Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Is it the End or Only the Beginning?
I have to admit that I feel very accomplished to have finished all of the 23 things on top of the many assignments that are also required for Education 3040! I have had fun along the way, although some of the "things" were not as easy for me as I had originally hoped. There were definitely times that I got frustrated when links would not work properly or when videos or pictures would not upload into the blog. With all of these things in mind, I have acquired a large list of educational websites and understanding of web 2.0 tools. I was forced to create and navigate through multiple websites that I may not have done, had they not been mandatory for this class. That being said, my favorite discovery exercises out of the 23 things were the Animoto and the Youtube exercises. This program has encouraged me to seek out and explore new and emerging technologies to implement into my teaching. Anything that can be fun for the students and promote learning is a great asset for teachers. The only thing that surprised me about this program was just how easy it was to maintain a blog. For some reason, I have never really had the desire to blog. I suppose, it was because I expected them to be extremely time consuming. However, when I got started with blogging, I realized just how easy it actually was to "blog" and also the positive educational benefits that blogging with have for me in the future. I plan to keep up with many of the web 2.0 tools that I have learned by way of the RSS feeds and through websites such as Diigo, that can store many of my documents, bookmarks, and important sites.
Thing # 23 - Creative Commons
The Original 23 Things
After searching Google for "23 things for teachers" and "creative commons," it wasn't long before I found where 23things originated from and how APSU adopted this program for teacher candidates in their program. The criteria set forth in the first 23 things program was created by Helen Blowers and implemented in 2006, with about 352 participants. Blowers has designed the program to be utilized by other educational institutions under Creative Commons. The specifications of use are found here.
Now that I know about Creative Commons and have completed the 23 things, I will strive to educate my students on proper internet etiquette. In the future, I will actively be searching for material that is secured through Creative Commons and follow the legal channels to set the right example for my students. It is important to give credit to the original creators of a work. I believe morally, the majority of children and adults alike understand that plagiarizing or "stealing" is wrong. In many cases I think that many people are just not aware of the things they should not be doing. Educating students on what is ok and what is not, when borrowing ideas or different works on the internet, will help to foster and not hinder the potential of collaborative learning. The more information they have, the more confident they will become in what they set forth to accomplish with these online tools.
After searching Google for "23 things for teachers" and "creative commons," it wasn't long before I found where 23things originated from and how APSU adopted this program for teacher candidates in their program. The criteria set forth in the first 23 things program was created by Helen Blowers and implemented in 2006, with about 352 participants. Blowers has designed the program to be utilized by other educational institutions under Creative Commons. The specifications of use are found here.
Now that I know about Creative Commons and have completed the 23 things, I will strive to educate my students on proper internet etiquette. In the future, I will actively be searching for material that is secured through Creative Commons and follow the legal channels to set the right example for my students. It is important to give credit to the original creators of a work. I believe morally, the majority of children and adults alike understand that plagiarizing or "stealing" is wrong. In many cases I think that many people are just not aware of the things they should not be doing. Educating students on what is ok and what is not, when borrowing ideas or different works on the internet, will help to foster and not hinder the potential of collaborative learning. The more information they have, the more confident they will become in what they set forth to accomplish with these online tools.
Thing # 22 - LiveBinders
Live Binders are a great way to organize important documents, pdf files, pictures, or even educational websites for later use. Creating an account with Live Binders is free and easy. The only thing that I found a little complicated was the further organization options that it offered to you within the folders. I did not feel that the tutorial was "self explanatory" and as easy to use as some other sites such as Diigo. I still was able to create three different Educational binders and load documents and websites to each one. The first binder that I created was named Educational Links. This binder is designated for all of the many educational sites that have been presented to me in Education 3040 through website of the day, diigo, and the 23thingsblogspot. Many of the websites that have been suggested, I would actually like to document for future use. I felt that LiveBinders was a good way to try to accomplish that. The second Binder that I created is named Education 3040. This was created organize different documents and website links that I use on a daily basis with Education 3040, such as Livetext and wikispaces. The last binder that was created is named Sped Education Report. This binder has all of my APA paper resources uploaded to it. LiveBinders is a good way for educators to keep things organized while continuing to compile multiple documents, educational tools, and websites to their repertoire. LiveBinders can be used inside the classroom as well, by students accessing a list of sites that the teacher may have previously compiled in a binder that is available for their use. Many different lessons can be taught through fun and interactive websites on the internet. All a teacher would need to do is find relevant and appropriate websites specific to the curriculum's needs and compile them together in a Binder and then make that binder available to the students.
