Social Bookmarks

Social Bookmarks was a lot of fun. Whenever I found a website that I knew I wanted to revisit later, I always added it to my social bookmark. It is very user friendly. I think the hard part for me was trying to put them into different stacks because I had so many that could go in a couple of the same stacks. I am still working on this part of it. This is something that I will continue to do and I will also share this with colleagues.

This is my screen shot.

My social bookmarks website is as follows:

http://delicious.com/cjackson36545

Google Reader

A list of the websites I followed:

*CoolCatTeacher Blog- http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/
*Will Richardson- http://willrichardson.com/
*Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day- http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/
*Free Technology for Teachers- http://www.freetech4teachers.com/
*A Media Specialist's Guide to the Internet- http://mediaspecialistsguide.blogspot.com/
*Smart Classroom Management- http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/   (an additional link that I chose to follow)
*PTO Today Blog- http://www.ptotoday.com/ptoblog/   ( an additional link that I chose to follow)

     My favorite blog is Smart Classroom Management. As a veteran teacher, I am always looking for ways to improve my classroom management. To me that is the most important thing to have within a classroom. Kids change from one year to the next, so what worked last year may not work again this year. Therefore I have to find what strategies will work best for the students that I am currently teaching. I really enjoyed all of the suggestions that he has given out so far. They are very realistic and also doable by any teacher. He also stresses that the strategies that he writes about are not grade specific. They can be utilized at any level. The teacher may have to modify it a little to fit his/her students. And if you are still experiencing problems with something he has mentioned he will email you with some specific modifications.  I was actually using one of the things that he discussed in my classroom already.(classroom management packet plan) I would suggest that all classroom teachers follow this link.
     My favorite post would be from Smart Classroom Management and the title was An Amazing, Eye-Opening Follow Directions Strategy. This strategy is used to get students to listen carefully and follow directions when given the first time. It also helps with transitioning from one activity or subject to the next. If you have ever started giving directions and the students start working before you can even finish or if they ask you what to do several times after you have just repeated it twice, then this may work for you. Within this strategy the teacher makes a line on the floor using tape then using a low voice, he/she gives some simple directions (close your reading book). After looking around the teacher sends the students to the line if they are not following directions immediately. The teacher repeats or gives more directions and continues to send students to the line if they are not on task. The students are offered a chance to go back to their desk only if they are standing in line and paying attention. This process continues until the line slowly dwindles down and everyone is on task. The teacher also increases the dificulty of the directions by giving multiple steps. At the end, the teacher does not explain the strategy but the students will figure it out and will be more apt to listen to and follow directions when they are given.
     I enjoyed reading the different blogs even though I did experience a difficult time trying to add them to Google Reader. I was simply overlooking the main icon. I have learned a lot from the different blogs and I often find myself discussing what I have learned with my fellow colleagues and dicussing things that we should try with our students. I will definitely continue to follow some of these blogs and share information with my colleagues.
    

Digital Citizenship

It is extremely important to be a good digital citizen. Computers are everywhere and the internet can be viewed and accessed by all kinds of electronic devices. A good digital citizens knows that their image can be affected greatly by what they choose to or not to display and they value what is submitted in the digital world. Once you make a mistake and put something foul out there, then that image is going to follow you for eternity. Some industries also monitor the internet closely and if they find an applicant with a bad digital image then they may not be offered the job. Having a good digital image or being a good digital citizen speaks volumes about a person.

Thinkport Assignment

For this assignment we were suppose to view the Thinkport website to look at the computer simulations. Unfortunately, that part of the website is no longer available. I was able to look at other parts of the site and the Reading Strategies section really caught my eye. This is something that I can use within the classroom. It also offers the curriculum strategies for reading and it gives more information about how to incorporate each one. There are quite a few graphic organizers on this website. I was able to download some of the organizers for future use. This site offered some free software however, I was unsuccessful in downloading any because I really didn't know how to use it. There are other things on this site, but some of it I was not able to view.

Web 2.0 Resources Assignment

For this assignment, I really enjoyed using the animoto the best. It was really simple and I didn't have any problems at all. Glogster on the other hand presented a little challenge for me. The directions on the bottom of the screen were not very helpful, but I did manage to figure it out. I also made several picutres from bighugelabs.com. I will defintely be incorporating these programs into my classroom and I am sure that the kids will love them.

This is my concept map:

This is the link to my glogster page:  http://cjackson36545.glogster.com/weather-phenomena-unit/

This is my animoto video:  

                                        

These are the pictures that were created using bighugelabs.com

Software Reviews

As a part of our Week 3 assignment in class , we had to review four different website and respond to the following questions. I was not able to view the SREB Evalu Tech website, therefore I am not sure what it has to offer. The other three websites were the California Learning Resource Network, SuperKids, and Education World.

1.Which sites evaluate the largest number of titles? I think that both the Education World and the SuperKids websites offer a large number of titles. I was also able to utilize the Education World site to get some ideas and worksheets for extra practice for my class.

2. Which sites are most recently updated? As far as I can tell, all sites that I viewed are updated frequently.

3. Which sites include reviews submitted by site visitors? I was able to locate a place to submit reviews on the Education World website and SuperKids website.

4. Which sites would you use to learn about software you were considering for your students? If I had money to purchase software for my class I would utilize the SuperKids website first because it was easier for me to manipulate and use the California Learning Resource Network website as a secondary resource.

Blogging in Elementary School

"After watching the video.....share your thoughts about one or more of the questions below."

1. Should elementary students be given a chance to blog as a part of learning at school?
2. At what age do you think blogging is appropriate for students?
3. Should blogging even be considered at school?
4. What is the importance of blogging in elementary school?