PLN update

I am learning a lot and finding great links from everyone in class. Twitter, not so much. I think part of the problem is that it is summer. I find it hard to come up with questions that I need help with right now, seems most other people are probably in the same boat since a lot of posts there are more related to what people are doing travel-wise.

I am getting a lot of sites marked to favorites and trying to figure out how i will use things but even that is hard because I am not even certain of what i will be teaching until sometime in August. I feel right now I am just stockpiling morsels for the fall.

Micrographia Link

Here is a link that takes you to the National Medical Library and Hooke's Book Micrographia. This is the guy who coined the term cell while looking at cork. Great way to talk about how technology influences science.

Hooke's Book

edited photo

On my iGoogle page, I have an Artwork of the Day box, todays artwork was by Vermeer, Portrait of a Young Woman. During a unit in biology we talk about chromosomal abnormalities like Down's syndrome. when i saw this painting it looked to me like that is what the girl has. So, I made a collage with an image from creaive commons and thought it could be useful in class. Ties art to science and just could start conversations about how different conditions were viewed through history.

Fun Book

I did not really look closely at this, but I love the 1960's images in it. Found it on a link (somehow) on creative commons.
the golden book of chemistry experiments -robert brent

Not really science

PBS kids plays this song on the commercials and I just found out who sings it so thought I'd post

Week 2 Summary

End of week two, here is what I learned;

Aggregators- Nice way to see what is new.

PLN- Still have a way to go to establish one. I would like to also get member from my school, district,and state involved with this. I know that it was mentioned (Eric?) that they are beneficial for getting ideas from other places/states but i think that I really need local input this year. Our curriculum is basically canned and mandated by the state. This is the first year all ) teachers (in our district will be trained and implementing it. I think it will be good to exchange with others teaching this new curriculum ideas about what is going well and what the shortcomings are. People in other states may not be able to do that since they are not required to do the same activities we are.

Classroom 2.0- joined and am waiting approval. A little nervous about the PD on-line. Though I am not sure at this point how it will be very different from on-line chats and discussions in other on-line classes I have taken through MSU.

Other- Like the iGoogle (thanks TMoran). While I feel not quite as overwhelmed this week I just don't feel completely organized. Google gets me to blogger and blogger gets me to twitter, but I am also checking my school e-mail, personal e-mail, facebook, MSU (other class). Everytime I sit down there are at least 4 places I need to go. I wish there was a way that I could see all of these things in one,or even 2,places. Google reader doesn't allow me to connect everything...unless I am missing something.

The NSTA Learning Center

I found this and thought it would be good for PD. Unfortunately they do not seem to have anything posted up for this summer.

The NSTA Learning Center

Shared via AddThis

Inviting Co-workers

I know that the blogs here are predominantly for this class, but since the goal is to be able to USE what we are learning I have invited my colleagues to view my blog and twitter accounts. i am hoping if more of them can start playing around that when school starts again I can have a group of people from my district that are more connected.

I like the idea of national learning communities, but feel that for some things i need support and help more locally. Also, I was really inspired by some of the school run blogs viewed this week...sorry but I can not remember where i saw them- it is all a blur, maybe assigned reading/links, maybe someone elses blog, or maybe my own searches.

iGoogle!!!

After reading about iGoogle on Marta's blog , I decided to try it out. I really like this, you can add so much cool stuff. Though once again I spent/wasted 1 hour playing with the settings and finding things to add.

There is so much to explore with all the new things we are learning about that I am spending way too much time inside at the computer, but I guess that the investment in time I make now will help when school starts...right? It can't feel this overwhelming FOREVER, can it?

Twitter

Okay, I am really not liking twitter at this point, just seems very time consuming. There is already a glut of information out there- not sure how following 25+ peoples random comments may be useful- but will keep at it.

Anyone who does this regularly- how do you have a life off-line if you are following 100+ people?

Personal learning networks.

It is difficult to write about what I am learning from personal learning networks when I am really just establishing them this week. Through that process I am learning that it is time consuming to set up things.

However, if you consider the entire PLN that I have which includes people I regularly e-mail or meet with at school then I would have to say I learn quite a lot. During the school year we meet as a Professional Learning Community (PLC) every other day. I find this valuable because it gives us time to coordinate lessons and write common activities and assessments. Also, when I am unsure about a topic or how to approach a lesson we have brain storminng sessions.

I am unsure how this is going to work on-line with people I do not know or may not have the same classes/curriculum.

Week 1 completed?

Not sure how everyone else is doing. I noticed the week 2 work is posted, so figured I needed to make sure I was done the week 1 stuff. I THINK I am up to date though I know that this week the blogs are not in the order requested (I do not think that the ebedded vid is #3);
1- GUiding Principles; not great, more of just a thought at this point, definately haveto reflect a little more.

2-Websearch for classroom blogs/wikis...there are so many!! Some support student learning- I really like the one called missbakers blog that I saw on someone elses site. And I found a couple sites that list lots of blogs and wikis that could be used in class;

http://blogging4biology.edublogs.org/
http://supportblogging.com/Links+to+School+Bloggers

3-embed video; this was actually much easier than I thought.

4- comment on three blogs- I did this as well.

This week seemed a little disjointed- had some struggles moving through everything. Hoping week 2 feels more comfortable:)

Trying to embed youtube vid.

If anyone teaches biochem or genetics, here is a great site. I have the link to the "mouse party" activity, which shows what different drugs do to you. they also have a mouse cloning and virtual DNA extraction.

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/drugs/mouse.html

overwhelmed!!

I find searching around the web for things completely overwhelming and time consuming. I can spend hours and feel I have not really gotten what i was looking for.

However, I think that this is a good experience because it helps me realize what my students go through. In one of the articles (I read so much I really do not remember which one) it mentioned how we (teachers) are still needed as guides to the students because even though they may be more tech savvy, they do not necessarily possess the ability to effectively filter the information. I think I am developing empathy with them and hope that by the end of this course I am also better and filtering all the info.

Guiding Principals

I believe technology should be used to enhance learning, not just because it is available. That said, technology is not readily available at my school.

I know that I need to become more computer savvy and I am hoping that technology use, particularly internet use, can help supplement what students are learning in my class. We have had a change in curriculum and at the same time have eliminated the purchasing of textboooks. Which is probably okay, since most students do not do homework from the textbooks when they were available. I guess I am hoping to begin by learning to do old things in new ways by using the internet as a way to get students more involved at home.