My Journey into the World of Elementary Tech

The Sites

Plurk, Twitter, Jott, Remember the Milk, Ning-15 of them, Curriki, Diigo, Delicious, Evernote, FlauntR, Flickr, Jing, Read the Words, Photobucket, Mnemograph, Only 2 Clicks, Bubbleshare, Pageflakes, Tumblr, Slide Share, Songza, Shelfari, Letterpop, Roxer, Route 21, Mixbook, Skitch, Evoca…. These are just some of the sites that I’ve joined during the past nine months. Out of these 27 sites I only use four of them on a daily basis-Plurk, Only 2 Clicks, Diigo and Elementary Tech Teacher Ning. My use of Diigo is mainly bookmarking sites and not using all their other features. And there’s five or six that I’ve never used. I’m positive I’m not alone in joining these sites and then not using them consistently or totally forgetting that I ever signed up in the first place!

The Problem

I did a Plurk Poll today and asked my fellow Plurkers: How many Nings do you belong to and how many do you stay actively involved with on a somewhat regular basis? People responded that they belonged to anywhere from 2-8 different nings. Only one person was active with half of them. Most were active in only a small fraction of the sites. I didn’t ask about other web2.0 sites but I’m just guessing the level of participation would be similar.

I’m trying to figure out why I jump on the bandwagon so quickly to join new sites and then don’t follow through. I find sites through recommendations on Plurk, Twitter or blogs in my reader. Often when I check the site out it looks good, it’s free and everyone is talking about it so I sign up! Here’s a few reasons why I think I lack the follow through:

It’s not a site that I need at the time so I sign up and then forget all about it.

A site such as a Ning looks good and it pertains to what I’m teaching so I sign up. Then as I do check back I realize there’s little or no activity so I quit going to the site.

Some Nings are very active and could be very useful but I just run out of time trying to check Plurk frequently, Twitter once a day, 4 email accounts and so on and so forth.

Some sites offer similar services such as photo sites or reminder services. Keeping track of one such site is enough for me!

Is There a Solution?

The next time a great new service is linked on Plurk what should I do? Well I think I should check it out carefully and ask myself some questions:

Do I really have a need for the site?

Do I already subscribe to a site that offers a similar service? Does this one look that much better that i need to try it out and possibly switch?

How do I think I’ll use the site at home or school?

How soon will I use it?

If I don’t think I really need it at the moment I can always just bookmark it or add it to my Only 2 Clicks page under Things to Check Out. Later when I want to check it out in more detail I can find it or I could just ask my PLN on Plurk. They’ll help me find that site and give me several other options to consider as well!

I’ll give this plan a try.

What About You?

Now I’m wondering, how do keep track of everything you join? I could use some help!

Filed under: Looking for Advice | Tagged: Diigo, Only 2 Clicks, participation, Plurk, web2.0 | 5 Comments »

I found out about this handy widget by Scholastic from a participant in Susan Silverman’s Online Autumn project. This widget allows you to search for a book by title, author, or keyword. Once you enter the information you are taken to the Scholastic site. Now you can see the reading level. The teacher can select how it is leveled; DRA, Lexile Format, Grade Equivalent, or Guided Reading. From the same page teachers can also find similar books at the same reading level. I think this will be a handy tool for elementary classroom teachers as well as parents.

Filed under: Language Arts | Tagged: Online Autumn, scholastic, Susan Silverman, widget | 1 Comment »

Here are some excerpts from a great book I’m reading; “Be patient with yourself…carefully plan your day…You have to be “on” for anything that comes your way. You have to work long hours, often feeling completely exhausted at the end of the day….You have to be extremely organized, and have lots of initiative and an interest in creativity…Being detail-oriented, flexible, and able to envision how something should be…good people skills…Don’t rely on luck or chance.”

Then recently as I took a leisurely walk along the barge canal to take photos of the flowers and birds these thoughts kept drifting through my mind: be prepared, be ready for the unexpected, approach things from a different perspective, be patient, observe carefully, and take chances.

You might think I’m reading a book preparing me for teaching. But no, one of my summer goals is to learn more about photography, I’m reading Digital Nature Photography. It struck me that as I’m learning tips for photography these same tips can be applied in the classroom. I guess that’s part of being a teacher; always seeing those connections between new learning and what you already know.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t very prepared on my walk; I forgot the mono-pod on the table, I wasn’t prepared for the unexpected; early morning clouds quickly changed to a sunny day-I didn’t have filters, and I didn’t think of bug spray, so every time I stopped in the shade I became lunch for many hungry mosquitoes. Because of my unpreparedness and playing with different camera settings I only have a few pictures to actually upload to Flickr. But that’s ok. As I tell my students no one is perfect and we can always learn from our mistakes. And just as every photo shoot won’t be perfect every lesson I teach won’t be perfect either. But if I head the advice given above in both situations and continue to learn from the mistakes I’ll continue to do better in both areas.

