Tara’s Web 2.0 23 Things Blog

This Web 2.0 course has been the most valuable, practical, and applicable course I have ever taken in my post-graduate school studies.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the course, and while it did take time to complete some of the things, I found that I was enjoying the course layout, processes, procedures, and tasks.  I have so many new ideas to incorporate into my classroom this year that I am not sure where to start in sharing them, so I think this is a good blog post for me to put those ideas into writing to focus and organize my mind.  First of all, I like the idea that Google Reader has allowed me to have a constant professional development resource at my fingertips.  I have discovered several good ideas through this tool.  I already created a wiki for our entire English department prior to this course, but I feel as if the course has allowed me a deeper knowledge of the ways of the wiki, so I plan to create more for more detailed endeavors beyond the generalized one for our department.  I have also used YouTube before in the classroom, but again this course forced me to take a large expanse of time to just search what is there regarding what I can use and apply in my classroom.  It was so nice to have the time in the summer to find YouTube videos in advance and save them in an easy to retrieve location, which leads me to the value I have found in Delicious.  I love Delicious, and I definitely plan to share this site and its value within my department and with my students.  It is so user-friendly, and most of all, so wonderfully organized.  I have so many sites saved already into my Delicious account.  I also plan to use Flickr and Voice Thread with my students this year in order to allow them multiple forms of creating presentations.  I definitely want to incorporate blogging into my classroom.  I just need to decide the sequence, scope, and quantity of when/how I want to incorporate this.  I have thought about using blogging as a choice for students’ journals.  If they choose to write in response to these topics outside of the classroom, then they could incorporate their response into a blog also allowing other students to comment.  I need to explore exactly how well this would work regarding the students’ access to technology.  I have several students who are avid readers, but of course I also have those who are reluctant readers.  I plan to use both BookSeer and Library Thing in order to assist all students with reading choices and exploring the availability of books that fit their interests.  I also plan to incorporate several different assessment strategies involving the Web 2.0 tools.  I hope the use of these tools and the infusion of this technology will allow the 21st century student to respond to English language arts in a more comprehensive, life-applicable manner.

I will admit I have been skeptical of social networking in regard to its application to education.  I wrongfully assumed that Facebook and MySpace were the main components of social networking.  I did learn this past school year that both of the above, however, can be worthwhile in education when my teacher academy class taught a workshop session to our district’s teachers about the uses of MySpace especially.  I was not aware until “Thing 22″ that there were so very many sites involving social networking for educators.  When I have taken workshops and graduate courses in the past, I have often found that the most valuable aspect of these courses was the networking and class discussion time with other educators.  Thus, social networking in education allows such discussions only with the added benefit of when it is convenient for each of us to do some regarding our own time.  I spent so much time exploring Classroom 2.0 that I have delayed writing this blog post for more than a week!  I did choose to join Classroom 2.0.  I plan to incorporate my membership in Classroom 2.0 to aid my students by applying the ideas and innovative strategies I learn about in my classroom.  I think being a member of Classroom 2.0 obviously assists in my professional development because I will be constantly learning new things and discussing ideas with other innovative educators.  I also explored the following Ning networks related to education:  Facebook: Teaching Critical Thinnking, NCTE Ning, which really excites me since this is for other English language arts teachers, Content Literacy–I thought I could assist other departments in our high school with incorporating content literacy strategies into their classroom from this wiki.  I also explored a site for special ed and gifted ed since I have all of these students in the regular ed classroom.  In addition, I explored Fireside Learning, which is simply for any topic related to learning in any way.  I thought the site Literacy in a Digital Classroom would also be interesting after taking this course.  Finally, I joined Instructional designers as a member because I have always been interested in instructional design along with curriculum and instruction.  The only other area in education I have ever really considered other than serving as a classroom teacher is having a position as a curriculum director.  I do, however, fear that I would miss my daily interaction with students in the classroom.  Overall, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed with the many uses for social networking in education.

