The Grand Finale

I've really enjoyed my time working through this class. A lot of the tools, though I may have had experience with them in the past, were presented in an educational context that I hadn't previously thought of because of my prior experience.

In particular, I enjoyed reviewing Google Apps before the start of the school year. It gave me a chance to revisit what I learned in the spring and get started on my new modifications. I'm also excited about using both VoiceThread and YouTube more often this year in the classroom. Of course, the most recent ones come to mind first, but I certainly enjoyed played with Library Thing and exploring the whole idea of creating a Wiki.

I know that social networking sites are one great way to keep up with the updates to technology, but I'm actually planning on using some of the blogs I found through my Reader to keep tabs on how technology is being used in education. For me, it seems like a better solution to the whole "staying current" problemo.

After finishing this course, I can say that I am pleasantly surprised at the amount of knowledge I realized that I already had pertaining to these tools. It taught me that I really need to repurpose my skills and start digging deeper to find the best ways to teach my chillins - I'm certainly not going to run out of ideas any time soon!

Thing #23: Networking with Ning

Alright, so I spent most of my time on exploring Ning, because that's kind of just the way it worked out. I thought that Gather was interesting, but it didn't do a whole lot to entice me to explore much.

Ning, however, I really enjoyed exploring. My overall impression of the site was that it was not only easy-to-use, but it made connecting with other educators very low-pressure and open. In fact, I spent a lot of my exploring time kind of surfing the forums. It was interesting to note how respectful most of the discussion was, simply because a lot of people lose their filters when they're commenting online and tend to make things more personal than they are. For whatever reason, these forums were pretty well behaved, and I actually enjoyed reading them, even when the group consensus didn't line up with mine. I can see myself using this as a "sounding board" resource through the different groups, often without even having to ask the question myself.

I can spout off a lot of different uses for social networking in the professional and educational fields, such as idea sharing or resource lending. However, if I'm completely honest with myself, I would have to admit that my only current plan to utilize social networking is through my students. I'm planning on having the students create a group for the Yearbook this year to promote it, where they'll post photos that they've taken recently in addition to the public wiki/flickr account we're going to set up.

Sometimes it's good, in my opinion, of course, to set boundaries between your personal and professional life. In my case, I'm much more comfortable keeping social networking purely social and personal, rather than trying to overwork my tools and burn out on this idea. In the future, I may choose to broaden my networks with Ning and other sites, but I think for now, I'll focus on the long list of other tools you've presented us with and leave social networking where I like it: outside of work.

Thing #22: Facebook and its minions

I love facebook. No one should really be surprised at all. I'm am obsessive about writing, internet communication tools, and photos. Thus, I love love love facebook.

Despite the fact that I can't actually remember what you all will be able to see (I think my privacy settings are fairly strict) you're more than welcome to click on the link to my profile and "friend" me. Now it's time to answer the questions.

1. Why is it important that educators know how social networking works?

We need to understand these sites because our kids use them. I'm a big advocate of understanding our chillins' lives through their activities, and when the internet is such a huge part of them, it's something we can't ignore. If we aren't going to make an effort to see what kind of public exposure they're getting on the internet, how can we expect to understand problems that might arise from it? In addition, we need to be able to show students the positives and negatives of using social networking sites. I can't tell you how many students I had at the college level that didn't believe employers checked the Fbook during hiring until they found out they didn't get the job because of their profiles.

2. What new insights did you gain about these popular sites?

Ah, no new insights, I don't think. I completely understand the appeal of this networking site, and the only thing that I noticed today is that it's another example of how students truly desire the ability to take ownership of something and make a statement as an individual. Facebook and Myspace give them that opportunity, we need to remember to provide it in the classroom as well.

3. What did you like or dislike about each of the sites you explored?

As a former Myspace user, I'll say that I greatly prefer Facebook if only for the protection it offers its users. Myspace privacy controls are often times a joke, even if they seem like they work. Funny story - I thought my profile was closed on Myspace when I started teaching, but learned very quickly that it wasn't when my students started asking me about my "top friends" and asking where my tattoo was on my body. Lesson learned, profile shut down.

4. Which site had the most useful features?

Useful? I suppose that Facebook has the most applications and groups. Actually, come to think of it, some of the applications on Facebook have an educational component to them, like word games and the Notes function, etc.

5.Can you see an educational application for any of these sites?

