I Wonder...by Luna

choice words pt 5

2011-07-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

I finished the book today. The last chapter is more of a restatement of the main points of the book. I understand that the language I use in class needs to be authentic, but I am going to create a set of index cards with the discussion starters on them just to keep the language in the forefront of my brain so that I'll use them. Later, I won't need them any longer and it will be automatic.

choice words pt4

2011-07-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

As I was reading today I decided I probably need to create index cards with lots of the discussion leads so that I can remember and use them when school starts. This chapter has you read appendix B and do a little analysis. I think I find myself somewhere between the two teaching styles shown. My kids can discuss genre and point of view, but not to the level where the kids in the other class can. I want to build my discussion of what the other kids in class can do as readers and writers, which means that I really need to emphasize having kids read other kids' writing. That's going to be a focus for me this year.

choice words pt 3

2011-07-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

Today's reading was all about getting kids to transfer what they learn at school to their lives outside of school. It's an age-old problem with no easy solution. The idea presented in the book was to build communication. Take the teacher out of it and let the kids build their thinking by really conversing with each other. "What else...?" on pg 45 has lots of ideas for discussions with kids. I felt really good with this chapter because I feel like I do lots of this already, but there is validation in reading it in print too.

The chapter after this one is about the teacher's role. We always like to be in charge and having kids be in charge of the inquiry is really hard. I tried this last year and it's amazing when you see it happening in a discussion, kids talking to each other, not trying to yell over another to be heard, but really listening to what they are saying. I'm hoping to take this even farther this year.

Choice Words pt 2

2011-07-17T15:03:00.000-07:00

I finished the next two chapters. Chapter 3 especially gives lots of ideas of things to say, and not to say, to help students build a sense of identity as a reader, writer, scientist, etc. Instead of telling the task, you can present it with, "As _______, how should we tackle this?" By using these words students build their own meaning as well as understanding that we are (learners, researchers, mathematicians, etc) and in our class we figure things out without waiting for someone to tell us the answers. There are also suggestions for what to do when kids don't behave the way we expect them to. They are very helpful and I will be referring back to these as the year goes on.

Chapter 4 focused on agency, building agency in students so that they understand that they can accomplish anything. It allows for more than just focusing on curriculum, but essentially, how to face problems in class and what to do about them. Asking questions like, "What problems did you face today?" allow students to relate to the fact that they will encounter problems on a daily basis and having a plan is critical.

Choice Words

2011-07-14T08:55:00.000-07:00

I decided to use this blog to help me with my summer professional reading. Maybe this way I'll retain more of what I read so that I can use it in my classroom. I started Choice Words earlier this year, but had to abandon it because of all the requirements of my job and home life. So, I started over. It's important to remember that what I say really impacts kids' lives. I've read the first two chapters and the value of noticing and naming is critical. There are several examples of questions to use to keep kids thinking and noticing. It starts on page 13 and continues through the chapter.

Something else to remember is to always notice what is right, with myself as well as my kids. Just because I don't make it through all the curriculum in one day doesn't mean I should feel guilty. I need to remember to focus on what I did right and what was well done, instead of what didn't get done. I need to do this with kids too, especially in writing. I'm trying to build strong writers and they need for me to notice what they do right too.

I want to remember to set up specific lessons for noticing and naming and to not share my thoughts first. Kids need to be the ones to do the talking and I need to listen. I also need to remember the phrase "any other?" for noticing more than just the most obvious.

There are two books I am interested in looking at: Katie Wood Ray's: Wondrous Words and Ralph Fletcher's What a Writer Needs. These were listed at the back of chapter 2 as good reads to continue working on using words in class.

My Certificate

2011-06-21T13:01:00.001-07:00

Tool 11

2011-06-21T11:14:00.000-07:00

If I had to choose one favorite I think it would be my blog. I'm choosing this one because it has all my thinking in it for all my journeys through the technology trainings I've done. I've stored so much information on it. At first I was very skeptical of the use of a blog, but now that I've had it for a while, I'm actually starting to think of starting a new one for the professional reading I want to do on my own this summer to help me keep track of my thinking.

Now that our class sizes are going up, the need for small group instruction is even more critical. Without the added technology devices we will get in the fall, that would be a difficult feat. This will help me plan for small groups and to meet the needs of individual students.

I was surprised that this training was easier for me than when I did 23 Things or 11.5 Things. I was dreading starting this one because the others were hard, but this one was so much easier. I don't think the tools are easier, but I've done it before, and practice really does make perfect.

Tool 10

2011-06-21T09:44:00.000-07:00

Digital Citizenship, Online Behavior, and Copyright Use are all topics I want to teach my students. Cyberethics for Kids, CyberSmart for Kids, and Brainpop are all resources I want to use to help me plan and teach lessons in Digital Citizenship. They all have ideas and videos to use and Brainpop is a site that the kids are very familiar with, so I can see it being very useful.

Kids these days have lots of access to the internet and have often landed on sites they shouldn't. I plan to start there and use the videos and the Power to Learn grant page on the Ed Tech site so that I can cover all the topics with my class. I want them to have conversations with me and with each other. We could use Today's Meet to ensure that everyone contributes to the discussion in class. I also want kids to talk to parents at home so that we are all on the same page together and what we learn at school will transfer to their homes.

Tool 9

2011-06-21T09:12:00.000-07:00

Kids don't do anything in the same way. Using technology keeps kids engaged in learning and at their own pace and within their own learning style. Technology allows for us to individualize and differentiate to meet the needs of more kids than traditional teaching. I'm so glad that we will have so much technology available that most children will have a device available throughout the day.

In stations/centers, students can get off task. We want to keep them focused on the learning objective in front of them and we want to know what they learned through center and small group work. Using blogs and other Web 2.0 tools students have more choice of how they share what they learned. If students aren't held accountable the time is wasted.

I tried all the sites for elementary kids. I couldn't even get into Tutpup because I couldn't find an animal and a color with a specific number in order to log in. I gave up after many tries. Learning Games for Kids has some good games and it's a cute site. It's not very rigorous and I think my kids would get bored fast with much of what is available on that site. TES Board is much more challenging. I tried a few of the place value games and they were pretty good. I would use this site as a station. Study Ladder is good. You set up classes and assignments so it reminds me of Odyssey. I use that as a workstation constantly, so I could see myself using this one in that same capacity. Thinkfinity has lots of stuff on lots of content areas. However, there's so much to see and the site isn't as pretty to look at as others. I think you really need to know what you want. If you aren't sure and you are just looking for something good, this might not be the best site to browse.

