Drum roll, please... Thing #23

Wow, this has been a whirl wind of a course! I am so very grateful that I stumbled into it. I am very overwhelmed by all of it and I do really feel like this is just a beginning.
There are several things that I would categorize as my favorite discoveries on this learning journey. First and foremost is this Blog. I am going to continue to keep track of my life using this tool. It will probably take a more personal turn from here on out, but I kind of want to keep track of myself using this tool. It really will be part of my lifelong learning goals.
Another tool that I really enjoyed and mostly for personal use was Flickr. There was just some many fun tools that I could see myself really running with it.
The tool that I am most proud of getting comfortable enough to try something with was the Wiki. I can't believe that I built a Wiki for use by my students and myself in order to sign up for our service learning project. It really stemmed from the fact that I was at a conference out of town and needed a way for students to sign up while I wasn't there. It worked pretty well. I wasn't aware that I would have to approve them individually prior to them being able to contribute to the Wiki, but it worked anyways.
The only thing that I would have us do differently to improve upon this program would be to help us to be more interactive with our classmates. Have part of our assignments to be comment more often on each others work. I looked around at others stuff but not nearly as much as I should have. I think I could learn more about the process of the 23 Things by seeing how others were fairing. I would have also liked more feedback on what I was doing.

Lastly, I would most definately do something like this again. I would take this very class. I have told so many of my fellow Lambkin teachers about this class. Please continue to offer it. I loved this experience and I really do feel that I have grown as both a person and an educator by doing this work. Please tell me that we will have access to your Ning forever. Let me know please, I will need to be guided back to some of our tools.

Thank you and good night!
Elaine

#22 Audiobooks

I seemed to have hit the wall for the 23 Things class. I am totally exhausted. It is 8 p.m. and I am still at school and I am attempting to finish my 23 Things class and everything it due tomorrow. Now, I know how my students feel. On top of that the Audio books thing seems to dislike me. For one thing, I don't have library card for the Fort Collins Public Library so I was unable to access the Net Library. So, I turned instead to the Open Culture forum for audiobooks. There was quite an impressive list of books that could be downloaded as Mp3's or as podcasts. I chose to listen a version of Homer's Odyssey as offered up by Librivox. As I listened, I immediately thought about the uses of this tool. My first thought went to my students who are being served by our Special Education department and how they might benefit from this tool. I used to teach Classical Humanties and I thought how a student who was struggling with the text of the poem and how they might benefit from listening while reading along with the audiobook. I also thought about how I would love to listen to books while travelling. This is going to be a tool that is used by this woman.

#21 Podcasting Joy

I am feeling like a broken record. I really like this tool and I believe that I will be using this one in class. I do have a question, the assignment on the Ning, it said that you can add the RSS feed into you Bloglines account. Is that possible to do that in Blogger? Just wondering.
Well, I located two podcasts that I would like to use in class.
The first one is entitled "Great Speeches in History." I am currently teaching American History and I would like my students to actually hear the words out of the mouths of the orators and then I could see them blogging in response to what they hear.
http://odeo.com/channels/171803-Great-Speeches-in-History/episodes

Next, I found a podcast called Japan Considered. This one is good for both my Asian Humanities class and for my own personal use, as I will be travelling to Japan this summer. I am excited to listen to more of these in order to prepare myself for my journey.
http://odeo.com/channels/40295-The-Japan-Considered-Podcast

Another great tool! Thanks!

#20 Blessed by You Tube

This is a tool that I have been using alot for my classes already this semester. I am so grateful that the "powers that be" have allowed us access to this tool this year. There are certainly some things on You Tube that would not be very useful in the classroom. Our adminstration has decided to offer access to the students as well as the teachers and I personally applaud that decision. Students have utilized clips in my classes in order to enhance their presentations.

The clip that I chose for this assignment is called the "Top Ten Live TV Freudian Slips." This clip is actually perfect for my psychology classes. I teach a unit in those classes devoted to Freud and his ideas. Often, I have tried to come up with a good example of a Freudian slip for my students and this video (although a bit racy) is perfect to show this Freudian theory to my classes. They are all juniors and seniors, so I feel that I could show it to them without being too offensive.
Here is the link to the video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEIslG2McpA

I have to relate one quick story about You Tube. I added a unit on the study of Serial Killers to my psychology classes and we were watching a segment from the A and E Biography about Ted Bundy. My seventh hour was sitting in the dark watch a clip about a total sick and twisted human being. We were all leaning forward and totally enthralled by the horror in front of us, when down the hall came the FCHS choir singing "Joy To The World." My students and I all cracked up. It was hilarious.

Thing #19 Experimenting the Learning 2.0

Well, hello out their in web land. Well, after looking around at the winners of the Web 2.o winners and goofing with a couple of them, I decided to create something I needed and needed now. Like I have written about, my students are completing a service learning project for psychology class. The party is the Friday and I need them to sign up for their shifts. I decided to visit the PB Wiki site and make a wiki for my students to sign up on. I will be gone on Monday, as well, so I am going to have my student teacher give the kids the instructions on how to sign up. I have added the link to the page here so you can go and check the tech. I can see where a lot of these tools have the great possiblity to help me in my classroom, I just need to get more comfortable with them and then I will hopefully utilize them more. I will let you know how this wiki pans out.

http://holmesservicelearning.pbwiki.com/Holiday-Party-at-LCMH

Thanks,
Elaine

Comment on Thing #18

Well, that was remarkably easy. It switched over with no problem. This is amazing stuff.

Elaine

Thing #18 ZoHo Dreaming

ZoHo Writing Experiment

 

This is yet another coincidence in my learning world. About a month ago, I had a parent of student call me all excited about just this type of web based goodness. What I realized as he was talking about it, was that I had absolutey no idea what he was talking about. He had just been to a conference where he had learned about these web-based products that allowed all student access to such applications and he had all these grand visions about the potential savings to the district by having our students do their work in this environment. I now see why he was so excited. We don't all have to go and by the latest Mircosoft Office package in order to complete out assignments. I really like the idea that I could have my students create a common document for a group project that they could collaborate on using something such as ZoHo writer. I just had a thought...this wouldn't be blocked by the smut filter would it? I am not using a school computer as I am at a conference. I will have to check that possibility out when I return to school in a couple of days. Back to my conversation with the parent...because I had no idea what he was talking about, I referred him to the IT department. I am now going to attempt to move this blog over to my blog site using this program. Wish me luck.

 

Thanks,

Elaine