Honestly, not at this level. In middle school, they're just starting to figure out how to interact with their peers face-to-face, which makes online interaction all the more awkward. However, as they get older and more mature, I could see it becoming a real tool. When I taught college chillins, they sometimes used the "Notes" application to work on their projects, and the groups created a real bonding tool for them. It could work for younger students too, but I'm just not comfortable opening my own profile to my students, even if it was one I created for that sole purpose. It would give the kids an illusion of a different kind of a relationship with their teacher, which is a little concerning for a teacher as young as I am. Maybe in a few years...

Thing #7b: Revisiting the Reader

Until today, I was waaaaaay behind on my reader. A week-long wedding in Vegas will throw off a lot of routines, even if you're not the bride, I've learned.

In any case, I read through all of my updates (well, skimmed all and read through some) this morning to jumpstart my day. After reading this short post from The Choice blog of the NYTimes, I was definitely ready to tackle the lawn and blow off some steam. The post explained that student loan defaults have been vastly underreported, with $50.8 billion worth of loans in default at the end of the 2009 year.

I know, I know, this isn't about English, reading, ESL, or even yearbook. But it's a concerning subject to me for many reasons. If this trend continues, the way education loans are awarded and limited may change, further limiting higher education possibilities for students with an economic disadvantage. My particular subject area has a ridiculously high percentage of Eco. Disadv. students who I'm hoping to encourage to attend college one day.

Middle school may seem a little early to start the real planning, but for these students, they need to hit the ground running as freshman to have a real shot at earning enough financial aid to make their dreams come true. It's good for all secondary teachers to keep tabs on, I feel.

Source: Student Loan Default Rates Come Under Scrutiny By RACHEL GROSS

Thing #21: More with Google

As I mentioned in the earlier post, I'm a big fan of the Google tools. In fact, I use it in my classroom fairly often and it's already factored in to some of my earliest lesson plans for next year.

To make sure that I wasn't getting away too easy with these couple of assignments, I created a public calendar just for the vacation that I'm about to take my younger sister, Hilary, on as a graduation/18th bday present. Do I know how to create a link to it? Nope, sure don't...unless I'm using a google site, and then I certainly can.

Which is why I'm including the link to my site that I created with the Google Apps program this spring. I really enjoyed creating the content, and one of my main goals as a teacher this year is to incorporate it more into my teaching and truly make it a part of the curriculum. I would have created a yearbook site today, but I'm still thinking that I'm going to do a wiki for them, so I'll have a full year of using both a wiki and a google site for the classroom setting and I can pick the one I think best fits my students' needs at the end of the year.

Thing #20: Google Docs = Everyone's BFF

Once more, I have to admit that I've been using Google Docs for a while now. Our administrators have used it to manage ISS and detentions, as well as to hold documents such as role sheets for OEYP.

In fact, I actually took Paige Wester's Google Apps course in the spring, where we created a Google website for our classes and explored the different ways that we can use GoogleDocs in the classroom.

Some ways that I've already used the tool include:

• Creating forms as quizzes for the kiddos
• Using the site to manage a calendar of deadlines
• Creating a page of alternative activities for early-finishers

In the future, I'm planning on using GoogleDocs for the group book report projects that my reading students do, as it will make it SO MUCH EASIER for them to all be held accountable for the work when each student can modify the document at the same time. Sure, it'll be a long first day of instruction, teaching them how to use the PowerPoint-esqe application and troubleshooting, but it will be worth it in the long run.

I'm also planning on using it for all of my students as a way to save their documents, rather than relying on their ability to remember to save it to their student folder on the network, etc. That's a great way for them to lose things, it happens all the time. However, I'm hopeful that if they actually are required to UPLOAD the document, there will be fewer "I don't remember where I saved it!" excuses.

Oh, and PS- here's the link to my published document!

Thing #19: Voicing an Opinion on VoiceThread

Okay, I was skeptical about how I would feel about this particular tool. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find some great ideas and uses for the tool as I watched the assigned VoiceThread and explored some of the suggested created Voicethreads. Some of the uses I could just flick my wrist at, but I found myself really liking the last suggestion on the list, the "Library from A to Z" VoiceThread. After watching it, I came up with three similar ideas for use in my own classroom.

• In Yearbook, I could have the students create a presentation for the next year's staff as their final project, showing them page-by-page the different departments they created that year. Not only would it be good for ideas next year as an intro, it would also be good for the class to reflect on their work.
• In ESL, I could have my beginner-intermediate students create a VoiceThread with the vocabulary they are learning on a weekly basis. This wouldn't be a huge project for them, more an on-going one that they could work on during times when their newcomer status excludes them from traditional curriculum or testing.
• For all of my 6th graders, instead of making a poetry memory book out of paper, the students could create a digital presentation in groups where they would read the poems aloud and scan in pictures, illustrations, etc. This would be a better alternative to last year, because it gives them the opportunity to practice their speaking while getting multiple attempts to get it right. Less pressure = more success for my reluctant speakers.

