Beahon's Blog

Thing 23

2012-01-30T15:07:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's over - and well ahead of schedule!! Even though I've already done 23Things before, in the beginning I was worried about having the time to search for and learn about all these things and it's still a concern, but less so as I am learning to use the tools that will help me manage all this information. While I struggled with many lessons, some were surprisingly easy. I look forward to revisiting some of the content of the early lessons so I will be more "fluent" when I go back to school and use what I've learned in my classroom. That's been the most exciting aspect of this class: learning to use technology that my students are proficient with in ways that can enhance my instruction and delivery of it and their learning! While I'm adept at using YouTube, I'd never thought about using it in the classroom until this year. Blogs and Google Docs are two "things" that I plan on implementing next school-year. Our staff has begun using Goolgle Docs to facilitate online discussions of building practices and problems and I'm looking forward to sharing and tweaking lessons with other teachers online as well. I'm grateful to RESA for putting this program together.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in all of this is how online communities are developing. I grew up without computers and listening to the dire warnings that people were going to be isolated by computers; nothing can be further from the truth! We can communicate with people throughout the world and this aspect of the Internet really excites me.

Thing 22

2012-01-30T15:01:00.000-08:00

I didn't have any trouble creating my Wiki, but frankly, I feel that I'd rather have my class use a blog and/or Google Docs to perform the same functions as the Wiki. Find my Wiki at:

mrsbeahons.wikispaces.com

Thing 21

2012-01-30T14:14:00.000-08:00

Wiki's offer many opportunites in education. I can see the benefit of students, especially high school students, using them as they collaborate on projects. It's a far cry from scrounging rides to libraries to meet my group when I was in high school!

I loved the students from New York collaborating with students from Australia on comparing hemispheres. This type of project would inspire me to use a Wiki in my classroom. I'd want to keep it locked, though, so no one could mess with the data collection and reports. I would also want to be sure to keep my students' identities protected.

Thing 20

2012-01-30T12:50:00.000-08:00

This Thing was frustrating because I couldn't connect to the Education Podcast Network (EPN) and the Podcast Alley (PCA) site was receiveing maintenance, so the search tools were a bust. I was also asked to download QuickTime and Windows Media Player. I found iTunes to be very user-friendly, once I downloaded it. I subscribed to CNN Student News.

CNN Student News Podcasts

Thing 19

2012-01-30T11:25:00.000-08:00

I found this Thing very frustrating because I kept getting messages that I need to install quick time or Windows Media Player. From what I could tell by the name of the Student and Teacher created ones, they're mostly for high school. I then looked at professional development podcasts for educators and was a bit more successful. I've included links to an LD podcast as well as to Dave Bydlowski's K12Science podcast. I'll listen to these podcasts while riding my exercise bike as a way to keep myself informed.

LD Podcast

K12Science Podcast by Dave Bydlowski

Thing 18

2012-01-30T10:50:00.000-08:00

I found Slideshare very easy to navigate through and was happy to sign up for an account. The slideshow that I embedded below will be good for all of my students, especially my English Language Learners (ELLs) because it uses both words and pictures to convey the concept or word. I'll need to tweak it for our lesson, but it's a very good beginning. I can see using Slideshare frequently in the classroom and am excited to do so. I don't see myself using it in my personal life.

Revolutionary war on wednesday ch 4 6

View more presentations from Jolene Berg

Thing 17

2012-01-30T10:36:00.000-08:00

I tried to explore the bubble.us site, but was unable to get on so I went to Flashcarddb and signed up for an account. You can make your own cards as well as search for sets that have been made by others. I saved Revolutionary War flashcards and heredity ones. I can really appreciate the value of tags now as I use the search button!! I plan to check out some of the other online productivity tools as time allows.

Thing 16

2012-01-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

Finally a Thing that I'm very comfortable with!! We were introduced to Google Docs a few years ago and have used it as a staff for this Thing, Stepping it Up, PBIS, the school calendar, etc. My teammates and I use a Google Doc spreadsheet for student behavior and to document contact with parents. I used it to coordinate the 5th grade Christmas cookie and ornament exchange, though some are still unable to open their account due to problems with passwords. I'm excited to use it in my classroom with students, but am not sure where we are in terms of providing gmail addresses for everyone.

I use it in my personal life to keep all of my usernames and passwords straight as well as this summer to track Bob's and my weight while we were on the South Beach Diet.

Thing 15

2012-01-30T09:47:00.000-08:00

While RSS is becoming easier for me to use, I still feel overwhelmed by the amount of information that I encounter! I still don't remember to check the feed regularly, but feel that I'll do it more as it becomes a habit. It definitely has not become an obsession!! I'd liken that to me saying I'm obsessed by drowing!

Thing 14

2012-01-29T08:58:00.000-08:00

These Things are getting more challenging! My Delicious username is: delicious.com/kbeahon. I enjoyed looking at and selecting bookmarks from the Education stack, though to be honest, I don't know how much I'll use them for myself. I think I'll use them more as student resources when we're working on projects.

Thing 13

2012-01-28T16:49:00.000-08:00

Tagging is an excellent way to organize my digital resources because without tagging, they get to be very difficult to manage. I like that I can tag them several different ways because I don't always remember the exact tag I've used and just need to come up with the category which I put things in. The advantages of using Delicious to store my digital resources are many including being able to access them from any computer, not just on the computer I've saved them on as is the case with bookmarks, being able to keep everything organized, and sharing with others. It's important to remember that your tags might not mean the same thing to other people and to use several of them.