I love love love the site on Ed Tech!! I've already shown it to other people working with me because it's so cool. I looked over lots of apps but the ones I think I will want my kids to use first will be the dictionary app. Kids in a book club can have an iTouch or iPad in their group and use it when they come across words they don't understand. I also like Free Word Warp. Many of my kids are good spellers because they can memorize, but this puts their spelling skills to the test to build on what they can already do. I also like On This Day. It gives historical information for things that happened in history on this day. This is something kids can do when they come in in the morning or during the day if they are looking for topics to write about, research, etc. It gives students a bridge for converstations.

These devices are just another way to keep kids engaged in learning. Information is moving so fast these days, we've got to keep kids plugged in to what's happening in the world. Centers are just one way. I've had kids work on their own individual research, look up something we are reading as a class, answer questions when they pop up and we don't know the answer. There's so much to do.

Tool 8

2011-06-21T06:59:00.000-07:00

All the new technology will be great. My worry is not how to use it, but how to keep it all charged. Right now I have 2 iTouches, but only one cord to charge it. I have to bring them to the library to charge right now, and the kids who come in the morning to use equipment don't always pay attention to the devices they use, and will use classroom devices instead of those for the library. I'm hoping we have a better system for charging in the fall.
It looks really simple to take photos and make videos with the Dell computers. I think this will be a great feature for kids in the fall. They will enjoy sharing research, solutions to problems, or pictures that go with a unit of study.
The iTouches and iPads will be fun. I had no idea they could hold so many pages of apps. I did go to the Ed Tech page and the apps and flipcharts they have available on the site will make it so easy to fit my devices with the needs of my kids. I can definitely see them working in stations or individually will all the support from that site. I'm guessing the flipcharts won't be able to be used on the iTouch or iPad, but I still have some classroom computers and they should work fine if we are reviewing concepts, or expanding learning for some.
I'm excited to see all the new gear we will have for the coming year. How to keep it all charged remains the question.

Tool 7

2011-06-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

I looked at Class2class-math projects for some ideas that would work with my grade level. I browsed a few ideas, but I really liked the M&M project best. We do lots of graphing and work with probability in 3rd grade and this project was right in line with what we do. To make it work for my kids and my curriculum I would set the objective to focus on learning vocabulary for probability, such as less likely, more likely, certain, etc by examining the data from several 3rd grade classrooms in order to understand how the M&M company decides how many of each color M&M end up in each bag. We study probability later in the year, so I probably wouldn't do this until near Spring Break. I wouldn't need lots of materials, just the M&Ms and graph paper so students could record their results. After we gather the data from our class we would compare that to the data from the other classes in 3rd grade. Then we can work on the vocabulary that goes with probability, as well as analyze the data for what we notice and begin to explain how the data changed from class to class.

Tool 6

2011-06-20T08:56:00.001-07:00

I looked at the video tutorials for several of the links for this tool. This is a little overwhelming to me because it seems like some of this can be done in class with the kids. For example: Poll Everwhere lets you set up polls to ask questions and students repond. But, the kids are right there, and I can just ask and they can raise their hands or vote with sticky notes, etc. Less time, less work, right? However, I was really intrigued by Today's Meet. I love the idea of posting questions related to content and having students write their ideas and thoughts for discussion in a lab setting. I can see this working with all content areas as a way to get kids talking about content and building that knowledge base. Also, it's easy to use and will not be scary for my kids who don't get as much computer use at home.
Edmoto is an interesting site. I am nervous about using it, so I might start small with one reading group and post thinking and questions as they read. They can respond in class or at home and we can talk about their answers and thinking in class in our group. If that works well for me, I would extend it to other students in my class. I'm excited that it's similar to Twitter because I have a Twitter account but I never use it. Perhaps this will inspire me to try it again.
I can totally see these sites getting all the kids to participate. I had a student this year that struggled to respond in class, but he loved technology and using the computer like this as a medium to share his thoughts. I think it will really help with kids staying on topic and really thinking through the curriculum.

Tool 5

2011-06-13T12:21:00.000-07:00

These sites are so easy to use. I've used Animoto before, but this time I tried Stupeflix Studio and Storyjumper. They both take time to use, but there's so much thinking involved, especially as you write your own story in Storyjumper. I used the same set of pictures for both to see what different things I could do with the same pics. The story I wrote in Storyjumper will definitely be a lesson tool for what's wrong with this piece of writing since it's a list and has no real plot. Lots of my 3rd graders start writing this way with no real focus on a climax. The video from Stupeflix isn't really for a lesson, but is more a model of what we can do to show we've learned content, such as with solids, liquids and gases in our first science unit. After my computer is reimaged I plan to make all of the links on Tool 5 favorites in my web browser so I can use them throughout the year with my students.

Emily and Lydia Go to the Beach a fabulous story from Storyjumper.

Texas Girls my video from Stupeflix Studios. Actually, the first video we made (I asked my daughter to sit in with me since she's in the pics) wasn't usable for the blog. The Ke$ha soundtrack was not working for this. This is my edited version.

I think both of these sites, as well as others like Animoto, require users to be 13 or older. How do we get to use these with kids so they can access the sites at home as well as at school without needing to use my account and username? Just curious.

Tool 4

2011-06-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

Creating forms and docs with Google Docs was really easy. I had no idea it would be so simple. I was a little nervous at first because I didn't have much success with my students when we tried using the word processing earlier this year. I love the ability to send forms to email directly. It makes me wonder if it's possible to create an address book like we have in our email so that I can send forms to parents. I'll bet it's a tool coming up soon.

Tool 3

2011-06-07T09:27:00.000-07:00

I got both of my videos from You Tube. I've been to Teacher Tube and Discovery Education. I like all of the sites equally, but I generally tend to start with You Tube. The 2 videos I've added are good for math lessons with place value and area/perimeter. I think my kids will really like them. I'm eager to add them to my Ipads that we will hopefully have in the fall so I can use them as a center for kids.

