Thing 21

I originally signed up for a Twitter account as a parent last spring when the fourth graders went to Chicago. It was such a terrific idea! I had never twittered before, and I haven't done much since, but it was very useful for that specific event. The teachers were able to send tweets at key times such as arrivals, bedtimes, departures, and getting close to school so come meet the bus! They also through in a few extras when they had to time, just to update us about what was going on with the kids. It worked well because all of the parents were updated at the exact same time. I had a sixth grader in Toronto at the same time and they did not twitter, but I wish they would have! I read that they are considering trying to twitter this year and I would highly recommend it!
I found the TweetDeck application for Twitter and added it to my laptop. I like the organizational quality, although I am not quite sure of all it has to offer. I noticed that it had a facebook icon on it when I first signed up (although I can't find it again), which I am excited about. Maybe I can combine the two accounts...new updates of both coming into one place??? That would be very cool. I am going to have to log into my facebook account and track down TweetDecks!

Thing 20

Slideshare definitely resembles powerpoint presentations. I can see how you can put together information on just about any topic and share it in this format. I thought this was a fun math trivia slideshare that could be used with most age groups. I found some other neat math trivia games that looked liked they would be useful for older students to help review for tests. I also found a slideshare that had several number/calculator tricks, but it had one page that had "adult only" content so it was out of the running to be in my blog! :-)

Math Trivia

View more presentations from Ahudson.

Thing 19

I spent quite a bit of time on podcastalley and learn out loud listening to different podcasts. I found a couple of family related podcasts on podcastalley that were geared towards parents. They are long podcasts and I could only listen to one episode each, so I am not sure if they are exactly what I am looking for, but I did subscribe to two different audio versions. I also found this quick educational podcast on learn out loud that I liked. It is quick weekly grammar tips and it includes some things that we use every day in writing that most of us use incorrectly or tend to forget about altogether. When I subscribed to it, I actually found other sites that with quick tips (coupon deals, manners, etc.) that were interesting, as well. Here is the link for Grammar Girl: http://www.qdnow.com/grammar.xml

Thing 18

I did several things with the Wikis. First I went to the "sandbox" and added favorites to television shows, movies, and vacation spots. Next I went to the ASH site on Wikipedia, but I didn't feel comfortable changing anything. The one thing that caught my attention right away was the grade level listing. It should state that our school is in infancy through 12 for girls and infancy through 8 for boys. Right now it appears there is a high school for boys. Finally, I did some editing on the second grade Wiki. I have never added pages before, so this was new for me. We are reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory along with a school in Houston, so I created a page with the image of the book cover. We are going to collaborate on some lessons together, so I will add these as we go along. I also created a second page on our Wiki for Spring Haikus. We will be creating these and sharing them with our friends in Texas. I still have a quick defintion that I want to add, explaining what "Haiku" means, but it is in a book that I don't have access to at the moment.:-)

Thing 17

We have a Wiki this year in second grade! We started one last year, but didn't have as much interaction with the other schools and with our own students as we have had this year. This is my only experience with Wikis, however, so I was interested in looking at some of the others out there. To be honest, I thought Kubler's Reading Wiki had the most useful content...some of the others did not seem as strong. I liked that I could link to other Wikis. In fact a couple of other second grade classrooms came up and these may be worth contacting to expand our global connections for next year.
I didn't associate the name "Wikipedia" with being a "wiki", until now. I used to use Wikipedia often, but was dismayed to recently learn that anyone can edit the information. I now am leary of the accuracy of its content.

Thing 16

I really wanted to find some type of moving widget, like the fish (but something different), but I found more game type widgets. I liked this game, so I decided to put it on my blog. It is kind of addictive, so maybe it is not good thing to have easy access to! I also added a weather widget, since we check our weather daily in second grade. :-) I am thinking there must be a way to move these around on my blogger site, but I can't figure out how to do this...help!!!

Thing 15

I decided to make a screencast on changing the background on my computer. I chose to do this because my 13 year old changes my background regularly and I had no idea (until now) how she was doing this! I figured this way I could learn how to do it and also have a record of it in case I forgot! :-) Making the screencast was really easy to do. However, adding it to my blog was an entirely different story!!! video