Thing 6

This reminds me of our vacation every year in Surfside Beach, SC.
We rent a beach house every summer with some great friends. The sun, beach, great friends, and relaxation who wouls ask for more.

Thing 16 Google Docs

We use Google Docs at school. During Summer School we use it to post attendance and track behavior. When students move from class to class it is easy to see if they have gotten into any trouble yet that day. I find Google Docs to be very useful. I didn't have to spend a lot of time on this since I have used it a few times

Thing 16 Google Docs

We use Google Docs at school. During Summer School we use it to post attendance and track behavior. When students move from class to class it is easy to see if they have gotten into any trouble yet that day. I find Google Docs to be very useful. I didn't have to spend a lot of time on this since I have used it a few times

Thing 5 - Managing RSS feeds

This takes a lot of time and I am still not too comfortable with it. I guess if I found a site that I really liked and it was useful for me I might subscribe to it and follow it. I'll probably come back to this and spend a little more time. I did this with a few other topics and it helped. Information overload causes me to stop and go back later.

Whew!! I made it!!!!!

Boy, what a journey this was!

Take a few moments to reflect on your journey. You've covered a lot of material over the past ten weeks. What does it all mean? How has your thinking changed between Thing 1 and Thing 23? Do you see the trends that Hargadon writes about in a different light than when you read about them in Thing 1? Has this program changed how you view the Internet or how you view education in the digital world? What plans have you made for using these tools in and out of the classroom? How will you continue to learn about Web 2.0 tools? What are your big "take aways" from this experience?

I think it is safe to say that I an change my name to I DO KNOW TECH. ( thanks to 23 things). I have learned so much in these ten weeks that my head is spinning with all sorts of ideas to implement into the classroom next year. At least I have the summer to goof around with the things learned and try to focus it on what goes on in my co-taught classes. Students these days are so tech savvy they would love to use these tools in the classroom. I wasn't much of a tech person before. I really only used the internet for a few boring things. Now my eyese are open to the world of tech and all the great things you can do with it. Communication is the key with schools,teachers, and parents and what better way to have it than with technology. Families are on the go so much and using technology can only take a few minutes and with smartphones and ipads you can stay in touch pretty much with anything. I can't wait to share what I have learned with my students and parents. My very favorite was the blog because you can entwine many of the others things in it. I think that is where i am going to start.

Wiki page

making the page was easy. I made it up just to try it. How useful it would be for planning trips with friends who live out of state. My wiki space is
myrtletrip@wikispaces.com.
It would also be great to use as a review tool for a test. Students could post one informational fact each and the teacher could then edit any misinformation.

Thing 21

Describe a wiki you found that inspires you to create one of your own. What hurdles might stand in the way of your using a wiki? What would it take to remove the hurdles? Is it worth the fight?

I am not sure that i get this whole wiki thing. i think i need more time to explore it on my own. Some of the wikis I visited you had to be a member, like the schools wikis or classroom wikis. The only other wiki i have wever heard of is Wikipedia. We often tell our students not to use it because there coulsd be wrong information on the site. This is one concern of mine with other people having access to a wiki. They may try and sabatoge it with wrong info. I guess for this not to happen you would have to keep your wiki private.

Thing 20 Subscribing to a podcast

I tried a few different sites for podcasts., podcast ally. EPN, and iTunes.
EPN was organized by topics so it was easy to find what you were looking for. iTunes was randomly arranged so you had to read each topic under the picture or title shown. I downloaded 60 Second Health from iTunes. It is a quick minute informative podcast on health issues. The one I listened to was minimizing pet allergies by introducing pets to a child at an early age.
Some of the other podcast were too long and I didn't have the time or patience to listen to them.

Podcasting 2

Another podcast I enjoyed was math grad (http://www.mathgrad.com/mathgrad-promo.mp3) I am a math geek at heart so I really enjoyed listening to the different topics like the math behind interest rates and the intro to probability. This could be something you could post on a blog for your students to connect to for extra help on a lesson taught and to see how math is used in everyday life.

Podcasting

I listened to a few different podcasts. The one I liked most and found useful for the classroom was the Coley Catsof room 34. It lets you know what has been taking place in their classroom. The retell and teach lessons fromwhat they have learned. This is great for parents, grandparents, or guardians to look up to keep up with their student. The link is below

http://www.mrcoley.com/coleycast/index.htm

I also looked at Grammar Girls quick and dirty grammar tricks. I found she talked too fast and it was hard to keep up with her. It was also boring to me. (I am not and English teacher)

Slidesharing

What a wonderful way to get your students to review a topic or lesson discussed in class. Or even get a preview of what is to come up next in class. Our principal wants us to start having flipped classrooms. This is where the students get the instruction at home on the computer, ipad, or other technology and then they work in the classroom. This is so the teacher can help individuals who still don't get what was being taught. The slide show I picked was easy enough for a sixth grader to understand the differences between producers, consumers, and decomposers, all of which are a part of food webs. I think students would enjoy going on a classroom blog to get the instruction

