Class Learning About Polls

This assignment couldn’t have happened at a more perfect time!    In math, we are currently working on surveys, graphing and probability.   To introduce the concept of surveys and data, I took a class poll on Favorite Halloween Candy and recorded the  data using my smartboard.   Here are the results of my poll:

My new favorite polling website is doodle.com.   It’s really not a poll, but I recently used it to organize the fall party for my daughter’s kindergarten class.  It sure beat sending multiple emails back and forth trying with parents.  In less than 24 hours I had all the items covered with only a few minor hiccups.

My Stages of Reading

My life as a reader as gone through many stages.  From early on, I was pegged as a bad or “struggling reader”.  I was very aware and very self-conscience about the fact that I was in the “low” reading group.  While all my friends were reading more challenging texts and working of fun projects like making stone soup, I was drawing letters in the colored sand and practicing my sounds.  By the way, I knew my sounds and knew my letters, but I was a terrible test-taker and very shy, so you can see where it landed me.  It made me very disinterested in reading.  In fact, I would say I “hated” to read as a child.   I showed no initiative or interest in out at all.   I would read the same book each year for my book reports (I know a lot about Helen Keller and hamsters).  I was the kid that counted around the room to figure out which paragraph I would have to read and practice it over and over in my head to make sure I wouldn’t  mess it up.  Of course, I did!    Of course, living up to my reputation as a poor reader.

My middle school remedial reading teacher finally figured out that I didn’t actually belong in the low reading.  Luckily, this wasn’t until after the class trip to the circus.   After that, my poor reading habits continued despite my graduation to “regular” reading class.  I read enough to get by in all my subject areas making it all the way through high school and continuing on through college.

It wasn’t until adulthood that I found an appreciation for reading.    In my first career in the business world, I worked with a lady that just adored reading.  I was amazed at how she could read a book a day and how she spent most of her time at the library finding new and interesting books.   One day, she offered me one of her books to read.    Hesitant at first, I had told her that I wasn’t much of reader and never really acquired a taste for it.  She instisted though and I’m glad she did.  She opened my eyes to the world of reading and how enjoyable it could be.   We would talk about the book each day after I would read a few chapters.    Week after week I’d ask for more books.   Until one day to her surprise I annouced that I had joined a book club.  I must admit that initial appeal was the h’orederves and beverages, but first time in my life I truly enjoyed life as a reader!

Juggling a family and life as a teacher, my reading shifts based on the time of year.  During the school year, I’m mainly reading blogs and websites or educational books learning new ideas and keeping up on the latest and greatest in education.  The summer time I find myself reading for pure enjoyment (Just for the record I refuse to read yet another Nicholas Sparks book.  I love them, but I hate them).   I find that although I’ve grown as a reader and enjoy it much more now,  my past still haunts me.   It takes me twice as long to read a book then most.     For  instance, I recently traveled to Iceland with a collague as part of our global studies program.  She read five books on a ten-day trip.  I didn’t even finish my one!

Although I had rough start to reading, I think it made me a better teacher.  I can identify more with the children in my class that struggle especially on the emotional level.    It is my job as a teacher not only to help them acquire better reading skills and strategies, but to help them acquire a love for reading!

Iceland or Bust!

This summer I will have the AMAZING opportunity to travel abroad as part of our school’s Global Studies program.    In two short weeks, I will be traveling to Iceland.  Yes, Iceland!!   A colleague and myself will spend 10 days traveling around Iceland via Ring Road exploring glaciers, geysers and more.    We will document our experience using photos, video and blogging.

If it were not for the K12 Online Learning course, then who knows if I would have even been selected.   I used many of the tools I learned about during the course to apply for the gprogram.  I created a wiki called Will Travel to Teach and embedded pictures from Flickr, video from YouTube and much more.    It was really an advertisement promoting myself.   It worked!

Let the adventure begin!

Thing 23: Aaaahhhh…What a journey it has been!

Aaahhh….What a journey this has been! At the beginning of this course, I considered myself pretty tech savvy. However, I was amazed at the wealth of information I received over the past few months. I think as educators we are obligated to learn the new and innovative tools that are essential in today’s digital age. It’s no different than attending a math conference or literacy conference to keep up with best practices!

So what’s next…I feel rejuvenated me and equipped with new ideas and tools that I can use with my students. First, I think I will reread my blog posts to deeper reflect on my experience because my head is spinning right now (I’m sure I’m not alone). Then I would like to go back and do a few of the stretch activities that I did not have time to complete. Over summer, I plan to lay out my curriculum and see which tools would engage my students and make my lessons that much better. I also would like to continue the Simply Elementary blog to reflect on my experiences after this course has ended, so add me to your Google Reader! Thanks to all my colleagues for the collaboration and for encouragement on this journey!

Thing 22: Social Networking Connects Us To The World

Coming from a small school, social networking provides the perfect opportunity to collaborate with other educators around the globe. Last year, our tech integrator exposed us to creating a personal learning network. I took one small step and set up a Twitter account and was amazed at how quickly I found educators to follow. Of course, like everyone else I use Facebook and LinkedIn for personal and professional reasons. After taking this class I feel confident in my web 2.0 skills. Over the summer, I would like to focus on literacy, so I would like to join the group Best Practices for Literacy Instruction on the Classroom 2.0 Ning.

Not only can social networking be a great tool for professional development. It is a valuable teaching tool and provides authentic learning experiences for our students. With this in mind, I decided to take the next step to join a Ning set up by our former tech integrator called Around The World With 80 Schools. The Ning is made up of teachers wanting to connect and collaborate with other classes around the world. In the past, our tech integrator had coordinated Skypeing with other classes. This was my first attempt at my own to reach out beyond the walls of our school. Within the Ning, I joined a group called 2nd Grade Classes. Within a week, I had set up a time for my class to Skype with a class in Texas.

