21 Things Content Area Links

Content Area Tools

After watching the short video on Thinkfinity, it confirmed what I had already known. I do a lot of searches on the web for technology related lessons, plans, videos, powerpoints, pictures, etc. It is a great way to save time and I am not one that needs to recreate the wheel.
One sight that I can use in the classroom is from the following URL
http://sciencenetlinks.com/lessons/animal-diversity/
Animal Diversity
We do a research project in 2nd grade on animals. This was a great site to use with the kids to show differences and reinforce what they had learned with fables. How animated animals and real are different and how to locate the differences.

The other tool I found useful is the following URL
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/storymap/

We discuss story maps quite often and teach the students all the story elements. This is a great tool to hold students accountable for self-selected reading, as well as using technology related sources. I think read, write, think is a great site for any teacher.

23 Things - The Fifth Thing

After reading the expectations for this response, I realize I did most of it in The Fourth Thing. So.... I decided to go back and look specifically for blogs that I would want to follow. Although there were few that interested me at this time, I decided to see if it would work with my sons blog. As mentioned earlier, he is majoring in Fictional Writing at CMU and keeps a blog of his stories, thoughts and over all babbling. I was able to subscribe to his blog, now I receive all his current blogs without having to go look for them. yeah!!!

23 Things - The Fourth Thing

After watching the video for the RSS feeds I got a little excited about how much easier my searches could be. I depend on the internet for quite a few of the activities I do in the classroom. I moved on after watching the video and went to google reader to search for my favorite sites. My favorite sites were not available for the RSS. I thought maybe I was doing it wrong so I then went to my favorite sites to look for the Icon discussed in the video, and it wasn't there. I then went back to google reader and searched topics. The sites were a little overwhelming and not what I was looking for. To me, unless I figure out a way to make it easier, I am not sure I would use RSS feeds at this time. I will, however, keep my eye out for the the listed Icons available for the RSS feeders. If I find one I use consistently, I will sign up for the feed.

23 Things - The Third Thing

After watching the 7 1/2 Habits of Highly effective Lifelong Learners, it was very clear to me that the Habit I struggle with most is Habit #3, View Problems as a Challenge. I seem to view problems as problems and tend to devote way too much time dwelling on them rather than trying to challenge myself to solve them or look at them as a learning experience.
The Habit that I probably excel at the most is using technology to my advantage. I am fairly comfortable with computers and use them to create lessons and documents all the time. What I would like to be able to do is have more time to work with students and computers. I feel that technology has taken a back seat to daily assessments. I seem to feel guilty if I devote too much time to programs in the lab.

23 Things - The Second Thing

I think for a blog to be good it needs to be interesting and relevant to other people.  They need to be easy to read and to understand.  I have read many blogs that are on the internet to solve some of my own problems or to make decisions on what to by when it comes to technology.  I have found most of them to be very helpful.  I also have a son that attends Central Michigan University and his major is Fictional writing.  He blogs every day.  This has been a great way for him to get his thoughts down for others to read and react to.  It was actually my first experience with "following"  a blog.  This has been a great way to self publish and promote his writing.
I believe having blog on our school website would create a great communication tool.  It would be a great tool for teachers and informative to parents.  I would also like to see our students have the ability to blog that their parents and others can see.  I believe students would lower some of their barriers when it comes to writing and they would enjoy seeing who blogs back to them.

23 Things - The first Thing

I think blogging with students and staff will be very beneficial.   Teachers, especially, can bounce ideas off each other and serve as a support system.  Students will benefit from blogging with teachers and other students but I believe the issue is going to come with blocked sites for students to use.  For example, we are posting on google but google is blocked at school.  How will this work?