As far as copyright goes, I know that as an educator I can use materials as long as they are used for teaching and are published in a secure site. Because of this I checked my settings for my blog to make sure that it is not available to anyone to comment, but is limited to registered users.

I have never been on Picasa, so I did play around with it a little. I've created a few folders there with some of my picture folders and put them on the web. I couldn't find the filter for remix, so I'm not sure what that is. My students and I have used picture sites like flickr and they are much better at it than I am, so I let them steer the searching when we need that site. I've used this in class for lots of different things, but the most recent was probably when we made landform books and the kids had to search for images that fit the definition of the landforms in their books.

Tool 2

2011-06-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

I created a google reader a few years ago when I did 23 Things. I haven't used it since then. However, this time around I actually think I'll use the blogs and sites I am following in the reader. I think I chose better this time. As far as writing on blogs, I don't mind posting about what others have written, but I really prefer talking to my teammates in person. There's so much you miss when you just type online as opposed to talking to a person. There are all the nuances of communication that you miss when you write online. I don't know that I would feel comfortable posting problems or situations in my classroom online. It's a really personal area and the people on my team know my kids and my teaching style and are better able to offer help that I can really use. Writing my thoughts online is hard for me. I'm working on it.

The site I'm planning to visit is for 3rd grade teachers. It has lots of useful information about teaching 3rd grade.

Tool 1

2011-06-06T09:11:00.000-07:00

This was super easy because I already had a blog set up from 23 Things and 11.5 Things. The voki was fun. It was really simple to do. Thanks for having the video on the 11 Tools page so that I had the steps for putting the avatar voki into the blog. I thought I could do it myself, but when I got to the design page I realized I had forgotten which step to choose after that. The video was great and the voki popped right up on the blog. Easy, easy, easy!

Thing 11.5

2009-08-08T09:04:00.000-07:00

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I really liked all most all of the exercises, but if I had to choose a favorite, I'd probably go with Thing 2 - image generators. I especially liked Bookr. I can see my students using programs like that one easier than others, and I will probably start there as I begin the year with my class. Then we can move into the more complicated programs like Slideshare.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
Having this program available each summer is great! It keeps me engaged in what is current in technology and let's me continue to learn at my own pace. Library2play allows me to study and learn in a comfortable environment on my time. It's the best of all possible situations for learning in the summer for me.

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
The virtual worlds exercise was quite mind-blowing! It didn't work for me. I tried it on my home computer first and it wouldn't run, then when I put it on my school computer, it was too hard to figure out. However, it stays in my mind and makes me wonder if that kind of simulation for learning is really possible. I see kids in these simulation games all the time. They love it! Can this really be done so that my class could go on a field trip to a museum in another state/country/around the world all from our school? I definitely need more help with this one.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
This year I enjoyed it so much more than last year. I suppose it's because I wasn't doing it all for the "first" time because I had done the 23 Things already. It took me a little while on the first exercise to get back into it, then I had no troubles at all getting involved in each exercise. I used to call people to help me out, and this year I was able to do it all on my own, with only a little support here and there. I love it! Keep on with this program! Stay current with what's new in technology so that I can try to keep up as well.

Thanks for putting together another program for this summer. It is time well spent.

Thing 11

2009-08-08T08:44:00.000-07:00

Digital citizenship is not new. It's been a topic of discussion before. At our school, our librarian is always talking to all the students about being responsible with technology. I know she will conduct a lesson with the kids before we even get to use the labs at all. So, what I plan may fall short of her lesson, but I'll give it a try:
1. I would start with the graphic above, and encourage discussion of what it means to kids and to me. It came from http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com
2. Take time to explain each piece: let students share their own experiences with technology use at home and at school and relate that to each category. Digitalcitizenship.net has a great link to the Nine Elements that explains each one.
3. I would give students a topic to research on the internet to see how they could apply all the things we talked about in becoming an appropriate digital citizen. I really liked Cool Cat's blog about how kids just take the first piece of information they find and don't bother to look further. They are just trying to get done, and bringing that to light is important.
4. I need to find good resources to support curriculum, and share with students how I found it. We do this in other content areas when we share our thinking, so it seems right to do the same with technology.
5. This would take more than one lesson. It needs to be ongoing throughout the school year. In elementary school we teach citizenship for years in social studies. The same holds true for teaching about digital citizenship.

The article titled Digital Literacy in the Classroom raises an important issue: banning of sites in schools. In our district we still do that. Last year we lifted the ban on many sites and students were allowed to access more of the internet than usual. We started the year with discussions of what it might be like when you come to something that isn't appropriate for you. We didn't let students just come across it on their own, then teach about it. We started proactively by telling kids that they would indeed come across such sites, and discussed what to do about it. As a result, when it happened it was no big deal and the kids just closed that site and went on. That is critical for students to know.

Thing 10

2009-08-07T13:34:00.000-07:00

The whole Sim world sounds fun when you read about it, but when I was actually able to get into the simulation it was really hard to follow. I realize that it probably takes time to figure it all out, but it's way too complicated for my 3rd graders. My daughter and her teen friends love playing games like this, so I let them "play" along with me while I tried it out. Even they had a hard time working all the controls and gave up because it was just too hard to understand how to make it work. I think if I had someone with me to help me learn how to do it, I would understand it better and be able to see it's potential in the classroom. Right now, I just don't see it. There is a real draw for this kind of thing with older students though, so I'm sure a much more savvy user than I can see great uses for a program like this one.

Thing 9

2009-08-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

Slide sharing is a neat idea. I've done lots of Powerpoint presentations with students of many different grade levels and the tricky thing is what to do after they've presented. I've had students burn copies to disk to take home. We've copied them onto flash drives. Placing slide shows on the web for a bigger viewing audience is cool. The thing about Powerpoint is that kids like to use it even at home for fun. My kids used to make lots of slide shows when they were younger. Now this creative work can be displayed. I looked at all the links and at first I thought 280 slides would be the best because you didn't have to log in and it has a good look to it. However, it wasn't easy to use and since I work with 8 year olds, I need something more user friendly. So, I went to Slideshare. I did have to create a log in, but importing the slide show was easy and fast. I went to my daughter's 6th grade file on Norway to see what she had that would be fun to play around with. She created a slide show called Zoo. It wasn't done for class. She was just experimenting in computer class one day. The show is comical, but not very factual. Go figure. It was fun to look back and wonder, "What were you thinking?"

