Google Bootcamp Certification 2

WOW!!!  That's all I have to say.  The past two days were amazing. Full of all sorts of information,new tools, and things to just play with (because every teacher needs a time to have a little fun).  This bootcamp not only readied me for the certification 2 exam I'm taking this week but it also allowed me to make new connections with other educators.  Thank you to +Austin Houp for putting together an excellent bootcamp.  Here are a few takeaways from this weekend:
          1.  Join Google+ communities
I can't believe that I have been using Google for so many years now and I just now found out about the collaboration using Google+ communities.  This is certainly going to be one of those places I refer to for lesson/activity ideas.  That is in addition to Twitter and edweb.net.
          2.  Create Multi-Media Text Sets aka HyperDocs
I sort of already did this in my classroom but I never realized there was a term for it. You don't just simply create a Google Doc and be done with it.  This is like a Google Doc on steroids.  This serves as a location for students to access links you have made available to them, a place for the start of a PBL unit, or as a interactive lesson.
          3. Create Choose Your Own Adventure Google Slides or Forms
WHAT!?!?!  I never thought to do this!  My mind was definitely blown when we touched on this topic.  You know those books when we were kids where you choose how your story is going to progress and end. Yep, that's what we are doing here only on Google Slides and Forms.  I will be taking a few of my units this year and using this as a way to introduce topics.  Since I teach 6th grade students I definitely see this going over big, real big!  I can't wait!!

I could keep going with all the amazing things I learned this weekend but I would be here all day. lol.  Here's to the beginning of a great school year using all these amazing tools and resources I found at the SWMO Google Bootcamp Level 2.  Happy Learning everyone!

New Beginnings!

It's been way too long since I've last posted.  Much has changed for me and now I'm on a new journey.  I recently married my amazing husband and we moved into our home a few months ago.  I also landed a new teaching position as a 6th grade Science teacher at Willard Intermediate in Willard, MO.  I'm super excited since I just completed my first year here and I'm looking forward to many more years in this district.  On top of all this I am one class away from completing my masters degree for educational technology.  With this being said it is my hopes to come back to blogging when I find new resources and strategies that work in the classroom.  Especially since teaching science is my new focus.  Here's to all the new and looking forward to many more exciting and wonderful years!!

Learning How to Visualize Data

As I've gone through the past 8 weeks of school(work) and school(college) I realize there are several ways to demonstrate ones knowledge on a concept.  Often times I find myself creatig lists or diagrams to help me understand a topic.  As I observe my students as they independantly read and research they too often make charts, diagrams, pictures or lists to help them see the information they are reading.  Recently I introduced my students to a program called Piktochart.  They LOVED it!  They had to complete research on a country of their choice and then put it into a poster format to display in school.  Here are a couple of examples of their work.

Having the skill of knowing how to organize images, data, and text on something such as these posters takes time to develop.  Some of my students have had this experience where as others have not.  It took several days to complete just the poster portion after their research was completed. This was mainly because I was introducing them to different concepts of what makes something more memorable and pleasing to the eye where at the same time introducing information to the reader that they did not know before hand.  Teaching students ways to visualize data is highly important since the jobs these students will have in the future depend on presenting information and sharing ideas.  My goal is to try to introduce a different visualization technique a few times this year to give students other options to showcase their knowledge.

