Week 8: Thing 20

I like the Ning. I played around with it and created my own. Some of the ones I looked at were a little overwhelming, but it could be a great thing for kids because they could invite anyone and keep it private! I think kids would like it. I'm not sure if I would do it with younger kids...I would rather start with BLOGS, so they get an idea with commenting. BUT, NING could be really fun!

I tried to do the Traveler's IQ thing, which I was really excited about, but it wasn't working...

WIKI"ature"

http://kooshjoy.edu.glogster.com/WIKIature/

Week 8: Thing 19

I love Google Earth! I use it to look at where my friends live around the World!! I also used it to see where I have visited. It's very fun! The 3D stuff is great! I tried going from my parents house to my house and following the streets manually....it was very fun! This can be great for kids to look at different places and geography. This would also be great as a Science lesson for the younger ones teaching about the rotation and seasons, etc.

Week 8: Thing 18

Slideshare!!! I liked this website. There are some great things you can do. I found a fun game for my students to do as a review for the 13 Colonies....but as my day has been going, I cannot embed the video....so, once I can, I will add it. I think the kids would have fun with this...a little better than power point. I feel that power point can be boring at times for presentations...this is a little more interactive!

Week 7: Thing 17

Well, I am familiar with Podcasting. Our church podcasts their teaching on Sundays, so I can listen to them on my iPod during the week.

I tried to listen to the Podcasts and tried all the websites...but no luck...maybe it's the snow day and bad weather. I will have to try at school and come back to this one as well!

Week 7: Thing 16

You Tube: I love the tube! I created a Power Point for my kids and Reading class. You have to be able to embed You Tube videos into Power Point, so I didn't atach it since it may not be able to open. What I did was chose Disney Clips from You Tube and used those to talk about character traits.

Some things I really like about YouTube is there are so many thigns out there. I found some old clip from whn I was little that I could show my kids at school. We watched the old SchoolHouse Rock Videos to learn grammar and Math. SOme things I don't like about it is that kids have access to so many things, which some things are not appropriate at all. But, when you can embed videos, it's a great tool.

I have also created a BLOG for my class...still a work in pprogress, figuring out e-mails, and I have put You Tube videos in there for the kids to respond to.

My favorite YouTube video is the Evil Eye!!!! I have attached it!! Yay! Ok....so there is an error on the page....I'll have to go back later!

Movie Maker

Car WAsh with Mrs. Sanders

Week 6: Thing 15

Below is my PhotoStory:





I really enjoyed doing this. We do Movie Maker with our 5th graders and it can be a nightmare! I thought this was much easier!!! Also, we wouldn't have to worry about music copyright because there are many different types of music to choose from! So, I think we will be using this!!

Week 6: Thing 14

Voicethread! I really liked this! My teammate and I already talked about how we can use this with kids in our Social Studies Colonial Unit. We thought instead of the kdis creating a brochure to persuade others to come to "their" colony, that we could have them create a voicethread...it's more fun and interactive!

http://voicethread.com/share/633018/

Week 5: Thing 13

Google Docs.....Um, I liked it. I had thought of some great ideas to use it with research, but we already have something in place that works really well. I can see using this program with older kids....not 5th graders. For me, it seemed like just ONE more thing to do....could just be that I am a little overwhelmed with everything. However, I can see the benefit to this program! I could see using this with fellow teammates to collaborate on things. I DID like how you can change something after you have made something! that was fun!

Week 5: Thing 12

I created a wiki for Reading Groups. I am really excited to use this program. I was also able to look at some other wikis....another Reading Group/Literature Circle Wiki. I got some great ideas about this program! I still need to play around with mine some more, but I really like it! It is fairly user friendly!

Here is my Wiki...at least a start

http://driversegyptgame.pbworks.com/

Week 4: THing 11

I am sill trying to do it. It would not show me the image since I do not have JAVA. Once I get it done, I will play with it more! But I was looking at the gallery and I did like the different visual representations.

I would love to use this with kids. I was thinking about placing different names of people the Revolution and creating some names that are bigger than others and have the kids look at them and figure out why names are by one another and why some may be bigger....I really liked this.

So, whenever I get JAVA, I will play with it some more and create something!

