A Final Word

I can't believe that the class, and therefore the summer, is over! It has been a great experience and I've learned a ton. What better way to take a class, than having a glass of wine sitting right with you! :) Barb, you have such a great knowledge of all that you have taught us about, and I'm super impressed because it seems like you use all of them regularly! Thank you for sharing it with us and getting us a step closer to being up with the times.

It's been fun reading everyone's blogs and nice to see that I wasn't the only one to struggle with certain parts! I hope everyone has a good class this year! Remember, only 180 more working days until we're back on summer vacation. :) Glass always has to be half full!

See you all around,
Jen

YouTube, Podcasts and E-Books

As usual, I found a different way to upload some YouTube clips into my blog. And now that I'm actually writing the blog, I see the Edit Html feature. Oh well. I like the way I happened upon, as it gives you a few different videos to see. I've seen a couple of these before and they're very powerful, the 3rd one makes me cry every time. The second one is a great little clip about adults with autism in the work field. I worked with this age group a long time ago, and the adults I worked with were very low functioning (meaning some even functioned as a 3 year old, when their chronological age wasa 21!). Be aware of the last clip. I finally watched it all the way through and one of the last frames in her clip is a bit abrupt. Not a huge fan of this one anyways, but can't figure out how to choose which clips go on....I'll have to keep playing.

As far as the podcast that I have chosen to put into my RSS, it's a toddler craft podcast. I figured I could use it in school and at home. Nothing like killing two birds with one stone! I found the itunes site a bit confusing at first, and ended up getting my podcast through Podcastalley.com.

The E-Books is a great idea. In looking for a book to use in my class, I was having a hard time. I am limited in what I can use in my class and couldn't find any of the children books I was looking for. I am great for going completely blank when I have to enter in information, unless I have heard of something specific I would like (and this isn't just limited to books....it's all the time! I live on sticky notes.) It seems like it would be a great resource for the middle and high school levels.

Google Docs and Library Thing

So, I think I might be doing it wrong, but my friend who I tried to converse with on google docs couldn't open it. Maybe because she's not on gmail and/or doesn't have a google account? Tried to send another one to my husband, but he's out tonight. Will have to keep playing around with it and hopefully he'll have better luck. I can't wait to play with it more anyways and see how to put it into my blogs.

OK, just watched the YouTube tutorial on google sites. Barb, do I have to go through this link or can I just converse through one single document? Don't mind this part - just heard back from my friend. She had originally tried to do it from her iphone and couldn't. But she was able to respond from that single document from her computer! YAY.

LOVE the Library Thing! I haven't been such the reader since the girls came along, but I can't wait to be able to read again sometime in the future! :) Anyways, love how it gives you a list of recommended books based on what you have in your library! AWESOME!!!! Even better because you can see what other people have thought about the recommended books.

I hope I can remember all these cool applications once this course is over!

RSS

Finally, an exercise that I could wrap my head around. Or maybe it's because I got to spend a great day at the beach with my girls and some great friends and their kids this morning. That always helps my brain!

Anyways, I love the Google Reader!!! I have a few blogs I follow and what a great thing to be able to just look in one place for their updates. I felt like the videos were talking to me about me wasting my time visiting each blog to see if there were updates! I also subscribed to some news feeds so I can attempt to keep up with the world - seeing as though I don't see anything on TV if it's not on the Sprout channel or sports!!

I'm not quite sure how I'd use it for my teaching, but I'm sure that'll come along as I use it more and more. Maybe for a site with new information regarding Autism?

LOVE this feature!!!

Social Bookmarking

Ok, I'm with Julie - I'm totally on sensory overload this week. Also like Julie, I've just come back from a camping weekend, Nevada for a week following the camping trip, and my "baby"'s 2nd birthday party the day after we got home. Needless to say, I'm a little spent anyways!!!

I signed up for a del.icio.us account and immediately panicked that something was "out there" that shouldn't be from my bookmarks. I deleted a couple of things I thought might not be good and figured what the hell - what could I really have that's not ok. We'll see. Also, not quite sure I like the tool bar that came along with it - I think I like it better hidden behind a button, like "bookmarks". Maybe after playing with it I can find a hide toolbar function or something. I did find a neat primary academic games site that I never would have found otherwise and think that I will really enjoy the feature after getting used to it all.

As far as the technorati - I'm a bit overwhelmed there too. My brain is not letting me be practical about searching around. But, the little I was able to do, I think after really getting into it, I could find some great information. If I'm totally honest, I can't do it today - it's just not making sense to me. I can't figure out how to do all the searches, blogs-tags-etc.

I agree with Steve Hargadon that web 2.0 is not going away, and as stated before, I also believe we should be up on what's happening out there - especially as teachers. I could not access the Chris Riedel reading - kept getting a server error of some sort. It must be true that God only gives you what you can handle. LOL. Seriously, if someone could give me the cliffnotes version so I know what I missed?

