Friday, January 8, 2010
Welcome to the Elementary Learn and Earn Class!
Welcome, everyone! Over the course of the next 12 weeks (excluding breaks, of course), I'll be sharing a variety of technology tools and resources with you. I'll be using this blogging format to post a new "lesson" each week (on Tuesdays). Along with reading and following the directions in each week's post, I'll prompt you to offer a comment related to that week's lesson. Since we're using a blog for this class, this week's lesson is intended to help you become familiar with how blogs work. Begin by watching this short video from the geniuses (I think) at Common Craft:If you liked the way the Common Craft folks explain things, check out their other Explainations in Plain English; you'll be glad you did. (I particularly like Zombies in Plain English, but I digress.) As mentioned in the video, one of the perks of blogging is the community it creates. One way we'll be taking advatage of that feature is through commenting. Commenting on a blog is easy. Simply look for the comment link at the bottom of a post. Click on it to leave your comment. After you've typed in your comment, you will be asked to identify yourself. For our purposes it is important that you DO NOT identify yourself as "Anonymous." Either create and use a Google account that idetifies you accurrately (if your username is iluvsoccer72, we won't know who you are) or select the Name/URL option and type in your name.
So there you have it! This week's lesson is nearly complete. But before we're done, you need to post a comment. Since we're just getting started I'd like your comment to introduce yourself. Include why you're taking this class and what you're hoping to learn. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them. Just a reminder, comments are due by Monday morning, 8:00 a.m. Have a great week!
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54 comments:
My name is Amy Cassady. I teach fourth grade at RCES. I already have a blog site for my class where I posted the writing of the kids. I'd like to hear how other people are using blogs in their classrooms and maybe get more ideas of how to use mine in a better way.
My name is Samantha Watkins and I teach 1st grade at LWES. I am hoping to learn fun things from all of you that is why I signed up for the class. 3 credits doesn't sound bad either.
My name is Mark Lange. I am a 5th grade teacher at RCES. I am interested in keeping up with the times (technology), so I can assist my students to become well rounded individuals. 3 clock hours are also appreciated.
My name is Beth Belmondo and I teach K at LWES. I joined the class to be more in the know so I can better support my team's technology use. I also wanted the clock hours :).
Melissa Morlock is my name and you will find me teaching fourth grade at LWES, on most days anyway. From this class I hope to learn why I might keep a blog for myself or my classroom. I also want to learn about blogs so I can support others in their use of blogs.
My name is Kim Schmitz and I teach first grade at RCES. I am always interested in new technology learnings and it is very appealing when I can do it on my time in my home. I also want to earn clock hours.
My name is Mimi Johnson. I provide academic (writing) support for 2nd and 3rd graders at LWES. That means I spend my time travelling to classrooms and conferencing with students, Lucy Calkins-style. I'm hoping this course will help me become as technologically savvy as my teenage sons - or at least savvy enough that they won't laugh at me any more. Seriously, I think it's really important to be able to communicate via the internet - with students, parents, and colleagues. I'm anticipating earning much from this course. Glad to be earning the clock hours, too.
I'm anticipating LEARNING much from this course, like how to proofread before I post (re: 2nd to last sentence above)!
I'm Kim Fitzpatrick and I'm currently teaching 5th grade at Glacier Park (LOA). I'm taking this course because I would love to learn some new ways to incorporate technology into my teaching. I also like the idea of distance learning and posting comments on my own time.
Hey, Everyone! It's good to see I can handle this. I have been in Kindergarten for 2 1/2 years now, and have decided it's time to push myself beyond the expectation of "knowing how to log on." We shall see how this goes...
Hi, everyone!
I'm Denise Strom ~ 4th grade GPES. I am trying to push myself harder into technology. Please bear with me as I test my wings!
For all of you saying this will be a stretch, fear not! You can do it and kudos to you for taking a risk. :)
Cheryl Reilly is my name, Preschool SLP is my game.
I like to learn about the web, especially when I can do it from my bed!
Audio & video interests me most, I'd like to incorporate those when I post.
That's a rap... wouldn't it be sweet to hear it?
Hi, I'm Corrie Blechschmidt and teach 5th grade at GP. I am taking this class because I am a blogging 'rookie' and lately have felt very 'tech' illiterate. I figured I better step up and practice some Life Long Learners Skills, so here I am!