As far as successfully loading an icon of one of my binders, it wasn't working for me. However, I was able to post a link to my livebinders account and present all of my binders that I created.
http://www.livebinders.com/shelf/my#
As far as successfully loading an icon of one of my binders, it wasn't working for me. However, I was able to post a link to my livebinders account and present all of my binders that I created.
http://www.livebinders.com/shelf/my#
Friday, April 6, 2012
Thing # 21 - Animoto
My Animoto Video
What a fun website! Animoto is a great website that allows you to create free 30 second long videos with your uploaded pictures and music. I didn't find this task hard at all and I enjoyed going back through some of our family photos on my computer. I will probably use Animoto in the future, because of its ease of use. However, after creating my video, I did have some problems with uploading the "embed" code into my blog space. I was able to link my video to my blog with the "blogger" option, but it would not post my video in the blog. I was able to work around this issue by downloading my video to my computer from Animoto's website and then uploading the video to my Blog through the import videos section. My only complaint is that the video is small and I can not resize it when I "download" to my desktop, unless I want to "upgrade" my account with Animoto. This cost money, so I think I'm pretty satisfied with my free video! Other than these small little issues, I did enjoy creating a personalized video with family pictures and music that really meant something to me. Animoto would be a great site for teachers to create short clips, full of pictures of the children engaging in educational activities throughout the year. Parents love to see what their children are actively doing and learning while at school. Capturing that interaction and displaying it in a beautiful way for them would be wonderful.
What a fun website! Animoto is a great website that allows you to create free 30 second long videos with your uploaded pictures and music. I didn't find this task hard at all and I enjoyed going back through some of our family photos on my computer. I will probably use Animoto in the future, because of its ease of use. However, after creating my video, I did have some problems with uploading the "embed" code into my blog space. I was able to link my video to my blog with the "blogger" option, but it would not post my video in the blog. I was able to work around this issue by downloading my video to my computer from Animoto's website and then uploading the video to my Blog through the import videos section. My only complaint is that the video is small and I can not resize it when I "download" to my desktop, unless I want to "upgrade" my account with Animoto. This cost money, so I think I'm pretty satisfied with my free video! Other than these small little issues, I did enjoy creating a personalized video with family pictures and music that really meant something to me. Animoto would be a great site for teachers to create short clips, full of pictures of the children engaging in educational activities throughout the year. Parents love to see what their children are actively doing and learning while at school. Capturing that interaction and displaying it in a beautiful way for them would be wonderful.
Thing # 20 - YouTube
I enjoyed completing Thing # 20. Browsing through YouTube was fun and entertaining. However, this assignment turned out to be very time consuming! There are a multitude of videos on YouTube that you can watch that are related to a specific topic search. YouTube is convenient in that it allows you to subscribe to different people's posts and be informed of new uploads that you may be interested in. Personally, I am subscribed to ThePianoGuys because they are absolutely wonderful musicians and I admire their talent and desire to inspire. Having the option to subscribe to their posts is really helpful in keeping up with their music. The only thing about YouTube that I do not care for is the random vulgar material that will surface as you are searching. I'm an adult and I can completely disregard these occurrences, but for curious children, the obscene material can become a negative distraction.
I chose the "Words Hurt" video because I felt that it speaks strongly against Bullying in the school atmosphere. I have always been appalled by the mean things children can muster up to say to one another and the horrible repercussions of those hateful words. I was very fortunate to have not been bullied as a child, but knew children who were... I have promised myself that when I become a teacher, I will be a huge advocate of trying to prevent and dissolve school bullying when it arises. I refuse to tolerate or allow hateful or ignorant behavior in my classroom. Throughout my life I have learned that words are very powerful and can be used to uplift and inspire. However, they can also be used in powerful ways to harm and destroy. I want to instill in my students the importance of acceptance and differences. Life is too big and colorful to be so narrow minded.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Thing # 19 - Teacher Pop & Social Networking
Completing Thing # 19 was pretty interesting, as it opened my eyes to a couple of new social networking sites that may be very helpful in the future. At the moment, the only social networking sites that I am an "active" member of are Facebook and Twitter. I signed up for TeacherPop and I am waiting for an approval. So in the meantime, I will finish the rest of Thing # 19. I browsed through some of the recommended social networking sites that were on apsu23things.blogspot and I signed up for Course Cracker, Craftster, and Yelp. I think that Playlist is also a fun concept, but I decided not to venture further into the site because of time restraints. I will most likely create some playlists with the website's free music and upload them to one of my social networking sites at some point. I signed up for Course Cracker because I felt that it would be a good social networking site to find other educational majors or even influential elementary teachers to converse with or observe. The site allows you to have a "page" that you can somewhat customize with helpful information, such as a calendar, assignment docs, and other things such as photos and videos of class projects and activities. The main thing about the site is that it is interactive and offers you different avenues of communication and the sharing of ideas with other educators.
