Patty's Web 2.0 Blog

Thing 23: Reflections

pmcewen — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:05:20 +0000

This has been an interesting class, and I’m happy to say that I figured it all out myself for the most part, thanks to good directions. I had some concerns about taking this class without on-site tech support, but by experiencing the glitches and snafus along the way, I am better prepared to help our faculty learn about these tools. My biggest concern at this point will be how to convince the technophobes among us that they also can learn about these new technologies and that our student body will benefit from this knowledge.

I forgot to mention wikis in my VoiceThread, but I hope to use a wiki myself. For class use, I prefer that structure visually. I think that a wiki will be more versatile for my purposes in the long run. Flickr and Creative Commons are a great resource, but I’m unsure about the viability of using them with elementary students. I don’t think that we can control the images enough, and that’s from brutal experience. Thank goodness I preview.

I’ve encouraged two other media specialists that I know to take this class, and I believe that they will. It has been a worthwhile experience.

Thing 7c: More on Summer Reading

pmcewen — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:34:16 +0000

Here’s a link to an article in Reading Rockets, About That Pesky Summer Reading List. It addresses the summer slide.

Photo by DocteurCosmos

Thing 7c: Summer Reading

pmcewen — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:35:14 +0000

Free voluntary reading is a concept to which I subscribe in a limited way. I enjoy Stephen Krashen’s writings and regularly read Donalyn Miller’s blog, The Book Whisperer. Both of them have changed my ideas regarding summer reading for our students, with caveats. Miller’s June 22 blog posting references a post by Kate Messner, In Defense of Summer Reading Freedom, as well as a previous blog post of her own on the topic, both defending free choice.

However, leaving our students, all of whom struggle with reading, to their own devices over the summer results in very few books read at all. I have gradually rethought my ideas on this topic and try to create reading lists that contain books students actually want to read rather than just those deemed good literature. And yes, we do offer an incentive to do the reading in the form of a one subject homework pass for returning all required postcards and a whole day homework pass (redeemable in September) for proof of completion of a public library reading program. Postcards the students return have a 1-3 smiley face rating which helps us track unpopular books and to identify the ones most attractive to students. Our lists are organized so that parents/students can identify reading levels by a 1-4 rating, but we do not group all the like numbers together so that students can actually find books they want to read and perhaps use a recorded book to supplement their reading. Follett Library Services has given us permission to use the summaries/reviews posted on the Titlewave site so that students will know more before they choose a book.

In the fall, we discuss the students’ choices and solicit their input on what they read. They also have the opportunity to make suggestions for the list throughout the year, and many of their suggestions wind up on the list after the suggestions are read by my co-worker or me. This is not a perfect solution, and the lists are always a work in progress, which means that much more time spent dealing with them. But it is worth it. One of my long term goals is to compare spring and fall reading scores of those who completed their summer reading and those who did not. I hope that I will find a positive effect.

Here are our Summer Reading FAQs which contain links to other research and articles regarding the summer reading slide.

Thing 22: Classroom 2.0

pmcewen — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:53:34 +0000

I found many (too many!) items of interest on Classroom 2.0. While exploring Forums, I came across a discussion on using GoogleEarth for math (Real World Math), which was pretty interesting to me as a math teacher. There were groups for beginning Classroom 2.0 users as well as for any other topic you might imagine. I visited one for Elementary Reading Teachers, Stories that Stick (A sense of humor is no joke), and Library 2.0, which was a joke at this point. Apparently it is new or there are very few users. While trolling around in Groups, I began to try the tags, which were conveniently sorted by Tools, Subject, and Area, and which I found quite helpful. I found a discussion on Internet Safety lessons, which I hope will add to my discussions on this topic. A search for summer reading brought me to an application (correct term?) called Shelfari, which I would not use at school but might be something I would use in my personal life for my bookclub. There is the capacity to post the link in social networking sites, such as Facebook.

I view myself partially as an information broker at school, and the Ning networks related to education will be useful in terms of connecting teachers to information they need as well as for giving me the seeds of new ideas to implement at The Schenck School. In the course of exploring Classroom 2.0 and other networks, I have forwarded 4-5 sites already. Now if I can just be more efficient in my information processing. . .

Thing 21: Pageflakes

pmcewen — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:50:45 +0000

Pageflakes is not exactly floating my boat, and I think it is a visual thing. I know that you can make it more or less cluttered with different tabs and that you can change the theme, but I could not get satisfied with the look. I do see the usefulness of using Pageflakes for pathfinders and some other related library information, but we can already post those on our school web page. Elementary classroom teachers might find it useful as a communication tool, and upper level teachers can definitely put it to use for content related material. However, I think I would rather use a wiki for my purposes.

Photo by thefunklab, found through Google Advanced Image Search for Creative Commons images

Thing 18: Podcast

pmcewen — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I really should have read all the directions first. However, I learn best by doing, and redoing, and redoing, so I’ve had a lot of practice.

