Thing 10

Virtual Worlds~~
I liked this more than I though I would. At first, I was not in the mood and my computer gave me trouble with loading second life, but once in...I liked it! I named my avatar Aubrie Chardin, and she had short brown hair with green eyes. My first setting was in Dublin near the University. I loved how much it looked like the actual place and the music was really pretty. I ran into people and had conversations--it was neat. I changed my views, sat, changed my gestures and played with my appearence. I even got invited to a club and was teleported to a club...the club scared me so I left. LOL!! I really like this virtual world but do not think it is right for my 1st graders. I can see middle and highschool students having lots of fun!! The only thing is I would want it to be a protected site...only with kids. The benefits include self-esteem building and networking!

Ireland...my country study!

Beautiful Ireland.

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Thing 9

Slideshare~~

I loved this! I can totally use this in the classroom for all subjects. It's real life photos that are beautifully put together. I displayed a NY NY b/c that's one cool city to me. In the classroom, I can show slideshares on mammals, states, countries, shapes, books, setting and well, just about anything! LOVE it!

New York New York...slideshare!!!

Colors Of New York (V M )

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Thing 8

Ooops, I called it slide sharing and I meant slide capturing!! :o) Now, onto slidesharing!

Thing 8

Okay...I did it, but it has no sound. I'm still pleased and plan to play more with slidesharing. At first I was a little confused and wondered why I would ever use this and still think it is not good for my kids in the classroom. I have co-workers who would love this though. We have all kinds of new programs and slidesharing end-results or "how-to's" might help us all. It will also be neat for presentations.

Go View...take one!

Thing 7

I use videos a lot in my classroom--the activeboard makes is easy and fun. We use united streaming,brainpop jr and discovery kids. I really like pbs and will use it next year. I'm so glad I finally posted my video correctly!

Hulu National Geographic

Embedded Video

Thing 7

http://video.pbs.org/video/1139795823/

Thing 6

I-Touch Apps~~~

I do not have an I-phone or and I-touch, but I really, really, really wish I did! I have seen how amazing they are and have t-mobile's equivalent to the i-phone ( the motorola click). My brother has an I-phone so I was able to play and compare.

First of all the I-phone is the winner. It does more and it is more user friendly. As soon as my carrier picks up apple, I will own a I-phone. Some apps that I found that would be helpful in my first grade class include:

animoto
pandora
google maps
promethean, my planet
primary sketching (emergent letter practice)
compass
kids paint
usa capitals
youtube
age appropriate trivia

My phone has most of these apps. I have done things with my phone last year and love it! I was able to video fielday, post to snapfish and watch on the activboard in very little time. The kids are captivated by all technology. I know we have many new apple products for the kids to use at my school. We will have i-touches, and flip cameras. I look forward to learning more and sharing with my new batch of 6 year olds.

Thing 5

Face book and Twitter

My phone streams face book and I love the hourly updates. I feel connected with my friends. Twitter is new for me--I set up an account today. Neat to see that now I can follow my favorite authors, musicans and moviestars. Not sure I care to "tweet" with my friends as it seems redundant to Face book, but the Hollywood/famous world is appealing! Now...how to use this in the classroom...well, I thought we were not allowed to use social networking sites?? But I see that our homepage supports Face book and Twitter. I teach first grade so I'm not sure how Face book would benefit my classroom, but Twitter could be useful. We could set up a class account and follow certain people, authors or places. This could be neat. Backchanneling is neat but something I feel is more for highschool.

Thing

Gosh...that took me a while. I'm still not sure I like where I'm posting my videos but it's done. The layout of my blog continues to be a problem for me, but it's a work in progress. To answer the question on how could having videos like this help in the classroom? Well, I can answer first hand b/c we used youtube a lot last year. One of our teks was to teach the compass rose. On youtube there is a directions song which we played, learned and created a game with. The kids loved it! It became one of our most favorite things to play!! Youtube is amazing and was also used with phonics. We played the "when 2 vowels go walking" song as part of our word study and calendar routine. Student work can be uploaded in many ways!! We could post Art projects, papers and well, just about everything!! It's so current, the kids love it and are totally engaged!

Thing Three

Skype!~~~

I cannot believe my favorite childhood cartoon is happening...Skype is The Jetsons come true!! OMG!! It is so neat that the future is here. It is only the beginning and it's really good. Skype can be used is just about every lesson, every subject and well just about everyday in the classroom. It is the way of the future. In my classroom, the first thing that came to mind is being able to connect with other students and other teachers. We study about different countries and it would be AMAZING to speak with children from Egypt, Ireland or Italy. What a neat, real and accurate experience this will be! We also study authors like Eric Carle. For a super famous author...it is really expensive for them to come visit...but maybe, just maybe, a skype conference could happen. I believe Skype is the way education is going. Grad school programs on-line are becoming very high tech. I'm so glad to be learning and can't wait to participate!