Thing 23

I can't believe it's over. I can't believe I made it. I can't believe I actually embedded things into my wiki (which I had never heard of prior to this class) by myself. (Except for the one time I screwed up thing 8. I needed help then.) I have really learned a lot from taking the Web 2.o class. I found new tools that I would have never learned about had I not completed this class. They are things not taught in everyday staff development classes. They are not taught by Bright from the Start. I think everyone should take this class. At least that way when you try to tell them something about what you've been doing or mention the word wiki, they won't look at you with a blank look. I really liked using Glogster and making the slideshow. Glogster is perfect for Pre-K using photos of them. The podcasts are good for Pre-K when I want them to listen to something. Applying what I've learned is a different story. That's something that I would have to work on. But now I have learned about different things and can refer back to them. I'm not deleting anything from my computer that has been associated with this class. I know the names of websites and have access to them. The world is changing, and I'm trying to keep up.

Thing 22

The first site I explored was BeFunky. It is a really cute way to change the appearance of photos. I used a photo of my cats Frasier and Tabbie "kissing". (It looks like that's what they're doing in the photo.) That picture is my wallpaper on my home computer-the real photo, not the cartoon one. I think it would be cute to put each of my student's photos on the computer at school as a screensaver after their pictures had been created a funky way, like in a cartoon, colored, shadowed, black and white, etc... They like to look at the photos on my camera when I take pictures of them.

The other site I explored was Pikistrips. I made a cute cartoon using photos from my computer. I used two of my cats, Frasier and Simon, in a cute comic strip.
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Well, I thought it was cute. Knowing me, it'll probably offend someone. Oh well....
Story of my life!
I chose tools that weren't very educational. With Pre-K, it's about things that are visual, colorful, eye-catching, funny to a 4 year old, not a lot of words, etc... I'm sure some of the other tools could be used for more educational purposes with older children, but for Pre-K I like to use things that are fun.

Thing 5d

I found an article in my Google Reader about classroom helpers. I use helpers in my classroom. We have 20 helpers. Every day each child has a job. Some jobs are more glamorous than others, like being the line leader versus moving the arrow on the schedule. Every Monday (or beginning of the week), we start over with jobs and keep those same jobs all week. Every job has a card with the child's name and photo on it so they know which job they have on the helper chart. Having 20 jobs gives each child something to do and a sense of responsibility. (Children need to be taught responsibility at an early age.) It also cuts down on them asking when they get to be the helper.

I also found an article about writing names. When the kids get into Kindergarten here in Barrow County, they have to write their first and last names in D'Nealian. In Pre-K, the kids learn to write their names the best way they can. We don't stress the handwriting too much. In my room in October, the kids start signing in every morning. I have name cards with names and photos to use. They sign in every morning until the end of school. The kids also have to try to write their names on artwork they do, like paintings, collages, and drawings. The ones who learn to write his/her name legible can start to write their last name. We practice name writing and name recognition. Once the child has gotten the letters in his/her name "down pat", then we work on making sure the letters are upper and lower case.

Thing 21: Digital Citizenship

Well, I finally took the Digital Citizenship quiz. It only took about 5 tries to figure out how to even get the thing to work once I started taking the "test". I made a 43/100. I scored 11 in Supporting Joe, 20 in Making Sensible Online Decisions, 8 on the first quiz, 4 on the second quiz, and 0 in Gathering Information. I sure could not teach anyone else about Digital Citizenship until I learned a few things for myself. I think what we post online and what others post online is very important.

I use Facebook and see what others post on there. I can also block someone if I don't like what they are saying or posting. I can accept and ignore people I don't know to be "friends". I know there was a case earlier this school year of a teacher getting in trouble for content and photos she had posted on her pages. We as professionals have to be careful what we do and say out in public and on social networking sites. On FaceBook, I have 4 parents of kids I have in Pre-K this year that I am friends with, plus parents of former students I have had in the past. I also have relatives, church members, and people I went to school with and people I work with on there. What I post (videos, photos, words) can be seen by everyone I am friends with. I told my nephew at Christmas he needed to delete some things he had posted on his page because others could read what he had said (which wasn't nice), including his aunt and parents. He did delete it. He gets mad and posts what he thinks. He's 15. Hormones.....

I think everyone who is around kids or has kids old enough to have an account on Facebook, have their own cellphones, or use the Internet should be taught about bullying and etiquette. People that bully on the computer are cowards. They hide behind technology and think nothing can happen to them. They probably would not do it face-to-face. The words we say and write can come back to bite us at times. I like to use humor when I write things. Even though I know how I want it to sound, it may not sound that way when written. I think etiquette has to be taught in reality to be transferred to the computer. I also think that if someone knows of another person (who is being bullied or bothered by someone in real life or on the computer) should stand up for that person and help them find a way to make it stop, even if that means telling an adult.

Thing 20

I used LiveBinders for my Thing 20 activity. I checked all the others out too, Evernote and SimplyBox, and really could use those as well as LiveBinders. I did like the fact that there was a Pre-K example for the tool that I used on the 23 Things: Thing 20 page. No, I didn't copy it. I found 3 of my own websites to use for my binder. I could see myself using this tool in the future, because it is so simple to use. I like the fact that you have resources at your fingertips and when you need an idea, just pull different information from the binder . I put the Bright from the Start website as the first page for my binder. I am going to need it in a few weeks because I will have to do some PLU work with it. We Pre-K teachers are going through the PQA (Program Quality Assessment) online, and can do it by ourselves and as a group. I actually didn't have any problems making the binder. That's a miracle because I've had nothing but computer problems for over a week. I actually had to get a new tower for my home computer. I now have windows 7, which is exciting. Something happened to the old one to make the databases corrupt (but not from a virus). Weird huh?

Thing 19: Podcast

I did it! I actually made a podcast. Although I was getting really ticked off there for a while. I used headphones and made it through the sound recorder on my computer. It sounded really good for my first one. But I could NOT get it to convert to MP3 format with Zamzar. I recorded 2 or 3 more and it still would not convert. I followed the instructions on the help video. So I finally called the phone number and used drop.io to finally get it to work. The sound quality is not as good, but the podcast got made. It is at GCast. I wished everyone a Happy New Year. What I wanted to do was tell the story of my adventures of fostering a mother cat and her 4 kittens this past summer, but it makes me emotional to talk about it. So then I was going to tell about how my black cat, Halle (from my slideshow-the one in the tub) came to live with me. But it was too long and stopped recording on the sound recorder.

This was actually easy to use with the phone. It was also easy creating the podcast with the headphones. I don't know what happened there, with converting it. I tried Vocaroo, but it kept telling me I wasn't connected to the server. What's up with that? An idea I have for producing a podcast for Pre-K is the do something related to phonemic awareness. Maybe letters with their sounds, rhyming, syllables, or something else. I'm not quite sure yet. It could even be reading a story. Listening is the first level of phonemic awareness.

Thing 18

I don't own an iPod. But I did learn a little bit about podcasting. I started to install iTunes onto my computer but never followed through with it. A lot of the podcasts I wanted to hear were through iTunes. There were some PBS podcasts that are appropriate for Pre-K. The kids like to watch and listen to things, whether it be music or videos. I think iPods would be a great tool to use with Pre-K. They could listen to stories with books, music, and recordings that include phonemic awareness. IPods would be especially useful for phonemic awareness. It seems like everyone has them (except me). I've never used a podcast with Pre-K. We never use the computer except to let the kids play games on it. I'll have to look into seeing if we can purchase iPods with Pre-K money. I'm not sure if they will let you use Pre-K funds for technology. With them, the kids could listen to podcasts, like the ones from PBS.