Merry Christmas everyone! I can't believe it is here already. This year, I did most of my shopping online so I don't have to get out today, on Christmas Eve, and fight the crowds. I plan to mail some packages...I know they will be late, but I also know I will be forgiven for that...take some Christmas treats over to my friend Marlon, bake a cake for my hubby to take to work tomorrow (firefighters have to work on Christmas-bah!), and then go to my mother-in-law's for our family celebration. What a great day!
May each of you find the joy of the Christmas spirit enter your home this holiday season!
Grammar Grater
Grammar Grater is a weekly podcast produced by Luke Taylor and the Grammatis Personae Players from Minnesota Public Radio. The podcasts are fresh and lively, focusing on interesting topics related to grammar. The coolest thing about the applying them in the classroom is that the script is posted on the website for students to read along while listening. This allows lower ability readers to have that audio-visual connection. Thanks to Twitter friend skipz for the tweet about this great site!
Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts
December 24, 2008
December 17, 2008
Cooperating Through Twitter
This morning I was reading a few posts on Twitter and saw a couple of opportunities to help Twitter friends. This is not an uncommon occurrence. Often I will read Twitter posts that are requests on how to do a particular task in an application, what the best brand of (dvr, mini pc, wireless router, etc) is, or to shout out a hello to new Twitter users. It is great to have such a diverse community of friends to help with these types of questions.
Twitter can help with another type of request as well. This type allows for collaboration. This is the type of request I responded to this morning, and will always respond to if I have the opportunity, because it is such a valuable contribution.
One of the requests was made by cscribner, a Twitter friend and fellow Maize technology integration consultant. He and several students from his school are working on a VoiceThread about Christmas traditions around the world. His request was to add comments to the VoiceThread about how Christmas is celebrated in the poster's country. What a wonderful way to complete a global project in a short time. In the past, students (or the teacher) would have to write letters or emails. These two methods require efforts that are unnecessary today.
The other request was from mrmayo, another educator I follow on Twitter. His students created podcasts for book reports. He was asking for people to visit his blog, listen to the podcasts and comment. What an easy thing to do! Each podcast was under two minutes long, and picking a few of them I got the gist of the assignment. I listened and posted in under 10 minutes. Back when I was fifth grade teacher, I would have loved having my students receive feedback from people around the world. Unfortunately, back then I could only go down and bribe my coworkers with a day free of recess duty to respond.
So while I joined Twitter to learn new ideas and be a "requester of information" I am pleasantly surprised to see how I can contribute!
Mathway
Mathway is a site that shows step-by-step how to solve a math problem. The problem types range from basic to calculus. Students (and their parents helping with homework) can see the steps of the problem if they forgot how to do it once at home. Teachers can use the site to reinforce the steps of a problem or to show student an alternate way to solve. Graphs can even be created from the equations. Finally a glossary of terms is available for refreshing your memory of math vocabulary.
Twitter can help with another type of request as well. This type allows for collaboration. This is the type of request I responded to this morning, and will always respond to if I have the opportunity, because it is such a valuable contribution.
One of the requests was made by cscribner, a Twitter friend and fellow Maize technology integration consultant. He and several students from his school are working on a VoiceThread about Christmas traditions around the world. His request was to add comments to the VoiceThread about how Christmas is celebrated in the poster's country. What a wonderful way to complete a global project in a short time. In the past, students (or the teacher) would have to write letters or emails. These two methods require efforts that are unnecessary today.
The other request was from mrmayo, another educator I follow on Twitter. His students created podcasts for book reports. He was asking for people to visit his blog, listen to the podcasts and comment. What an easy thing to do! Each podcast was under two minutes long, and picking a few of them I got the gist of the assignment. I listened and posted in under 10 minutes. Back when I was fifth grade teacher, I would have loved having my students receive feedback from people around the world. Unfortunately, back then I could only go down and bribe my coworkers with a day free of recess duty to respond.
So while I joined Twitter to learn new ideas and be a "requester of information" I am pleasantly surprised to see how I can contribute!
