Thing #18

I have seen many YouTube videos but never really explored the site myself. I now know why. I spent way too much time on this. I found an endless amount of "how to's" and funny commercials. I will revisit the commercials any time I am feeling a little sad. As for the "how to's", who could imagine the crazy things you can learn or that there would be so many on how to tie a tie??? In my content area I found a large number of teaching songs. One of my favorites is Big Pig. It's a great one for word families and rhyming. I think the kids will enjoy it and wind up singing along. Teacher Tube did not impress me as much, although I can see it's value. I did find a Coin Song on it that I liked.

Thing #17

I have found that I am not a big podcast fan, especially when there are no visuals. The video podcasts are alright but still not my favorites. I went to the PBS Podcast directory and found one that interested me. The Super Why! Podcast was at my teaching level but too long to use in class. At the Education Podcast Network I found a cute podcast called Radio Popcorn. It had music, jokes, etc. and was all done by kids. Still nothing I could use in class. I found nothing at the kindergarten level from Learn Out Loud. I am an itunes user, but for music only. I get bored listening to something that has no beat. If I used a podcast in my classroom it would have to be a video podcast. It might be fun to create one with my class.

Thing #16 & stretch

What a great invention. I love Library Thing! I keep a list at school of books I have but I struggle to keep it updated. This site makes that so much easier. With a few clicks it does it all. I think it is an excellent tool for classroom organization. I did join, so using my tags I can find the books needed for particular units much quicker. I like that I can get opinions and recommendations as well. I did hit a glitch. Each time I click a link to add a book it takes me back to the beginning of my search. Am I doing something wrong or is there a way to go back to where I left off? That part is a pain to me. I enjoyed going to the "groups" area. The children's fiction site could really benefit me.

Thing #15

I had a lot of fun exploring Delicious. The tagging part really interested me and I found that if I wanted to "jog" my memory about a specific site I could put a crazy tag on it to distinguish it from others. My favorite part of all of this is being able to access my bookmarks from ANY computer. There have been times I thought I marked a site on my school computer, only to find that it was on my home computer and it would have to wait. No problem with that anymore. I find that I am short on time these days but doing these "things" has made me find new sites that are beneficial to my teaching. Here is a link to my delicious account.

Thnig #7a

I found it very interesting that in Mrs. Smith's Kindergarten Class, Room 118, they were doing much the same thing we were. They had several firefighters come to visit them and talk to them about fire safety. We only had one (but I have a small class) and it was my son-in-law. He gave a wonderful demonstration and we took pictures of each student with his helmet and coat on. The post told that Mrs. Smith's class got to feel how heavy the coat was. My class thought the same thing. Her class got to look at the trucks and engines. We have plans to do that on another day. I think I'll leave her a comment about the amazing "Smoke House" our city provides for kids to learn about fire safety.

Thing #14

While I checked out several tools listed, I thought 30 boxes would be a great tool for use with my parents. I would love to post things that we are doing, as well as, upcoming events for my class. I have emails for most of my parents and I could also post it on my blog. I thought the Ta-da list would be good for me personally because I live by lists. I also thought this would be a good way to teach responsibility for students of any age. As a teacher, you could list daily (or weekly) activities to be completed. Grades could be based on how much was done along with how well it was done. Field trip needs or party needs could be listed as well. Parents could use this at home for kids too. It's a good tracking device. I think Blabberize could be a fun way to introduce new units or maybe teach things about particular animals. It did take a "while" to get everything adjusted just like I wanted.

Thing #13

What fun!!!! I had a great time just playing around with these generators. I'm not sure these could be real beneficial in a Kindergarten class but maybe I could download a few for my kids to be creative with. They could, at the very least, practice their names by placing them in a Trading Card Maker. Ideas are always welcomed. I pretty much just clicked and followed directions on each one I tried. I created the name Colton on Spell with flickr, because I have a grandson due ANY day now. I used the Custom Sign Generator to make a Hollywood Star and my chalkboard. My happy face sign came from the Happy Face Generator. There were even more to try on the Generator Blog that I would love to work on later - like AFTER I finish this class. It was good to have a fun and easy "thing" this time. It was a good stress reliever.