Image Generators

So this is the image I made up of my girls driving in a battery operated kids' Jeep! Thought it was hysterical that it was on a Consumer Reports magazine, but that's probably because I saw how poorly my daughter drove it! I think right after this picture was taken, she backed up into a bush and my little one ended up with a scratch on her eye. Watch out world!




This one is from Image Chef:

ImageChef.com Poetry Blender


As far as the Web 2.0 award winners that I might use with my class, I would love to use one of the music stations, like Pandora. Music can be a great reward and/or tool in the classroom with students with autism (and anyone, really). To make a playlist with the types of songs they like would be great! Not to mention, that it could be a great stress release for me during my preps!! :) I also think it's safe to say that I'll be using my wikispaces to keep in touch with parents and organize class parties, field trip chaperons, etc. The Google Maps would be great to introduce the US to my kids. Even if it's just an awareness lesson, especially on the SmartBoard! Maybe even Google Earth and show them their house....I bet they'd get a kick out of that! There were some great sites that I know would be way over my kids' heads, but great non-the less!!

I am dreading going to the Web 2.0 web, as I get overwhelmed easily with things like that! But, here goes...

...saw a lot of things linked with Twitter, which I totally don't get and I'm not sure I want to! Seems like everyone's so worried about being able to access the web and email from EVERYWHERE (is that what Twitter is??). There's something to be said about just going to the beach or to the mountains and not being in contact with anyone but the ones your with, or having to tell everyone on Facebook that you've just jumped in the ocean the second you get out.

If nothing else, that site it a great reference for a lot of different types of applications. I think I would be overwhelmed though.

Uploading pictures onto the Wiki

OK, so I totally thought we had to upload a picture from the Creative Commons section of Flikr. No matter what I tried...could not get it to upload through the external images tab. Believe me...I tried until I thought I was going to throw my computer out the window. But, I uploaded a personal picture and it worked out much better. Phew.

Thank you for the clarification, Barb...you saved us a lot of money! :)

spoiled dog

spoiled dog, originally uploaded by jbettinaw.

This is my attempt at Flickr. A bit confused and think I might need a lot of time playing around with this one. I looked at the mosaic picture of some pictures and was a little taken back by some of the pornographic photos within. My mouse accidentally went over one and it blew up to be a decent sized picture up on my monitor. I was a little glad that I do all the work for this class while my children are napping!

Wikis

Whenever I see that snip-it of wikis, I think I have a good idea of what it's about. But, I still think that I have no clue when it really comes down to it. I think I'm going to have to create one and use it to really understand. I know we'll be using the one for this class, but to really understand it I'll have to create one. Because I'm such a control freak, I think I'd have a hard time with the fact that anyone can change things on it.

OK, just went and created one of my own. I was completely confused in the beginning, but think I have a basic understanding now. If nothing else, it'll just be one more way for the parents of my classroom to help organize certain activities throughout the year. If you're like me and need to do it to really understand it, I highly recommend creating one because I don't think I ever would have understood it without doing that.

Comments on my experience

Well, I guess it's safe to say that I have blogged before and love it. It's my way to "scrapbook" during the years that I can't lug everything out to actually scrapbook.

I also have to admit that I already had my avatar created as well. But, I do have to say that I did try to go to the voki site to create a different one. As I was playing around, I knew that the one I had already created was more like me. I will probably go back and play around with the other one, as I think it has some fun options (but probably not appropriate to put on my school blog), as I'm going to try to continue this blog as a networking option for the parents of my class next year. But, I didn't know how to export it.

A look back on my first year as a teacher for BPS.

Looking back on my past (and first) year working for Beverly Public Schools, I can say with all my heart that I made the absolute right decision to work here. I was very nervous working within the same community that I live in. Yes, I have some run-ins in the community with my students, but I have to say that they always put a smile on my face. I'm not so sure they would say the same for me, as I think it freaks some of them out to see me out of context.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm the K-2 AIM (Acquisition Independence Maintenance) teacher at the Cove school. This is a self-contained classroom that services children diagnosed with autism. I have been teaching children (and sometimes adults) with autism for the past 10 years. I have learned so much from my current and past students, and truly love what I do.

We had a very successful year this year. All of my students were able to be integrated (at varying degrees) within their regular ed. classes. Some only went for specials and morning meeting, while others were able to stay for some academics. My hat goes off to the great boys in my class - they really lived up to their potentials! Too bad for them, I now know what their potential is - and they won't be getting away with much next year! :)

I also want to mention how wonderful all the parents were (which isn't always the case as we all know). They are all very supportive and have the best interest for their kids at heart. Living with someone with autism isn't a job that any parent or sibling asks for, and it can be a very strenuous job! The parents of my students are to be applauded. They have done an amazing job of raising these boys thus far. They are all very respectful, caring, sweet boys that I'm sure will grow up to be great men.

Have I mentioned that all of this couldn't have been done without the support of the regular ed teachers? In all my experience as a teacher, I have never been in an environment of such supportive people.

I am blessed to have such a great job that I love going to every day (OK, most days). If I can't be with my own children all day, I am lucky to be with the children in AIM while I'm away from my own.