Learning How to Search the Web in the 21st Century

As I think about my middle and high school years I find myself comparing how students find information compared to my days in school.  Even now I can compare my own search methods to the methods I once used when I was younger.  I remember my English teachers showing us step by step in high school how to research a paper using a card catalog and tons and tons of books from the library.  The last couple of years of high school we had a computer lab that allowed us to use an online card catalog to find the books we needed.  It wasn't until I was in college where I had the opportunity to use the internet as a way to find information for my school work.  As I think back I feel as if I had a really good base knowledge on how to research topics from having to use books from the library.  The material was controlled and only approved items were allowed in the view of the students.  Now, however, this is almost the complete opposite.  Although districts have site blockers to keep students from inappropriate things there are always new sites being created they slip by these blockers.  It is nearly impossible to keep students 100% clear of inappropriate sites. Therefore, it is necessary to teach students the correct way in researching while on the web.
I used a tactic last year as my students began a unit of Ancient Egypt that went fairly well.  My goal is to make it better for this school year.  We started off by learning how to log on and add a page to our very own class wiki.  Once the students created their page they then had the opportunity to complete their research.  Before letting them loose I modeled what a search might look like by projecting my screen onto the promethean board.  After modeling this I gave the students about 5 minutes to search for information about pyramids.  We then stopped to see what we had found.  We talked about the sites the students had found, what key words they used in their search, and what changes could be made to make the search better and more to the point of what we were researching.  We also talked about what made a site credible and what made a site questionable.  Once students had a good understanding of what was expected of them and how to search the web they were given their topics of research on Egypt.  This went well for my first time attempting this type of project but as I read through Literacy 2.0 Reading and Writing in 21st Century Classrooms  I am beginning to see that a couple of changes and/or additions are needed before I begin this project for the current school year.  Frey, Fisher, and Gonzalez talk about using Boolean search tools while researching items such as quotation marks, + (plus sign), OR, AND, and NOT or - (minus sign) (pg. 39, 2010).  To be honest I have never used these tools but I am certainly going to be using them myself as well as teach my students these shortcuts to help them better search for materials of interest.  I will go over the meanings of these prior to my modeling and then have students guide me as to what tool I should use when searching.  This will allow the students to not only visualize what is expected of them but also it will allow for trial and error so they can see the difference between each of these tools when searching with the same words.  After my demonstration I will keep the 5 minute search and allow for the discussion of their findings.  From there I will show them how to write a simple paragraph and then check it with a plagiarism checker.  This will allow them to check their own work before publishing their wiki page to ensure they are not taking credit for someone else's work.  By adding these two components I will be empowering my students with the ability to not only effectively research information on the web but also check their work to make sure they are not taking credit for work that is not their own. This may add a little time at the beginning of the year, however, I believe this will end up saving some time and headache later in the year.

References

     Frey, Nancy, Douglas Fisher, Alex Gonzalez. Literacy 2.0 Reading and Writing in 21st Century Classrooms. Bloomington, IN:Solution Tree Press, 2010. Print.

21st Century Teachers Incorporate Literacy Instruction Into Content Areas

The past week I have been thinking about how I can better implement literacy into my social studies classroom.  I thought I did a pretty good job by using a wikispace and having students create a written report along with their research.  I quickly realized that I have much to learn on this topic.  After reading through chapter 1 of Technology to Teach Literacy A Resource for K-8 Teachers I began to understand that I was missing a component in my teaching that would allow students to fully understand and use the knowledge I was presenting to them.  Frey, Fisher, and Gonzalez state that there are four key components that allow students to gradually gain control over their learning.  They coin this as the gradual release of responsibility.  The four components include focus lessons, guided instruction, productive group work, and independent learning (p.11, 2010).  While reading through each of these components I found that I was good at implementing focus lessons and independent learning but I struggle with guided instruction and productive group work.  It's not that I don't do these, however, I have much room to grow in making sure my students are getting the full benefit of each component.  In order to implement literacy fully into my social studies classroom I am going to create units that have stations allowing for more guided instruciton from me while at the same time allowing for group work as well.  I believe this can be accomplished with the tools I already use but I am also going to implement Curriculet into these stations as well.  My thought is to have 4 stations; Curriculet station which will allow students to read information and respond to questions based on the material read, Teacher station which will allow for students to receive guided instruction through either further readings or writing to help improve in areas where they may be weak, Class wikipage station which allows students to write and publish their creations so the world can view their work, and an Independent station which will allow students to work by their self and show they know the material being taught.  As I begin to create my next unit for my classroom it is my goal to keep these in mind so that I can make sure that every student is reaching their full potential and practicing their literacy skills at the same time even while being in a social studies classroom.  I believe that any subject matter teacher can implement literacy into the classroom.  Afterall, literacy is in everything we do in life.  Why wouldn't it be in every classroom?

References

     Frey, Nancy, Douglas Fisher, Alex Gonzalez. Literacy 2.0 Reading and Writing in 21st Century Classrooms. Bloomington, IN:Solution Tree Press, 2010. Print.

