Welcome!
Welcome to the pilot group for Web 2.0 Tools online! We are excited about this journey and hope to learn with you along the way. The goal of this course is to learn the web 2.0 tools as you would be using them in your classrooms. The focus will be on what is most useful for educators about each tool and how can you implement it in your job to positively affect learning. You will also be given an opportunity to expand your ”Personal Learning Network” by interacting with other people across the district, and with experts around the globe.
The Basics
The course is set up in 7 week sections. Each Wednesday you will be given a new set of tasks to help you learn a new Web 2.0 tool and to be completed by the following Tuesday. The final week will happen on September 18th at a face to face meeting where we can talk about what you have learned and what impact it is making on your job. An outline of each week is available in the course syllabus.
Assignments and Time Commitment
This is a pilot course so the actual time you will need to spend each week is not concrete. We are expecting everyone to spend at least 2 hours a week on the given tasks. You will be responsible for keeping a personal learning blog to track your progress and to record your answers to the reflection questions each week. You will also be required to comment on three classmates’ learning blogs each week. A Weekly Comment Rotation has been developed to make sure everyone gets to interact with everyone else. We also ask that you check into the course at least three times a week. Since this is an online class, the only way we can see you is for you to post a comment or participate in the forum. So no lurking, be an active part of the class!
Communication
Questions can be asked at any point by using the Forum section of the blog. You are encouraged to help answer other people’s questions if you can. All communication should flow through the blog. If you have a question about something, chances are several other people do as well. If you need to contact a facilitator directly, refer to the emails listed on the Course Organizers page. Please allow 24 to 48 hours for a response and 72 hours on a weekend.
Let’s Get Started:
To get the process of getting to know each other started, please leave a comment to this post introducing yourself. Please let us know:
- Your name
- What your job is
- Some bit of personal info
- What you hope to learn from this course
Michele Acker
Chemistry Teacher-Westwood High School
Finishing up my 8th year in the district, 1st year as a IC teacher
I am hoping to learn a lot from this class as I know almost nothing about blogs.
ITS – Fern Bluff & Wells Branch Elementaries
Entering my 10th year as a technology specialist in RRISD.
I have two boys (ages 1 & 3) and love to spend time on the water.
I know how to do a lot of the topics we are going to cover in this course and have taken online college courses. I’m hoping to learn how to faciliate my own online courses at my campuses after this pilot process. Thanks to our organizers for launching this!
Math Teacher – McNeil High School. Teaching precal and grade level statistics.
I’ve taught for 5 years now, 4 of them at McNeil.
Hoping to learn a bit more about the mechanics of what can be done with the web for communication with my students.
4th grade Fern Bluff Elementary
I’ve been teaching 10 years, 7 within the RRISD. I have three grown children and 4 amazing grandchildren!! I’m a West Texas girl having grown up in San Angelo where my family resides. I love going home and spending time with my family!
During the past 10 years, I’ve spent several (in Keller ISD and RRISD) working with the Intel Teach to the Future with support of Microsoft Program. It was a fabulous learning experience. I’m familiar with a few areas of the topics we will be learning. Although many will be new. I’m excited to learn new areas of technology and ways to put these to good use with my students. Thank you for the opportunity to discover new areas!
Welcome @Michele, @Mark, @Janet, @Margie,
I think you are going to enjoy learning about these tools and how to use them in your classroom. Welcome aboard!
I think we’ll all be learning lots about facilitating courses as we go through this process. I hope we learn the “what to dos and what not to dos.” Feel free to offer input at any time.
It’s good to see you’ve made it to the blog. I’m excited that you will be part of our first online pilot course. It’s exciting! We’ll be using lots of Web 2.0 tools to communicate, discover, and learn with you this summer.
@Michele, you now know how to make a post on a blog! That was fairly easy wasn’t it!
@Mark, I’m happy to see you’ve joined us. I wish I had a boat to spend time on the water with you. I was thinking of getting one but I want a new Harley first.
@Janet, as you look into each of these tools over the next few weeks, you will find many ways to incorporate this into your curriculum and classroom/student communication. I can already think of ways you can use it with your subjects and I know very little about Statistics. I look forward to working with you as you make new discoveries!
@Margie, I’m glad you enjoyed the Intel course you took. I also took the class and found it very helpful. I’m also to see you are once again broadening your horizons with new technology. Just as you did then, I think you will find this a fabulous learning experience as well. I’m certain you will take many things back to your classroom for implementation. I wish I had these tools when I was teaching 4th grade. The ways to use Web 2.0 in your writing curriculum is endless. Thanks for joining us!
Hi! I’m Julie. I am currently an instructional coach for elementary. Before that, I taught 4th grade for about 8 years. I’m originally from San Antonio (and quite disappointed in the recent Spurs loss!) I’m excited about the chance to explore some new technology alongside others. I learn so much more when working with a community of learners. I recently took a course at UT about the history of language–the entire last ssection of the course was about the direction of language (reading and writing) in light of new literacies, and the web 2.0 “era.” I got a little taste of the vast areas of technologies, and technology that students are already using outside of school. That course really sparked and interest to expand my awareness and familiarity with different technology tools and learn more about how we can make use of them with our students.
