Thing #16

LibraryThing I'll admit I was skeptical when i first started reading about Library Thing on the learning 2.0 - 23 Things website. "I get all the information I want on books by searching on Amazon.com," I thought to myself. After searching around for several minutes, I found that my initial assumption about LibraryThing was wrong. I really enjoyed using the website after I worked with it for several minutes. A self-proclaimed bookophile, I couldn't help but get swept away in the many offerings from this website. I typed in the name of a silly little vampire series I'm reading (not the Twilight books--I already read all of those) and was quickly taken to the author's page where all her books were listed with cover pictures. I was also able to see and better understand where two different strands of the vampire series branch off. Yes, I can see all of this on amazon.com, but not as easily. I really have to search through the findings on amazon to find which books is the first, second, etc., in a series. LibraryThings had it all laid out for me. I also liked the recommendations feature. I found several books that I am interested in reading just from the few minutes I spent searching the recommendations list.

I think the recommendations list and author's page would be of particular interest to students. Students, the age I teach, don't think about "reading through an author" like I do. They read one book by an author and think they have to move on to something completely different. I think they would like searching for an author they enjoyed and finding a comprehensive list of other titles by the same author.

Thing #15

Delicious. Visit my delicious account.

I had heard about delicious in the past, but I had never used it myself until tonight. I didn't realize the wealth of information that could be accessed so easily through this site. Being a gardening enthusiast, I started searching for different types of plants I am interested in. I was able to find quite a few really good sites about some more rare flowers by using very little effort.

After playing around with flowers that interest me, I decided to search for some things that would be of more use to me in my job. Reader's theater is a favorite classroom literacy activity of mine. Most of the time, I take a book my class is reading and type up the script myself. I don't have to tell you how long this takes--hours! (I know I should before reader's theater, site after site came right up. I was able to bookmark these and save them for later. How many times have I spent hours and hours searching for something on the web, finally found it, and then promptly forgotten the website? Too many to tell! I can see that delicious is the answer to this weary teacher's endless sorting through google searching looking for that "great website I found a few weeks ago".

Thing #7B

Does this look like the door to the Teachers' Lounge at your school? Do you want it to? Would you like the experience of working in such a facility? Teachers Without Boarders, a Canadian-based teachers' organization, would like to make this door the place where you, a well-educated, highly trained, experienced professional, share your craft with your less-privileged colleagues across the world. According to Sharon Peters on her blog in Infinite Thinking Machine, "we rolled up our sleeves together and shared resources, methodologies and practices" with teachers from South Africa and Kenya. TWB strives to train fellow educators to improve their skills in working with students and teachers as well. Establishing teachers who are confident to deliver professional development among their own peers is a prime goal for this organization so training can continue and spread once the initial TWB team has returned home.

Besides joining Teachers Without Boarders and following your wanderlust to the far-reaches of the globe, you can help with a simple donation. TWB is collecting new or gently used technology (digital cameras, flashdrives, and laptops) to be given to newly trained teachers in poverty-stricken parts of the world. In July and August, Ms. Peters "will be returning to South Africa and Kenya as a team leader of ICT teachers who will facilitate workshops for educators ranging from newly appointed elearning specialists to teachers who have never touched a computer before."

What an outstanding organization! Who wants to go on one of these trips with me?

Thing #14

LetterPop The thing I chose to explore was LetterPop. It's a website for creating newsletters and flyers. It has hundreds of ready-made templates for you to use. It's completely a drag and drop website where you will be able to create very nice publications. I made a flyer to send home with my students showing off some pictures of our recent field trip to the Dallas World Aquarium. I was about to type in some text about our trip when I realized how simple the website was to use. This made me think that my students could easily make their own flyers and write about their experiences on the trip themselves. The flyer would have much more significance for the students if they created it themselves. I think I could put the pictures in my teacher dropbox, and the kids could access them.

Thing #13

These things are just F-U-N! I've spent way too long playing with these things the last couple of days. I made a couple of images with the sign maker and added them to my facebook page.

I can see using these things in class to spark interest on a topic or use as a reminder of an upcoming event or deadline. Students could use the comic strip generator to write the dialogue on a comic.

The Flickr tools could be used to make a mosiac of pictures on a specific topic.

Thing #12

Landform Slideshow

Landform Comicstrip

Ohhhhhh!!!!!!! I've used animoto before with pictures I've taken of my students doing various activities. I found that the quick little slideshows are a great way to fill a few extra minutes and review content at the same time. I found a website (I'll have to search for it again) that has songs about science concepts that I would play while the slideshows about our electricity or animal or whatever was playing. The kids would sing along and shout out what was going to happen in the experiments as the pictures went by. They really enjoyed the videos.

Aren't the slideshows and comic strips fun ways to teach or review content. Students are so entrenched in the technical age, that they are much more apt to watch a slideshow with constantly changing images rather than look with any depth at their textbooks.

Thing #11

Looking for me? Try Santorini Island, Greece. Although I have had the great experiences to travel a good many places, I have not been to Greece. Thanks to gbastistini for the use of his picture from Flickr.

I am just IN LOVE with Flickr. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I think I am very good about stopping a lesson to find a picture or video to support my students understanding of vocabulary or concepts we are working on. Flickr simply provides this teacher with an unlimited source of images to help promote student learning.

I chose to search for pictures on landforms. Students have difficulty understanding some of the landforms that they only see drawing of in their social studies books. I am always trying to find actual pictures that show the landforms in a natural setting-not the contrived settings from students' textbooks.

I LOVE the idea of using pictures from Flickr to reiterate the meanings of vocabulary words. We learn four new words a week, and I make up the flipchart with the words for the gradelevel. So, now I will start including pictures and videos from Flickr or CC in the flipcharts.

Can't wait to use Flickr more. On a negative note, I did come across (quite accidentally) a few pictures with topless women. I was innocently searching for pictures of Greece, and some of those pictures came up. Moral of the lesson--don't search for pictures in front of the class. Prepare before class starts.