Thing 23

WOW!! What an awesome ride! This has been a lot more fun than I thought it would be.

I am glad to find Filckr - it is a site that I know I can use with my students. I feel like I really had to stretch to complete some of the tasks in the 23 Things. I felt pretty good when I achieved the goal. I am surprised by the number of different applications I tried - some were really useful; some just junk to me.

I like the way the program is laid out, especially the help sessions provided by Vaughn and Liz. If it weren't for them, I would probably be stuck and unable to finish.

I will attempt the next round of "things" next summer. It requires a lot of time, but I really think it is worth it. I feel like I have learned so many things.

One word - thanks. You provided me with a way to improve my skills, which will result in my students learning more.

Thing 22

I read the 7 things you need to know about Nings. I investigated all the Ning sites listed. I didn't feel like I wanted to be a part of anything I saw. Then, after mulling it over, I got to thinking maybe I could design a Ning for the student's state reports, famous American reports, book reports, etc.
One year I did put some of our projects on line and grandparents from New York actually enjoyed their grandson's work.
Possibilities?!

Thing 21

I have used Photostory with my second graders as the presentation piece of their Famous American research. They were proud of their product. We had a presentation for parents in our library. Their comments let me know it was worth all the work.

Thing 20

I loved finding the Schoolhouse Rock series of videos on Teacher Tube. Many of those are valuable for my young students. I did not know that there were so many useful topics within that site. I will surely use that with my ActivBoard.
I have been introduced to YouTube by my granddaughter some time back. She constantly shows me crazy things that kids are watching that are posted there. I never knew that it might have a real value!
I liked Blinkx as a video source. I found a good video on How to resist a bully.

Thing 19

Very interesting! Many of the things we have been investigating are here. Once again, you could spend a lot of time checking them out. It did make me feel good to see so many names I recognized. I liked .Docstoc because there were some useful documents for elementary teachers to view. I tried to find a game for my students, but I didn't see anything that was better than the ones I know now. I really want educational games for them.
I had fun with the cooking site, Im Cooked. I liked the video cooking part.
I can see how I would use Web 2.0 Awards, when I really need help to find a certain subject and have no idea of where to go.

Thing 18

Google Docs is awesome. I enjoyed the informational videos about several of the applications. It seems like their gmail has some neat bells and whistles. I liked the idea of putting a document on a server and having others collaborate, but can we trust their server? How do we know it is secure enough (not that we are doing any government business)!
Open Office looks a lot like the Microsoft to me. I don't see any advantage, except maybe cost.

Thing 17

Rollyo sounds like a super idea, especially for my young ones. When we do "research" it will be nice to be able to limit their searches to the sites that I find are the best for their topic.
Here is the Rollyo I created for my second graders to use during their states research:

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