Week 5

I am in love with my google site. I have been playing with it over the last 2 weeks and am really excited to get it "ready" for next year. I know that this will be a really cool part of my instruction next year and am exited to use it as the classroom "hub" for online communication. Currently, I haven't uploaded anything on it, but plan to post the videos and podcast on soon. I also like that it is so incredibly easy to use!

I know on an earlier post i mentioned using edmodo, which I still plan on trying, but find myself gravitating more to the google site for my classroom.

Some features that bother me about google sites are:

• limited creativity options ofr themes
• can't change background colors on specific pages
• limited layouts

A Vision of K-12 Students Today

Interesting video on technology and our students!

Week 4

So I have been really wanting to create podcasts of my lessons for my classroom so parents and absent students can check for clarifications, but never really set up a time to do it. I'm really hoping that now that I have some experience and tools to do it, I will feel more confident about it. My only concern is that in 4 weeks I will be gone on maternity leave and won't be able to really do any major podcasting this year. :(

Have any of you made podcasts of your classes before? Did your students like them?

I also think that the google site I am creating will be extremely helpful for me and my students next year. I wanted to create a wiki but have been having fun playing around with google sites this week and think this is a better avenue for me. I also think that by creating a google site I can show my students how easy it is and maybe they will be enticed to create their own google sites.

Anyone with a current classroom website you would like to share with me? I'm just looking for ideas and options!

Splish splash

Originally uploaded by rbergman33

Here is a photo I took this fall. It was taken at Whitnall Park in Franklin, WI.

This image is located on my flickr account.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58453241@N03/

Why didn't i know about this sooner?

Dear RSS feeds,

Thank you for making all my google searching and history tracking so much less time comsuming. I am a little upset that I was not fully aware of your power sooner, but will embrace our new relationship with a smile.

Love,

Rachel

Basically, I love this concept!!! It still is a bit overwhelming but nothing I can't figure out. I feel like I am constantly finding new tools that are just making my life easier and easier and I couldn't be happier. I am excited to use this to find new info on artists and digital art that is current to use for my classroom. I like to incorporate art news or recent events in my teaching but find it time consuming to "google" everything...not to mention the keeping up with it everyday. Now I click a button and BAM! Everything I want, filtered and ready to read!!

I don't think many of my students will be able to use this feature, but my co-workers would love this. I'm sure many of them have hear of RSS and some may even use it, but most are probably like me. I have seen it but never had the guts to look into what it really was.

Now I just need an extra 5 hours a day to explore all these tools and fully understand the features and abilities the RSS feeds have.

Photo sharing? Yes please!

This week I was excited to look at different photosharing sites and loved the video to explain it. I am finding that my students love to post things online and what a better way to encourage art then to have them publish there work online? I am hoping to have a project in Febuary about art and emotion for 8th graders that revolves around photography...maybe using a photo sharing site is the direction I should go?

What photo sites do you use with your students? Does anyone?

I was hoping to use flickr since thats what I am the most familiar with, but my district doesn't let students use it and I would need email addresses for my students.

Loving the blogs!

So after the articles and exploring the different collaboration sites I realized how much I love blogging. Although I have never really maintained a personal blog, I have started several over the years and feel like I might just have to give it another try. I alos love reading other peoples blogs. Its fun and a great way to get new perspectives and ideas!

As for what I want to bring into my classroom...I want to blog with my students. I think that it is a great skill to teach as well as a prefect way for them to display their artwork for the world. Learning how to become comfortable with sharing artwork can be an extremely overwhelming task, especially for insecure middle schoolers--perhaps having a computer to "hide" behind will make it a bit less challenging. I know that many of my students are on facebook/myspace and find comfort in the lack of face to face communication--I could show them how to do this will their artwork and feelings baout their artwork as a way to ease them into real public displays and critiques of their work.

My only question...which tool do I use. I have learned baout so many that now I have to figure out my main purpose of the blog to find the best fit. Wish me luck!!! Any suggestions? :)