PERSONAL ACTION PLAN

We have certainly been exposed to a lot of wonderful information in the last several months. Now it’s time to put it into action! I envision myself using the Web 2.0 tools in school for professional development, to communicate with colleagues, to plan lessons, to interact with students, and to enhance student learning by making lessons more engaging. Personally, I will use the tools for Book Club and for activities in church where I am active in Children’s Ministry and am the Executive Director. Now for specifics.
Professional Development – As Reading Specialist, I chair the Collaborative Planning teams for Reading. I can disseminate data and scores through Google Docs. The team can organize data through the use of wikilinks. During the planning, we are often assigned readings that enhance our instruction and we discuss the pedagogy of learning and instruction. By using Diigo, we can highlight, comment and annotate discussion points that could be addressed in our short meeting time.
One of the things I most look forward to after this course is sharing the wonderful sites I have learned about with colleagues. Our building has a wing for emotionally impaired students. The teachers of these children often have to look outside the Curriculum Framework provided by the county, even the Special Pops framework. I feel that now I can refer them to several e-tools. One I would refer them to is www.curriki.org. This is a multidisciplinary, collaborative website for shared curricula. It features games, videos, and podcasts that may benefit this population through differentiated instruction. This is also true for www.readthewords.com. This page enables the teacher to download documents or web articles that will be read to the student by an avatar. This is especially useful in these economic times that have resulted in a decrease in staff that may have previously been able to provide the reading to the student as part of their accommodation.
Instruction - I look forward to using the various tools for lesson planning and instruction. Because children today are so visual, the use of RSS feeds have become vital in instruction and make the lesson more interesting. Using them also shows the students that RSS feeds can open a whole new world of information to them. The students will soon realize that feeds are not just cutesy You Tube clips of dancing cats and singing dogs, but can add interest to their learning.
We have found that building prior knowledge is critical to our students’ cognition. Many of our children do not have the experiences that enable them to make connections to text. I found that www.alicechristie.org can help with building the necessary background knowledge and vocabulary through virtual field trips. This can be used in teaching other disciplines, such as Science, as it has virtual field trips of science processes. Again, in these hard economic times and high gas prices, this would prove beneficial.
So after I planned using wikilinks, Google Docs, or Diigo, and providing prior knowledge through virtual field trips, I could make games for centers using
www.teach-ict.com or www.classtools.net. At these sites, I can make my own games, or use the templates that they provide. For the assessment piece, I want to take all modalities of learning into consideration. I would refer to www.kerpoof.com, which is operated by the Disney Corp. This site provides a way of expression for the kinesthetic learner whose strength is art. I would also visit www.classtools.net again where the students could complete graphic organizers, timelines, or graphs, whatever is conducive to the particular lesson.
Personal – As I had previously stated, I am active in Children’s Ministry at my church. I could take the children on a virtual field trip to the Holy Land by using Alice Christie’s site or www.kids.nationalgeographic.com. Sometimes we use graphic organizers, such as timelines, during a Sunday School lesson. I could download a generic one from the www.teach-ict.com site. If I could get some other ministry team leaders to “buy into it” we could do the planning of various events using wikilinks. It could eliminate some face to face meetings and another night out. We are in the midst of some renovations at the church as well as deciding on a new logo. We want the entire congregations’ input. We could conduct some surveys using Survey Monkey.
I would like to use Diigo for my Book Club. Members could highlight passages that they want to discuss and come prepared to do just that.
This has been a wonderful learning experience for me. I realize that I have just seen the tip of the iceberg. I am in awe of your knowledge. It has been great interacting with all of you.

More thoughts about Diigo

Diigo user name - cyndixon
I just finished watching the videos on Diigo again. I think I will be doing this in increments! I have come to the realization that I didn't learn everything I know about the computer in just a few weeks, so I need to give myself a little grace.

I will start with interacting with the text myself, as I expect my students to. I will make a contact list for whole class, leveled reading groups, various literature cirle groups, colleagues and even my personal Book Club. With each contact list, I can share an appropriate reading with a comment as a discussion point. In the near future, I can do the webslides and other sharing.

Social Bookmarking - Another dimension added to my learning

Every week , I realize that there are so many tools "out there" that I have not even heard of, let alone have used. I am eager to implement them in my personal and professional life. As I was introduced to Diigo, the knowledge sharing and research tool, I considered its benefits. I have never been comfortable reading a document online. Now, this will help improve my comfort level as I can highligh, annotate and retrieve it later. I like the idea of being able to share these readings with students, hoping that the content will add to their learning or pique their interest to explore the ideas further. I really like the idea of having content that is tailored to my interests delivered to me. Presently, I have some daily emails sent, but this seems mouc more effectual. To me, reading is a social event and this supports that belief and enables that socialization to take place.

