RSS Feeds????

RSS feeds interest me, but I am not sure I am seeing the “real value” behind them. I already have so much going on in a day and read a lot of information that it seems EXTREMELY difficult to keep up with reading RSS feeds! I do think RSS feeds are fascinating in that they are constantly keeping you updated but it is an overwhelming amount of information coming through. Although, I must admit, I got slightly addicted to subscribing when I found something even remotely interesting. I am pleased with some of the feeds I joined and now I just need to make it a priority to keep myself up to date with those feeds and the significant information they are providing me with. One aspect in google reader that I liked was the ability to organize the feeds I subscribed to. This will make it much easier to access the blogs, feeds, etc that I find important in my teaching life and to separate the others I subscribed to as a personal preference.

 Any suggestions for how to use these with Elementary kids or as an access points with parents??

Student Blogging Project- "Podcasting is Power"

The project that I found while searching for student blogging projects started as blogs but eventually turned into podcasts that were created from the reading groups in this classroom once a week.  The blog was truly an inspiration on how podcasts and web 2.0 tools can be used in the classroom in effective ways.  This also showed me how kids are "sponges" when it comes to learning and adapting new technologies/information. After the kids learned how to create their podcasts, thanks to the step by step checklists the teachers created, the student groups continued to create their own podcasts and eventually had them posted on itunes for others to learn from.  This exercise is a true depiction of students teaching students reading!  OUTSTANDING JOB! This has given me a very positive and enthusiastic outlook for the next school year of something I definitely plan on implementing with my 2nd grade students (even if it just to podcast something they publish and post for only parents to hear.. it will be a start) I will be borrowing the checklist to create tho! Thanks so much to the Always Learning Blog!

Read/Write Web

The Read/Write Web is what drives a lot of lessons and everyday learning.  For example, I went over to a friend's house the other day and saw her 13 year old son, doing his homework with a website open that was helping him solve his math equations.  Where was that when I was growing up and struggled with geometry and higher level math courses???  It's amazing how much these kids know and how they can find virtually anything on the internet but can't find anything in their rooms?? haha...  Where there's a will, there's a way at its finest!

I see Web 2.0 as a guiding force in my classroom and I would like to continue to keep that drive when I begin teaching 2nd grade.  I am sure that there is a plethora of tools available but I just need to learn how to make them manageable in a classroom with 2-3 working computers with low-average computer literate students that still needs to put math, science and language arts at teh forefront.   I am optimisitic that I will integrate the smartboard in numerous ways and I am sure with researching the web and with the help of this class a lot of resources will become known to me and utilized.