Tool #6

Well I certainly feel a little silly right now. The past couple of years everyone has been going on and on about how Wikipedia is not a credible source yada yada. I never really understood the reason why. I just understood that I was not to use it as credible research for college papers. Hello, duh! It's pretty crazy to me that just ANYBODY can go on to whichever topic they wish and edit. I'm fairly certain that I am not an authority on anything. Although, I do know a fair number of people (with large heads) that do believe they are an authority on any number of topics. Do I really want to be reading their beliefs, insight, and opinions and taking it as fact? I see the benefits of using a wiki, but I would most have to say that I am alarmed at how naive I have been about the fact v. fiction in the name of wikipedia.

Tool # 5

Ugh! I'm having to retype what I just wrote for tool #5= annoying. On ward though, I think that the purpose of both delicious and Diigo are two fold (just like Google Doc and reader): 1) to keep the user more organized 2) to share with your PLN. It's as if someone is trying to send me a sign that I need to be more organized (thanks a lot technology god). I had difficulty getting Diigo onto my tool bar so I reverted back to using delicious. From the tutorials I watched though it seems that Diigo has more to offer than Delicious so I'll have to go back one day and try it again. Here goes my first attempt at linking: Here are my two websites I've added my Delicious. The first one is ReadWriteThink , a website that I've used before but always forget about and can never find again! The second site I've added to my delicious is Spelling City , a website that would be helpful to integrate into my word study program.

Tool # 4

I definately see the student benefit of using googledoc at the high school level. I think it would be somewhat limited to waht the kids in elementary would be able to do with it. Two years ago however I could have used google docs when my students were creating readers theaters scripts. One student sat down and typed for a minute while the others watched. Then they just rotated in and ot until the script was complete. Google docs would have been perfect for that purpose. The google doc I was messing around with was the 5th grade math road map. I would invite the other math teachers and the sis to that document. From there we could post what lessons we were doing that day, games, workstations and assessments. It would be a really beneficial planning tool in keeping everyone on the same page. Google reader is useful for a technologically disorganized person like myself who often has ten different windows open at one time. Now I can have everything I need in one place. In addition to subscribing to the 11 things blogs I've been following, I also subscribed to my sister's blog. She is currently in Thailand and blogging about her internship and travels. I have to say that I am impressed with her writing skills. She appears much older and wiser than her 20 years. The bottom line Google=so much more than a search engine.

Tool # 3

This tool was fun but a bit frustrating when I couldn't get certain sites to work. Truth be told, I really couldn't figure out how to save the images to my blog so I abandoned the sight and tried a different one. I could have spent hours trying out new image generators, but since my summer s winding down I must go on! This could be used in my classroom in many ways. I'm focusing a lot of my energy on projects this year with my students and all of these offer technology based project ideas. I offer the comic strip as a final product for many classroom assignments so this would be a good way to take it into the 21st century.

Tool # 2

One of the benefits of being a newbie teacher is that I was able to be part of many PLC throughout college. During my last three semesters of college posting, responding and blogging were constants throughout each course. There was even a class that we spent an entire period conversing online with the entire class including the prof. People aren't afraid to speak their minds though and in a room full of ladies, feelings (and egos) were easily hurt. Just because you aren't saying something to someone's face doesn't mean the words (or text) can't sting. Bloggers are putting themselves or at least their ideas out there and readers feel empowered to say what they feel behind the mask of their computer. As far as the commenting advice I agree with several points especially those saying how commenting will lead people back to your blog. I find myself venturing off into cyber world far from my initial direction solely by clicking on a link. This is how you find the good stuff! I'm going to follow two blogs from my own school to start (I'll find some others to follow along the way). 1. Gann's Gazette ( Always a good conversation and laugh with her) 2. Journeying Julie (Always has great advice and ideas for my teaching so I'm hoping to find some more wisdon through her blog!).

Tool # 1

So Far So Good: Setting up my blog and avatar went pretty smoothly. I love the idea of having students blog. My first year of teaching I did student/teacher dialogue journals for the first month or so of school. While the kids enjoyed them, in the end they ended up being too much for me to handle. I love the idea of traditional pen and paper journaling but I think online blogging is much more manageable time wise. I'll put it on my list of endeavors to pursue this year.