I chose to sign up for Craftster because I love to make and create things. Curtains, Blankets, Pillows... I totally make my own. I also love the idea of buying crafts and creations by other individuals. I personally think there is just something more authentic and special about handmade items. I was curious about this site because it allows users to share and browse through free patterns and projects. Only time will tell if I will find any good craft patterns, but I will be optimistic about the experience. Last, I chose to create an account with Yelp. Yelp is a helpful social networking site that allows you to "review" and browse through a multitude of reviews from other users. I was interested in this feature because I travel a lot and I am a firm believer in regarding the experiences of previous customers! This site allows you to read reviews of local hot spots and restaurants and get a better idea of the atmosphere of a place before you plan the night. This is a great advantage when planning an adventure out of town as well.
http://static.ning.com/socialnetworkmain/widgets/index/swf/badge.swf?v=201204042201
I chose to sign up for Craftster because I love to make and create things. Curtains, Blankets, Pillows... I totally make my own. I also love the idea of buying crafts and creations by other individuals. I personally think there is just something more authentic and special about handmade items. I was curious about this site because it allows users to share and browse through free patterns and projects. Only time will tell if I will find any good craft patterns, but I will be optimistic about the experience. Last, I chose to create an account with Yelp. Yelp is a helpful social networking site that allows you to "review" and browse through a multitude of reviews from other users. I was interested in this feature because I travel a lot and I am a firm believer in regarding the experiences of previous customers! This site allows you to read reviews of local hot spots and restaurants and get a better idea of the atmosphere of a place before you plan the night. This is a great advantage when planning an adventure out of town as well.
http://static.ning.com/socialnetworkmain/widgets/index/swf/badge.swf?v=201204042201
Monday, April 2, 2012
Thing # 18 - Social Networking
It is important that teachers are familiar with social networking sites, because it is an assured thing that most all of their students will be incredibly fluent in them. In this generation, the majority of young people have a facebook or twitter account. These large and popular social networking sites have become a highly utilized and preferred form of communication. Facebook allows you to keep up with old friends, family, and even certain groups. By having a facebook account, you stay connected to numerous individuals by way of messages, posts, activity invites, instant messages, blog links, feeds, pictures, and a new feature that they have implemented... the timeline. Teachers must be familiar with these sites if they want to better relate and connect to their students.
I didn't necessarily gain any new insights about Facebook, as I have had my account for some time and use it on a daily basis. I am familiar with most all of Facebook's features and thoroughly enjoy the many options of sharing and communicating that it has to offer. Many of my friends married military and my brother is military, so Facebook is great for keeping in touch with them while I try to maintain my own busy lifestyle. I do not use Twitter on a daily basis and am much less familiar with this social networking site. However, I do see the benefits of using Twitter for the influx of educational information that it provides, given that you add appropriate influential educators!
Although Social networking sites can be helpful in staying connected and may serve to be useful for teachers in communication with other educators, students, or parents, these sites can subject users to a multitude of sometimes uncontrollable and inappropriate behavior. I don't know how many times I have encountered an inappropriate post from someone. Unfortunately, it seems that many people like to air their dirty laundry on these social networking sites....for the world to see. I have no tolerance for people who bad mouth others on these sites as well and usually delete them immediately, as these types of post are not what I want to read first thing in the morning! All in all, I think that it is still important for educators to understand what social networking sites are and how to utilize them. As long as the user understands the responsibility of the content that will be readily available to them and how to "customize" filters to their liking, I think that social networking sites can be very useful to them. For example, creating a classroom group limited to your students and/or parents could be a productive learning tool.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/rebecca.sloffer
I didn't necessarily gain any new insights about Facebook, as I have had my account for some time and use it on a daily basis. I am familiar with most all of Facebook's features and thoroughly enjoy the many options of sharing and communicating that it has to offer. Many of my friends married military and my brother is military, so Facebook is great for keeping in touch with them while I try to maintain my own busy lifestyle. I do not use Twitter on a daily basis and am much less familiar with this social networking site. However, I do see the benefits of using Twitter for the influx of educational information that it provides, given that you add appropriate influential educators!
