Fall Semester 2011

I love the first day of school!  All of the new students, that sense of anticipation that precedes each class, the total energy that radiates across the campus gives me a bigger buzz than any amount of caffeine ever could!  Makes me want to stand in the middle of campus and yell "Whoo Hoo!"

Happy 4th of July

Well we had a great weekend at the lake with friends.  Emily loves swimming and loved being on the boat.  She is not, however, a fan of fireworks.  She says they are too loud and they made her cry.  We took shelter in the house watching a Dora DVD.  Little Bit (our friends dog) doesn't like fireworks either.  She also doesn't usually like kids, but any port in a storm was the theme of the evening so she snuggled up against Emily and I as we sat in the hallway on the floor with the bedroom doors closed to try to decrease the intensity of the booms from the fireworks being ignited in the driveway.  And that was only Saturday night!  Of course she had to endure the booms of the neighborhood fireworks on both Sunday and Monday nights.  Sunday night they started before she fell asleep so she sat on my lap clinging to me while I stroked her hair and told her she was safe.  She finally fell asleep like that.  Monday night thankfully the neighbors didn't start shooting fireworks until Emily was asleep.  I worried that they might wake her, but she slept right through them!  We're off to the pool this afternoon.  Hopefully we won't have any thunderstorms that cause the pool to close!

Summer Update

Well I'm not taking any classes this summer so the summer seems to be passing slower than it did last year.  That is not necessarily a bad thing though!  My dad, my sister, my daughter and I just spent 5 days in the car on a family roadtrip to Blossburg PA.  That is the town where my great-great grandparents settled when they came to America from Poland at the turn of the century (that would be beginning of the 20th century not 21st!)  We don't have any relatives that live there anymore but we drove down the street where they lived, no house there anymore, and we went to the graveyard and visited their graves.  We made some fun stops on the trip there and back at the Farnsley-Mooreman Landing and Farm in Louisville, the Children's Museum in Pittsburgh and the Zoo in Cleveland.  My daughter is a great traveler and I think whined less than I did :)  However, after 5 days in the car, I feel like I'm still moving even when I'm sitting on the sofa!  All in all though it was a great trip!

Continuing to blog

Well, I did say I might blog about class related things, even though I don't know if anyone will read this since we are done with the 23 things!  BUT, I just wanted to say that I actually used LiveBinders to help me prepare my Annotated Resource Folder for my Diversity class.  It was really handy because whenever I found a source I could just put it there and then when I went to prepare my actual resource folder I had everything in one place!  The only resources I didn't have in there were actual physical books, but I probably could have put them in there too since I found them all at the university library.  I'm sure there is a way to put a source from the library catalog into livebinders, but I didn't actually think about it until I was halfway through and it seemed kind of pointless by then!  Another note about this class, I saw an example of a 'bad' powerpoint in my diversity class.  Blatant violations of the 6x6 rule as well as the rule against typing every word you say onto your slide.  At least there weren't any screeching tires when the slides changed!  For a thrilling example of that, take Dr. Kemmerly's Geology lecture!

The Last Thing

My favorite exercise was Animoto.  I liked my video so much I put it on my Facebook page!  But one of my favorite discoveries is the blog Spencer's Scratchpad.  It is written by a middle school social studies teacher and not only does it have great ideas about projects and activities in the classroom, but it is also a great source of inspiration for me and by reading blogs that he follows I have found more great blogs.  Before this project I had no interest in blogs at all.  I had never read one and had no desire to read one because I saw them as outlets for self-centered individuals who believed that they were important enough that everyone in the world would want to read their personal journal entries.  I have learned that not all blogs are like that and that many bloggers write to share useful ideas and information, not just to feed their egos.  As a teacher I will strive to incorporate as much of the Web 2.0 into my classroom as I can.  Electronic media is now the primary method of communication for kids.  Gone are the never ending phone conversations and passing notes in class.  They have been replaced by tweets and texts and online chat conversations.  I believe that in order to connect with my students, I will need to be able to talk to them in a format with which they are the most familiar.  Not to say I will be tweeting and texting my students, but I believe classroom blogs or webpages will be an important role in communicating with my students and their parents.  I realize that I am a K-6 major and if I end up teaching the lower grades the amount of technology I can use will probably be limited but that doesn't mean I can't use any.  I plan to keep up with new developments by continuing to follow the blogs and RSS feeds regarding Web 2.0.  I have found that this is the easiest way to keep up, especially through my Google Reader account.  From the information in these blogs and feeds and I hope to be able to attend webinars and other continuing ed courses regarding developments in Web 2.0.  As far as what can be done to improve this program, well, I think the Creative Commons should be moved up in the list of 23 things because I think learning about it earlier, like before the whole Flickr fiasco, would have been helpful.  Struggling to find pictures that I had permission to use would not have been such a struggle had I known about Creative Commons licenses and known how to search for them in Flickr.  Also, some of the tutorials are out of date.  The Twitter tutorial for example.  Twitter has been updated since that tutorial was made and posted on Youtube so the page that the tutorial walks you through doesn't look anything like the Twitter page I was looking at.  Where do I go from here?  I have to say that writing a resolution and posting it here in my blog will have zero affect on what I actually do.  I don't make New Year's resolutions for that very reason.  If I decide I want to do something, then I start doing it then and there and I don't wait for New Years or Monday or anything because if you really want to do it, especially if it is changing a lifelong habit, then you have to be committed enough to that change to start it right then.  If you are not that committed, you will not succeed.  That is true for me anyway.  I do check my Google Reader every time I check my e-mail, but that is not everyday.  I am rarely on the computer on the weekends because I am primarily on the computer when I am doing schoolwork and the weekends I do my best to devote to my daughter.  If I have to do schoolwork on the weekend then I am squeezing it in when she is napping or after she goes to bed at night and I don't usually bother to take the time to check e-mail or otherwise "play" on the computer.  So, I know I will not post anything to my blog on a daily basis.  Now, that may change when I am teaching if I have a classroom blog and make maintaining the blog a part of my work schedule.  In the meantime, I will try to post to my blog when something noteworthy occurs and I will keep up with the blogs of my classmates, assuming any of them continue their blogs.  I think it will be a good source for ideas and support after this class is over.
So my fellow classmates, I hope to see you in the blogosphere!

Thing #23

Under 'credits' on the right side of the screen of the 23 Things page you will find:

Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers is based on Learning 2.0 - 23 a staff development program for the Mesquite Independent School District. That program was based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.

This is the attribution that shows our 23 Things blog was based on someone elses work and modified from the original.

As a teacher I can use the Creative Commons licensing to share work that I create.  I can also use it to find photos, images, lesson plans, games and other teaching tools that other people have created and shared under a Creative Commons license.  By using Creative Commons works it is easier to be certain that you are not violating anyone's copyrights because the Creative Commons license tells you how you may and may not use the work.

Thing #22 LiveBinders

So I created three binders.  One that is called Administrative where I can keep all things related to the administrative side of my class.  A copy of my gradebook, lists of things I need for class and where I can get them, notes about students or other items that pertain to the everyday operation of  my classroom.  I would not share this binder.  The other two binders I would share.  One is a lesson plans and activities binder.  I would share this with other teachers.  The other is a social studies games binder which I would share with my students and other teachers.  Here is my games binder

Social Studies games

I could use LiveBinders in my classroom to share games but I could also use it to share assignments or reading lists or online activities like a webquest or a Google Earth activity.  Students could use a LiveBinder if they were doing research online by using the LiveBinder It button.  Then I could go check their binders and let them know if their source is good or not.  I'll be teaching elementary school so that might be something that would work better in middle or high school classes.