Thing 16.5: Evaluation

Well, I'm at the end of the "16 Things" journey.  Here are my final thoughts:

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I definitely loved discovering new web 2.0 tools, especially from reading others' blogs.  I am happy that I signed up for Twitter as I can finally see its value.  And I am excited about PhotoPeach, a new and EASY way for me to create videos. 

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
Following the instructions in Dr. Wilson's 16 Things definitely introduced me to more ways that I can use technology and the Internet in my classroom, as teaching tools and as ways for students to create and discover on their own.  More than that, though, creating this blog has inspired me to continue with blogging because I better understand how communicating with others about technology and its many uses is the only way that we teachers are ever going to keep up with what's out there.  Technology keeps changing, and if we don't continue to share what we know and learn about new tools and ways to use them in our classrooms, we're going to fall behind. 

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I am thoroughly surprised that I enjoy Tweeting.  I mean that with no irony whatsoever. 

4. What could I do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
Overall, I enjoyed every step of the way, but I was sometimes confused or frustrated when a few of the links didn't work.  I would spend a lot of time trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, when I wasn't, in fact, doing anything wrong.  Also, I'm a "clear set of instructions" kind-of-girl.  For example, these questions, numbered and listed so that I can clearly see what I need to respond to, works for me.  Some of the "discovery exercises" were confusing to me as I wasn't sure which activities exactly I needed to do, and to blog about- and I wasn't sure if I'd completed all the components for each "Thing."  In the end, though, I LOVE blogging, and I've already started a blog to share with my 6th grade team.  I'm going to be blogging about various web 2.0 tools that I've tried with my kids- how they work, if they're worth it, other ways that they could be used in other subject areas.  I'm excited to share my knowledge with others, and I love that blogging gives me a means to do so! 

Thing 16: PhotoPeach
This is the video I made on PhotoPeach of my trip to Napa and Sonoma with Jonathan, my husband (boyfriend at the time). I LOVE PhotoPeach. I wish I'd discovered this site before now. I will definitely use PhotoPeach to make some "tease" videos to show at the beginning of my book study units. In terms of my students using this web 2.0 tool, I could see my 8th graders using it to create a photojournal of the photos they take on their trip to Washington and Williamsburg in the spring. As I blogged in a previous post, each student is assigned a theme or topic of sorts, such as "justice" or "peace" or "independence"-and they have to take photos that reflect these ideas in some way. In the past, they've just stuck their photos on a piece of posterboard. Now they have another option for presenting their work: PhotoPeach. Love it.

Thing 15.5 Twitter

I don't know how I feel about Twitter.  I guess I never gave it a shot before now because I just thought it was for self-promoting, ego-maniacal celebrities (e.g., Rihanna and Chris Brown) who like to have petty Twitter battles back-and-forth.  I'm interested in its educational potential, however.  I don't think, realistically, I will every really use Twitter in my classroom or with my students, simply because my school discourages social media communication with students and their parents for privacy and safety reasons.  I can't "friend" them on Facebook, so I'm pretty sure tweeting them is out too.  That said, hypothetically speaking, if I ever could use Twitter within my school community, I would probably tweet my students reminders about upcoming quizzes and tests.  I'd also tweet with my students' tutors.  Many of my students seek outside tutoring, and rather than email back and forth with a bunch of tutors, I could tweet them messages about the homework I've assigned, information on quizzes and tests, etc.  I definitely see Twitter's potential in terms of my own growth as a teacher.  I love checking out educational tips and articles tweeted by people I follow.  And I now have a quick and easy way to share articles that I find interesting as well! 

As for LinkedIn, I've joined.  My husband calls it "Facebook for professionals."  I guess I'm still trying to figure out how it benefits someone, if that person isn't looking to hire someone, or isn't actually looking to get a new job.  I'm doing neither, but it was good to sign up and finally see what it's all about. 

