Glogster

I don't know if anyone is still reading but I have FINALLY done something MILI successfully in my classroom. Students used Glogster to enhance a personal poem they read aloud to the class. After some frustration on my part (and Sharon's), we got Glogster figured out and NONE of my students shared that they had any frustration. I heard through the grapevine that one student even said this poetry assignment was "tite". Which was not the opinion of any of them at the beginning. A nice way to end the year!

Thing 6-Google Docs

I tried Google Docs with my small group of students last quarter. There is definitely a learning curve. The hardest part was setting up accounts for each of the students. Gmail was not accepting many of them so we had to switch to Yahoo accts. The students then had to create the Google acct. This two step process took much of our time. The next day when we came back to it, some of the students had already forgot their accts. When we finally got to the activity, a survey of prior knowledge before beginnning a novel, the students were engaged and liked that they could do some research online as they answered the questions. I liked that all their results came instantly and directly to me when they submitted their survey. I could then display each person's information on the LCD and go to any interesting sites with a click of the mouse. The students were engaged. Unfortunately, we have not used Google Docs since and I wonder if they will remember how to get there.

Thing 1

I know I am just getting to this. I am not Sarah or Travis and I do not have a student teacher. I started going through the web directory and WOW! That was amazing. I got sidetracked by anything related to preschool age children. It got me to thinking about all the things I could/should be doing with my children and more importantly, thinking about the opportunities that will be available when they get to school. I can't keep up now (obviously), how will I do it in the future? I think I need a student teacher!

Still Learning

I have been trying to read the MILI blogs as they come. I have also observed that many other sites have RSS and places to blog. I have never noticed them before. Yet, this is the only blog I "participate" in. I'm not sure I "get" how you set up a blog for your classroom. I get the setting up individual ones but how do you make the group? I may have missed that in the sea of information on the first few days. I may not be using much yet but I am more aware and thinking about opportunities.

Thing 2

I was thinking of using blogging in my classroom but at this point I think I will wait until I am a bit more comfortable. I am sure the students are probably comfortable but I don't feel I could help if they needed it. I'll wait and see...

Day 2

I am feeling better today now that I have narrowed down a topic for research. I am better able to apply ALL this information that we have been learning.

Learning to Blog

I have already learned so much setting this up. Where does this blog go and how do I know where it is going?