A New Slide show

End of the Course

I have truly enjoyed this course...on of the best I've ever taken because I learned so much! It was nice to do it at my own pace and the support from Beth and Ryan (and the rest of you in the class) as excellent!

My favorite things from the class (the things I will most likely continue to use) are:

• My Pageflake...I have it as my Firefox log in page. I have many of my other "favorites" linked to my Pageflake (thanks for explaining the linking function, Beth). I also have some other helpful things posted there like my address book, local weather, news and sports links, and a calendar/to do list. It's nice to have everything in one place (it seems like I have finally organized my computer - maybe my office can be next)!
• TeacherTube is another great find. I think that along with United Streaming, there is an endless supply of helpful videos out there. I am amazed at how much is available on those two sites!
• On the fly concept mapping is another skill that I believe is a great teaching tool. I can think of many ways to use it in the classroom.

As life-long learning is not only a personal goal but also a goal we need to be instilling in our students, I believe that learning more about what is available at our finger tips is essential. I remember Beth saying that our students are not going to come g=back to us, we have to learn what they already know...at lest now I will understand what the students (and some of our more techie staff) are talking about.

I think that everyone needs to learn more about our La Conner Moodle. I think it is a great place to help develop a PLC in our school. I also believe that the sharing that has developed with some of the class members for 23-Something Things has been great. I have had assistance from many and I really appreciate it!

The biggest surprise that I have had in this course is that I really enjoyed doing it on line (in my blog, etc.). I think going at my own speed was very helpful as sometimes it took me a while to process some of the lessons.

The only thing I would do differently is maybe get together once or twice to discuss what we've learned. When I've met with folks in the class we've had great discussions about the new things we know.

Thanks Beth and Ryan for the GREAT job you've done. I truly appreciate your patience and all of the extra "tutoring" you've done. The comments by folks in my blog have been fun! I would certainly do another class if it was offered!

Google Maps

I made a Google map of the locations of my family. I often use this feature when I am traveling to give me clear driving directions. I enjoyed doing the satellite and hybrid maps. If you'd like to see where we're all located, please feel free to check out the link below (for some reason it doesn't go right to the map but you can get there by selecting my maps and then "Maps to My Family"):
http://maps.google.com/maps?tab=ml.

I also enjoyed Google Earth...don't know how much of my computer memory it took to download that appication but I have it for now. This world of technology sure is larger than one can even imagine!

ROLLYO

At first I really didn't understand what this was all about, but in the middle of the night it came to me what I supposed to do with it. So, here is a link to my ROLLYO on my main theme:
Team Building - Icebreakers: http://www.rollyo.com/editroll.html?sid=307228

And look Beth, I did it as a link!!!

I can see how teachers could use this to roll the specific sites they believe best cover a topic and save students the "pain" of the whole Google list or even perhaps limit where they go on the Web to keep them from [laces they don't belong.

Generator Blog

I really did have fun with the generators! I think I could really use the calendar generator but I got "stuck" in a series of "name generators" and would like to share a few of the favorites I got when I typed in my name:

• Indian name generator: Catherine Leatherbound Gander
• Japanese name: Peguji seeringu
• Middle Earth name: Crying Huora or Beleghiliel
• Hobbit name: Melilot Boffin from Deepwater
• Literal meaning of my name: stubborn understain
• and, my two favorites:
• My monkey name: Crackpot McChimperson
• My Orkish name: Gutdush the Horrible

So, I guess, as the saying goes, "it's all in the neame!"

My Slideshow - Enjoy!!!!

Let me know what you think of these special "kids."

Flicker

I had fun with this one because I enjoy taking pictures and never seem to do anything with them except put them on a disc! I found it really easy to upload pictures from my desktop...haven't tried to upload from anywhere else yet. I put the pictures into a group and tagged it scenery...I like that I can add location and descriptions to the photos. I liked several things in addition to the ease of this site:

• that it is an easy place to save an organized photo album
• that I can set privacy levels for my pictures to either share them or just keep them organized for myself
• I can give out "Guest Passes" to my account - so my family can see all of my pics with ease
• I REALLY had fun with the "view as slide show" maybe an easier feature than adding into a PowerPoint show?

LetterPop

That was fun! I actually created a newsletter about my pets...if you'd like to view it, I'd be happy to email it to you. I might try this for my weekly newsletters...it's really easy to upload pictures into it. Once again I'm amazed to find another thing I didn't know existed for free - free I LIKE!!!

Swivel Reflections

Swivel has me confused...the tutorial told me to look in the pantry and I found no pantry on the home page. But I did look under Aviators and Accidents - found out there is a reason I don't like landings (446 landing accidents in 2005 alone!).



I'm going to try to upload one of my graphs and see how it goes. Here's the link to the page I did...I couldn't get it to upload to my blog:
http://www.swivel.com/data_sets/show/1007865

Concept mapping

Wow - that was fun! Great tutorial Beth...I didn't quite get it until I watched your tutorial. I even did a map on the 9 Characteristics of High Performing Schools. I could get into this for staff meetings! I had a good time doing the "free hand drawing" but couldn't figure out how to get my "designs" to go away when I didn't like how they looked so I had to delete that map and start over,

I can see how this could be a GREAT teaching tool during almost any lesson. Kids could even be the ones doing it!

Google Docs

I enjoyed messing around with the Google and Zoho docs...I worked with the Zoho stuff previously. I do a lot of spreadsheets to keep data and found the Google spreadsheet okay to work with (after I figured out how it was set up). I did a spreadsheet for a loan I made to a friend....once I found the "fill" commands" I was satisfied with how it worked.
You'll have to take my word for it as I can't figure out how to open it to share with others (but it worked just like an excel spreadsheet in office).

I can see how the on-line docs would save a LOT of space on our hard drives and make it easier to keep up with all the changes - i.e., I wouldn't have to bug Charles to update my Microsoft office stuff : ) As with anything new, I would take a while to teach this old dog new tricks but I'd sure be willing to try as long as everything saved as easily and I could get to it as easily as I do now.

Teamwork Video

Thanks to Kerry, here's the video I like so much - I also found the same video in Yahoo videos, Google videos, and YouTube...must be a good one!

Teacher Tube is Great!

I "explored" both TeacherTube and YouTube for videos on teamwork. I viewed the moon landing...but, I watched it "live" as it happened...I think I was a sophomore (junior?) in HS when it happened...yes, I AM that old!
I loved one I found on TeacherTube: http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=ddb7a7cfa82574b6722d.
I hope you'll check it out (but elementary teachers will likely see it during our opening staff meeting). I wish I could actually add it to my blog like I've seen others do but I need further "tutoring" for that...maybe someone could call me and talk me through it or email the steps I need to take.

I also looked for videos on teamwork (as you can see, that is my theme for what I'm working on this summer) in United Streaming. I found both TeacherTube and YouTube to have a better selection and they seemed to be better done as well. I guess I wonder if the $$ we spend on United Streaming is worth it when the others are free....maybe worth exploring further.