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1154222/Rev_WarI really like TagClouds and Wordle! I love the visual, "artsy" things.

TagClouds are fun. I tried putting in text from a word document, typing in my own words, using a website. The only thing with he TagClouds, was I couldn't choose where words were, the font, color, etc. It did highlight the most frequent words.

Wordle...

Week 4: Thing 10

Social Bookmarking: After searching through Del.icio.us, I liked several things. I wasn't able to listen to some music on Media player, since I don't have it. However, I think it may be helpful for doing research with kids. We do several research projects in 5th grade with Colonies and American Revolution. I think this would be a great tool for them. We already have some websites for them to look at. But I could create a link from this blog or from my school homepage to this website with bookmarks. That would be a longer project and lots of research....but maybe long term! Or maybe it could be a project over Christmas break!!

Week 3: Thing 9

Twitter......YES! I finally got it set up! Yay! I was hard to navigate at first, but it has been fun! I have been able to check out other people's TWEETS...and I have enjoyed being able to explore!

Week 3: THing 8

The BLOG I chose to write on is my friend Zac. He was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer sixth months ago and also had 6 other tumors on his liver and spleen. Zac just turned 33. I have been following Zac's journey since the news. Every week he writes on his BLOG. I am inspired and in awe of him. I taught two of his children at Explorer. The specific comment I made was on a video he made for his church. It is a religious video, but it is powerful. I think even if you do not follow a specific faith, that this video is still wonderful! The best thing.....last week, Zac had his PET scan to check on how the 6 rounds of chemo have been doing and his cancer is GONE!!! Sage 4 Cancer, GONE!! Amazing! I commented o Zac that I was inspired by his journey and following his heart!

Here is the link to the video and comment:

http://www.hello-righton.com/2009/08/13/letter-to-zac-video-available-for-download/comment-page-1/#comment-55798

Week 3: Things 7

I liked the Google Reader. It is nice having my information all in one place. I usually like to look and search for information, but here I could have it all in one place. I subscribed to quote of the days, NASA, and some Math and Reading sites.

I could see the convenience of this feature. It wasn't as hard as I though it was going to be. I also was able to look at some other sites as well that were marked!

I am not sure how I would use this with kids, only really to rely information. Working with elementary, many kids do not have e-mails or access to them. But with older kids, I would have them subscribe to place and maybe comment on them and share them with classmates....

Week 2: THing 6

Glogster: I really like this...I could use this as a Newsletter and have the parents go to this and just link it!!!

http://kooshjoy.edu.glogster.com/Drivers-NEws/

'>http://

Week 2: Thing 5

I loved making the Motivational Poster. My husband always sends me the "funny" motivational posters. My kids at school could have a blast with this! Also, I was looking at the trading cards, and I really liked that too. It would be really fun for the kids to create important characters in the Revolution when we study that!

Week 2: Thing 4

I love hands. It reminds me of when I was in Africa. I was helping this older woman help feed children in a poverty stricken community. I remember I was washing dishes, and she reached in the water and pulled my hands out. Her hands were wrinkly and torn and you could see every vein. She took my hands and looked in my eyes and said Thank You. I love hands.

I really enjoyed looking at Flicker. It was fun to look at pictures that others have taken and wondering why they wanted to capture a particular moment. This picture had a comment that this lady was in a market and these hands seemed hopeful!

Week 1: Thing 3

I went and looked at the comic book that was created related to copyrights! I love it. It was so creative. We teach our students about this too. This would be a great resource to use. Its amazing all the stuff that is out there for people to use and "misuse!"

Week 1

It has been a very busy week. However, I did manage to create a BLOG for my class. I am still working on getting the list of names ready to go. I am actually surprised that I even made another BLOG.....we had a busy and cray first week. I need to make sure that I fix my website on my school website. I pressed a button and erased all my links and cannot remember how to do put them back in. I played around with it for hours and still couldn't figure it out! Ahhh......I will get there!

Kristin

Kid Laughing

Look....a blog post from my phone

Welcome!!!

Hello everyone! This will be my new BLOG for the 2009-1010 school year!

Look forward to sharing my deep thoughts with you!

Mrs. Driver