Overall, I'm excited to use this tool, and creating a VoiceThread educator account is at the top of my list for when we come back from vacation.

Thing #18: Youtube & Me

Oh, YouTube. I remember when you were THE place to be on a Thursday night in middle school. I just couldn't get enough music videos. Now, horrifyingly enough, I'm actually in several YouTube videos and I'm using it to search for educational tools.

The first video I'm embedding is one that's almost a cheat. I used it in class last year, and it's definitely one of the lessons that my chillins really got into...though I'm not sure if it's because they liked the video or they just wanted me to show them more often, so they faked enthusiasm. Their assignment (the purpose of the lesson was to improve their following directions skills as well as provide them with background for an upcoming story we were reading) for this video was to listen and find the countries that had either changed names or were no longer countries and then do their own version with the song corrected.

I actually DID find, during my explorations today, the same video in Spanish. Granted, I need to do some thinking on how this would be best used with my newcomers, but still...it's pretty fun.

For the next year, I'm planning on using YouTube and its relatives much more, now that I'll have a fully functioning computer hooked up to my projector. One of the videos I'd like to use (in the same fashion as the previous) is embedded below. One of the hurdles I crossed this year was trying to teach students how to use photos to provide context for vocabulary words, so I think I'll use this for a rotation while we're doing stations to practice defining words based solely on picture messages.

I'll briefly mention TeacherTube, only to say that I wish this were somehow a better tool for us. When I first heard of it last year, I was psyched. Then, as I started exploring, I quickly found that there's a much larger range of educational videos on the original YouTube itself, especially when we're talking about videos that our kiddos will actually be interested in watching. However, I did manage to find the following video:

My kids love a challenge, and the best way to get them to do something they don't want to do is to show them people who HAVE done it and challenge them to do it better. So there actually is some great content on TeacherTube, but I think I'll stick to YouTube for now, annoying password-required viewing and all.

Thing #17: Podcast Previews

One of the advantages of being a recent college grad is that I'm already familiar with some of the more technologically advanced educational tools. The last 2 years of my college career were spent listening to podcasts each week, as well as making them (for journalistic purposes).

I was excited to find the Grammar Girl podcast on your list! I've been a subscriber to this one since its beginning. After taking my Vegas Vacation last week, I was behind on my Google reading and podcast listening (I've always listened to podcasts on iTunes), so I took this opportunity to catch up. I loved the podcast about Voice and Tone in writing, and I'm hoping to work that into my writing lessons next year.

In the past, I've used the Grammar Girl podcasts in class very little, simply because it's hard to get the kids' attention focused on something that's only auditory and not visual. However, I had a lot of success toward the end of the school year using the Lay vs. Lie podcast from her site. The students really understood the way she explained it, while they only got about half of my lesson.

I'm looking forward also to utilizing the Just One More Book blog to give my students another option for research when they're working on author reports. In the past, they've had a hard time finding good information on childrens' and young adults' authors.

Podcasts can be a great tool, you just have to find the right way to use them. I've found that using them in centers with headphones works best, simply because the students are already in a "focus on one thing" mindset. In a whole-class environment, there are too many distractions to get them to focus. As long as you alternate it with other stimuli (visual and tactile), you'll be good to go.

Library "Thing" #16

I love Library Thing. At some point, I had a Library Thing account, but I just completely forgot.

I'm enjoying exploring this tool for my personal life, trying to find book "suggestions" from other users who generally enjoy the same type of books that I do. I'm also loving being able to see the books that my favorite authors own (the ones who are actually on Library Thing, anyhow).

As a teacher, I love to find new recommendations of the best Young Adult books, and this is a great way for me to find new books. In fact, I'm kind of nerdily excited to be able to tell my chillins what authors are reading. In addition, I'm hoping that the students will be able to keep track of my library online as well, though I'm still working on figuring out the best way to incorporate this into my curriculum and get the kids to actually care. The "Berry Classroom Library" list won't be complete for some time, of course, because my library isn't at my house...it's in the classroom. At Berry. :)

Here is a link to my profile: http://www.librarything.com/profile/imaginetruth

Thing #15: Deliciousness

I have to begin this post by saying that I'm not really a huge fan of Delicious. In fact, after the class is over, I'll more than likely delete all of the random things that I had to acquire (the toolbar, the Yahoo account, etc. ) just for this one tool. I've used StumbleUpon for years, and with my personality, I simply prefer to use that tool combined with Google and other search engines than deal with Delicious.

