Thing #23: The End of the Beginning

This class has been a great "kick-in-the-pants" for me, giving me the guidance, motivation and accountability I needed to discover some of the tools available to me as an educator. Beyond discovering these tools, I was "forced" to actually practice using them... and of course once I did that, those tools were no longer so intimidating or scary.

My favorite discovery is not technically one of the "23 Things", but I was led to it while setting up my RSS feeds: the Google Account. I think it's so handy to have everything in one place: RSS feeds, my dashboard, my blogger account, documents, etc. It's user-friendly and provides an efficient way to navigate to important websites. I am also enamored of RSS feeds, because they help me to keep informed, and the NetLibrary, because it helps to feed my addiction (see Thing #22).

Blogging was a great exercise, because it made me process what I was learning, and also motivated me to learn how to download photos from my camera and imbed other images and videos from the web. While these last two skills were also not technically part of "23 Things", this class motivated me to learn them.

As far as actually using these "Things" in the classroom, if I was a "regular" (as opposed to a substitute) teacher I would definitely create a class wiki. I think its capacity for student input makes it superior to the more traditional website. In my personal life, I'm so happy to have learned how to (a)upload photos from my digital camera to my computer, and (b)share them through e-mail or other sites (instead of asking my husband or son to do so). Not rocket science, but for some reason I had resisted learning this skill!

Yes, I'd take another "dicovery"-type class. I'm always intimidated by new things and change, so it helps when I have someone to "hold my hand". As far as improvements to the class, I would have enjoyed an opportunity, on the first day, to meet my classmates in a room without computers, where we were all facing each other, without the distraction and physical barrier of our terminals. I am a very "relational" person, and I thrive on the interactive aspect of the classroom. I think that a more intentional approach to building a sense of community in this class would make everyone feel more comfortable with each other, and also enhance our sense of camraderie when interacting online.

The bottom line: this class dragged me, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century and the world of 2.0 Learning... and for that I'm grateful!! Many thanks to Carol and all of my classmates in this semester's "23 Things".

Thing #22: NetLibrary: I'm in Love

I am an audiobook junkie. When I became a mother I despaired of ever reading a book again, but then I discovered that I could "read" a book by listening to it. Since making that amazing discovery, I have listened to audiobooks while driving, doing dishes, folding laundry, cleaning the toilet, watering the plants... you get the idea. I try to "turn off" the book anytime a member of my family walks into the room, and most of the time I resist the temptation to drive around the block over and over when I come home just at "the good part" of the novel I'm listening to in the car, but it's tough! To make matters worse, Carol has just explained (in Thing #22) that I can feed my addiction without even leaving the comfort of my own home! When I browsed by the subject "Science and Nature", I pulled up a great selection of titles with which to improve my mind, such as:

Black Hole War: My Battle With Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics by Leonard Susskind.

Why bother resisting? Naturally, I checked it out!

Thing #20: YouTube Euphoria

When I typed "Biology" into the search box at YouTube, I wasn't really expecting to find anything helpful, but thankfully I was wrong! Check out this video on Protein Synthesis: entertaining AND educational... yea! Probably only a biology teacher could sit through the entire video, but I was impressed. Now please excuse me while I go and watch the rest of the rock opera from which this was excerpted: "Control of Gene Expression"... sounds like a real cliff-hanger!

Thing #21 Diving into Podcasts

I love the Podcast.com directory! Without even searching, I found 4 sites on the "Top 25" that would be helpful to me as a science teacher. NOVA, Discovery News, BBC and "Stuff you Should Know"... yea! One of my daughter's math teachers started off many classes with a brief clip from YouTube. It was an entertaining way to get the kids engaged right off the bat, and motivated them to get to class on time, so that they wouldn't miss the show. Why not use the same technique, but with an educational video or audio podcast about a current event, or pertaining to the topic of the day?

Thing #19: It Takes Two to Mango

For our "Discovering Web 2.0 Tools" Exercise, I visited Mango and completed the first Spanish lesson. I spent 4 years learning French in High School, which seemed like a good idea at the time... my Dad worked for Amoco and we were living in England. Now I wish I knew Spanish! I found the first lesson easy to understand and enjoyable, with lots of helpful repetition and the ability to move forward or backwards at my own pace. I can envision myself spending a summer working through the Mango Spanish program, especially if I knew I would be working with ELL students the following year. Unfortuately, our local library doesn't subscribe to the program... phooey!

