Twitter!

I have been a "twitterer" for a while now but only following celebrities!! Now i am following people in education to help get new info.

Ning!

Today I learned about Ning. One specific Ning I explored was Classroom 2.0. This is a great networking resource for teachers to collaborate with other teachers from all over. I read a discussion between several teachers about podcasting...something I am interested in trying in my classroom this year. I am looking forward to reading other discussions and sharing ideas with teachers.

Thing 9 and 10

Us teachers out here in the boondocks at Sulphur Rock were not able to log on to Flickr until this week...lol So I was excited to try it. I joined and downloaded pictures of our latest class project and made a slide show and linked it to my wiki page. I am still learning how to download photos with captions...may need to discuss this at our next meeting.

Thing 8

I totally learned something new today. I never knew that everything I write is automatically copyrighted. No one can use "my stuff" without my permission! That's cool. I feel so important! But what if I want to share my ideas with people? What if I don't mind if another teacher uses my "stuff"? Well that's where Creative Commons comes in. If a teacher is visiting my blog or wiki and he/she notices my cc logo, they will know that anything I have they can use to share, reuse, or redesign. That's what this new age technology is all about...COLLABORATION!

Thing 5

My reader is full of great stuff and I have only subscribed to a handful of blogs and wikis. Some people are great about adding to their site and sharing great ideas. Time unfortunately does not always allow for me to read and explore the way I would like. I have made my own wiki space if anyone is interested in looking at it. Remember it is a work in progress and I try to add new things as often as I can. My students and parents have really enjoyed it. I still have not attempted video or voice threads but that is my next big goal. I get a ton of ideas from my reader. Here are a few sites I like. My class is the first one. Take a look!

www.sflood2.wikispaces.com

http://mrspatterson.edublogs.org/

http://mrskilburnkiddos.wordpress.com/

Using My Reader

I have subscribed to 4 other 2nd grade teacher's blog pages and have found some excellent ideas to use in my own classroom. One in particular is http://mrspatterson.edublogs.org/. She is a great blogger and also lets her students blog as well. I am doing an O.R.E.O project (Our Really Exciting Online Project) with my class after reading about her experience. Throughout this project the children use measurement, estimation, prediction, writing, and science skills. And all is documented online. The children will even do voice threads to tell others about their findings. If I feel really adventurous I may let a few of them blog on my page or set up a new page for my classroom! I try and check my reader every day because a couple of my subscriptions blog everyday and I don't want to miss anything. Like I said, I only have 4 so it's not too overwhelming right now.

Feeding My Reader

For the past few days I have been working on adding new subscriptions to my reader. I have searched out other 2nd grade teachers who also have blogs. This has not been the easiest task. There are a lot of blogs out there and a ton that I would not be interested in reading at all. I did however find two that I have subscribed to and have enjoyed reading. Some I have already had to "trash". Oh well, you live and learn. I wish I had more time to explore all the blogs. "Free time" is a term I don't use so often anymore.