Under the Bridge

2012-01-28T16:15:00.001-08:00

Under the Bridge, a photo by xfile001 on Flickr.

I love the Mackinaw Bridge and have been under it in my brother's boat. Thought it'd be interesting to put a shot of the bridge in winter on my blog!

Thing 12

2012-01-28T16:04:00.000-08:00

I added the fish to my blog as I find them interesting to look at. I didn't like the widgets that could only be embedded with advertising on them and posted and deleted several of them before I found the fish. I am getting very comfortable with embedding code into my blog, yay me!

I have belonged to MySpace and Classmates (which I no longer use) and Facebook for years. I used these forums, at first, as a way to stay informed about my children's lives - or as they would say, to stalk them. I mainly just read my wall posts and rarely go on someone's page as I find it very time consuming. I do like using Facebook as a way to stay in touch with my very large family. It's also fun to catch up with old school friends. I am very selective in who I add as friends and tell my students not to bother "friending" me as I won't accept them. I have never used Facebook to form new friendships, so really can't speak to part of the question.

I believe that instead of isolating people, as feared when the social sites became popular, it keeps me connected to a much broader group of people. This is why I think it's so popular with students.

Thing 11

2012-01-28T15:26:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed commenting on my colleagues' blogs and am glad this Thing made me look at them. I try to be very careful when I comment as I don't want to make mistakes and have them posted for the world to see. Having people post comments is a nice way to validate what we are doing here and makes this a truly social site. I would hope that student bloggers would use conversational English on blog posts and not "text speak." I think they can use these social sites to practice writing. A concern I have is that it's not face-to-face, students will say hurtful things in their comments.

Thing 10

2012-01-28T15:03:00.000-08:00

Embedding this video was incredibly easy to do!! I chose it because we watched it last year in my science classes. The students and I were amazed at how fast the eaglets grew and sometimes grossed out by watching them eat! I was able to download this video using the KeepVid program. The only downside to this and other Things is that I have to download programs to my computer.

Thing 9

2012-01-28T14:51:00.000-08:00

This was one of the easiest Things yet!! I actually embedded a YouTube video in my post for Thing 9 before I realized that I wasn't supposed to do that until Thing 10! I like YouTube, TeacherTube and SchoolTube and have used them all in my classroom. We had a few weeks at the beginning of the school year in which we couldn't access YouTube, but that was quickly fixed. I use it for educational videos as well as music videos to get my students' brains and bodies moving!! You must be very careful with this, however, because some of the thumbnails that come up when your video is finished are definitely not appropriate for students.

Thing 8

2012-01-28T14:32:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed using Smilebox and Big Huge Labs, though found it to be very time consuming!! I could use both of these in my classroom to create photo collages and and interesting projects in both Science and Social Studies.

Here's what I was able to do at Smilebox, Fun!

My creation on Big Huge Labs!!

Thing 7

2012-01-28T13:53:00.000-08:00

I found Thing 7 to be very interesting and surprisingly "user friendly!" The personal applications for this are endless and I can hardly wait for summer when I'll have more time to upload and organize my photos on Flickr. My biggest concerns about using it in the classroom are the privacy of my students and the possibility of them coming across unsuitable photos.

Thing 6

2012-01-28T13:39:00.000-08:00

This Thing was very difficult! I've read and watched the videos, yet still am unable to attach a photo from Flickr!! I even uploaded my own photo to Flickr and made it public, yet was still unable to attach it on this blog!! I came back to it after completing six other Things and was able to add a picture of the Mackinaw Bridge in the winter, but it's on the page, not with this post!!

Thing 5

2012-01-28T12:34:00.000-08:00

RSS is a bit overwhelming. I feel like I don't have enough time to spend surfing for blogs that are useful to me. I had better luck with the Google Blog search than with Technorati. I found a great blog called Free Printable Lesson Plans on Google Blog. Again, I just need more time to play with it.

Thing 4

2012-01-28T12:10:00.000-08:00

Setting up my RSS was easier than I anticipated. I'll have to admit to being totally overwhelmed by the volumn of information out there and feel that this tool will help me focus my interests. I set mine up for email updates as I'm on that continuously throughout the day and not on my BLOG.

Thing 3

2012-01-26T19:35:00.000-08:00

Setting up my blog was easy, though I must not have registered it correctly because it hasn't been listed on the 23 Things site yet. I set it up on Jan. 18th and re-registered it tonight. I enjoyed looking at several other blogs and look forward to learning more "things." Three down, 20 to go!!!!!

Thing 2

2012-01-18T16:45:00.000-08:00

I'm amazed by the potential technology in the form of iPODs, cell phones, BLOGS, etc, has in our classrooms. My main reason for being here is to explore the uses of these things and so I can keep up with my own children! A huge concern for me is privacy. I've seen so many students make the mistake of putting things "out there" in cyberspace as if their friends are the only ones who can see it. I've always been careful about the written word, as can stay around forever! I'm considering a classroom BLOG but want to protect my students' identities. I also wonder if I'd be able to keep up with monitoring it.

Thing 1

2012-01-18T16:23:00.001-08:00

Welcome all you 23 Things bloggers! I'm here to learn as much as I can about cyberspace! Technology can play a huge role in my classroom if I am able to utilize it.