Moving on with the assignment, I spent most of my time researching different volunteer vacation and Latin/South American tourism sites, as you can see on my delicious links. This is something that I'm interested in personally, but also something that I look on as an enhancement to my career as well, seeing as how I'm an ESL teacher. Any experience that helps me learn to communicate better with a culture different from my own will be an enhancement to my career.

I'm just not enthralled, but there was bound to be at least ONE thing out of the 23 that I didn't care for, right? :)

Thing #7a: Reading Rundown

As I scroll through my Google Readers, I often find many articles of interest to me personally, but it does take a little while for time for me to find an article I truly appreciate in the educational areas. One that I recently found on the TechLearning blog that I'm subscribed to was a bit called "What Silly Will Get You."

In this article, Dean Shareski writes on the idea that for every serious advantage that technological advances bring, we also must deal with the silly creations that come out of that advance. It's an interesting concept for me, because I feel that it discusses the very truth of life: there cannot be only seriousness. There must also be silliness, it is part of what makes life wonderful.

I see that reflected in this course, as well. While we are, of course, encouraged to use all of these tools to enhance our teaching and to open our students up to these tools as well. But, as I've noticed in many of the "things" we have to do, you also encourage us to explore how they may serve us in our personal lives, as well. I agree with the blogger when he says "For us to try and wish the silly away is futile and in many ways ignores what it means to be human." What would these advances be if they did not serve both sides of our personalities? I think that it's important to recognize the value in silliness, as well as recognize that it's irresistible. Sometimes I'm surprised by how quickly my students get off task even as they're trying to do their work. This article reminded me to make time for them to be creative and "silly," as well as giving them very clear instructions and monitoring closely to make sure that they stay focused.

Thing #14: Exploring E-tools

Looking through the list, I realized that I had already started using many of the tools in the past year for class. This is, of course, thanks to our wonderful staff development opportunities as well as our fabulous librarian, who keeps me up-to-date with tools she thinks will help me reach my ESL kids in a different way.

So, with Wordle (my favorite app), Blabberize, Writeboard, PicNik, Quizlet, PollDaddy, and Mixbook out of the running, I narrowed my other options down based on personal preferences and chose to explore both TimeGlider and Ta-Da List.

Despite the fact that I'm a sucker for to-do lists and calendars, I don't do a whole lot of that online. However, I found that I may use Ta-Da List to make sure that my students can keep track of the requirements for their projects online, as they have such a problem keeping track of the many, many papers we give them.

My favorite of the two, however, was TimeGlider. I think it's wonderful for our students to analyze informational texts and to practice their sequencing. In fact, I plan to use it for the 8th graders as we study The Diary of Anne Frank this year. This way, they can identify the "plot-like elements" in the diary through plotting the most important events on a timeline in TimeGlider.

Thing # 13: Imagining Images

I'll be the first to admit that I get a little over-concerned when it comes to using any sort of generator, mash-up, etc. online. It makes me nervous, because I can't trust that they're doing things right, and it might come back to me. However, I tried to put aside my anxieties for this little assignment and focus on having a little fun with the project.

Going along with the theme of my last post, I created this image on Spell with flickr:

Then, I continued on and decided to be a cliche with Image Chef to add the little peace sign graphic on the sidebar, also found below:

...and finally I rounded out my little experiments by creating a graphic with the Danger Sign Generator.

One thing that I would like to note is that the district's new library websites have a lot of these sites linked, which is fabulous. However, when we (the teachers) were playing around on it last year, a lot of the sites were blocked. In fact, I remember wondering why the district would like Image Chef on its own site, only to block it in the schools! Perhaps this problem has already been fixed, I'm going to hope it has.

In the future, I think I'll be using these tools to make projects more fun, as well as a creative outlet for my students once they are finished with typing papers. I see endless possibilities for some fun extra credit assignments for my early finishers in the near future. The truth of the matter is that a lot of the time, as an ESL teacher, I don't have as much fun with the kids in the classroom as I WANT to in my head. With Beginners-Advanced High students in one classroom, it's hard to keep up the pace! However, as I mentioned before, I think that these tools will be a great addition for early finishers, and also perhaps as a way to get those beginning students a completely individual task for group projects.

Thing #12: Sliding Through Flickr

Creating the slideshow was pretty easy for me. It may be that I'm a fan of cleaner, simpler design and thus didn't opt for the more video-like possibilities with all the bells and whistles. In any case, I found it to be pretty straight-forward and easy to use. I'm not sure how often I'll use this particular tool in teaching, though I would love to come up with a project for the kiddos to create a photo slideshow. Perhaps as a vocabulary exercise? Multiple meaning words, anyone? We shall see.

