Thing #14

Wow! I've enjoyed my searched on Technorati. The searches didn't also lead me to where I expected but I found many interesting sites.

Here is a blog created by students: guysread.typepad.com/theblurb

Math tutorials that are always accessible. What a neat idea mathactivity.blogspot.com


I thought that this one would create alot of thinking and discussion mytko.org/random

I also liked the teacher tips on middle-school-teacher.blogspot.com

I'm having sound difficulties but this site seemed like it would be helpful to my ESL students: esl-lab.com/

I found several classroom blogs that I would like to gather ideas from and hopefully create one for my classes. mrblacknbc.blogspot.com, robertdouglas.edublogs.org, ralphrdowney156.vox.com


Last but not least, I found one about making blogs & the internet in general easier for students with dyslexia to read. OMG.. I never thought about that. I think it is a definate read for all teachers. Web Designing For Dyslexia
hobo-web.co.uk/tips/100.htm

Thing #13

Great ... Finally something that I completely understood. I created my delicious account and found quite a few articles and blogs to tag about ESL and Dyslexia.

I feel more organized. Now, if only I could organize the papers on my desk that easily.
I wonder if you could use this to teach students how to organize thoughts for a paper.

If I keep brainstorming on how I can use this in my classroom, I'm going to end up needing more computers for the class. How can I make all of this work?

I'm just so thrilled that I found yet another thing that I feel confident to implement it immediately in both my personal and professional life.

Thing # 12

Several concepts that I agree with and want to post.

One: People will disagree, they need to discuss issues. It is important to model for children the right way to disagree on a topic and to show that we can do it while remaining civil and not attacking the other's right to their opinion. This is not only true for blogging but also for real life conversations. If we would all start our conversations by a genuine compliment. Wouldn't the world be better place. Point out each area of disagreement and why in a brief, calm, professional manner.NEVER: Be sarcastic, rant prolifically, curse, or personally attack a person. Always criticize kindly. Just think of the power of these sentences for marriages,too.

Two: If you died today and don't share "your secret," it will die with you and you will miss the chance to share your thoughts and leave a legacy.

Three: By commenting you are contibuting in a meaningful way to the merging global conversation. I never thought about blogging & commenting in that perspective before - something to think about.

Four: hyperlink your comments to your blog. I think this is a great idea. I'm still not sure how to do it even though I looked at severall explanations. I still find myself not understanding the procedure well enough to be comfortable and confident.

Although I looked at several links. I think most of these concepts I saw first on cool cat teacher.

Thing #11

Setting up the account was relatively easy. The usernames that I thought of were popular so it took a few tries. Once again, the time flew as I surfed through the contents.

I found three groups that I thought were interesting: Children's Fiction, Children's literature and Books that made me think. I also found several reading groups for teens that were "private". It would be cool to create one for our middle school and have students post their comments on different books.

Thing #10

As you can tell from my happy face, I'm having trouble copying them in the correct place. I need more instruction on the moving of content from the web to my blog.



I could use me using Image Chef within an email... if I could figure that out or in a seperate kids sports blog. Some of my students may be interested in using these images too. I'm still trying to figure out what would be the objective for the lesson.



I enjoyed the Happy Face Generator too. I could see me using that in the classroom for story starters or to improve vocabulary or to illustrate character feelings in story.



I was overwhelmed with the comic strip cartoons. I will need to go back when I have more free time to learn and explore. This would be a great lesson for kids though, I see so many language and reading possibilities. I need a seperate class on this so that I can implement it at the beginning of the year as a "hook" for learning.



I saw some sites that would make good gifts ( ie. personalized jigsaws, calendars, magazines etc.). I would consider using those in my personal life but haven't yet thought of how I could apply them in my classroom.

Thing #9

I'm starting to feel a little addicted to the computer. I spent about four hours combing through blogs and news feeds. I almost felt guilty that I was spending so much time in front of the computer just perusing through blogs. I am amazed at all the topics and so called experts. I think you need to be real careful because I could see how young minds could accidently become a "follower" but at the same time the blogs can create a good discussion . I thought the google blog, topix, syndic 8 and technorati were the easiest to use. The edublog winners were interesting but I couldn't figure out if the winner was just decided by a popular vote or other criteria were included also. Some of the blogs I tried to attach to my google reader and they got lost somewhere out in cyberspace. A couple were very easy to attach because they asked you a series of questions. I'm not very comfortable about commenting on blogs yet however, I do feel like I am beginning to be more educated about all the possibilities of blogs and computers.

Thing #8

Well, I've spent a couple of hours on goodle reader and looking at blogs and RSS feeds. I'm still not sure that I completely understand it. It is overwhelming and intriguing at the same time.

I can see that if you are researching a topic, it would be great to find the perfect site and automatically receive the updates - boy do I wish I had that in graduate school, it would have saved a lot of time. I also see that the students have access to so much more information so much more quickly that we ever did.

I will need to come back to play with it some more to productively use it in my classroom or personal life on a regular basis.