Thing 8

2009-07-29T18:49:00.000-07:00

I was really nervous about this one. I really didn't think I could do it, but it really wasn't hard. The most difficult part was knowing what to say. I kept messing it up so I had to restart over and over until I ended up with something that worked for me. I wanted my screencast to be something that I could really use, so I made it about saving to Norway. My 3rd graders struggle with getting to Norway at the beginning of the year. I love the idea of having kids make screencasts to share with other kids. That's great because I usually have so many students that need help doing something on the computer and I have to train a few experts to help me out. I know they would love making screencasts like these and because it is so easy to do, I can see them really getting the hang of this quickly. I chose to work with screencast-o-matic because I didn't need to download anything to my computer to work with it. It really was just point and shoot. Nice!

Thing 7

2009-07-26T11:29:00.000-07:00

My Dell would not run the video on Fair Use, so I gave up on that computer and switched to my own home computer. If the tech guys are reading this blog, I'll be sending a geek request to do something about my Dell. And so, video resources. The sites were full of good videos and the online video world has really come a long way because I didn't have any trouble with buffering. I really wanted to find some videos to support my curriculum so I looked for some on space and on the rainforest. We cover space early in the year, and rainforests come up later in the spring semester. Both videos were really great and the quality is so much better than what I've previously used on United Streaming on the library resources page. Last year I had several students with dyslexia and attention problems. Videos like these would be great resources because they are interesting, the cover topics that we are learning in class, and they are multisensory. We create a foldable of the relationship between ourselves and the world at the very beginning of the year. Videos give me another resource for information instead of using just books with kids reading independently or in small groups. I found myself asking questions during the video, much like you would during reading. This could be a springboard to deeper learning where kids are reading and writing about topics that are most interesting for them.
I'm still a little fuzzy on the whole fair rights thing. I know my librarian will be up to date on this so I'll be visiting with her before school starts to clarify my misunderstandings.

Thing 6

2009-07-18T16:52:00.000-07:00

ITouch is so cool! I wish I had one. I just got a Nano, so I don't think I'll be upgrading for a while. My daughter has an Itouch so I got to play with hers for this activity. I downloaded a few apps. She already had lots on her Ipod. I added Geopedia, Fact of the Day, Did You Know?, and KuGon to her apps. These were all free. I really wanted some other apps, but they had a cost attached, so I stuck to the free apps. I was really impressed with all of them.
How to use them in the library...hmm?
1. Using the book reader feature students could download books into their ipods, then meet in the library to read, discuss, and share their thoughts about the books and authors. It is eco-friendly, in that no paper is used, and you don't have to worry about losing the book (unless you lose your ipod).
2. The graphing calculator feature could be used by students in middle and high school to help with algebra and other higher level math courses. Graphing calculators are really expensive. Students use them in those classes on a regular basis. This would be essential for kids in those classes.
3. The apps for keeping track of assignments would be really useful to keep students on track. When something is due soon, your ipod will show the project/assignment, so work can be turned in on time, eliminating the possibility of forgetting it or turning it in late.
4. Let's say you start your day with Fact of the Day, and that leads to burning questions that students want to learn about. They can use their ipods to get online for more research or head to the library to use the resources there to find their answers.
5. Using the Did You Know? app students can share their thoughts about the information displayed each day, building communication and a sharing of opinions.
6. Using ActivBoards you can text in answers to questions through the use of apps.

There are lots of uses for the Itouch. I am so excited about having them in our library. Think of the active participation we could have. Of course, there are also apps for popcorn and milk, so when kids get hungry there's a snack built in, and it's the kind that won't make a mess or ruin the carpet. Ha! Ha! :)

Thing 5

2009-07-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

My Dell and I are not on speaking terms tonight. So, I'm working on a Mac. That has me frustrated, but in spite of that, I finally got on the band wagon and joined Facebook. People have been after me to join for a while. Last year I signed my husband up and I played around on his profile, but for this activity, I decided it was time I joined in too. Setting it up and using it is really easy, but it is the group discussions that I think will be really valuable. The chatting with friends and keeping up with what's going on with everyone is fun and exciting, but I can also stay current with the newest trends in education. All summer I keep hearing about the RTI model and that our school is not a pilot school so we won't get info on it till next year. However, when I joined the International Reading Assoc. group, that was the first posting on the discussion board. Cool!

Twitter was easy to join, but I didn't get to do much with it because my Dell wouldn't let me go to the site or log in once I finally registered. I used the Mac to see the site and I need to explore it more because I spent more time fighting with the other computer than working on the site. I did get to see some of the recent posts from different discussion groups and we had some good laughs reading what others were talking about. I have heard about classrooms of young children that have used Twitter to discuss different topics, talk about books, etc and I'd love to try that. I set up a wiki last year with my class, but it didn't work for book talks. It was much better for writing than anything else.

I would definitely use these sites as long as they can be private because my students are only 8 years old. I know they understand these sites, but not all of my students are allowed to use the internet at home. Many parents are wary of the internet because they don't want their children visible on the web. I can see my class talking about what they read, send links to videos about topics we learn in class, etc. As I sit here typing I can imagine all the possibilities and they are numerous. I would just have to make sure they were protected first. I think I would probably lean toward using Twitter with my class because it does not require the huge profile that Facebook does. It's easier to set up than Facebook. We start the year off with a study of the Earth, planets, landforms, maps, etc. They could look for videos to share, websites, interesting facts, share books they have read about these topics, etc. Think of the real world writing and real audience possibilities.

As far as back-channeling, I can absolutely see this happening in middle and high school. My daughter would be so engaged in learning if she could use this type of technology. I don't think this will work in a 3rd grade, however it would if someone was unable to be in class due to illness or some other circumstance. Will that ever be possible? Technologically, I know we have the capability, but realistically will teachers embrace this kind of learning so that all students are engaged?

