Twitter and Cadre

Hello!

Well I have to say the Cadre was awesome and learned tons. Nice to see Jason and Mike there too! I left there feeling overwhelmed with tons of information, but also rejuvenated to find and implement new technologies. I am realizing too that it is the little innovations and implementations that can excite kids in our classroom and spark creativity and learning.

I left the Cadre with a learning task...find an implementation or application in Twitter that may make it useful in education or classrooms. I have to admit that Twitter is much more than I thought and have even learned a few things from it so far. I am now a "follower" to Will Richardson, Wesley Fryer, and a few other big names in tech. I am surprised at how much you can also search and find for in Twitter. I am a Twitter beginner and cannot say yet that I am "twitterpated" with Twitter quite yet. I will keep you updated and any ideas on how to use Twitter or any cool applications that you know of please pass on!

It's a Wrap

Today we worked on our project. We added chat to our Cadre group site. Then we played with some web 2.0 tools. We did a phrer project. It was simple but fun. You can try it.

Here is the site - www.pimpampum.net/phrasr

Cool 'make a simple video' Site

We summarized what we learned these past two days by creating a simple video. You have to go to www.xtranormal.com to check out this fun tool.

Google Sites

Today our group is working on setting up a classroom website using Google Sites. I am on information overload mode. I created a blog for one of my classes (I want a place where they can display their work to a larger audience than just the teacher. I'm hoping the students will begin to take a little more pride in their work knowing that a large audience is able to view.) However, then the questions popped up on how do I get around the students not having email. So after brainstorming with my group, gaggle.net email platform was suggested. Therefore, I am heading to this site to read about the controls that I can place on my students that will hopefully apease my administrator. I'm finding impossible to use these cool tools without email accounts.

What did you learn today?

What is a new tool that you learned about today and how would you use it in your classroom?

Wallwisher.com

This afternoon we watched several videos about social networking, then we defined what is was as a group. The purpose of spending time defining new concepts supports the brain research that states in order to learn we need to attach the new concept with prior knowledge. The next step was getting into groups of 3 and go to www.wallwisher.com and create at least 6 'post-it-notes' about our thoughts. Finally, we organized our thoughts into categories, since brain research shows this is how our brains work to retrieve information. It's a cool and easy site to use...check it out:)

Savanger Hunt

We just finished a very fun activity. It was a savanger hunt. We used our computers to find locations from clues we got as text messages on our phones. We texted our answers. If we were correct, we took photos of ourselves there. It was a little frustrating but it was a good way to get up and moving and get to know more Cadre members. How do you think you could implement a savanger hunt in your classroom?

Cadre groups

Everyone has joined learning groups to focus on different social networking sites. These include facebook, twitter, wordpress, google sites, ning and one called mixed bag. The latter will include wetpaint, livestream, diigo, flickr, artsonia, ccmixter and you tube. Everyone will be exploring these sites and will report back throughout the year on their usefullness in the classroom.

Some Blogging Tips for the Cadre Folks

Great Start to your blogging.  Here are a few things I am seeing that we need to fix:

1)  Always add a title to a new post

2)  If you are replying or adding to an existing posts content, add a comment - not a new post

3)  Make sure you add at least one label to your post so it is searchable

4)  When adding a link in a comment section you need to add a little HTML code. Here is an example:


The area in the pink is the actual web link.  The text after the "> tag is the text that will appear linkable.  In this case ">Strawberry label

Social Networking

Focussing on social Networking sites today. First to learn, then to utilize in the classroom. Just yesterday I saw Facebook used to book a flight, ask for help on what sites were good to book trips on, and I even made my hair appointment on Facebook! So yes, these sites can be used for awesome sharing of information, as well as for entertainment and staying connected socially.

So now on to Wall Wisher. See the link below!
http://www.ncs-tech.org/?p=3275

The video Crystal refers to points out that wikipedia has more entries and is more accurate than Britannica - a change of view from the old"don't trust Wikipedia."

Just watched a cool video on social media!

This morning we did an opening activity where we worked in groups to create an ad about one of the objectives of Cadre. The activity was fun and helped us get to know each other and build on prior knowledge. Jennifer said that brain research supports the idea that we remember more when emotion is attached. What kinds of opening activiites do you have your students do that allows them to link emotion to learning?

Hello,
We just had a great lunch and are getting ready for a busy afternoon. Before our break, Jennifer our instructor had us brainstorm and share ideas on our learning environment for Cadre meetings. We could either say it aloud or type it on the message board. Participants were able to state things such as temperature, not liking it when little conversations are taking place when the instructor is speaking, having a couple of options to retrieve website URLs (in case computers aren't cooperating at the time).... This empowered the participants to feel like a part of the learning environment. I'm going to try to use this democratic strategy when introducing the working/learning environment for using the mini-computers in our classroom.

What activities are you doing to create an engaging learning environment in your classroom?

Good morning all!

good morning all! Looking forward to a great day.

Cadre

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow!!

Cadre

I, too, am looking forward to next weeks "gathering." turner

Cadre

I am looking forward to going to the Cadre meeting next week.
Linda

Welcome PROTECS bloggers!

You have already passed the first step...you found the blog.  The directions for this blog is that are Cadre members will be creating posts as they learn and reflect on their teaching.  It will be the job of the rest of you to make comments to posts.  In turn, Cadre members reply to a many comments as possible and let's see where the discussions take us... Happy Blogging! :)