Good Evening,
I'm Evelyn Robinson, currently a Reading Teacher at SLES. I'm working part time this year and will return to full time lst grade next year. I have started a blog before, but didn't understand the power/communication that was available. I like being able to interact with others this way. I'm also looking forward to seeing Parent Comments/Questions next year and sharing them with students. I too appreciate the opportunity to complete this on my own time and receive the clock hours. Thanks Allison and Brandon!!
Hi, I'm Ruth Cerna, the reading specialist at GPES. I love the idea of blogging and am looking for ways to help parents of struggling readers feel more connected to school. The clock hours, wine and freedom to complete this at home have absolutely nothing to do with my motivation...well, maybe a little bit.
Hi Everyone,
I'm Suz Chen - School Social Worker at SLES. I'm a big fan of blogs in general and am interested in learning how to incorporate this type of technology into the school environment. I am also looking forward to reading other people's comments!
Evelyn Robinson, once again - I'm anxious to see what Ruth posts because I'm a reading teacher at SLES. I haven't figured out what to do on a reading blog because I have a web page.
Hello, my name is Jessica Cooper and I teach fourth grade at Shadow Lake. I am looking forward to learning about new technologies that I can easily incorporate into my classroom. I have a blog, but I don't post to it often so I'd also like to learn how other teachers use blogs.
Hi, I'm Christel Winkey from LWES. I have been using blogs personally for several years now, basking in the joy of sharing what my family is up to with our friends and family. I am hoping to start using a blog with my students as a means of sharing daily activities and learning with families - especially in a more technological way. Still working on logistics.
Hello, my name is Cathy Haws and I teach 3rd grade at Glacier Park. I have a personal blog where I keep in touch with my long distance family. Last year I set up a blog for my class but didn't do much with it. I would really like to gather ideas how other teachers are using blogs. I want to use a blog to enhance family and teacher communication, encourage student feedback, and provide a real world forum to share student work.
I am Meribeth Rowe and have been teaching at Lake Wilderness for a long time. I am acting risk taker this year and trying new things with technology. I hope to learn some tricks of the trade from all of my colleagues through this opportunity. The short video on blogging was just right for my level of understanding:)
Hi - My name is Sue Chase and I teach 3rd and 4th grade at Shadow Lake Elementary. This is my first time blogging. I am very excited about learning and becoming more comfortable with this, as well as other new technologies, so I can share them with my students and parents!
Thanks Tahoma Tech!
My name is Michelle Hagen and I teach 5th grade at Glacier Park. Honestly, I've never been much interested in blogging, etc. This course seems like an opportunity to explore what I've been missing in a comfortable, at-my-own-pace, way. I hope I'll want learn more!
I'm Diane Mitchell and teach 1st grade at RCES. i am taking this class,cuz Kim is making me. (just kidding) I am taking this class for a couple of reasons. I would love to use more technology with my 1st graders and their families. I'm wondering if a blog would be easier than a weekly newsletter. I have also been thinking about blogging about my husband's bar because there are some very entertaining stories there.
Hi All~
I'm Kellie McNett,the BIS at LWES. I signed up for this adventure so I could earn clock hours late at night when all the children are fast asleep. I also hope I will learn to appreciate communicating in this type of forum since my understanding of "blog" only goes as far as the video I just watched.
Hi~
My name is Kari Weed and I am a Speech Pathologist at LWES. I am taking this class to learn how to blog better. I would like to know how to add pictures and videos to blogging. I will admit it is more for personal use. The 3 credits also helps!
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My name is Debbie Ohland and I'm the new 4th/5th Resource Room teacher at Rock Creek. I'm a crazy, busy mom of three kids and just realized my certificate is about to expire!!! (I've moved 3 times to 3 different states, and had 2 kids in the last five years since my last certificate renewal.) So I NEED the clock hours from this class, but also want to be more tech savvy. Thanks for the opportunity to do this from home after the kids are in bed or on a Sunday afternoon during nap time!!!
My name is Tina Newbrey and I teach 5th grade at Lake Wilderness. While I love most things "technology," I haven't had much interest in the Web 2.0 world. I finally decided I'm missing out and need to get on board. I hope to learn more about blogging as a tool to use with my students in social studies class, especially now that we have netbooks for the classroom. I see a lot of applications for the social studies classroom but am going to need some help, support, and ideas about how to get that going.
