Thing 23

I made it!!! Cutting it close, but I finished. Quite a feat for a mom of 2 small kids who took 4 vacations, played in a tennis league, coached high school tennis and organized all the closets and back porch of her house :)

I am excited to get in my classroom and see how I can use some of these tools to improve my teaching. I realized that if I don't start using more technology in class I will start to lose my students. Technology is embedded in their lives and they expect it in their classes too. This is giving me new enthusiasm for teaching. Which, after 10 years, my teaching could probably use.

I also plan to forward the 23 Things website to my father in law who will be a professor at Davenport in the winter. He taught 25 years ago and will need to update some of this thinking. I think 23 Things can help. I knew he was in trouble when he commented how 'small' the school's library was (ie. no books) but they had lots of computers. We talked about how everything is researched using the internet that very few books are opened when doing research. I will have to share what works with my students once I get going.

I wish I had more time to prepare before school starts. I could spend another week on iTunes and Youtube finding fun things to enhance my teaching :) I am very glad I decided to do 23 Things. I will definitely recommend to others in the future.

Thing 22

My wiki: http://maestrajen.wikispaces.com/

Hmmm...wiki's and blogs both can have a place in the classroom. It really depends on the purpose. I could see using a wiki for science labs or peer editing a Spanish essay. Where blogs aren't as interactive, but students can leave comments and I would know who said what and when. For grading purposes, blogs seem a bit easier to keep track of student input. Not sure if there is a way in the wiki to know who made the edits.

I am excited now to try these and all the other things I've learned in my classroom. It makes starting back to work not so bad....no really, I'm kind of looking forward to it.

Thing 20

I found a bunch of podcasts in Spanish, about learning Spanish, and fun ways to improve Spanish on itunes. I've never been an Apple person. This was only my second time on the iTunes website and really found navigating around relatively easy once I got the hang of it. I did have to use the search tool to get to Podcasts. The other search tools had issues. The EPN tool had many podcast links, but when I clicked on them the were errors. It must not be updated frequently.

I can't wait to listen to my Coffee Break Spanish and share with my students Slow Spanish. I want to find some Spanish video podcasts too now. Still working on getting a projector for my classroom too :)

Thing 19

http://www.newsinslowspanish.com/home.php
http://rlnvault.com/rln09/category/shows/coffee-break-spanish/


I could definitely see using pieces of these podcasts in class. I would have to scan them for vocab and pre-teach some things. But it would be great to incorporate more realia into class. I have been looking for fun, new ways.

I had no idea how many podcasts were out there. I could literally spend days researching ones to use with my teaching. You do need to look carefully, because some were titled 'beginner' but would have been way beyond most of my students, at least initially. But it gives me lots of possibilities now. I would like to try and do some podcasts of my own. The Media Literacy teacher in my building started doing podcasts for our daily announcements. It worked great last year.

Thing 22

Sorry, I went out of order here since I knew I had time to tackle wiki's but wanted to allow more time for the podcasts.

I have used wiki's before, but not in the classroom. I liked seeing how teachers were using them to connect to other classrooms across the globe. It would be fun to get questions answered in that manner, instead of me researching it on wikipedia or google. The only obstacle that keeps arising is that I don't have regular access to computers. I could make some of this homework, but not all of my students have computers or internet access at home. Some more things to think about...

Thing 18

This is a lot better than the 30 year old Alfabeto video tape I use!

Spanish A-Z

View more presentations from kherzog.

I have been wanting to do more notes in a slide show presentation instead of using boring overheads. This gives me new motivation :) I could direct students to the site to review, or if they were absent. I just hope they can see it well enough on my t.v. I guess this would be another reason to get a projector for my room. I need to see if I can use our home one or buy a cheap one for my class. Going to go ask hubby what he thinks. I am actually getting excited to try some of these new things at school. I just wish I wasn't teaching 4 preps and 4 grade levels in 2 different buildings, so I would have more time!!

Thing 17

I really likes the Knowtes concept. The website was a little tricky to navigate, but I got the hang of it. It wouldn't take the students long. I set up 2 study groups that I can later add flashcards to. Then students can join the group and practice with the flashcards I made for each class and topic. It saves paper and student don't need a partner to practice. Parents are always asking me how their kids can practice at home, now I have another suggestion for them.

