I have stated this in a previous blog, but using social media is 100% a great way to remind students about assignments that are due. I am completely for using social media in the classroom. I am also a firm believer in setting up a private page for yourself and a different page for your students.
I know one thing to keep my back side covered would be that I would be willing to give my social media passwords to my principals at any point in time.
I am not a member of any other social media communities besides Twitter and Facebook, but I do plan on joining two from the list we were given. The first would be Classroom Ning. This website has a compilation of lesson plans and classroom activities posted by other teachers. When I went on this site it was President’s day. There were a variety of age group activities specifically centered around this holiday.
As I have stated in other blogs, I plan on being an English teacher. So of course I enjoy a good book, and I find scrolling through Books-a-Million to be a daunting task because I have read the majority of the books offered. I found GoodReads to be amazing, and plan on using it literally as soon as I get done with this blog. It will take into account books I have recently read and suggest books that I will probably enjoy. I cannot wait to become a member of this site!
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Thing 18
One thing I learned from my observations in the classroom was how important it was to apply the technology in your classroom. The teacher I was with had a twitter account in which she posted everyday about what homework assignments were due the next day. When the students went home to get on the social websites, there were constant reminders for things that needed to be done.
I have never had a twitter account, but I have often read websites about the twitter fueds that go on with celebrities.
There wasn’t much insight to be gained from joining this website. For me it was basic. People have so many characters to say something that they think is profound and then wait for the next jolt of inspiration. For me the hashtag search did not pull as many items as I thought it would. Most of my search pulled political icons like the US Department of Education. I know that I will use my twitter account to post homework for the day, and to ensure that my students follow the twitter account I will also post bonus questions throughout the week.
There wasn’t much insight to be gained from joining this website. For me it was basic. People have so many characters to say something that they think is profound and then wait for the next jolt of inspiration. For me the hashtag search did not pull as many items as I thought it would. Most of my search pulled political icons like the US Department of Education. I know that I will use my twitter account to post homework for the day, and to ensure that my students follow the twitter account I will also post bonus questions throughout the week.
Thing 17
I found social bookmarking to be something like the website pinterest.com, and when I first started using this website I feel in love. Social bookmarking is a major time saver, and it allows you to narrow your focus drastically when discovering the many things that the internet has to offer. I do not know of a use for social bookmarking as part of my curriculum, but I could find a use for it when discovering new things to add to my curriculum. I feel that teachers could take advantage of social bookmarking by organizing websites into categories specifically for things in your classroom. I used the website pinterst to organize ideas for birthday parties, and it drastically cuts down on research time, and keeps all your ideas organized. I would imagine that Delicious could be used in the same manner for lesson plans, and classroom activities.
Thing 16
The start page that I decided was best was from Symbaloo. I toured Ustart and Netvibes, but these seemed to be almost empty once I filled out my interest. I am a minimalist at heart, and I try to disconnect on a regular basis. It’s not that I am not opposed to technology, but I don’t let it take over my life. When it comes to things to tour out and use for personal life I pretty much stop with facebook. I use the internet for quick reference and research purposes, and that’s mainly why I decided to go with the start page from Symbaloo. Everything I need from the internet was directly off the home page. I did set this as my home page.
I use the online calendar Upto, on my phone regularly. I keep a record of things due for school, my son’s doctors’ appointments, and work events. I have not used the option to share my calendar with others as I don’t plan events with others often enough to have use for it. I feel like it would be useful with any type of big event. For instance, I was in an elaborate wedding recently, and since there were four parties leading up to the day of the wedding, an online calendar to plans these events would have been useful. The next event that I am in that is on that magnitude, I will suggest using a collaborative online calendar. The other tool that I chose was my stickies. I already use a form of sticky notes on my computer. I have done this for many years. At work, I realized how the sticky notes simply didn’t stick like I needed them to. This is a great application because the notes are always behind whatever you are working with on the computer.
