Podcast Share

http://www.cinchcast.com/sonjajames/222951

Thing 16-Twiddla

Twiddla is a really cool site. I enjoyed playing around with Monica and Christy. Thanks for your help girls and thanks Bodie for this cool site!!

Thing 23-Final Reflection

I have mixed feelings about this module. Some of the "things" I really enjoyed were in the first and second modules. I think that I could use wallwisher, wordle, voicethread and podcasting the most in my elementary classrooms. I am not a twitter or skype fan. I just think that twitter is hard to follow and not user friendly. The fact that we have really low bandwidth at our schools is a henderance to the use of Skype. I do feel that this module gave me the ability to explore many diferent tools and to take them into the classrooms. I have to admit that it took me some time on this module. At first, I was just dragging my feet and then when I had to do something in one of the "things" that I had difficulty doing---I clammed up and didn't work on it for awhile. Now, that I am finished with the module, I have to admit that I am breathing a sigh of relief. On the other hand, I do have a better understanding of the NETS-T standards. I didn't realize that so much goes into what teachers need to know to teach technology effectively in their classrooms until completing this module. I know that so many teachers are lacking in using technology and I feel it is because they are unsure about thier abilities. If I get frustrated with aspects of technology then I am sure those teachers who are intimidated with technology also get frustrated. The kids today know so much more about technology than most teachers because they have been exposed to technology since they were born. In todays society, teachers really need to try to be a step ahead of the students they are teaching---again, this is becoming a hard task since our students are more "technology literate" than our teachers.

Thing 21-Webinar

I attended a webinar on March 22nd on Integrating Interactive Whiteboards. The webinar was presented by Karen and Kim from the Simple K12 site. The webinar also included a downloadable book on interactive whiteboard lessons to use in the classroom. I have already used some of the sites that they showed during the webinar with first graders at my schools. They loved the activities. I am also going to use this webinar and what I learned from attending the webinar to do a teacher training on our next ISE Day. I feel that the webinar was very beneficial to the education of our students.

Thing 22-Conference Reflection

I attended a session on Web 2.0: Where Do We Go? that was presented by Melissa Godfrey. Missy worked at the WVDE in the technology department and was a leader of a TIS Cohort. I really enjoyed her session and found many new and interesting tools to use with my teachers. Since I am new to being a TIS---I was very excited to know that so many new tools are available today. I am actually doing a training this summer on Internet Freebies and plan on showing other teachers in my county all the new free programs that are available on the Internet.

Thing 8-Reflection

I would like to tell Kristy Bryan-Davis that I really liked her Worlde Activity on Romana and Beezus. I think using Wordle with stories helps to excite students about the activity. I want to do more with incorporating Wordle in the curriculum at my schools, so thanks for this idea!!!

Thing 6-VoiceThread

http://voicethread.com/share/1777289/

Thing 20-Creative Commons

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smcdevitt/4550462619/in/pool-cc-the-best-photos

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Thing 19-Skype

I have not actually used Skype myself, but I have attended sessions with other users. The main reason being our Bandwidth at our school. We barely have enough bandwidth to load webpages. Hopefully in July that problem will be resolved. I do want to explore the possibility of my principal using Skype to deliver the morning messages. I thought if she could do one classroom each day that the students would be engaged better than listening to the announcements over the phone system. My username is: sjames.TIS.

Thing 18-Acceptable Use

Lewis Couty Schools Acceptable Use Policy: Lewis County Schools uses the same AUP as the state department. The AUP is current. Our school keeps a record of AUP's as it is part of our Student Data Forms. We do not have students who can't research on the Internet. When we do have a problem, I call the parents and reassure them that we have certain websites blocked and that we utilize kid friendly search engines through an edline folder.

http://www.edline.net/files/_HMC6A_/2dcd50a34374b4f23745a49013852ec4/BOE_chapter_five.pdf