I must say, I had a few pleasant surprises while writing this blog. I think my two favorites were the the Wiki and LiveBinder blogs. The whole time I was doing those, I kept thinking about how much easier my Education 2100 class would have been had we known/been able to use them, and, if it makes college life easier, it's BOUND to make high school a breeze! It has really re-enforced what I knew already that there is always an easier way to do things. It just takes a little digging sometimes to find it. The only draw back to 23 Things was how tedious the work was. If there is any way to condense it down, I'm sure it would be. But, maybe this is the condensed version. Seeing as how it started out as 43 Things, It might very well be.
As far is helping me develop as a teacher, this exercise helped me to better understand that, while I will be the only teacher in my classroom, I'm not the only teacher WITH a classroom. There are other people out there that are writing about similar problems that I will need to address in my own class. Which is nice because, if other people are blogging about their own experiences, chances are that they are researching the same things I am. So, if nothing else, it helps give me a starting point for my own research. Knowing that it's ok to comment on other's blogs is nice too. It helps to establish an open dialog so that many different ideas can be filtered through all at once. It should be called Brainstorming 2.0, really.
Overall, this has been a great experience, and, I have enjoyed learning about all of these great new ways to convey ideas to students and other teachers. I'm excited to see how this turns out! So, to answer the question of is this the end or only the beginning, I will quote from the song "Closing Time" by Semisonic- "Every new beginning forms from some other beginnings end."
Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Sunday, April 28, 2013
thing 23
So, I did a little research, and found this brief history of 23 things. I found out that it was actually the brain child of Stephen Abram in 2005 which was when blogging was really starting to take off. His was called 43 things I (or you) might want to do this year. It was later adapted to fit the current 23 Things model for library employees as a continuing education exercise over the course of nine weeks in which there was a prize at the end of. Well, it just so happens that it's not exactly legal for teachers to give students gifts in any form other than a grade for completed work. So, there we have it! Dr. Wall's 23 Things was born. Thankfully, she was gracious enough to not require the original nine week deadline. *PHEW*
I'm sure there is a way to use the 23 Things model for a high school french class( and, trust me, if there is one, I'll find it). But, I don't think I would want to use it right out of the gate when I begin teaching. There will be a big adjustment period for me to get settled into my position, and, something tells me that adding a blog where I have to read upwards of 4,800 plus posts a year will be a bit of an overload for me (can you say meltdown? Sure, I knew you could). BUT, as far as using the Creative Commons law, as a teacher, I will almost be encouraged to carry that thing with me everywhere I go like a Knight carries his shield into battle!
When I was in high school, my French teacher showed us her copy of Cirque de Soliel and was most likely protected under Creative Commons. Really, I can't remember any any of my classes not showing a movie or something like that. So, it's inevitable. I'm going to use it at some point. I'm sure I'll end up using it in some shape, form, or fashion, but, I can't think of any other immediate ways that I will use it other than showing the occasional movie.
I'm sure there is a way to use the 23 Things model for a high school french class( and, trust me, if there is one, I'll find it). But, I don't think I would want to use it right out of the gate when I begin teaching. There will be a big adjustment period for me to get settled into my position, and, something tells me that adding a blog where I have to read upwards of 4,800 plus posts a year will be a bit of an overload for me (can you say meltdown? Sure, I knew you could). BUT, as far as using the Creative Commons law, as a teacher, I will almost be encouraged to carry that thing with me everywhere I go like a Knight carries his shield into battle!
When I was in high school, my French teacher showed us her copy of Cirque de Soliel and was most likely protected under Creative Commons. Really, I can't remember any any of my classes not showing a movie or something like that. So, it's inevitable. I'm going to use it at some point. I'm sure I'll end up using it in some shape, form, or fashion, but, I can't think of any other immediate ways that I will use it other than showing the occasional movie.
thing 22
<iframe src="http://livebinders.com/play/play?id=873882&present=true" height="500" width="100%">Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe>
Well, suffice it to say that either embedding doesn't work, or, I don't know how to do it. Here's a link.
The binders I made are pretty straight forward in their titles. One is called French Grammar (which is the one I shared in this post), another is French History, and the last one is The Influence of France. The one I like the most is the grammar one. I never sat down and looked up games for learning french until now, and, to be honest, I don't know why I haven't. I found one site that is really neat that has nineteen games for learning everything from vocabulary about vegetables to verb conjugations. I could have really used that site over the last year in my French class. We were using this site called "tell me more" that really couldn't have told me less. The speech recognition software was terrible most of the lessons had almost nothing to do with everyday life. I had a few things that were ok, but, there wasn't much in the way of supplementary material for the class.
