Check out MySchoolOg!!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
BP15_2009123_MySchoolOg
MySchoolOg is a great website for students! It helps them get organized (which many of them need help with). A student can upload their schedule and view times and classes day by day. They can also put their homework, appointments, to do list, anything that they feel is important that they need a reminder for. They can choose to get a reminder via email or just export the list into another file. A really cool feature on here is that a student may save their lesson notes and format them however they want. Their notes can even be shared if they wish to do so. If a student is absent they can easily get notes from another classmate by just sharing. This saves so much time and paper! There is a feature on MySchoolOg where you can save and calculate your grades. It calculates your average for you and even makes success charts! There is also a place to store files, images, and audio files.
This would be a great tool to use in my classroom to keep my students organized. I teach middle school, and one of the hardest concepts to teach my students in organization. Looking into their backpacks is a nightmare! There are usually papers and notes crammed in there. Using a tool like MySchoolOg would lessen all the papers and help them keep more organized and on top of their homework and important dates. All of their notes would be stored electronically in a nice organized fashion. This Web 2.0 tool is every teacher's dream for his/her students!
Monday, December 14, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
BP13_2009123_ClassTools
ClassTools lets you create games, activities, and diagrams for free for your students. It is very easy to use and teachers can embed the games that they create into their websites or blogs. Games can be saved onto the websites server so that others may use it and you may also access other's work.
I was looking at all the math games that are on the website. Anytime that you can make math fun and interactive with students I feel is a huge plus! There are lots of really fun games that I would definitely be able to use with my students.
When creating games there are many templates that you may use. If you do not understand how to use any of them, there are samples that go along with the templates. I am very excited to begin using these templates to start creating my own games for my students.
As with any other Web 2.0 tool, any method of getting students involved and active is a great way for them to learn. I am always looking for new ways to get my students motivated to learn. These games also reach out to students with all different types of learning styles.
BP12_2009123_ExamBuilder2
Every teacher loves anything that will make their jobs easier! I found a Web 2.0 tool called Exam Builder. It does exactly what the name says...builds exams! You can use the exams you have on your browser and publish it. It is very user friendly. You can have your students take it online and the site provides information on the exam like how your students did as a whole. You can import your students into the program and group them however you would like. There are four group categories: classes, department, region, and vendor. This is a Web 2.0 tool that can help keep you organized and is an effective way of recording and keeping track of how your students are doing and how well they did on any exam.
I feel that the less paper that you use the easier and more efficient you can be as a teacher. This tool helps you focus on what your students need more work on. It shows you what questions most got wrong so you know that this is something you may need to re-teach and focus on. Instead of focusing on what is not necessary, you can save time and zero in on what the students need help with. Since I am a math teacher, this is important because every concept in math builds on the previous. If students need help with a concept it is important to go back and re-teach.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
BP9_2009122_Voki
Voki is a fun Web 2.0 tool that I discovered in my last class. Instead of speaking, students can create an image and type what they would like this image to say. This would help the shy students speak up. The Vokis are very easy to make and you can create any image from an animal to an imaginary image to a person. You can change the way they look or dress or speak. This would be a good tool to add onto another presentation. You can add your Voki to other websites, send it to other people and do fun creative things with it. It is a sure tool to get your students engaged and is also free to sign up for.
When researching Vokis, I learned that they could be used to help ESL students. They can use the avatars to practice and listen to their own speech. They can use the computerized voice at first and then record their own voices and practice pronunciation and reading and writing. This is a fun way for students to learn English. Many are embarrassed to talk at all because of their accents. They can use their Vokis to express themselves.
Teachers can use Vokis also to teach online classes or to teach a lesson in their own class. This is a way to change the classroom lesson instead of constantly having their students listening to them lecture. It grabs students' attention just because it is something different and non-traditional being done in the classroom.
BP8_2009122_OneTrueMedia
A Web 2.0 Tool that I found was One True Media. It lets you upload pictures into a slide show and you can add fun music to it. It is very user friendly and lets students show their artistic and creative side. As a math teacher I am always trying to find different ways to spice up my lessons. This is a great way for me to make fun math videos and even have the students do their projects through. You can download pictures on One True Media from your computer or from your Flickr account.
This type of tool reaches out to different types of learning styles and get students actively involved. I think that the best way students learn sometimes is from each other. I would use One True Media in my class room by having the students work in groups of three or four and picking a topic in a chapter that I had taught. I would use this as a review. I would then have the students make a presentation with music and pictures to review their topic and then present it to the rest of the class. Students can do presentations and actively get involved in the lessons that they are teaching themselves.
Teaching the review themselves will give them a sense of ownership in what they created and will help them teach the other students in a way that you as a teacher may have not thought of. In the lesson they will not only learn how to use the tool but will learn how to collaborate and work with others.