Technology for Reading and Writing

As I am taking my current college class I have come to realize there are many technological tools available that encourage students to read and write.  Not only do these tools encourage students but they also increase their understanding of how to effectively communicate, read, and write when used in the correct way.  I already use a couple of tools such as wikispaces and Kahoot! in my classroom so I was eager to find some new tools to change things up a little.  There are a couple of tools that stick out to me as I do my research.  The first is Inspiration.  This application can be downloaded and used on phones, ipads, and computers.  It allows students to create web maps using fonts and images.  I can see myself using this later in the school year when we begin our first paper.  This would give students a good visual on the research they do before they write their rough draft.  I could also see my students using this to create a visual aid.  While presenting they would be showing their knowledge of the required materials read to create this visual aid.  I am sure there are many other ways to use this in the reading and writing world but these were the two ideas that came to mind first.  The second tool I found to be of interest is Curriculet.  After watching the introducation video I was intrigued by the abilities of this tool.  Last year I had the opportunity to test out discovery education (which I LOVED however since it cost a pretty penny my district would not allow us to purchase for our students this year) and I was pleased to see that Curriculet is similar to it.  I can assign students to a reading prompt and within that reading prompt I can embed videos, audio, questions and quizzes. I am definitley giving this a shot in my classroom this year as I found several free books that I can use to help reinforce some of the ancient civlizations we will be covering.  This application will allow students to not only read a selection but also listen to it and test what they understood.  I love that it gives instant feedback.  I use Socrative for quizzes and the students love being able to see what they missed right away.  It is certianly a moral booster for many students.  I will continue to do more research as I love being able to find new things to add to the classroom.  For now Curriculet and Inspiration are on my top list of new tools to integrate into my classroom.  Here it goes!

Literacy in the 21st Century Classroom

     As I sit and ponder this question I realize that I grew up during a time when technology was really beginning to take a strong hold in our public schools.  In the days prior to the 21^st century classrooms were full of blackboards with teacher centered instruction.  Students would often tire and tune out of that days lesson because of the monotony from one teacher to the next.  I remember these days in my elementary and middle school years.  It was in my high school years that I began to see the use of SMART boards and computer labs.  A transition was taking place that allowed each student the opportunity to locate information in a different and faster way.  It also allowed us to create, share, and collaborate with each other in ways we had never experienced.  In doing so we were able to learn on a new level how to read, write, collaborate and critique. 

     In Literacy 2.0 Reading and Writing in 21^st Century Classrooms Frey, Fisher, and Gonzalez make a clear cut as to the difference between literacy 1.0 and literacy 2.0.  They encourage us to look at literacy 1.0 as a means of accessing information where as literacy 2.0 is a means of finding, using, producing, and sharing information (p.1, 2010).  I can see this clearly now that I am an educator myself.  As when I was younger literacy 1.0 was prevalent by the use of paper, pencil, and textbooks.  Today Literacy 2.0 is the star of the show, allowing students to show case their work and collaborate with each other.  Often times my students are using blogs, wikipages, twitter, and facebook to communicate with each other.  It only makes sense for us to use and promote accurate, safe, and logical use of these tools in the classroom since this is the way of communication for this generation.  Frey et al. goes on to say, “Today’s students have a deep-seated need to communicate and collaborate, to access information at any time of the day or night, and to have the tools that will enable them to synthesize, evaluate, and create information”(p.5, 2010).  By allowing students to use technology while becoming literate students they are able to critically think, write, and respond in ways they never would with paper and pencil.  It is my goal to always be using literacy 2.0 but I realize that often times students can use literacy 2.0 without know literacy 1.0.  With this in the back of my mind I plan on showing my students how to access information first and then dig deeper into the depths of literacy 2.0.

References

     Frey, Nancy, Douglas Fisher, Alex Gonzalez. Literacy 2.0 Reading and Writing in 21st Century Classrooms. Bloomington, IN:Solution Tree Press, 2010. Print.

Summer Flew By

I can't believe how fast my summer as flown by after my first year of teaching.  Although it was a wonderful time I am in full swing into the 2015/2016 school year.  This year I'm doing things a little different in my classroom.  I've decided to slowly implement Standards Based Grading (SBG) into my classroom.  Our district will be completely transitioned next school year (16/17) with this year having a select few teachers piloting.  Allthough I'm not piloting I have found several ways in beginning the transition so my kiddos are not so shocked come next school year.   Since my social studies team has already come up with our essential learning standards the first thing I am doing is giving students a learning log over each standard as we go through each unit. 