Although Social networking sites can be helpful in staying connected and may serve to be useful for teachers in communication with other educators, students, or parents, these sites can subject users to a multitude of sometimes uncontrollable and inappropriate behavior. I don't know how many times I have encountered an inappropriate post from someone. Unfortunately, it seems that many people like to air their dirty laundry on these social networking sites....for the world to see. I have no tolerance for people who bad mouth others on these sites as well and usually delete them immediately, as these types of post are not what I want to read first thing in the morning! All in all, I think that it is still important for educators to understand what social networking sites are and how to utilize them. As long as the user understands the responsibility of the content that will be readily available to them and how to "customize" filters to their liking, I think that social networking sites can be very useful to them. For example, creating a classroom group limited to your students and/or parents could be a productive learning tool.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/rebecca.sloffer
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Thing # 17 - Delicious
The social bookmarking site Delicious is a wonderful way to bookmark and save specific information found on the internet for later use. I enjoyed using Delicious and will probably continue to use it in the future. It is helpful to save webpages and links to certain topics that I may be browsing on any computer, not just my home or work computer. Another great thing that I noticed about Delicious is that it allows you to create "stacks" of bookmarked links that are narrowed to your liking. You can then share these "stacks" of links with others by making them public. Teachers can take advantage of this social bookmarking tool by simply being social. When you add educational friends, you open your circle of educational influence and gain ideas for more effective teaching strategies to be used inside your classroom. I found Delicious very similar to Diigo in its use of tags. Tags are a great way of organizing your multitude of bookmarks. Also through tags, you are able to view other people's information more efficiently by the tag that they narrow their saved information with. Since I am fairly new to Diigo and Delicious, I am going to navigate through and utilize both for a while to see which one I think will fit best into my lifestyle and preferences.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Thing # 16 - Getting Organized
After looking at the different "intro" pages I chose to create and customize a homepage for my home computer through iGoogle. This homepage creator stood out to me because of its ease of use and also because it is an extension of Google, and Google is pretty awesome. My primary email address that I use is through Gmail and I also enjoy the RSS Reader that Google offers. Another reason why I chose iGoogle, is because my blog is also through Google and it just makes more sense to me to try and keep everything integrated together and simple. That is the reason why we take the time to create and utilize these different applications anyways, to simplify our lives. I enjoyed customizing my page by adding different features and widgets that I found useful, such as a translator. I also added a little hamster to my page that I can feed...he is pretty cute. The online calendar that I chose, was the Google calendar. This feature is so wonderful, as it allows you to share events that you have saved with other people. You can even color code different appointments or listings to distinguish between the contributions of different people sharing a calendar together. I also have an Iphone and I am able to sync my phone calendar to accept the Google calendar. I must admit that I love how easy and efficient Google applications. Online calendars are useful as they allow you to share important dates with others and keep you thoroughly professional and organized.
When I tried to access the Mystickies site, I was able to sign up but then I had to download an extension for my browser (FireFox). After all this, it decided it didn't want to work for me. I attempted to try out Backpack as well, but it boasted a "free 30 day trial" and in my experience, those never work out right. Therefore, I decided to pass on this application as well. So, I opted to add a "to do list" to my iGoogle page instead. I feel confident that I am going to like this feature, as it seems handy and isn't complicated or too much work to maintain. A very useful program for teachers and students is www.zamzar.com. This website is a free and simple online file converter. Did I mention that it was free AND simple?
When I tried to access the Mystickies site, I was able to sign up but then I had to download an extension for my browser (FireFox). After all this, it decided it didn't want to work for me. I attempted to try out Backpack as well, but it boasted a "free 30 day trial" and in my experience, those never work out right. Therefore, I decided to pass on this application as well. So, I opted to add a "to do list" to my iGoogle page instead. I feel confident that I am going to like this feature, as it seems handy and isn't complicated or too much work to maintain. A very useful program for teachers and students is www.zamzar.com. This website is a free and simple online file converter. Did I mention that it was free AND simple?
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Thing # 15 - Wikis
The assignment was interesting as I have never edited or created a wiki space before. I have been familiar with them, but I have never actually contributed to them. It was fairly easy to edit the page with my personal information and adjustments. I simply used the link that was offered in the apsu23thingsblogspot, created a free user account with my email and password information, and then I joined the wiki group. After joining the wiki group I was able to edit and change basically anything that was uploaded or saved prior to my additions. I navigated through some of the different posts and thought it was pretty neat to see how long these posts have been going on, some of them dating back to over three years ago! However, I posted under our section in apsu23thingssandbox and uploaded a picture of my nephew that I created in Flickr mashups while working on Thing #8.
I believe that Wikis are a great way for teachers, librarians, and even students to communicate, educate, and inform. After browsing through some of the links that were provided in the Discovery Exercise, I got an idea of just how some wikis are used in the educational system. Some libraries are using wiki spaces as Reference Centers that provide multiple different links that cover everything from recommended books and material collections to fund-raising and marketing. I also like the idea of teachers using the wiki spaces as a way to communicate effectively to their students for syllabuses, important announcements, and even helpful links that may aid the student further in their learning. Educational wikis are informative and may contain news about current events or even emerging technological tools. They really are a great interactive tool that allow for collaboration and creativity in another controlled setting, other than the classroom. When I become a teacher, I may plan to implement one for announcements and informative links for the parents and students.
