Thoughts about Twitter ---Week 8

      Just learning to use Twitter was really something.  My understanding of how much information was out there and how many people were using this technology was amazing.  There were some links I thought were interesting links in several of the tweets, but I would have to find a way to organize them.  Sometimes I would go  back later to look at something and couldn't find it.  Maybe it was because I was learning so many different things this last 8 weeks, but it seemed I would go back and spend a lot of time hunting for the site I had wanted to look at.  The edchats were interesting and intriguing.  The first one made me nervous, because it was hard for me to tweet and watch all that was being presented.  I still was overwhelmed the second time, but I relaxed some and took more in.  Since I teach in an area that is so rural, I did like that you could be connected so many different educators at a click of a button.  Tweetdeck was helpful to me, it gave me a sense of organization.

     The most interesting people were the ones in our class.  I felt that Twitter gave you a chance to get to know them by their different tweets.  Educationally, I learned alot from following ixl.  My class uses the math side of ixl, so it was fun and useful to see other ways ixl could be used.  They gave times for webinars which help acquaint you with how to use their student tracking devices more efficiently.  It has been informative to see all the different places and ways technology is being used by following_Ann Feldman.  Edchat has lead me to start following EDU.  During the edchats usually what they added made me think a new thought.  During and after edchats I was trying to click more on the links they tweeted.

     I will use Twitter after this class, but mostly as a resource.  Finding things to tweet was hard for me.  I was really curious to see if I would get any feedback after my tweet about Storytime's think central issues.  I didn't get any, but wonder if I was not specific enough as to what I was having trouble with.  Just saw on out school calender where they have added #dcstigers.  I am tickled that I know enough that I can share with my class:  what it means, what it can be used for, and how to do it.

     Yes, I am extremely grateful to have had the exposure to Twitter and Tweetdeck.  It has made me a more informed and confident educator.  It has provided me with a resource where I know I can get the most current information.

Week 7 Some of Podcasts I Enjoyed

Math-Math-Math-By now you probably realize I love Math, so... here is the first podcast I loved The Math Dude Quick and Dirty Tips to Make Math Easier. There are so many different quirks on how to look at presenting different concepts.https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/math-dude-quick-dirty-tips/id355421944?mt=2


https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/k-12-greatest-hits-best-ideas/id334633370?mt=2   I was particularly interested in the episodes on the subject of bribes and threats in the classroom and teaching creativity in a climate that discourages it.

freetech4teachers

Last night and this afternoon, I checked out freetechforteachers.  The information that is available is amazing.  It is sometimes overwhelming to me because I have a tendency to want to check it all out and all at once.  By now you probably realize I am math crazy and love to see and hear kids say I am good at math, So I loved Brainnook--I felt it would help build the problem solving in students.  Learn Your Tables was also cool. I will probably put one of my students who is struggling with their  multiplication facts on it tomorrow.  Super Book of Web Tools should be saved to my favorites.:) 

As for making a blog for my students, I could do it and I could see some benefits to it.  For instance, parts of speech, we drill it and drill it, a blog on parts of speech might catch their attention for something different.  It would be especially fun if they could all have blogs and comment on each others blog.  My big drawback is time.  Time to get it up and running.  I have to keep reminding myself-pick and choose a few things to try.