Thing 5d

Somehow I forgot to do my write up for thing 5d....ooops!!
My favorite thing from my google reader was from free tech for teachers. I know that I have said it before, but this site is great! The site that I really liked is called XP math.. The site has online math games for people of all ages. I thought that I had seen all the leaning math game sites out there...but not this one! :)

Thing 23

I LOVE 2.0!!!! I have recommended this course to everyone that I know! I feel that it is relevant to my teaching and that is something that I can take back to the clasroom, with no expense, and use with my students! I have tried most of the 23 things with my students- just out of excitement- and they have loved it! I have seen them become interested and motivated in ways like never before. I know that some of the things that I have done with them they will use in the future to make them better students and people in the ever changing world. I will contiune to use what I have learned next year and hope to build on what I have already started with them. Thanks Caroline for facilitating this class- it was great!

Thing 20

Google Docs is so easy! I have been using Google Docs since last summer and really like it. I have used it for classroom purposes as well as with my peers. I will contiune to use it for personal documents that I am working on at home and at school as well. Google Docs takes away the need to drag around all the 'saving devices' :) and I love having one less thing to remember to take with me!

Thing 22

I could not stop! Once I started looking at all these great resources I did not want to miss anything- so I spent quite some time looking at all of it. The two that I know that I will use are the Global Gateway and Lulu Publishing.
This year I participated in an International Wiki project and my students loved it. I was anxious to find something to continue into next year that would incorporate other students from around the world. When I saw the Global Gateway I was immediately interested. It is a site that allows people to list their school, age groups of the children and any interest that they have for connecting with other schools. I think that this may be a great site for me to use when trying to find us some other students to collaborate with next year.
The second site that I spent a large amount of time exploring was Lulu Publishing. How exciting would it be for my students to publish a real book? I think that would be great for them. I have some fifth graders that love to write and I am going to email them and tell them about this site. I have uploaded a story that one of my students wrote this spring and am going to publish it on the sandbox site. I look forward to using this tool a lot next year!

Thing 21

I enjoyed creating a pageflakes page! It is kind of like one stop shopping! :) It is convenient and quick and that makes me happy! I am going to work on mine a little more and have it ready for next fall. It seems really easy to work through and is something that I could definitly see myself using.

Thing 19

I know that the end of the year is here and I am tired and quite honestly, just tired of working :) :) but... this was an in depth process for me. It took a long time for zamzar to convert my voice recording and then I could not figure out how to get it uploaded to GCast with out an account. So... I am sure that you can tell I am a little frustrated at this moment- it will pass.
I am sure that after a time or two if will be easy and could be very useful in the classroom. I have downloaded several books for my six year old and think that we could get rid of all those old tape players, buy some i pods and have endless resources to pull from. We could also post inquiry discussions in the form of a podcast. I think that podcasts are great and I am going to wait a day and try it again...when I am in a better mood. heehee

Thing 18

Okay...this is the first thing that I have been really in the dark about. I have heard people talking about using ipods in education, but wasn't sure what they were using them for and how they were using them. Now I know... I spent more time exploring this topic than any other. I am very intrigued at how MANY educators are using podcasts in education. I found myself watching many podcast tutors and teachers teaching lessons on math and technology. I even found one person who did a podcast for everyday of the week. The EPN network has lessons on anything that you can imagine. They also had a radio station that some children created in Nebraska. They called it radio for kids by kids. It was cute to listen to them. I also found countless uses for the itunes downloads as well. Okay..enough blogging- got to go explore some more. :)