Podcast

We talked about Podcasts and what they are.  Sherry and I then put together our own Podcast of morning announcements. 

The idea that I liked the most for using Podcasts was to use it in math.  I think it is a terrific idea to record your math lectures and then post them on your classroom blog.  This way your student can listen to them over and over again.  I think this would have been very helpful for some of my college classes also. 

I think it would also be great to use for some fun activities in the classroom.  In Kindergarten my teacher recorded us sing "Rudolph the Red-nosed Raindeer" on cassette tape.  I think this would be so helpful to use instead of a cassette tape.  You could even e-mail the parents with their child's song attached and they could either record it themselves or do whatever they want with it. 

I think the thing I got the most out of this is the desire to own a Mac.  I really like the idea of being able to record in the classroom; especially without a microphone.  I think I will be saving my pennies so that I can really use this during my teaching. 

Google Docs and Classroom Site

I learned this week about doing things on Googledocs and on a Classroom Website.  We also had assignments for using Googledocs to get ready for our digital stories. We also built, tweeked, and refined our classroom sites. 

I dream about my pajamas all day, and Googledocs helps my dream come true a little sooner.  It is so nice to be able to be comfortable, and still working with someone on a project at home.  I think that the "translate" option is by far the most amazing thing about the program.  I am so glad to know about this.  When I worked at Windsor Elementary there was a teacher there who spoke spanish, and she translated the letters home for the other teachers.  She was a little overwhelmed.  I love knowing that I won't be burdoning a fellow teacher for my letters home.  I am just going to put it in Googledocs, and translate. 

The classroom website was fairly cool too.  There was a short freak-out period when I somehow turned my resource page into a sub-page for my calendar. I still have no idea how it happened, and those words on the rubric kept flashing in my head..."no subpages or comments". Ah!  ~sigh~ but thank goodness I figured out how to fix it. 

I like all the choices of themes and colors.  I think it will be great and helpful to have as a teacher. I love all the different options they have for pages (resource, homework, etc).  I think students will like to have a site that they can go for their class. They will be able to see assignments they missed, and you could even add a page that has pictures of things they are doing in class.  I think it is an excellent way to communicate.   Overall, I liked putting the website together.