Thing 18: Surveys

I found SurveyMonkey to be invaluable when I was working on my Master's degree. So much of what I was researching required student responses, and the year I spent counting and recounting totals my first year back in school was awful. I love all the different ways I can look at results, see specific responses, or graph trends.

Looking at SurveyGizmo, I was not very impressed by their site. I fiddled around a little and couldn't find a promo I could walk into easily. Lots of things were scheduled, but it kind of harshed my vibe on the whole thing.

Thing 19: Jott

I signed up for Jott this summer and instantly fell in love with the interface. I got the idea from Dan Meyer, an edublogger who's a math teacher, on a vlog he did this summer. I was briefly obsessed with calling Jott about anything that popped into my mind, which was especially helpful as I planned my wedding, and tried to capture fleeting thoughts about school when they flitted by.

I especially like being able to categorize my notes, either when I called them in or when I looked at them later. For awhile, I liked getting the text reminders, but too many built up on my phone so I gave that up.

I was extraordinarily displeased when Jott went out of beta and started charging for all services above the basic level.

After I got my iPod Touch, I was super-excited to always have my Jott on hand. Unfortunately, iTunes and my iPod stopped recognizing the problem, so I need to deal with that before I can give Jott back my devotion.

Thing 16: You Want to Calculate What?

I ran a "simulation run" for the project my 10th graders are working on, and I'm really excited about the possibilities. I'm toying with the idea of requiring the steps and using their suggested research process rubric, but I will need to spend more time with them before I'm ready to do that.

Thing 15: Can you hear me now?

I got Skype set up on my home computer and now I can't find anyone to talk to me! I know better than to talk to strangers, so I'll wait out my first real person-to person trial.

I think it would be so cool to have voice based guest lectures. I also think that would take a ton of front-loading: setting up time and expectations with the guest, getting the kids not only on board but ready for the new thing, and kaaping them on task when they can't see the person.

Thing 13

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Thing 12: Moodley-Doodley-Doo

Right now, I'm midway through the section on the Moodle demonstration. It's feeling very technical.

...I still feel like it was very technical. I don't even feel confident I could pull it off after doing this.

I am, however, very interested in the attitudes toward thinking and learning survey. I'm trying to figure out where to fit it in in the little time we have left in the term. Where was this when I was working on my Master's degree???

Thing 11: Moodlicious

I signed up for Moodle last year, but I'm not thrilled with it. I've struggled with set up, and I find that using it for things like file sharing (I post our daily powerpoints and notes) is cumbersome. I need to spend more time playing.

Thing 9: I Can Wiki, Too!

As I think I mentioned before, I do love the wiki format. Sometimes I have trouble with formatting--I can't get what I've typed to look the way I want, or make embedded objects look the way I want.

I'm still wondering about the best way to use wikis for my kids when I can't guarantee lab time for them to work, and working at the same time isn't best because they overwrite each other.

Thing 8: Wiki Time

Wikis are amazing. I've been fascinated with them since I found about them when I was researching for grad school last summer. The idea that blew me away at the time was group note-taking. I also love how easy it is to modify wikis. In college I built websites using Netscape navigator, and while Wikispaces doesn't offer me all the same choices, it is a million times easier.
I use a wiki for my tenth graders to post analysis of the books they choose to read.
I don't allow kids to cite Wikipedia because it is usually very difficult to determine authorship. I encourage them to use it as a starting place for research, because many articles include links to credible sources. I worry about kids relying on Wikipedia for the same reason I worry about them relying on only encyclopedias: there's not a lot of depth, and it doesn't really encourage analysis.

Poll the Audience

Hi friends,
I adore my new header, but I'm not sure about the rest of my blog layout. Please share your thoughts on how it is formatted. I'm trying to decide if the two different alignments on the page make me nauseous or not.

Thing 7: Stumble on, Wayne

I will admit it, though it is embarrassing and perhaps even shameful.
I Stumble.
A lot.
When I should be doing other things.
Like grading.
By setting education as one of my interests, I find gems by chance. It helps when I feel like I'm not connecting with the other teachers on my blog roll, or I just need a new idea.

Thing 6: Delicioso

I set up a Del.icio.us account and then lost hours of my life rating, tagging, and filing anything I've ever bookmarked in the history of my life. Well, maybe not everything, but realizing how much time had passed between when I started my account and when I stopped playing, I was startled and a little ashamed.
On the other hand, the packrat in me adores the idea of saving and sharing bookmarks. With any luck, the tagging I've done, and maybe even the links shared by others will actually make bookmarks useful, rather than just stashing and forgetting about them.

Thing 5: Blogrollerific

I got my blog roll up and running, as you can see (I've been surprised at how difficult it is to add a GoogleReader blog roll to Blogger, considering they're both Google products). I tried to narrow the list down to those I find most valuable.
I've been behind on my 23 Things, so I finally added that to by RSS feed reader. Duh.

Thing 4: RSS/NewsReader

Yesterday I set up and account at Bloglines because I already have a GoogleReader account. I think there's a lot available at Bloglines, so much that it kind of freaked me out. I also had trouble figuring out how to link to it here. I will figure it out when I have more playtime, and maybe even an internet connection in my classroom.

I love GoogleReader, it's where I spend most of my online time nowadays. It makes keeping up with friends' blogs so much easier, and with the feeds collapsed, I can do a quick scan of titles to see if the new posts are worth reading, should be deleted, or are something I will come back to later. I've recently become addicted to making notes on websites using GoogleReaders "Note in Reader" button in my toolbar. It's like a mini-reaction blog, without having to log in and all that business. I love having my feeds in different folders, so I can read just what I'm in the mood for, whether it's teacher stuff or just LOLDogs. I also like being able to view only unread entries, or all entries, either for just one blog or an entire folder. One of my favorite things is that it limits some blogs which are totally awesome but have too darn much on the page (like Cool Cat Teacher) to only post text.

One thing that bothers me is that some of my favorite feeds, like Freakonomics, LifeHacker, and, before I cut it, BBC World News, just have too many updates a day. Then it feels like a chore to look through, sometimes. I cut down to just Freakonomics for news, since I get most of my news on MPR anyway, and switched to LifeHacker Top Feeds, which is still a little heavy but not as bad.

I've learned so much about Web 2.0 and teaching from the blogs I read that it totally rocks my world. I'll start working n a blogroll so you can join the love.

Stephen Abram and finding the time

I find Abram's comments about choosing to find time interesting. I think I might actually be better off if I limited myself to half an hour or an hour online right now. If I limited myself, I might be more thoughtful about my time, rather than spending an hour on LOLcats and leaving my blog lonely.

The 7.5 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners

1: Begin with the end in mind
2: Accept responsibility for your own learning
3: View problems as challenges
4: Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
5: Create your own learning toolbox
6: Use technology to your advantage
7: Teach/mentor others
7.5: Play!

I feel pretty confident about most of the habits. I usually see an end result when I set out on a task, I've always relied on myself, I find the things I need...
However, I struggle with viewing my problems as challenges. Sometimes I get stuck on the problem, and when I do that, I don't learn from what's happening. I panic.

A short explosion before moving on to the task.

While I totally appreciate the thought behind the Lifelong Learning video, I'm afraid I found it deathly boring. Lately I've been watching dy/dan's vlogcast series, and one of the points he makes over and over again is how important it is to match the message/content to the medium. Unfortunately, this video misses the mark. I feel better now.

A New School Year

It's hard to believe we're moving back into our rooms after such a crazy ending to last year. My room is almost looking ready. I think I'll be ready.