July and Mixed Feelings!

It has been an exciting month of learning so much about blogging and technology. Since the NECC conference in Georgia, I have been busy building this blog. My hope is to have a blog that provides useful information to parents, teachers, and students. A place where we can communicate and get others excited about blogging. I was reading the other day that blogs have been around for ten (10) years now. It is amazing that blogs are slowly becoming part of the educational system and have not made it into ALL schools. Change takes time!




Listen to this article

International Day of Peace September 21

Check out Alex Savage's Wiki especially the part decidated to the International Day of Peace http://communicty.wikispaces.com/Peace


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7 year old Abby Blogs!

Abby has her own blog and enjoys writing! Meet her family and read about the vacation spots she has visited.

http://aboutabbyf.blogspot.com/

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Why our students need to Blog!

After finding the video by Will Richardson on the importance for our students to blog.

http://weblogg-ed.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/WebLoggingSmall.mov


I was reading Jo McLeay's Blog about another video.

Rachel Boyd made this video to explain the importance of Blogging with our students! This video was available for the public at teachertube.

Enjoy the video and check out Rachel's Blog!





Technorati Tags Rachel Boyd Jo McLeay
Will Richardson

Wes Fryer: Teaching Digital and Will Richardson: Importance of Blogging

Teach Digital: Curriculum by Wes Fryer / web2
Wesley Fryer has excellent information about technology, Web 2.0 and more! You will spend days on his wiki reading, very, very, interesting and informative.



Check out this video on Weblogging or blogs in the classroom by Will Richardson!

http://weblogg-ed.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/WebLoggingSmall.mov

Podcasting!

Wesley Fryer has written an interesting article called Options for Podcasting Publishing and Web Feed Creation.

If you are interested in podcasting, I recommend reading this article. It is full of helpful information.

Technorati Tags Wesley Fryer

Sharing Photos Private or Publicly!

Uploading photos from your computer is made very easy with Bubbleshare! You are able to choose to keep your photo albums private or go public with them. A slideshow can be made and placed on your Websites or Blogs. Notice at the bottom right of this Blog is a short slideshow of my family. I used Bubbleshare to create and publish the slideshow.

Web Pages Made Simple!

Want to make a simple Web site using a free, great Page Creator? Here is an example!


I used Google Page Creator just now for this post. It was very easy. What a great way to get your children interested in technology. Let them create their own Webpage that you can monitor. This gives your child or children the opportunity to work on something they can be proud.

There are several templates for backgrounds and it is very simple to insert pictures.

Stone Mountain in Georgia

Netiquette

Netiquette means the informal rules that individuals use for appropriate behavior on the Internet. There are many rules, but the important thing to remember is to use the same rules as you would use to write letters to your family or talking to adults. Emails are never completely deleted so never say anything you do not want repeated to others. Emails can be intercepted or forwarded.

Using all capital letters is considered shouting! SHOUTING! Therefore, try not to use all capitals when you write because you are considered as being impolite or rude. Check spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Avoid sarcasm because it may be taken to mean something different and come back to haunt you.

Check out this Netiquette Quiz!


For additional information:

http://www.learnthenet.com/English/html/09netiqt.htm

http://oregonstate.edu/~healeyd/pci/netiquette.html

Library Cards!

It is very important that your child has a library card from the Blue Island Public Library. Throughout the school year, students will have to check out materials for research, as well as for reports and projects. The students love to explore the numerous books available at the library. Mrs. Beasley is a tremendous help. As students search for books, they become extremely happy when they are able to check out books they have found on their topics. When students express a desire to read, we need to foster that desire by putting books into their hands at the time they are excited and wanting to read. Successful readers read!


You can also take a virtual tour of the Historical Museum!

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A Little About Us!

Paul and I will be celebrating our 24th year of marriage in November. We have been living in the Chicago area every since we were married. Paul and I love to read; many evenings we spend time talking and reading. The Internet is used by us for various activities, but our favorite is looking up information. Anytime we are in a conversation that leads us to wanting to know something more about a topic, we use the Internet for our answers. What a great source? We can look up any topic, anytime of the day, from anywhere in the world!

Online Dictionary

Students need a dictionary to be successful in learning new vocabulary words and there is an online source that is excellent http://www.onelook.com. My students have found this site easy to use and it provides them with enough choices on dictionaries that they can usually find the words they are seeking. Sometimes student dictionaries are not complete and this causes students to look for other sources. Knowing about and using Internet dictionaries can save time for the students as well as the parents.
At Onelook, there are approximately "8,853,196 words in 937 dictionaries indexed"!