I believe that Wikis are a great way for teachers, librarians, and even students to communicate, educate, and inform. After browsing through some of the links that were provided in the Discovery Exercise, I got an idea of just how some wikis are used in the educational system. Some libraries are using wiki spaces as Reference Centers that provide multiple different links that cover everything from recommended books and material collections to fund-raising and marketing. I also like the idea of teachers using the wiki spaces as a way to communicate effectively to their students for syllabuses, important announcements, and even helpful links that may aid the student further in their learning. Educational wikis are informative and may contain news about current events or even emerging technological tools. They really are a great interactive tool that allow for collaboration and creativity in another controlled setting, other than the classroom. When I become a teacher, I may plan to implement one for announcements and informative links for the parents and students.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Thing # 14 - Flowcharts and Mind Maps
Out of the four different recommended sites to explore, I chose to try Gliffy and Bubble. I also attempted to access the other two, but flowchart was going to take longer than one day and MindMeister started to get into "30 day free trials" and having to pay for a subscription. Unfortunately, in my experience, anything that has ever had "free trials" has always charged me and been quite a hassle to cancel or get straightened out. So I chose to veer away from both of these. However, I did really enjoy the ease of use of Gliffy and Bubble. Gliffy is a great site that offers so many different customization options for making a flowchart. I was really impressed with how easy it was to just jump in and start creating something. Although there are other versions of Gliffy that require a fee, trying it's basic features out really was free and I didn't have to set up an account. Flowcharts can be very helpful in showing a series of events or a specific step by step process of doing something. I also like that you have the option of making Venn diagrams. I have always thought that the "overlapping" concept of Venn diagrams is a great way to show common factors of similar or even different things. That being said, I think that I might consider making a Venn diagram to upload into my powerpoint or word document to help explain creative commons for substandard 6.9.
Like Gliffy, Bubble was easy to utilize and you can just jump right into creating a document without signing in. I did have a little bit of trouble trying to figure out how to connect bubbles together underneath two separate bubbles. So, I will say that it has a little bit of a learning curve. However, it is a nice tool to make a "mind map" of a thought process or even a family tree. You can link bubbles and even color code different items that may have a similar association. When I wanted to save my material, I had to then create a free account with Bubble. Mind Maps are a great tool to use in a classroom, as they can help with organizing thoughts. For example, a teacher may use a mind map in a creative writing lesson or when trying to teach about creating a main idea in a paragraph with supporting sentences and a conclusion. Mind Maps allow students to visualize what they are thinking and efficiently arrange their thoughts so they can express them more clearly on paper. Bubble is a good website that allows students to create quick mind maps for their writing or for a teacher to utilize in order to explain a lesson better.
Like Gliffy, Bubble was easy to utilize and you can just jump right into creating a document without signing in. I did have a little bit of trouble trying to figure out how to connect bubbles together underneath two separate bubbles. So, I will say that it has a little bit of a learning curve. However, it is a nice tool to make a "mind map" of a thought process or even a family tree. You can link bubbles and even color code different items that may have a similar association. When I wanted to save my material, I had to then create a free account with Bubble. Mind Maps are a great tool to use in a classroom, as they can help with organizing thoughts. For example, a teacher may use a mind map in a creative writing lesson or when trying to teach about creating a main idea in a paragraph with supporting sentences and a conclusion. Mind Maps allow students to visualize what they are thinking and efficiently arrange their thoughts so they can express them more clearly on paper. Bubble is a good website that allows students to create quick mind maps for their writing or for a teacher to utilize in order to explain a lesson better.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Thing # 13 - Zoho Writer and Google Docs
This activity opened my eyes to a few more options of word processors. It was not hard to sign up for Zoho Writer, or even navigate through the site. I found it very user friendly. I currently use Microsoft Word for all of my word documents. However, the nice thing that I found about the Zoho Writer site was that you can create and save a word document within the site. Zoho Writer can be very helpful for storing important documents as well, because it also incorporates an import feature which allows you to upload previously created documents from other software into Zoho. Another feature that I like about Zoho is that it is interactive and allows you to share your work with others. Sharing a document can help with collaboration on a specific topic or it can even help in having someone proofread and make suggestions for your paper. As far as creating a header and setting the page layouts to a specific format, I didn't have any problems. If anything, I felt that the options that the Zoho word processor has are simple, limited to necessities, and not complicated to customize.
