Thing # 23

I loved learning how to make avatars. This was one lesson that I had a lot of fun playing with. I also saw great benefits to Rollyo and Google Docs. This class has helped me to stay current with the waves of the future so that I can be an effective teacher in teh years to come. I expected this whole class to be frustrating and dull, and while some of it was, I found myself getting excited about some of the assignments. I am glad that I took this class, and I am so proud of myself for finishing!

Thing # 22

I think that Nings are a very cool tool. They are a great way to get together with people of similar intrests and talk about them. I thing that a Ning would be a great tool for a school to have. If a whole school staff had a Ning, information could be shared very easily and effectively. Now, my school sends dozens of emails every day to everyone, and if we had a Ning that everyone was involved with and checked regularly, it would be much easier to post the question or comment, and answers than it would be to send those dozens of emails.

Thing # 21

I can see benefits to using podcasts in the classroom. It would be a great to create a podcast of yourself reading a book, and using that in a listening center. It would also be great to be able to make podcasts to give directions for small group activities. As many benefits as I see to podcasts, I really do not think I will ever make another one. It was easy to make the podcast, but I could not figure out how to publish it. I also did something wrong while registering for switchpod.com, so I had to use someone else's account to get my podcast linked to this blog.

http://media.switchpod.com//users/bullettprf/MissNelsonisMissingvoicereview.mp3

Thing # 20

Using You Tube and Teacher Tube seems to be very similar to using a site like United Streaming. One benefit I noticed is that the videos play all the way through without stopping and buffering. Another benefit that I noticed is that these sites have videos both to use with the students and to use as a resource tool for the teacher only. The video I have chosen to embed is a video of a woman giving ideas on how to use a teacher clock to teach students to tell time on an analog clock.

Thing # 19

I played with ifoods under the food category. In my school, we have a science kitchen that we can use at any time. A lot of units that I do involve a cultural aspect, and since food is such a big part of culture, I cook with my class. I am always looking for easy recipes that I can do with my class that will enhance the units I teach. Ifoods is a great site because I can use it to search recipes, but what makes this site special is that I can also watch videos of how to make the dish. That way, if I am unclear on how to execute a recipe, I can figure it out by watching the video. I will use this site in my classroom for next year and years to come.

Thing # 18

I can see many advantages to using a program like Google Docs. It is just as easy to use this program as it is to use Microsoft Office if not easier, as all the programs are in one place. Another benefit is that you can save your documents online, and therefore will have access to each of your documents on every computer you work on. If you did not want to bring your computer home, you can still work on documents from your home computer. It is also easier to share your documents using Google Docs. You can add your friends or colleagues as collaborators or as viewers and share with them as you see fit.

Thing # 17

http://rollyo.com/teacherstyle/lesson_plans_1st/

Rollyo was much easier to use than I anticipated. I created a search roll on lesson plans for first grade. I added four sites that I used (and searched) frequently last year. Rollyo will save me lots of time because I can search just one site for the lesson plans that I want as opposed to searching all four sites! I am so glad that Library2play introduced us to this site!!