I found this great tool for creating word clouds and I've embedded one on my blog (see top right hand corner). www.AnswerGarden.ch is a great brainstorming tool that can be used in the classroom. You pose a question and the answers appear real-time in the square. As answers are duplicated, they appear larger. This could be fun to post a question to your students on your school website, or use during Professional Development with your staff.
In the past, I've used www.wordle.net or www.tagxedo.com websites to generate word clouds. With my fifth graders last year, we used Wordle to create a word-cloud representing a book recommendation. The students then created an image which included their word cloud (title, author, main characters, setting, feelings, genre), an image of the book cover, and their first name. I loaded these to a digital picture frame and set it to rotate through the book recommendations. The students loved making them and the younger students enjoyed seeing them and then choosing their next book based on these recommendations.
REMEMBER - Answer the question and help build the word cloud!
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Tools to Collect & Cull (reflection week 3)
Last week we read about following websites, blogs and wikis to stay current on the topics of our interests. It can be extremely overwhelming to find the time to continually visit these sites to read the new information. Using an Aggregator and subscribing to the various sites I like to follow has been a great time saver. Now, I have one place to go to get current information. I can even group my subscriptions into categories. So, if I am looking for new ideas about technology I can focus on just the updates from the sites I have categorized as technology sites. I have setup Google Reader as my one-stop-shop. YEAH!
I had setup a Twitter account long ago, but I wasn't really using it. Now that I have begun to follow various people on Twitter, as well as created my own Tweets based upon great information I've found, I find that I really like this communication tool. I downloaded the app onto my iPad, so I am always close to this tool. I still need to investigate TweetDeck, or a similar tool, to group and display the tweets for quick and easy review. You can follow me: @onegall.
Having this large amount of information easily available at our fingertips, anywhere, anytime, brings issues! Too much information! Not enough time to read it all! Stress....anxiety....tears.....hair pulling....sleepless nights!
Like everything else, we had to learn (and we will continue to learn) how to handle this mountain of information. Over time, we become more accustom to the amount of information and have developed ways to process it. As educators, we need to remember the feelings we experienced with this information overload and help our students come to terms with it. We need to arm students with the skills to scan the mountain of information and cull the important pieces (important is in the eye of the beholder) for further review and ignore/trash the rest. We have to know when to scan, read in detail, and move on. It is a skill developed over time and it will take practice. In the words of Kenny Rogers (The Gambler Lyrics at http://www.lyricsfreak.com/k/kenny+rogers/the+gambler_20077886.html) "You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away and know when to run."
Happy reading to all, and to all a good morning!
I had setup a Twitter account long ago, but I wasn't really using it. Now that I have begun to follow various people on Twitter, as well as created my own Tweets based upon great information I've found, I find that I really like this communication tool. I downloaded the app onto my iPad, so I am always close to this tool. I still need to investigate TweetDeck, or a similar tool, to group and display the tweets for quick and easy review. You can follow me: @onegall.
Having this large amount of information easily available at our fingertips, anywhere, anytime, brings issues! Too much information! Not enough time to read it all! Stress....anxiety....tears.....hair pulling....sleepless nights!
Like everything else, we had to learn (and we will continue to learn) how to handle this mountain of information. Over time, we become more accustom to the amount of information and have developed ways to process it. As educators, we need to remember the feelings we experienced with this information overload and help our students come to terms with it. We need to arm students with the skills to scan the mountain of information and cull the important pieces (important is in the eye of the beholder) for further review and ignore/trash the rest. We have to know when to scan, read in detail, and move on. It is a skill developed over time and it will take practice. In the words of Kenny Rogers (The Gambler Lyrics at http://www.lyricsfreak.com/k/kenny+rogers/the+gambler_20077886.html) "You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away and know when to run."
Happy reading to all, and to all a good morning!
Friday, August 24, 2012
Friday, August 10, 2012
Wiki Woman: How a Web Tool Saved My Career | Edutopia
Wiki Woman: How a Web Tool Saved My Career | Edutopia
Here's a great article that tells exactly how one teacher implemented technology into her classroom and saw immediate and long-term benefits. At the end of the article, there are some great PDF files to download that document the step-by-step process of using a wiki and the benefits that can result. Happy reading!
Here's a great article that tells exactly how one teacher implemented technology into her classroom and saw immediate and long-term benefits. At the end of the article, there are some great PDF files to download that document the step-by-step process of using a wiki and the benefits that can result. Happy reading!
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Collaboration through Web 2.0 - Reflection Week 2
Week 2 was full of interesting topics that will help me in the classroom. I created my own wikispaces, so that I can follow the advice from our readings, so I can begin using this tool to see how it works and begin figuring out how to use this tool with students and other educators. I already had a Twitter account setup, for microblogging, but hadn't done to much with it. However, with this week we were tasked with following and tweeting. This combined with looking at websites that discussed the use of Wikis in education was a great opportunity to tweet about these great resources we found.
We also learned about aggregators, so I setup Google Reader to gather updates from the websites that I subscribed to. Setting the Reader up was extremely easy and now I will be able to review updates in a much easier fashion.
As a group, we looked at articles about the use of blogs within school settings. It was interesting to read a variety of view points on the pros and cons of blogging, as well as the safety concerns that schools and teachers need to be aware of. If you haven't read Doug Johnson's article "A Proposal for Banning Pencils" at
We also learned about aggregators, so I setup Google Reader to gather updates from the websites that I subscribed to. Setting the Reader up was extremely easy and now I will be able to review updates in a much easier fashion.
As a group, we looked at articles about the use of blogs within school settings. It was interesting to read a variety of view points on the pros and cons of blogging, as well as the safety concerns that schools and teachers need to be aware of. If you haven't read Doug Johnson's article "A Proposal for Banning Pencils" at
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Collaboration through Web 2.0 - Reflection Week 1
I have been able to experience first-hand that collaboration can work using web 2.0 tools! Our group was able to connect on Google+ and work simultaneously on a Google doc, when we were all in seperate locations. I was even in a different country, with 7 hour time difference!
All the readings focused on the read/write web. It was good to learn the evolution of the internet and the variety of tools available to help teachers and students connect, communicate, collaborate and create. I am excited to start using Edmodo at the new school I will be starting at. While doing my compare/contrast paper for the different blog hosting site, Edmodo appears to have everything I'm looking for. It has a library to store lesson plans, presentations, etc. in the cloud. It has the ability to create and correct assignments online. It has the ability for the teacher to monitor student blog responses. And so much more!
The biggest lesson I am taking away from this week's readings and work, is that I have to use the products/tools to be able to see how they can truly benefit my classroom community. I cannot just read about things, I have to get in there and figure out how they work, pros/cons, and how it impacts my work flow. I look forward to digging in.
All the readings focused on the read/write web. It was good to learn the evolution of the internet and the variety of tools available to help teachers and students connect, communicate, collaborate and create. I am excited to start using Edmodo at the new school I will be starting at. While doing my compare/contrast paper for the different blog hosting site, Edmodo appears to have everything I'm looking for. It has a library to store lesson plans, presentations, etc. in the cloud. It has the ability to create and correct assignments online. It has the ability for the teacher to monitor student blog responses. And so much more!
The biggest lesson I am taking away from this week's readings and work, is that I have to use the products/tools to be able to see how they can truly benefit my classroom community. I cannot just read about things, I have to get in there and figure out how they work, pros/cons, and how it impacts my work flow. I look forward to digging in.
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