Reflection

1. I really liked, and had never used, Diigo. I will probably use that with my students when they are researching or when I'd like to share something with them. Maybe it would be interesting to have them share things (with annotations) with me and the other students. I also plan to use Google Docs for the writing process.

2. This was really a review for me. I did the 23 Things a couple years ago. I think the main transformation is that I will actually have to technology to have my students do these things. That is really exciting to me.

3. Not really. Like I said, this was more of a refresher course than anything else. I like it because this this the kind of thing I like to do with my students. And I really like when I'm introduced to a few new things.

Tool #11: Digital Citizenship

I am a huge proponent of teaching Digital Citizenship to our students. I'm not sure that you can really separate out the parts that you are going to teach and say "I'm not going to teach anything else" because so much of digital citizenship goes together. I suppose I generally focus on Digital Access, Digital Communication, Digital Security and Safety, and Digital Rights and Responsibilities.

When I used blogs in Creative Writing last year, our librarian and I developed a lesson on this. Here is a link to the blog post. Even though my students understood, they forgot, and I sometimes felt like I was the Internet police. "Please remove that picture of yourself from our blog." "Please change your name in your blog." Etc. But by the end of the year, they seemed to get it.

Tool #10: iPod Touch

I have never really found a use for the iPod Touch in my classroom that I thought would justify the cost. I do however think that there are some great apps for other subject areas. Don't get me wrong. I love love love my iPod Touch. I use it as internet mostly, and I have found some great personal uses for it--knitting tracker and row counter I love you so.

Here are a couple apps I have of have seen used that I thought had an interesting educational use:

1. Louvre: It's free. You can view thousands of pieces of art without getting lost and looking desperately for an exit. In addition to the art, it also has pictures of the building and the architecture. Would I rather go to the Louvre (even though it means getting lost)? YES! But I can't go right now and neither can most of my students. This is as good as it's going to get for now.

2. I had a student who turned in his papers using Dropbox last year. He didn't have his computer with him? No problem. He was able to access it and send it to me using Dropbox--and the paper was sent to my email. No panicking. No late grades. No problem. It's a free app, and the registration is free.

3. iBook, obviously. My students can download Pride and Prejudice for free. I'm happy. They aren't happy exactly, but they can read on their iPod, so they don't hate me at this particular moment.

I know that there are other useful apps for English classes, and I can't wait until someone tells me about them.

Tool #9: Jing and Skype

1. I could see using Jing for giving instructions on how to do something on the computer. Also, I think it would be interesting to see how it could be used for documenting the writing process--also maybe for peer revision?

2. My dad wants us to all start using Skype so we can talk to each other for free. I think the real reason is that he wants to play with a new toy.

I'm not sure how I would use Skype. I have a friend who teaches English in Iowa and a friend who teaches IB English in Florida. It would be interesting to see how we could get our students to interact. Oh! Or we could try peer revision with our students. Or literary discussion--we have our students reading many of the same works.

Have any of you used either of these tools with your students?

Tool #8: Video Resources

I really like using videos in my classroom because it's a great way for my students to experience something in a way that is more like first-hand than reading about it or hearing about it from me.

This video would be great to use before reading Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata. The book's main setting is the Japanese Tea Ceremony, and this video gives a good idea of what a tea ceremony should be like (instead of how the characters us it in the novel).

Also, as much as I would like Margaret Atwood to visit my classroom and talk to my students about The Handmaid's Tale, we all know that isn't going to happen (an English teacher can dream, can't she?).

Here is a clip of Margaret Atwood talking about the universal myth:

Not quite as good as actually talking to her, I know. But it's as close as my class is going to get right now.

Tool #7: Digital Storytelling

I take a lot of pictures. Often, I take so many pictures, it's like watching a movie while scrolling through my pictures. When I figured that out, I started making movies on iMovie. I made a movie of a wedding I did the photography for, and I made a movie of the cliff divers in Mazatlan.

This is a never before seen, Kelly Arbuckle original.

I took the photos on a lake in Maine last summer. I forgot that I had started the video, but when I opened iMovie, I felt compelled to finish it.