When it comes to Google Documents, I am already a pretty avid user. Like Zoho Writer, you are able to create and save documents. You are also able to upload and share or collaborate on documents with other users. One thing that I really love about Google documents is that it has read many documents for me that were unreadable due to a specific year of Microsoft word. For example, on my work computer I have an older version of Microsoft 2003 and at home I have the Microsoft 2007 version. There have been many times that I have had a professor upload a document into D2L that was not readable on my work computer because of the conflicting software. When I have had this issue, I have simply been able to save the "incompatible" document from the teacher on my work computer and then upload the file into Google documents to be read. This has saved me so much time and stress! On top of word documents, you can also make spreadsheets, forms, and even drawings. Below is the "drawing" that I was able to make through Google Documents.
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When it comes to Google Documents, I am already a pretty avid user. Like Zoho Writer, you are able to create and save documents. You are also able to upload and share or collaborate on documents with other users. One thing that I really love about Google documents is that it has read many documents for me that were unreadable due to a specific year of Microsoft word. For example, on my work computer I have an older version of Microsoft 2003 and at home I have the Microsoft 2007 version. There have been many times that I have had a professor upload a document into D2L that was not readable on my work computer because of the conflicting software. When I have had this issue, I have simply been able to save the "incompatible" document from the teacher on my work computer and then upload the file into Google documents to be read. This has saved me so much time and stress! On top of word documents, you can also make spreadsheets, forms, and even drawings. Below is the "drawing" that I was able to make through Google Documents.
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Students are able to use Google documents in collaborative ways by sharing their word documents with others for such things as corrections or even to co-write a story or paragraph over the internet. Teachers would be able to use Google documents to create spreadsheets for their grade books or attendance. They could even design forms for parents using the form option. Lastly, teachers can utilize the drawing feature and create visual learning tools to use inside the classroom, like the one above. After exploring through both applications, I would have to say that I still prefer Google Docs. This is in part to do with that I already frequently use many different Google Applications every day, and find them very efficient. My main email is Gmail and Google documents is easily navigable from my main page. Although I do find Zoho Writer to be a nice online word processor and slightly more efficient when incorporating headers and formats, I feel that Google documents is just more convenient for me, specifically.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Thing # 12 Google Web Tools
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have always been an advocate for Google and use Gmail as my primary email service. I utilize the Calendar tool daily. It is extremely convenient and allows you to share appointments, dates, and invites with other people within your circles. Google Calendar also enables me to sink my agendas to my mobile phone calendar, which greatly simplifies my life. The feature I like the most about Google Calendar is that I can share my appointments and class schedules with people in my household and vice-versa. As you share schedules of more than one person on one calendar, you can customize tasks by color coding agendas with different people. Our lives are so busy and fast paced that it helps to keep the other up-to-date with everything as simple as needing extra time a certain night because of a big assignment due, to doctor's appointments, or children's recitals. It honestly has become an efficient form of communication and has limited the amount of misinterpreted or misunderstood information within my household!
Since I already use the Calendar tool, I chose to explore the Google Alerts and iGoogle. Both were fairly easy to set up. Google Alerts is very interesting as it allows you to pick a topic that you want to be notified by Google about. This is a great tool to become more knowledgeable about a current event or even a popular celebrity! The best thing about it is that the information is "googled" for you and sent directly to your email, for your convenience and reading enjoyment. I chose to make an alert about Clarksville Montgomery County School System. Although I am not yet a teacher, I find it beneficial to be aware of what employment environment I will be going into, as well as important current events that are happening in my educational community. The nice thing about Google Alerts is that I can also decide HOW MUCH and HOW OFTEN I want to receive my selected information, which is a very nice mail filtering feature.
My iGoogle has been fun to organize. It allows you to set up your "home search page" on your computer with a background and different "gadgets". As you create your homepage, you have easy tutorials that you can click on to help you navigate through simple features of the program. I found it interesting that I could incorporate the Google Translate feature as one of my gadgets on my page. I also chose to have the weather, date and calendar, travel destinations, to-do list, and other helpful tools loaded on my homepage for easy viewing purposes. All of these Google web tools can be incredibly beneficial to any educator, by promoting easily accessible information. Teachers can also use Google Calendar to stay organized and even have one specifically for the itinerary of homework and class activities that parents and students can access.
