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: