Thing 10!!!!

Well as the summer begins today, I am thinking ahead to next year and uses many of the skills, programs, and ideas that I learned here throughout the whole year.  What a wonderful course, so thank you Polly.  I really can't wait to use many of the sites next year with my kids.

I thought about using PageFin to create an example for my fifth grade class next year, but I just couldn't decide on a project.  I tried it out and it seems to work easy enough for them to handle next year... or possibly my Young Scholars.

Instead I decide to concentrate on the professional realm and work on a portfolio in weebly which I hadn't had a chance to use until now.  It is working pretty well and I will be actively updating the weebly site over the next several weeks to get it looking good.  Then I hope to maintain and update it periodically so that it remains a good reference for myself with APPR.

http://msmooneysprofessionalportfolio.weebly.com/

Thanks again for wonderful experience!!

Thing 9 -- part 2

I recently learned of two blogs that post free ebooks, bargains, and deals of the day along with other apps and downloads that are available. One is Books on the Knob and the other is Pixel of Ink. Pixel of Ink is dedicated to Kindles only, but Books on the Knob covers other readers and music. I now subscribe to them and can keep up with many of the free choices that are offered around the web. My Kindle is filling up as fast as my real bookshelves have in the past thanks to these sites and others. I am always on the lookout for a source of free children's books to keep up with my reading for my library. As much as I love Overdrive, I don't always have the time to finish a book, even a kids book in the allotted time frame for a borrowed book.

I downloaded Subtext app and have played around a bit. It would be very interesting to have a class set of iPads and use this app to have all the kids reading the same book and making comments as they read and discuss things. I will file this away for summer use to play more and enjoy!

Thing 9 -- eBooks and eReaders

I love this topic and am so happy to see us taking a look at eReaders and all the resources that go along with them.  I have had a kindle for  a while and am quick to download a free book when I see it.  My to-be-read pile on the kindle is very long!  I recently added the kindle app to my ipad, but haven't had a chance to use it there yet. 

I have always been an audio book fan from way back to books on tape and then to cds.  I love having a audiobook on my ipod and now the ipad to always be with me when I need something.  I have always used the public library resources for audiobooks and now with Overdrive I can use our subscription for both audio files and ebooks.  It is so easy to find a book and downlaod it to whichever divice I choose.  I have just started introducing Overdrive to our students since so many have a device at home.  I was surprised at how many students have their own eReader and use it regularly!  With summer reading quickly approaching I have been encouraging my 4th and 5th graders to check out an eTitle through our library.  Many are excited to try it out. 

The link to  Joyce Valenza’s list of eBooks portals is just amazing!  I knew of several of these, but am amazed to find many of these links!  I am a sucker for free books!  I like some of the Amazon Prime features, but do not currently have the cash to buy this for myself.  I plan to try out the Subtext app on the ipad soon and will let you know how that goes.

Thing 8: Databases and search tools.

I took a look at the Gale site and created the following widget for the ebooks -- which seems to one of my current interesting things....




This widget searches all the ebooks that are available through Gale resources.  It is nice to have all of the ebooks and topics in one place.

I also had a chance to look through and think about creating a custom seach through Google.  That is nice when you are doing a certain topic such as a biography project or a research project on the American Revolution... to then have only certain websites searchable for the students that you pick and add.  I will try this next year during several of our research blocks.

I was also able to look and test out some searches on several of the search engines listed... instagrok (which I didn't get really good results with), Kidrex would definately be appealing for kids, and sweetsearch and sweetsearch4me.  The last two have a lot of text to scan which might be hard for younger students at first, but I did like the fact that the search term is highlighted in yellow.

Through BOCES I also got the preview two more database sites:

http://www.pkearthandspace.com http://www.pklifescience.com

Both are very nice for the younger students.  Lots good information and the way it is presented.  One thing I thought was lacking in the topics was natural resources.  Many of our teachers talk about them and especially with Earth Day and the going green movement it would be nice to be able to tie those topics all together.

Thing 7 - part 2

Was introduced to the site corkboard.me at a class last week and wanted to explore it further. Very interesting. If the corkboardme with specific URL is brought up on the smart board, and students had the specific URL open on their pcs then they could create a sticky note and add their comment to the mix and evyone would be able to see it instantaneously. Which is a really nice feature. The notes can change color, or be moved around the corkboard plus anyone can type on any of the sticky notes. A couple of ideas flash in my head for this... A get to know you kind of activity if a student starts a sticky then puts their name on it. Classmates could type something about that person or something want to know about them on that sticky.