Thing 15: Things Like Skype

As I'm not someone who even enjoys talking on the phone, I'm probably not the best person to discuss the benefits of Skyping.  I'd much rather just text or email, but I suppose there are those people (Mom, best friend, sister) who'd much rather hear my voice than read my texts.  So, I use Skype for that.  Tonight I Skyped with my mom.  She was able to show me the new lamp that she bought for my new house (yay!), so that was fun.  My best friend has also decided to accept a job in Afghanistan (!!!!!!!!), so I'll be Skyping with her.  I also Skyped with Lesley Ayers.  We discussed some work for our courses, and she was able to help me figure out how to schedule when my blog posts would be posted, as my "Things" have been out of order. 

As for how Skype might be used in my classroom-again, unfortunately it comes down to the issue of how I communicate with my students.  As I've mentioned before, for security and safety my school discourages communication with students through social media sites, and I think Skype might be off-limits too.  In "50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom" I read about the idea of using Skype to communicate with authors of books that students read, and I LOVE that idea.  I wonder if my librarian can help coordinate that and make it happen.  I also like that Skype allows "conference" or group chats.  I could encourage my students to set up a group call so that they could easily communicate about projects that they're doing together.  Ideally, I'd love to set up a group video call to groups of students to offer them tutorials before tests. 

Thing 14: Podcasting and Bookmarking

Well, here's something I can get behind: Gov. Rick Perry's collaboration with Texas Education Agency to create Texas Education on iTunes U.  I love that iTunes U provides free resources for the classroom.  I looked around at the content available on the Texas iTunes U channel- and, while I think it's great for other subject areas, I didn't see much that I could use in my 6th grade or 8th grade English courses.  One video, however, stood out.  It's a McAuliffe MS E-Tutorial video on the literary element "plot."  I make a big production of teaching "plot" by doing an interactive lesson, comparing this literary element to a ride on a roller coaster.  My kids love it- but come test time, they don't always remember how the "rising action" is different from the "falling action," or the definition of "exposition."  I could use this video in different ways.  Since I already enjoy what I'm currently doing to teach "plot," I don't think I'd show this video in class.  But I could use it as part of a "flipped lesson"; my students could watch it at home, and we could talk about the different aspects of plot the next day in class.  I could also make it available to my students as a study tool, a video that they could watch to help them prepare for a short story or novel unit test.  The video's not perfect-and there's a loud cough about half-way through- but it gets the job done: It helps students visualize "plot" while giving explanations of the events in a story or novel. 

In terms of Bookmarking, I'm a huge, huge, huge fan of Pinterest.  I pin all the time- while sitting on the couch, watching TV...on my phone, as I'm standing in line at Starbucks.  When I was engaged, I pinned ideas for my wedding.  Now, I'm pinning home design ideas.  But I've also started pinning educational ideas, and I follow some teachers who have fantastic ideas about writing, literature, classroom organization, and the use of technology in the classroom.  Here are some of my educational boards: The Classroom, The Classroom: Grammar, The Classroom: 6th Grade Literature, The Classroom: 8th Grade Literature, The Classroom: Writing, and Teaching with Technology.  I'm not the most organized of people, so Bookmarking works great for me.  I love being able to click on one of my Pinterest boards and viola!- there are all my favorite ideas for me to see. 

Here are a few more thoughts on Pinterest: In the interest of copyright laws and ethics in general, with the exception of most of the educational pins (because they usually link back to the original poster), I try not to pin anything without giving credit to the source.  This is true of everything from photographs, interior design, wedding cakes, and wedding dresses.  I will go out of my way to search for the original source/creator and add that information, and I hope my fellow pinners do the same.  Another observation: I have been disappointed in  a few of my fellow teachers' unwillingness to give Pinterst a shot for its educational value/potential.  For example, I was recently excitedly talking about my educational boards with a fellow teacher, and her dismissive response was, "Pinterest?  Isn't that just for pinning home design and wedding dresses?"  And she followed that comment with, "You really shouldn't be signed onto Pinterest at work."  The implication was that when I was on my educational boards (and no, I do not pin images of curtains and paint colors between the hours of 8:00 and 3:30!), I wasn't doing my job.  I sent her the links to my educational boards, and she didn't respond, which made my kind of sad.  I have definitely improved my curricula and expanded my knowledge of instructional technology through the use of Pinterest.  People, don't knock it 'til you try it! 