Example of the first couple of strandards we will be focusing on this year. Students keep this in their binders. They self check by write down pre-test scores, checkpoints, and final test scores to see where they need improvement.

With social studies each unit will cover two, three, and even sometimes four standards.  The second thing I am doing is posting the standard of which we are focusing on for that day or week.  I thought this would be a good visual for those who are working on a project who may not have their learning logs visible while in class.  

Not the best picture, but the idea is for them to see the goals.  Eventually I'll post examples of  student work on this board that has been given scores of 3 and 4.  This way the students can see the quality of work and differences in each score. 

The third thing I am doing is attempting to implement Google Classroom.  I believe this will be essential in allowing students the ability to complete work at their own pace and allowing them the opportunity to explore further to reach that 4 score.  So here's to my second year of teaching, surely to be filled with excitement, craziness, and a lot of learning from my students and I. 
Here are some pictures of the setup of my classroom this year.  Enjoy!

I have made it this far, what's a couple more months?

I did not think I would get the chance to say this but...
 I AM 3/4 OF THE WAY THROUGH THE SCHOOL YEAR!  
I has been a long and crazy journey but I have quickly found out how important it is to collaborate with fellow educators and always be on top of new strategies to keep students attention and learning constant.  One resource I have found the my students seem to enjoy is Wikispaces.  We have complete two seperate projects where we have shared with the world what we have learned.  This is a bit tidious to set up but the end results are certainly worth it.  
On another note... Just before Christmas I found out that our school district is going to standards based grading (SBG).  Our goal is to have the entire district implemented by school year 2016/2017.  Definitley a tough goal but I believe we can do it.  Our building is currently completing a booik study and it is teachingus the do's and don'ts of SBG.  We had the priveldge of meeting teachers from other districts that have already implented SBG and I am certainly looking forward to this grading system.  This new grading allows students, parents, and teachers to see what information the student is really learning (not a grade for participation or extra credit but a grade on the knowledge gained).  Although this is going to require a complete overhaul on grading and lesson planning I am excited, nervous, overwhelmed, and looking forward to yet another new journey.  
HERE WE GO!!!

2014-2015 6th grade Social Studies Teacher. YAHOOOO!!!!

I am super excited to announce that I will be teaching 6th grade social studies this upcoming school year.  Not sure what it will all entail but I am sure it will be full of many ups and downs.  Now I am on the quest to find many resources to use in my classroom and curriculum.  So far Pinterest and twitter have been my best bet.  My search will continue as I jump into this year full speed.  I'm anxious, excited, and a little overwhelmed all at the same time (especially since I have to move to the other side of the state....yikes!).  I know that it will all be worth it in the end.  Follow me on Pinterest and take a look at my educational board. Let me know if you have any ideas on what would be resourceful in a 6th grade classroom. 

Class is over but the learning has just begun!!!

This was the final week for my Professional development class towards my masters.  I have to say that I learned a lot from this course, much more than I had anticipated at the beginning.  Here is the reflection I posted for this class. Hopefully some of the resources I found will benefit you as well.  Let me know what you think! Enjoy!!

https://sites.google.com/site/carriedawaycs/nets_5/reflection_5

Happy Easter!!

     

 First of all I would like to say, Happy Easter!!! Jesus is alive!!!  I have had an interesting weekend to say the least but with the weekend nearly over I realized I have not blogged once this week!! So I thought it best to do so now while I have my thoughts in the front of my mind (it's truly bothersome when I have a thought and then it floats to the back of my head and then I just can't seem to retrieve it). 

Over the past several weeks I have come across several new PLN resources.  One that I recently found this past week is sharemylesson.com.  This site has thousands of lessons, activities, handouts, movies, webinars, and a forum.  I searched google for more information on this site before I signed up and I found nothing but positive remarks about its resourcefulness.  I found a video that sums up what the site is all about. Check it out!  

