Thing 24

The last thing. I have really enjoyed going through all these things. It was nice that all these tools were all together in one place. I feel like - as I have said before on this blog - for a long time I had checked out of technology. I was burned out after years of dealing with computer stuff. So I abandon technology for a while. I also felt that I would never really be able to jump back on that train - it moves so fast. Doing these 23 things has reinvigorated me. I remember all the things I enjoyed about technology and computers. I even want an iPad. They seem fun now. Before I thought no, never, no thanks. I am done with all that business.

This has been fun. The only thing I can think to offer is to encourage people not to use their primary email when signing up for all this stuff. I am not getting overloaded with spam and stuff, but every time the apsu sandbox gets alter - I get an email. I am getting a few weird emails - it is a super small amount. But I wish I had used another account. I have no excuse - I knew better. I have emails for this sort of thing.

I feel like in the end I have a running start in order to jump back on the train. I was really surprised to find I no long was sick of all the tech stuff, and that it was fun again. I am happy to know that it is fun when no one is knocking on my door to say a "database or server or whatever has crash and I didn't save any of my work for the past 2 hours. Can you get it back for me?"Using these things to keep me organized will be key, I think. This semester the biggest thing I have learned while observing in schools is organization is huge. It changes everything. I love little tools to help me do this. I am sure I will hold on to these things. Most especially my del.ici.ous account. I love that. That is by far my favorite. I also love all my new blogs. They are my second favorite. I especially like the ones that come to my email every morning. I am so happy to see them everyday. Awesome. I know I will keep going with this stuff now that I have restarted. I can't stay away. As for my blog, we will see. I am so busy right now, but I like having this little place to put things - even if it is just for me.


One last thing. Just for me
Sarah Kay - If I should have a daughter.

Thing 23

I really liked the Duke University students comic book. I found it helpful in understanding all this stuff. I also learned just how complicated it all is. I was surprised by how much many of the musicians, etc asked for use of their work. And while reading this I thought this is crazy. Like the main character, what has happened to artists? Are we all so greedy? But thinking about it I came to the conclusion that it isn't all that simple. This is complicated and there are people who do things unfairly. And, I know from close friends, that students today do not respect or understand the idea of taking from the internet and using as your own work. It is shocking how lightly this subject is taken. So the more I think about it, this should be taken seriously. The internet and computers makes it so easy to plug in other people's hard work into your own.

I have certainly learned that as a teacher I must be careful. I will have to look for this creative commons license. And I also have to not be afraid to ask for permission. It is true that I never really thought to hard about this before now. As an English major many years ago it was the sin of all sins to take another writers work and put it in your paper. I am a bit horrified at how easily people do it so openly, get caught and think nothing of it. I had not transferred this idea to pictures and music before now. It is stealing from another person. As a teacher I think it is important to model the correct use of other people's work - even if it means my work is not quite as cool as it could have been. The idea that I had to modify is a teaching and learning moment too.


*Note: This project is loosely based upon the website 43Things (which allows you to set and track personal goals) and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006).

CREDITS

Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachersis based on Learning 2.0 - 23 Things, a staff development program for theMesquite Independent School District. That program was based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.

Thing 22

I made three binders. The first one I made was for my Just So Stories Unit plan in 5501. Because while going through the tutorial I thought this is perfect for lessons. Just perfect. And right now all that lesson plan stuff is floating around in my head and needs to be organized. The second one I made was for me right now. It was a Math 1410 binder. I have tons of math webpages to help me study and get through my math homework. It was nice to see many of them in rows. I foresee my Math binders becoming multiple binders with more specific topics. But for now this one works for what I need. The last binder I made was for all the education resources, blogs, lessons, etc I have found. And going through many of those I found things I had totally forgotten about!! Some really cool stuff was buried at the bottom of my bookmarks folder for this. It is good to see the best spread out on the tabs. Much easier to see and use. I picked the ones that could be of help to me through this last part of the semester. This could also be used to group together websites for certain problem areas that students have. Like for the assessment assignment, when looking for websites that could help students improve in certain standards I didn't find just one website - I usually found several games, instructions, stories, etc. This could be a great tool to group those all together and have students go through them on the computer. In the end, I see these binders as being a huge help to organize a teacher, as well as being extra practice to help students master certain skills. For now, I see it has a huge help to get me through all my school projects.

