Wikis and other Wonders

   Our task was to visit some of the wikis posted and comment on them. I tried several of the posted wikis but felt somewhat like an interloper in that I didn't know what to add. I suppose that if you were part of a suggested wiki then it would make more sense, but they seem to act similar to a moodle of which students already are familiar with. 

   When working in the computer lab after school one day I overheard Angie giving instructions on using a wiki and can see some uses for faculty especially when we do our end of the year goal awards it would cut down on the time spent in our meetings. Many of the sites we have visited have given me some wonderful ideas, but the lack of having computers for each student limits the amount that can be used.    Upper School could probably implement these much easier than the MSG.  I do hope to revisit many of the sites for possible ideas for next year.

A Jellyfish tank for your desk ...or classroom???

Weebly fun

I had completely forgotten that I started to design a web page last summer until I tried to set up an account with Weebly. After resetting my password, I began to check out what I had started last summer. The address is ashmsgpeters.weebly.com and the picture I chose is nice, even the idea of what to use it for is okay, not very exciting though. Do I have time to keep all of these new tools going and making any sense? Well I do have a vacation coming up, maybe there will be time to figure it all out again.

Web Camera in a nesting box of a Barn Owl

Check out this link of a barn owl about to give birth! A teacher in California set up an owl nesting box in her yard. This is the first time she has done this, she set up a web camera in the box so you can watch. the first egg is due to hatch on Thursday, March 18!
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-owl-box#more

Voicethreads......

     I enjoyed hearing Sra. Saavedra speak about the baby turtles in Costa Rica and was surprised to hear that the government allows the people to harvest the eggs.  In a way it is similar to the plight of the Amazon forest, with the locals able to cut down trees for crops and yet destroying the rain forest in the process.  
     Voice threads might be a good tool to use for students who will be missing a lot of school for illness or in the case of one of our students, spring training in Florida.  I wonder if we could use this for multigenre?  Each student could post a picture and and give a summary of their oral presentation and then fellow students could go on and comment about their issue.  I think I will talk with Robin and Carolyn about this!   I will make a note of this for playing around with during the summer when preparing for next year. 

Youtube a place to find a video of everything!

I often turn to youtube to find a short video for my class.  I sometimes have trouble figuring out the right keywords to get the video that I would like to view.  Sometimes "inappropriate" videos are shown.  I am trying to figure out how to find exactly what I am looking for without having to watch the videos that I don't need or want.  Another downside I have found is with the resolution of some of the videos especially when shown with an LCD projector.  Sound can also be a problem, as in the one shown below at the beginning of the video.  When trying to illustrate how elements bond, I found this one done by some high school  for a class project. This is one of my favorites.  The students usually want to make one of their own.  Maybe one day I will take them up on it and see what they can come up with.

Glogster and other fun spots

I had fun playing around with glogster trying to One - figure  how to do one and Two - how my students could use it.  I am thinking that as a choice in a differentiated unit might be a good choice as a level C choice in place of a written poster.   I tried to make one about oobleck check it out at http://djapeters.glogster.com/oobleck-9692.

A Pikistrip--What Fun!

Wow what fun.  I made a mini pikistrip-  here is the link to it.  I can't wait to make some more.

Delicious and other fun Social networking Sites

     The premise of saving bookmarks on one computer and being able to access those bookmarks on another computer was an "aha" moment.  What a wonderful idea.  I am always bookmarking on either my laptop at school or my home computer intriguing sites that I might be able to use for my classes.  It never fails...I remember this site that I found and it always seems to be on the other computer.  I anxiously signed up for the account, followed the directions.  Added the toolbar to my home computer and began tagging my favorite sites and some that I had forgotten about.  The tags are an awesome idea that really help to find a site that you have not visited in awhile.  I have already figured out some key words to help me remember what the sites are about and was able to use it this week to find some sources on worms that I had forgotten about.  
     Now if I could only find a site that I found several months ago from a teacher who sets up at home labs for his students each year. I will keep looking.  Who knows someone else might have bookmarked it already.  I thought it was a great idea at the time.  Ugh, I wished I had known about tags then.  Finally, an app that I can really use, then major disappointment...I cannot access my Yahoo account at school.....what a bummer.  So much for that idea.  For me that is a major disadvantage.  Any way around it?    Guess I will have to check with our tech gurus.