Once I signed up I was able to log in in and view all of the available resources and webinars.  I was surprised to see there are webinars available with ideas on how to meet different parts of the commoncore standards.  A lot of these are about one hour long and I have not had a chance to sit down and watch one full out yet, but I certainly plan to do so soon.  I recently completed a simile and metaphor unit with my students and I was hoping my students would have had a better understanding of how these enhance the way people read poems and stories. I have been on the lookout for different lessons or activities to do just that and I was able to find a couple of activities that I want to try next time on this site. Here is a link to one of the resources I am going to use next time.  You will have to sign up in order to view the page but it is worth it the couple of minutes of singing up. 

I think having several PLN's available is definitely beneficial. Having just a few sites really limits the resources that you have available at your fingertips.  I keep my list of tools and resources on diigo and my PLN list has grown from 4 sites to 15 just over the past 7 weeks. That's not to say that I access every single site every day.  However, if I check on a couple of sites and I just can't find a lesson or activity for what I am needing then I have plenty of other options to choose from.  I think I will be using this site as one of my top 5 sites to got to for ideas.  Hopefully you will have a few minutes to check it out. If so let me know if you think this is a resourceful site for your needs.  Also if you have any other sites that I have not mentioned throughout my blog, please post a comment letting me know what you use. As you can see I am in the processing of building my PLN and I will take any help I can get. Hope to hear from you soon!! 

Twitter Chat

After completing my first twitter chat I have to say that I am completely invigorated. It was wicked fast but definitely worth participating in.  I participated in #edtechchat tonight from 7-8 Central time.  I made sure to use tweetdeck on my laptop.  I was going to try to do it on my phone but thought otherwise since this was my first chat and I was not familiar with the layout of the chat.  In the future I can use my phone if I am not at home but otherwise I will stick to my laptop. It took me a little bit to get the hang of how to use twitter deck in such a way that was not overwhelming. I ended up creating three seperate lists; Notifications, #edtechchat, and edtechchat moderator. The notifications allowed me to see certian tweets including just me and my tweets, #edtechchat allowed me to see the responses of everyone else in the chat, and edtechchat moderator allowed me to see the questions for the chat from the moderators (sometimes I would loose the questions in the #edtechchat since tweets were flying in). Once I did this it was much easier to follow along. 

The topic tonight was on Innovation.  A bunch of the information I new from classes with Missouri Baptist University however, I was able to pick up a couple of things I want to give a try.  One of the questions was "What is something innovative you are doing in your classroom/school?"  In my class I have begun using twiducate and the students love it!  I was amazed at the vast array of responses and ways other educators are innovating their rooms. I would like to experiement with the idea of teaching sutdents website/blog creation.  Instead of just having them participate in one I have created I would allow them to create it and then use it in the classroom.  This will take much supervision, especially with my 4th graders but I can certianly see them pulling this off and learning in a whole new way that I would not have thought of before this chat.  I have not had a chance to look into this but one of the resources for this type of thing is Kidblog. I'm going to take a look into it and see how useful it would be for my class. Once I have had a chance to do so I will share my thoughts and/or implementation of this resource.  Have you tried this in your classroom? If so please share what you use and/or how you have done so. 

I can certianly say that I will be participating in twitter chats in the future. Maybe not on a weekly basis but every couple of weeks or so.  It was exciting and refreshing to see other educators who are wanting and willing to change their teaching habits in order to better teach their students.  Too often I see educators who are stuck in the traditional teaching style and the students are bored out of their mind and not learning the important facts and skills. I did end up following a couple of people from this chat. They included the moderators and a couple of others whos tweets I found interesting. You should certianly give this twitter chat a shot if you have not done so yet. It is well worth it. Let me know what you think once you have done so. 

Social Networking

This week in my graduate class we have been discussing social networking.  I have to say that I am already familiar with social networking but it was definitley interesting to get into in a educational approach.  I use Facebook and recently have begun Twitter. Actually to follow up with a previous post I have researched a few different Twitter like tools available and my most favorite for the classroom is Twiducate. I am going to test this is a class lesson for earth day.  We will see how it goes and I will let you know. Take a look at it and see if you could benefit from this tool. http://www.twiducate.com/login.php

 But enough of that, for todays subject: Social Networking......This week I was introduced to edWeb.net.