For now, enjoy the following slideshow themed "Imagine." I gave attributions for only four of the photos, because the final one is my own.

Photography credit:

Imagination by okaysamurai

Logic + Imagination by photonquantique

Imagine Peace, 2001 by photo4howi

Imagine by Jessica Whittle Photography

Thing #11: Flickr Findings

As I mentioned in my last post, I've already used Flickr for a variety of tasks, both professional and personal. In fact, I've already had my kids use Flickr to search for CC photos for their portfolio projects. So I didn't learn as much this time around as some other teachers may have. However, I did realize WHY it took my lovely students so very, VERY long to finish their projects: because it's so hard to get exactly what you want to pop up!

Most of my past experiences have involved working from certain users' photos or searching for a specific type of graphic that we knew existed. During this Discover exercise, I found it incredibly hard to explore the concept of "Imagine" or "Ima

gination." Apparently, the Flickr world thinks that John Lennon and Yoko Ono invented the word, or something. However, I did manage to find one photo that I thought was worthwhile to convey the theme completely graphically by okaysamurai.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/okaysamurai/424974185/

I think in the upcoming year, I'll use Flickr more, not only as a tool for my students to use, but also as a tool for me to use in the classroom. Now that I have a projector neatly mounted on my ceiling and a way to connect it to a computer with Internet, I need to utilize these online tools!

Thing #10: Creative Commons

As a journalist/j-school student, I spent many years both using and bemoaning Creative Commons. Creative Commons and the people who could (and often do) contribute to the whole "movement," if you will, have a Catch-22 relationship.

In teaching, I certainly took plenty advantage of free web content for things such as graphic organizers, pictures, and sometimes even educational programming. I think it's a great tool to have at our disposal, especially as an ESL teacher who needs graphic support on a daily basis. I'm a fan of hand-drawing things, and the kids usually like it, but there are some things I can't draw. A horse, for example. I just don't have that skill.

For my students' Outsiders portfolios, I had them spend a day in the lab on Flickr and sorting for only "CC" items. At the end of the week, their journal activity was about the difference between using CC products and a breach of copyright or plagiarism. I was truly impressed with the answers I got! It encouraged me to do this MUCH earlier in the year for the upcoming school year, because they can certainly understand the concept, and I think they had a lot of fun. One kid even described it "like a scavenger hunt."

One of the dangers that I could see happening with teachers is that it may tempt us to get a little lazy. Often we can use "too much of a good thing" instead of creating our own content. Whenever I would use a Creative Commons site to get an idea for an example or a unit, I always tried to alter it at least a little to keep myself on my toes. However, I feel like for the most part we're turning to these sites for graphics and songs to enhance our already made lesson plans, which is the right thing to do. It also gets tricky when teachers post plans on the web that are inspired by or directly drawn from a curriculum adoption that doesn't belong to them, which is why I steer clear of looking at examples that aren't about specific novels. It's just safer that way.

Thing #9: Sandboxing it Up

Playing on the Wiki was fun, I enjoyed creating EV by Numbers. Once I managed to get the TOC to happen (yes, I have issues with READING directions instead of just skimming them, I'm that kid), it was a piece of cake. My school has been using a wiki for the past semester as a way of getting out announcements. However, this was my first experience with doing anything other than simply adding newsletters to the page.

I enjoyed learning the ins and outs of the wiki page, and I'll be excited to explore it more over the summer. As I was working, I realized that it would be as simple as Ms. Davis suggested to get my kids to create their own pages - as long as they can follow directions better than I can! I predict that my students will enjoy adding photos and other media the most - just as I did. I think there's something exciting about being able to decorate your own little piece of cyberspace, and hopefully they'll agree with me!

Thing 8 - Streeeeeetch

This activity actually wasn't a whole lot of a stretch for me. One of my guilty pleasures is wiki-surfing, normally as a procrastination tool. Today, I picked a topic I knew would have plenty of controversy and (hopefully) discussion on it: Marilyn Monroe.

Surprisingly, there wasn't any discussion of the "conspiracy theories" surrounding her death, but there was some conversation about whether or not certain facts, opinions should be included. When comparing the discussion to the text, it was easy to discover that many of the comments were answered with revisions, very quickly after they came up on the discussion forum (according to the history page).

The entry itself was, of course, complete and seemed valid. I would expect nothing less from an entry on a well-known and beloved actress.

