The Fifth Grade Blog

Wow!  There were days when I didn’t think that I would be here.

I have learned so much!  With the Wikis, the possibilities are endless.  I have even passed on a few ways that my husband can use it with his business.  We made a book report blogg using Google Docs.  It got to be almost as popular as My Space with my students because they couldn’t wait to see what the others were reading. I am planning to use the Library Thing to assist with our Accelerated Reader program. Next fall, I want to introduce my students to Skype and interview people who have careeers that use math. I discovered the world of blogs and feeds and plan to continue to stretch myself professionally outside of the academy.

I have been teaching for 30 plus years and can remember back to my first year when my hands were purple from the ditto machine.  I always said that if I taught long enough that I would be able to do it from home in my bathrobe.  The technology is there.

I explored 2.0 and immediately felt overwhelmed. Then I found comfort in the fact that this was what the course was all about. To me, it was about becoming familiar with a vast array of technology tools and then finding out how other teachers are using them.  And I might add, they are more than happy to share.  It’s all there for you whether it be a workshop, a video, a blog, or even a live conversation. I guess the idea that  “when one of us learns, we all get smarter” seems too simple.   What an impact networking knowledge has on us as teachers as well as with our students. I explored several videos and presentations that had to do with math.  I did feel comfortable knowing that if for some reason I was unable to access our course site that 2.0 would be there and I would be able to access help with the new tools that I have learned about in the course. I will definitely get back to it.

I had a lot of  fun with Pageflakes.  I found it to be very user friendly.  I have my own customized page  now complete with my own email, calculator and recipe of the day.  I went ahead and included some of my favorite feeds that I had set up on Google Reader.

I was thinking that this tool might be used as an enrichment page for my math students.  When we are studying a unit, I could include some websites, podcasts and some things from Teacher Tube that related to the content that we were covering. You could also just organize a regular unit of student with Pageflakes.  I plan to revisit this summer or maybe even sooner when things  slow down a bit. Great tool!

Earlier this year, I had attended a lunch and learn about Google Docs.  I immediately made a document that my fifth graders could contribute to about the books they were reading. They loved it.  They weren’t afraid to be creative with their fonts or colors. I emailed this document to Shelley.  We have also used a Google Document to  share our sentences with our Wordly Wise words.  Each child was assigned a word and then used it in a sentence for homework.  We would then view them the next day on the Smartboard.

As a faculty, we are planning on using it to collaborate what we feel to be the essential things or qualities of being a successful Woodward North student.  This way every can have input, but at the same time see what everyone’s ideas are.

I explored the history of You Tube and then went on to  watch Lego Camp.  It was really just a video of the camp that occurred at University of Missouri. It didn’t have anything instructional about it.  I was a little disappointed as I had spent years with my son, who is now 28 years old, putting together countless Legos.Then I watched  a video on Finding Factors of A Number.  While viewing this, I silently prayed that I don’t bore my own students as this instructor did me. Then I watched a related video on   Measuring Angles.  The voice of this teacher reminded me of the voice that is used for the adults in all of the Charlie Brown cartoons, but I survived it.The “how to” videos I watched pertained to raised bed gardening and how to make a dog coat.  These were very englightening. I now know that I don’t have to buy that expensive landscaping fabric to prevent weends in my beds. The couple in the video had used cardboard. What a great idea.I also picked up a few sewing tips in the dog coat video.Then I moved on to Teacher Tube and watched a video on literary devices in the form of a puppet show. It was cleverly done by high school students.Then I moved on to Mrs. Burk’s perimeter and area wrap. What a hoot!  Some people have no shame.I can’t wait to come back to this when I have more time.Teacher Tube is helpful instruction for teachers and students. 

Here is Mrs. BurkDownload Video: Posted by kcollazo at TeacherTube.com.

My Three Ideas

It took me several tries, but I finally did it!  I finally realized that you have to speak directly into the microphone for it to record.  Now that I’ve done my first podcast, I can’t wait to try it with my students. I feel so accomplished.

I checked some of my favorite authors and then decided to look up Carmen Deedy since she just recently visited our school.  The comments about Martina the Beautiful Cockroach made me feel that the those same people must have been with us at Woodward North when Ms. Deedy read the book to us. We have implemented the Accelerated Reader Program this year and I thought that the Library Thing would be  a good tool for students when selecting a book.  They could read other students reviews of  a book. There’s nothing like a peer recommendation!

Well,  this was certainly something that I never knew existed, but why should I really be surprised. This site can be funny but also a little “dark” in places. Someone’s goal was not to spend so much time on the computer. Hello! You could spend all day at this just one site.  I can also see the value.  It’s very cheap, or should I say “free” psychotherapy.  People seem to benefit from the encouragement.  I am definitely a goal setter, but  I don’t know if I really want to put myself out there in such a public way. The websites on the side for whatever your topic related to were entertaining as well.

Part 1

I have seen my children use their ipods for years.  Now I think that I could really make good use of one for myself.  Anytime that children can hear their own voices recorded, they are thrilled.  What a great way to commit anything to  long term memory. I can see how recording interviews, a summary of a field trip, what was learned in a lesson, and many other things could have a substantial impact on learning.  I listened to the podcast on How to Organize a Drawer  just for fun.  I also visited our own Ms. Edmison’s Wiki page and listened to her star student’s podcast.

Part 2

I subscribed to Teachers Teaching Teachers and Podcasting and Field trips.  I especially enjoyed the one that had to do with field trips and took some notes.  Podcasting was incorporated in the pre- field trip and used as a teaching tool to help students record some thoughts about the purpose of the visit and what they hoped to learn from it.  Interviews could also be recorded on the trip.  Observations from students after the trip would also be valuable.  After thinking about it, I can really understand how podcasting gives students more ownership of their learning. 

http://del.icio.us/susanguest

This will be great to get myself organized  and explore some of the zillions of other sites that will continue to make my head swim with all of the volumes, or libraries I should say,  of information that is out there. Now maybe My Favorites won’t look like of endless scroll of mumbo jumbo. I created an account and found some extremely useful websites.  I loved the Jeopardy math games that were created by fifth graders. I plan to share the idea of sharing math websites with the Main Campus teachers.   Also, this will be the perfect way to share a collection of websites with my students for summer.