Thing 4

2009-07-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

I was so excited to be working with You Tube for this activity. I watched the video on how to upload my own videos to the site, then I got to work. I really wanted to use one of the Animoto videos I made, but then I decided to use a piece of music my son wrote for his girlfriend. The problem was that I had no video to go with it. I told him I wanted to put pictures of him and his girlfriend over the music, but he refused. It's funny because he already has videos of himself on You Tube, so I didn't see why he would refuse to put still pictures of himself over the music he wrote. Anyway, I imported his song into Windows Movie Maker and after a bit of trial and error, was able to post a video on You Tube called A Song for Laura. The pictures have nothing to do with the music. My daughter took them on a summer vacation a few years ago. So, both of my children had input into the video I uploaded this evening, one wrote the music, and the other took the photos. It's not a great video, but uploading to You Tube is simple. I mean really simple, like even a child can do it. The real learning experience for me was Windows Movie Maker. I've used other movie programs before and none are as easy to use as this one. I didn't use my school computer for this project for multiple reasons that are too long to bore you with tonight. I hope I have this program on my computer so my kids can use it. I definitely need to teach them how to use a digital camera and how to import pictures and store them in their files on Norway.
The benefits I see from putting kids work on You Tube is that they get to see themselves online and their parents can see it as well. Family and friends can also see what kids upload to sites like this one. That is really reinforcing for kids and highly motivational. It would also be awesome to have some teaching videos for kids who don't understand certain concepts, like subtracting across 0 in math. My daughter used the videos from the online textbook at Spring Forest for her algebra homework on a daily basis. They were so helpful. I would love to see something like that for my students who don't feel confident about a topic or skill.

Thing 3

2009-07-05T08:47:00.000-07:00

I began reading some of the articles about video calls and it looked really interesting. We actually have the technology for these kinds of calls now. Wow! I downloaded the software and went through it a bit. I know a few people on Skype and it would be great to talk to them over the internet. I don't have a web cam so I'll have to see about purchasing one so I can try this out.
On that note, I wonder if school will have all the equipment to make something like this a reality.
As far as using this in classrooms, I can see this having great potential in middle and high school. I read the manual from the high school in Lake Placid and it talks about potential problems with the connections, etc. That makes me nervous. 3rd graders aren't very patient when computer problems arise and they aren't good about trouble shooting yet. Way back when, we used to have a video conferencing program where you could take your class to the library and view a program and talk to the presenters. It didn't always work and the setup was often frustrating because we were at the mercy of the phone line and the connection. This feels like that, however I'm always willing to try new things and this just looks so cool. So, my husband is downloading Skype on his Mac because he does web casts for a living. He's excited to connect to his colleagues who are also on Skype to see how it all works. I'm planning to work with him, because his computer has a web cam built in and he has headphones that work for his computer, and see what the user potential can be. It looks great and it's easy to find contacts. Let's see where that takes us.

Thing 2

2009-06-28T11:27:00.000-07:00

I decided to play around with Wordle, Animoto, and Glogster. Wordle was so much fun. I started playing around with words, then my daugher took over and she made a few pages of her own. This is a great site! Wordle is so easy to use. Once we get Activboards, I would have my students use this for presentations for any content area. It would be great to use with vocabulary, main ideas and concepts, just about anything related to a topic of study. Because it's so easy to use, kids can do this independently.
I think I spent the most time on Animoto. I think I must be one of the last people to discover this site. I've seen it done. I've heard of it, but I never used it myself. Animoto is cool! I made 3 different videos, and I added the one of my family and friends to the blog. This is so much more fun than Powerpoint. Every year we do a project called Houston Proud. It always uses Powerpoint. This would be so much more interesting to watch, especially since we watch 22 shows. Now all we need are enough working computers for all the kids. Ha! Ha!
Glogster was new for me. I'd heard of the other 2 before, but not Glogster. It has lots of potential to replace standard posters for projects. It's super easy to use too. Whenever you use a computer for work instead of paper and pencil you have to change your thinking. Organization of information would be so much simpler using Glogster. My only worry is that there is a real use for posters that stay up in the classroom for a few weeks. We refer back to them all the time and kids enjoy seeing their work posted. I would use Glogster for presentations, but I don't think I'd replace regular posterboard posters completely.
Finally, I spent some time at Bookr. This is a way to make your own books from photos posted to several picture sites. It was another really easy program to use. This particular site lets you create books with pictures and your own text. I was able to put together a book in no time at all. I chose to do my book on landforms because it's one of the first topics we cover in science. The book we usually make takes a very long time to create because it is all hand done. I wonder if you could save work done in Bookr to a wiki. I set up a wiki for my class last year as a writing tool to begin introducing them to writing on the web. That could end up being a place for us to view the work done in this site and animoto as well. I'll have to play around with that and see what I can figure out.
These are great sites! If you haven't played around with them yet, get going. You're missing out.

New Avatar

2009-06-24T15:37:00.001-07:00

Okay, I just had to add a new Avatar. This is my new dream. Perhaps in Hawaii it isn't as hot as it is here in Houston.

The Networked Student; The Movie

2009-06-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

I have to say I was a little nervous to take on the next step in Library 2 Play. Last year was really mind blowing for me with the 23 Things. But as I watched the video, I realized that I actually understood all the different parts discussed in the movie. When it mentioned using the reader to keep the blogs organized, and using the RSS stream I wasn't completely at a loss for this new language.
Since I blogged last year, my son has graduated from high school. Unfortunately, he did not graduate from a Spring Branch school. Currently, he does not use My Space, Facebook, or even email to communicate with his friends. He uses his cell phone for texting, but he does not have the computer knowledge that the student in the video had. It was very disheartening to watch where we are going as a school district and know that he missed out on that.
This brings me to my own personal question, not necessarily one that I want the answer to right now. What can I do in my 3rd grade classroom to open the door for my students so they can have the technological skills they need to participate in the world outside or doors? As I go deeper into the 11.5 Things I hope to find the answer to this question.

Thing 23

2008-07-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
You Tube and Teacher Tube were wonderful. PhotoStory continues to be an amazing application. Flickr was lots of fun. I've been on it before to view photos, but never considered it as a teaching tool.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
I have always used computers in my classroom. At home I would check email and create documents for my students. I never considered the possibility of online communication via blogs. This changes my goals. I thought I was doing pretty good with my technology goals, but now I realize that I'm not exactly up with what's current out there. This definitely changes how I will think of computer use in my classroom and at home.