Just So Stories

Thing 21

This was a lot of fun to make. I can certainly see myself spending lots of time uploading and seeing what comes of it. I can also see paying for longer videos. This was incredibly easy to use. I can see how this could be a lot of fun in the classroom and inspire creativity in students. I can also see using this to celebrate their accomplishments. I can see incorporating this into Holiday parties to show them how far they had come and all the great work they had done so far during the year. I could see students being excited about seeing themselves as well as their classmates on the big screen.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Living Room Dance

Thing 20

I use YouTube often right now with my Math 1410 online class. We are required to make videos of ourselves explaining different math concepts. They have to be uploaded for the class to watch. This is the first time I have had to create a video of myself and share it. I get a little nervous about that. I have watched many, many videos on YouTube, though. All the old cartoons from when I was a kid are on there - Charlie Brown and such. We used to play them for our son when we didn't have cable. I have also found so many videos that have helped fix household problems. But mostly I use it for music. Just recently I added this video to my FaceBook account:

Danny MacAskill - "Way Back Home"

I like to watch this before I take a math quiz. It makes me feel like the impossible is possible.

I have found recently that YouTube was a huge help in explaining math concepts I am confused about or have just forgotten. I have also found a cartoon version of many of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories which is helpful for my 5501 project. I find that some times with these old stories a video can help stick it in students minds after reading the story. This Kipling video is extremely accurate so it would be helpful. In the end I love YouTube. It is always there to help me out. I even used it to help potty train my daughter. There are bad things about it, but I think the good out weighs it.

Thing 19

I have never joined any other social networking site outside of Facebook. I liked looking at the food ones and was interested in the library one. I may join the library one, but I will probably not comment too often on either of these. I like to read things, but not always comment. I am totally sick of reading about politics and avoid it at this point at all cost. I would rather do almost anything than read the comments on Gather's site. I have to admit, though, most were above the usual super crazy weirdos who spend time commenting on those sites. That was good to see. Though - as my neighbor said - she is thankful for things like Leaf Chronicles website comment section for giving these folks an outlet. That is true - but I really would rather be blissfully ignorant of it all. As far as being a teacher, the library site would be the most helpful.

I also added my TeacherPop bling to my page. And uploaded my picture. This site looks interesting. I like that it is closed to students and is for teaching purposes.

Thing 18

I have had a FaceBook account for several years. In the beginning it was a lot of fun, but it has since deflated. It is really important that teachers understand these sites since their students are on them all the time. And even though teachers are not involved in their students social lives, these things are often the most influential things in a student's life. Teachers need to understand how things like FaceBook affect their students.

I didn't set up a Twitter account because the one thing I am sure about is that no one is interested in things I am doing all the time. And I feel like setting one goes completely against the grain for me. With FaceBook it feels more like interaction - even conversation at times. Twitter doesn't give me that feel. It is feels very alone - even lonely.

I know from teachers who teach older students that they routinely have to "ignore" student's request for friendship. Which I believe is the right thing to do. But I also know many parents of elementary school teachers who have "friended" their child's teacher. I would feel weird about that - like I was invading their privacy. The thing I like least is that these sites blur the lines of "friendship." I love and care about my family, but I don't always want them in butting into a conversations between me and my friends. I miss that I used to be able to hold that line pretty well. Now it is much harder. Of course I can block them, but it is such a hassle to do all this. At the same time it is easier to share news and pictures with them - and feel like people are part of my life I rarely see. I guess, though, in the end I would prefer to keep things separate - with some of my family members. But there is no going back once the door is opened. I can't "unfriend" people. That feels mean and cold - and I don't want to do that. I think for teachers it would be a really tough spot to be in to be friended by a parent. I would really, really not want to accept it. When I become a teacher  I have promised myself to hold that line or delete my account.

Thing 17

Del.icio.us could be a huge help to teachers. Like the tutorial said there are huge amounts of sites out there and it is totally overwhelming. Doing my Unit Plan and Lesson Plans for 5501 I have found tons of stuff I think "wow! that is awesome." I bookmark it and think - gosh I hope I can find that again in that black hole of a bookmark section I have. Sometimes I can find things, but really I have to remember they are there. THis does not always happen, so having the tags would be huge. Having all the worksheet ideas for math, language arts, social studies, or science put together and divided into subsections sounds like a huge time saver and mind saver. The sharing function would also be beyond helpful. Why re-invet all these searches. You know that other teachers who have been teaching longer have done the leg work, borrow from them. Another time saver and mind saver.

After reading about the Del.icio.us site I created an account - immediately. My bookmarks are a mess. I find so many useful things, bookmark them, and then spend forever looking for them or forget they exist. I love the idea of tagging them and organizing them like in a file cabinet. That seems so much more useful then my current system - which is more black hole-ish. I also liked the idea of going through other people's bookmarks. Help with research! Awesome. Also a huge time saver. This might be my favorite "thing" yet. I am a bit of a hoarder - not like those people on tv, but I like to keep things "just in case." I have too many bookmarks and folders, etc. It is an unhelpful mess. All these sites I "keep" might be helpful, but I cannot find them or don't remember them. Maybe this will organizing can continue into my house. I would love to get things nicely organized there like my new Del.icio.us bookmark site.