Thing #18 Web-based Apps: Thumbs Up & Down

I'm sure it's due partly to my ineptitude, but I had a hard time trying to get Zoho to work... I'm giving it a "thumbs down". Google Docs, on the other hand, seemed a lot more "user-friendly"... "thumbs up" for it. There was even a special category of templates called "Students and Teacher", which had items such as calendars, research papers, book reports, and grade and attendance records. I played around with photo albums, spreadsheets, calendars and documents.

Carol also pointed out a neat site called "Google for Educators" which extends far beyond word processing to many other applications that they provide free for the classroom... cool!

Here's the website:

http://www.google.com/educators/index.html

Thing #16 & 17 Wiki Wonderland

Sure, wikis have their downfalls, but overall I think they're a wonderful thing. Last October, while flying on Southwest Airlines, I read an article in their in-flight magazine that featured a discussion between the president of Encyclopedia Britannica and the founder of Wikipedia. (I wish I could access that article now, but SWA doesn't offer a "search" feature on their magazine's website... the nerve!) Anyway, the debate between these two men was a great example of "Learning 1.0" and "Learning 2.0", and I must say that Britannica came down very hard on the side of intellectual elitism. Anyway, I think that a classroom wiki would be fabulous, in that it would facilitate the "community of scholars" approach to which I aspire. I would just need to hold some sway over the content... guess I'm not ready to be completely democratic!

Thing #15 Learning to be a Web 2.0 Learner

I think I'm finally moving beyond rebelling against the idea of HAVING to use Web 2.0 in my classroom, to thinking about HOW I will continue to use Web 2.0 (after this class is complete!) to enhance both my learning and my teaching. I visited all of both David Warlick's and David Richardson's sites, and love the title on David's: "CoLearners". That's what it's all about: learning right alongside of our "students" (in this brave new world of education, do we need new terms for ourselves?). I also appreciated Will Richardson's homepage for it's bulleted format, great categorization, and multitudinous links. It's a comprehensive overview, from many different viewpoints, of how Web 2.0 is affecting the world.

Finally, as a humorous example of how Web 2.0 is calling us to a higher level of accountabililty: I was going to include a quote from the top of Richardson's website in this post, since it was attributed to Darwin and thus fits neatly into my Biology background. However, a quick check revealed that the quote was misattributed... OOPS!

I bet the California Academy of Sciences wishes they'd figured that out before they etched said quote into their stone floor. For a photo and the story, see this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cpurrin1/3163273537/

Thing #14: Wasting Time in the Blogosphere

I can't say that Blogs strike me as the most edifying aspect of Web 2.0, but they certainly are entertaining. How else would I have found out about Susan Boyle? Once I settled down and actually completed the assignment, I did find some sites pertinent to Biology education, but most of them were free videos and lectures, rather than blogs per se. As far as using the various modes of searching, the "Tag" feature was the most helpful for finding blogs specific to Science. The "Technorati Tour" video was a little aggravating because (as far as I could tell) the current homepage does not match the one used as a demo on the video, making it impossible to actually follow along.

Thing #12 Rollyo: an exercise in frustration

Sorry, but I don't like the "Rollyo" website. It has sucked up huge amounts of my time and turned me into a raving lunatic. I keep going back to it (have been for a week) because I think that this is my problem, but it aggravates me that when I look at other people's search rolls, their links do not work. Also, I'm not impressed with the quality of the websites (I'm looking specifically for those pertinent to teaching Biology) that I have found here. Carol's suggestion to search "Public Domain eBooks" finally yielded some results, with the discovery of IPL, the Internet Public Library. Yea! I finally found some fantastic life sciences resources. Here's a lovely diagram of several molecules of water, a ubiquitous substance that we take for granted, but which is absolutely essential to life.

Thing #13: Yummy!