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
Yes, I was really unhappy about blogging at first. It just wasn't natural for me to communicate to the void in the web. Email is different because you talk to people you know. Blogging is so different. I leave this program with a better sense of confidence in blogging. In thing 22 I had to create a ning account just so I could respond to a post I read there. I would NEVER have done that at the beginning of this program.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
There were lots of times when I read the information and went, Huh? The Teacher Tube videos really helped me a lot. Perhaps including more of those whenever possible. Otherwise, I think it was great overall.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
Absolutely! This is a great way to learn new things about technology and since it moves so fast these days, I rely on experts like you guys to help me stay current.

How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities?
You will learn more about technology than you ever thought possible!

Thanks for putting this together.

Thing 22

2008-07-26T13:24:00.001-07:00

This site is cool! I chose Nings for Teachers. I looked at the lesson plans, which were okay, and at a few other tabs too. When I got to the general discussion boards there was a teacher asking for humorous parent excuses for their kids. So, I had to sign up and post one I had from last year. This is definitely a site I will come back to. I like the idea of setting it up with my students so that they can communicate with each other over the web without it having to be public. If I was still in 2nd grade, I would consider setting up a ning for students to communicate about citizenship, whether they saw someone or did something that showed good citizenship. It would have to be simple at 2nd grade because keyboarding skills are very minimal at this age. I've even had students that had never been on the web before. Great site!

Thing 21

2008-07-24T21:28:00.000-07:00

This was a fun experience. I've used PhotoStory before with my class. It's a great tool to use. I plan to get an earlier start on it in the year so my students will be able to create their own projects and conduct their own independent study using this program. I chose to make my PhotoStory with Twilight the novel by Stephanie Meyer. My daughter and I have had lots of discussions about this book series in anticipation for the new book release.
Thanks to Keep on keeping on for having the directions on how to get the PhotoStory into the blog. Unfortunately, when I watched the video one picture has no talking on it. I did rerecord it, resave it, and reembed the video, but it still is a silent picture. Oh well. It's a cute cartoon that you can read for yourself.

Thing 20

2008-07-24T07:38:00.001-07:00

I have enjoyed getting to know YouTube and TeacherTube. I looked at several videos for content areas I teach and decided to settle for videos on birds. The bird unit is still a big part of 2nd grade, and finding good videos for kids to view can be challenging. YouTube had some interesting videos on birds, but you have to be careful when you search. I also got videos for birds and bees with a picture of... well, never mind. Anyway, I think I would have to search through the videos first and identify the ones that I wanted kids to use. Then make those available to them. Here's the video I chose for my blog. When I put it on the blog the size was bigger than my space, so I had to adjust it to fit on the side. I don't know how to put it in the posting. It doesn't work the same as for the video clip.

Thing 19

2008-07-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

Awesome! This was so much fun! YouTube should be able to get through our firewall. I've used YouTube before but today I discovered Will it Blend? Ha! Ha! This is great! This guy blends things that have no business going in a blender. Take a look at this: Will it Blend?
I also loved the cooking site. Have you ever wanted to see Christopher Walken bake chicken? The cooking videos are short and fun to watch. You can blog with other chefs about the recipes. For example: I don't have the cooking tool that he uses in the video to bake his chicken. One blogger suggests using a beer can. See? Fun!
I also looked at last.com. This is a music site that allows you to listen to your favorite music genres. You type in the names of bands you enjoy and the site finds other bands that play similar music. Then you can listen to the different songs by these bands. It's almost like putting your cd player on random and just listening to the different tracks as they come up.
This was lots of fun!

Thing 18

2008-07-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

I didn't even bother with Open Office. I had Open Office on my home computer because I didn't have Microsoft Office at home for a while. Long story. Anyway, I downloaded Open Office to use until I got my computer updated. I hated it! It was so hard to work with. It doesn't have all the features I'm used to working with in Microsoft Office. Also, I could never create a new document. I could open Office documents, but if I needed to make a new doc, I had to delete what was on the document I opened so I could use it for my new work. It is very limiting and in a world where so much technology is available, I just couldn't trade Microsoft Office for Open Office, even though one is free and the other is really expensive. I did explore Google Docs. We did some exploring of Google Docs earlier on, but it was interesting to go back and explore again because I had a much easier time working with it than before. I made a slide show of my cat. It's just silly, but gave me practice with the format. The slideshow is really easy to use, easier in fact than Office because there are fewer choices to make as far as format goes. While I just said that I didn't like Open Office for that, I like Google Docs for that reason. It was easy to make a slide show. If I was still teaching 2nd grade, I would start here with this slideshow, and then move on to PowerPoint. It's a great starting place. PowerPoint can be overwhelming for younger kids, so starting with something simpler would make the transition easier. That doesn't mean I want to replace Microsoft in Spring Branch.
My Cat Slideshow
I was able to share this slideshow with a few people too. That is a really neat feature of Google Docs. Usually I have to email the parents the slideshows during my planning time. With Google Docs, you can share the slideshow by listing email addresses and writing a short note about what you are sending. That was really simple.

Thing 17

2008-07-21T10:18:00.000-07:00

This was probably the most frustrating thing I've done so far. At first I didn't understand how it was supposed to work. It seems like some of the other things we've already done, but as I started putting in websites I realized how this could really help me when I'm searching for things on the web. I work in the literacy library in my school and I'm always having to look for books from publishers and book levels. I created my searchroll to include the sites I most commonly use for this job so that now they are all located in one place and I don't have to Google them any longer. That is really helpful. So, I was feeling better about the whole Rollyo thing, then I had to try to put in on my blog. Okay, that was an experience that made me want to throw the computer out the window. I didn't do it, and I'm not on my SBISD laptop right now, so nobody panic. I tell you, that took me time because I could get the image to appear but it wouldn't conduct a search. So, I visited other blogs about Rollyo and theirs all worked fine, which made me angrier. After much cutting, pasting, removing, and starting over again, I managed to get it done. Rollyo is a good way to save time with searching, and I'm all about saving time. Now that I've done it, I can see it being a useful tool at school and home.

