ONE LAST THING..

I thoroughly enjoyed the class. I have never really been good with computers, but I realized it was because I had never pushed myself to really discover new things with the computer. My favorite thing with this class was creating this blog. I realized what a great teaching tool this could be and plan on continuing my blog and finding a way to incorporate it into my teaching. I think that my middle school students will really enjoy this. I have enjoyed watching people view my blogs and posting comments. I realize that to be an effective teacher I am going to have to indulge the computer age as this is what is most effective with our kids.

I'm very glad that I took this course and feel that Debbie was very helpful in giving me feedback and guiding me through the course. I will recommend this to my other friends in hopes to create more active learning.

THING 15

DELICIOUS....

I had some trouble tagging during this thing. Well, I had trouble coming up with the tag names that would help me remember the sites I chose to tag. You want to pick something specific enough to help you remember why you decided to tag that website in the first place. Since the specifications for tagging is so unstructured, it was difficult for me to complete this part. I like more rules so that I know I did it exactly right. I think that it is so awesome that someone created a site solely dedicated to helping people find resources. Instead of having to search the site over and over again for resources, here is a one stop shop to find resources that you may need.

I could see me using this in my professional life because I am always looking for new and enriching resources to help me develop lesson plans or gain new insights to my field. This is a great place for me to go to find resources that have been tagged by other people that I might not have found to begin with.

Here is a link to my delicious account

http://delicious.com/texasteacher12

THING 21

GOOGLE TOOLS...

First I created a Google Calender in my Gmail account. Here is a link to it: GOOGLE CALNEDER FOR SHIANN SCHEU I desperately need to keep my everyday life mapped out in a calender. If I do not write it down, then I will forget it. This tool will be extremely helpful for me, particularly because it is mobile. I can access it from my phone and do not have to tote around an actual calender. Having students keep a Google calender would be helpful because at the middle school level (which is what I teach) students struggle with organization. I tell them everyday that it helps to write things down on a calender, especially things like science project due dates.

The second tool I chose to play around with was Google Custom Search. I set up a search for news on several different websites I chose and that I frequent. A link to my custom search is here: CUSTOMSEARCHPOLITIC This could be a great resource for student projects. If you only want them to look at particular sites, then you could set up this custom search engine before you give the students full reign on their projects to make sure they are only going to the particular websites and searching for a particular topic.

THING 18

TEACHER TUBE.....

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS!!

I found so many cool videos on teacher tube for Math. I did not think I was going to be able to find anything for Math, but I found an awesome Math rap song featuring perimeter and area.

Here it is....

I also found a video explaining how to multiply fractions. I definately plan on using these videos in my classroom because it gives the students some excitement, something different instead of always the same old same old thing. I thought this rap video would be so funny for the kids to watch, but still gets the point accross.

The videos are a great way to insert technology into your classroom to get the students engaged!

THING 14

WORDLE......

http://wordle.net

The tool I chose for Thing 12 was to create a Wordle. What it is..you enter words and it makes like a cool puzzle out of the words...I inputed a ton of math vocabulary words and created a really cool picture...

I thought this tool would be great for doing a vocabulary review. You could have the kids input the words on their wordle, but have to say the definition as they are putting the words into their wordle..Or you could have each could create a wordle and then swap them between classmates and have them write the definitions to those words in the wordle...

This could be a collaborative activity if you asked them to create a WORDLE together, but more importantly you can share your WORDLE with everyone. You can publish your WORDLE and it go out all over the world wide web for all to see. This would be really cool for the students to see that what they did, everyone in the world whom uses WORDLE can see!!!:)

THING 9

SANDBOX WIKI...

I had a lot of fun doing this activity....I struggled with editing the page at first because I could not figure out what was meant by Heading 1 and Heading 2 or 3. I just kept looking through the tools until I found out where they were.

Here is the link to my page in the sandbox...It is titled AggiesRUS...http://misd23things.wikispaces.com/AggiesRUS

I thought this was a really cool excercise...especially I enjoyed looking at everyone else's sandbox page. It was really trial and error for me. I had to keep playing with the toolbar to see what each tool did. It was really similar to that of Microsoft Word...but there were a few different tools...

THING 20

GOOGLE DOCS.....

I really enjoyed playing around with the Google Docs program because I do not have Microsoft Office on my home computer, but like they said I can use this for free!!! Google Docs is very user friendly. I was able to figure out how to change the font, insert a table, change background colors very easily. It is pretty much the same as Microsoft Word. I find this a very useful tool for an education setting. I have come up with several uses for Google Docs in my classroom. First, I will have my students use Google Docs to explain in their own words a topic that we have recently covered. I will require them to use several different features, including insert a table, change the font color, as well as font sizes. Also, I will have them each create their own math quiz using Google Docs. Then they will share these quizzes with the other students. Each student will be required to find and complete two quizzes other than their own. Finally, I will use the spreadsheets in order to keep up with each of my students progress as we continue to grow closer to TAKS, including their milestone scores, as well as benchmark scores.

THING 19

VOICETHREAD.....

I watched many of the Voicethreads presented in Thing 19. I particularly liked the one titled, "WHAT IS A FUNCTION..." because I am a math teacher and have found my students greatly benefit from explicit instruction (word for word explanation) as is shown in this voicethread.

I also liked the one titled, MEASURING WEIRD OBJECTS because each student got to contribute something to the presentation using their very own voices.

I really liked this idea and look forward to incorporating it into my classroom. I feel that technology really gets the students going and when they get a chance to add their own touch to the assignments then they really get involved. I will use this along with the podcasts for my area, perimeter, and volume assignment that my students will do. I will have them add their voices to explain during their podcasts.

This is a great tool to get students involved and learning.

THING 17

PODCASTING....

I viewed several different podcasts including: Jamestown Elementary's Famous Americans Podcasts... I thought these were awesome because the students could put themselves into their learning and create their own podcasts. I absolutely loved these.

I also viewed Bob & Rob Show...Lesson 155. I thought these were quite interesting and educational as well.

The directory that I primarily used was the Education Podcast Network. I have never seen Podcasts used in an educational setting before so this was very exciting for me. I was able to find many great educational podcasts using this directory. I am curious to search other directories out there to see how informational they are as well.

I will definately begin to use Podcasting in my classroom as part of my attempt to make my classroom more technology friendly. As we have discussed before, students love to get involved when they can use technology. I plan on having my students create their own podcasts over Perimeter, Area, and Volume when we get to that chapter during the year. They will use their podcast to explain when to use perimeter, area, and volume.