At first I thought I would be able to use an experimental Jing video (Reading Levels in Surpass, see below) as my podcast. I managed to get it all together, and everything was fine until I realized it was an MP4 file. Back to the drawing board. I thought I’d try Audacity, because I have recently seen something about using Audacity for fluency practice, something all our students can use. I had a glitch, gave up last night, and went to school to work on it. After several recordings I finally figured out which volume property I needed to change and recorded a quick and boring blip about Google Image Search and uploaded it into Zamzar, no problem. However, we can’t download MP3 files at school, so finally I finished this at home again.

I will probably use podcasts and Jing for commonly used directions, such as registering for netTrekker, as well as using recordings for previously mentioned fluency practice.

Reading Levels in Surpass



Thing 20:  Google Docs
pmcewen — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 21:05:32 +0000
Glory be!  I’ve tried to use Google Docs before and could never figure out how to share with someone so they could edit or even access it.  Admittedly, I didn’t spend a huge amount of time doing this, but I’m happy to have the solution now.
One way I’ve used Google Docs before is to upload summer reading lists from school, download them at home, and convert them to PDF files to re-upload.  My co-worker and I could also work on the lists in Google Docs without the worry of figuring out who has the most updated version.  I envision using spreadsheets to plan bookfair staffing, school projects,  and budgets.  Creating all the paperwork necessary for first time SACS-SAIS accreditation would have been much easier in Google Docs.



Thing 19: Video
pmcewen — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 14:49:34 +0000
First let me say that I did severely limit the time I spent perusing YouTube and TeacherTube.  However, it was not that difficult to find several items of interest to me.  Prominent in my thoughts was the fact that the squirrels are beating me to my best Cherokee Purple tomatoes, so I searched squirrels and tomatoes and found several videos.  I believe there are those who devote their life to outwitting squirrels.  I am here to tell you that it can’t be done.  I did learn from one gardening site that, allegedly, the squirrels are thirsty and not hungry, so a water source can go a long way to eliminate damage.  We shall see. . .
(August 4th: The water source does not work.)
A video of personal and nostalgic interest to me is one of restored NASA footage of the first moonwalk.  Those who are of my generation will remember watching every single space shot on television at school.  Back then (almost before electricity even), it was unusual to have televisions at school, so someone had to go to a lot of trouble for this to happen.  I was 19 at the time of the moonwalk and vividly remember expecting a space monster to reach out of the dark and snatch up our brave astronauts.  I am not kidding about the space monster.




There are a number of videos pertaining to elementary library skills.  Ones the children might find attractive are the Arthur videos.  In terms of showing videos, I would probably be more likely to use booktalks or author interviews.  There are several of Neil Gaiman discussing his Newbery-winner, The Graveyard Book.  On the surface, I believe the book is a bit scary, but if you preview it with readings from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling and Gaiman’s interviews, the book becomes just a bit edgy rather than frightening.  See Gaiman’s website, The Mouse Circus, to hear him read the entire book.




Thing 17: Explore Podcasting
pmcewen — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:24:01 +0000
I visited two podcast sites:  The Education Podcast Network and NPR.  From EPN I listened to two podcasts Teaching with SMARTBoard, specifically for math but with other topics included.  Both topics were useful, and I plan to revisit to tailor some activities to library skills.  The authors chat a bit too much in the beginning and also share some truly bad jokes.  However, students (and some aged librarians) would find them groaningly humorous.  I also subscribed to TechTalk4Teachers and discovered that you can now do a Google image search of Creative Commons images that are usable.  I’m going to attempt demonstrate that with my podcast.
From NPR, I subscribed to a gardening podcast but have not yet listened to it.  I also have an unexplainable fondness for the CarTalk guys, and I’m happy to know that I’ll be able to catch them on a semi-regular basis now.  Very funny. . .
I hope to use podcasts I create to answer those questions we hear over and over again, like “How do I search the catalog by reading level?”, etc. I have also used video tutorials by Professor Edward Burger, Holt, Rinehart Winston Homework Help to clarify math concepts.  If you access the link, click on the video icon.  The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County has a good children’s page, which includes monthly podcasts with book reviews, jokes, etc.  You may also choose to listen to a story from The Bookhive at that site, and they’re quite good.



Thing 16: LibraryThing
pmcewen — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:40:27 +0000
This class has given me the incentive to put into place a project I have pondered for a while.  I try to read or listen to as many children’s books as possible so that I can put the perfect book into a student’s hand.  I have noticed that I have a tendency to forget about some of them over time.  I know, I know, I could make a paper list. However, I like the capacity in LibraryThing to have covers along with the books and to put personal tags on them.  For example, I added fishing and and some other tags to Under the Blood Red Sun by Graham Salisbury. I also listen to a number of books on tape (thank you, Nancy Brown) so that I can keep up.  I make a notation about the quality of the audio for ordering purposes.  I can also make tags for books to consider for summer reading.  The capacity to organize by collections is also useful to me.
On a personal basis, I think that being able to look a similar collections might be a good way to find new books to read.  I noticed that one of our classmates has a favorites list that would coincide with some of mine.  I’ll check out the rest of her collection for ideas.
Not to be outdone by my husband in the gadget category, I ordered a CueCat ($15) from LibraryThing. It arrived within 2 days and has worked perfectly on the newer barcodes. I will also try to import a list of ISBNs in a CSV file.