Reflections 2-Wikis- "Wonderful Way to Go"

After using the many different communication tools such as Collaborative Bookmarking with del.ici.ous and Video Links, I believe that Wikis as a classroom tool was the most interesing tool that I read about and used. I like the fact that students would be able to collaborate and use information from many people on many different projects like research papers and Literary Essays. Working in a Special Education Resource Room and having to support many different students with different learning capabilities,being able to direct them to a Wikis site such as Next Vista.Org that incorporates many new and innovative learning tools. The site has an on-line library that the students could use in the Resource Room under supervision to show them what directions to take to make them successful with their curriculum. I have found that High School students are very eager to learn and use new ideas and be able to find new ways to feel good about themselves and be able to say "I did that myself and I am proud"

Wikis-A New Classroom Tool

Welcome to the wonderful world of Wikis...wow, what an experience. After going into some of the Wikis sites and doing a few of the activities that were designed for the students, I must say that I was impressed with the accessability and usability of the sites. The fact that students can collaborate on projects and learn from each other was amazing. They can use each others strengths to complete projects and share the information so that everyone can see the final assignment completed...Having tried one of the activities "Naming the Famous People" in the HCSD Class Demo Wiki, I realized that I was having a good time as well as learning. I would recommend that everyone who is looking for and educational tool try a Wiki site just once or even try to create their own Wiki for their classroom.

Video Sharing Sites- Are They Good or Bad?

I have just finished wandering through and learning about 4 different video sharing sites and I am amazed at the sameness yet differences of these learning tools. The first site that I explored was Nextvista.org which is a non profit organization and is totally filtered and I was impressed with the educational content and relivance of the site. There were three different areas within the site such as Lightbulbs, Global Views, and Seeing Service that all had good visual as well as good explanation of subject matter such as history, math, art, and science. This video site would be a wonderful tool for writing research papers because of the many areas that are covered. The site is very easy to work through and I believe that having the students use this site would prove to be very exciting.
Another video site was Clipblast which is also a free commercial site and the worlds largest video tool but unfortunatly this site is not filtered and at times there is no accessing it from school computers. Along this same line of video sites was You Tube which is also a non-filtered site which may have inappropriate subject matter for students at school to access but it is a good site for many people. The last of the sites that I visited was Teacher Tube which was easy to use and a good educational tool for science, history, or math projects just to name a few uses. There was a very nice feature called "Featured Videos of the Day" which kept abreast of daily themes and activities. I do believe that this could also be a good tool to use in a school setting. I am truely amazed at what is being offered to our young people as searching tools and it can only get better with time.

A Time For Reflection 1

After spending a few weeks trying to learn how to blog, I have decided that it can be enjoyable after all. At first, I found it confusing but after a while, I got that "Warm and Fuzzy" feeling when I knew that I had accomplished something new and exciting. I think that blogging will allow me to reach out to many other people that have new thoughts and ideas that otherwise I would never have been able to find out about. Using blogging in the classroom will be a fast and easy way to contact the students and or other teachers with assignments, comments, or sharing ideas. I think that some people are looking for the one other person that they can make contact with and share their thoughts.

Thoughts to Ponder

Have you ever wondered if the Teaching profession is for you? There are many things to consider before going into this field and have your really considered all the pros and cons? In the posting Teacher Cadets, Anne Davis's list Points to Ponder Elementary Thoughts show many different things to look at.