Reflection of the week

When I started this class I wanted to increase my fluency in technology and to learn more about what is available to enhance the learning of my students (and myself). I feel that I have definitely accomplished this goal, yet I have only scraped the tip of the iceberg. I have learned about great tools available to me and how to use them while collaborating with fellow educators to see the further potential for these tools in the classroom.

The other benefit of this class has been the resources I now have to further my learning. I plan to continue to increase my education and push myself to find the time to use this knowledge personally and professionally.

I have also been very excited to share much of my learning with my family. I am looking forward to sharing this knowledge with my team at school.

I thank Alice Barr and my classmates for a great experience.

Final project

Purpose: To get families more involved in the classroom and have a manageable way for kids to use technology in my classroom.
How: I am working on a set of Wiki pages to use in my classroom. I am looking for websites that the students can use to practice skills, reinforce concepts, etc. I am thinking that this will be a place where I can post assignments and information about the classroom. I would like it to be interactive so that parents could add sites that they find.
Grade level: 2
Why this tool: This tool is easy to manage and tweak as needed.
Changes in my teaching practice: Currently I use very little technology with the students. I use computers and the internet in my own professional practice.
How is this collaborative: I will teach the second grade team about delicious bookmarks and hopefully bring them on board to share. Globally, I will use the RSS feeds, blogs and other search tools to look for more information to add to my wiki or to tweak my wiki.
View my project in progress: SLS2Flanagin

Why RSS is crucial for a Blogging Classroom response

I just read the article: The Technology of Reading and Writing in the Digital Space: Why RSS is crucial for a Blogging Classroom by David Parry, University of Albany I can see great uses for RSS personally and professionally. I think I will set up a special account that I will use for my classroom. I am hoping to get more parents involved in the classroom, even if it means they read about what we are doing and read more information about school related topics. I will want to research the capability to refine the topic search to grade level reading as I have new readers. I also want to know more about refining the feed so that I could syndicate the blogs of students in a group to receive headlines and a synopsis of each piece of work.

Idea and Plans for Final Project

I will create a new wiki for my classroom. The focus will be to create pages that students can use at school and home to explore suggested educational websites. I will incorporate the use of delicious bookmarks and importing the bookmarks directly to the site. Things to do:

• locate and bookmark sites
• learn about RSS
• make a new wiki
• decide on how many pages
• start pages

I am looking forward to this project and a final piece that I can use with my students this year. I welcome any and all comments and suggestions.

Reading other blogs

I visited Richard Byrne's blog regarding free technology for teachers. He finds and explains many of the resources for teachers that can be found online. I like free stuff! But beyond that, I liked the way his site was set up. It was easy to read and I could quickly navigate through the site to find subjects that interested me. Here is a link to his blog. Free Technology 4 Teachers I also visited Maria Knee's site. It also contained her blog and blogs that the kindergarten students created. I enjoyed seeing the student's work and their videos. This is a great site for families to visit and check in on classroom learning. I also found this site to be inspirational in the sense that it is something I could manage in my own classroom. Here is a link to Maria's site. Maria Knee

delicious: Social Bookmarking

How might I use delicious.com in my classroom or professionally? I just finished reading the article: Tag, You're Delicious. I am thinking about setting up a system that will allow students to use the computers in the classroom while directing them to certain sites. By posting the sites using delicious, the students can easily find the sites. Students can use the delicious bookmarks when working independently in the classroom and they can access the bookmarks at home to show family members. Professionally, I will be part of a pilot program this year. The pilot group can share information through delicious. Also, I will be working with a new grade level team. I am looking forward to sharing social bookmarking with them.

Babies Skating