Vicki’s Web 2.0

I attended a conference from the creators of Teach Forward.  They had a power point and pod cast that reviewed teacher sites where lesson plans can be found.   I thought it was very interesting.  They mentioned that though there were sights that had lessons available they were not interactive.  Their website, Teach Forward, was attempting to create lesson plans that were interactive with creative common materials so that teachers could incorporate any aspect of the lesson for their own use. Pretty Cool!

My slideshow is called Paradise and it has lovely pictures of flowers and bugs. ( A science teachers dream.)  I even stretched myself and put in music

  Don’t laugh! 

This blogging is time consuming, not overly productive, but interesting. I like National Geographic and Flickr. I found out about a dolphin saving pygmy whales and 2 meteorites in Antarctica that scientist don’t know where they came from. Never know when you will get to drop that in a conversation. Did see some cool power points on one site and the science is fun guy has pictures of his students doing heart dissection. Like I said “interesting but not productive.”

Sounded a little like the idea of communism to me.  It seems like a wonderful idea to share your work with the world for free.  Collaboration is a wonderful thing, but in America we like to get paid (a lot) for our wonderful ideas, songs, pictures and the like. We also are somewhat territorial.  What is mine is mine! 

As a teacher I have yet desired to publish or even share with the world any of the work my students have done.  However, now that we have a wiki page for our students and parents I might just want to share with our Woodward families.  I could see using a student work to present at NSTA. So I guess I would need a cc from them.  As for using images in my classroom, my smart-notebook is full of them and so are my Power Points.  I just figured if they were on Google and I could copy and print them it was legal.

 As usual a lot of food for thought.

It is a well documented fact that walking in a garden can make you feel more relaxed and happier.  I have discovered that I can make a virtual garden using Flicker. I have used Google images for my Power Points in the past with the thought in my head that because I do not use this for other than my classroom there should be no copyright issues.  With Web 2.0 however it is possible that my Power Point might be used outside the classroom so now I know I can use Flicker  to doll up my Power Points or Smartboard presentations

photo by I shutter Photostream

http://flickr.com/photos/janelinton/122959202/

I have often told people that Woodward has a gifted program all day long, but lately I am concerned that this is not the case. The blog, about the gifted girl, name Georgia, being thwarted in her attempts to create a meaningful learning experience for herself made me reflect, “Am I creating an environment where children have a meaningful learning experience?” I also reflected on an earlier blog about stifling young Leonardo’s. Does a college preparatory school need to teach content, do we need to teach skills, do we need to teach problem solving skills, communication skills, technology skills, foreign language, an appreciation of literature, the arts, and music, social skills, and understanding of history, health, and responsible global governorship. Is there a place and a time in the student’s 13 years here to get this all in and yet let them be creative? let them have ownership of their learning? can we trust them to own their learning? If less is more can these myriad topics be right for our children? But it is a complicated world what is the right path? Sheesh! My head hurts.

http://wanderingink.wordpress.com/2007/05/23/how-to-prevent-another-leonardo-da-vinci/

http://www.techlearning.com/blog/2008/02/because_i_said_no.php 

After reading the blogs on homework, power points, and Leonardo daVinci it made me reflect upon how I give my assignments.  I am about to assign a Power Point presentation to third grade.  I decided that bullets are all right for beginners,  some of the slides will be their choice, for my little Leonardo’s.  

Everything I read certainly gave me food for thought and the homework one has given all of us a great deal to talk about.  It is amazing how everyone has an opinion and wants to share it.  No wonder this Web 2.0 thing is skyrocketing.

homework    power point   Leonardo

I though all those little videos were cool. They looked really neat with music and graphics, but I thought the information was really interesting. The one with the college kids was really thought provoking. I would like to make a podcast so that I could teach a lesson when I need to be out. I thought I might like to do a little “introduction to science class” and put it our wiki page

I love learning. That is why I became a teacher.  You get to learn everyday.  I learn stuff so that I can teach it to my students.  They ask questions.  I don’t the answers, to so we go learn some more.  I am a dinosaur though because when I want to find the answer to something, I go looking in the encyclopedia.  They moved that to the computer so now I look there.  I am a total newbie at googling ( isn’t that a cool word), but I am getting into that too.  Did you know that if you want a picture of a school bus at dusk you can find one on Google.  Amazing!

I am still quiet anxious when I have to learn new things on the computer.  They offer so many choice on the screen, and half the time I have no clue what things mean, so what do I choose.  People say click on the whatever icon.  I’m so spatially challenged I can’t find the whatever icon.  It is stressful, but I am trying to look at this as opportunity to grow.  Play is another attitude I don’t think I’m ready for.