Seasoned Hiker

In the pass blogs I have already shared my new favorites “Between the Lines” (NPR broadcasts ) and I still want to share what I have found on this site, one more time. Did you ever hear of Lucy Brewer AKA George Baker? No? Then try this “A Few Good Women” . Enjoy.

Have you tried eLearning Technology? Why? Well how about learning how to have an on line conference. Here it is – 19 tips for Effective Online Conference or Wikis and Learning.

Try Teacher Reboot Camp and find “6 Reasons to Attend Free E- Conference”. We were asked to explore the power of Twitter. Here is a reason Why “…Did They Tweet?” or “Tips and Tools to Manage Your Twitter”

Our Google reader is a treasure and we have to continue to make time to open and use this tool.

“Powerful”

Ten weeks of hard labor and that was the sentence; for any teacher wanting to grow and increase one’s toolbox with new tricks. The class was fantastic; tools, video clips, examples and all real life.  I had to read through my papers to remember how much I did,whew! I still ask myself “I did that?” and many times “How?’ I have already promised that I will review web sites used during class to increase my understanding. I have already started using Google docs at work  and have showed my teaching partner how to create and use Google docs. This was number seven under “Lifelong Learning”. After serving this sentence I’m sure I will continue to be a model teacher.

Thanks

I always thought that “social networking” was just that – social forum. A place that you could meet others with the same interest. I had not thought of it as a pool of interested peers sharing on the same topic. Sharing ideas, web sites, interesting lesson plans the list becomes endless. When I saw Classroom 2.0 I took the bait.  But, once again it all becomes a matter of time. Which new tool to use? How do I use it? I am happy to report that Google docs is a tool I’m using with this year’s coaches. I have created excel spreadsheets for our coaches to use to plan their practices. Each coach will be able to schedule their days for practice and it will be visible to all teams  – an activity this is now out of our hands. I will still print the schedule and have it available as a hard copy and posted on my bulletin board. Thanks Google docs.

Thanks to our professor for giving us an optional “Thing” to do or not to do. It was a late “4th of July” morsel.  In our first class we talked about being a life long learner and we had to write on the most challenging  strategy for life long learners.  I choose #5 “… toolbox” What tools do I need and what tools are out there for our success? The answer is endless. Pageflakes looked close to delicious and I’m still trying to get my hands around the latter.  I’m sure that after feeling more confident with delicious I will attempt my hand at “Pageflakes”.

“One day late one dollar short”

I have been part of a group of athletic directors working on a grant for the Phoenix schools. We have shared tons of emails and edited two full trees of paper. If only … You are right. Google docs would have saved us days of time and bottles of aspirins. There is no doubt that this class has a wealth of information. You have already heard ,” if I had only taken this class earlier.” Well it’s true. I have been invited to work on a re certification team next year and I will try to find a way to use Google docs in our process. The team is more than a hand full and if I can implement this edit and communication tool I’m sure we can get our work done smoother.

Experience “You Tube” like never before. Videos for different subjects and projects, just be patient,  drill down on your research and locate a jewel. Here is an example of last week’s experience.

Hiking In

Hiking out

In the early part of the year I have a project on USA presidents and I usually want a speech delivered by their choose. Some choose Abe Lincoln and usually they try to present his Gettysburg speech. Here is that examp

For me the use of teacher tube was a jack pod at the end of the rainbow. I don’t have MS office 07 or 10 and my student usually are already using  them at home.  Well guess what? Yes, in teacher tube I found lesson using the new applications. Whew! Have you tried movie maker. Success it just a click away. Good hunting.

This took some work. I was never happy with my recording, due to my microphone?,due to my lack of experience? I don’t know what it was, but it was disturbing. Maybe, I just don’t have a good voice. Then I had to figure the MP3 conversion in iTunes. I would copy and add file to library, then I could not find it. This took me a few times to figure out. I probably could not tell you how I did  it. The last step was a lot smoother. I was surprise to have been able to accomplish the task . I will try this again. I can see me creating a intro to class using a podcast. Look out students Web 2.0 will hit our class.

This is a candy shop of knowledge. There is a variety of subjects and at no cost, all you have to do is ask, “is there a class on …?” My grandson is into snow boarding and skate boarding but, I found a site that blew him out of the saddle. It was surfing, you will not believe the size of that wave or what these surfers can do.  How about a site on beautiful places – especially if you like to hike. Have you heard of Alan November?,  he has great presentations on technology or do you like to use photo shop or would like to know how to use it, yes, there is a collections of podcast to be found. I will try to incorporate a class on a podcast that students can present to the class. I have tried to copy the link without success but, I figure the students can present on the smart board having the site open. It should open a new door using their ipod.

I start my school year by having the students prepare a PowerPoint presentation on books they read during the summer. I have them give the title, author and summary of the book. I also have them include a picture of the cover as part of their project. I will now have them include cover picture found in Library Thing. I will teach them how to research title , author, and Zeitgeist list.  I will also have them suggest other books written by the author. Lastly I will have them create a book list of books read during the year. No, I will not suggest a number of books, but, will remind them that the average American reader reads 5 books per year. I will start this project early and have the students carry over the books read and total the number read during their grade school experience.

http://del.icio.us/tedcruz37

I have heard and seen the program delicious but, never made the connection on how it could help me. I guess I felt asleep or the presenter never made it clear. But, I have seen the light. After creating an account I had a hard time saving the sites or “making tags” . I could not see the icons for creating tags on my menu bar,but, not to worry they were sitting next to the address bar. Once I found the icons tagging was easy. I had to find a process for finding, locating and opening the sites.  This will be a good tool for my peers – we can share successful sites.