My name is Rosemary Lathrop and I teach 2nd Grade at LWES. I am trying to use this class experience to figure out how this will enhance my communication with the parents and families of my students. How do I not leave the paper copy parents behind?
Yay! I did it...I'm commenting on my first blog. (for some reason I was a little nervous I wouldn't figure it out by 8am on Monday)
I am admittedly clunky in the world of Twitter, Blogs, RSS, social media etc. And at the same time I'm a secret techy wanna-be. So...looking forward to learning more.
Hello,
My name is Teresa Eccles and I teach second grade at SLES. I am also the second grade TTTL. I too am interested in finding out how teachers use this technology in their classrooms. Especially how one maintains a blog without too much time being taken away from what we already do. Like Rosemary I worry about excluding my families who do not use tech in the same way. I am also not opposed to getting clock hours wherever I can get them.
I'm Wendy Ward and I teach elem PE at RCES. I'd like to know what's going on in the tech world so I can keep up with my own kids.
Hi I'm Callie Greenfield and I teach 1st Grade at Glacier Park where I am also the Tech Summit Rep/TTTL. I agree with most of what's been said above, but I think my top two reasons are a) that this will help me be more disciplined and do a little bit of reading at a time rather than putting it off 'til I need to devote hours to it and b) I think this is a unique opportunity to keep up with how others are using tech in our school district and to keep tabs on how people are feeling about incorporating tech in to their classrooms. I think this will be important into to bring to tech summit.
I'm Vasili Andrews (although via my login, it says that above) and I know what blogging is. I teach 6th grade Language Arts @ Tahoma Middle, and I haven't yet found a way to fold blogging into my teaching practices, although, when it fits, I will. I think one way to become more involved is to subscribe to feeds of other teaching blogs that I find interesting, and/or, am told to find interesting, like our beloved Superintendent's, because there is so much to gain insight-wise from doing so. But the challenge is, like the challenge with anything else that is new (as in a habit), is making it habitual. For instance, I've been trying to "tag" sites that I find more frequently, which, I guess, is a good thing. But, I haven't gotten into the habit of using Delicious as a jump off point in my Internet browsing usage. Accordingly, there are webpages that I look at and read regularly, but I don't often open my feeds page, just as I don't often open "My Delicious" page; instead, when I browse, I just search through Google... When I can figure (or have an "Aha!" moment [not to be confused with the Scandinavian pop band a-ha]) out how to do the aforementioned, as well as how to relevantly incorportate a classroom blog into my daily do's, then I will -- I look forward to seeing, hearing, and reading what other colleagues are doing, so as to get some inspiration and ideas from which I can borrow and/or pilfer!
Hi my name is Rachel Cragar and I teach fifth grade at Lake Wilderness. I am hoping to learn fun things from all of you that is why I signed up for the class. 3 credits isnt too shappy either :)
By the way did you like how I got that in one minute before deadline? I was having technical difficulties over the weekend. Let me just say that now my zero hour class thinks I am crazy after shouting a random YES!!!!!! when my post made it at 7:59. Needless to say, I will start earlier this week!
My name is Judy Chavez and I teach 3rd grade at Rock Creek Elementary. I would like to learn what blogs are all about and how teachers are using them in the classroom and with peers to support our teaching ideas.
My name is Laura Bowden and I teach 4th grade and am excited to learn how to incorporate technology to make learning fun! My kids know so much, and am excited to see if they can teach some of the lessons and I step into the coaching role.
My name is Lorrie McMahon. I teach 2nd grade at Lake Wilderness. I have thought about blogging with my class, but I'm concerned about the amount of time I would need to spend monitoring. What have others experienced?
Hi My Name is Molly Klemkow! I teach Special Education Preschool at Lake Wilderness. I am so excited to learn a little more about blogging. I have never really done it but have friends who do it on a daily basis. As you can see I am posting this a day late because it has been hard to find time to set aside to do it. I am hoping this class can give me some insight in how to make it a little easier because I feel that I could benefit from taking sometime out to it.
Hi. My name is Susan Noonan. I teach first grade at Rock Creek Elementary. I am always interested in learning more about technology and how I can use it in my classroom and in my life!
