak tree in my yard up north. It was very cool to see the other pictures that have been uploaded. I am very excited about this site because I just received a new book, Reading Photographs to Write with Meaning and Purpose, and this site makes it easy to find a photo of everything and anything! We are currently researching Native Americans and I was thinking we could bring up a picture and just write whatever story, poem, or info that come to mind! I think it would be a great way to get everyone excited about the topic!

Thing 6

Very cool!! I'm a snapfish kind of gal and was not overly enthused about going to another photo site...but this one is awesome! I love that you can search for different photos that people have taken!! I found a moonrise, flamingos, beaches, moose, butterflies...and more! We just started a research project on Native Americans and the photos here are incredible! Great story starters, descriptive essays, compare/contrast...

Thing 5

I'm not loving this one! I subscribed, but now what? I check it every day to see if anything new was posted? I guess it's great if you surf blogs every day. It would definitely save time...but it takes time to wade through all of the new posts you missed. I did find a cool blog called Grammar Girl that I liked. I don't know. I can't see using this often. Am I missing something?

Thing 4

Well, RSS sounds wonderful! I wondered how people had the time to check all of the bazillion blogs out there! It's a little daunting right now, as I'm not sure how to choose my "favorites" out of the bazillion! I am looking forward to learning more so that I may confidently call myself a "blogger." (I don't know if I want to-the term doesn't sound very flattering)
I'm getting there and am very astounded at how easy it is so far! Woohoo!

Thing 3

My students and I discussed what I had learned about blogging today, and decided to create our own classroom blog! I am going to post an extra credit question every so often, the students can add anything exciting that they have learned outside of class, and we are also hoping to encourage questions from both parents and students! It'a quite an adventure, and I'm excited to see where it takes us, and what works!
Adding other authors and deleting posts before the are added were very important things to learn today, as I wanted to include my co-teaching partner and was also worried about inappropriate posts. (not that my students would EVER dream of doing such a thing!)

Thing 2 (not the Dr. Seuss kind)

That last post was my husband, I'm really not talking to myself. I guess in a way that's what a blog feels like...talking to myself!
I'm taking 23 things because there is so much I don't know and it frustrates me. I can email and surf, but that's about it! My 14 year old daughter, Kayla, was not impressed with my blog success ("everyone does it"), but I couldn't be happier! I send a daily email to my students' parents outlining the days assignments, but now I'm wondering if a blog wouldn't be more beneficial so the parents & students can talk to one another about assignments and check it when they want to. I recently assigned a science project and the students came in today with, "My mom wants to know..." A blog would alleviate this! HMMMMMMMMM...

Very impressive..... You didn't kill my computer!

Welcome!

Welcome to my first step to becoming less of a technological moron!! I am so proud of myself for getting this far and hope when I click "publish" it all doesn't disappear into cyberspace!! Two steps down and 22 to go on my journey to technological enlightenment!! (I'm going to click "publish post" now; wish me luck)