Thing 16

2008-07-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

I never knew what wikis were until this lesson. Getting my post on the sandbox was interesting. I kept looking for a box like this one for the blog to type in, but it wasn't there. Hmm. I guess I'm just not quite there yet technologically. This was really eye-opening because it seems so easy to use. I want to try it out before school starts on my own family to see how it all works together. Wikis would be great for kids to gather data on a given topic. If we are studying geography, I could see my students getting together using wikis to collect information about landforms, natural resources, bodies of water, etc and displaying that information in a variety of formats.

Thing 15

2008-07-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

I read all the articles. Some of them were very technical, but the article titled A Ripple Effect had some really interesting ideas. That school really transformed their library. The idea that laptops are available for checking out by students, 52 computers make up the island in the library, MP3 players and downloadable audio books can also be checked out... Wow! That really does make you think. Could we actually have libraries in Spring Branch that look like this? Away from the Icebergs suggests the idea that we no longer need to build library collections. Circulation in his library my be down, but I don't believe that's the case in my school. Our library thrives and is always full of students and teachers. Libraries need to continue to add to their print collections, but access to information through technology must continue to grow. Unfortunately, that may end at elementary school. I have middle and high school kids and they rarely get to use the libraries at their schools, let alone computers. They are far more cut off from technology than my 2nd graders have been. I agree that libraries need to change and that students have to be able to access information through computers and other technological means. My own children read and write more on the computer through blogs and messaging than they do in school. My son took classes at HCC this summer in order to get ahead in high school. His English teacher had the class write a 7-page research report as a major project. The students were not allowed to use the internet to get information. They were only able to use print sources. This is at a college campus!
It's exciting to see the changes that are coming for libraries. I hope we will be able to continue to grow as the technology is made available to schools.

Thing 14

2008-07-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

When I first searched school Library Learning 2.0 I got a bunch of hits, but as I searched in tags it went down to only 3. Now that I know more about blogging, Technorati seems a little easier to understand and navigate. Tags make searching for information much easier because the results you get are specific to the tag. I'm not sure how to use this in my classroom. Technorati is a blog search engine. Am I ready for my elementary classroom to read and post on blogs in this way? I want to begin conversations with blogs in my classroom, but perhaps with just my own blog and students own as well. This is a conversation I'll have with my librarian.

Thing 13

2008-07-17T09:52:00.001-07:00

As I was reading about tagging, before I even set up the profile, I thought this would be very handy for research. What I really like is the idea that you can get to this collection of bookmarked sites from anywhere. If we are researching a topic at school, the site can be bookmarked and students can continue researching at home. This also allows me to find and mark sites at home and view them at school without having to remember where I got my information, or emailing the site address to myself so I have it in the morning for class. The other two sites seem to work the same as del.icio.us. I originally had ideas for the Google Reader in this way, but social bookmarking is much easier, especially for elementary kids. I plan to make use of the sites other users have tagged to add to my own bookmarks.

Thing 12

2008-07-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

I admit, I'm one of those bloggers that reads on a site and leaves without posting a comment. It's very intimidating to post comments. I found it really interesting that 90% of people do just that and that only 1% of readers actually contribute to conversations. Two points I find relevant are: responding to a post with ideas, questions, information, etc, instead of just a statement of agreement, and responding back to those who post comments on your blog. As I have been reading other blogs I find that many people do leave comments that are just agreements, like: "Yeah!" That doesn't really tell the reader or the author anything. If I am planning to use blogs in my classroom I would absolutely want my students to respond with something more thought out that just an interjection. On the second point, I never really gave any thought to responding to postings. That caught me off guard a little because I really just didn't even think about it. If the whole idea is to start conversations with people all over the world, then it only makes sense to respond because otherwise conversation isn't really taking place.
I responded on several blogs. There are some really great ideas out there. It was interesting to read what other people are thinking and learning from this exercise.
I used the blogs I have in my reader to respond. I have only just had them there to read and I haven't really responded at all. I chose writing and reading lessons because there was information about a conference with Lucy Calkins and I was interested to see what she has going on since Spring Branch is moving to the CCP model for writing. I also read a posting for math facts games. It had ideas that are not new to teaching, but since I'm changing grade levels this year, it was a good reminder for me. The site is http://www.math-lessons.ca/blog/2007/12/14/using-games-to-teach-math/

Thing 11

2008-07-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

This was really, really easy to do. Signing in and creating an account really was just a user name and password. You don't have to fill in lots of information, and you can just get started working on the site right away. It is very user friendly. I found the very short introduction, not so very short and I began to get lost in all the steps to adding books, etc. So, I decided to just explore the site and see what I could find. I was able to put in the titles of books I'm reading right now and get links to postings from other readers of the same books. It was interesting to see what they thought of the books I'm enjoying and other titles that are in the same genre. That's something I haven't had before. I looked over the groups and I'm thinking it would be interesting to have students get on this site to write about books they read for homework. I could set up a group for them and they could see what their classmates read at home and get ideas on what they might like to read. I find that so many of my kids write the same titles over and over again on their reading logs because they just don't have ideas for new reads. This may be one way to get more kids to really read at home. I like the book tal k group and the author chat group. It would be interesting to hear what the author says about their books in this forum.

Thing 10

2008-07-08T12:50:00.001-07:00

I think this was the easiest of all the activities for me so far. I enjoyed playing around with all the image generators. The best one for me was comic strip generator. All of them were easy to use, but this one was the friendliest in terms of saving my work to put in the blog. It only took a few minutes to make the image and type the text. To put it in the blog I just had to pull the image from my file in my computer. It was that simple. I liked the custom sign generator too, but saving my work was more difficult and I had trouble retrieving my work to put in the blog. I've used Big Huge Labs at school to make trading cards. So, I'm really familiar with that site. I can see several ways of using these in school. The trading cards will work with any content area, but I thought it might be fun to have the students make cards about themselves on the first day of school, telling things they like, don't like, favorites, places they've been, family statistics, etc. Then I could put them on a ring to share with another class and they could write letters to use throughout the year. They would know information about the person they were writing to based on the trading cards. They could even blog to each other if I get our librarian to help me set that up at the beginning of the year. The images from the generators can be used to respond to reading, leveled books, or writings that other students have done. That would be a fun way to add comments to published student work in the class library.

