Evernote is a web-based application that can be used to make to-do lists, PDF files, store articles, you can set up reminders, tags and set up notebooks to stay organized.  I really liked this tool.  I had heard from other teachers who went to the UCET conference that it was really cool.  I liked what I saw and now I want to start using it.  You have to love Lyndsi's enthusiasm about Evernote.  I loved the way she and Maria worked together to share class notes in Evernote.

Class DoJo - Free - dojo.com
This app is used to help monitor students behavior, communicate with students and parents about their behavior.  It seems to be more elementary focused than secondary, but I would like to experiment with it in at least one class and see how useful it would be to me for monitoring my classes.  I also like how you can use it kind of like stick picks to randomize questions etc.

Camera Apps
5g iphone, panoramic is great
edit button on the iphone has lots of things you can do to edit photos and save them to your camera roll. You can share your photos with others.  Camera+ by tap, tap, tap for $.99.  Gear  icon (stabilizer mode) won't take a picture until you stop moving the camera.  You can set the camera timer to 5, 15, or 30 seconds.  Burst mode allows you take multiple photos in a row. I will definitely download this application.  My husband has a the newest iPhone and he downloaded this app and we played around with it.
Instagram is interesting.  I have friends and family who use this app and I am definitely going to sign up.  It seems like a good way to post and share photos, I like the edit features.

I liked Bobies presentation about Quizlet.  I would love to have this resource to use in my classes.  I like that it is a way to share materials with other teachers and not having to spend so much time creating quizzes on my own.

I would definitely need to do more research before using Poll Everywhere.  I will look into this more.  I like that you can embed polls into a powerpoint or keynote presentation.

I will use Stage, as a way to share lessons with narration with students.  I love being able to label things and possibilities of recording science experiments and demonstrations to share on line.  What a great pre-lab activity to have students use in a flipped classroom, to prepare for labs.

I have really enjoyed this class and have learned a ton.  I hope that this summer I can use (and become proficient) at using what I have learned as part of my web 2.0 tools.

I like how you can import PowerPoint presentations to Prezi and use a unique way sharing information.  It opens new possibilities to me because I have been kind of stuck in a rut using PowerPoint.  I will be able to use it as an option for my students to use in their presentations.

I didn't do a presentation using Story Jumper, so I will need to take some time to explore this tool, probably not this week with everything I have going on at school, but sometime after school is out.

The Edcanvas collaborative project that we did was great.  It was engaging, but not an easy tool to use for collaboration.  It worked because we could all work on separate computers and identify good resources that were then pulled in by our "scribe".  It would work for students if there were role assignments, but we weren't able to all bring up the same Edcanvas and add what we wanted.  I like the quiz/survey function on Edcanvas, and would definitely use that with my students.  I also liked  being able to see which students visit the site and for how long.

I think I may try to attend the "flippinUtah" conference in August.  I have tried to flip a few lessons, but would like to know more about it.

I have become a fan of Twitter,  I found some great Tweets this week that have good article about school reform and best practices.  I think that reading the Tweets everyday and tweeting at least once a week is a

I liked the "7 Wonders" project that we did in class.  It had a little learning curve before we could get everything put together, but in the end it worked out okay.  I think the time went faster than any we have had.  If I use this with my students I will definitely need to make sure that I schedule computers for an adequate amount of time, I think I could help them now with some of the little glitches they may encounter working on the Google drive.

A project that I have thought of having my students do using Google drive, is working on the human body systems project.  Each group would be assigned a different body system (there are 11 systems) and they would have to come up with a ebquest about their body system including why it's important and how it interacts with the other body systems and it's importance in maintaining homeostasis.

I am going to have to use a YouTube video to get a better understanding bout google+ because I wasn't able to keep up with everything that Kelly was showing us during class.  I liked the idea that it can be used instead of Skype and that the connection is downloaded to YouTube.

The Skype in the classroom was just what I expect is the risk taken in using Skype.  I think if we Skype a Scientist or share data with a sister school, there would need to be a backup lesson just in case the connection can't be made, or communication is difficult.

I thought the bombing of Pearl Harbor activity that we did as a class was  AWESOME!! I couldn't wait to see the tweets on Sunday. It was a great activity to teach not only what was happening, but how different people were affected.. It was very engaging and I can see how students could really get involved in this type of activity.  I have been racking my brain to try to think of how an activity like this could be used in my Biology classes.  I think it is the type of activity that both the teacher and student learn by doing.

