Friday, October 22, 2010

Diigo links of the day 10/22/2010


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Meeting with MIT today...

So today I was in a meeting with researchers from MIT who are partnering with the Community Foundation of South Wood County.  It was a very interesting meeting, and I must say I was a bit intimidated meeting with people from MIT.  These researchers are working with the Community Foundation and are interested in how technology is being used in schools, how students are connecting, etc.  There are a variety of other things involved here, but it got me thinking about my community service project for the WISE program as we were talking in our informal meeting.  The subject of where students go to get access after school in our area was brought up.  Is there a public place for students, and community members, to go to.  The answer is no.  I know it would take money, but if the organizations involved here are willing and able to give us funding, which it sounds like they might be, it would be great to open some sort of place for people in the community to go to, without having to drive into Wisconsin Rapids, to get access to computers and the internet.  Something to think about...

New technology frustrations...

One of the great things about new, online, technology resources and tools is that they are constantly being improved and updated.  But that is also something that can be a bit frustrating.  Last year I went to work on my wiki and pbworks had changed a few things around. Buttons looked a bit different and were arranged and placed in different orders.  It wasn't anything major, but, since it had been a while since I had to edit my page, it made me wonder if I remembered what I was doing for a moment.  Generally these changes are easy to adapt to.  However, if I had a moment of, "What the heck is going on here?" I know that many of my colleagues and others in the profession who are not exactly "tech friendly" would possibly have a melt down with things changing so often.  I get calls from teachers wondering where to locate something on a drive because the icon moved.   Getting some teachers to want to use technology is a big step, but once they use it and don't feel comfortable with it because it keeps changing, what do we do then?  Most will just give up because it is too stressful for them.  I personally don't see this as a problem, again I said I thought it was one of the best aspects of these new, online, resources... but I fear this great thing about it might turn some teachers away from using these valuable resources.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Love this video

I saw this video on others' blogs and just had to post it on my own.  It is so creative and just makes me happy.  I love it when my students create projects like this because they always have so much fun and their creativity really shines.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Edmodo

I'm not sure how many people are familiar with Edmodo right now.  I started using it this year and told a few other tech-savvy and interested teachers about it who have also started using it for their classes.  I love it! But the one problem I am finding is that I have to get used to it and check and update it regularly, something that is a bit of a struggle for me at times with all the classes I teach.

So currently I have it available to all of my classes, but I'm really focusing one class around it.  So far so good.  The thing students really like is that they can turn their assignments in the day something is due, as long as it is in by 11:59pm the day it is due.  I'm happy to give them that time!

I have many students who are anti-technology.  I don't knwo why, but they are.  Every new tool I give to them that I find really cool they find a way to bring down.  I find a very simple and helpful tool and they can't figure out how to use it.  It's a constant battle.  But Edmodo, which is Facebook-like in it's look and set up has not been a problem and is something that these anti-tech students have really gotten into using.  Ahhh... success!
The other things I love about Edmodo are the calendar function and the way I get to color code my classes.  Students have the ability to make the class colors whatever they want on their own, and I can do the same.  So having 5 classes I can easily see what is coming in from what class, or on the calendar have it color coded to classes so I know the due dates coming up for a class simply by noticing the color or the entry.


Now, I do need to be more on top of this calendar function, but when I have my units ready I have so far been able to update the calendar with all necessary due dates.  Something I need to keep on top of.

If you haven't checked out Edmodo yet I highly recommend it!

Let's get this started...

I've always wanted to start a blog and actually keep up on it, so I suppose this is my chance =)

What I'd like to do here is reflect on the things I find useful for myself as a teacher.  I'll be linking to articles, embedding information, etc. in order for this to be a place for me to reflect on these resources and my teaching practices.  Reflection is something that I know I need to do more of as a teacher.  I have tons of resources at my disposal and on my diigo, but I don't always take the time to evaluate these resources or their usefulness, how I have used it/implemented it, or how my students responded.  I think that this blog will be a great place to do that, among other things...

I am choosing to focus this on my role as an educator, but when I feel the need (like in the summer) to post other things I will do that.  So here's a brief start and I will be adding more this week and in the weeks to come!

Diigo links of the day 10/12/2010


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.