Thing 9

2008-07-02T08:40:00.000-07:00

Looking through all the search feeds took tons of time. Maybe it's just because blogging is still so new to me. Anyway, I found that edublogs awardwinners gave me the most interesting blog sites to follow. It was by far the easiest for me to use. Technorati came in a close second. Both of them had lists to help guide me in a direction toward sites I would be more likely to blog on. Having preset lists, like: best teacher blog, or parenting gave me choices and a focus to narrow down my searching. Bloglines search tool wasn't really confusing, but it gave me too many choices. I checked off what I was interested in and then it asked me to subscribe to all their selections based on my choices. I had to create a profile before I could subscribe to anything. It was more steps and the others were just easily available. The most useful feed I found was bionic teaching. These guys go out and find out about all the cool stuff available with computers and put it on their blog with ideas for teachers, specifically for teachers. They have a posting for setting up blogs in classrooms which I'm planning to go back and read later on. I read through lots of their listings before moving on to another site. Topix.net was really neat. It has Houston news as well as news from around the US and the world on that one site. Bloglines also had news feeds but to subscribe I had to create a profile. I found that I already had lots of their newsfeeds on my reader.

Thing 8 RSS

2008-06-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

This is a really easy way to keep up with things I'm interested in. I won't have to spend time searching websites, or asking my self, "Hey, what was that site called that gave me that information last time?" This is very simple to manage. What confuses me are the huge amounts of sites that I was able to list in Google Reader so quickly. One blog has many links to it. This is a great tool to use for school. Whenever I've done research in the past using the internet, the kids always have a hard time finding information that meets their needs. I can set up a Reader with sites already marked for kids to use and they will be more successful as they research on different topics. It will all be right there and the reading level should be appropriate if I'm picking it first. Our librarian is great about having our students us computers and technology. If I tell her I'm working on a certain unit in a content area, she can pull sites for me to add to the Reader. It's overwhelming to see all the information I have available in this one area. It is addictive. It makes you want to come and read more and find out more about what's going on outside your door.

Thing 7 cool tools from Google

2008-06-26T12:03:00.000-07:00

Some of these tools were really easy to use. iGoogle - the home page that you customize was probably the easiest. I set that one up right away. It only took a few minutes to decide what I wanted on my home page and that was it. Probably my favorite of all the tools was Google Earth. I've been on Google Earth before, but this time I chose to explore a different area. I chose the seismic images and what I got was a tour of the Earth that I could pause, move, and explore. There were photographs of many of the locations, but the best part is just seeing these cities and buildings, then flying out and zooming around the world to see something else. I can see this having a great impact in my classroom because there is so much to observe and learn from each location. I like the Google Notebook, especially for my teenagers in middle school and high school. If only they could take a laptop to school and use this instead of the journals I need to buy for them each year. This could be such a leap in bringing usable technology into schools. I did try the Google Calendar. It was a little challenging for me. I couldn't get the start time for my appointments to be just right and I had a hard time figuring out how to adjust the entry so it matched the timing I needed. It was more work than I was willing to do at that time. I may have to go back later and see where I went wrong.

Thing 6...Mashups and more

2008-06-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

This was really cool! I've done trading cards before with my 2nd graders. It was really challenging for them at first because they had never done anything with JPEGs before. This was new ground, but as we tackled bigger challenges in the year, like Photostory, they were very comfortable with manipulating photos in a computer program. The trading card I made shows my son Alex playing guitar. This is his Showmaster Black guitar. It's probably his favorite to play. As I went through the mashups I really liked the Flickr Toys Mapmaker. I made a map that showed all the places I've been and where I haven't yet visited. I can see myself using that in my classroom. It was very easy to use. I also had fun with Bubblr a web ap. In it I made bubbles for a comic strip using some of my daughter's favorite band members. I can see how this would be really motivational for kids. I will need to make sure I get hold of the digital cameras in my library quickly so we can use them in programs like these.

Thing 5 ... Flickr

2008-06-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

Wow! There's so much to look at on this site that it's a little overwhelming. It took me more than one session to look at much of the site. The world map was exciting! There's so much that can be done with that in a classroom. Judy Wallis presented a writing lesson using a photograph as the inspiration. With Flickr there are so many photographs to choose from that even the most reluctant writer would find inspiration on this site. On my first try with Flickr I put in some photos I had in my computer and organized them in groups to share with my family. That was really easy and lots of fun. Later, I worked through the tags and groups. I understand what the tags are for, but I still don't think I have a really good handle on how to put them in my own pictures yet. The groups were easy enough to figure out. I searched for different groups and you can find them for just about any interest. For example: my daughter wants to be on Broadway. There is a Flickr group that has pictures of Broadway that they share. Neat! The picture I chose was of downtown Houston. I chose it because as I move to 3rd grade this school year, Houston Proud, is a big unit that we cover.

Thing 3... The Avatar

2008-06-19T08:36:00.001-07:00

Okay, I'm really slow on this one. I thought I had done all the work I needed to do when I set up the blog, but after many problems with Thing 3, I think I've got it now. I finally added my avatar to my blog. It really was easy to do. I struggled getting it into the blog at first, but was able to fix my mistake and get it up right away. I chose a woman in her living room, because that's really as far as I plan to go this summer. She's dressed is shorts, which is ironic for me. I wear skirts about 99.9% of the time at school, but at home in the summer I am a shorts/jeans girl. So, my avatar is living the life I want this summer - at home, relaxing, without the hurry and rush that accompanies so many days in my life.

Step 3

2008-06-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

I created my blog and it was much easier than I thought. I followed the steps and it was really simple. To put in the picture I just went to Google images and found one that matched my blog name. I decided to go with Luna from Harry Potter. My daughter and I are rereading the 6th book right now and she's one of my favorite characters. She's kind of strange in a unique way, but there's definitely more to her than meets the eye. I tried to choose a picture that portrays her this way.

My Best Habit

2008-06-09T21:47:00.000-07:00

Well, after watching the video about the 71/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners I think the one that fits me best is goal setting. I'm a big picture person, so having a goal at the end really gets me going. I like to see where I'm going. It makes getting there so interesting.

My First Post

2008-06-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

I've never actually written a blog before. It's a little like stepping out into a void hoping you won't fall too far, or onto anything sharp below. Kind of like a leap of faith. I hope I do it right.