Found it

I am trying to add a new page with a new post!

Late Night!

As I look around the kitchen, my late night working area because the table is big, I have now filled it with two computer a number of textbooks and school "stuff."  I look back on my growth in the blogging sphere.  I think that it takes a while to try and get comfortable writing to no one, yet everyone. Tonight I realized a needed a little fun in my blogs, something to make everyone smile. (therefore cartoon)
I started a blog last year with my enriched grade 10 social studies class because I wanted to engage my students more in classroom activities and why not use technology!  I had a number of students who had blogged previously and they were extremely helpful as peer tutors to those student that had no experience.  It was a short amount of time because I was not comfortable with blogging but I put my first foot forward.  I am excited to return to work in the fall  (after mat leave) and continue with blogging in the classroom.

Wiki

http://ged578.pbworks.com/w/page/25547858/Educational%20uses%20of%20wikis

 

Here is a video discribing what a wiki is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY

Two helpful tutorial videos:

http://www.slideshare.net/cliotech/wikispaces-tutorial-306220

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY
I started this journey to enhance my teaching and to help students see what new digital programs are out there.  Personally, I love the idea of Google docs, Google reader and Google calendar. Google docs is a great way to share information easily and a group of people can work on it simultaneously but I wanted to show other possibilities.   Wiki, meaning quick, is a tool that can have many authors and many participants.  This allows students to work on a projects together each having the ability to edit the work.  The project can be broken into parts allowing individual student to have a theme or topic and they can create their own page within the group wiki.  There are many great reason for using wikis, such as it fosters collaboration, creates common goals, and teaches new technology. These is also a great way to mark students on their individual effort within a group project.  As educators we can set up free private space for our classes. It takes less than a minute to sign up- http://www.wikispaces.com

Catching up to My Student Teacher!

The good old days of stand and deliver are over and the question is today, how do you make a presentation that people are going to sit on the edge of their sits and be engaged?  One of my goals as a teacher is to give my students some experience with presentation and use the variety of tools that are available.  For the most part my students are using power point but not all students have power point on their home computer, which creates some difficulty.  I had never heard of Prezi until I had a student teacher and she mentioned that she was going to make a Prezi and present her information in that form; she showed the students and I was lost. Prezi allows you to add links, graphics, texts, audio and video, which creates a much more stimulating presentation than power point. I found Prezi to be tricky to use in the beginning. The control is a "wheel" and it takes a bit of getting use to manuver but once you get going the information is constructed ont eh never ending white board. One of the "cool" features of the prezi is that it allows you to zoom in on objects and back out again. I think that Prezi will engage students because it is a new "toy" to stimulate the senses. If lost, there are numerous tutorials on line.

 I like Prezi because it is on line and students do not have to remember to bring their USB drive.

http://trendingeducation.com/?p=326

To Get you Started

I am always looking for some direction with technology and I found this website which had an interesting array of items, perhaps too many ads, but good info.  The site is similar to a blog but there are resources, google tutorials, hel with creating blogs and websites and much much more.


http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

It is a Small World!

I love living on the rainy West Coast of Canada but this is not where I started out!  I was born in southern Ontario, which consists of cold, cold white stuff.  What is that stuff… it is beautiful to see in pictures or when you are skiing but not on a daily bases.  The west coast is amazing and my mom and mother-in-law lives here but my sister and her family remain in Ontario on the family farm and all my extended family are there as well. I use to have lots of spare time to print pictures and send them but now my own growing family tends to keeping me extremely busy.  I need a digital tool that will let me organize my photos and share them easily with family and friends.  I had heard of Flickr before but have never attempted to use it.  
Flickr is owned by yahoo and you go to www.flickr.com and create a yahoo id and get started. You can upload video and or photos to share privately or publicly or you can search for photos or video via a place name and or subject matter.You can create titles for your photos and descriptions and sets that you photos go into.  It is not hard and even a beginner like myself can learn. It makes the world a smaller lace because you can keep in contact with people around the world witht he click of a button! There are a number of tutorials out there on line.  I have linked one such tutorial below!  