Mathway
Mathway is a site that shows step-by-step how to solve a math problem. The problem types range from basic to calculus. Students (and their parents helping with homework) can see the steps of the problem if they forgot how to do it once at home. Teachers can use the site to reinforce the steps of a problem or to show student an alternate way to solve. Graphs can even be created from the equations. Finally a glossary of terms is available for refreshing your memory of math vocabulary.
October 05, 2008
Links to Learning
Yesterday I learned many new things in a way I never thought I would. I learned by clicking links. I started out by reading a post in my BeTwittered window that caught my eye. The post was by smhamilton who wrote about looking for sites for a web 2.0 class she is teaching. I am also teaching a web 2.0 class beginning today. smhamilton had two links in her post, so I checked them out. The first one was for http://www.sitemark.com/, where I learned about organizing and sharing my bookmarks(see below), and the second was for http://gettingtrickywithwikis.wikispaces.com/. This wiki, by Levna Shearing, has many ideas for ways to spice up your wiki.
I was intrigued by a link for another post by the author called Cogs for Blogs. I clicked that link and learned, among other things, how to add an "Email Me" link to my blog. Check it out to the right! I also clicked another link and found out how to make cool new videos. Read all about it below.
Thanks to a Twitter friend and a few link-clicks, I have learned some cool new things. Oh, and by the way, thanks to many Twitter friends, I learn stuff this way all the time! Now, click the links below to learn something too!
Sitemark
http://www.sitemark.com/ is a social bookmarking website that allows you to save, organize and share your bookmarks. Cool to me because bookmarks are in a thumbnail format. Great for visual people such as myself.
Viddix
http://www.viddix.com/ is a new video platform that allows users to add all kinds of webcontent to their video timeline. Check out the tour for more information.
I was intrigued by a link for another post by the author called Cogs for Blogs. I clicked that link and learned, among other things, how to add an "Email Me" link to my blog. Check it out to the right! I also clicked another link and found out how to make cool new videos. Read all about it below.
Thanks to a Twitter friend and a few link-clicks, I have learned some cool new things. Oh, and by the way, thanks to many Twitter friends, I learn stuff this way all the time! Now, click the links below to learn something too!
Sitemark
http://www.sitemark.com/ is a social bookmarking website that allows you to save, organize and share your bookmarks. Cool to me because bookmarks are in a thumbnail format. Great for visual people such as myself.
Viddix
http://www.viddix.com/ is a new video platform that allows users to add all kinds of webcontent to their video timeline. Check out the tour for more information.
September 18, 2008
What I Have Learned So Far
Wow! I didn't think that my wallflower post would get ANY comments, and I got five. Who'da thunk? I didn't write it for the responses, but I am so grateful for them. I got valuable advice from each one, and such encouragement that validates what I am doing. Now I am just craving more advice and tidbits!
Two years ago I attended the Laptop Institute held at Lausanne Collegiate School in Memphis. The keynote speaker was David Warlick. It was so awesome to hear him speak in his keynote address, and even more thrilling that he led a couple of smaller sessions. That summer was really my induction to the blogging world...the world of web 2.0, really.
From that conference, I have gained confidence in trying out new tools and sharing them with others. It took a couple years, but I finally figured out that I could use the tools to share them! Since that first experience at the Laptop Institute, I have sought out great bloggers. I learn new things every day from the many posts I read. Thank you all for helping me learn!
More blogs I read:
WNY Education Associates Blog
I have been following Angela Stockman for a few months on Twitter. She is the director of WNY Education Associates, a group that specializes in literacy coaching, writer's studios, and professional development.
ITLC
Integrating Technology in Teaching and Learning is a blog by Skip Zalneraitis, an English teacher from New Hampshire. He found me or I found him on Twitter a few months ago. I love his wake up tweet every morning, but love more the practical ideas and resources he shares in his blog.
The Connected Classroom
This blog is intended to capture the thoughts of an emerging edu-blogger committed to creating constructivist learning experiences for students. Authored by Kristin Hokanson, a "Teachnology" teacher and Classrooms for the Future Coach in PA.