You could do a reader response question in the center and each student could type their response on a new sticky note. You could have students type one word on a sticky and move them around like magnetic poetry. Lots of ingesting ideas float to mind here. Can't wait to try it out with a class or two.

Thing 7

I have been playing with Pinterest for a few days and really like it. It is supper handy to keep a visual picture of a source or website at your fingertips and create your own folders to share. I love the following others features to see what others are pinning. Not to mention that many website now have a pin it button which makes things really easy to keep track of online.

This is great for personal interests as well as professionally. It would be fun to have a "school" site and each class could add to their folder. Each kid could pick out a picture that represents him or herself and maybe some class activities they want to do or have done. You could make a Pinterest board on the smart board as a template and work that as a class project...

I do like Pinterest as a professional as well since there are so many different things on the Internet that I just don't see, this is a nice way to follow another professional and gain and share ideas. Plus everything is so visually appealing!

Thing 6 -- part 2

Was able to get back and use Dropbox as an app for the new IPad. I like the app right there on the pad. It is really handy. I uploaded a few pictures and could see how useful this might be in school. If I were to use this iPad as a camera or take a video, then I could upload the students work to Dropbox and move it anywhere, share it or post a link for parents to view the students work. A very interesting concept and very user friendly. I could see putting documents there as well to share with colleagues or to bring up things to share with the students. I could see putting student work here say if we created a class PowerPoint and sharing with home making a strong school home connection.

Thing 6 -- part 1

Was able to sign up for ittt.  What an interesting concept.  I added a few recipes to my account and am receiving emails that announce when new free kindle books are available.  It would be an interesting concept to teach older elem. students.  If you do this then this happens.  I like and can think of many ways that it might help me in my personal world... adding sites to bookmark pages or updating 3 things at once... saving pictures here to there automatically... not sure exactly how this would fit in with an elem student, but the concept would be an interesting one to look at.

I also read the article about the teacher who was using evernote as a portfoilio tools.  Very interesting concept and very cool having the kids in charge of theior portfolio.
Off to try dropbox.. . it is blocked at school, so I have to look at home and apply for an account.

Thing 5: Social Bookmarking & Curation Tools

I myself am not a fan of the social bookmark.  I wish I were and I would like to be instead of putting everything in my favorites, but I don't like the look of delicious or diigo.  I like the groups that you had set up and I would follow those, but I just don't have the time to create and manage this huge task for myself right now.  Maybe by the time I am ready, then there will be a tools I prefer more than these too...

Love the look of scoopIt.  I really like this site and the examples you posted.  Seeing our work up there was nice to have it shown with photos, animotos instead of just words is really eye catching.  I had just signed up for pinerest a few weeks ago.  Not sure that I like that it is linking to FB or Twitter, but I guess some sites have to be.  I like what other people have put together.  I am slow at getting things on there.  It is very visual and I think it might work well for a class project to have a kids name on a box and have them create what goes inside of it whether for a research project or class assignment.  I'll have to work on this ideas.  The kids would love it.

Paper.li is interesting.  I likes the article from Joyce V about using it with kids vs scoopit.  I read about flipit a few weeks ago and can't wait to have a device where I could download it to try it out.  It sounds like a great tool!

I can see using some of these with kids, but would love to hear other people's thoughts on how to incorporate these with elem. school children.

Thing 4: RSS

Well with the last online class I signed up for Google reader which I didn't like at all.  Not exactly sure why, maybe it was how things looked on the screen looking at it again today, I still don't like it very much.

So I signed in to igoogle which is lovely.  I like having the option of moving, adding, deleting whatever I wish.  Having my gmail on the screen along with the weather, google maps, a librarian news feed as well as any blog I also wanted to follow.  The lovely calming green tea house theme also makes me happy at this crazy time.  I found a list making app... oh how I love lists and this fits right in!  As nice as my stickie notes that go on my computer screen!

Not to mention the children's book pick of the day.  The list could be never ending!  I Could see having my personal igoogle at home to enjoy and my professional one here at work!  Very cool.

