Learning the Web

Final thoughts on the class:

Because of this class, I feel much more knowledgeable about the resources available through computers not only for my classroom, but also for everyday personal use.  Several of the tools I knew about, but wasn’t completely confident in how to use them.  I now feel like I can use these tools successfully and feel more “up to date” in the computer world.  I am glad to also have some new ideas to use with my students.  I have found more fun ways to do book reports and presentations.  I am still somewhat cautious about using things like Youtube because there are so many inappropriate things that students could find on there.  I guess I need to just get used to that and give them warning and guidance, but it’s just like anything in the world where they have to use discretion and make the right choices.  I am glad I took this class, and I would recommend it to other teachers as well.  Thanks Shelley!

My overall impression of Classroom 2.0 is that it seems to be a pretty useful tool for educators.  The tags were helpful in locating a topic quickly, and there are some really good videos such as the one on volunteer efforts with Katrina.  I also like the “hosts” who can help if you have a problem.  I probably will not join this just because it seems very time consuming.  I am on Facebook already, and I don’t really care to spend more of my time networking on the computer.  Although I was glad to find out what Twitter is all about, I doubt I will join it either.  I can see how it is helpful in the college classroom for students to tweet rather than speak in front of everyone.  However, I don’t really see any ways I would use this with my 5th graders.

I am glad I now know how to make a podcast!  I had heard of teachers at my school using it, but had no idea how it worked, so I’m glad to know.  I had some difficulty getting started because my home computer doesn’t have a microphone, but besides that it was pretty easy.  Some classroom uses I thought of are having students read a story or poem on a podcast, then listen and “grade” themselves on their tone and expression.  Students at my school have a weekly Bible verse to memorize, so they could say the verse on the podcast and listen to it repeatedly until they learn it.  One last idea is when talking about the topic of persuasion, they could make up a persuasive commercial on a podcast.

I listened to an interesting podcast by Grammar Girl that was about how to use parentheses, brackets, and braces correctly.  I felt pretty confident about the parentheses, but the brackets and braces I was not so sure about.  As an English teacher, I thought I should review it.  The parentheses enclose information that is not vital to a sentence.  A partial or full sentence can be put in parentheses.  Brackets are used within a sentence when you have already used parentheses and need to use them again.  Instead of having two sets, you use brackets.  Brackets can also be used to clarify language.  The third punctuation discussed was curly braces.  These are used in math and science.  No wonder I never use them!  They are used in problems as a third level of breaking up numbers after parentheses and brackets.  Now I know the difference between these often misused punctuation marks!

I found the Google Docs to be pretty easy to use.  I created a test for my class to take on their summer reading book.   I will probably print this off for them, but this could be used in a collaborative way if they could take the test on a computer at school.  For my spreadsheet, I made a student list with their birthdays.  I do not know much about using Excel, and I’m sure there is a lot more you can do with this, but all I know is to make a list of information.  Another use for this in the classroom would be checking off students when they bring in forms, homework, classwork, etc.  It would save a lot of paper too!

I had a hard time finding useful Youtube videos to use in the classroom. I tried to find something that would help teach language arts for 5th graders, but it was hard to find the right age level, and the ones I did find didn’t seem like a good fit to use with my students. For my “how to” I found some videos on cake decorating because that is something I like to watch and do. There were many good videos to watch on this topic. For fun I watched (again) a video that some of my former students made that is a remake of a Jonas Brothers video. It is really funny.

I was glad when I went to Teachertube and quickly found a video that would be very useful for my 5th graders. The past several years they have memorized and recited to the class “The Gettysburg Address”. My video post is of a man dressed as Abraham Lincoln reciting this along with some background information about the time period. It would be helpful for the students to watch this to gain an understanding of the time, dress, and correct tone of the speech. They could use Youtube to make a video of themselves reciting it and watch to see how they need to make changes with their own speech.

I like to download podcasts that I can listen to for spiritual encouragement and advice.  One of my favorites is Francis Chan who is the pastor at Cornerstone Church.  It is a great way to start the morning by listening to this on the way to school. That is my past experience with podcasts.  There are so many different topics that it is overwhelming!  One I saw that I could use for myself or possibly in my classroom is learning Spanish.  I would like to just know some basic words so I may download that one.  One that looked good for the classroom is Storynory.  It has all different types of stories for students to listen to, and then it could be discussed afterward to work on comprehension skills.  There is also one called Just Vocabulary which seems like a great way to work on vocabulary skills in the classroom- I just wish the words weren’t quite so hard.  It would be nice if they had a younger version for kids.  The last resource I want to mention is Kids Learn Out Loud where the kids can listen to chapter books if they have trouble reading silently.  You have to be careful though because not all of those are free!

This “thing” has opened my eyes to all the ways you can use podcasts for learning, and I hope to take an advantage of this in the future.

I really like LibraryThing!  I enjoy reading books, and I got some good suggestions from the site. From my observations of this site, many people are obsessed with books!  I can’t believe the time some people put into this!

What I like most about it is that you can type in the name of a book you have read and it gives you suggestions for other books you would enjoy.  I like that the suggestions are given by both LibraryThing and its subscribers.  You can get this information without even joining.

One way I could possibly use this with my students is with our monthly reading log.  The reading log is a goal the students have to read a certain amount of time each month- usually about 5 hours.  They record the books and time spent reading on a piece of paper that is signed by a parent and turned in for a grade each month.  The 50 Book Challenge on the Goals section reminded me of this.  We could perhaps replace the reading log with the 50 Book Challenge, but change the goal to make it more realistic each month.  The students could get suggestions for books they may or may not like from the site, and it would probably be more fun for them to do it on LibraryThing than on paper.  I’m still deciding if I want to join or not!

This was very easy-even for me- which made me like it and enjoy it!  I can see the benefits of this as opposed to just bookmarking because now I can see my favorite websites on any computer, not just my one at home.  It will be beneficial at school because it will save time from searching for sites.  Also, if I forget the name of a site, it’s OK, because it is right there for me to look up.

I started out looking for websites for 5th grade reading lessons, and I immediately found sites that looked great.  It is nice to see how many people marked them because that can help with judging if it is a really good site (sometimes, not always).  I also searched for baking sites because that is something I like to do outside of the “teaching world”.  My favorite websites were the first ones to appear!  Feel free to visit my link.  I will be adding more, but as of now, you can use it to find elementary lesson plans or baking ideas.

One of the Google reader articles I found most interesting was Life in a Day: A Cinematic Experiment. This article explains how two well-known and respected movie directors are asking people to film one aspect of their life on the date of July 24th. Anyone can submit an entry and upload it to YouTube channel. The directors will choose many different entries to be a part of one story about a day of life on earth. If your work is chosen, you will receive credit as co-producer of this movie.  Also, twenty people will be chosen to go to the Sundance Festival to represent the movie.  Sounds like a great opportunity for those interested in movie making!