Following suggestions by Silvia Tolisano in her blog post ““Skype Jobs” for Students”on the Langwitches blog, I assigned each child a job like photographer, videographer, introductions, etc… In addition, each child prepared a questions they would like to ask the second graders from Texas. We also practiced speaking clearly and looking into the camera. Before our call, we also watched a video of a Skype call between two classes that was posted on one of the teachers I follow on Twitter.

Our connection with Texas was a hit! Not only did they learn about how our classes and our states are alike and different, they practiced their writing skills, fluency, and presentation skills. It was a valuable lesson for my students!

Thing 7C: Google Reader/Create a Search Story with Google

The latest blog post that peeked my interest in my Google Reader is called Create a Search Story with Google. It caught my eye because of one of our recent assignments using Google Docs. A search story allows you to create a short video based on 7 short phrases. You can select where Google searches for the content of your video: google search, images, blogs, etc… The finishing touches to the video is adding music. The Search Story with Google is a creative and fun way to create a digital story. To test it out, I created my own search story centered on a “Global Citizenship” theme. Considering I only spent about 10 minutes creating my search story, I think it came out pretty good! Check it out:

Thing 21: Pageflakes

Pageflakes was not one of my favorite “Things” to work on. I’m not sure if what was the timing in the course or Pageflakes itself. I found it difficult to change and add the podcasts, video podcasts and RSS feeds. It was easy to change the theme, add new flakes and create a pagecast. I decided to add a few fun features since summer is around the corner like comics, sudoku and fishes. I was also turned off by the sponsored content.

Overall, Pageflakes reminds me to iGoogle. On my iGoogle homepage, I have my calendars, my To Do List, sticky notes, RSS feed to our school blog, etc… All my blogs and podcasts are tracked in my Google Reader. I really feel that my iGoogle is more user friendly compared to Pageflakes. I’m not sure I would use it to replace what I am already using.

Click here to view Jane’s Pageflakes Pagecast

Thing 20: Google Docs Rocks!

I have to admit that I am not new to Google Docs and I love it!  I’ve used it since last year as an alternative to either emailing myself files or saving them to my thumb drive.   I use  the spreadsheet for my grades and my lesson plans.   Using documents, I have created flyers and reading logs to share with teachers on my grade level.    This year for our invention unit, each student used Power Point to create a slide about their inventions.    I used presentations to upload the single slides into one presentation.  Once it was completed, I embed the slide show into my blog (see sample below).  In order to try out something new, I created a survey called Travels Abroad for other participants of the course to complete and I will share the results in the comments sections.

Historically, I have only used Google Docs to keep myself organized (I have a tendency to misplace things).   In the future, I can envision using the features of Google Docs to collaborate on lesson plans and planning special projects on our grade level.   In addition, I really would like to use Google Docs to create an online form for parents to complete.   It would contain contact information as well as interests and concerns for the year.   It would be easily accessible from home as well as at school.   Also,  I could print out one single paper form instead of juggling almost twenty copies.    Midyear when the kids computer skills, I may consider using it for the kids to record the books they’ve read and create book reports.  There are many possibilities for the use of Google Docs in the classroom!

Thing 19: Surfing for a Good Show on the Tube

Surprisingly, I found more valuable and quality videos on YouTube compared to TeacherTube.   I could hear my class laughing more at how silly some of the videos on TeacherTube were and I think it would distract them from the content.  Also, I was surprised to find some inappropriate advertising amongst the comment section of the videos I was considering.

Typically, I show videos from United Streaming.  However, the children have already seen a lot of the videos in earlier grades because there is not a wide variety.  I think in the future I will turn to YouTube to find educational video clips to support my instruction.   Obviously, I would carefully monitor any videos I show to may students.  

As I was exploring I found a video called Italian For Kids: Grocery Shopping.  It fits perfectly with our upcoming unit on Italy because not only are we focusing on foods.   The students will be making an Italian Dictionary as well.

I must admit that I spent an endless amount of time searching for a funny video to post.  I was up into the wee hours of the morning and found one that just cracked me up.  I needed a good laugh too after a crazy week.   Check out that video on my wiki!

Thing 18 – Bare Bones Podcasting

As a grade-level, we have decided to make a podcast for our culminating activity for the upcoming Italy unit.   Our idea is create a fiction story about our classes traveling to Italy.   We will incorporate true facts about Italian culture, art and cuisine into the storyline.   Also, children will speak some common travel phrases in Italian.

We have used Audacity in class before to record our Space Stories.   The kids really enjoyed listening to themselves.  After some practice, they became really good at recording, listening to what they recording and deleting the parts they did not like.  I would definitely recommend this tool to use with all grade levels.  As the teacher, I have only used it to record the children and to edit out mistakes or dead air.  For my bare bones podcast, I tried to add music, but I could not figure it out.   I plan to learn more about the additional editing features once I have some extra time.

Since my Italy podcast will not be completed before the end of this course, I decided to create a podcast of my own children.  Recently, they had a lemonade stand to raise money for the Humane Society.   Our podcast is about our trip to the Humane Society to drop off the donation and to see where the money was going.   The girls even got to hold a puppy (yes, there were tears when it did not come home with us).   We may even continue our podcast into a series called The Outdoor Girls.    The podcast series would be about our adventures in nature this summer.  Stay tuned!