Thing #23 - Reflect

I've really enjoyed the 23 Things exercise. I've always felt the best way for me to learn something is to just explore it - to dive right in and see how it works. I think the concept of playing and exploring is a great way for anyone to learn. I am always trying to get my students to become more curious about things and encouraging exploration is one way to boost the curiosity level! I've been sharing what I learn as I go along. For one, I've embedded my 23 things blog into my teacher site so that anyone interested could see what I'm up to. I've also become a vocal proponent of Thinglink - LOVE that site - and have been sharing tutorials I've created for it. Schoology too, but that wasn't really part of the 23 things. I think could use the 23 Things concept for my fellow teachers, although I think I would do so in a way that could be done within a session. I think the same is true for my students, that I could teach a concept using the 23 Things model, complete with asking them to keep a blog that documents it. This could be a great addition to a digital portfolio.

Thing #22 - Share something new

This one was somewhat difficult because all my teachers are so busy and I had a hard time getting someone to watch a webinar for me (especially if it wasn't required). This year, ABE is switching to a new High School Equivalency Test and with that a new registration system. There have been a lot of webinars pertaining to the new test and the new system. In response, I asked my substitute to watch the webinar on the new registration system and these were her comments to me: "I listened to the TASCTEST webinar, then went to the registration site. It is fairly easy to understand. I think I can use it when I need to. It is not a lot different from the GEDWIZZARD but it may be easier to register."

Thing #16 - Use a Backchannel

I love the idea of a backchannel but its not practical for my classroom use. I typically only have 3-5 students, so it seems silly to use a backchannel for comments on discussion. What I did for this "thing" is had them answer a writing prompt about a proud moment and then we spent 20 minutes or so having an online chat about it. I am trying to get my students to learn to express themselves better in writing and I think it did a good job of doing that. I also liked that TodaysMeet only allows for 140 characters - it took pressure off the low-level writers who have a hard time writing longer sentences, and challenged the higher-level writers to write succinctly. I'm not sure if I would use this everyday, but I might do it a couple times a week. My screenshot:

Thing #15 - collaborate in an image

I created this Thinglink as an introductory activity to a HSE lesson in the Great Depression. My students work at their own pace, so thinglink is a great way for them to collaborate with others while also continuing through their studies on their own. I've had trouble with embedding thinglink and having the tags appear, so I'm also including this direct link: https://www.thinglink.com/scene/502135462450692097

Thing #14 - Publish Something

My students collaborated on this presentation about the six pillars of character - a SPOKES lesson we do. I used Flipbook.com to turn it into an e-book. Its really neat and something I think I'll be adding to my student's repertoire. There are several presentations and publications are students create - embedding them into their online job portfolios/websites could be a great way to share them!

Thing #21: Be a reader of blogs

There were several blogs I looked at, some I've heard of and frequent often (edutopia.com, for example), but I wanted to explore a new blog for this Thing.

I choose Edudemic.

I found the blog to be visually appealing, which is important to me (even thought I know that it shouldn't be, I am a very graphic person and I need things to be well organized and visually appealing to capture my attention!). This blog  focused on the use of education in technology, and that was something I'm always looking for. It is easy to navigate and the content is straight-forward with clear titles and just enough information to let you know what the post is about. I've added it to my RSS feed (which one day I'll get in the routine of using!).

Thing #20 - Share, ReMix & Reuse - legally!

I just completed a copyright course in my graduate program and feel more grateful for Creative Commons than ever!

Through creativecommons.com/education, I found this:

http://www.oercommons.org/

According to its website: OER Commons is a searchable database and network for open educational resources that was started in 2007 by ISKME, the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education. OER Commons provides metadata about 42,000+ OER and allows educators to bookmark, tag, rate, and evaluate resources for quality and curriculum alignment.

OER Commons licenses content on its site (unless otherwise noted) under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License. Here's the link to the human readable summary: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/