Hi! This year I was a first year instructional technology specialist at Purple Sage and Voigt Elementaries. Next year I will be at Purple Sage and Cathy Caraway Elementaries. It has been an exciting year! Previously, I taught 5th grade for 17 years at Purple Sage.
I have three grown sons, three perfect daughter-in-laws, and three terrific grandchildren. They all live in Cedar Park and Round Rock, so I am blessed to see them often. My husband and I make great babysitters.
Since I have big shoes to fill at Caraway, I really felt this course will help me learn more about Web 2.0 and start practicing the use of the different tools, to help make the transition for Caraway smoother.
I also have a teacher from Purple Sage taking Wikis and Blogs this summer. So, I am hoping the two of us can start the ball rolling at my second school too.
Hi,
I’m Andy Esquivel, a 7th grade Language Arts teacher at Cedar Valley. I’ve been experimenting with blogs, podcasting, wikis, and a few other online tools. I’m using this course to get confident in using this stuff quickly and easily.
My focus will be on using these tools to enhance the lessons, to give kids another way to try to learn.
I look forward to working with you folks online.
Andy
Hi,
I am Angie Bell. I am an Art teacher and Yearbook sponsor at Hopewell Middle School.
I have been teaching for 12 years and this was my first year with Round Rock ISD. I am so impressed with all of the tools and resources we have available to us as teachers, not to mention, this Web 2.0 oppourtunity.
I would love to incorporate these tools with my Yearbook Staff and with my Advanced Art Students. An on-line blog about what is happening with their art work, or how their yearbook pages are going would be awesome. That idea is probably just scatching the surface too! Others are welcome!
I have three dogs – Tucker and Tiffany both basset hounds and then their is Cooper, she is the non-basset, a Chow mix. They are all older and love to go for walks!
Hello all, and happy summer.
I am a 3rd grade teacher at Forest Creek Elementary (5 years now). After marketing/advertising career, I got my teaching certification through a lot of online instruction of this type with LeTourneau and like anything else, you get out what you put in.
I’m a disaster with paper so I love exploring computer related instructional ideas. I’ve already promised my class a blog where they could post their writing!
Looking forward to blogging with y’all.
I am a third grade teacher from Robertson Elem. Before that I was a first grade teacher. I’ve been teaching for 6 years. I’m really excited about this class because this is all new to me. I hope to get teachers (including myself) and students on my campus more interested in these types of tools.
I have four wonderful and very messy cats. They are Violet, Tolstoy, Statler, and Waldorf.
Can’t wait to get started!
Hi, I am Vicki Engelhardt. I am the Yearbook and Newspaper advisor at Ridgeview and I teach multimedia as well. This was my first year at RRISD and my second teaching. It was exciting and I learned a lot. I am hoping to learn new types of technology to incorrporate into my multimedia classes as well as journalism.
This is an exciting summer for me. I will be getting married in 31 days. I recently bought a house and I am still in that new teacher getting my bearings, trying to plan everything out in the summer. Also, I am a really bad speller.
This should be fun.
Hello,
I’m Cara Shipp, eighth grade math teacher at Cedar Valley (hey, Andy!). I just finished my second year teaching, and I’m looking forward to my third.
My husband and I have two daughters, both of whom attend McNeil HS. We also have 7 pets – 4 cats and 3 dogs. During our statistics unit each year, I survey my students on the number of pets they own. I’m always the outlier!
I’m always looking for new ways to incorporate technology in my classroom. It looks like this will also be a great way to connect with other teachers.
I’m looking forward to working with you!
Hello to all the new people!
@Julie – I have to admit I am more of a football fan than a basketball fan, but I alos like to cheer for the Spurs. I am amazed at how much students are doing outside of school on the web and hope to use web 2.0 tools to hook them into learning more about the content they need to learn.
I really think this course will give you the exposure to the tools that you need to spark interest on campus. Let us know what we can do to help you with this!
Whatever we can do to help you learn, please let us know! Be sure to ask plenty of questions if you need to along the way.
@Bunny – Do you do any freelancing for babysitting? I have two adorable candidates!
@Andy – As a fellow middle schooler I am very excited to see how this can be implemented. I have experimented a bit at my school with these tools and the kids seem to really enjoy the new possibilities.
@Angie and @Vicki – these tools make a very nice fit for journalism classes. So many journalists are now blogging all of their information. Hopefully ya’ll can exchange some ideas and plan together on these tools.
@Susan – I would love to see your class blog and learn from you about posting student writing. So many teachers are a bit fearful of doing this.
@Marni – Four cats! I grew up with a household of cats and must admit the dog is a little neater to live with in some cases.
@Cara – Another middle school teacher! We do hope you can connect with other teachers and learn from each other not only during the course, but afterwards as well.
Robin
I’m the librarian at Caldwell Heights Elementary. I just finished my fifth year as a librarian and third year at CHE. I taught third grade in Katy ISD for two years before becoming a librarian.