Thing #8: Wiki Wiki Wonderland

It takes a lot to inspire me. Generally, I'm unimpressed with heart-warming stories and tales of fabulous technological success. However, reading Vicki Davis's blog left me feeling oddly excited to get started on a Wiki for my kiddos this year. I really appreciated how she explained her step-by-step process to get the students up to speed, and I bookmarked it to use it later when lesson planning for the upcoming year. I think that I'll definitely try this out on my Yearbook staff. It seems like a good idea for them, though I'm not sure on the specifics quite yet.

For the three wikis that I chose to investigate, I tried to pick 3 different ones to focus on, kind of to give myself an overview of the different situations and possibilities. First, I took a glance at what I thought was a pretty comprehensive one. David Lindsay's classroom wiki seemed kind of a "catch-all" site at first. However, the longer I spent looking through it, the more I understood how it was organized. I loved the top menu for the most part, and I really enjoyed seeing how the students were able to post about news articles - I think that will be one of my "done early" activities this year if I start one for my ESL class, and maybe one of my weekly expectations for my Yearbook kids, to reflect on designs they've found/made. I would change the curriculum on the bottom of the page. I think that should just be a completely different tab.

Second, I looked into a much more focused site, the Discovery Utopia Project. I found this site endlessly interesting, mainly because of the content rather than the concept. But when I wasn't getting wrapped up in the students' imaginations, I noticed that this is a fabulous way to organize a project. I found this to be the most realistic way that I might use a wiki in my ESL class, because I already have a Google website for them. As useful as a Google site is, a wiki would be easier to monitor and allow students to post on, I think. Of course, when I use this for one of my projects, I'll make a couple of alterations - like moving the student work page up to a higher level to enhance their feeling of both responsibility when they're not doing their part and accomplishment when they are.

Finally, I looked at the 1001 Tales website. This one, for me, was the most frustrating to navigate because I didn't 100% understand what was happening with the "front page." I couldn't figure out if I should go to another site or what! But once I got my web-feet under me once more, I found one important advantage this website had: safety advice. Again, I bookmarked this website to help me in the future. And, to be honest, I signed up to be notified about next year's 1001 Tales.

Thing #7: Commentary on Commenting

Ah, comments.

For me, commenting has been an evolution of sorts. I grew up with a Xanga in high school, purely for expressive and social purposes, of course. At that time, commenting was all about how many people commented on YOUR blog, and who-said-what-about-whose-sister's-cousin's-stepbrother's-goat. Eventually, I got to college, matured, and commenting became a way for me to say, "HEY! HEY! HERE ARE MY POLITICAL BELIEFS!" Classy, no? Finally, I realized toward the end of my college career that both of those types of comments are, in fact, not constructive and I switched to making encouraging or thought-provoking comments on blogs, trying to stay away from being too judgmental.

Overall, I think that commenting can be very useful as a tool to see all sides of an issue, to add resources, and to show support. In most of the blogs I commented on, there weren't many changes to add resources, so I mainly focused on showing support or giving a little bit of a "devil's advocate" statement in some of the wider-read blogs. For example, this afternoon on the Reading Room Blog at the NYTimes, I wrote a short comment on The Literal Power of Words. Of course, it has yet to be approved, but I doubt that it will have any problem getting through based on what's already there. I tried to point out the merits of the argument rather than get wrapped up in the comments of others that were going nowhere.

Thing #6: Feed Your Reader

First of all, I have to admit that this title reminds me of a children's book called The Hungry Thing, which I promptly googled and found this delightful read-aloud on YouTube.

The Hungry Thing: A Reading

Anyhow, I made the executive decision that as I've been using a reader for quite sometime, I could go ahead and only wait about 3 days before completing the reader reflection blog. There's always at least one article each day that I want to write about, but I rarely have the time that I do today.

My all-time favorite, good for any occasion blog is a blog called Flashlight Worthy Books. In fact, I love it so much that I support it by having Amazon's FLW credit bookmarked so that they get a tiny portion every time I buy something. FLW has been a great resource for me in the classroom this year. When I realized that all my kids loved ghost stories and sports novels (never two of my favorite genres), I turned to FLW and found great-quality books to suggest to my students! This week, I'm going to suggest that all my fellow secondary teachers check out the most recent young adult post, Oh Mom!, featuring YA books with mother and daughter relationships.

In addition, I also read the article Zero Tolerance on David Warlick's blog. I have to say, I started following this blog because it was so opinionated. I love a good argument, whether I agree with it or not. In this article, he was very blunt about saying that "They’ve had enough time to decide if they want to teach today or yesterday — enough time to decide if they want to prepare their learners for the future, or for the 1950s." In truth, I kind of agree with it. I've got my 80 year-old professor following me on Twitter, and if he can adapt to the new educational standard, so can we. But I also feel that we, MISD, need to provide a little more forced support for teachers who have yet to get with the program before we take them around to look at storefronts for laundromats.

