Twitter Chats

In the last two weeks I have participated in two different Twitter chats.  I found both of them VERY overwhelming but very beneficial.  I participated in #satchat and #mosnowchat.  I found they both had a lot of similarities in both of them.  I did find several new people to follow from both chats.

I found that both chats went very quickly.  I had a very hard time keeping up with all of the conversations going on.  I tried using tweet chat but my computer wasn't loading the comments.  I had to continuously hit refresh for that page to work.  I did however use TweetDeck for both chats.  That did help, but I still had to skip a lot of comments because I couldn't keep up.  I realized that I needed to focus on a few different people and went from there.  I found the questions offered were great and the responses were good as well.

I like how I got a lot of new/different perspectives on different things.  I also loved that I found myself saying "that is so true".  Just having that refresher of conversations you don't typically think about or have with others.  This brought different things that I need to refocus my energy and time on.

The biggest challenge I found was keeping up.  I tried Tweet Chat for both of them and my computer didn't like it either time.  I know over time it will get easier as I get use to it.

So I loved putting all of my PLN's together on one page.

I couldn't believe all of the great things that I have started in the last 7 weeks.  I have to say that I am most impressed with my Twitter page that I have just started using.  I have always been opposed to using Twitter.  I never saw much purpose in it and didn't want to take the time out of my life to actually check it out.  I am so glad that I have been forced into using it.  I have found a lot of different pages/people to follow.  I have learned about so many other different resources out there that I never new existed.  I really enjoyed being able to follow the conversations from the METC conference.  I was able to see what was going on in other sessions.

I have also found that Delicious is a great tool to use to help save different links that I find useful.  I am able to save the links in different categories.  It makes it easy to retrieve great sights that I want to use at a later time.

I wish I would have known about Feedly in my last class.  It makes following multiple blogs very easy.  I found it very hard to follow several different classmates blogs last class.  This puts them all in one place and very convenient

Needless to say, I am very excited about all of the different PLN's I am utilizing.  They have made my life as a a teacher much easier.  I am able to get new ideas that I would have never thought of on my own.  

What I learned at METC

I can't believe all of the new ideas I gained on Tuesday at this phenomenal conference.  The first session I went to was "The Giant Tablet in the Room".  I have a smart board in my room but there are so many great ideas out there and unfortunately so little time to actually check them all out.  The ladies who presented were great.  They offered some great resources and a great smart notebook slides that allows you to use the great ideas.  One of my favorite things they offered was the Extreme Collaboration.  It is a place where your whole class can get on one page and use their own device to send messages to the board.  You can ask questions/suggestion/praise/etc.  It really is a great tool that students and PLC's could even use.  You could ask questions and answer them at the end of the discussion.

The second session I attended was "Avoiding the Breakfast Club".  This session had to do with using PBIS and making videos to teach the building expectations.  I found this session helpful in ways that I can make the videos and different ideas of what I could do.

The third session I attended was "Reading, Responding, & Researching Using Tablets with the Reluctant Reader".  I found this session hard for me to sit through.  I was hoping that it was more of what I can do with my students who don't like to read by using a tablet.  Instead it was about a school that used the tablets for reading for all students.  They shared a lot of information of how it worked but I struggled with relating this to my class.

My fourth session was by far one of my favorites.  I chose "Ten Ways to Shake It Up".  She had a lot of great ideas and a great personality that made it really interesting.  One of the ones I was really excited about was using Pandora in the class.  I have used it before but was going to start using it again on Wednesday.  I was so disappointed to find out that it has been blocked:(  I also learned about another great  site that streams youtube videos commercial free, safechair.tv.  These were just a few of the great ideas I learned from this session.

My fifth and final session was "Digital Storytelling".  This session had a lot of different sites you can use to help create digital stories.

Overall I felt like I walked away with a plethora of knowledge.  I was excited to use new ideas and be refreshed on the old ones.  I know that there is still so much more for me to dig deeper into, but I felt like I got a great start on some of the big things I wanted to try.

Blog Post #4

So this week we are suppose to try out two social networking sites and reflect on them. I choose Facebook, which I use regularly, and the other is Pinterest, which I have not used much.  I am going to start with Facebook.  Up until about three weeks ago, I swore by Facebook and didn't want to have anything to do with Twitter.  I only used Facebook to keep in touch with, and reconnect with friends.  I have never actually used it to gain any useful knowledge.  Now that I am using Twitter, I have realized how much time I have actually wasted on Facebook, when there are such great resources out there.  I have only used Twitter for educational needs.  I love how I have managed to quickly gain a plethora of knowledge that I can hold on to to use in the future.  So what I am really getting at with Facebook is that I find it as a great tool to keep in touch with others, I don't feel like a lot can be gained from it like other resources.

Now with Pinterest there is TONS of information that can be used.  I love the fact that you can type in one thing you are looking for and you have all sorts of different ideas.  I have an extremely challenging class this year with behavioral concerns.  I thought what better thing to look for than things that can help me with my 21 challenging friends.  I quickly found some great ideas of how I can change things up and keep using positive reinforcement with my students.  This year I have found myself trying many different ideas I have used in the past to see what works with the group.  I found some new ideas on Pinterest that I would have never thought of.  It was quick, easy, and won't take much effort on my part to start these new ideas on Monday.  There was even another link to Teachers Pay Teachers, which is another resource with millions of ideas.  Some of them are free and some are not, but just the time you save in creating something new is so worth it.

Week 4 Blog Post #3

I have very mixed feelings about having a networked classroom.  My students, who are five and six, are unable to independently get on the internet and complete a given task.  With that being said, my students last week used the iPads for the first time and I was blown away.  Out of 21 students, not one of them needed instructions to turn it on, find the correct window, or play the games.  I was very surprised that every students was able to complete the given task.  Part of the reason why I was so surprised is because I work in a building with a lot of low-income families who have no technology in their homes.  This also brings up another concern about having a networked classroom.  A little over half of my current students have internet service in the their homes.  This can cause a huge problem for those students who are in a networked classroom who can't do things from home.  

This year I have implemented online homework.  I post the assignments on a blog page and than my parents/students respond to the question online.  If the student does not have internet access, I send home a paper copy for them to complete at home with the parents.  This allows all families access to the homework assignment.  This has been a new addition to my class this year.  I am hoping next year that I can add a class blog that tells my parents exactly what is going on in our classroom. 

A networked class meets students of all needs because it allows students of different abilities to learn in different ways.  They are able to access the information in multiple different means.  The auditory and visual student can access videos to help them have a better understanding.  Gifted students are able to monitor their own learning.  This allows them to excel on their own without a lot of teacher guidance.  I have found some really great websites that allow students to translate English into another language.  These sites allow ESOL students easy access to translations.    

TWITTER ACCOUNT

melaniesmith52

Twitter

I set up a Twitter account several months ago for an assignment in another class.  I never really used it, or even explored it enough to actually learn enough about it.  I am so excited to be forced into using it this time. Just from spending a few hours trying to accomplish our current assignment, I have found some great resources. I am also very excited to be able find new people on twitter4teacher to follow.  This will make finding other teachers that I have things in common with easier.  I find it hard to actually find people to follow, unless they are famous or I know their twitter name.  I do however know that I need to continue to explore how to use it more efficiently.

I tried the "Tweet Deck" and I am not sure how much I like it.  I originally thought that I didn't like it at all.  The more I actually used it and checked it out, the more I realized it is pretty great.  It seems very easy to read and you can keep up on your tweets, other tweets, and other activity going on.  It seems a lot easier to follow than my own twitter page.  I am excited to see how much more I can learn about it and if I can use it on my Android phone.