 This is an excellent social network for educators.  I was able to join several communities including Amazing resources for Educators, Digital Citizenship, Game based learning, Implementing the Common Core Standards, New Teacher help, and Tech tools for the classroom.  What I love the most about this social network tool is that educators are able to communicate and share ideas that have or have not worked in the classroom.  Also there are tons of free webinars that are archived to view.  You can also participate in live webinars for free once you sign up.  This is along with twitter are definitley going to be two networking tools that I keep and use for a long time.  I even followed edWeb on twitter and have found some very useful resources for the classroom.  It is my hope that with these two social networking tools I will be able to implement not only more technology into my classroom but also change up and revamp classroom activities.  Take a look at edWeb and tell me what you think. Would you use this social networking tool and if you have for awhile is there anything that I have not found yet that you think I could benefit from using or looking at?  Let me know. I'm always open and willing to learn new things.  For my own personal use I love to use Pinterest but every once in a while I do find that I am looking up educational tools and resources using this social network tool as well.  I know there are tons of networking sites out there. If you have one you use that I have not mentioned in my blog let me kknow so I can check it out.
Thanks for reading!

Networked Classroom

While taking this class for creating a PLN for myself I can't help but think that there is so much new stuff that I am almost overwhelmed by it all!!!  I LOVE the idea of having a networked classroom. This is mainly because it allows students the opportunity to actually learn by their own creations and connections made through the use of blogs, videos, chats, skype, etc.  I have to say the in addition to the reading that was assigned for this week I also read chapter 3 from Personal Learning Network by Will Richardson and Rob Mancabelli and I believe networked classrooms are upon us.  Richarson/Mancabelli gave 7 reasons or benefits of a networked classroom and they included: Transparent, Collaborative, Learning centered, Accessible, Communication based, Supportive of problem- or inquiry-based learning, and Drvien by authentic assessment.  I agree that all of these are benefits and I found two quotes that I highlighted in the text that stood out to me.  In speaking about the Collaborative aspect of a networked classroom Richardson/Mancabelli says, 'If we remember that 'none of us is as smart as all of us,' we can begin to tap into the expertise of both those around us and those outside the school."  The fact that the students and teachers are not limited by the walls of the classroom is such a great opportunity for everyone to learn and expand their knowledge. This is a good enough reason for me to create a networked classroom.  I do however, think about how my generation would be today had we had the same opportunity of a networked classroom. The chance to reach outside the four walls of the classroom.  Would we be smarter or just better connected with others throughout the world. Would there be any skills not learned such as good scripting/handwriting, proper use of english (especially with all the cuts that are made in blogs, posts, and tweets to trim down what people of trying to say), or even public speaking in front of a live audience (I know its a totally different feeling when there are actual bodies in the room while speaking as opposed to you making a video or skyping. Its just not the same feelling.)  I guess I'm trying to figure out how to balance keeping these skills as well as learning the skills gained from a networked classroom.  Afterall, they are just as important as connecting with others from around the world. The other quote I found interesting talks about the assessment portion of a networked classroom. I would think it is difficult to actually grade or measure ones understanding of a concept if they are only chatting or blogging. However, I guess it depends on what kind of criteria is given to students. In supporting the networked classroom Richardson/Mancabelli argue that "Students are doing real work for real purposes for real audiences, and the products they create are measured accoudingly through self-reflection on the creation process, performces, portfolios, and a host of other ways."  This is certainly so that is depending on the criteria of the assignment.  I believe a networked classroom would be much easier to implement into higher grades.  Younger students such as 1st or 2nd graders are just learning how to spell words let alone write a blog about something they are learning.  Although, I can see where one could argue that this blogging could actually help students in learning how to spell since what they type is often more legible than what they physically write. LOL. This I know is true!  If you have never tried to read and grade the writing of a 1st grader you should give it a try sometime. It's interesting sometimes. At any rate, implementing a networked classroom is definitely something that can be done in any grade and any classroom. It's just a matter of figuring out how and when to do so.         