I can see ways that Fakebook could be used in my classes.  I kind of wrote it off as something I wouldn't use after reading the article in Subtext, but after actually trying it in class, I think I could incorporate into lessons that I am teaching.

II have "seen the light" with Wikipedia.   It is a great place to find information on different topics and find links to additional resources that students can use in their studies.  I think that initially it may have been a little suspect in providing valid information, but has improved over the years, as it is used more and more.

I liked the copyright friendly website activity that we did.  It was a good way to be introduced to a lot of creative commons resources without having to screen all of them. I still have a lot to learn about creative commons and copyright law. I like that many resources are part of "fair use" so educators can use them without breaking the law.  It is great to have the edcanvas to refer back to when using and creating resources.  The creative common resources that I think I would be most likely to use are FlickerStorm, Library of Congress, and Morguefile.

I appreciated what the teachers shared about kidblog. I don't think I would use it for my high school students, unless I learn a lot more about it because having to input 6 classes or 35 students per class would be tough unless I was really committed to it, and was proficient at using it.  Same with the FakeBook that we read about in our reading discussions.

Now about the PLN showcase.  I created a Pecha Kucha to present the PLN.  I had no problem creating the PowerPoint, but when it came to putting narration to it, that was a nightmare.  My home computer kept shutting down just at the point of saving the narration.  Finally after several attempts, and watching numerous YouTube videos, I was able to get the audio to work.  I know if I use this with my classes, they won't have to record narration so I think it will be much easier, but I am glad for the struggle I had because, if I want to do narration on presentations from PowerPoint in the future, I will know just what to do.



I

For class on 5/2, we mostly learned about presentation tools, It is a bit overwhelming to learn about all that is there, but exciting too.  I have become so tied to PowerPoint, and now see a choice of many tools that would be great for presentations.

Edcanvas - I have used this to prepare review materials for my AP Biology students to prepare for the AP Biology exam which will be given on Monday May 13 at 8:00. I have posted these to my class Weebly, with instructions that students review the materials, and come prepared to answer questions in the next class.  These have been wonderful1

I am in the process of trying to put together materials for my PLN for the PLN showcase.  I have an Edcanvas and I am creating a Pecha Kucha for one of my canvases.  It is great to have the prolearning website to access information and tutorials to set up the Pecha Kucha for this assignment.

I loved using Haiku Deck and was actually able to create and post a short presentation to my Biology class website.  That was pretty gratifying to me.

This week I have been looking for curricular materials for Advisory that we will be implementing next year at Alta High School.  I have found some good materials on character education through Twitter.

In our last class Heather Heffner and I worked on an Edcanvas during class, I'm not quite sure how to make this collaborative?  We collaborated during class, but it is under my Edcanvas account, so how do we make it collaborative?

I loved class on Thursday! I learned a lot of things that I think I will be able to use in my PLN and to use with my students.  I especially liked the Google Drive, using Excel program to make graphs.   Many changes have been implemented to AP Biology and are coming down the road with the "New Generation Science Standards" and Common core, that increase the quantitative nature of science, and this would be a perfect fit. 

I have a Dropbox account that I have used off and on since I signed up for it.  I am constantly learning new things about it.  I love being able to access my documents at any time, and any where.  I'm still having a hard time loading my photos to it, maybe it's the PhotoShop program I am using.  Anyway I seem to run into these little snags here and there, and I feel a lot more comfortable getting help on Twitter.  I will remember to use proper web 2.0 etiquette and not delete shared files that I have created..  The dropitto.me app could be good to create class assignments, surveys, etc..

I am not a big fan of wikis, but I haven't used them extensively either.  I think I will probably put wikis on the back burner for the time being.  One thing I liked about wikis, was that students can have a wiki page without signing up and that you can invite people to edit your page.

After the reading assignment for this week, I set up an Edcanvas account, and it was easy and intuitive, I'm just not sure how to make it available to my students to view.  Is this something for my PLN, or can I set up an EdCanvas for my classes.  I definitely need to spend more time researching and practicing this.  I think for secondary educators this is a great app to use.  I would like to do more flipped lessons and I could definitely see the usefulness of Edcanvas.