I've only spent a little time on del.icio.us , but I can already see that it will be a useful tool. I've entered my most commonly used bookmarks, and I love the idea of being able to access them from anywhere. Since I'm all over the place as a substitute teacher, this will allow me to use my planning periods more effectively... yea! A search for "Biology" yielded some websites that merit closer investigation, so I'll check those out and add them to the list of teaching resources that I'm accruing for my return to the classroom.

Thing #11 Bibliophiles Unite!

Once again frittered away far too much time having fun. "Add at least 5 books to your library" instructed Carol, and this was my honest intent. But the "Add Books" feature on LT is so addictive that I ended up entering most of the books that I've read for the past 7 years. For even more entertainment, I added an LT widget to my blog.

Thing #10 Generating Fun

SCIENTIA SAPIENTES DEFENDIT

"Knowledge protects the wise". I have always liked the idea of wisdom as being the ability to make good life choices, based on what we know. In other words, the acquisition of knowledge, while admirable, does not impress me in a person who does not seem to be living their life with wisdom. So... I used the "Latin Motto Generator" to create a life motto for myself. To create your own motto about life or anything else, go to:

http://www.inrebus.com/latinmottogenerator.php

Next, I went to "Wordle" to create a Word picture of terms having to do with "Cells". Since Biology is such a vocabulary-rich subject, I thought it might be fun to use some of that vocabulary in a creative way. Click on the thumbnail of the wordle below to see it in a "read-able" size.

Happy Distractions

I spent last week in Naperville, IL helping my sister after the birth of her fourth child. Naturally there were many chores to be done, but in addition to those I had a blast visiting with Nancy, caring for baby Natalie and hanging out with the other 3 children. All that work and play didn't leave much time for "homework"... now that I'm home again, I need to catch up!

Thing #9 Finding Feeds

Of the three tools that Carol suggested for finding feeds, I like the "atmosphere" of Syndic8.com the best. However, it did not prove to be very helpful in finding feeds for Science articles, especially Biology. Topix.net has a little bit of a "tabloid" feel that doesn't appeal to me, but I appreciate the fact that it has a "Science and Technology" bar that I can click on to find articles. Since I'm not a huge fan of blogs, I probably won't make much use of technorati.com.

To choose RSS feeds for my Google Reader, I found several of them right on the Reader when I set up my account. I then added several from National Public Radio (npr.org) since I am a long-time listener and fan. Finally, now that I understand the meaning of the RSS feed icon, I am checking for it on any website that I find helpful.

Now that all this info is readily available on my Google Reader account, I just need to remember to check in, check out the latest info, and check out before I allow it to eat up too much of my time!

Feeling Full: Thing #8

I just made a first pass at setting up my Google Reader account with 7 feeds, ranging from items genuinely useful to my professional development (e.g. Scientific American) to pure fluff (e.g. Cute Overload). It was fun to browse the "pre-packaged bundles" that Google had put together, then pick and choose the feeds I thought would be useful or entertaining. I like the idea of having all that "latest and greatest" info in one place.

Since I've been "all over the place" as a sub the past 10 years (I sub K-12, all subjects), my knowledge of Science has both atrophied and lagged behind. If I can focus on the Science articles that come across my reader, and not get too distracted by the entertaining-but-not-particularly-useful items, I think this will help to refresh my database.

As far as a Science classroom goes, this is a great way to make my subject "relevant". What better way to engage the students while I take attendance than to put a current story, image or video up on the screen for their perusal? The reader will also keep me up-to-date on current topics that might come up in or class discussions. And sometimes, it's just a nice stress-reliever to put up something entertaining for the kids to enjoy. Last year I subbed a couple of days after April Fool's Day, and was able to show this excellent spoof video on penguins made by the BBC:

Winter Blossoms

The "23 Things" class has motivated me to learn how to upload photos from my camera onto the computer; now that my son has given me a tutorial, I need to write the steps into a Word document before I forget!

Gardening is therapy for me, so I'm a little unbalanced in the wintertime. :) My houseplants help, and I'm even starting to see a few hopeful signs of life in the yard. Top to bottom: a "Christmas" cactus, which usually blooms about 4 times a year; a really huge (each blossom is over 8" in diameter) amaryllis that my husband has dubbed "Audrey II"; a few dainty crocuses that just poked up outside this week. Now, if we could just import some of that snow from the East Coast...