Book excerpts are from:

Miotke, Jim. The BetterPhoto Guide to Digital Nature Photography (Better Photo Guide to). london: Amphoto Books, 2006.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Digital Nature Photography, flickr | 4 Comments »

Over on Plurk some of us have been posting our three goals for the day. It seems to help us keep focused. Well, today I just had one big job-go through all my notes, cards, handouts, etc. from NECC and post the links and information I had gathered. I decided to post everything over on the Ning so if you’re interested in seeing what I found there check out the forum discussions. I put NECC Notes in the title. Now I feel like I can start focusing on some other things, like rest of my work and non work related goals.

Filed under: NECC08 | Tagged: NECC, Ning, Plurk | 1 Comment »

After posting my three PD goals I decided it was important as well to post some goals unrelated to work-gasp! And they don’t include housework or weeding either.

1. Continue to play with the macro lens and find a blog or book about digital photography to learn more about the different settings.

2. Read the latest John Grisham Book and the last Harry Potter book. I don’t read many books now that I’ve discovered blogs and spend so much time online.

3. Make a shirt for my husband.

What are your goals for the summer that are unrelated to work?

Filed under: Vacation | Tagged: goals | 5 Comments »

Awhile back Andrea over at EdTech Workshop tagged me for the PD Meme started by Clif Mims. I knew it would be easy since I already had my summer goals written down. The hard part has just been remembering to post them and tag 8 more people. My summer has begun and I have a long list of goals. So this exercise is a good one for me to zero in on what are the three most important goals for me to focus on this summer. Here they are:

1. Go to NECC with specific goals of what I want to learn.-Done and posted
2. Become familiar with podcasting and be ready to introduce it to students and staff in the fall. I know this is probably old news to everyone else but for our school it’s a brand new concept. Each school is receiving two Macs this fall I think this is going to make it easier especially since I can’t download audacity at school, although to be fair, I haven’t asked for it to be unblocked yet either.
3. I have an IWB in my labs with Smartboard Notebook. I won a grant recently and I get one SMARTboard for a classroom. I need to find ways to make the board truly interactive for the kids and to find good resources for the teachers. I have tons of resource sites. I need to take time this summer to look through and find the best ones to share with the two teachers that will be sharing the board. Our focus with the board will be social studies with a focus on DBQs.

Hmmm, it would have been easier to do eight goals and tag three people! But here goes.

Since I have limited time on the internet as I journey across the United States I’m not taking the time to see if you have already been tagged or not. If you have or if you’re not interested just pass it along.

Thanks.

Amber Coggin

Vicky S

Rick Glass

Meghan

Patti Hartju

Deb Renner Smith

Nadine Norris

Christina Troxell

Directions

Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, pick up a new hobby, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2008 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists.

The Rules

1. Pick 3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
2. For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/01/08).
3. Post the above directions along with your 3 goals on your blog.
4. Title your post Professional Development Meme and link back/trackback to http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/353.
5. Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme.
6. Tag 8 others to participate in the meme.
7. Achieve your goals and “develop professionally.”
8. Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.

Filed under: Uncategorized, newyear blog | Tagged: Andrea Henandez, Cliff Mims, pdmeme | 5 Comments »

Recently, Lee over at Geeky Momma’s Blog posted these questions regarding Twitter. I figured it was easier to answer them here than as a reply. I was sitting right across the room from Lee during this discussion. Here are most of Lee’s questions and my answers plus one additional question.