Using RSS feeds in instruction

Using RSS feeds adds another dimension of engagement for the student. Previously on this blog, I discussed how I would use epals and other etools to create a unit combining China and the children's book by Ann Tompert, Grandfather Tang's Story. I would integrate a Podcast into the unit as well. I found several podcasts on You tube that show how to make origami objects. One video I found was how to make an origami boomerang. I could use this as a center. This would be beneficial for the visual, audio and kenestetic learner. I think this would be particularly engaging to boys whose needs and interests maybe bypassed in a literature study.
Although I was not able to find a video interview for this particular author, I would try to find one for other authors during other studies. For the student, the use of a podcast in this instance, makes the author more human and relateable. Through the streamed video, the authors revealed their background, which gives the reader insight into their writing. They often explain their use of symbolism. It was really a way of getting into their minds.
I have previously used POD casts is in my Book Club outside of school. I have shared interviews previously shown or heard on CSPAN Book Talk and NPR that were streamed through Real Player. I have used an interview of William P. Young when we were reading The Shack, as well as an interview of E.L. Doctorow during our discussion of Homer and Langley. Homer and Langley is about two real life brothers who we would call hoarders. Funny to discover that Doctorow calls them "'aggregators'. Sort of like Google".

Using Web 2.0 Sites

Lots of new info this week! Loving it and anxious to use it!
I found all the sites interesting, but chose to use http://www.epals.com/
and http://alicechristie.org/search/trips.html to write about in this blog. As I surfed the site, the Digital Storytelling project on epals caught my eye. I would use this for a unit on China in Social Studies and Grandfather Tang's Story in Reading. The digital storytelling overview proved very helpful. It provided a guide with objectives, project calendar, essential and supporting questions and additional teacher resources. The NCTE and IRA standards were also cited. I would have the students take a virtual field trip using the Alice Christie site. The students would then have to search for appropriate photos and images to create a digital story about China. They would have to include images regarding China's location, weather, natural resources,food, government, and history. I think the students would be most excited about the sharing component of the project. On epals, I found 2 students from China who would like to see their projects, Yuan S. and Robert D. Robert D. is a student in a bilingual Chinese/English Primary School. It would be fun to receive correspondance from these boys as well.
Epals would provide me, the novice teacher regarding digital storytelling, with the guidance that would make me feel more secure as I embark on this new endeavor. Eventually, I may be able to add to this collaborative site and provide that same guidance for another peer.

Google Docs vs. wikis

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Think about the similarities and differences between Google Docs and Wikis.


1. I envision this being used administratively as well as instructionally. I presently use this to complete documents from the Testing Office as well as my Reading Recovery Monthly Report. I could have used this with teachers as I completed the Textbook Inventory. I could have uploaded the document from the Textbook Office and had the teachers fill in their inventory and simply compiled the totals. The principal and I could have used this to format the PMAPP information. When I make the class lists, I could have the teachers or the principal edit them as necessary. As I help new teachers, they could send me their lesson plans and I could edit accordingly, perhaps even chat as I edit so they could understand my reasoning as I make suggestions.

2.What foundational skill set would be required before moving forward with this? I think a background in Word would certainly help. I am glad that Google did not reinvent the wheel but elborated on what is globally known.

3.How would you incorporate these tools into your school or classroom?
I won't repeat the ideas that I stated above. For primary grades, I could have the students complete a web collaboratively before they write to organize their thoughts. Tasks could be divided amoung several students and recorded on the doc. I could see this being used for collaborative Science projects. In the classroom, the possibilities are only confined to my meager knowledge of the tool at this time.

wiki CONTINUED

I have to stop wanting to capitalize wiki!!! This week I added another page to my literarytoolsstudysheet wiki. I wanted the students to continue their literary tools study by making a Power Point presentation. I thought this would be an engaging activity that would truly test their knowledge. They are to use the wiki for planning and collaboration. They would work in groups of four. Each will choose a literary tool. They would be required to state an example of the tool. A member of their collaborative group would find a picture. Another member would type and another would present. Members would suggest a font style, a font size, appropriate background color and animation. These suggestions would be entered on the wiki. Discussion would ensue through the wkiki as well as they debate the suggestions. As this is their first try (as well as mine) at using technology to banter, I will have to be close by with direction and suggestions, however, as they develop more experience there will be a gradual release of responsibility.