All in all, I'm excited that I actually have an excuse to use my Google Reader more often. Wooo! 6 down!

Thing #5: Starting RSS

As honesty is the best policy, or at least the most widely accepted of the policies, and thus I'll be honest and say that I'm already an RSS addict. However, this was actually my first foray into reading about education. Traditionally, I read about starving children in other countries, civil rights protests, international issues, and the arts. Oh yeah, and books. (Such a nerd, I know.)

After reading through a few of the suggested blogs, I came across what I knew would be my favorite of all the ones to read: The Choice. This blog is actually mainly focused on getting into college and all of the steps leading to it. Last year, I spent most of the year trying to convince my ESL students that they COULD actually go to college if they wanted to. I don't think I've ever had to work so hard at anything in my life. TAKS prep was nothing compared to changing their stubborn little minds.

The great thing I discovered about this blog is that it uses a mix of professional journalism and "civilians," if you will, to write the articles. In a stand-out entry, Cue the Choir, I read about a student's last few days of high school. I'm planning to use this as an example of a wonderful personal narrative in a unique style for my students this year. Not only will it inspire them (hopefully), but it will start the college conversation.

As a side note, I'm enjoying visiting everyone's unique blogs. Teachers are entertaining... sometimes I forget that.

Thing #4: Blogging Begins with Reading

As an avid blogger and blog-follower for the past 8 years of my life, some of the reflection questions I can rattle off a generic response to in about 2 minutes. I'll share some of my thoughts on blogging below in response to the questions.

• The genre of blog writing is different in that there does not have to be a prescribed structure to it. Also, when people consider it a "genre," they do it a great disservice, in my opinion. At the very least, blogging has just as many sub-genres as all of literature, because the beauty of blogging is that it can be anything that you make it.
• Reading a blog can be much more personal than other types of reading, or it can be more removed. It depends on the type of blog. A news blog may create the traditional journalism distance, while an opinionated editorial blog may actually incite ire more readily than a full text that disagrees with your personal opinion.
• It's accessible. That's where the difference in blog writing stems from, in most cases. We teach students a formulaic, academic writing style for most of their lives, which may enhance or suppress their natural talent. On a blog, the person has complete ownership and control. They can write anyway they like, disobey any grammar conventions that they hate, and generally just use it to express themselves. In the end, we come out with a much more casual, yet more personal style of writing.
• Ah, comments. I'll be honest, comments don't actually hold any more power or influence than the author of a blog post gives them. Comments have the potential to allow readers (and the author) to consider another side or to explore a small facet of the post that others may not have caught on to. The best comments, of course, are the ones that add to the ongoing discussion by inserting new information into the mix. However, comments can also take over a blog and dishearten the author, when it starts to sound like the halls of a public school, you know it's time to shut it down.

As this "thing" is mostly about finding educational ways to use blogging, I suppose that final reflection question will get its own section.

Educators can use blogging to enhance their classes in many ways. One way is to simply use it as a sounding board for their ideas. That's what Mr. Meyer did in his post Why I Don't Assign Homework. Mind you, this is a very controversial subject, even for a person who may agree with the policy, but not agree with the overall rationale for said policy.

However, the most useful way to utilize blogging is to bring it into the classroom. Most of my kiddos don't completely understand what blogging is because of how quickly technology trends change. Facebook and MySpace pretty much dominate their tech-related brain cells (at least in my class) because of the social networking aspect. However, I remember a time when having a Xanga was hot - in fact, I still have the login from my high school Xanga memorized.

I was pleasantly surprised to see such deep thought on teaching from a 14-year-old when reading the Brevity entry. This is, in fact, a challenge that many teachers face, and the piece was so well-written, that I found myself composing an answer to it as I read. I was even more encouraged as I read the post on Education Blogging. The rationale in its defense had very few weak spots, and I discovered more new arguments for its use. I still believe that the accessibility and the ownership it inspires are its two greatest strengths as an educational tool, but I see the merit in all the arguments they provided. Finally, I also loved the idea of students reading blogs for SSR time. It's a technique that I'm excited to experiment with in my class, though I don't anticipate using it THAT often. Still, it will be an excellent way to get my students most lacking in computer skills to start becoming comfortable with that technology.

