In Conclusion...

23 Things is an amazing training filled with opportunities to think outside the box and endless learning.
Some of my favorite discoveries were the calendars and to-do lists, enriching our knowledge with blogger, keeping up with our bookmarks on delicious.com, being constantly updated with RSS feds and of course, The Library Thing!
As each thing has so many things within, I would like to learn about each thing more in depth. I would have liked to have a divided training into two halves. Have session 1 and 2 with more time to learn farther about each topic. I would definitely join those sessions and all the other discovery programs offered as Staff Development online. For now, I will keep up with new developments in web 2.0 by reading my RSS feds and participating in technology trainings offered by the district.
23 things had a huge impact on how I will approach my lessons next year in my classroom. I cannot wait to continue learning from each one of the things we learned.

Thing #23: Ning.

Ning is a great tool that help us obtain and share ideas between diverse groups of people. We can create and join educator's networks for subject areas and find discussions, educational videos, useful links, creative ideas, etc.
Within Ning there is a group called Classroom 2.0 for educators. It is an excellent resource where we can also choose between different groups according to our matter or matters of interest. We can discover and contribute ideas that work for us, find solutions to everyday classroom difficulties, etc.
This kind of networks are beneficial personally and professionally because we can expand our horizons of knowledge and also help others expand theirs.

Thing #22: Exploring Social Networking.

It is important for educators to know how social networking works because more and more of our students are making use of them and if we want to understand them, we need to know about what they are talking. We can also make use of them in our classroom. We can make a facebook for the class and then have groups about the books we are reading, history or science topics, etc. I found facebook to be more useful for my classroom because of the adding people's security and different groups we can make.
My facebook

Thing #21: Google tools.

"Google is not only a search engine anymore" It has dozens of options that can facilitate our every day's chores. Google Alerts e-mails you the news as they happen and keeps you posted on the topics that you select. We can use this tool in our History class to have our students updated on the selected information. Another tool we can use in school is the Google Calendar. We can input dates for our class and coworkers to plan and keep an ordered schedule of events. Finally, I will use iGoogle to customize my homepage containing the tools we have learned how to use here, this way, I will be able to use different facilitating web2.0 tools without the need to research, but only with a click of a button.

Thing #20: Google Docs.

Google Docs is a tool that works pretty much like office. You can make presentations, documents, spreadsheets, forms and drawings. You can manipulate the size, color, type of letter, create tables, etc. Google docs can be used in school with our students and together make lists of things in word, making grocery store's finances in spreadsheets, draw shapes with area and perimeter in drawings, etc. We can also use it in our personal life if we are not home and we need to make any kind of document to save and have handy later.
My article on Google Docs.

Thing #19: Voice Thread.

Voicethread can be used to add voice and written comments to documents, videos or pictures. I might use it on my Master's Presentations next semester and in my class to review vocabulary and multiplications, read books, create presentations for and from my students, brainstorming ideas, etc.

Thing #18: YouTube

YouTube and TeacherTube are websites where you can find videos about anything you can imagine, humorous, educational, happy, sad clips... YouTube can be used for a more personal use and on TeacherTube we can find already filtered educational materials for our class. I researched on some of the most popular topics that we use in class and could find interesting videos on each one of them; Abraham Lincoln, literacy circles, plants, area, perimeter...
I am planning on researching for more videos for my class and post them on my delicious website to have handy when school starts!

Thing #17: Podcasts.

A podcast is like a dvr where you can download programs on your computer, ipod or any mp3 player and watch them whenever and wherever you are. You don't need to be present on the time of the show to watch it, you can set your computer to record it so the next time you plug in your device or open up your iTunes Voila! you can watch it instantly. Some of the podcasts I previewed and subscribed are:
ESLpod
The Psych Files
Cody's Cuentos
Geek beat tv
I will incorporate the cuentos (stories) podcast to my reading time and will listen to the ESLpod, Psych files and Geek beat on my way home, to school or the spare times where we usually wait without any kind of learning.

Thing #16: Library thing.

So far, this is the favorite thing I have found in the last years. I absolutely love reading books and most of the time one book leads me to another or I have recommendations from different people but occasionally it is not enough and I stop reading. The Library Thing has reviews, recommendations and ratings that can help you decide in a deeper way whether if you want to read a book or to look for another one. We can also find recommendations that we would not find so easily otherwise. I also love the feature of saving the books that you have read so you can keep an online database for future reference or to share with other people.

Thing #15: Delicious.com

Delicious.com is a social bookmarking tool for sharing, saving and finding sites of interest. I have saved some bookmarks related to education, marketing and technology (my current biggest interest). I am planning on putting together the websites I regularly use and research for more useful ones to share with my team mates when we get back to school.
My saved bookmarks can be found at: http://delicious.com/livia31
Hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Thing #: 7a Google Reader

The Google reader tool have helped me find lots of different interesting articles thanks to the filter that chooses what I really like to know. This week, I found a very interesting article that talks about the "Bloom's Taxonomy". Everyone in education knows about his work and how to use it to teach our students think on a higher level. It is definitely something every educator should take a look at.

Thing #14:Web 2.0 tools.

There are dozens of different web 2.0 tools available for us on the Internet that can help us create, organize or communicate with our students in the classroom. I am planning on using 30 boxes to create to-do lists for my students, post plans of the week on the calendar view and print copies for my students and their parents to keep.
I will also use blabberize to have different images singing the happy birthday song on their birthday and to celebrate festivities that come along.

Thing #13: Image Generators.

You can find many different image generator tools on the web. One of my favorite ones was to create words with happy faces, you just need to go to click here! write your word, click the fancify your text button and it your smiley faces word is ready!

You can also create different Comic Strips at: click here! you can look for a particular cartoon or famous artist, write your text on the Text/Caption box, click on the button Customize your comic strip and ta-da!!!



The fun thing about learning how to use image generators is that you can use them with your students in different subjects in class. I am planning on projecting the morning writing prompts on the Promethean board using different comic strips to have fun and keep my students interested in writing. I am also planning to use the flikr mosaic maker on Science to show my students the different animals or ecosystems we will be studying that week.

Thing #12: Slideshows (Pictures found in Flikr)

My slide show has some of my favorite images found in Flikr. It contains amazing places which I would like to visit or places like the ones I would like to. With the airplane image, I want to say that I love traveling. The kid's eye means how I like to see things, from a very opened perspective and with the amusement that kids have when they see new things. The owl looking at the camera means that I would love to be seen on those places also, share, know people and also see the different kinds of animals according to the place that I go.