I think this would be a really neat way for students to share their writing or show their interpretation of a piece of literature. I've used this type of thing for presentations as well.

Tool #6: wikis

I have used wikis with my students and loved it. They were required to post resources about their book club books and to have discussions with other students in the comments section, as well as respond to discussion questions and ask their own discussion questions. I had students in my class who thought everything else we did was "stupid," but they loved working in the wiki.

World of E 146

Is it perfect? No, of course not. But they were participating.

Tool #5: Social Bookarking

I have used Delicious before and loved it, but I decided to use Diigo for this tool since I hadn't heard of it. I'm a fan. I love the idea of annotating web pages and sharing that with my students.

In July I took a course on Teaching East Asian Literature in the High School and I need to write a lesson plan to fulfill my course requirement. My lesson plan is on "The Second Bakery Attack" by Haruki Murakami. I need background resources on the author as well as the work, so I searched "Murakami".

Here are a couple of my favorites:

What Startups Can Learn from Haruki Murakami

Interview

At first I searched generally with "Japanese Literature" and then I decided to search "Murakami", which worked out quite well.

I'd like to use this to share resources with my students and with colleagues. I'd like to show my students my annotations, and I'd like to see their annotations. I'm a huge fan of this tool.

Tool #4 -- Google Docs and Google Reader

1. I've used Google Docs before to collaborate with other students in my masters classes. I think it would be really cool to have students to all their work in Google Docs so that I could comment easily and the students could collaborate with each other. I also thought the form idea is pretty neat. You could use that when trying to gather information from your students, parents, coworkers, etc.

For this Tool I created a document and shared it with my mother.

2. I have also used Google Reader. I wish I had thought of using this when all my students were using blogs to publish their assignments--I guess there's always next year.

3. See above.

Tool #3: Image Generators and Mashups

This summer I went to one of those professional developments that lasts a week. And when you're on your way there, you're thinking, well even if this is terrible at least it takes care of my hours For The Entire Year. And sometime they turn out terrible and sometimes they are tolerable. And sometimes they are amazing. This one was amazing. Every afternoon after we had learned so much about East Asian literature that we were sure our brains were exploding, they had a session with ideas on how to use this in our classes. One of the cool things that I thought could be used for everything was Dinosaur Comics, which is the same images every day, but different writing about something not at all to do with the images, which is really funny. She gave her students blank dinosaur comics and had them write their own captions having to do with the literature. We tried it. It was fun.

So I thought it would be cool to use this tool to have the students create their own comics based on the literature. Or on biology or history or whatever, really.

Here is what I did with it (the picture is my own):

I also used this tool to spell my name:

Because I thought it was cool. I suppose you could use this for headers on projects. Or for word walls. What would you used it for?

Tool #2: Community and Blogging

1. What are your thoughts about building an online education community and participating in a PLN? I am a huge fan of using online resources to create an educational community. I think this is important for our students to be involved in as well since this is where our world is heading.

2. What point stood out to you from the commenting advice? I really liked the idea in Cool Cat Teacher Blog about teaching students commenting. When my students used blogs last year they were required to comment on each other's writing. We didn't really spend time on how to comment, we really focussed on writing in general, so the comments suffered.

3. What five blogs did you select for your comments? (you may need to come back and add this information later by editing this post.) Yes, yes I will.

1. The Tech-Teacher Experiment

2. Kvetching with Karen

3. Frogs, Chiuahuas, and Good Times

4. Mrs. Von Blon's Blog

5. Geaux 21st Learner

Tool #1: Creating a blog

I have used blogs before I did the 23 Things a couple years ago, and I have used blogs in my classroom. I have used a blog as a way to share what is going on in my classroom and as a place for my students to write. I have also considered having my students use blogs for collaboration, and I plan to continue using them.

I'm not as big a fan of voki. I think the idea of it just creeps me out, and I don't like it when web pages talk to me without my permission. I prefer using Yahoo! Avatars for some reason. I really think it's because they don't talk to me.