Thing 5

There was a lot to explore for this topic. I tried a few different things before I decided on one to use for my project. I think the tool you choose really depends on your purpose. I tried to think of things I could use for my classroom vs. things I would use in my personal life. We have used Glogster in the past and I plan to use that again this year with my students. I started a Glog, but found it to be more complicated than it needed to be. In the past our library media specialist has worked on the Glogs so I am going to defer to her as the expert and ask her to help us out again. I think I will learn more from seeing her use it with the kids. I finally decided to try Animoto for my project. I took all the photos I've taken of my students this year and put them into a presentation. I added music and headings for each event. I have taken pictures throughout the year, but shared very few of them with the kids and parents. I thought this would be a great way to share those photos. I plan to make another Animoto as I take more pictures in the new year. I won't wait for June, but rather put one together in a couple months or after an event where I took a lot of pictures. I could also choose certain pictures to highlight the whole year and put something together for the end of the year. I didn't put a link to the presentation because they are photos of my students and I want to respect their privacy. I will be sharing it with my parents on our webpage, which is a closed site accessible only to families in my class. I found this topic to be a little frustrating at first, but I really like my final project and I'm sure I will use Animoto again. I look forward to exploring some of the other tools as well.

Thing 4: Photo Sharing

I did not have a Flickr account so I signed up for one. I found it pretty easy to copy a photo and add it to my blog. The video directions really helped. I would like to explore the second part of the assignment as well. I am interested in finding out what you can do with your photos once you have them on a site. I like the idea of using the mapping to find photos taken in different places. I think these sites would be great for sharing photos of students with my parents. I am getting better at taking pictures of my students engaged in various activities, but I would like to do more sharing. I've tried to share photos on our school website, but I often find that problematic. Flickr might be a good way to get around some of those problems.

Thing 3: RSS Reader

I have never done anything with RSS Readers before. Since I have a Google account I decided to set one up with Google. I found it pretty easy to manipulate, but now I need to figure out what to put on it. I did some browsing and added a couple things. I can see how it would be useful to have all the information in one place. The overwhelming part is reading all the information. I think the key is to keep the information to things that are actually useful and pertinent. I have two folders set up now and I would like to add more. I read another participant's post about using Flipboard and I have to add that I find Flipboard to be very useful. I have it on my phone and check it out almost nightly to see what is going on with the things I am interested in. I find I check it more than Twitter, although now that I've organized my Twitter account I am trying to check it more often. I am realizing there is just so much information out there and it's important to keep it all organized. I am learning a lot about these new tools and I am sure I will find the ones that work best for me.

Thing 2: Twitter

I have had a Twitter account for a while, but I really don't use it much. I actually don't really know what to do with it. I have never tweeted anything, and the idea of doing so still makes me a bit uncomfortable. I took a major step yesterday when I started working on my Twitter account. I created lists so I could organize the people I am following. I called one Education and I used some of the resources provided to find people/organizations to follow in the world of education. I found some really interesting things. I follow some of the companies I use in class like Scholastic and Learn Zillion. I find the whole thing to be very informative, but also very overwhelming. I spent so much time just getting lost in all the information. I can see how it could be a great resource, but also quite time consuming. I am fascinated by how people are using it with students/parents and in the classroom. I think it's one step at a time for me.

Thing 1: Blogging

My name is Michelle McComb and I am a fifth grade teacher in the Averill Park school district. I am taking this course along with our school's library media specialist. We are hoping to collaborate on many of the activities. I have had very limited exposure to blogs and would like to learn more about them and how to use them in my classroom. My students did use a blog last year to facilitate some discussions and they really enjoyed it. I can see where you can use blog for many purposes in the classroom. I can already see that there are a lot of great ideas out there. It took me a while to get this one up and running, but I think it probably gets easier the more you do it. We used Edublog last year so I will probably try that again with the kids this year.