Hopefully just the beginning... :-)

One word - WOW! I honestly never knew half this stuff existed! I feel much more knowledgeable about what's out there. I just hope now I can incorporate these things into my classroom. One thing that really stinks is much of this I had to do from home...I mean our school seriously needs to do something about teachers not having access to many of these sites! And I also need to figure out how to incorporate these fun, useful tools while still getting in the material that the students need to know for TAKS and other tests. It's a work in progress but I am definitely heading in the right direction!

I had many favorites such as animoto and all the image generators - those were just FUN! :-) I think I will most often use delicious - I still can't get over that there is a program where you can get to your favorites from any computer! iGoogle seems like it is another thing that is very useful and convenient so I am sure I will be using it often...and even in the beginning - making an avatar was too fun! I got a good laugh that day!

Professionally, I would love to create a class wiki. If I really got one of those bad boys up and running I would be so proud!

I would like to play around with and put to use podcasts. I think that is one resource that would greatly improve testing scores if we could just get our students to actually listen to them instead of Lil Wayne! haha

I am very excited about what the future holds. Thank you for the user-friendly course - you ladies have done an excellent job in preparing detailed instructions, and I am very grateful!

Thing #23 - Ning

Visit 23 Thingsters


I joined our "MISD 23 Thing" on Ning, and that was fun to actually put a face to some of the people in this class! This social network would be good for students. I think my Facebook and Myspace accounts need to stay on a personal level, but if I chose to create a social network for my students Ning seems like a great place to start. Although I think a class wiki would be just as sufficient because of the discussion tab.

When I was exploring the Ning networks I found Mr. Bergmann's wiki and WOW - he is pretty much awesome! I can just tell from his pics! haha I bookmarked this because when I finally sit down and get a class wiki and page started this is what I want to shoot for! And omg - his classes just look so hands-on. I would love to sit in and observe him teaching.

I felt a little overwhelmed when I visited Classroom 2.0, but the "groups" tab was nice because I was able to narrow down my search.

Overall, I think there are social networks for your personal life and social networks for your professional life and to me there should be a clear separation. I would prefer to use Ning for a social network with my students rather than Facebook or Myspace for the sheer stigma that those two networks have. But like I said earlier, I think the discussion tab on a wiki would work just fine for communication outside of school!

Thing #22 - Social Networking

I created my Facebook and Myspace accounts years ago in college! I do not accept my students as friends as I feel that is inappropriate. But on a personal level, I love having both accounts because they allow me to keep up with family and friends that I would normally not be able to stay in contact with. I personally use Myspace more than Facebook, but both are great. I love looking at pictures of my friends especially right now since so many people my age are getting married and having children! :-) I think that many people are weary of these sites but they are very secure as long as you chose all the private settings.

Once my students have graduated I accept them as friends and it is nice to watch them grow and see what they are doing in their lives. At this point I am not certain how I could use these programs professionally with my students, but I love using them on a personal level.

Jessica's Facebook Profile

Jessica's Myspace Profile

Thing #7b - Google Reader update

Well TAKS is next week and all year our campus has been looking for ways to improve our minority students' scores. Here is an interesting story that finds that an affirmation exercise improved the grades of African-American middle school students, and the effects lasted for at least another two years after the test period. Pretty interesting! It makes me want to do something like this... ;-) I retrieved this from the podcast RSS that I subscribed to in "thing 17".

Thing # 21 - Google Tools

I just found a new love for GOOGLE! I created a Google calendar which is really cool! But I do have my own paper planner that I love so I am sure I will stick with that. Although when I created my iGoogle I liked the fact that I could add my Google calendar to my home-page. So every time I went to Google I would see it :-) One thing I did not like was making my calendar public or sharing it. Some things would be no big deal, but many things in my planner are personal and I am not sure I would want everyone to see those things. So if I did start to use the Google calendar on a regular basis I would probably make it private.

Jessica's April/May 2009 Calendar

The iGoogle was really fun! I added my Google Calendar to the homepage and my e-mail is on the homepage too! Talk about convenience - it's all right there when you log-in!

I could see my students using many of these tools! Some really need a planner whether they want it or not! They need to learn how to be organized. And honestly, I could see them keeping up with an electronic calendar because now of days many of them have fancy phones or are on the computer multiple times a day where they could keep up with their calendar.

The Picasa Web Albums would be fun! We could have a "NMHS" album where all our students uploaded pictures from school like spirit days, sport activities, etc.

Thing #20 - Google Docs

I was actually introduced to Google Docs at a faculty meeting earlier this year. We are even encouraging our students to use this tool.

One feature I LOVE about Google Docs is that the documents are stored online! How many times have you lost an important document?! It either got lost in cyberspace or you lost your jump drive - something! And it's very depressing! Well if you have it in Google Docs you can access it from any computer and will never lose it!

And omg - you can create a presentation just like in PowerPoint. If you don't have Microsoft at home - no worries just use Google Docs. This was a HUGE plus for me!! I don't think people know this, and it really could be beneficial for students who cannot afford to have Microsoft programs. One solution that I immediately thought of was no more "we could never meet up together." Now students can log-on at different times and ALL make changes and additions to a project. They do not necessarily have to all be in the same location they can just collaborate online!

Thing #19 - VoiceThread

COOL! I truly believe creation and teaching others is the highest form of learning, and if you can do that then you are showing you understand the material. My sophomores could create tutorial VoiceThreads and we could send them to the elementary schools or we could even use them ourselves to review at a later time in the year such as now when we are preparing for TAKS!

I could also see these being useful for students who are absent or just need a refresher. A goal of mine in the future is to have a class website. It would be really neat if I eventually could post all my PowerPoints on the class website, and in those presentations I had voicethreads! When teaching with PowerPoints I always like to add in personal examples, etc. So when I print off a PowerPoint for a kid who was absent they don't get that extra teaching - this program would help resolve that dilemma.