I see huge potential for this being helpful in the classroom. It can be neatly organized - even divided into units. A click of the button you are at the sites you need to show examples, print worksheets, get information. I can also see borrowing from other teachers and building upon or incorporating other ideas into what you have.
yep, I am sure after working with my new Del.icio.us site - it is my favorite.

http://www.delicious.com/catherinemshea

Thing 16

I chose the yahoo start page. I made one in google and yahoo, but the yahoo one is something that I use most often. I even pulled some of my favorite blogs and recipe updaters into that. I like the homepage better than the news feed. It included the weather, my email, facebook, etc. I think I will make it my homepage. It does contain most of what I go to the computer for.

I tried remember the milk. At first I thought there is no way I will ever type all the things I need to remember in here. That will take too much time. I like the idea of these things, but in practice I always drop the ball. Maybe if I had an iphone. Well, there is always a million reasons for an iPhone. I thought at first the reality is I will start this and never update it. Then I saw the share feature. I thought well if I used this with another person to coordinate that might work out. I thought teachers could work together on projects with this. I like the that these things and the calendar send me messages to my email. I do find that hugely helpful, but I am doubtful about me remembering to update these devices. I did like the check off box on don't forget the milk - that is the best part of lists. Crossing things off!

I made a calendar in another post -
calendar

It has been emailing me things I need to remember, and I really like it. After this project I plan to keep it just between me and my husband so we can share it. We struggle to remember each others schedule as well as our children's ever increasing schedules.

Thing 15

I checked out many of the wiki sites listed for Thing 15. Many of them were really neat ideas. I really liked the book wikis from the library. I have recently started just a word document of all the great books I read to my kids. I don't want to forget them. I would love to have other people contribute to this list. The library is so full of great stuff and I feel like I read 10 great children's books a week (and 20 ok ones). Then I give them back and its like they fall into an abyss. Never to be heard from or seen again. I think about the great, great ones often. But many I forget. This could be so useful - if organized well. Which is the big part! As noted by teachartlearntech in her thing 15 - it is a little chaotic in the 23 things sandbox. Which - as she also noted - is kind of the way it goes with a blank place to post. And that could be useful - giving people a bulletin board place to post is very useful. But I guess what I am envisioning is a little different.

I added to the Sandbox on 23 things this link:
I admit I have not - before now - included this in my blog, but I really wanted to because I love this project. I sleep with my books which drives my husband crazy. Even though these days I get very little time to read, they are such an important part of my life. I hope to instill this kind of love of books in at least a few students. I also love sharing crazy, amazing projects with students. They are so inspiring. I hope one day to have a bed like this!!

heartanddesign.blogspot.com

Thing 14

First I made a flow chart from Giffy -

Venn Diagram for The Beginning of Armadillos

This is connected to a real project I am working on in another class. I like this and think it would really nice to use in a real classroom. Very user friendly. I didn't have to give them too much information. So far, Giffy is my favorite. 

I am struggling with mindmapping - I am not sure my brain works with mindmapping. I have been staring at it for some time. I keep coming back to it, though. I think it looks cool and seems like if I found the right project it would be wonderful, but without that I don't know where to begin. 

Thing 13

I checked out Google Docs which I have been meaning to do for some time. It does look just like word - it may be missing some of the super special features, but reality is that most people never use those. Most of us need a few basic features from Microsoft and all the other stuff just wilts and is never used. This Google docs thing is awesome. Perfect for schools. Especially with Microsoft being so incredibly expensive. If you can get students to computers outside of classrooms you cannot always get them to expensive word processing, presentation, or spreadsheet software. This is an awesome way around it. No license problems, you can save right there in google - at least for a certain amount of time and space. This is an awesome educational tool. I admit I prefer google docs because it is familiar. I got lost and was - honestly - impatient with Zoho. I plan to give it another try.

I remember when these things were first coming out. Everyone turned their noses up at them - they can't be as good as the "real" microsoft thing. They were then and they are now. I was at one of the non-profits I have worked for in the past and no one wanted to use this stuff - even though all they were doing was typing a document. Because it was impossible to buy them all licenses they hand wrote everything. It was silly. Most of us don't need all the amazing things all these programs can do - it is just a waste. I am going to point my parents to this - I don't know why I didn't think of it before. It is easy to use, no loading anything, buying anything - or calling 800 times to ask questions about it - just kidding.

I made a form in google docs in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday day.
The Foot Book Form

The answers to the form are stored in a spread sheet in google docs in my account. And that is just cool.