Tool #5

I used Diigo today to find a few more educational websites. The tags I used were: ESL Games and ESL Lesson Plans. I love the way that you can organize your websites using the tags...so easy! I also bookmarked an article on the effectiveness of the OWDL program. I practiced highlighting, commenting, and adding sticky notes to the article.

This leads to a great classroom application. Students may research a particular article on a current classroom unit of study. Then they can add their comments, etc. to the piece. By using Diigo, others will be able to add their insight and ideas to the article as well. Students will have the opportunity to gain a much deeper understanding of the content they are researching.

The sites I located today:
www.eslgamesworld.com
www.everythingesl.net

Tool #4

Google Docs is an amazing tool. No more email attachments! I love the idea of having one copy that is viewed and edited by those whom you choose. As a classroom application, this will make editing partners' papers in Writing Workshop much more interactive and authentic. I used Google Docs to make a day-by-day plan for my upcoming trip to Bavaria. I scheduled possible sites, concert events, and tourist attractions. I then notified my husband so he could review it and add his input.

Google Reader was very easy to use. What a great way to keep up with other people's blogs in our learning community! This will also help keep us up-to-date with the latest educational news and events. I had to add a sports blog...got to keep up with the latest Aggie news. We won two NCAA national titles in track and field, but this year's football team needs to be much better than the last!

Tool #3

Perseverance was the word of the day today. There were so many different programs to look through and experiment with...it was a bit overwhelming. I suggest making sure you have a big block of time to allow for exploration.

I really enjoyed working with Wordle and Bookr. Wordle is such a fun way to build vocabulary knowledge. Bookr was very easy to use and would be a wonderful learning center. For example, in the OWDL classrooms for 3rd grade and up, a Bilingual Resource Center is one of the necessary classroom components. Students could work in this center with their bilingual pair and create books based on current classroom concepts. What a fun way for students to share their knowledge!

Tool #2

I enjoyed learning about PLNs. What a great way to share ideas and resources! These will be wonderful for both teachers and students...so many applications in the classroom. One of the things that stood out to me was the part about making thoughtful comments. We often ask our students to critique other students' writing workshop pieces, book reviews, etc. Getting students to make thoughtful critiques is not easy. How wonderful it will be to help our students learn commenting etiquette through the use of blogs. Students will then have the opportunity to create thoughtful, worthwhile responses in a more meaningful technology-rich environment.

I also enjoyed reading and commenting on other teachers' blogs. The ones I commented on were:
1. MCW at SOE
2. Joy into Teaching
3. ShoppingTeacher
4. Speedlimit20
5. Hatty Chatty

Tool #1

Wow! This was a lot of fun. I seemed to have spent most of the time trying to decide on the Voki and the title for my blog. I went with the owl because of our school mascot. I chose "journeying" for two reasons: exploring all the tools will definitely be a journey for me! Also, I'm traveling with my husband this summer to his different work site locations. It's already been a very busy summer!

I thought this first Tools of Learning activity went rather smoothly. The only problem I ran into was activating the Voki account. The confirmation email from Voki was considered junk mail by our email system. Luckily, I remembered to check the AppRiver email message. The activation information for Voki was right there!

Students will definitely enjoy creating and designing their own blogs. Voki characters will also be fun for them to create. Blogs would be a great way for our students to share books that they have read and information that they have learned on various content subjects. I think, as teachers, once we get more comfortable with this process we will then see more ways to incorporate it into our classrooms.