Thing 9 Reflection

Now this is just warped enough that I would use it, a lot! Online image generators will allow students, staff and myself to personalize photos and images for any type of lesson or project. The kids (and I'm including myself on this one) could spend hours just looking around at all of the possibilities out there.



When I was working on this assignment I clicked on the first site and found these magazine covers and could have hunted for hours for just the right photo. I think this

Thing 8 Reflection

The smaller programs for Flickr are quite unique, although nearly impossible to find on the website. Which one's would I use? The Spell with Flickr would be neat to use occasionally, and possible some of the others, but honestly I'm not sure how I would use many of these as it relates to music.

As with the other features and photos, I'd probably use those functions more often, but I'm open to ideas from others.

Thing 7 Reflection

Wow, moving along nicely here.

Flickr is a fun site, and I was so glad to see it's a part of the Yahoo group so I really didn't have to establish another new account!


Be careful what school photos you upload! The last thing that you want to do is violate someone's privacy, especially by putting someone's child on the internet!

Thing 6 Reflection

Boy, I've been a busy beaver today...4 things.

The photo sharing sites are very good. I've been a member of Shutterfly for a few months and seem to like it, so far. I'm going to try and use photos from there for this project.

What I have found so far is that you cannot directly download a community picture from Shutterfly, so I must go through a PrintScreen and paste to my PCs Paint program and save it from there. We'll see how this works from here.

I suppose I should go back to the training video and see how they suggest you upload the photos from their photo sharing site. I may return to figure out how to upload directly from the website instead of going through the cutting and pasting process. Perhaps to be continued.....

Okay...so here I am, back once more. The training video shows that Flickr is similar to Shutterfly, except that it uses photos that are more professional than personal, or family photos. On Flickr you can right click on a photo and save, whereas Shutterfly is a Flash program so you cannot save a photo quite so easily. If you do choose to use Print Screen, and paste into a Paint program you must crop and fix the photo so that it is cleaned up of all the excess stuff from the screen. But once done you can choose a variety of file extensions to save the photo (jpg, gif, bitmap, etc.) On Flickr you simply right click the photo and Save As, but you can only choose .gif format or bitmap.

The dog picture above shows lots of wasted white space around the photo, obviously not cleaned up enough when saved. I'm hopeful that the lighthouse picture here will use the space more efficiently.

I've saved the lighthouse photo, twice. When I upload to my blog there is nothing there! Hmmm, the photo does not save.

Thing 5 Reflection

Wow, I'm moving along well. The nice thing is that by following your instructions everything is working the way it's supposed to. The negative thing is that I need more hours in the day to spend surfing for all of the blogs I want to subscribe to. It is very easy (using bloglines) to mark items read so that I don't waste time going over things that I'm not interested in or have read previously. I'm enjoying myself. (Is this supposed to be this much fun????)

Thing 4 Reflection

Okaaaayyyyyyyy...here we go into some new stuff for me. I think the RSS feeds will definitely be helpful in making sure that the people who subscribe to my ed blog will get the info as quickly as possible. Will it also notify me when they respond, mmmm...not sure. I have the blog set up to notify me when someone responds, so that will probably be how this whole thing works. We'll see.

The nice thing about how these "Things" are set up is that they build upon the previous Thing, but also pique my curiosity and make me want to move onto the next Thing. Do I dare go on? What if I finish all of the Things and still have 7 weeks to go?????? It's an inigma!

Thing 3 Reflection

There are several ways that I believe blogging will be helpful to students: general information sharing, promoting or spotlights are specific students or events, upcoming events, etc. Although these are basic information giving ideas, they are important. As for allowing students to share: there are several times during the school year when students are given an assignment to critique a performance (either their own or someone elses). By allowing the posts to be put on the blogsite will not only allow students to quickly leave their critique but will allow other students to see and comment on the views of the other students.

By allowing students to see the works/words of other students leads into the next reflection question about concerns I have about the process. Students can sometimes be mean, intentionally or unintentionally, and could hurt and inhibit the responses from other students. I have adjusted the settings on this blog to moderate all comments before they are published. This will hopefully eliminate any problems of flaming on the blog. But I do have a concern about student privacy. How do we teachers identify the students submitting legitimate postings without having them divulge first and last names? I am thinking that perhaps using a student's first name and maybe the last four digits of their student ID number might help protect their privacy. I'd be happy to hear any comments on this one!

Other uses would include communication between parents and myself, being able to share information and calendar dates with them, as well as with members of the community. Sharing performance clips is also possible, once I learn how to get my videos from the camera to the computer (hopefully another 23 Things lessons!).

Thing 2 Reflection

As I mentioned in my previous Reflection I'd like to find new and exciting ways to connect with my students and their families.

How do I feel about putting myself, and my words into cyberspace where anyone can read them? Well, I am a musician/educator so I guess that anytime I perform I'm putting myself and my words out into the universe. The difference here is that in cyberspace these words are going to hang around a lot longer than they would in a concert venue.

The benefits that I can see are that I can preview and edit my comments and questions before I push the "Publish Post" button. Even afterwards I can edit them and elaborate on them and hopefully alleviate any questions or confusion.

On the negative side people don't always interpret the written word with the inflection and tone that the spoken word carries. To me I find it a challenge to choose words carefully, that truly express the "inner" me...sometimes serious, and caring, but at other times witty and sarcastic. Being a teacher of both middle school and high school choir students I've learned how to mold by humor and sarcasm to fit the age, although I am still tempted to purchase a flashing "SARCASM" sign to where over my head. I hope we'll have a "Thing" on eBay shopping...I just know there will be one of those signs for sale there!

Thing 1 Reflection

Educators who have been in the field for more than 5-10 sorely need to get caught up to where the newer teachers are and our student bodies. I *used* to consider myself literate and up-to-date with many of the latest gizmos for technology, but no longer.

As I see it there are two major challenges:
1) Getting the teachers caught up to where the students are, and using the technology in the classroom; and
2) Dealing with school districts who have not been able to keep up with the latest technologies, for whatever reason

After watching the video last night I mentioned the suggested lesson about text messaging and getting 3 responses in 10 minutes. There wasn't one student who seemed to think that it would difficult, and most commented that they wouldn't need all of the 10 minutes. There were several who knew that could get the bonus points but getting a response from someone in a foreign country. Our school district does not allow the possession of phones in the classroom let alone using them for lessons. That will take a major shift in paradigms for education.

Hopefully throughout this process I will find ways to achieve and implement some new technology into the classroom, and perhaps find sources for funding of these lessons.

My beginnings with 23 Things

Well, this is my blog for my 23 Things Project. I missed the first week's assignments so I'm playing a bit of catch up, but I'll be back on track in no time. I currently have two more blogs that I use occasionally. One is for my family, and the other is for my high school madrigal chorale. I'll post more info on those blogs and links to them soon. For now, I look forward to learning new things about using technology for my students.