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.

Thing #11: Flikr.

Picture by lostajy


Flikr is a website that shares images and videos of everything you can imagine to the public. You can choose to either look to the images without being able to manage them in any way, or work under a Creative Commons license, where you can copy, distribute, display, and perform their copyrighted work in different ways. Sometimes you will have to give credit to the authors, use the images for noncommercial purposes only,use only verbatim copies of the work or derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs that work. There are thousands of images published, and Creative Commons gives the license so you can choose the option that best fits your project.

Thing #10: Creative Commons.

Did you know that when you create something you automatically own the full rights of your work and Copyright protects it from being anyway modified or used by others? Creative Commons CC, is an organization that provides free copyright licenses that tell people exactly which parts of your work can or cannot be used without having to personally come to you and ask for your permission to use it. "Creative Commons has refined the rules of Copyright".
The Creative Commons licenses allow students, teachers, dj's, writers, etc to learn and enhance their projects with the fair and appropriate use of your work. I personally abstain from using some work from others on the web such as images, audio and video to avoid skipping the copyright rules, but why not making better and more complete projects with the fair use and share of materials on the web? We can do this by going to the Creative Commons site and find answers with a language that is easily understandable to us.

Learn more from this by clicking on:
Creative Commons

Thing #9: Reflections on my sandbox.

Making my own wiki and playing in the sandbox was a lot of fun. I learned how to create a table of contents, add images, links, page breaks and lists. Although it was complicated at the beginning to add my voki, I could find the instructions on how to paste the code and have it on my page. I really enjoyed playing and learning from "thing #9".


My Sandbox Wiki:
http://readingwiki23.wikispaces.com/

Thing #8-Stretch: About Wikipedia

Wikipedia is one of the first searching tools I use to find answers to my or my student's questions.I like to find the contents in an orderly manner right at the beginning of the site because you can either find what you are looking for by clicking on a link or know that it is not what you are looking for and add or delete words on your search to find your answers.

Thing #8: Wiki wiki teaching.

I think that blogs and wikis are very practical communication tools that we can use to better teach and know our student's factual needs. I noticed that most of the wikis that I observed are organized in a predictable manner, which provides more probability to find what we are looking for. Some others  were over-saturated and were hard and tedious to read. I would rather place links on the side to have the information handy and organized rather than all stacked in the same place. I will start a wiki for my class about reading. It will have a space for my students to share their comments on the books they are reading, as well as a space for them to write questions about those books for their peers to answer when it is their time to read them.

Thing #7: Importance on commenting in blogs.

Commenting is a key component on a blog, it is very important to keep new ideas flowing to maintain the site alive. By commenting, the reader and writer can feel a connection when they share their ideas and each other. New readers can learn from past conversations and input more feedback so new readers can feel identified and feel the spirit to continue expressing their ideas and continue keeping the site alive.

Thing #6: Interesting blogs.

I have just started adding subscriptions on my Google reader and love all the filtered information we can get with a simple click of a button. I love technology and found a high techspectations and an Iphone new apps and news blog. I cannot wait to find more sources of interest that enrich my learning and knowledge.

http://www.lucygray.org/weblog/atom.xml

http://images.apple.com/main/rss/hotnews/hotnews.rss

Thing #5: Of Creativity and Art from Students 2.0

I read the article of creativity and art by Morgante Pell. It was very interesting to see his output about how creativity cannot be just taught because of its nature.  I think that a person can develop their ability and some are born with more creativity than others, but you cannot only teach creativity to a human being per-se. We as teachers can have our students working in art projects that can enhance their creativity through time, but it would be almost impossible for a teacher to focus their teaching and force her students to become creative just for the sake of it, as Pell said “creativity can be practiced but not taught.”

http://students2oh.org/2008/11/19/of-creativity-art/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Students2oh+%28Students+2.0%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Thing #4: Sample blog posts.

In the sample blogs posted on "Thing #4", I found that writing in general was about school blogging and what a useful tool it can turn into. It is not just a lot of nonsense words, it actually shares opinions that can grow learning in many different genres. Students, teachers and people around the world can learn from each other and share their thoughts on a interactive environment. Students can get more engaged in learning and writing at higher thinking levels because it shares real life themes and situations that people who is reading it might be coping with. It is different from another writings because it engages the public with oncoming and going interactive responses from each other which might be renewed every certain time. Blogging in a classroom can facilitate learning by discovering what teachers and students really want and need to learn.

POST 1: Thing #1 - Reflections on Lifelong Learning

The most challenging habit for me on my Learning 2.0 experience is to create a toolbox, I know that it can be very useful, and I will also start using it more often in my other duties.

The easiest habit for me as a lifelong learner is to begin with an end in mind because I like to see things on a short or long term basis with a timeline to follow to avoid procrastination.

I think that the most important habit for me as I work through this course is to view problems as challenges and to continue applying it in all the other ambits of my life.

POST 2: Thing #2 - Thoughts about Web 2.0

I love technology and have many tools available in my classroom such as a Promethean Board, a projector and Elmo. Now I would like to learn all about Web 2.0 tools to enhance my teaching method every day. It is amazing what an impact in can cause in our student’s different learning methods.

I think that using blogs would be very helpful and handy for my students if every Monday they have the course material ready for the coming week showing the detailed instructions of what, how and when are they supposed to turn in their work. It can also be used by different subject teachers to connect their teaching with each other each one focusing on their particular subject, and I would like to learn about more tools we can use to make our teaching more rich and entertaining.