1. How do you choose who to follow? When someone wants to follow you, you get an email letting you know. Do you click through to see who they are? Or do you ignore it? I click through to see who they are. If they don’t share any information and are new I’ll send them a message suggesting that they share some information or people may not follow them. If they post that info I’ll follow them. If someone is following thousands of people I don’t follow them and often I block them. When someone new joins the Elementary Tech Teachers Ning and they list a Twitter name I look them up and follow them.
2. Jeff Utecht asked for a show of hands for everyone who ONLY followed other educators. Only a few people raised their hands. Raise YOUR hand if you only follow other educators. I was one of the people that raised my hand. I found out about Twitter at an educational conference and started following other educators. I don’t have any face to face friends that use it and I’m not sure how to find others.
3. Have you ever blocked someone? If someone is following thousands of people I don’t follow them and often I block them.
4. Have you ever received an email from someone asking why you are not following them or why you unfollowed them? How did you respond? How should you respond? No
5. Do you think there has been a natural evolution of etiquette on Twitter? Clearly Twitter was not intended for the “conversation” tool it has become, yet people are actively enjoying the networking benefits of using it that way. What etiquette has emerged and what do you think is still needed? I’ve been using Twitter since November and it took me quite awhile to get to a point where I started to find Twitter helpful. I don’t think I’ve used it enough to see an evolution in the etiquette.
6. Have you changed as an educator since using Twitter? Yes, I’ve expanded my RSS reader through reading posts I found through Twitter which is turn has made me more informed about issues around education. I’ve also learned about many new sites and tools that I can use in the classroom through Twitter.
7. Another question raised was “What do you think about people asking to say hello when they are introducing Twitter to someone?” I agreed with most of the people gathered there that this is fine and it’s even better when the person asks a question. Closely related to this is Twitterpolls, I don’t mind answering these and especially like it if the person does a blog post with the results.

Filed under: Twitter | Tagged: Jim Miotke, Twitter | No Comments »

This post is going to be a little different today. As I read blogs I often read about educators that are passionate about what they do and I hear that we need to help children find what they are passionate about to write about in their blogs. Well, I just finished traveling Route 66 from Tucumcari, NM to Mclean, IL. Along the way I met many people that are passionate about their jobs/hobbies and their desire to keep the spirit of Route 66 alive and well. I’d like to introduce you to a few of these people. Two of them are from MO. As I tweeted last week MO has the friendliest people I’ve ever met while traveling around the country. I don’t think these three people have met face to face but they are connected through phone calls and email and their love of Route 66.

Gary Turner

Ash Grove, MO

Gary has built a new gas station to look like an old one complete with old pumps and signs. An old truck even sits out front. He also has an old barn with tools and a refrigerator. As soon as we arrived he called us back to the barn and pulled cold Route 66 Route Beers out for us, no charge. He introduced us to a young couple from Austria that was traveling the Mother Road on Harleys. He told stories and asked questions and finally had us all come into his station. There he passed out bags with maps and brochures for places we’d be seeing along the way. And he told more stories. One thing you don’t want to be, while traveling this route, is in a hurry because everyone has stories to tell. Gary was the best ambassador of Route 66 we saw along the entire route. He has a dream to some day add a gift shop where he sells his own hats that are made in America and a place to serve snacks.

Marcia Wilson

Cuba, MO

As we wandered in and out of different shops we had seen Route 66 candy bars. When we drove into Cuba and saw the sign for the Route 66 Fudge Shop we guessed that’s where they were coming from and we were right. She had just finished making one of my favorite treats, chocolate covered strawberries. Even though she was busy trying to fill an order for 200 candy bars she took time to visit with us. She mentioned Gary Turner and said she has an order to make candy for him and plans on making a road trip to deliver it in person so she can meet him and see his place. She also told us about some must see stops coming up on our route. My husband had been looking at the Hawaiian shirts made from Route 66 material at various shops but being 6”6” he doesn’t fit in regular sizes. Marcia had a table cloth made out of the material so I asked where she got it and she gave me the address of a place online j and o fabrics where I could order it. So, when I get home I’ll be ordering some fabric and dusting off the sewing machine and brushing up on my sewing skills!

Henry

Henry’s Rabbit Ranch

Staunton, IL

Both Marcia and Gary had mentioned the Rabbit Ranch so we made sure we stopped by. As soon as we walked in we were asked to sign the guest book, I’m sure we signed at least two dozen of these on our trip. Then he asked which way were traveling, most people travel east to west, we were the rebels going west to east! He pulled out brochures and maps for us. He said he hates it when people come in that started in Chicago and get that far and no one has given them any materials yet and sure enough there was a couple in there that fit that description, they did not leave empty handed. Henry had recently lost his rabbit, Montana which loved to be handled and had been his official greeter. He has another rabbit that he hopes will take Montana’s place in the future. He also gave us a card for a yahoo group of Route 66 enthusiasts. I’m sure my husband will check that out.

I have to admit I wasn’t all that enthused about the trip, I was doing it because I got to go to NECC, that was my treat and the road trip was my husband’s treat. But the journey grew on me. After reading a recent post on starting conversations I knew that this trip would be a good way for me to work on this skill and by engaging in these conversations it did make the trip more memorable

Filed under: Technology, Uncategorized, Vacation | Tagged: route 66 | No Comments »

Well, NECC has come and gone so it’s time to reflect on how well I did meeting my goals.

