Rockinreader

The new school year is here and I am excited to see everyone!  We are now using Web Safari from Surpass so our library is ONLINE! Already, students are reporting that they love it! 

 Lots of new books for all ages!

Check out The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan!  Fantasy at it’s best!  This is the first of the Kane Chronicles trilogy and promises to be a favorite among the middle school set. This will be a must read for those of you who love Egyptian Mythology.

http://disney.go.com/disneybooks/kanechronicles/

Web 2.0 by Rodrigo Vera

Where to start?  I thought I was pretty knowledgeable about web 2.0 until I got deep into this class!  I had no idea how far behind I really was. I had heard of many of the web 2.0 sites discussed before, but did not take the time to really investigate them. Thanks to a great “tour guide,” I am now a confident blogger and wiki wonder!  I can actually embed things into that wiki or blog!

As I trudged along, I often found myself digging a little deeper because of the amount of information all tied together. I spent much more time on the class than I expected but came away with many new skills.  I found that I really enjoyed the photosharing, slideshows, and podcasting the most.   I still have a very long way to go, and hope to further refine my skills.  (A great summer project to restructure some lessons and incorporate all the things I have learned.)  I am anxious to create a much more interactive website for the library and get my students involved in some new aspects of  class projects.

As an educator, I really must embrace the new technologies for the benefit of my students. I am sure there are many more changes to come and hopefully, I will be able to stay in the know.

A person can definitely spend way too much time exploring  such a large network.  I did find the Library2.o social networking site.  Read lots of great discussions on a great many topics. I can see the benefits, but am not sure if I would use it all that much.  I can see where new teachers might find it very worthwhile.  My husband uses a professional/business social network and has found it to be very helpful.  I think I will continue to stick with the networks I already use.  Seems like a lot of discussion about the change to a fee based product in May.  I can see this as being the future of many of the free applications we use now.

Ah, the ongoing discussion of the term “digital natives” remains a hot topic.  Doug Johnson in a recent post on The Blue Skunk discusses the pros and cons of using the term to describe children.  He thinks that we give students too much credit for knowing technology when they really still need those of us “older folks” to join forces with them to teach them the technology skills they need.  I think we do often assume that just because the technology is out there that they  are they are proficient when often times, they are not.  There are many students who are very proficient with technology, but there are still too many who lack the technology skills needed for our world today. As with any subject we teach, everyone learns at different levels.

Using pageflakes was great and I was surprised to see how simple it was to use.  After having explored many different pagecasts, I can see where you could set up a page for almost any application.  I wish that I had known about it earlier.  This year our school has been celebrating “the year of the ocean.”  I could have set up a pageflake with all ocean resources in one place! Great photos, podcasts, reference sources, and video in one easy to get to page.   I love that it is easy to put almost anything into the page.  I have made my sample page for the media center, but have not published it as I want to refine it.  My only question is about the longevity of using it.  So many of these Web 2.0 applications are free.  Are they prone to being pulled or once you get hooked, perhaps changed to a fee based application?  I guess this is just the risk one faces if they think something is worthwhile.

I love Google documents!  I started using it last year when Shelley demonstrated it at one of our GISL meetings and have been hooked since!  I use it for all of my spreadsheets, including inventory, Birthday Books purchased, and my Birthday Book Budget. It is so easy to upload and export if you need to.  Using Google Docs makes my life so much easier.  My media assistant and I can then  make changes when necessary, from anywhere or any computer!  A huge bonus for me! I also like that I can look at the revisions made if necessary.

I use the surveys when making purchases or developing staff development and like the fact that the replies are already tallied as  surveys are answered.  I have uploaded some basic powerpoint presentations when necessary but I must say that although you can do this, it lacks the many features you are used to but the basics are there.

Collaborating on a project is so much easier when you can see revisions, set up the chat or discussion and not have to worry about constantly emailing back and forth

Last year, myself and several other teachers went to a conference and we put our author photographs all together in a shared album from the templates.   It was so convenient to just add our photos in the scrapbook template so that now we all have a nice collection of author photos to share with our students.

I know that I have not even really scratched the surface of all I can do with this application but I am working on that!  I really appreciate the fact that it is constantly upgraded with new features!

Why should you study history? According to Andy Griffith there are lots of reasons.


What fun!  I found lots of great tutorials on scrapbooking and using a SmartBoard.  As a matter of fact many times I send teachers to some of the great SmartBoard tutorials.  They can view them at home at their leisure and learn lots of tips.  Several of our teachers use Teacher Tube and You Tube in their classes.  It is not blocked at our school, but students know they have limits and so far.. no big problems. Our French and Spanish teachers use it and have students translate. (Yes, they do preview!)   As I am typing this, my husband is watching a YouTube video on installing a self supporting amateur radio antenna!

Isn’t it incredible all the things we can learn by watching someone demonstrate or explain on video right from home?

My podcasting production was a little trying.  Only because my iTunes will not let me import the WAV file without converting it into an AAC format and then I am unable to  convert that into an MP3 file.  I see on my desktop that it says it is an M4A file.  What is that?  Is it like an MP3 only a newer extension?  So, at the moment it is still sitting on my desktop, waiting until I figure it out.

I would probably use podcasting for some basic book reviews or book promotions.  Might be kind of fun teaching students how to create their own book commercials to post and share with other students. What about students using their notes for test reviewing?  Play podcasts from other classmembers or collaborate together to make a “test review podcast?”

iPod by spadger

I must admit, I have listened to and subscribed to many podcasts through  my Google Reader and other websites but never really used  iTunes much before. I guess I thought there was cost involved–guess I should have checked it out earlier.   I previewed lots of different podcasts and as usual, spent way too much time roaming around.  I found some great book read aloud podcasts for classics and Great Books as well as Goosebumps for kids.  I also subscribed to a yoga podcast in hopes that when I download it on my  iPhone, I might actually exercise!   At school, one of our middle school teachers uses podcasting with his Spanish students.  We use Audacity and have it installed on our computers in the media center and the computer labs.  This teacher loads his assignments into folders, students then download them into their ipods, etc.  Students then must make their own podcasts by completing the assignments which they download into a class folder to be graded.  I watched as students learned and struggled with learning the process and saw first hand how quickly it became routine for them.  Their Spanish pronunciation  has greatly improved and they love it.  They quickly transferred their new skills into other classroom projects.

Library Thing was interesting but I don’t really see myself using it all that much as I prefer another similar program Shelfari.  Library Thing is easy to use, has a nice variety of cover choices, lots of opportunity to chat about books that you have read or are reading.  Perhaps a great place to keep your personal record keeping or see a recent photo of an author.  I like that it has some professional reviews.  Students could have an online book chat or post reviews.

Talk about good books!

We just had our Dive Into Reading event! Lots of fun with reading!