BP7_2009122_FlickrLesson
Flickr can be used in the classroom by creating a class account just for school. This way you as an educator can have access to your student's accounts and you can keep their work private so parent do not have to worry about their pictures being all over the internet. When researching lessons that a teacher can use for flickr I found one on researching the Propaganda used during the Russian Revolution and looking at the colors and slogans they used to convey a message. They used an example of how a group of students wrote about how the Bolshevik workers work strong and good looking and the capitalists looked fat and lazy. They could use lots of pictures to get this message across. Students can have so much fun with this Web 2.0 tool and still learn at the same time! (http://www.teachersnetwork.org/NTNY/nychelp/technology/flickr.htm)As a math teacher, I would use flickr when teaching a lesson on symmetry. There are a lot of images in nature and everywhere around us that convey symmetry. I would have my students research this and look for pictures on the internet and actually take pictures with their own cameras. They would then present their collage of pictures to the class and show what they found in real life and in nature that displayed symmetry. I've found that students appreciate lessons more when they can make some kind of connection to real life. Finding the connection between symmetry and real life and having fun while doing it is a great way for them to learn!
Friday, December 4, 2009
BP5_2009121_SocialBookmarking
Social bookmarking is used for sharing resources and research with other peers. It is a great way for collaborating with others. As a teacher, if you have students who are doing a group project you can subscribe to their rss feed to make sure they are headed in the right direction with their research. Teachers can also share research to help out students. As is written in Teaching Hacks website (http://www.teachinghacks.com), most of the social bookmarking services are free and is a great way of organizing some of the web sites.
Besides Delicious, some of the other social bookmarking websites I found were Mixx and StumbleUpon. Mixx is user-driven and helps users submit or find content by peers based on interest and location. It consists of social networking, bookmarking and blogging. It has a Mixx Community where you can join groups like Women's Things, Recipes for everyone, Food and Travel, and so on. The other tabs are popular, news, business, entertainment, sports, life, health, tech, science, and fun. There is basically something for everyone on Mixx. (www.mixx.com)
StumbeUpon helps you to share and discover websites. You click on Stumble! and the site delivers pages to match your personal preferences. Then it shares the site with people who have the same interests as you. This is also a great way to meet others who share the same interests as you. The initial home page asks you what interests you and then it matches sites with your interests. (www.stumbleupon.com)
Thursday, December 3, 2009
BP2_2009121_RSSFeeds
The sites that I subscribed to have to do with Math and Literacy in the classroom. My Action Research Project is focusing on how to incorporate literacy more into math. The sites were Math Literacy Lesson Plans Reviewed by Teachers, Content Area Literacy: Beyond the Language Arts Classroom, Increasing Math Literacy through Innovative Programs, Literacy in Math Class, and Math & Literacy Connections that Help Kids. I feel these sites will help me with my AR project and give me a lot of useful information that I can use.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
BP6_2009121_AntiTeaching
One of the largest problems that teachers deal with is trying to find a way to convince students that their education is important and why they need to learn. Society has convinced many students that they just are not cut out for school. What they do not understand, as Michael Wesch puts it, "We are all cut out for learning. It is what makes us human."
We as educators need to get our students to ask better questions. This will measure their true understanding of what is being taught. We want our students to be "lifelong learners rather than savvy test-takers." The idea of anti-teaching is to get students to learn concepts on their own. This is the best way that they can learn. Students need to recognize their importance in society and then they will understand the meaning and importance of receiving an education.
A personal learning environment puts a student in charge of his/her own learning. They can do research and use tools that best fit their learning style. This puts more responsibility on the student. I feel that giving a student more responsibility will help them value their education anymore. I think technology is important but I feel like it is not the only thing that is important in a student's education. Students need to know how to use the technology to help enhance their education.
The more we can incorporate technology into our students' education the more it will help students with different learning styles learn. I try to use technology as much as I can when I teach my lessons. I find that being a middle school teacher, using technology helps to keep my students engaged in my lesson. I am going to use Google Documents to have my students write their journal entries for math as a part of my Action Research Project. This will give them instant feedback because I will be able to embed comments into their journals after their share them with me.
Technology can be very helpful in education but it needs to be used correctly and in a way that is beneficial to both the student and the teacher.
BP4_2009121_Youtego
The Web 2.0 tool that I discovered was Youtego. The concept of Youtego is to "recognize yourself to recognize the world around you." You create Tegosets and Tego-s that symbolize your emotions and you as a person. Each person is unique and has their own set of Tegos. Youtego matches you up with people who have the same qualities and interests as you. This is a great social network for people to meet other people and make friends and find other professionals to collaborate with.
When you set up your TegoSet you fill out 6 different boxes. The first one is your gender and date of birth. The second is I Know, the third is I Can, then I Love, then My Work, and last is my education. So you can see how each person would have a unique TegoSet.
This Web 2.0 tool is a great way for students to express themselves. It reaches out to different types of learners, especially the ones who are more expressive through art forms. This tool allows students to show their creative side. It is a chance for students to show what they know, what they strive to know, and who they are.
I would use Youtego at the beginning of the school year. Having everyone create their own TegoSet is a great way to break the ice and have the students get to know one another. As a teacher, you can identify the different types of personalities right away. This helps forming groups and putting the students together with those they would benefit the most from.
I feel that for me, it is a great way to get to know my students better. I teach middle school, so I feel it is more about the students figuring out who they are as a person than anything else. This Web 2.0 tool helps them express that.
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