#7 Thankful

Regarding technology: all I can say is "thank heavens my kids got their Dad's "technophile" genes, and that they (and their Dad) are willing to help me out with this class!" I'm pulling my hair out enough, even with their help... my son just sat and laughed at me today (in between giving helpful hints), because I was making so many "frustrated" sound effects while doing my homework.

#6 More Flikr Fun

Mad Dash Through Europe

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Here's a map of the countries we visited on a two-week trip this summer, to celebrate our daughter's H.S. graduation. Exhausting, but fun!

18 Pages Later... Thing #5

Following Carol's suggestion to do a search for our city's name on Flikr, I ended up spending the better part of an hour gazing at photos of places that I love, but which I could never capture with the skill and artistry of these photographers. I was completely captivated. It was late on a school night, and I kept telling myself "just one more page"... then kept looking at more.

For my "favorite", I chose "Curving South into Fort Collins", at this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fortphoto/3301020193/

I love this shot because it captures a view of the South end of the city, taken right next to Spring Creek Dam. Since I ride my bike up here often it's a familiar road and a familiar view, but I rarely see it after dark. The curve that is lit up in this photo represents "the home stretch" of my rides, when I'm screaming down the hill to my neighborhood nearby. By that time in my workout all the hills are behind me, I'm enjoying speed without effort, refreshed by the exertion and fresh air, looking forward to going home.

"Brave New Classroom" is Buzzing my Brain

I'm still wading through all the articles that make up Britannica.com's "Brave New Classroom" Forum on the use of technology in education (not to mention all the posts in the discussion), and it's really making my brain buzz. Is technology friend or foe, a boon or a boondoggle in the classroom? When I resigned my teaching position to stay home with my first baby, none of these issues even existed. Now I sub K-12 and get to implement other peoples' lesson plans, but do not yet have to create my own. What will I do if and when the classroom is truly "mine"? Will I be willing to "share" it with my students, to give up control, to truly create the "community of scholars" ideal? Will I be competent enough in technology to integrate it into my classroom?

Two things I'm certain of: that there are very effective teachers out there who use very little technology in their classroom, and that the reverse is also true. My son's 8th grade Science teacher (now, sadly, retired) used nothing but a blackboard... the kind with chalk... and is repeatedly described as "the best teacher I ever had" by countless high school graduates. At the other end of the spectrum, we've all suffered through "death by power point" at some point in our lives... sitting through a glitzy, but painfully boring presentation up on a screen. The key, I think, is engagement: we need to engage our students in the learning process. No amount of technology can do that for us... we have to genuinely care about them, figure out how to convey our concern in a way that our youth can believe and understand, make the material relevant and challenging, and set high standards and expectations. Those factors, at least, I can be sure of. In our rapidly changing world, some factors of "being a great teacher" will never change.

Easiest and Hardest

Thing #3

By far, the easiest thing for me to do as a life-long learner is to "accept responsibility". As the first-born girl in a family of 7, taking responsibility comes naturally to me. Not only do I take responsibility for myself, but I tend to take it on for others as well... and that's a problem. As a member of my family and as a teacher, I have to remain aware of this tendency, and remember to keep my nose out of other people's business, separating out "my problems" from "theirs". Sadly, I often forget to do this.

"Teach/mentor others" is also easy for me, because I enjoy doing this, and feel that it is one of my gifts.

Hardest... hmmm. I see three items as interrelated in the "hardest" category for me, but they all tie back into "have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner". When I lose confidence and give into negative self-talk, it's easy for me to turn "problems" into "roadblocks", rather than "challenges". Also, since I tend to lack confidence in my technical abilities, it's challenging for me to "use technology to my advantage". My husband and both of my two kids are technophiles, which is both a blessing and a curse. They are always there to help me out, but I can lean on their expertise too heavily and not develop my own abilities.

Frantic Catch-up

Thing #3

Having just returned from CA and my daughter's college's "Family Weekend", I'm trying to zip through the"23 Things" homework that I put off for too long.

So far, so good... despite being a self-proclaimed technophobe, nothing is too scary so far. The creators of this class have gone out of their way to make everything extremely user-friendly and accessible, and for that I'm grateful.