Cool site

Check out http://cramberry.net/ if you need to have your students make flashcards for anything. This week, my students are creating board games. All of their games require that they write trivia questions as part of the assessment criteria. I'm going to share the Cramberry site with students and see if any of them want to use it to help them create or study for their game creation.

Another great link from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/!!!

Thank you memos

I just love one thing about the end of a quarter. A few of our Using Tech. teachers give their students an assignment to write a "Thank you" memo to one of their teachers. It always makes me smile to find one or more of those memos in my mailbox. Often the kids write silly things like "you never give us much homework" but every once in awhile I get a very well thought out and kind memo like "you always look for ways to make learning fun."

This year, Metronet has helped me find several ways to keep learning fresh and fun. Not only do I appreciate that fact, but my students have noticed too.

P.S. Travis and I have a not so friendly little on-going memo competition on which one of us gets the most. It's pretty funny actually. I'm ahead this quarter. :)

editing wikis

As Sarah pointed out, I must be getting pretty techy because I just blurted out, "Now I have to blog that I edited a wiki!"

I did in fact edit a wiki; one for our new Chanhassen library and the resources/research we do and the other was on the http://milicopyrightwiki.pbwiki.com (check it out). I tried to make a little joke about what is a "copyleft".

I'm just learning so much from my Metronet class! This web 2.0 stuff isn't so hard afterall and it's kind of fun too!

Thing 6 - Online collaboration tools

Alright, I must admit I can't think of a reason why I need one yet but I went ahead and read about wikis and then I created one today. I inivited a couple of friends to share how they find wikis useful and to give me ideas for use in my own work or personal life.

Right now, I feel that wikis are just another blog. If I have a blog, why do I also need a wiki? But I have faith that an idea will come to me for wiki use with my students and it will be inspirational.

I'm curious why I couldn't figure out how to add my wiki to my Rss reader on Google. Anyone out there have any thoughts on that?

Thing 7 - Going deeper, search engines

So I've been checking out some other search engines besides my old stand-by, Google today. I liked the gigablast.com site and will try to remember to use it more often (how easy to form the always search google habit!)

Additionally, I created a Google custom search engine called Lindgren's search engine. I'm not entirely sure yet all the ways it will be helpful, but I'll keep you posted.

Finally, I continue to be amazed by all the Google products. Today I checked out http://knol.google.com/k and it looks pretty interesting. It is a way to communicate with experts in a particular area and I plan to explore it further when I have time. I found some interesting information on Napoleon Bonaparte in a cursory search this afternoon.

Thing 5 Libraries

Like a lot of teachers I've liked going to the library since I was a kid. I was brought up in rural northern Minnesota so going to the nearest public library in Grand Rapids was a treat. My sisters and I really looked forward to getting books from our local book-mobile up in Bigfork to supplement trips to the library.

As a 13 year resident of Chaska, I am a regular user of this public service. I've had a library card for a long time and a pin number for awhile. I've requested books and movies from other libraries with ease. The only caveat...is planning ahead a little if I need a resource for my classroom.

I have the MNLink on my classroom webpage and have encouraged my students to use it during past research projects.

Long live the public library system! :)

note taking

Happy New Year everyone! Well back at my classrooms we're neck-deep in the French Revolution. I'm wondering if any of you have any clever ideas to liven up note-taking. I've steered further and further away from the practice each year because it is boring for me too and I believe most students. Sometimes though it just seems like the best way to give students information.
With all of the creative teaching minds in the Metronet class, I'd love to hear from anyone who has clever ideas to liven up good old fashioned note taking. Thanks!