I found this class very challenging and time consuming, because I wanted to learn everything that I could about Web 2.0.  It was worth every minute and brain cell that I spent working on it.  I have learned a lot and am using many things in my classroom already.   

It seems that I will not have a job in teaching next year, and it makes me very sad.  King’s Ridge has had to reduce the number of classes for next year, and since I was one of the last hired, I am the first to go.  (If you know any anyone needing a teacher next year, please let me know.)

The RSS reader is one of my favorite items that I learned about in this class.  I believe in always striving to learn more and stay current with technological advances, as well as new and effective teaching strategies.  The RSS reader brings many things to my door to enable me to stay current.  I hope to learn new ideas and ways of doing things for as long as I live.  It excites me.

I have enjoyed playing with the wiki page.   I would like to establish a permanent wiki page for future use.  This will enable me to stay in touch with my students who I love very much.  It will also be a great way to stay current with technology and push myself outside my comfort zone.

It would take too long to list all of the wonderful things that I have learned in this class, but I am grateful for the opportunity to expand my knowledge base in technology.  My students are enjoying the exciting presentations that I have learned to pull together using many of these new programs.  I will continue to work with the programs that I have learned and search for new and exciting new ideas that are coming out every day.  Thank you again for a wonderful classRe.

I went onto the Classroom 2.0wesite and explored for about three hours.  I really enjoyed some of the forums, especially one on the use of whiteboards versus sketchpads.  I found myself wanting to jump into the conversation.  I also think that it would be a great place to look up units of study and see what others teachers are doing.  Taking my units and adding other people’s ideas will make my units more interesting.  I joined this site and will explore it more during the summer.

The Ning network for educators was very fascinating.  I loved the discussionon Elluminate. I logged on when Steve Haragan was facilitating a discussiong on social networking and the Ning website and the use of whiteboards.  There were many interesting ideas and concepts.  Again, this is a valuable tool that I will use more as time allows.

There are so many wonderful resources for teachers on the internet that I didn’t know anything about.  This class has opened my eyes to many of the tools available, and I can’t wait to expand my knowledge and use of many new things.

The reader is still overwhelming me, and I know that all of the information is not on my computer and that I don’t have to read it all.  I’m trying to take a breath and plow through it.  My biggest problem is that I tend to be obssessive.  Until recently, I thought that was a good character trait, but now know it to be a problem. (Ha)

I am enjoying Grammar Girl.  It teaches a lot of grammar rules that I somehow missed out on in my younger years, and I often feel inadequate in that area.  This should make a difference in my teaching Language Arts as well.

Pageflakes is an amazing application.  It seems so much more manageable than the Google Reader.  It is spatially more pleasing and less daunting. 

There are many applications for this in the classroom.  You could build a page for any unit that you are studying in Social Studies and Science.  The students could access it from home and research anything that they find interesting regarding the unit of study.  It could also be used to teach new concepts.  You could add websites, pictures, videos, and many other things that would enhance learning.

I would like to do a pageflake for my 2009-2010 class pictures.  It would be available for students and their families to view and share.

I look forward to having more time to play around with this application.  One problem that I had was that I made changes to the template, and then went out of the page to find more codes to embed, and when I came back, none of my changes were there.  The template wasn’t even there.  I’m not sure what I did wrong, but I will check with my mentor tomorrow.

I thought of many uses for Google Docs in the classroom, in planning with my 2nd team, and in personal use.  It is very easy to use, and I like the fact that it saves all revisions so that I can go back to any revision and start over if desired.  I also like the way that it is available for online collaboration.  This can save a lot of valuable time and energy in sending emails and keeping track of the revisions and latest changes to documents.

In the classroom, there are many uses including one that I will continue to work on for a unit that we are doing now on the state of Georgia.  I created a document under presentations for the collection of pictures and facts about Georgia.  It is a work in progress, but it has great potential.  After I get the file started well, I can share it with the other 2nd grade teachers, and let them add anything that they have to the file.  This will enrich the students’ experiences with this unit.

I also downloaded a spreadsheet of Spelling words that the entire 2nd grade uses.  If I share this with the other teachers, they will be able to go in and make changes, and improve the layout.  Our hard copy of the spelling words is forever getting lost.

I would also like to download and share photo albums with my husband of different trips that we take.  He can add some photos that he likes and add comments.

Google Docs has many applications, and I look forward to exploring them as time allows.  This summer should allow the time that I need to create some wonderful presentations for next year.

Now I can understand why my teenage daughters love “You tube”.  I had never been onto You Tube and didn’t realize that you could actually search by topic.  I got involved and spent way too much time enjoying it, but I also found some great video clips to use in my class.

I have been teaching my 2nd grade class to skip count all year.  We started with 3′s the first week of school and have progressed through our 12′s.  There was a great video clip that explains how multiplication is like skip counting.  I will show this clip to class on Monday.

My husband and I are building a new deck, and I wanted a water fountain placed somewhere around it so that I could hear the water sounds.  I found another “how to” clip that showed me how to build a fountain for under $100.  It looks pretty easy, so I am going to try it.

I am amazed at how easy it is to publish a podcast.  I would like to learn more and add graphics and other fun features.  I can see using these in the classroom, especially during Language Arts. 

I have centers in my Language Arts class, and this would be a great option for recording the stories and having the students listen during the listening center.  I think that I could also teach the children to publish podcasts and have them read stories and record them.  The parents would love to hear them.

I am always looking for new, fun ideas for centers.  This would be a great one.

Humor of Teacher

I had always wondered what a podcast was.  Now I know.  I spent many hours going through different podcasts, and I subscribed to several of them.  The ones that I am enjoying are:  “Focus on the Family” (2), “Kid Fridays,” “Manic Mommies,” “Max Ludcado,” “Relaxation Music” and “A Taste of Ted.”  I am enjoying the podcasts. 

I drive from Atlanta to South Carolina and back every other weekend on Friday and Sunday.  Now, I have podcasts to listen to in order to help pass the time.  I also like the Kid Friday, because it informs me of new applications available for myself and my students.  “A Taste of Ted” is very interesting because there is a diverse range of material to choose from when listening.

Library Thing looks very interesting.  Several years ago, I made an Excel spreadsheet with all of the titles of the books that I have in my classroom.  I have a very extensive list, because I love books and want my students to love them too.  I was able to sort them by several different criteria, but Library Thing looks much better.

I joined and played in the site for a while.  I went to the “Early Reviewers” section and selected about 15 books.  I hope to get some of them to review.  This is a great source for getting free books and finding interesting books that I want to read.  I have trouble sometimes finding a good read. 

My husband bought me a Sony eReader for my birthday several years ago, and I love that.  It is wonderful to be able to go online and download books.  We travel often, and when I need a new book, I don’t have to find a bookstore.  I just go to the ebook store and download.  I also don’t have to carry a huge stack of books.  The ebook will fit in my purse and makes it easy to carry many books.  Library Thing will provide me with many suggestions for books to read.

Has anyone had any experience with Library Thing?  Have you been able to get many of the books from Early Previewer?  I’m looking forward to learning more.

I am loving this class.

Delicious will make my life so much simplier.  I have always tried to save websites in a effective way.  My latest attempt was to make a file folder and print out copies of the urls so that I would have them. 
Delicious will make them available to me anywhere that I go and on any computer.

I also like the way that I can tag the sites and pull them up by tag.  This will make keeping track of my websites and using them much easier.  Many times, I have saved websites, but I forget why.  The tags will be an easy reminder.

I also  went onto a colleagues web page and tagged the websites that she has listed for her students to use.  It’s so easy and fast. 

Click here to view my Delicious entries.