Last semester in my Education 2100 class, we had to use RefWorks to put all of our references for our PBL assignment. Also, we had to write a paper which had to include and annotated bibliography with printed out sources. I thought that was a waste of time, paper, ink, money, and effort.
Now, RefWorks was free for us as university students, but, what about high school students? I'm not sure. But, I know that LiveBinders is free for anyone that wants to use it. And, it can serve a double purpose in that it is a great place to store all of your research sources AND it can act as your annotated reference portion of an assignment. Because of how it's set up, all you have to do is create a new binder for a set of sources and create a description for the binder that includes descriptions for each tab in the binder. I think I may have to mention this to Dr. Preston-Sabin next time I see her.
Well, suffice it to say that either embedding doesn't work, or, I don't know how to do it. Here's a link.
The binders I made are pretty straight forward in their titles. One is called French Grammar (which is the one I shared in this post), another is French History, and the last one is The Influence of France. The one I like the most is the grammar one. I never sat down and looked up games for learning french until now, and, to be honest, I don't know why I haven't. I found one site that is really neat that has nineteen games for learning everything from vocabulary about vegetables to verb conjugations. I could have really used that site over the last year in my French class. We were using this site called "tell me more" that really couldn't have told me less. The speech recognition software was terrible most of the lessons had almost nothing to do with everyday life. I had a few things that were ok, but, there wasn't much in the way of supplementary material for the class.
Last semester in my Education 2100 class, we had to use RefWorks to put all of our references for our PBL assignment. Also, we had to write a paper which had to include and annotated bibliography with printed out sources. I thought that was a waste of time, paper, ink, money, and effort.
Now, RefWorks was free for us as university students, but, what about high school students? I'm not sure. But, I know that LiveBinders is free for anyone that wants to use it. And, it can serve a double purpose in that it is a great place to store all of your research sources AND it can act as your annotated reference portion of an assignment. Because of how it's set up, all you have to do is create a new binder for a set of sources and create a description for the binder that includes descriptions for each tab in the binder. I think I may have to mention this to Dr. Preston-Sabin next time I see her.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
thing 21
Here is my clip. It may have been from operator error, but, Animoto wouldn't generate an embedding code and the "share to blogger" thing wouldn't work.
<object id="vp1ICI9Y" width="432" height="243" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000"><param name="movie" value="http://static.animoto.com/swf/w.swf?w=swf/vp1&e=1367123445&f=ICI9YLngNjHDEJuHE68gYA&d=0&m=b&r=360p&volume=100&start_res=360p&i=m&asset_domain=s3-p.animoto.com&animoto_domain=animoto.com&options="></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed id="vp1ICI9Y" src="http://static.animoto.com/swf/w.swf?w=swf/vp1&e=1367123445&f=ICI9YLngNjHDEJuHE68gYA&d=0&m=b&r=360p&volume=100&start_res=360p&i=m&asset_domain=s3-p.animoto.com&animoto_domain=animoto.com&options=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="432" height="243"></embed></object><p>Try our <a href='http://animoto.com'>slideshow maker</a> at Animoto.</p>
Well, maybe that'll work. If not, the link should do the trick.
Anyway, I thought Animoto was pretty easy to use. It was nice that I could sign in with my Facebook account seeing as how that's where ALL my pictures are. I had one consistent problem, though. When I tried to open my albums, they would sit there and try to load, but, they wouldn't. It may have been a problem with slow Wifi, but, still... Something else I kind of thought was annoying was that it wasn't clear on how to delete pictures. Thanks to the albums not opening right, I had to just post a whole album. My reasoning was that I would just delete what I didn't want and be done. Didn't happen. Thankfully, it took off the last two pictures and left what fit. So, I suppose I can't say too much bad about it.
Overall, I am pleased with the finished product. I chose to put pictures of my son, girlfriend, mom, dad, brother, car odometer, and a cheesecake my girlfriend and I made for this passed Easter. I chose those people and things (minus the cheesecake. I just wanted to put the cheesecake in it because it was AWESOME!) because those are the people and things hold very dear places in my heart, and, I would give anything to let them know what they have meant to me over the last seven years. Longer for my immediate family, and shorter for Lindsay, (my girlfriend) but, seven years ago was when my life really turned around and I realized what they all really meant to me.
