Farewell 23 Things!

This has been a great experience!

The idea of an open ended PD seemed rather daunting but proved to allow an extra freedom in working at your own speed and in your own time. I especially appreciate everything Dylan has put into this program, most notably his patience and aide!

Using this opportunity to work with two of my beloved teacher mentors has given me support, encouragement and creative energy I never expected to get out of a technology PD... and that is may favorite part!

Thanks Dylan this was great!

Week 11: Things 22 and 23

Online Productivity!

This was really fun. Jodi, Bonni and I shared a document and LOVED that we were able to watch as the other people typed or edited our work. You can even see every cursor click on the document!
This was a great surprise. I had no idea that a Google Document could be edited in real time with other people.
The uses this could lend itself to are exciting!

BRAIN WAVE!
You could use this to monitor student work in the computer lab. Having each student signed in or a group signed in you could watch as they did any of their work! Everything from watching students type their names or find letters to editing each others work at a higher level. This is a great resource for a teacher trying to keep an eye on, or understand how, their students are working on a document.

This technology is also a great resource for professional development or collaboration among your peers. Any document that a group or group member is working on can now be access or viewed by other members. For instance, the PTA could have access to view what each committee member is allowed to edit. This frees up so many issues that always come up when working on the same task with a group.
I'm really more excited about this one Thing, than any before. I had always been told the splendid wonders of Google Documents and my actually using it, was long overdue.
This is great!

Week 10: Things 20 & 21

I really enjoyed searching through TeacherTube!
It was cool to search through vidos that were all educationally focused and appropriate for school. This is absolutely a resource to use more in the classroom!
The search functions in TeacherTube are... sad, but they work! and the content is getting better and better!

I love this video... even though its basically useless in Kindergarten, it's great!


Here's a more useful video!
A coin song!



This is an idea similar to what we use in class. A simplified idea for the beginning of the year!

Week 9: Things 18 & 19

Podcasts are a fun idea!

Had trouble with Juicer, resorted to iTunes the good ole' clean white empire came through in the clutch other than some glorious Ask a Ninja podcasts, we found some on all sorts of topics:
Everyday Food (from PBS) Cooking always is a hit with Early Childhood! Following directions and measuring and all that jazz... especially when it's grilled cheese!
Nature (from PBS) When learning about nature and animals, having a trusted site like PBS sending new videos like this one can always make a lesson more interesting.
Reading Rockets This site interviews authors of children's books and experts in the educational field. This could allow students to learn more about what an author is or the people behind the books they love. It also has a great depth of information from the literacy world.
iTunes educational podcast section also has everything from educational resources to books being read by authors or students. It's a great resource!

Parents would love to hear their students reading stories and being able to share them with people online.
Students could use it to find or share information they're learning about in the classroom.
Possibilities are endless...

Week 8: Things 16 and 17

Tags and Folksonomy!
 My delicious site is http://www.delicious.com/mrmvmchenry
We loved how easy it was to share sites and ideas with each other! Just adding a friend send them the link!
Gives you direct link to sites you know you can use.
Allows you to save a bookmark and pull it up again from any computer. The tags help you organize what you've saved so they aren't just lost in everything else I've saved.

It wasn't what we expected but it's a great resource I plan on using!

Week 7: Thing 14 & 15

So Animoto was cool so ... we got pretty serious about this thing.
Hopefully, we should be posting 3 DIFFERENT videos in the next few minutes...
Whooo!
So here it is! A special video made just about these 23 Things!


Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Week 6 (Things 11 - 13)

Images!
There's more to the world than just Google Images...
Flickr or Photobucket would be a great way to share pictures from class with Parents! I'd suggest a private group of parents for each year to share that years pictures.
These sites would also be great to have students post pictures of their progress on a project or even make a photo diary! (A 'Take Home Bear' or 'Flat Stanley' adventures!)
Really useful ideas for all levels!

Week 5: Things 9 & 10

After considerable frustration trying to use an RSS feed from any major media site... I turned to blogs!
RSS is a great tool to be kept updated on news or blog posts from favorite sites.

BBC
educatednation.com
The Children's Book Blog
GJSD 23 Things! Whooo!
Craft Jr.



Also, more blocked sites! Hooray!

Week 4: Thing 7

The beginning of the great Wiki Exploration.
While it was difficult to find early elementary teachers using wikis... they have the potential to be a good resource to collaborate with other teachers, map the units and activities you do throughout the year, or two involve parents in classroom learning.

Maybe I'll have to make my own wiki to put links for the other ideas...
unless you know of one?!

Week 3: Things 5 &6

Exploring educational blogs:

1. This blog is written by a former Kindergarten teacher now working at Discovery Education. It's mostly his musings about life on the internet; what's relevent now and how it's effecting children or students. So far it seems to have some interesting topics.
        http://www.teach42.com/

2. I'm really excited about helping another teacher start using her iPad with her class. This directed us toward Fraser Speirs' http://speirs.org/ and his listings of how you could use different technology in your classroom, or how his project on using iPad's in classrooms is going.

3. Written by a science teacher as a place for dialogue or discussion about education topics, but also follows some of the "experiments" going into their class. http://www.nucleuslearning.com/

4. Great topics!! Each post is a discussion of a new topic related to education. Questions like: Should cell phones be allowed on assignments and assessments? or What do Administrators need from teachers? http://dangerouslyirrelevant.org/ discusses some great questions!

5. This blog began as a place to show teachers how to integrate technology into their teaching so the early posts are very focused on this (Years of posts, honestly). The most recent posts however, have started to follow the thinking of the author from his current administrative stand point... and it's still interesting! http://technosavvy.org/

6. I have no idea what this blog is about but I've been enraptured by the explanation of drop.io http://fiftynineminutes.blogspot.com/ something I've heard about but didn't comprehend. It's awesome.
Start at http://drop.io/

7. Thoughts about gifted learners. http://anotsodifferentplace.blogspot.com/

8. Kindergarten blog! Exciting stuff happening in "Cindy"s Classroom. http://kdgroom102.blogspot.com/

Just the beginning!

Week 2: Things 3 and 4

Blog Created!
Happy Birthday dear, Blog!
Happy Birthday dear, Blog!
Happy Birthday dear, Blooooooog!
Happy Birthday dear, Blog!