Thing 12 & 13: Discovering and Using YouTube

You do know that J. Peterman is not just a character on Seinfeld, right?  I've been a huge fan of the J. Peterman Company for years.  Growing up, I'd search the mail for the catalogue-and while I never actually ordered anything, I spent hours reading the descriptions of every article of clothing featured in its pages.  To date, I've ordered only one thing from J. Peterman- a sweater for my husband.  But I still love reading the romantic little vignettes on each page.  But I digress.  How does J. Peterman relate to my classroom?  I go on Youtube often- for fun and also to find videos that I can use as teaching tools.  Well, I recently discovered a great YouTube video on how to use the J. Peterman catalogue to help students practice strengthening voice in their writing.  Brilliant!  I love this idea- and I'll definitely be checking out Dena's website: http://www.denaharrison.com/.

 

Here's some "food for thought"- a page from the J. Peterman Catalogue.

I've also created a few videos to use in my classroom.   I created the below video in MovieMaker to show parents at Open House.  It's a little preview of what the 6th graders will experience in my English Workshop course this year.  I enjoyed making it- and I hope that other teachers who find it on YouTube will be inspired by it as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thing 11: Web 2.0 Tools

When I went to the link for the Web 2.0 Awards, I couldn't actually see the list of awards.  Browsing around on other people's blogs, though, I found Popplet.  I could definitely see a use for this Web 2.0 tool in my classroom.  I just wrapped up a Nonfiction Reading Strategies unit with my 6th graders.  One thing we covered was the use of graphic organizers.  My students practiced using webs to organize their ideas- and Popplet would have been great for them to use to make their webs.  My students are also doing group presentations in which each group must present the main ideas of a particular section of a nonfiction book.  I showed them Prezi, and I gave them the option of using Prezi or PowerPoint for the visual component of the project.  Wish I'd known about Popplet!  Next year, I'll include it as a presentation tool option. 

I also checked out Go Animate.  This is a fun site, but it might be stretching it to find educational uses for my classroom.  My students might be able to create videos to use, but I do think that this site has more entertainment value than it does academic value.  I signed up for a free account, and was able to create a little animation.  It appears that I can't save her without actually purchasing "GoBucks"-and I am not going to do that, nor would I want my students to do that.  Here's my Go Animate girl.  What should I name her?

I enjoyed checking out StoryJumper, and I definitely see how I could use it in my 6th grade class.  My students write short stories throughout the year, and this would be a great tool to bring those stories to life.  I also like what the website had to say about the Classroom Edition. The Classroom Edition is designed to...

• give teachers an interface to manage and review students' work.
• enable kids to share stories between the classroom and home.
• maintain strict privacy controls over student information.
• enable educational discounts when ordering books.

In particular, I love that StoryJumper makes it easy for kids to share their work with their parents, and I believe that my students would be proud of the work they'd created through StoryJumper and would be excited to share their work with others.   I like the stories can be shared online or printed as hard copies. I know the parents of my students would love to order their children's stories as books.

I can also envision my students using StoryJumper as a collaborative tool.  My 6th grade students "buddy up" with the kindergartners at my school.  We do fun projects with them- but so far, none have been educational.  I recently sat on an airplane with a woman who described a similar buddy/mentoring system at the school at which she teaches.  She described older students collaborating with younger kids to write a simple story to help teach the younger students literary elements like plot, characterization, conflict, setting, to name a few.  I've been wanting to try this story activity with my students and their buddies for awhile, and now StoryJumper has made me more eager to give it a go.

 I'm also pleased to read about the privacy controls.  As my school gears up to become a 1:1 laptop community, and as we continue to integrate technology at a rapid rate, we are also stringent about students' safety and privacy online. 

Finally, though StoryJumper is clearly geared towards student-use, I could see ways that I could use it to teach.  I'm always looking for new ways to present information to my students.  I use PowerPoint, but I also use Prezi quite a bit too.  I could see myself using StoryJumper to create not necessarily a story- but a book of notes on a particular unit.  With interesting graphics, my students would be more inclined to pay attention to my presentation.