Since I already use the Calendar tool, I chose to explore the Google Alerts and iGoogle. Both were fairly easy to set up. Google Alerts is very interesting as it allows you to pick a topic that you want to be notified by Google about. This is a great tool to become more knowledgeable about a current event or even a popular celebrity! The best thing about it is that the information is "googled" for you and sent directly to your email, for your convenience and reading enjoyment. I chose to make an alert about Clarksville Montgomery County School System. Although I am not yet a teacher, I find it beneficial to be aware of what employment environment I will be going into, as well as important current events that are happening in my educational community. The nice thing about Google Alerts is that I can also decide HOW MUCH and HOW OFTEN I want to receive my selected information, which is a very nice mail filtering feature.
My iGoogle has been fun to organize. It allows you to set up your "home search page" on your computer with a background and different "gadgets". As you create your homepage, you have easy tutorials that you can click on to help you navigate through simple features of the program. I found it interesting that I could incorporate the Google Translate feature as one of my gadgets on my page. I also chose to have the weather, date and calendar, travel destinations, to-do list, and other helpful tools loaded on my homepage for easy viewing purposes. All of these Google web tools can be incredibly beneficial to any educator, by promoting easily accessible information. Teachers can also use Google Calendar to stay organized and even have one specifically for the itinerary of homework and class activities that parents and students can access.
Thing # 11 Searching Good Feeds
For thing # 11, the best search tool that I utilized was the Edublogawards. This site was a wonderful search tool for educational blogs, as it narrowed down my interests for possible educational feeds in different web tool categories. For instance, Edublogs recommends the "best" :
The search tool that I found most confusing was the Topix.net. Although it had many blogs by specific topics, I felt that I had to search much harder to find more "accredited" individuals who actually were worth my time to read and follow. I do not want to be bombarded with too much information as I subscribe to many different feeds. So, I want to be very selective in my choices. I also found some other great blogs and sites to subscribe to, one being the Eric Sailers - Speech Language Pathologist blog. This blog really interested me, as it is written by an experienced Speech Language Pathologist who is implementing many new technologies into his work. His blogs are very thorough and even contain interviews and YouTube videos containing tutorials on these new technologies and the progress he is making in his field.
Some other ways that I was able to find fun feeds to follow was through Google blog search. This search engine was nice to experiment with, as I could search exactly the topic that I wanted. However, I did find some unusual blogs that were not really relevant to teaching. They were "listed" as educational blogs, but they had rap videos and party pics posted on their sites... This was a huge indicator to me that I needed to be more selective in the search tool that I use! Therefore, I feel like it would be more beneficial to first start with "most recommended" sites under Edublogs and then branch from there.
The search tool that I found most confusing was the Topix.net. Although it had many blogs by specific topics, I felt that I had to search much harder to find more "accredited" individuals who actually were worth my time to read and follow. I do not want to be bombarded with too much information as I subscribe to many different feeds. So, I want to be very selective in my choices. I also found some other great blogs and sites to subscribe to, one being the Eric Sailers - Speech Language Pathologist blog. This blog really interested me, as it is written by an experienced Speech Language Pathologist who is implementing many new technologies into his work. His blogs are very thorough and even contain interviews and YouTube videos containing tutorials on these new technologies and the progress he is making in his field.
Some other ways that I was able to find fun feeds to follow was through Google blog search. This search engine was nice to experiment with, as I could search exactly the topic that I wanted. However, I did find some unusual blogs that were not really relevant to teaching. They were "listed" as educational blogs, but they had rap videos and party pics posted on their sites... This was a huge indicator to me that I needed to be more selective in the search tool that I use! Therefore, I feel like it would be more beneficial to first start with "most recommended" sites under Edublogs and then branch from there.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Thing # 10 - RSS Feeds
Thing #10 has been an interesting experience for me. The whole process has been fairly simple to set up and I can already see how wonderful RSS feeds really are. I personally use GMAIL for all of my email needs and I am a huge advocate for most all of the features that Google has to offer. However, I have never taken the time to actually set up a Reader account. Now that I have one, I really appreciate the simplicity of it. As the apsu23things blogspot instructed, I searched different accounts and subjects that I found most interesting to me and that I thought I would take the time out of my busy schedule to actually read. The different ones that I subscribed to were Digital Photography School, Healthy Living, StepMother Matters, Cool Cat Teacher, xkcd comics. One of the main things that I like about RSS feeds is that the Google Reader account allows you to organize all of your interests in one spot. Conveniently, all of my RSS subscriptions and even the blogs that I have chosen to follow in the previous APSU thing requirement are listed together for my reading enjoyment. They are all categorized and show current listings and the total of past posts in each separate feed. This is very helpful, as the amount of blogs and sites that I want to follow is growing. The RSS feeds allow me to simplify my reading preferences by linking them to my Google Reader Account, which is very cool.
