Thing #18 YouTube and TeacherTube

I've been using YouTube and TeacherTube for personal and professional use for a while now.  Recently our district has decided to unblock us from access to the site.  Thank goodness they realize what great material can be found there and are changing things so we don't have to log in each time we use it.

When I became an Instructional Specialist for Math and Science at McDonald I searched both sites for information about Science since I was a Math teacher for 17 years.  TeacherTube made it easy for me to learn what I needed to assist teachers in instruction and prepare to team teach with them in the classroom.  I had to learn quickly and both sites did the trick.  I continue to utilize both sites when we need quick clips or a good way to motivate students.  I've even found fantastic videos for English and Social Studies as I searched.

I use the site all the time at home to discover new music and lyrics.  My son attends UT and lives in Austin.  He loves the city for its music and introduces me to local talent constantly.  Most of the artists have videos on YouTube so I can view them there.

On TeacherTube I found a video about teaching the Pythagorean Theorem.  This is a fun and quick tutorial on the theorem.  It only lasts about 2 minutes and gets straight to the point.

On YouTube I found a great video on How to Estimate Square Roots.  This video uses a type of factor tree to find the square root to the nearest tenth.  The visual and audio processing help students see how to find the estimates.

How to Use Google Documents: User Interface in Google Documents is an indepth video to show you exactly how to use the site.  Of all of the "how to" videos I found this one was a good website to use to get started with Google Docs.

The fun side of YouTube took me to Petticoat Junction.  I used to watch this show as a kid and now it seems a bit cheesy.  It was nice to stroll down memory lane.   I've attempted to imbed the video here for you to see.

Thing #17 Podcasting

I found myself very frustrated with podcasts.  Most of the podcasters used the beginning of each podcast to entertain and play around instead of actually getting to the subject at hand.  For instance Learn out Loud with Ray and Hollye had some terrible podcasts.  They had too much personal conversation irrellevent to the topic of teaching about technology.  I also realized that since I am a visual and auditory learner I couldn't have a copy of their podcast in front of me to look at or read so listening only I wasn't able to focus well on the podcast.  Students who are auditory would benefit from hearing the podcast.  ESL students would benefit from hearing and being able to read along with the podcast.  I wish that feature were available on all of the websites.  

Harry Henshaw’s Podcast (on Learn Out Loud)  of relaxing music was fantastic.  It was so good I subscribed to it in my Google Reader.  This podcast was downloaded to my ITunes and is going to be nice to listen to at bedtime or when I am working on an intense project or data.  I sent this to my teachers so they could play it during tests and as the students are entering/exiting the room to help them settle down to be prepared to learn.  

With NPR (National Public Radio) you are able to search by title, author, or provider.  I subscribed to a Jazz feed Tamir Hendelman Trio In Concert on JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater.   I've been searching for more interesting radio podcasts to share with students and teachers as well.  What if students could use their cellphones or MP3 players to download these podcasts and appreciate the arts?  What if they learned to incorporate the music with the presentations they create?

Online Education Database (OEDb) is a great site for looking at the what, who, where of higher education.  There is even a tab for financial aid. This is a great resource for our middle and high school students to begin to learn about colleges and universities.  There is even a top ranking tab.

PBS kids offers a podcast called DragonFlyTV. This podcasting shows kids doing real Science and also has some vodcasts.  I watched/listened to an episode and the students are quite entertaining.  Our kiddos could create this themselves.  If they can talk/teach it, they have learned the content.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Authors Tour Live. Lauren Weisberger used podcasting to read six minutes of her book:  Last Night at Chateau Marmont.  It was interesting, fun to hear the author’s tone and voice reading her own book.

Podcasting is a wonderful tool which allows students to hear the words from others and to use to create their own as an assessment to what they learned about a specific topic.

Thing #16 Library Thing

Library Thing is a book website that utilizes tagging for topics and social interaction in the form of groups, reviews, etc.  I enjoyed looking at some of the profiles of the authors.  Some profiles are more developed than others.  There are so many ways to look at the site its amazing.  I typed in a title to do a search and found many of the same titles with different authors.  The list was expanded to include my title as the basic wording and had added word titles as well.  I found that the tagging words were useful to get a glimpse of what the book was about.  One word can speak volumes.  This is similar to the title of an article in the newspaper.  This made it easier for me to skim over and pass by books I'm not interested in.

I didn't find many book reviews on the books I looked up.  I am assuming this is a fairly new site and is growing exponentially daily.   The Unsuggester was quite intriguing.  I intend to play around with this more.  I'd never thought of the other side of Suggester.  Quite different and very useful.  This was good thinking outside the box to reveal other works.

I have joined Library Thing and did share it with some of my teachers.  I will continue to place my professional readings onto my personal page so that when I conduct book studies these teachers can learn, share, and comment on them as well.   I will encourage my teachers to join and share their books read with their students.  Hopefully this will encourage students to read more and share.  I took this idea to several teachers and asked them to include Library Thing as an 'anchor' activity in their classrooms.  Students will be able to search the site for books and book reviews to encourage them to read them.  Since MISD's school libraries just went digital, perhaps this will encourage these students and teachers to 'check out' the online versions of the books.  The literary/technological world just keeps getting better and better.  The more I learn the more I realize just how much I don't know!  Frustrating and fun all at the same time.

