What a great site. There are several great reasons why it is so good. First, one can use it on any computer to get all their favorites. What a help when you want to share a site with a colleague. Or you are like us when we go out of town we tend to take only one computer. Or want to use the one in the business center at the hotel. Second, you can share the site with your colleagues and they with you. That will help to keep me up to date on units and projects that are being done in the classroom and make the library lesson very relevant for the students. There have been many times I have tried to find a website that I had not bookmarked and then tried to recall with no luck. This site makes that so easy. http://delicious/newyorkkak
It is also a wonderful way to find relevant materials on the internet. Their is so much wonderful material their for the taking. What a powerful tool.
One of the most enlightening blogs I read is on Roger Sutton’s Horn Book.
Can a blogger provide buzz in advance and a review later? Does involving oneself in buzzing compromise any subsequent review? How cozy can a blog get with a publisher’s marketing strategy?
What it tells me is that one need be wary of“book buzz.”Books by celebrities are a case in point.Just because someone is famous doesn’t make him/her a good writer of children’s books.We have parents and students ask all the time about books that have gotten great press and there are many times when we have to tell them that the book really isn’t that great – you would be better off reading (and here we suggest a title).
I am still needing to remind myself to check my reader.There is just so much there and I realize it is a habit that I need to acquire and to teach the kids how to scan.Otherwise it would be overwhelming.
The first thing I looked at was the calendar tool 30boxes
I have been reluctant to have a web based calendar because I did not like the layout of the one offered with out school email. This one is great though, Very easy to add appointments , make a short to do list for myself. It also will remember birthdays from one year to the next.
Mixbook was another one I also investigated. What a grat way to share pictures and make a memento. This would be particularly fun to share photes and make an album of a class reunion with lots of people contributing to make the album. This would be a great way for teachers to document projects that the kids work on at home (science projects) in particular.
I had never thought about how we tell the students what not to do and how we should be teaching them responsible computer behavior. Our school has an appropriate use policy that is always a work in progress. I loved how the example of how parents that are not traditionally involved in the school (volunteer at school sponsored events) have a wonderful opportunity to become involved.
Our students take overnight trips in 4th and 5th grade. Documenting it and keeping in touch with the parents as shown is a great idea.
This is a video I am going to recomend to the classroom teachers.
What a great too Flickr.com is. And what fun to just browse. There are so many images — one could find any thing on that site. And what an amazing way to share photos either privately or publicly.
The first order of business as a teacher though is to emphasize that Flickr is a too just like books and other periodicals that must be credited when used in a report. Too many students like to jazz things up and do not give credit where it is due. It is basically plagiarism if credit it not attributed to the auther of the work, whether photo or written. I think too many of us think that if it is out on the internet then it is in the public domain when the opposite is true.
This is an especially good site for social studies writing and geography. I can think of many ways to use it in the library — to introduce units that the kids are working on in the classroom, illustrations of what we will be talking about with the book were are reading or research skills that the students will be studying.
On a personal note, I loved looking at all the pictures of the many places that I have lived. Very nostalgic.
Although I had never heard of Creative Commons it is a great idea. We are always telling the kids to site information that they use. But it is hard to know what is in the “public domain” and what is truly fully copyrighted. The elementary school where I work does not have the students do projects and reports that are too sophisticated but as the kids get older and more technically savvy the dos and don’t on the citation chart will be helpful.
We will have to impress on the students that pictures etc. need to be sited when using them. Before if they got an image from the internet to beef up their report siting was not even mentioned.
I think that the OER Commons site is great. There are lots of ideas for classroom activities that would be easy to modify for particular grade level.
I had heard about the MIT OCW but had never looked at it. This has certainly piqued my interest.
Today I met with a new classmate. Both of us are the only ones from our respective schools taking this class. We went over tasks 8 and 9. It was very, very helpful. I would reccomend collaborating with someone if at all possible. Although she was further along than I it was helpful for both of us.
The best recommendation I have for all is that when working on your wiki save, save, save. A couple of times I have lost internet connections and had saved so it was easy to pull us the site again.
Learning about wikis was great. I have used Wikipedia, as have the students. From what I can tell is it as accurate as Britannica or World book. And certainly more current than the 2006 versions that we have in the library.
The use of a wiki is a great collaborative teaching tool. I especially enjoyed reading the GO WEST wiki. What great way for all the kids to get involved in a project. This would also be great for Georgia state history.
The Kubler Reading was a great wiki too. Kids were assigned reading TUCK EVERLASTING and then assigned different tasks which were then posted. Kids could add information that had not been added or update the sight. I can see using this when reading a book to an entire class and having the kids analyze or find metaphors or alliteration, odd vocabulary word etc.
The Thousands Project was also informative since there are absolutely no wrong answers. Our school competes with several other schools in the area for the least use of electricity. What a great way for our kids to get involved by posting what they are personally doing in this effort.
There were others that were interesting but too difficult for my audience of k-5.
After having set up the required 5 blogs for this class I started to peruse the internet to find some additional blogs that would be interesting to me.
As a librarian I found the Horn Book site (with Roger Sutton’s blog to be really interesting (www.hbook.com/blog). Nearly all librarians know about the Horn Book reviews and articles. I also found additional blogs that are written by elementary librarians around the country. Voices from the Inglenook is a great one (csslibraryblog.blogspot.com Have added several to my list.
It seems that I could spend an entire day just reading what other people think and do and have no time to do anything but that.
Reading the NYTimes today there is an article on Nancy Drew and the women that have been nominated for the Supreme Court. Gotten ideas for the fall and the girl readers at school. Could not find it on the web so I am convinced that there still is a need for newspapers.