On a side note, there is a picture of Lindsay and me standing in a pair of pants that used to fit me. That was an eye opening experience if ever there was one for me. So, that one made the final cut.
<object id="vp1ICI9Y" width="432" height="243" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000"><param name="movie" value="http://static.animoto.com/swf/w.swf?w=swf/vp1&e=1367123445&f=ICI9YLngNjHDEJuHE68gYA&d=0&m=b&r=360p&volume=100&start_res=360p&i=m&asset_domain=s3-p.animoto.com&animoto_domain=animoto.com&options="></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed id="vp1ICI9Y" src="http://static.animoto.com/swf/w.swf?w=swf/vp1&e=1367123445&f=ICI9YLngNjHDEJuHE68gYA&d=0&m=b&r=360p&volume=100&start_res=360p&i=m&asset_domain=s3-p.animoto.com&animoto_domain=animoto.com&options=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="432" height="243"></embed></object><p>Try our <a href='http://animoto.com'>slideshow maker</a> at Animoto.</p>
Well, maybe that'll work. If not, the link should do the trick.
Anyway, I thought Animoto was pretty easy to use. It was nice that I could sign in with my Facebook account seeing as how that's where ALL my pictures are. I had one consistent problem, though. When I tried to open my albums, they would sit there and try to load, but, they wouldn't. It may have been a problem with slow Wifi, but, still... Something else I kind of thought was annoying was that it wasn't clear on how to delete pictures. Thanks to the albums not opening right, I had to just post a whole album. My reasoning was that I would just delete what I didn't want and be done. Didn't happen. Thankfully, it took off the last two pictures and left what fit. So, I suppose I can't say too much bad about it.
Overall, I am pleased with the finished product. I chose to put pictures of my son, girlfriend, mom, dad, brother, car odometer, and a cheesecake my girlfriend and I made for this passed Easter. I chose those people and things (minus the cheesecake. I just wanted to put the cheesecake in it because it was AWESOME!) because those are the people and things hold very dear places in my heart, and, I would give anything to let them know what they have meant to me over the last seven years. Longer for my immediate family, and shorter for Lindsay, (my girlfriend) but, seven years ago was when my life really turned around and I realized what they all really meant to me.
On a side note, there is a picture of Lindsay and me standing in a pair of pants that used to fit me. That was an eye opening experience if ever there was one for me. So, that one made the final cut.
thing 20
To the young lady that brought this to class for her website of the day, THANK YOU!!! I love this video!
For those that aren't paying attention, I'm a French major. When I first saw this, I fell in love with it for several reasons. 1. I love it because it is a great guide for learning about the French Revolution and it makes learning fun. Most people I talk to despise history of any kind. Presenting it in this way makes it interesting. I think I would use this as a lead in to talking about the French Revolution and refer back to it as much as possible to keep my class's attention. 2. My Livetext project has a lot to do with French history, but, it has really focused on the Revolution. So, it's really a great resource. I even used this as the "reward" at the end of my interactive PowerPoint.
One really cool aspect of Youtube is that it's really easy to search. Even if you don't know the name of what you're looking for, if you type in what it might be called, it'll usually pop up. Plus, at the end of the videos, it gives you suggestions of things you might like based on what you just saw. That kind of makes life easier for educators because if we look up something like this video above, we might get a few others about similar subject matter that would be a great supplement. One thing about Youtube now is that there are a lot of ads these days. But, the longer ones have a built it skip option after a few seconds, so, it's really not that bad.
Something that would be nifty to add to the library website is the thing that give suggestions based on your browsing history. So, if I searched stuff like "how to teach French history" a lot, I would have a lot of suggestions on how to teach history or French, or both on the library website every time I got on. It would give it a more personalized feel.
Thing 19
Well, I'm waiting for my approval from TeacherPop as, I'm sure, the rest of you had to do, too. But, in the mean time, I was scrolling down through the list of other social sites and came across Tastykitchen.com. To this site I say, WIN!!! I love to cook, and, I'm always looking for new recipes because the ones I use right now get stale pretty quick (I hope you'll forgive the pun). I can be creative when I need to be. For example: just the other night, I made a dish I dubbed Italian Garbage. It had hamburger, red, green, and yellow bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms all sautéd (in the original spelling as opposed to the English sauteed) with garlic, parsley, salt, and pepper, mixed with spaghetti and topped with mozzarella and parmesan cheese. It was pretty epic if I do say so myself. to go with it, I made garlic cheese biscuits. You know, those things you get at Red Lobster? But mine are better. Anyway, for me, that kind of lightning doesn't strike me all that often especially while school is in session. So, Tastykitchen.com will really come in handy for me in my daily life.