Good Luck- keep in contact with your friends and family!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re05530ulS4&feature=related

Learing to Read Digitally

Ok... it is true I am not keen on reading things online, I print most things off and read that way but I have a soon to be 4 year old and he loves to read and loves to play on the computer.  Why not join both of his favorite things together and create an educational experience.  I know this applies only to elementary school but reading bear seems to be a great idea.  I am going to experiment with my son and see if it is a hit!



http://www.readingbear.org/

What Google can do for you!

RSS, Docs, Calander


Well I am here to tell you that I had no idea all the things that google could do and I have not even explored all the options. I watched the following video to give me a sneak peek at what is available from an educators perspective http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvviWtyhms0.   I have been using google reader and have slowly expanded the number of blogs that I am following. I am expanding my interests to including not only school/work related topics but a few personal interest topics.  After viewing a classmate’s blog I added 1000 Awesome Things and I am continuously searching for new ones to add but I do not want to add too many at one time.  I am not sure that I can handle the overload all at once.  Google Reader can help keep busy teachers up todate with current articels, the latest technology and what is happening in the world around them.  Google also has an amazing calendar that sends me emails and tells me to do the things that are in the schedule, unfortunately I do not have a phone that my emails could go to, otherwise this would be a fantastic addition.  The one very exciting feature that I am using is google docs.  This is amazing for collaboration as a teacher and as a student.  Just yesterday a classmate and myself got together (other course) and worked side by side simultaneously on a project.  It was amazing.  Now we can add or edit the project as we work on it.  After my maternity leave I will introduce this concepts to my students (if they do not already use it) because it is much easy to work on a group assignment if everyone has ready access, rather then trying to email it back and forth to one another. If you have not tried it, I highly recommend it!

PS. I just read about iGoogle- something that I will have to look into!

Rant: Where is Education Going and How to Save Money!

I enjoy reading Will Richardson's blog http://willrichardson.com/post/12686013800/my-teacher-is-an-app and I found his response to this article http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204358004577030600066250144.html?KEYWORDS=My+Teacher+is+an+App passionate.  Will has a passion for teaching and is flabbergasted over how online high school is starting to replace "traditional" highschool. For me, the number of students that are now taking alomost or full time online courses in the USA is shocking.  This is happening, mainly, to save money.  Many teachers are losing their jobs and students have 3 hours to take a quiz???  What about all the other things that students learn from high school, punctuality, repsonsibility, social interaction, peer work ect...  Interesting article and response.

Julie

The Learning Commons

The Learning Commons

Current Event #7

The Universities in British Columbia have taken parts of their libraries and have created the Learning Common for twenty first century learning. The library is not just a place to access books but, now a place for other types of learning. The Learning Commons is driven by the students needs at the university and is trying to develop a sense of community. The Commons supports a wide variety of needs such as writing support, tutoring, and technology support. Some high school libraries are transitioning into Learning Commons and are trying to transition to process based learning and help develop students into better critical thinkers; this is been led by teacher-librarians.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BCLibraries?feature=mhsn#p/u/0/LglFl1BYfFs

liked this article

http://www.readingonline.org/newliteracies/lit_index.asp?HREF=/newliteracies/jaal/9-03_column/index.html

Many Many Tips!

Many, Many Tips!

Current Event #6

Looking for help to educate yourelf and your students about social media? There are 100 tips and tools for educators. I have not had the time to go through all 100 tips but the ones that I have lloked at are quite helpful.

http://career-advice.monster.com/job-search/Getting-Started/Keep-Your-E-Image-Clean/article.aspx

I took a peek at the above site and I thought it was interesting that your personal life can negatively affect your chance of getting a great job. It is important to realize that you need to think about what you put out there on the world wide web, you may regret it later in life. (or the next day)

http://www.teachingdegree.org/2009/06/22/100-tips-tools-and-resources-for-teaching-students-about-social-media/ (main site)

Some of the site no longer work but it is an interesting site to use as a reference.

Are you keeping up?

Current Event #5

Are You keep up?