After exploring Pageflakes, I do like the idea of using such a tool as a classroom news/info source.  I added a sticky note, notepad, CNN News, Quote of the Day, and my Delicious bookmarks as some of my flakes.  I can see the value of using Pageflakes in the classroom for students to see any new notes or updates, respond to the quote of the day, view content on the bookmarked sites, etc.  As I have said about other tools in this course, I can see the value of students using Pageflakes especially if they have missed class due to an absence for updates.  I think the notepad and sticky note flakes are good for posting homework, in class assignments, and classroom procedures for each day.  Of course the to do list, which I also added, is useful for upcoming tests or projects.  I feel as if this is definitely a tool, similar to the wiki, which I could feel increasingly comfortable with as I continue to “play” and add flakes.  My page is titled, “Tara’s Plethora of Flakes”.

Why I Like to Read…

I love to visit other places.
· I like to learn about people and enjoy books that develop the characters well.
· I escape into the story sometimes to avoid my current situation or work that has to be done.
· I find it relaxing.
· It is entertaining.
· I want to know what is happening in the news.
· I am lonely and a book is like being with a friend.
· I want to learn something new.
· It distracts me when I am worried about something.
· I am inspired by something I read that motivates me to do something new.
· I am bored.
· I want excitement without having to actually experience the risk, the danger, the sweat and the dirt.
· I want to learn what other people are thinking and feeling.
· Words have so much power when written.
· It is fun.
· I feel a connection with the characters or the author.
· I see things from a different perspective.
· It is a sequel to another book I’ve read and I don’t want the story to end.
· A book is portable and I can pretty much bring it anywhere.
· I can connect with other readers and we have something in common to talk about.
· I want to cook/bake something new and need a recipe.
· I can’t imagine a life without reading.

The above list is one developed by loonyhiker in “Why I Read” from my subscription Successful Teaching in my Google Reader.  While this article was short, it really made me reflect on my own reasons for enjoying reading.  The author also gave the suggestion of using this as a beginning list for students who ask the question, “Why should I read?”  I think I am going to include this list on both a classroom wiki and a Google Doc for my classes in order to allow students to add other reasons and note some sort of symbol beside existing reasons for enjoying reading.  I think these are ways I may be able to concurrently incorporate the themes of technology and reading for pleasure into my classroom this year.

I definitely want to incorporate Google Docs into my classroom this year as I also plan to incorporate Google Reader as well.  I created a document titled, “Ms. Colopy’s Bulldog Bulletin” Issue #1 as a Google Doc for the opening week of class/introduction to the course.  I inserted links to Web 2.0 sites/tools we will be using throughout the year as Web 2.0 resources will be a big change/addition to my classroom this coming year.  I also inserted a table for students to reference specific page #s and notes regarding major building level policies that are included in the student handbook.  I will add more details and information as I approach the beginning of the year, but this document gives me a framework for getting started with using Google Docs as a resource for my students to find information about the course.  I have three ideas for using Google Docs, spreadsheets, and presentations in my classroom:

1. Share Google Docs with students’ email accts and parents’ emails to consistently provide course information to students and parents.
2. Share Google presentations with students in order for them to review course content without having to make multiple copies of Power Point presentations, which could significantly save paper.  Students could also continually refer to the instructor’s notes in relation to the presentation after it is given.  This would be especially beneficial when students are absent in order to see the actual presentation, read instructor’s notes, and view at a convenient time for them.
3. Spreadsheets could be used for students to track their independent reading, such as we have done in this course with our “things”.  I also think the spreadsheet tool could be beneficial as a department chair in order to collaborate with other English teachers in my building and the middle school building to track titles of required readings for each grade level.  This could be edited/revised each year as changes occur.

I created my podcast by reading the poem “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” by my favorite poet, Miss Emily Dickinson.  After reading, I shared a brief summary and commentary of the poem.  I think podcasting is actually very simple when done in this mode as required for the course.  I have taken one podcasting workshop in which I was exposed to Audacity.  While it was a worthwhile workshop, I do feel that I would need more exposure to Audacity and incorporating the sounds, music, etc. into a podcast.  I think podcasting using the sound recorder, Zamzar, and Gcast would be useful for brief introductions to new content, providing audio accompaniment to poetry that is planned/perfected ahead of time, and I think it is accessible enough for students to create their own podcasts as well.  I think brief podcasts that are student-created could be used for nearly anything in the classroom from study resources to class projects.  I hope to incorporate podcasting into my classroom this year now that I have experienced it in two different modes.  In addition, I hope to expose myself more to GarageBand on my new MAC.  I think podcasting could essentially change the way teachers could deal with a planned absence from the classroom.  If I knew ahead of time I would miss a day for a personal or professional reason, I could create a podcast ahead of time, thus knowing that my students would be hearing my voice teaching them rather than a substitute merely giving them directions.  Podcasting is just another Web 2.0 tool with endless possibilities for the classroom.