I will admit that I'm not so sold on the idea of 2nd graders using a blog. I'm sure that it would be wonderful to have their first understanding of a blog be for academic use, certainly. However, when you're introducing children that young to a service that can connect them to anyone and open up their minds to anything, there's a concern about their safety, simply because 7 year olds can be so trusting and innocent.

Thing #2: Musings on Web 2.0

TECHNOLOGY IS CHANGING EDUCATION.

There. I said it. And out of most of the teachers in my school, I may be the person who knows it best. After all, I went through my degree in journalism being told every day: no one under the age of 30 reads a newspaper anymore. Then I went through my degree in English with professors stoically ignoring the newfangled e-Readers, until I arrived at my final Capstone course and discovered that I needed to create a multi-media non-fiction narrative piece for the digital age, because "in 12 years, book publishers will be publishing 50% of their content online exclusively."

Of course these changes in print publishing and media are going to change the way that we approach education, and I can see the shifts already happening. For example, at least 12 teachers at my school went to Google Apps training and now have websites that they use for their classes. Already we use the GoogleApps programming to keep track of office detentions, OEYP hours, and ISS assignments. The internet has allowed me to network with other teachers, find helpful study guides and additional training materials, as well as find pertinent news articles to share with the kiddos.

These examples are similar to the ones discussed in the article, and I would love to be able to utilize these ideas more. I think that in most of my classes, I'm going to have to work hard to turn my students into "digital learners."

One obstacle that I face as an ESL teacher in Mesquite is the complete lack of funding from any real source or entity to actually bring technology into my classroom. Next year, I'll be getting newer computers because of my latest assignment (Yearbook), but this year was a real struggle to integrate any sort of technology into my lesson plans. Also, at least 80% of my students qualify as economically disadvantaged and about 50% of the students in my ESL classes do not have regular access to a computer after school hours. These students need additional help to understand how to use programs. I see part of my duty as helping them to adapt to the US culture, and the digital culture is certainly a large portion of that now.

The future of my technology use, you ask?

• have all of my students on a GoogleApps account so that they can collaborate on projects in slides, or, as in the article, on a study guide for an upcoming test
• activity websites to keep the students and parents involved with Student Council and Yearbook updated on the important upcoming events
• advertising and incentives for Yearbook marketing
• podcasts and online content for my true Newcomer ESL students who would be lost in normal lessons

Thing #1: Lifelong Learning

Let's be honest. I'm already a lifelong learner. In fact, I feel that if there is ever a time in my life when I stop learning, I'll more than likely shrivel up into an empty husk of myself. Horribly tragic.

This particular model of "Lifelong Learning" was intriguing to consider. Despite my resistance to consider a prescribed formula for lifelong learning, I nevertheless found myself admitting that many of the points this presentation made were valid.

The habits that I found agreeable included accepting responsibility for your own learning, having confidence as a learner, and mentoring others. As a person who constantly needs a challenge, I revel in being able to mentor people, no matter the circumstance. It's one of the main reasons I choose to teach, right behind keeping up with all the fly slang, fo' rizzle. Being able to not only provide support for another person, but also open their mind to a new concept teaches you more than any college course ever could.

The only two that I truly struggled with accepting were:

- Begin with an end in mind (a goal, basically)

I think that sometimes having an "end game" for learning can contain your experience, whereas keeping your options open can lead to paths you never expected. Sometimes these paths are much more beneficial than the original goal may have been, and sometimes they're fairly frivolous. It's a gamble I'm always willing to take.

- View problems as challenges.

Yes, some "problems" are truly challenges in disguise. A sheep in wolves' clothing, if you will. However, there are some problems that are there for a reason, that are not meant to be faced and overcome. For example, I have horrible balance. For years I saw this as a "challenge" that I needed to overcome in order to ride a bicycle, roller blade, and ice skate. However, at the age of 16, I finally conceded that perhaps the 6 scars and 3 shattered helmets meant that it was more of a problem than a challenge. :) Discovering and knowing your limits is important, otherwise you may be discouraged from continuing learning in other areas.

Of course, as I noted earlier, I try to approach most subjects with an open mind, so I am glad to consider outside perspectives on those two points.

Obligatory Introductory Post

Wilkommen, bienvenue, come on in...

Despite my affinity for Wordpress, I'll be spending the next few weeks working on Blogger to complete the requirements for the 23 Things course I am taking with Mesquite ISD.

Hopefully, this blog will help me reflect as well as process the technological lessons. Also, I plan on being just a touch more serious (and a lot less irreverent) in this blog than in my previous explorations. Of course, a blog without humor isn't really a blog at all, so I'll try to keep it from being dry.

Off on the adventure we go!