Here are 10 things that you should be able to do! I found this to be interesting and I thought it might be helpful if you are trying any of these items for your inquiry project.

http://www.emergingedtech.com/2011/09/10-internet-technologies-educators-should-be-informed-about-2011-update/

More For Less: Current event#4

http://willrichardson.com/post/11368663119/a-pretty-sobering-and-realistic-look-at-the

Where did the money go? I know that this article is based in the United States but it is interesting because it is happen in Canada as well.  The government of British Columbia took 250 millin dollars out of the education budget in 2002.  This has started the discussion about schools doing more with less.  (in the 10 years that I have taught this is true)  When the superintendent mentions doing more "teaching" with technology, I thought this to be the most eye openings. His suggestion was blending “traditional” style learning with the technology.  What does this look like, is this beneficial to the majority of the students?  It bring up a number of questions.

The Unhappy Place

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/technology/educationaltechnology/884763-355/the_unhappy_place_what_libraries.html.csp

The

Unhappy Place

: What libraries can do to welcome kids who struggle with print

By Ira David Socol

This article points out what school libraries should offer to the students.  It is a reminder that today’s students are not from my parents’ generation or even my generation.  That was when the only option to read a book was to have a paper book in your hand.  There was not the option to have the book read to you or have a small hand held device to read from.  Great article to kick start school libraries!

Inquiry Project outline

1)      RSS/Blog Aggregators- google

2)      Flickr

3)      Wiki

4)      Voice thread

5)      Prezi

6)      Google docs

Demonstration:

I will create a photo journal for my family regarding our new son and the addition on our home.  (Oct.12)

RSS/Blog Aggregators (Oct 15)

Create a prezi on John A. McDonald (Oct 25)

Create a voice thread on (Nov 1)

Create a Wiki on (Nov 15)

Google docs (end of November)

I now realize that I am crazy!  I knew that having a second child I would be busy but somehow it seems to be worse then I imagined.   Normally, I am a high school teacher, who teaches social studies class, but I have had 1 block as a teacher-librarian. My comfort level with technology is quite weak and I have very little experience with technology.  I have always had little time and patience to learn but I realize that to be a better teacher I have to learn new technology and be able to pass the knowledge on to my students.

One of my goals is for personal reasons and my goal is to learn a photo-sharing program due to the fact that I just had a baby and I am completely renovating my house.   A great deal of my family lives in Ontario and it would be fantastic to share photos quickly, rather then send photo to everyone individually. If successful I would like to have my family learn the program as well and we will be a more connected family.

Another goal is to learn new technology that my students can use not only in the   classroom but eventually use outside of high school.  I have been reading a book which discusses the universal design for learning (UDL). According to Gargiulo and Metcalf in their book, Teaching in Today’s Inclusive Classrooms: A Universal Design for Learning Approach, the UDL is extremely powerful in helping not only the students that are on individual learning plans (IEP) but also students that feel more comfortable with different types of expressing themselves.  I would like to be able to offer my students a variety of opportunities and help them achieve the best that they possibly can.

I would also like the students (and myself) to use technology that they can work on simultaneously and not have to email the assignment back and forth; such as prezi, voice thread or wiki.  I believe that co-operative learning will always be in the education system and will be in the work place, therefore partner or group assignment are important in the educational system.  It is difficult for students to arrange time to get together, especially when attending post secondary school and for that reason it is important to have the tools to be able to time manage.  Having a document that everyone can work on would not be as time consuming because you would not have to email the assignment back and forth.

Long term, I would like to have the ability to share the technology knowledge that I gain with my colleagues.  As William Kist points out in his book, The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age, times are changing.  “Schools are going to have to move past whatever barriers exist… there can be no doubt that communicating in this new century is going to be different than communicating in the old century.” (Kist, 2010)  I would like to be one of the teachers that embraces new technology instead of ignoring the change.  I would like to come to a point of comfort with certain programs and than share the comprehension with both colleagues and students.

Reference List

Gargiulo, R. & Metclaf, D.  (2010). Teaching in today's inclusive classrooms: a universal design for learning approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Kist, W. (2010).  The socially networked classroom: teaching in the new media age. Thousand Oak, CA: Corwin.

Autobiography of a Tech User

http://prezi.com/iihu-8yoctxm/edit/#3

Lost

I am lost at trying to set this page up!  Wish me luck!

Julie