As far as a professional application, part of my French class consist of a cooking project. I know a few things like quiche, bouillabaisse, and mousse, but, that's really about it as far as my French cuisine repertoire goes. So, later on, this site is really going to come in handy when I'm trying to come up with good culinary ideas for my class.
As far as a professional application, part of my French class consist of a cooking project. I know a few things like quiche, bouillabaisse, and mousse, but, that's really about it as far as my French cuisine repertoire goes. So, later on, this site is really going to come in handy when I'm trying to come up with good culinary ideas for my class.
Thing 18
Here it is. My Facebook profile is here for your pleasure. It's set mostly to private, so, if you want to see more send me a friend request. I'm not big on sending out requests myself. The way I see it, if someone wants to be my friend bad enough, they'll send me one. There are certain times I will send one, but, it's rare.
Anyway, to the blogging!
It's important for educators to know how to use social networking sites for what I would think are pretty obvious reasons. In the last thing we discussed tagging and using tagging as a means of sharing information. Well, on Facebook for example, you can create friend lists within your normal friend list.By making someone a "close friend" you will receive a notification every time they post something. So, if you are a science teacher and are friends with, oh, I don't know, Stephen Hawking, it might be a good idea to make him a "close friend" so that you can get a constant stream of awesome theoretical physics as soon as it becomes available. Likewise, on the more realistic side, you can stay in contact with other teachers in your specific field to gain insight into new ways of teaching a specific topic or handling a particular problem. You know all these reflections we keep having to do? What do you think good status updates are? I'm not talking about the "OMG! My bf jst tuk me2 da mol an bott me lyk a zillon pars ov shus!" That's not a reflection. That's what I like to call an ocular aneurysm waiting to happen.
One thing I really don't like about Facebook is that it keeps changing. I mean, change is great, but, if it's changing every couple months, that's just confusing. But, as with any change, it just takes a little getting used to. However, by the time you get used to the the last change, there is another one just around the corner. A really good feature of Facebook, though, is what I mentioned earlier about the "close friend" setting. Along with that setting, you can also make groups and get notifications from that group. As far as using this in the classroom, a group would be a great way for teachers to get up to date information from students in a "group classroom", and, that would be a good place to post assignments for students that maybe missed class. Think about D2L but more public and free. Plus, if students want to stay in the Facebook group even after they have left the class, they would be able to help those students that need a little more one on one time. There would of course be drawbacks (as with anything), but, how could this be a bad idea? I mean, who do you know that DOESN'T have a Facebook? Practically no one, I bet. So, why not use this free tool to our advantage?
Anyway, to the blogging!
It's important for educators to know how to use social networking sites for what I would think are pretty obvious reasons. In the last thing we discussed tagging and using tagging as a means of sharing information. Well, on Facebook for example, you can create friend lists within your normal friend list.By making someone a "close friend" you will receive a notification every time they post something. So, if you are a science teacher and are friends with, oh, I don't know, Stephen Hawking, it might be a good idea to make him a "close friend" so that you can get a constant stream of awesome theoretical physics as soon as it becomes available. Likewise, on the more realistic side, you can stay in contact with other teachers in your specific field to gain insight into new ways of teaching a specific topic or handling a particular problem. You know all these reflections we keep having to do? What do you think good status updates are? I'm not talking about the "OMG! My bf jst tuk me2 da mol an bott me lyk a zillon pars ov shus!" That's not a reflection. That's what I like to call an ocular aneurysm waiting to happen.
One thing I really don't like about Facebook is that it keeps changing. I mean, change is great, but, if it's changing every couple months, that's just confusing. But, as with any change, it just takes a little getting used to. However, by the time you get used to the the last change, there is another one just around the corner. A really good feature of Facebook, though, is what I mentioned earlier about the "close friend" setting. Along with that setting, you can also make groups and get notifications from that group. As far as using this in the classroom, a group would be a great way for teachers to get up to date information from students in a "group classroom", and, that would be a good place to post assignments for students that maybe missed class. Think about D2L but more public and free. Plus, if students want to stay in the Facebook group even after they have left the class, they would be able to help those students that need a little more one on one time. There would of course be drawbacks (as with anything), but, how could this be a bad idea? I mean, who do you know that DOESN'T have a Facebook? Practically no one, I bet. So, why not use this free tool to our advantage?
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