As far as how it could be used for school libraries.  I would love to see our district be able to have the ability to have the feed on our library pages linking to new books added to the system or if a special event was coming up say an author visit... information the parents might need to know like "get your book orders in by..." to make sure the order arrives be the author....

I also took at look at the cool tools netvibe site.  That is awesome as well.  I love that there are tabs up at the top to keep you organized (us by district/place) and having all the blogs listed to keep up on when people post next.  I like the look of netvibe and the readability as well.  I may use this site for home use, but maybe someone has already created one place for librarian to get ideas and keep them at the ready so I wouldn't have to create it from scratch.

Behind again with troubles...

It is vacation and I find myself behind once again with my assignments.  I have mental trouble and can't see past my own thoughts... I have a 5th grade project coming up and the teachers want us to research a state with an open mind.  The students will have to find information to share with the class in the form of a PSA.  The kids would search for information, pictures then write a script to record to go along with the pictures.  I was thinking that Voicethread might be the way to go with this, but as I was trying to do this, the pictures I downloaded from the copyright free sites once entered to voicethread are grainy and blurry at best.  Now where to find pictures that will work?

Next problem.... I can't remember how to invite or have the students each sign up for their own accounts....  I don't necessarily want them to be one one account with different identities unless they EACH can be working on their own project since this is an individual assignment.

I have looked for other ways to have the students create their PSA without downloading anything to the computers -- which we are not allowed to do....  I am stumped and hoping for some intervention.... I suppose I could use Windows Movie Maker and have them record their voices there since we have this on our computers.  But I taught MovieMaker to them as 4th graders last year and the 5th grade teachers wanted them to do "something new"....  I can't seem to find a place to import pictures, if we can find good pictures, that will also let the student record their voices...  Animoto with let you import the voice file, but how to I go about recording the voice and can students have their own animoto accounts?  Argh!

Thing 3: Online Communities

Well I was able to spend a little time last night looking at Twitter.  I joined and added a few people tyo follow.  I was able to do a little searching and find some interesting things, including a pinerest page with good ideas and a librarian templte page that different people had posted.  I like the idea of having ideas floating to you, but Twitter isn't something that I will keep up with too often.  I can see the benefit of having a hashtag for a conference or wikispace and getting constant updates... the 140 characters bugs me for some reason.  I can see how professionally, politically or even if you followed certain famous people how it could enhance your life.  As a regular person I have too much going on in my own life to give constant 140 updates about my life let alone read about other friends and regular people's constant comments.  Facebook is enough of that for me.

Once interesting thing I did come across was I placed "elementary librarian" in the search box.  I was surprised that it did not look at the descriptions of people, only what people posted.  Some talked about running into their elementary librarian or remembering their elementary librarian.  One guy posted "What do you think the least stressful job in America is? My guess is that is has to be an elementary school librarian"... hmmm if he only knew!

I currently have a Facebook account, although I don't spend a lot of time there.  I do check in once in a while.  I can see the benefit for having a library group page for your school library especial if the students are on facebook and check in regularly.  Parents might also benefit since it is so easy to quickly update and add something to a facebook page.  At my elem level I hesitate to start one since the students should not be going on at that level.  A public library page would also be nice for quick updates, new book titles, and special events.

Thing 2: part II

I also had been wanting to work with Animoto for a while, but last time I tried for some reason it wouldn't let me sign up right away.

I put together a little video of my son.

http://animoto.com/play/UXNPFvmzAePXUBSd2X8BWg

Again... it isn't letting me embed the video so I will have to play a little bit later.  Just wanted to get this done and play with Animoto.

Thing 2: Digital Storytelling & Presentation Tools

Wow, has three weeks already passed me by that I am seeing the 3rd thing up and ready to go!  Yikes.  The vacation when I thought I would be catching up on my work had me in bed, and the following week going back to school had my son running high fevers.  Luckily we are all on the mend and I got to try out a few tools. 

I have been wanting to use voice thread for a while, but just hadn't had the chance.  I was hoping to work a 5th grade poetry project with it later in the year.  I thought it might be fun for my 1st graders to try with the project we are currently working on with hibernating animals.  Usually we find out facts and make a stapleless book they all can fold and color with the facts they found.  Maybe we will try voicethread instead.  Here is a sample of what I want to create with them.

http://voicethread.com/share/2591167/

Couldn't get it to embed this morning.  Will try something else later.