I want to use the Pecha Kucha presentation model, the next time I have my students do multi-media presentations.  I like the set timing and not having to be the one who cuts students off because they are going over time on their presentations.

Reflections About What I Learned in Class and After Class on 4/18/2013:

Apps:

Understoodit.com -  This app seems like  a great app for assessing understanding as you go.  Often it is hard to get my students to reveal that they don’t understand something, even when I am constantly checking for understanding, and try to make it as non-threatening as possible.  By using this app I could see if students are understanding the concepts being taught, and if I need to back up and reteach certain things. I think I might get more honest feedback, since  for them it would be anonymous.

 

Twitter:  Teachers have taken over Twitter, I have set up a Twitter and “following” some people and posts that I think will be helpful to my teaching.  I can see that using Twitter and making it useful to me will be a work in progress.  It is not a habit for me to use it, I am not checking it regularly, I have only tweeted and retweeted a couple of times.   I think until I see the value of Twitter, and use it in a proficient way, I would be unlikely to use it with my students.  I am in the process of seeing if I can get approval to set up a Twitter assignment for my Environmental Science Students where they can “tweet” posts and proposals for making Alta High a “green” high school. I may end up using a different venue, but I would like to try having a Twitter assignment.

I liked the analogy of using different tools to plant a garden, and how we are all of our gardens will be unique because of choices we make in our garden.  Right now I feel like I am planting lots of different seeds and that some will come to fruition and others will need to be thinned out or weeded out.  I think at the moment Twitter might be one that I weed out, but I'll wait awhile to see.

Facebook – I like the idea of using Facebook to set up a PLN.  I am familiar with Facebook and have used it for a couple of years.  If I decide to use Facebook, I will definitely set up a separate account, a professional account.  I don’t want students to have any access to my personal Facebook account.

Pinterest – I never thought about looking for teaching units or lesson plans on Pinterest.  When I looked for teaching units to use for some of the topics I am teaching,  I found some curricular materials, but they were limited.  I think it might be fun to share some of my teaching units with other Science teachers, and Pinterest may be a good venue for this.  I think it is a good idea that instead of following a person to follow their boards.  This will help me focus on the things I am most interested in.

I have logged on to the district gmail account and have changed my password.  I will ask Chandra and Bobie how to move Outlook emails to my gmail for storage.  I think that is a great idea.  I am always reluctant to delete emails from school, but find I have to in order to make room for the new ones. 

My to do list includes:

·         Learn more about Feedly

·         Learn more about edublogs

Our asynchronous assignment was pretty interesting this week.  I spent a lot more time than I would have in class, going over the materials and watching the presentations about UEN resources.  The video that was presented first was very informative.  I had no idea of the huge scope of materials available through UEN. I have used UEN to sign up for courses and to check my  information on CACTUS.  I check it periodically for information about the State Core, but I was unaware of the lesson plan links and thinkfinity.

My three favorite Web 2.0 presentation tools were the Science NetLinks website.  I thought this would be very useful to me in engaging students and in getting them involved in research and experimental data outside of the classroom, school, state, and even the country.

I thought the lesson plan tool at UEN is one that I would like to look into.  It seemed like a really good way to organize my own lesson content and then to link to my website for students, colleagues and other interested parties to view.

Another Web 2.0 tool that I would definitely use with my students is the K-12 Student Center.  It is a great resource for student learning, remediation, research and a way to reinforce what is being taught in class.  The K-12 Student center in combination with SIRS and EBSCO would be invaluable resources available to students in a 21st century classroom.  I will definitely use this resource.

I look forward to taking this new class, and learning how to use media more expertly in my classroom. While  I have a facebook account, and  set up a twitter account, I even started a blog,, but have learned  that  unless I am using new applications on a frequent basis it isn't long before they fall by the wayside.

I feel somewhat incompetent in my use of social media, I am part of a discussion board with AP Biology, but fail to participate in the discussions which may help me to better teach my students and also to help them to learn.  I look forward to setting up a PLN and hope that I am able to have enough help and practice in using social media that it will be beneficial to me an to my students.

The photos on the pages are from: Pink Spring Blossoms | Flickr - Photo Sharing!.html



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