Social Bookmarking

I worked on Social bookmarking this week and I really liked it. I tried several different methods. First, I just put some websites that I'm always looking at. Then, I typed a key word in the search box such as poetry to see what I could find. I also looked at other people's list of bookmarks and linked to them as well. I found some websites that I heard about a long time ago (like the Laura Chandler site) but forgot about. I also found some new websites such as the one on digital storytelling. I hope to show some other teachers at school about this so we can share bookmarks.

Sorry I didn't post last week

We moved last week and it was really hectic!! The horses escaped the pasture, the satellite man didn't come, I can't find anything, people keep coming by to see the place, etc. It was just crazy! Anyway, I promise to be more with-it this week.

Learning about Skype and Springdoo from Everyone

Mary showed the basics of Skype. The hardest part was waiting for the program to download!

Lisa shared about Springdoo. I've registered for an account and hope to try it this week with my kids. We just finished Stone Fox today as our novel study. My kids are doing novel projects where they can use different ways to express what they learned from the book. I think I'm going to try to record them using Springdoo so I can create a Powerpoint to save for next year's class so they can see examples of what other kids have completed for projects.

I also thought about using Springdoo with Author's Chair. Our fourth graders are getting ready for the Writing Test and they are having the "Big Deal" day where they are assigned a faculty/staff member in the school to read their favorite piece of writing that they created for the year. Instead of having them roam around the school, wouldn't it be great to video tape them reading their story and then emailing it to a favorite teacher or their parent. Then we could reply back in an email with positive comments.

More on Using Gaggle

I had better results from Gaggle by the end of the week. I spent a couple days emailing the help desk back and forth trying to get logged in as a teacher, not a student. One thing I did learn from this is that they are prompt in replying to your help needs/questions.

• When you do get logged in as a teacher/administrator, there's a jump to link for school adminstrator's. This link will help you set up the default info for your school. It will also help you log your students into the program.

The best link I found was the Frequently Asked Question section. On the first two questions, there is a teacher guide you can download that will help you through the set up which is nice to have a hard copy of. There is also some flyers to send home to parents and students to get them excited about using Gaggle too.

Using Gaggle

Well, I have spent most of the night trying to get my Gaggle account to work. Apparently I am listed as a student, not a teacher, so I have to wait until I hear a reply from the company's help desk.

I did do the online tour. It does seem to be a very safe website for my students. I also looked at the schools in NC who are using this website and no one from my school district is using Gaggle.

I was really hoping to get things started with a Gaggle account soon for my kids. I'm thinking about using it as an alternative to journals.

We're doing a novel study now, so maybe we can use it for our next novel since I won't have time for this one.

Introduction to Blogging

I guess this is the first time I have blogged before--threaded discussions doesn't count, right. Anyway, I know that my nineteen year old sister will be so proud of me. She uses My Space and Facebook all the time. I told her that I was doing a blog for one of my classes and she said that she would help me and make my blog more appealing!