Hi! My name is Tina McDaniel. I teach first grade at Rock Creek. I enjoy blogging and writing! :) I have a class blog for my Photography class here at Rock Creek. I hope to learn some nifty ideas for sharing blogs, increasing the views and creating a new place for families and friends to view student work!
Happy Blogging!
I will try this again. My name is Angelina Perkes. I teach K-5 class w/special needs. I am hoping to learn about blogging and how to become more technology savvy.
My name is Renae Hanson and I am the math specialist at Glacier Park. The freedom of earning clock hours in my sweats at home sounded fabulous. However, I'm already late on assignment one. Hoping that I don't need a tutor to keep me on track...
My name is Beverly Meeks and I teach 2nd grade at GPES. I want to learn more about the tech options out there and slowly dabble with the new learning.I will try not to be late again.
Hi. My name is Tenaya Williams. I teach first grade at Shadow Lake. One of my team members, technology genius Christine Thurston, was kind enough to help me set up a blog page in November. Unfortunately, I have not developed the blog since that time. It is my hope that by taking this class I will become more comfortable with the blogging process and have an active classroom blog of my own.
Hi there,
My name is Dara Kostohris and I teach All Day Kindergarten at Shadow Lake. I am late on my first assignment...not good. Sorry! I am excited to learn about blogging and how to create a blog for my classroom and maybe one for my family!!
Hi. I'm Jennifer Paulus and I teach Language Arts and corral the YBK kids at THS. I signed up because I am excited to learn how to use blogs in my classroom. Also, I think it is amazing that we essentially have 24/7 uninterrrupted access to our colleagues and our students and I would like to learn how to use that access effectively and meaningfully.
Hi, I am Lisa Mocquet, 3rd grade teacher at RCES. The fact that I didn't see that I was "past due" on assignment 1 worries me...I hadn't even seen that there was an assignment 1. But good news...I do know that assignment 2 is due tomorrow. Will work on that right away! So far the reading and the video postings have been fun to watch. I'm just hoping to continue to catch up to the 21st century! I am hoping after pre-reading assignment 2 that I will establish a classroom blog...something I had never thought about doing! Also, I am happy to know why my high school age boys are blogging for their classes. How exciting!
My name is Jan Clemsen and I teach fourth grade at Lake Wilderness. When I first signed up for the class, I had no idea what blogging could bring me. After working backwards (since I started late) I am now more knowledgeable and hope to set up a classroom blog, I'm like Lisa Mocquet. I am also interested in how a blogs might enhance learning.
I chose to make my response about teaching myself how to clean cabinets. I am sure this sounds easy, but unfortunately, there was more to it than just getting “Old English” or “Murphy’s Soap”. Since I am a compulsive neat freak, I constantly am cleaning around my house. Once day I decided to clean all my wood surfaces in my house (furniture, tables and cabinets) with “Old English” wood cleaner. It did fine on my furniture and tables, but terrible on my cabinets. The next day I woke up to a white, waxy build up. I didn’t really worry about it since it wasn’t very much. However, a week later it had nearly covered all my cabinets. Apparently I had done something wrong. So, I tried steel wool, which took off the build up, but a week later is was back, twice as bad. I guess I made it mad. After trying many other products and asking many people, I figured I would get on line to look. Needless to say, after only a few minutes of searching, I found out how to get the waxy build up off. It only takes mineral spirits, a stripping pad and a whole lot of elbow grease.
As part of my graduate and undergraduate programs, many of my professors chose to use online discussion boards as homework forums. We were required to complete a certain # of posts per week, usually building off of the person who had commented before us. The benefits to these assignments were that we could interact with fellow students outside of classroom time, the professor was able to receive varied responses to the prompt, students could learn from one another, and it forced us to read the entire discussion, rather than just "skim."
There were a few downsides to the online discussions though. First of all, it paid to be one of the first people to comment, because by the time the 20th+ person wrote you often ran out of things to say. Sometimes the discussions were so long due to the number of people commenting that it took awhile to read.
Overall, I think I like the addition of online discussion boards in the classroom. They enable learning to extend outside the classroom and are accessible no matter where you are (provided you have a computer and internet connection). And, of course, it's always fun to see what other students wrote!
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