Check out the Onelook feature called Reverse Dictionary where you know what the word means but cannot think of the word. You can describe the concept and you will get back related words to what you described.

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Whittier School News Blog!

Announcing the beginning of a blog for Whittier School at http://whittierschoolnews.blogspot.com
Our principal, Jeanne Bodnar, enjoys communicating with our parents as well as the community, so she started this blog. She will be updating the blog with exciting news and updates regarding Whittier School. You will be able to check the blog periodically to keep up with the news surrounding Whittier School.

Blogs

Look what other schools are doing with blogs; this is awesome.

Recommended sites:

http://egyptdays.blogspot.com/

http://www.sandaigprimary.co.uk/pivot/

http://weblogs.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/georgia/

Technorati Tags Egypt Days Sandaig Otters Weblog Georgia NJ Connection

Wikis and Blogs

How will Wikis and Blogs be used to support teaching and learning in the classroom?

To answer that question, let me first define wiki and blog. The basic difference is that wikis are for facts and research while blogs are usually used for opinions, reporting news, insights, informational articles, selling items, and more.

What are Wikis and how can they be used to support teaching and learning in the classroom?

Wiki is the Hawaiian word wiki-wiki that has been shortened; it means quick or super fast. According to Will Richardson (2006), "a wiki is a collaborative Webspace where everyone can add content and anyone can edit content that has already been published" (p. 8). This collaborative spaces allows students to work together on projects while not necessarily sitting next to each other. The group members may be participating from home, school, library, in another state, or anywhere they can access the Internet. Wikis have four layers or pages (i.e., information page, discussion page, history page, and notify me page). For example, the information can be used by the teacher to describe and create a project for students including slideshows, images, videos, and audio. The discussion page allows students to collaborate on the assigned project. The history page is the history of each members participation and what was contributed to the project by each member. The notify me page allows updates to be feed in a RSS reader so that teachers keep current on the latest posts by students.

What are Blogs and how can they be used to support teaching and learning in the classroom?

As you explore the Internet for Blogs, you will find that Blogs are created for many purposes. Many times blogs are thoughts and opinions on topics of interests, informational articles about upcoming events, personal experiences, vacation stories, storytelling, sharing of photos and videos, success stories, notes from conferences, updates on school events, and more.

For the classroom, blogs can be a form of journaling, writing stories, novels, experiences, notes, news from around the school, keeping a diary, and more. For an example, visit Adora Svitak at http://www.adorasvitak.com/Blog.html

References

Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful Web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Technorati Tags Will Richardson Adora Svitak

Bison

While coming back from the NECC in Atlanta, Georgia, Paul and I drove through the Land of the Lakes in Tennessee and Kentucky. We were able to stop and have a picnic lunch across from bison herding in a very large field. It was interesting to watch the young play like puppies. Paul was able to get really close to the fence to take this picture. Notice, the fence lines do not appear.

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9 Year Old Author Blogs

Adora Svitak is 9 years old and has been blogging since 2005. She also has written a book called Flying Fingers and she has been on Good Morning America and CNN. This amazing girl is an inspiration to us all. She writes regularly, actively blogs, and participates in the social network community at Infinite Thinking Machine (ITM).



More about the Infinite Thinking Machine at http://www.google.com/educators/index.html


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NECC in Atlanta, Georgia

Back from the National Educational Computing Conference in Atlanta, Georgia and I loved every minute of the conference. The Walden University session with Dr. Shepard and Vickie Davis was superior and after their meeting, I was able to attend Will Richardson's session and Kathy Schrock's session. I was busy everyday from morning to night.

I can't thank Dr. Shepard enough for making me aware of the conference. There is so much to learn; it was easy because I was surrounded with the same type of people who wanted to talk technology.

I am making a Wiki for my students to use in the Fall. I teach fifth graders and I think they are going to have a lot of fun and excitement with Wikis and Blogs this year. I was able to listen to a broadcast of Vickie Davis and Adam Frey; it was a tutorial for the Wikis, blogs, and much more. So, I got started and had fun doing it.

View this Wiki as an example: http://paulpam2.wikispaces.com

On my Wiki, under technology, I listed all new terms and websites with free resources. This is so valuable to any school district. Again, I cannot thank Dr. Shepard enough for being on the cutting edge and placing her Walden University students there with her.



Technorati Tags Vickie Davis NECC Will Richardson Adam Frey Kathy Schrock

Whittier School

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