I have used YouTube in my classroom, but I literally have spent a bit of time each day for the last week adding YouTube videos relating to the content I teach to my delicious account.  I have collected some very interesting, entertaining, and above all, educational videos for my students.  The video embedded above is a reading of the Emily Dickinson poem, “I Cannot Live Without You”.  I always warn my students that Emily “haunts” my classroom as she is painted on my wall, so when I found YouTube videos of Emily’s picture looking as if she is reading her own poems, I knew these were for my students.  I also enjoyed TeacherTube and the narrowed scope of resources for educational purposes.  Again, I added several to my delicious bookmarks.  In both YouTube and TeacherTube, I found many student-created projects relating to the content I teach.  In fact, “student-created” was typed several times into my “notes” section in delicious.  Since I know many of my students create videos and YouTube content, I plan to increasingly incorporate the production aspect and the creation aspect of YouTube and Teacher Tube into my classes this year and in the future.  Students generally enjoy recreating scenes from literature.  In addition, my artistic and musical students could incorporate their respective talents into their created videos.  I am excited to continue adding to my bookmark collection and provide student production activities/projects using YouTube and Teacher Tube.

Within the Grazr widget, I sampled the English/Reading section of the educational podcasts.  Within this area, I found “Grammar Girl’s Quick Tips” in which I found mini lessons on various grammatical topics to listen to, such as “I Will Possess Your Heart”, “Bestest Episode”, and “You Affect Me”.  I found each to be valuable in teaching possessives, positive/comparative/superlative, and usage issues.  All of the above are areas that I have found students to struggle with, and I think the podcast format of the lesson would be valuable for 21st century students.  I also listened to “Webster’s Word of the Day”, which I am considering to use as a daily “warm up” in the podcasting format for vocabulary acquisition.  I subscribed to “Who Said–a literature game delivered as a podcast”, “Shakespeare-upon-iPod”, and “podictionary weekly”.  In addition, I subscribed to the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in podcasting format.  I think the literature game will be useful and interactive, while podcasts can add a modern twist to teaching Shakespeare.  I have had many students over the years struggle with the dialect in Twain’s novel, so I know having this novel in a pocasting, audio format will be helpful for many.  I think the use of educational podcasts in the English language arts classroom are virtually endless.  I plan to continue exploring and subscribing to podcasts that complement my instruction and assist the educational needs of my students’ diverse learning styles.

I think Library Thing is extremely user-friendly and highly functional for my personal, collaborative, and professional use.  I like the idea of having a technology-based resource for my students to use for book recommendations for their personal reading or for assigned, independent reading choices in my classroom.  I have had so many students in the past who could have catalogued their reading, so now I have a tool to use this year and in the future in Library Thing.  I think students especially would enjoy the groups feature, as well as the discussions, reviews, and blogging features.  The “Suggester” feature is so simple for them and me as well.  Again, as I have said in previous posts, as a department chair for our building’s English department, I can see Library Thing as being a valuable tool for our department to collaborate our book collections, what we have certain grade levels read, and a site for our students to see what their teachers enjoy reading.  Since I love books, I loved learning about Library Thing.  I have a best friend who is a high school librarian, so I’m also excited to share this resource with him in addition to doing the “stretch” task of setting up my own Library Thing account.

I really enjoyed my exploration and tagging experiences in delicious.  I like the organizational structure and the way it provides multiple modes for organizing my bookmarks.  I think the tags will be very helpful as I begin searching for certain topics during the school year, especially if I do not remember all site names.  I can see delicious as being valuable in the classroom for students’ research and organization of their sources for research.  As an English department chair, I can see the value of delicious as being the central source for shared websites relating to our department’s practices and collaboration for ideas and methods.  Once I began searching and tagging, I established my delicious account with 12 bookmarks to use for my English classroom, and here they are…