I grew up in Kansas and am a huge fan of college football, especially Kansas State University. I like to read and bake in my spare time.
I’ve played with some of the tools we will be using and am excited about finding ways to use them in the library and with students.
Oh my blog!
http://shogansclassblog.blogspot.com/
Okay I totally thought the blog address would show up in the last post!
Hello everyone.
I am currently the A.P. at Blackland Prairie Elementary. I have been in the district since 1995. I taught at Berkman and Cactus Ranch. This is my second year at Blackland Prairie. I am currently one of the directors of the RRISD’s Summer Enrichment Program at McNeil High.
I am always wanting to learn new things especially in technology. I would like to learn more about Web 2.0. I look forward to working with you.
@Susan, go crazy! Impressive start to this class, having a blog before it’s assigned. Lots of good thoughts and questions on yours.
@Emily, welcome, I lived in Kansas myself for a stint, although I have a KU alumn in my family, but wheat is wheat right?
@Cheryl, welcome! I’m excited that you are part of this class, it’s great to have an administrator that is an open learner!
Hi ~ I’m Kara Hazen, and I teach at Ridgeview. I have taught all three grades in the Math Lab for the past two years, but I’m moving to 6th grade math in August. I’ll be teaching part-time, so I’m very excited about spending more time at home with my 8-month-old son. I blog about him all the time, so feel free to check it out at…
http://www.hazenfamily.blogspot.com
This will be my 7th year teaching. I taught for a year at Chisholm Trail (7th/8th math) and 3 years at Union Hill (Kinder & 1st ESOL) before moving to Ridgeview. I’m excited to learn some new areas of technology and implement them in my classroom this year. I’m especially hoping that blogging will help with parent communication.
I look forward to getting to know all of you!
Hello everyone!
I’m Nicole, and apparently I’m the slacker of the group since this is my first post. I’ll claim that it’s because I’m a novice. I just finished my first year as an ITS at Cedar Valley Middle School. Hi Andy and Cara! My hopes are to incorporate more of these useful 2.0 technologies into the fold at Cedar next year.
Before that I was a math teacher at Ridgeview- hey Kara! Congratulations on your new baby and on being able to stay home part time next year. That’s awesome and the blog with Peter is so cute!
I’ve been thinking long and hard about what name to give my blog and I think I’ve finally come up with a winner. “All Bark, No Byte” – it fits me because I’m a total geek, I talk a lot of trash, and I’ve recently become obsessed with “vegetarian” vampires. If you don’t know what I’m talking about; read Twilight. Seriously, you should. Everyone should. What do you think of my blog name? Have I convinced you of my true geeky-ness?
Nicole, welcome! Join the total geek club with me! I have spent hours on reviewing the resources and just applying for my edublog account and my title too! I love your title!
I teach Algebra 1 at Round Rock High School.
I grew up in Galveston, TX
I’m 26 years old and this with be my 4th year teaching.
When I’m at home I spend most of my time on the internet but I hate writing … (math is the only language I speak fluently in)
I hope to learn new internet skills from this course that I can use in my classroom so that the students can have better interaction with the class.
I teach 7th grade Science at Ridgeview MS and just finished my 3rd year as a teacher. I’m an Aggie–Class of ’04! I grew up in Keller, TX and have been married for 4 years.
I’m posting so late because I haven’t officially started my “summer break” yet, since I’m teaching summer school for the first time. I’m really hoping, through this course, to find more ways to get students talking/writing about science in ways that will teach them to think critically and analyze what they’re learning.
Looking forward to many more posts!
http://shellya.edublogs.org/
I think I have this up and running. I visited a few of my fellow classmates sites to see what you all where doing.:-) It wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be.
I am a Social Studies (World History & AP Macroeconomics – primarily) teacher at McNeil HS. This fall starts my third year at McNeil after three years of teaching at Stony Point.
I grew up in Indiana, and have been living in Austin now for close to eight years (with a 6 month stint of living in Seattle in the middle of that). My husband and I just celebrated our one year anniversary!
This fall I am starting using one of the “Intelligent Classrooms”, so I am taking this course to become more familiar with some pieces of technology that I might be able to use to further learning and understanding for my students.
Hey everyone!
My name is Emily Reichert and I am currently the Supervisor of Professional Development for RRISD. My husband, Kevin, and I have a daughter, Grace, that will turn two in August. This past week has been rough because we are transitioning her from a home to a daycare–no pacifiers allowed! Needless to say our house has been a barrel of fun!
My experience in education includes teaching at the primary, intermediate, middle and high school levels! I really loved them all, but went on to be an elementary assistant principal here in RRISD at Blackland Prairie for a couple of years. Last January, I transitioned into my current position and I am LOVING it! This is exactly the job for me right now!
As for what I am hoping to gain from this course, I truly believe in experiencing that which you are encouraging others to do. I am on a big learning curve here, but also think that this is the wave of a really effective professional development opportunity for our district. I’m thrilled to be a part of it!