I saw the comments about Knowtes. Wordlearn.com is much easier. I set up and account there too.

Thing 16

We have used this a few times at my school. My team tried doing some team meetings a couple of years ago using google docs and wetpaint. We had limited success because not everyone was comfortable with it (ie. not techno savvy). I think it's a great tool and am wishing I had more computers/laptops at my school. For Spanish it would be good for peer editing of essays. I prefer editing with a keyboard and not ink :). I like that I could see other student's comments and know who said or did what. It does pose a small problem since everyone needs an email account. There are some parents who don't allow their kids access to email. I would have to work around that.

Thing 15

I have been using RSS sporadically for a couple of weeks. It is still a little awkward each time I go to subscribe to a feed or blog. But it's getting easier each time. I just am not in the habit yet of thinking about subscribing while surfing the net. So instead of subscribing to the weather (which I finally did) in my area I always go to the Weather channel website and put in my zip code. Now I just have to go to bloglines. That alone should make me visit a little more often.

It was easy to move and rename links. I didn't have tons of feeds so it only took a few minutes to clean things up :)

Thing 14

Delicious username: maestrajen

I am going to use this to bookmark Spanish Language learning sites for my students. Then when parents and students ask how students can practice at home I can give them my delicious username instead of a list of websites. Seems much easier and saves paper :) I also imported all of my bookmarks on my laptop so now I can access them wherever.

Middle schoolers still struggle with finding useful websites. Using delicious I can prescreen websites and then just send them to my list of websites for a project or extra practice.

Now if I could just get into the computer lab when i wanted!!

Thing 13

My principal introduced us to social bookmarking 2 years ago. Unfortunately, it came out of the blue and people weren't ready for it. I thought it was a great concept and used it several times and then forgot about it. It didn't help that I had no colleagues to share info with. This was a great reminder to get back to using them.

I love that I can tag things while I'm using it and then retrieve it easily the next time I need too. Unlike my real filing system, things actually get categorized properly, stored and found quickly the next time. Now if I can just do this to my 8 file drawers of papers life would be grand!

Thing 12

..
Embedding code is easy now (assuming my widget works). I want to see if I can change the blog template now too.

I have been a member of online communities for about 7 years. They are a part of my daily routine now. Most are friends that I chat with online instead of the phone while a few I have never met. I like the unobtrusiveness of the social networking sites. I can 'talk' with people but they can respond when they have time. I have found that with 2 kids finding quiet time to talk on the phone is nonexistent :) I find that I am able to communicate more with people because of this. I have many family members I chat online with, but I previously would never call.

Thing 11

I am a cautios commenter. I try and not be the annoying, wordy one, but strive for insightfulness. When I go back later and read other's comments it doesn't always seem as insightful as when I wrote it, but they are always genuine thoughts sparked by the intial reading of the blog or another's comment.

Once you open up to the online word waiting for and reading other's comments or postings can be addictive. I find myself checking sites wwwaaaaaay to often in my busy day.

I have been looking at other's 23 Things blogs for since June. Whenever I do another 'thing' I try and look at a blog or two. I don't comment much (only when moved to do so) but it's fun to see the variety of blogs. I found a Japanese video clip on a blog that was funny. It was a show about a woman who found someone in a box and took him home to be her pet. You can tell a lot about a culture by the kind of humor they appreciate.

Thing 10

I chose a video I have used in the classroom. It's the best conjugation video I have found. When I showed it I also showed one of the standard verb videos, so the students could appreciate it's originality. The first time I showed it I used Zamzar and emailed it to myself. But it still wouldn't work.

This time I was able to successfully download a video, a student's spoof on Spanish grammar videos, onto my desktop. I could easily save it to my flash drive and take it to school.

Conjugations Back video

I love this video. I showed it to my students last year.

