Tool #6

I have heard the term "Wiki", I have even visited a few (wikipedia, district curriculum wiki). It was not until tool #6 that I truly understood the function and purpose of wikis.

I can see how wikis will help me in my role as a SIS. After viewing childrensbookreview on the side bar, I have a few ideas for the fall. At Lion Lane we have been talking alot aboout "reading like writers". As a staff we can create a booklist centered around children's "book making". Throughtout the year, as teachers discover books to support teaching points they can go onto the wiki and edit the list.

I look forward to exploring more with wikis in the upcoming year.

Tool #5

Social bookmarking will make it easier for me to organize all of my bookmarks. I really like the idea of assigning tags to my bookmarks. Currently, I have an extensive list of bookmarks. Even though I have marked the sites as favorites, it takes me a good 3 minutes to retrive the site I am looking for when it is needed. I now hope to use social bookmarking on a regular basis. It will take some time to adjust to, because I am used to bookmarking the old way.

I came across two websites that I was not familiar with when I searched using tags. I found ReadingRockets by using the tag early literacy, and I found Pattern Matcher when using the prek math tags.

Tool #4

Google Docs is a great tool to know about. I really think I will be able to use Google Docs alot next year. I am a school improvment specialist, so there are always times when I compile information to get out to our teachers. Sometimes it is information resulting from one of our professional development sessions, and other times it is information they will work on in teams and bring back to the group. I can see how having a shared document will save a lot if time and confussion.
Google Reader is another great tool. There are many websites that I use as resources on a regular basis. I like how Reader will bring the information to me. Again, I can see this also playing a huge role in professional development. I can use the share component when I want to share something with the entire staff or just a few teachers. I want to spend more time searching for sites to suscribe to.

Tool #3

After playing around a bit, I decided to use Image Chef and Dumpr as my image generators. I found Image Chef really easy to use and embed into my blog. I tried out a few of the other resources listed. I created images, but could not get them embedded into my blog. I will say, I spent quiet a bit of time trying to get WordItOut and Wordle to work. I eventually gave up and moved on to Dumpr. I am glad I took a look at dumpr, it was different than the other word resources I used. You can do many things with images that you already have. I enjoyed working with Dumpr.

I think I will use several of these resources with the staff during our professional development sessions next year.

Tool #2

I really enjoyed this tool. I am excited to become part of an online learning community. I can see many advantages already. I work on a campus of all pre kindergarten teachers and we have a great traditional learning community among our staff, but we are always looking for ways to reach out to the pre kindergarten teachers on the elementary campuses. I think we may have just found our answer!
While reading all of the advice on commenting, many things stood out, but the one that really made sense to me was the one about hyperlinking things you talk about. If something is good enough to speak about, provide it for others to easlily access.
I enjoyed and commented on TeachPaperless, Cool Cat Teacher Blog, Mrs; Yollis' Classroom Blog, The Blue Skunk Blog, and English with Rosa.

Tool #1

That was more fun than expected! It did take me a while to create my Voki and set up my blog background. Decisions over little things sometimes slow me down. Now that I am set up and ready to go, I look forward to collabortating with colleagues in a whole new way.