I certianly could see how a networked classroom would benefit diverse students such as esol or gifted students.  Having a live chat or blog gives all students a chance to be heard where in a class discussion typically not every student is heard.  It can also cause students to think from a different point of view.  As one student explains where or how they came to their answer or explanation the other students in the class can be taken to a whole new approach that they never would have thought of before.  I know this has happened to be before so I am certian that this happens with students as well. I would need to do some more research to better understand effective ways to help these students in particular. One thing that does come to mind is my rewording or rephrasing questions or explanations for esol students, possibly using a free web translator if necessary. 

I would love to begin transforming my classroom into a networked classroom.  This will have to wait for me until I have my own classroom.  Since I am only an assistant I only teach select lessons. As I create new lessons I am definitley going to keep this in mind and try to begin or test different ways to create my own future networked classroom.  I know I will be teaching on earth day so I am going to see how I can get my students involved somehow.  This will take some thinking but I'm confident I can do it.  If you have any thoughts please let me know! 

Twitter, my new best friend!!!!

I made this word cloud using Tagxedo Check it out.

TWITTER you are my new best friend!!!!

I have to say that I am impressed with how twitter is used.  This tool is definitely something that can be used not only on a personal basis but in the classroom as well.  I can see teachers using twitter inside the classroom while working on a project or even outside of the classroom when they have questions, concerns, or find something interesting that is related to their schoolwork. This would help students in learning how to narrow down their words to use the most important facts by having the word limit, especially for those long winded talkers and writers. I have come to love the twitter deck. I have only installed it on my computer but I am definitely going to put it on my phone as well.  I love how I can create lists so that I see specific topics that I am interested in.  By using the twitter deck it will make collaborating with classmates easier as well as collaborating for the teacher with other professionals easier.  Needless to say I am super excited about using twitter. While I was researching micro blogs I came across this article.  http://tinyurl.com/ce69s6 In this article there are several other micro blogging options out there to use such as Jaiku and Yammer. I plan on checking each of these out to see if maybe one of these would be more classroom friendly but for right now I am trying to get my feet wet with twitter. I have learned that micro blogging is similar to sms messaging but on a global scale where you can share information you have found and also see what others are sharing as well.  Although it’s much shorter than standard blogging it is definitely an efficient way of communication and collaboration.  I see myself learning much in the next few weeks and I can’t wait!  This is another reason I love being a teacher because I am constantly learning new things. I love it!! Has anyone used any of these other micro blogs? If so let me know what you think of them. 

Twitter Anxiety

So this week I created a twitter account! :) I know....YEAH CHRISTINA!!!  After going through twitter and reading up on the meanings of some of the different terminology I am beginning to think this might take me a bit to get used to.  I'm still not sure on how to use the # correctly but I am going to play around with it and see what happens.  I have been super busy this week with working two jobs and little sleep so maybe over the next couple of days I can find an hour or two to dedicate to just twitter. This way I can try to get a good understanding on how exactly it all works.  If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.  I usually catch on to new things easily, however this for some reason is not coming as easily as I had hoped it would for me.

Clipart by Blinkofyoureye.com.

 If you want to follow me and maybe give me some pointers that would be great!!  @carriedawaycs 

Tumblr as a PLN

                            
                            Picture from http://www.librarygirl.net/2012/07/pln-starter-kit.html

After doing some research on different PLN's I came across Tumblr as potential source. I have heard of it before and have seen others use resources they have pulled from it but I never took the step to look into it to see what it was all about.  After creating my own Tumblr account I was quickly able to see that there are many benefits to this resource.  I was able to find all sorts of PLN blogs others have created as well as different resources on specific subjects or areas of interest such as math or increasing student vocabulary.  Although this is just another blog source I think it helps to have a couple of different options available to you.  Finding the right PLN takes some time.  Although I seem to like this right away I am defintely going to keep checking back on my tumblr and posting on it as I am on my blogger, just to see if this is definitely something I want to continue using.  If you want to take a look at a couple of the blogs I am following, please go ahead and take a look. Let me know what you think. My tumblr is http://carriedawaycs.tumblr.com/   Feel free to leave me a message here on my blogger or on tumblr! :-)

I just created my first blog as a part of an assignment. I'm curious how this is going to work. More to come and I'm sure I will be learning a lot. Hopefully some tools I can use in my classroom! Here's to new beginnings!!