I use the online calendar Upto, on my phone regularly. I keep a record of things due for school, my son’s doctors’ appointments, and work events. I have not used the option to share my calendar with others as I don’t plan events with others often enough to have use for it. I feel like it would be useful with any type of big event. For instance, I was in an elaborate wedding recently, and since there were four parties leading up to the day of the wedding, an online calendar to plans these events would have been useful. The next event that I am in that is on that magnitude, I will suggest using a collaborative online calendar. The other tool that I chose was my stickies. I already use a form of sticky notes on my computer. I have done this for many years. At work, I realized how the sticky notes simply didn’t stick like I needed them to. This is a great application because the notes are always behind whatever you are working with on the computer.
Thing 15
I found it a bit complicated at first on actually registering to get access to the wiki. Once I figured that part out it was a simple task to edit and add to the page. I found it interesting to read others responses. I simply posted a link to my blog, and informed readers as to my decision. I could see using wikis to have students post to it as a group discussion over different reading assignments. The class that I observed had groups read for a “book club” assignment. I could use assignment like that and add the wiki to post thoughts about certain sections each week.
Thing 14
When looking at the different styles of flowcharts and maps that Web 2.0 has to offer, I immediately gravitated towards the bubbl .com maps. I went through the examples that the website had to offer, and the examples that were shown immediately fit a need for my classroom. The first example was a visual map of ways to describe dogs. I started thinking of how I could use this style of mapping for every part of speech that is used in multiple ways. The second example was a map process of the steps to writing that include prewriting, drafting, etc. Obviously, this is something I could use in my classroom. I could blow it up for a poster, or use it as a handout for starting a writing lesson.
The second tool that I chose was also a mind map through mindmeister.com. I felt I could use this one in the classroom as well. In one of my observation classrooms, the teacher had a lesson in which the students would have an open discussion over chapters that were read for the week. She did little to steer the discussion, and the students were simply openly discussing the book. There was no note taking. I felt that I would use this open debate in my classroom. I could see myself using this website while the students were openly discussing the topic, and then using the presentation mode during the next discussion to refresh the class of what was discussed last time.
I did not see much use for flow charts in my field.
Thing 13
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1TGSAcnLGALKFdsgntZ2J4cu7fSS-A3cuO9Lp44y8CdA/viewform
The link above is a simple form that I set up using google drive. I just created a form asking who was planning on attending a museum field trip. If I were to actually send this form out, let’s say to parents of all my students, google drive also allowed the option to create a spread sheet for the responses that I received. This program would collects all forms, and analyze the data for me. That seems like a key time saver when it comes to organizing a field trip, chaperones for a dance, or even teachers who are working towards a goal together. A way in which my students could use google drive in the classroom could be through the google drive presentation application. I myself, could have used it in my class last semester. My group had a presentation in which we were going to make a power point. Everyone in the group lived at a minimum of thirty minutes from Austin Peay State University. If we were to have used the presentation collaboration, we could have worked on the website at our own homes. Since the others were uncomfortable with this technology, we spent time in the library after a three hour class, working on the presentation. This information would help my high school students who don’t have access to a vehicle to collaborate in the privacy of their homes. When looking at the Zoho applications, there seemed to be quite a bit more options than the google drive options. The options included more business features. For the classroom, I would prefer google drive since most students will already have a gmail.com account set up for their smart phones. Also I feel it is important to show the students what they overlook in the websites they are already using.
The link above is a simple form that I set up using google drive. I just created a form asking who was planning on attending a museum field trip. If I were to actually send this form out, let’s say to parents of all my students, google drive also allowed the option to create a spread sheet for the responses that I received. This program would collects all forms, and analyze the data for me. That seems like a key time saver when it comes to organizing a field trip, chaperones for a dance, or even teachers who are working towards a goal together. A way in which my students could use google drive in the classroom could be through the google drive presentation application. I myself, could have used it in my class last semester. My group had a presentation in which we were going to make a power point. Everyone in the group lived at a minimum of thirty minutes from Austin Peay State University. If we were to have used the presentation collaboration, we could have worked on the website at our own homes. Since the others were uncomfortable with this technology, we spent time in the library after a three hour class, working on the presentation. This information would help my high school students who don’t have access to a vehicle to collaborate in the privacy of their homes. When looking at the Zoho applications, there seemed to be quite a bit more options than the google drive options. The options included more business features. For the classroom, I would prefer google drive since most students will already have a gmail.com account set up for their smart phones. Also I feel it is important to show the students what they overlook in the websites they are already using.
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