All in all I'd have to say that this process has been fairly innocuous. I am happy with the site and have found it to be convenient on several fronts. Instead of putting my information up on the board I now pull up the Wiki and have it on the overhead. All the information is there and they will see it again on their home computer if they chose to access the site from home. They seem to like the word Wiki, it is kinda catchy. I end all my classes now with check the wiki!!!! Tomorrow I have a test and if a student doesn't do well I can say, "Why didn't you check the Wiki?". I can conveniently put reminders on the Wiki as well. I want them to do Teenbiz at home but of course I am not home with them but I can post it in large font on the Wiki and there I am in their home saying loudly, "Do Teenbiz!!", cool. I have figured out how to lock the home page so that students cannot edit it, nice. I had a student erase some information last week and I was able to bust him by looking at the updates tab to see he had deleted a lot of info but now I have the page locked, so yeah, that won't happen again. I don't have any questions yet but I am about to expand the use of the wiki as I start a power point project and I want to post information and possibly a page dedicated to ideas.
So far so good, I'm lovin' technology!
Ruthie
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
resources and information needed for Game Plan!
As previously posted, my wiki site for the classroom is up and running. This morning I had four students who joined the site. I have 190 students but only 65 have an email address that they need to register with on the site. I went over the classwiki yesterday with all my classes and will continue to strongly encourage them to join the site.
Insofar as resources and information needed for this stage of the game I am relying on critical thinking. A wiki site is like an undersea shipwreck. You have to poke your head in a lot of places before you find something that you want. I saw a lot of gadgets I could put on the page but do I want them...for now I am satisfied with how it looks.
The second element of the game plan involves connecting with other educators via the internet to garner creative ideas. I have googled teacher blogs and have explored many interesting blogs. I need to narrow it down to technology blogs however. This is quite an interesting road to be on. The resources I garner are from each blog. As I see who has subscribed to certain blogs I explore their blogs. The maze has funny, sad and informative stops. I need to focus on technology as this endeavor can really eat up the time.
Ruth
Insofar as resources and information needed for this stage of the game I am relying on critical thinking. A wiki site is like an undersea shipwreck. You have to poke your head in a lot of places before you find something that you want. I saw a lot of gadgets I could put on the page but do I want them...for now I am satisfied with how it looks.
The second element of the game plan involves connecting with other educators via the internet to garner creative ideas. I have googled teacher blogs and have explored many interesting blogs. I need to narrow it down to technology blogs however. This is quite an interesting road to be on. The resources I garner are from each blog. As I see who has subscribed to certain blogs I explore their blogs. The maze has funny, sad and informative stops. I need to focus on technology as this endeavor can really eat up the time.
Ruth
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Up and Kinda Running
My taking action this week was demonstrated by creating a class blog and class wiki. At first I wanted to just post information to give the students a chance to look at their vocabulary words for the week in another place instead of just on the board. Many students say that they did not see the words despite the words being on the board all week. I figured that I could post them on-line and then the students' ability to excuse away their laziness would at the very least be diminished. Hence, the blog was created. I fooled around with it some and then thought it would be neat if the students could post things on the site and wikis are much better for this so I created a wiki. I made a page for each period. I start my classes off by asking the students if they have used their vocabulary words outside of the classroom and now I can have them post their use of the words on their class page instead.
Today I had the bulk of them write down their email addresses for me so I could invite them onto the class wiki. I am excited to see how this is going to work. My class wiki can be found at www.crawfordclass.wetpaint.com
I think this is going to be one of those things that will take on a life of its own.
Ruthie
Today I had the bulk of them write down their email addresses for me so I could invite them onto the class wiki. I am excited to see how this is going to work. My class wiki can be found at www.crawfordclass.wetpaint.com
I think this is going to be one of those things that will take on a life of its own.
Ruthie
Friday, March 12, 2010
Monitor and Evaluate
In considering how I may monitor and evaluate my two goals, the first endeavor of a class blog would be an on-going monitoring and maybe evaluating after a period of time to see if students are utilizing it in a effective manner. My second goal would be monitored according to how many pertinent blogs I can garner. The evaluation comes in with going forward with the blogs I have found or looking for new blogs. I would take a step back and look at the information I have gleaned and how useful it is. This monitoring and evaluating rounds out my GAME PLAN.
Ruth
Ruth
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Game Plan for strenthening confidence with teaching technology
The National Educational Technology Standards and Performance Indicators for Teachers list 20 areas that effective teachers need to be able to model and apply. Some of the standards and indicators I presently use and others need some practice and polishing. Two indicators that I would like to strengthen my confidence in are 3.c. – Model Digital-Age Work and Learning, communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats and 5.a. – Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership, participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning.
With regards to the first standard, my Goal is to create a classroom wiki. I have created one in a previous course at Walden but have not pursued it further. I remember that the process was a bit daunting at first but towards the end of the course the process flowed easier. I admit to being nervous at the prospect. I would love to use the wiki at a place to store curriculum updates, share information with the students, and have them share information with me. The Action I need to take is to create the wiki. I will re-visit the course where I made the wiki to look for notes I took regarding the process. There are websites that host wikis and I remember liking wet paint so I will most likely go with that one. I do not anticipate this being painless.
The second standard involves participating in global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning. My Goal is to subscribe to some teacher blogs that pertain to technology. I will start my quest at google. It will take some time to pinpoint some blogs that have good, creative ideas but it will be time well spent. I am a high school teacher and my subject is reading and research so that will narrow my search some. I believe that being creative is a pursuit that should be modeled daily by teachers so it is my goal to find teachers that are creative and look for new ideas to use in my classroom with regards to technology.
With regards to the first standard, my Goal is to create a classroom wiki. I have created one in a previous course at Walden but have not pursued it further. I remember that the process was a bit daunting at first but towards the end of the course the process flowed easier. I admit to being nervous at the prospect. I would love to use the wiki at a place to store curriculum updates, share information with the students, and have them share information with me. The Action I need to take is to create the wiki. I will re-visit the course where I made the wiki to look for notes I took regarding the process. There are websites that host wikis and I remember liking wet paint so I will most likely go with that one. I do not anticipate this being painless.
The second standard involves participating in global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning. My Goal is to subscribe to some teacher blogs that pertain to technology. I will start my quest at google. It will take some time to pinpoint some blogs that have good, creative ideas but it will be time well spent. I am a high school teacher and my subject is reading and research so that will narrow my search some. I believe that being creative is a pursuit that should be modeled daily by teachers so it is my goal to find teachers that are creative and look for new ideas to use in my classroom with regards to technology.
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