Thing 23 - That's All Folks!

My purpose for taking '23 Things' was to learn what my teachers were learning. Two heads are usually better than one as they say. I hope I can be of assistance to them if they need me, that was the goal.

Thing 22 - Online PD and this class

I do not need PD hours in my line of work, at least it isn't required of me. I do believe that everyone should try to stay current and should try to learn something new periodically. I love learning and using new things, I will definitely sign up for some of the classes offered in Michigan LearnPort. I'm especially interested in the courses about Using Technology in various classrooms like: Math, Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. My goal is to be as helpful in that area as humanly possible to the teaching staff in our district.

I have enjoyed this course. There are several items that I am sure I will share (and have already shared) with others and some I will continue using. There are also some items that I felt were not my 'cup of tea' like Twitter. I really didn't see the point and still feel as if I missed something. Why are people so enamored with this?

Anyway...I am glad I joined this group on a quest for knowledge.

Thing 21 - Human Calculator

Thing 21 - Multiplication Tricks

Thing 20

Subscribe Free  Add to my Page

Thing 19 - Podcasts

I listened to Dwight D Eisenhowers Farewell Address. Very cool to hear the address in his voice. http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html
I then listened to several childrens songs and flagged the site for my daughter who is both the director of a preschool and an elementary school teacher. http://freekidsmusic.com/
I also listened to Earth & Sky for Kids - a science site for children. http://www.earthsky.org/kids
I enjoyed these three sites and listened to several things on each of them.

I did pull up a site that wasn't what I expected, it was a poetry site. I had hoped for classic poetry like Robert Frost to be available in podcast, the poems I wanted to hear were only available as written work. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/tool.av.audio.podcast.html

I enjoyed the podcasting lesson very much.

I posted a new widget at the bottom of the screen because it is so large. I thinks it is a lot of fun, try it!

Thing 18 - Widgets

Not a fan of the cluster map (in right column) - if you accidentally click on the picture you go to their site and lose my site. But, you wanted it for Thing 18 so here it is.

I'd rather post something like this... useful information and you don't lose my site to see it.




I also added a widget to my wiki from Teacher Tube.

Thing 17 - Wiki Experience

I enjoyed making my own wiki and will probably keep it up. For those of you who are going to have Office 2007 thrust upon you in the near future it may help with the transition: http://technicallyspeaking.wikispaces.com/

The difference between a wiki and a blog is the fact that a blog is more like a daily diary. A blog is usually maintained by one person and is full of random thoughts, lots of postings, and is constantly changing. People can post comments to your blog but can't change the content of it unless you have given them your password.

A wiki on the other hand is a work in progress. Several people collaborating on a subject or idea. Anyone can make corrections or additions to the wiki for the good of the project.

Thing 15 - Colorado

I added a state to the mcisd wiki: http://mcisd21.wikispaces.com/Colorado

I don't know if it was my computer or what but I found that after adding a photo I had to save the page before I could continue. This made the process much longer than it probably needed to be.

I am partial to Colorado, Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods in particular. This is where my husband and I spent our honeymoon 31 years ago. We actually went horseback riding through the Garden of the Gods among the balancing rocks - it was absolutely stunning. We drove to the top of Pikes Peak and while we were checking out the sites on the top of the mountain it started to snow, huge flakes, in July. A woman from Florida next to me actually started to cry because she had never seen snow before - I didn't tell her we had just experienced the 'blizzard of '78 a few months prior. One mans trash....

Thing 14 & Thing 16 - Wiki

I have started a Wiki: http://technicallyspeaking.wikispaces.com/

I hope this will be beneficial to our staff when we change from Office 2003 to Office 2007 next year.

I like this Wiki in particular: http://gmiller.wikispaces.com/
and I love this quote from his site.
"Competence is the enemy of change"
From the Dangerously Irrevalant Blog

"Competent people resist change. Why? Because change threatens to make them less competent. And competent people like being competent. That's who they are, and sometimes that's all they've got. No wonder they're not in a hurry to rock the boat. . . . In the face of change, the competent are helpless. It doesn't take a lot of time to change … to reinvent … or to redesign.No, it doesn't take time; it takes will. The will to change.The will to take a risk.The will to become incompetent – at least for a while."
I want to become the most incompetent teacher around! ;)" gmiller

I found another site that I think would be beneficial to any elementary teacher. http://mcadorylab.wikispaces.com/ McAdory Elementary School Technology Lab Wiki. This wiki is being used to share resource links with their parents and students. There are several pages of really neat information.