Thing 9

Aaahh Youtube. Way too many videos to look at! I have used Youtube many times to search to random news stories that I heard about and wanted to see the 'whole' story. In my school Youtube is blocked, for obvious reasons. But we can use Teachertube which has some good videos. I have tried to use a few clips in conjunction with my lessons without much success. Seems there was always a downloading or converter problem. Plus the 25 inch T.V. in the corner of my large classroom just isn't big enough for students to see. Eventually, I would like to bring in my projector and connect it to my computer and show clips that way.

I really enjoyed the Taylor Mali clips. I even emailed the links to some teacher friends. The proofreading clip was hilarious. I will photocopy really funny papers like that to save and read and share on bad days. Sometimes I even read to students before the write a paper.

Thing 8

I was playing around with some family photos from Disney. I could definitely spend waaaaay too much time doing this. I would like to try this with my students in their "Soy mi" book or powerpoint projects. I think it's a good way to mask identities too. I can't wait to show my son. He will think it's cool!

Thing 7

Flickr is a great resource for sharing pictures with the class. In the past I have had students do presentations of their travels to Spanish-speaking countries or a cultural festivity they participated in. It would have been a lot easier to have them create an account and upload them on their own time. Then login from school to view them on the TV in class. Instead of me downloading and resizing the pictures to put in a powerpoint presentation.

The important part is making sure they understand the ramifications of publishing someone else's picture on public website. Students frequently think that if it is on the internet it is free for the taking.

register
J. Wells

Thing 6

This was easy! I have Photobucket and Shutterfly accounts and a website of my kids pics with Coppermine Gallery, so I've done this kind of thing before. I did like the Flickrcc page with all the non- copyrighted pics to download. Something I did not pay attention to when I downloaded my first pic off the site. For our personal photos we have our own server at home to download them onto for safe keeping. My husband is a programmer and owns a data center, so it just made sense to do this on our own. We also enjoy perusing the photos on our 120 inch screen with our Playstation 3. My son loves seeing giant pics of himself.

There are so many pics to choose from I could spend days looking at them. I picked the panda because I was recently at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. and got to see them up close for the first time. They were so cute! I could have watched them for hours. This is the baby Tai Shan, who is 4 years old now.

Thing 5

I see now that I was trying to do Thing 4 and 5 simultaneously :) After watching the 3 subscribing to blogs video clips I realized I had figured out 2 of the methods on my own. The bookmarklet one was the one I had to watcht he video to complete. And, of course it was the easiest! Well, at least I took a few moments to find some interesting personal blogs.

Thing 4

Ok, after a few episodes of trial and error (and the 'disappearing folder' plight) I finally added folders and subscribed to some blogs! I think my problem was too many interruptions from wee ones (I needed to be in full concentration mode) and trying to click on the RSS feed link on the blog sites but wasn't sure what to do after that. It didn't help that I watched the video while at Panera, without wee ones, but couldn't hear it. I'm typically a 'click and see what happens' person when it comes to technology. So it just took longer than I had anticipated.

Now if only I had more time to read the blogs I subscribed too :)

Thing 3

I can already envision using a blog to have my students journal in Spanish on topics. I have wanted to use journals for some time, but just didn't have the time to read and comment on them periodically. With a blog, I think I could do it. I think it could be a good resource for students who need time to process grammar points and discuss outside of class. They could have other students or myself comment too.

Thing 1 & 2

I want to be a teacher at the school described in that article! Although a part of me suspects it is a fictional place. I love technology and am excited to incorporate more of it in my classroom. Unfortunately, I know I don't use it very much and struggle with how to add technology without having access to a computer lab regularly or being able to purchase expensive equipment. I do not own an MP3 player but am thinking of getting one just for easy accessibility of podcasts or getting a card for my PDA phone. I am hoping this course gives me some more tools on how to successfully use technology regularly with my students. I also would like to write a grant for technology but have not been able to decide what software or hardware would work best in my middle school Spanish classroom.

As much as texting is a big no-no in my school, I do wish ALL students had cell phones and we could incorporate the SMS technology into classroom applications. I would like to see how other schools address this issue. I love that cell phones can go anywhere. If students could do more assignments on them, teachers would never hear the excuse that it was lost or they weren't home and couldn't do it.