Two years ago I attended the Laptop Institute held at Lausanne Collegiate School in Memphis. The keynote speaker was David Warlick. It was so awesome to hear him speak in his keynote address, and even more thrilling that he led a couple of smaller sessions. That summer was really my induction to the blogging world...the world of web 2.0, really.
From that conference, I have gained confidence in trying out new tools and sharing them with others. It took a couple years, but I finally figured out that I could use the tools to share them! Since that first experience at the Laptop Institute, I have sought out great bloggers. I learn new things every day from the many posts I read. Thank you all for helping me learn!
More blogs I read:
WNY Education Associates Blog
I have been following Angela Stockman for a few months on Twitter. She is the director of WNY Education Associates, a group that specializes in literacy coaching, writer's studios, and professional development.
ITLC
Integrating Technology in Teaching and Learning is a blog by Skip Zalneraitis, an English teacher from New Hampshire. He found me or I found him on Twitter a few months ago. I love his wake up tweet every morning, but love more the practical ideas and resources he shares in his blog.
The Connected Classroom
This blog is intended to capture the thoughts of an emerging edu-blogger committed to creating constructivist learning experiences for students. Authored by Kristin Hokanson, a "Teachnology" teacher and Classrooms for the Future Coach in PA.
August 21, 2008
Hello, My Name is Marcia
and I am a Tweetaholic. There! I have finally taken the first step in admitting it! I know exactly when my downfall with Twitter began. It was a sunny day and I was just sitting on a bar stool visiting http://www.twitter.com/. Nevermind that the barstool was at my breakfast bar in my kitchen. One of the tweets mentioned a gadget called BeTwittered that could be added to my homepage. I cannot blame anyone but myself! I should have never gone in search of that gadget, never should have tasted it's sweetness. But I did, and fell HARD!
I am not bitter. I am happily woozy on getting my daily twitter fix in the privacy of my igoogle page. I am not a loud or obnoxious twitterer; most of the time, I am content with sitting back and following the conversations of some of my best tweets!
Speaking of best tweets (a best tweet is like a best friend, twitter-style!) there are two that I adore, even tho they have no idea who I am! I visit their sites regularly to get great ideas to share with staff. The blogs are The Cool Cat Teacher Blog and Angela Maiers. Another best tweet is skipz. He brings interesting sites and articles to BeTwittered, and I enjoy his trademark "Good morning, Twitterati" with the current weather report in VT.
I really appreciate all of my best tweets and all my other Twitter friends for providing me with sites to share with my staff. Twitterers are the best!!
Oh, by the way, my Twitter name is MarciaHersh. Maybe we can become best tweets too!
Mathtrain.com with Mr. Marcos
A sixth grade teacher put together a wonderful site of math lessons, called Mathtrain.TV, presented by his 6th grade students. There are links to other teachers' sites, as well as a few games. I have had trouble going straight to Mathtrain.TV, but you can access Mr. Marcos' site at http://www.mathtrain.com/.
I am not bitter. I am happily woozy on getting my daily twitter fix in the privacy of my igoogle page. I am not a loud or obnoxious twitterer; most of the time, I am content with sitting back and following the conversations of some of my best tweets!
Speaking of best tweets (a best tweet is like a best friend, twitter-style!) there are two that I adore, even tho they have no idea who I am! I visit their sites regularly to get great ideas to share with staff. The blogs are The Cool Cat Teacher Blog and Angela Maiers. Another best tweet is skipz. He brings interesting sites and articles to BeTwittered, and I enjoy his trademark "Good morning, Twitterati" with the current weather report in VT.
I really appreciate all of my best tweets and all my other Twitter friends for providing me with sites to share with my staff. Twitterers are the best!!
Oh, by the way, my Twitter name is MarciaHersh. Maybe we can become best tweets too!
Mathtrain.com with Mr. Marcos
A sixth grade teacher put together a wonderful site of math lessons, called Mathtrain.TV, presented by his 6th grade students. There are links to other teachers' sites, as well as a few games. I have had trouble going straight to Mathtrain.TV, but you can access Mr. Marcos' site at http://www.mathtrain.com/.
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