Thing #15 Social Bookmarking and Tagging with Delicious

Delicious.com is a wonderful way to include all of my bookmarks in one place and online via any internet connection.  What a wonderful tool.  I can display all of my bookmarks or type in a word I've tagged them as and get back to the ones under the category I really want.  The key here is to think carefully about your tags so that you can retrieve your bookmarks.  The notes make it nice to see what types of things you can do with your bookmarked URL's.


I have to admit I became very frustrated with this activity. While trying number three (3) under Help:Steps for Tagging Sites in Delicious (3.While viewing the site, click the TAG button on your browser toolbar)  I couldn't get it to work.  I never could find the tagging button.  I felt stupid and looked at other blog posts on this topic.  I never saw where anyone had trouble so this is something I am going to have to go back and revisit and reteach myself.  After wasting about 4 hours total on this activity I've decided to move on so I can complete the 23Things.  I'll return to #15 after I finish the class.  In fact, there are many "things" I want to revisit and learn more about as I complete the class.  But, that's another blog for later.    I couldn't figure out how to use the POWER TIP either.  I want to go back to that as well.


I tried to add the shared tag to MISD 23Things but never saw that it worked in the WIki either.  I'm confused and I'll look back at this as well.  I did see where others had the same issue in their blogs.  


I found myself using my Delicious account at work posting new bookmarklets as I was sent and found new useful websites for teachers.  I shared Delicious with several colleagues and they thought it was AWESOME!  I can't wait to share it with more of my teachers.  My son and husband have begun to use it as well.  My son is in the Business School at UT and used it for two of his presentations.  I was proud to teach him about something on the internet that was so useful to him.

Thing #7a and 7b

I follow several blogs but one in particular that always interests me is Ewan McIntosh's Digital Media and Education.  He posted one blog, Using Facebook In the Classroom that gives information about how educators can allow students to utilize this application safely.   


I also follow the blog of an Associate Professor in the Educational Administration program at Iowa State University.  Scott McLeod's blog, Dangerously Irrelevant always challenges my thinking.  In his latest post, Caring, Engaging, Leading and Learning he makes a statement that hits the nail on the head.  He says, "The teacher, and his/her ability to promote student learning and achievement, is the single most important factor that will influence a child’s success in the classroom and beyond."  I could not have said this better if I tried.  It is our duty as instructional leaders to hire professionals who are enthusiastic about teaching and provide opportunities that will empower our teachers to ignite fires in the classroom.  


I follow the Texas Association of School Administrators job blog site.  I find it interesting to see what is out there in our state and how they pay if they have pay scales.  The job descriptions are interesting to read.  Not all districts have the same expectations of their particular types of positions.  I was hoping this might help me find an Assistant Principal position but I found the listings to be all over the board.  Perhaps in the spring more postings will be closer to the jobs I want to pursue.  In the meantime reading them is educational and informative.  


I am anxious to have the time to look for and find more blogs, as well as, expand on mine outside the education world.  I want to find some that are just fun and funny to read.

Thing #14 More Web 2.0 Tools

After looking at most of the cool websites my favorites were 30 boxes, blabberize yourself, mixbook, and letterpop.

I did begin a calendar for myself in 30 boxes.  I found it very easy to use and share.  I don't think anyone besides me can edit my calendar but whoever I share it with can view it.  Blabberize yourself was fun.  I created a couple of photos with the audio and had a blast.  I think our kids could use this to teach one another concepts from class.  I'm going to suggest a few of my teachers allow students to play with this and experiment as they review concepts before a test.  These are easy to download to social networks and share as well.  

Mixbook is awesome.  I intend to create some Christmas gifts at this site.  Teachers could use this to have students create books as projects after reading novels.  They would be able to illustrate what they learned about the novel by creating their own depiction of an aspect of the book.

Letterpop will make it simple to create our annual Christmas/New Year's letter to family and friends.  Since it allows the upload and posting of photos there's no need to use anything else.

All of these sites eliminate the need to visit a photo shop or drug store for printing photos, newsletters, business cards, and anything else we can think of.  Visiting these sites makes me want to search for other similar sites to see what is out there for use in creating all kinds of things.

Thing #13 Online Image Generator

I created this collage using Big Huge Labs' mosiac maker.  I used Flickr to download some photos from our Rose Bowl trip this past January.  Flickr made it easy to upload with specific instructions.  I'm going to use the Big Huge Lab's site to create collages for my family for Christmas.  My son worked for UT Longhorn football for four years and we have lots of photos.  This is one way I can create a lifelong memory album for him.  I'm planning on making this collage into a poster he can frame too.  I'm learning so much fun stuff I can hardly stand it.  I also posted this collage to my facebook page.  There was an application in Flickr that allowed me to post at the click of a button.

I also went to Comic Strip Generator and made this little cartoon. There were easy directions listed and it only took a couple of steps.  I sent this to my hubby in email.  He got a laugh out of it!!!!!  

At Happy Face Generator I was able to create the following happy face sign.

All of these images and creations can be used by teachers and students in various presentations or projects.  The toughest part is knowing where to go to get them and teaching them how to use them.  I can see the happy face used to gain student's attention in Promethean flipcharts or with Prezi's.  THe collages can be used in English/Reading/History classes to have them create collections that represent a story they have read.  The possibilities are endless.