My Final Blog?

I'm questioning that this will be my final blog. I started this class by saying that I didn't like blogging and I just might have changed my mind. I realize that I have read a ton of blogs over the past few weeks and I realize that some of them are pretty darn interesting. Go figure.
This class...wow. I'm still trying to digest what we learned in the first two or three weeks, but everything that we learned in the PAST two or three weeks helped pull some of those things together.
At times, I have thought that we covered too much material and at other times I see that we needed to cover at least that much. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I guess it must have been a dilemma making the choices of just what should have been covered in the class. I wouldn't have wanted to miss anything. I feel like I at least have knowledge of what my choices are and Iassume taht I can narrow it down from there.
I hope, I hope, that I follow through on the ideas that I have gleaned from this class. It could be easy to just fall back on the "old" ways of doing things and I think it would best to move forward!

Presentations

Presentations are not my forte, but I think that teaching students HOW to present is a tremendously important thing to do. I don't want them to be a self-concious as I am about doing them! I can see them being a part of assessments in my class and I would love to be able to support my students in learning how to be a good presentor.
I remember being awed by the first Power Point presentation that I saw and I was even more impressed when students started doing them. They were eye-catching, creative, and fun. A HUGE improvement over the most dull presentation ever invented ...the overhead projector! Now they seem a bit more mundane and boring... kind of like the video "Life after Death by Power Point".
I wish that I had seen some of the presentations that this class did ...I heard that they were great!

Podcasts

I thought that podcasting was a lot of fun. I like using them for my own personal use (listening to them mostly) and I saw some great examples of how teachers have used them in their class rooms ...and used them well. I have to think that they may have had some use as a tool for assessment in my class room, but with videos so easy to create and publish ... I wouldn't use a podcast. A podcast might be a better way to leave an assignment for your students, you could really explain the assignment in detail verbally as oppsed to writing, but I would cringe to hear my own voice! So I think I would use them only as a source of info, use them with a RSS feed, but would move towards Youtube as a better place for my student assessments.

Marvel

With all of the wonderful information out there on the internet, it's sometimes hard to remember that we all can be so fooled by misinformation. Adults as well as kids can be fooled if they are not careful. Following some of the thoughts of others in the class, I think that we should probably teach some internet tools to our students. Maybe a class in the 6th grade (I would assume/believe something sooner, but I'm not sure when) that would teach how to use Marvel, how to recognize reliable sources, how to sort out the information. Marvel should be available as a primary source, somewhere that kids can access it easily. I also think that as teachers become more aware of the "good" and "bad" out there, they can step in and create teaching moments around those resources. The internet isn't going to go away (but what WILL replace it?), so we can all help each other identify reliable content. Plagerism will and always has been a concern, let's continue to make that a part of what we teach.

Wikis

Well, as usual, everyone in this class has come up with tremendous plans and ideas of how they will use wikis in their classrooms! And, as usual, this all really makes me wish that I had chosen to be a classroom teacher so that I could implement everything that we have learned in this class so far. Or maybe I would like to be a student again in a classroom that used wikis? I won't use wikis in my classes, I may change my mind as I have some time to reflect on other people's ideas. I think that they need to be monitored frequently and I don't see that as something that would work well for us. As I have said, I could see them working across our district as a way to brainstorm and communicate amongst the Phys Ed staff.

The Continuing Google Site Adventure

Google Docs, Google Sites....the two areas I want to do the most work in and think will benefit my teaching the most....and I can't seem to be able to do either with any degree of success. They would allow me to teach with no paper and pencils and to allow my students to explore and share more information about any topics that were related to class (or not related to class for that matter). Last week's class time was great to get a good start on Google Sites and I really appreciate the time and help that we were able to receive from Steve and Connie. Maybe I need a remedial Google tutoring class, above and beyond the dozens of website tutorials? I haven't given up yet. I continue to enjoy the RSS feeds the most of any of our previous topics, they are easy and I am the most informed Red Sox/Celtic fan in the universe!

Google Sites

I am so glad that we will have class time tomorrow to get some hep with Google Sites (and I hope Google Docs!). So far, these are the two areas that I have looked forward to learning about and looked forward to using professionally. Yet I am stuck. I can usually figure things out pretty well but I look forward to some guidance Tuesday night. I think that Google Sites is the perfect tool to bring technology into the Phys Ed classroom. We don't have a lot of ways to do that in our small time frame and in such a hands-on environment.