Producers, Consumers, Decomposers Slideshare

Producers, Consumers, And Decomposers

View more presentations from sth215

Thing 17

Well I skipped thing 16 because I am having a hard time logging into google docs. I am waiting for further instructions. I went on to thing 17 and found this great site flashcarddb. You can make you own virtual flash cards to study on line. It tells you if you are correct or incorrect and also gives you a percent on how well you did. Great tool for independent work for students who have completed work and need to review for twests. I will definitely use this in my study skills class. You can also play over and over again. You can make the cards or have your students make them. I think they would enjoy doing that. I will definetly bookmark this site>

Thing 15 not so bad

I think I am finally getting the hang of it. It also helped that I had to review thing 4. What a great way to keep all your favorite cites in one place. Before I would look up the same sites over and over. Now I can just got to delicious or google reader and find them all. I am still a ways from becoming a tech geek, but I am almost there.

Thing 15 not so bad

I think I am finally getting the hang of it. It also helped that I had to review thing 4. What a great way to keep all your favorite cites in one place. Before I would look up the same sites over and over. Now I can just got to delicious or google reader and find them all. I am still a ways from becoming a tech geek, but I am almost there.

Darn It!!!!!

Well I just realized that everything I subscribed to in thing 4 was taken off my computer when it was about to crash. I will now have to resubscribe to everything in thing four so I can complete thing 15. Technology GRRRRRRR!

Thing 14 Bookmarking

My bookmarking user name on delicious is "mpierzyn". I think bookmarking is a great idea because teachers in a grade level can easily share websites they use to enhance their curriculum. It would enhance the productivity because you would be able to choose from sites other reliable teacher use so you know they will be beneficial for your students. I could not download the tab. Does it take a long time to do it. My cursor just kept blinking, so I ended up bookmarking sites by hand. They included recipe,lesson,and law cites.
I really enjoyed looking for sites and putting my favorites in one area.

To tag or not to tag:Thing 13

The only tagging I have ever heard of or seen are pictures on facebook. This seems a little confusing to me. Onre thing I know is that when you tag you shouldn't be to general because then there will be thousands of sites relating to it. Be specific then there will be less. Am I right???
Advantages to tagging is that you should always be able to refer back to that site you thought was the greatest. I always find good sites and thenI can never remember the name of it when I want to go back to it. This will help me be more organized in saving the sites. Right now I can't think of any disadvantages. Maybe after I play with it a little I might have some.

Reflection of thing 12

I am feeling more comfortable with embedding codes. There is so much out there to share with students and friends. The only other online social media I belong to is Facebook. I only communicate with friends. I never accept anyone I do not know even if they are a friend of a friend. Sometimes it is easie to communicate on line because some friends live accross the country and you can always find out what going on with them by checking on the page and posting comments. On the other hand some things are just better received face to face. Chose wisely what you communicate on line or even text because the message you send may not be received how you meant.

Embed a widget

Embedding a Video

Hilarious video on how to do a math problem.

You Tube Thing Nine

I have used you tube many times to show little clips in class and at home to my husband and children.   One of my favorites is Ma and Pa Kettle math lesson.  Its hilarious and reminds me of some of my students and how they solve problems and come up with steps to prove what they did was right.  You tube is a great source for old video clips that can help relate a lesson to students.

Fun with Flickr

Well I went to the hub page and made a motivational picture.  Well it really isn't motivational, but at least I was able to make a poster like picture of summer fun.  I posted it on my blog page.

Uploading to Flickr

Yes I think this was the easiest for me to do.  Or maybe I am finally becoming tech savvy  .

I'm a slow techer.

As you can see I am not moving at a rapid pace.  It takes me a while to learn something new.  I often have to repeat it a few times before I become comfortable with it.  I finally figured out thing 4 and 5. I was able to subscribe to the websites suggested and boy was I proud of myself.  I can't wait to subscribe to websites that I know will be helpful and tools for my teaching.  I am aslo excited that I will be able to keep up with my principal's blogging and tweeting. Now onto Thing 6,7,and 8.  I can't wait!!!!

Reflection of Thing 1 and 2

I really need to take this course.  A friend of mine took it a few years ago.  She knows that I don't know much about technology so she advised me to take it, so here I am.  I feel it's important for me to keep up to date with technology because the students know more than I do.  I hope to enhance my classroom with activities using more technology.  I teach special education to 6th graders and I think they might be more attentive if I include technology in their class assignments.

Well I was able to make a blog.  I would like to create one for my classroom, but time seems to be what is holding me back.  I'm not sure how I would keep up to date with blogging things for my students.  Do you blog daily or weekly?  Is daily too much?  These are some questions I need to discuss with teachers I know who already blog.  I think the students would enjoy communicating in this manner.  I could make it a weekly assignment for them.