1. I’m hoping to connect with other elementary tech teachers. As I wondered through the poster sessions I chatted with many presenters and handed out my card to quite a few of them and invited them to join the Ning. I had to explain what a ning is and also attempted to explain Twitter to quite a few people. Hopefully, some of the teachers will join us.
   
2. I’m looking for new meaningful projects to try in the lab. As I think back I don’t have any ideas that pop right out but I need time to look back at notes and ideas I picked up from all the sessions. I definitely want to look into iearn and find a way to do some collaboration with other schools. Digging through all the information won’t happen until I get home around the middle of the month.
3. I’m looking for some strategies to try and get teachers to try some web 2.0 tools and using tech more in general. Bud Hunt shared an outline and ideas on doing a Cyber Camp with teachers. I may try to adapt these ideas into a year long project with a group of teachers at my school.
4. Since I just won a grant for a Smartboard I’ll be looking for ways to use the board in a truly interactive way for teacher and student. I did attend one session on using the board that was helpful. I also picked up a card from a teacher that has a wiki full of links for the SMARTBoard so when I have time I’m sure I’ll be finding some good ideas.
5. I’m buying my first ipod this weekend. I’m calling it a school related expense. I want to learn how they work and while at NECC I’m hoping to learn about ways teachers are using them in the elementary classroom. I’m thinking that might be my next grant writing project. I didn’t find anything on this topic.
6. I’m just learning about Podcast. I want to learn more about how people are using them in a lab and classroom setting. I’ve gotten some good ideas from the Elementary Tech Teacher Ning and I hope to be able to add more ideas there. I attended one session on Podcasting but it was much more advanced. The elementary school actually has a broadcast studio and does a weekly show featuring a different class each week. It was a great looking project but a little advanced.
7. Another goal I didn’t list here was to be more outgoing. I did pretty good on this goal. I began many conversations and enjoyed meeting people from all over. I went into the Blogger’s Cafe and met some people as well. I introduced myself to Darren Draper since I had attended his OpenPD class, he then invited me to have a seat and join the discussion they’d be having regarding Twitter and blogs. I did and in doing so was able to put a face with many of the names of the people I follow on Twitter. It was an interesting experience.
   


Well, time to get back to vacation. I’ll be blogging more about my first NECC experience as time allows as I travel back to NY.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: iearn | 4 Comments »

Well, I made it here on time, actually we landed 20 minutes early. After reading Tweets on Friday of delayed flights, missed connections, lost luggage and hotel rooms given away I was a little nervous but all went well for me. I’m glad I brought a surge protector bar to plug in my gadgets. There aren’t many plugs in a historic hotel room and I had to search for one that had 3 holes to plug the adapter into. Something tells me that would not pass NYS standards! Two other striking differences between Texas and New York-no helmets on motorcyclists and people walking down a city street with a beer in their hand.

After I checked in I walked the two blocks to the convention center and checked in and picked up my volunteer t-shirt. After dropping the items back at the hotel I walked along the riverwalk enjoying the sights and sounds. I finally settled on Casa Rio for dinner. Despite a long line I waited less than five minutes for a table. I wasn’t sure if they felt sorry for me because I was eating alone or if it was because I was willing to sit inside. After dinner I walked again. I was a little nervous walking so close to the water’s edge after having a margarita, I was afraid I”d have a senior moment and forget to watch my step and fall right into the river!

This morning I was awake at 6, I’m hoping by the end of the summer I’ll figure out how to sleep later than that. I caught up on tweets and plurks and such things. Then I headed over to the convention center for my volunteer duty as a greeter. I was a little nervous, it wasn’t what I signed up for and I didn’t quite fit the description-I’m not from Texas, I’ve never been to NECC before and I’m not a very outgoing person. But I gave it my best shot. I ended up greeting people as they came in to register. It was fun and easy. I just had to smile and point them in the right direction. If I couldn’t answer their questions I sent them to another place where hopefully they could get the answers they were seeking. Towards the end of my shift a new person came on duty. I could tell right away she had done this before. She had her program guide with her turned to the map section and had already scoped out part of the hall so it was much easier for her to send people to the right place. So, when I go to NECC again I’ll remember to arrive earlier and do the same thing. Everyone was pleasant and it’s something I’d do again.

One of my goals is to be more outgoing and meet people. So far I’m doing good I’ve struck up a conversation with four different people.

I spent the afternoon walking around town until I had to come in to cool off! I’m looking forward to thee keynote speaker tonight and seeing the first poster sessions.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: NECC08 | 2 Comments »