I definitely see how RSS feeds and Reader accounts can be extremely useful for teachers. With the massive amount of information at our fingertips and the amount of responsibility that teachers have to be positive, prompt, and professional, having helpful "time saving" features such as feeds and reader accounts make life so much easier. With more information and educational tools that are made more easily accessible, teachers are able to become more efficient educators. As far as creating a public page, I chose not to. It is nice to know that I can do that in the future though.
I definitely see how RSS feeds and Reader accounts can be extremely useful for teachers. With the massive amount of information at our fingertips and the amount of responsibility that teachers have to be positive, prompt, and professional, having helpful "time saving" features such as feeds and reader accounts make life so much easier. With more information and educational tools that are made more easily accessible, teachers are able to become more efficient educators. As far as creating a public page, I chose not to. It is nice to know that I can do that in the future though.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Thing # 9 - Image Generators
I must say, that I enjoyed creating different images on the photo generators. The one that I chose to use was http://www.imagechef.com/. This site was very clear cut and easy to navigate. The site is free and allows you to quickly and easily set up an account to create your own images. Once you register, you then must verify your account via a link that is sent to your email. After you are verified, you are allowed to create and even save your newly created images into your profile, which is really nice for later use. There are many pre-made templates that have options for you to load your own picture into them, along with a text box that allows you to create your own witty or inspirational saying.
The first image that I created included a picture of my younger nephew Noah. I thought the election pin was cute like him, so decided to have him run for a cute baby award! I am a little bias, I know, but he is still cute! The picture below the election pin includes a picture of my oldest nephew Kaleb. He is such a handsome little boy and I thought that the yearbook page was neat. It has different little saying about other people like "Class Clown" or "Perfect Attendance", so I thought it fitting to write "Heart Breaker" to his. Too cute. The last image that I created includes a picture of my keys...on a "MISSING, Have you seen me?" milk carton. I thought this idea was fitting and witty, as I find that I am constantly misplacing my keys! I was able to take the picture of my keys with the camera on my phone, which I then sent to my email. Afer receiving it in my email, I saved the picture to my computer and uploaded them into my blog. All of the image generators that I used have links at the bottom of this blog that you can assess for your own uses.
http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Election+Campaign+Button+Photo
http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Yearbook
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Thing # 8 - Flickr Mashups
After completing Thing #7, this task didn't seem as challenging to accomplish. I had fun browsing around all of the different Flickr mashups and plan to utilize many of them in the future, as I love to dabble in photography! The two applications that I chose to use were both through Big Huge Labs. The photograph on the left was created through Captioner. It allows you to upload personal photographs or pictures found from the Creative Commons of Flickr. After you add your photo, you can then create and drag fun captions onto your image. The little boy in the picture is my nephew and I always giggle when I look at it, because he was so excited! This application allowed me to eccentuate the emotion that he was exuding with a cute caption above exclaiming that, "it really IS Santa!" Too cute. The photo to the right is a personal photo that I took this past summer at Disney World of Cinderella's castle. The application that I used to play around with the image was called Jigsaw. As you can see, it allowed me to upload my photo from Flickr, create a jigsaw image of the photo, and save the new image to my desktop. I then uploaded both photos into my blog.
I definitely see how photo applications such as these could get addicting and time consuming! They are easy to create and allow for a vast range of creative fun that can be implemented into classroom decor, a classroom blog, or even educational activities inside the classroom. As far as sharing photos online, I feel fairly comfortable with it, as I would never upload anything too personal anyways. I think that as long as you safeguard your images, then you should be okay. There were many different links that were shared on the http://www.apsu23things.blogspot/ that I bookmarked for future use. I am excited to have completed this task and look forward to the next challenge!
Monday, February 6, 2012
Thing # 7 - Flickr
First, I would like to say that this task was not as easy as I had anticipated that it would be! I followed the directions that were outlined for us on the apsu23things blogspot, but to no avail. Needless to say, I was not able to "share" a photo from the Flickr site by simply going to the top "share" tab and copying the URL link that was given and pasting it into my blog spot where we were indicated to. I had to trouble shoot and google different ways to incorporate a picture from Flickr into my blog. By doing a little research, I was able to link my blog to the Flickr site and upload my selected picture that way. Unfortunately, it took quite some time to figure this out. I was very frustrated and can honestly say I am glad that it is finished. That being said, I do feel like Flickr is a great tool to incorporate free and legally accessible photos into a blog.
Now that I know how to efficiently upload pictures into a personal blog, I do plan on using this tool in the future. While browsing through Flickr, I was amazed to see the multitude of pictures that were under the Creative Commons section and appreciated Flickr's advanced search for pictures that were able to be shared without problems. I have personally never used a photo hosting service, but have heard many great things about Picasa and will probably venture to learn that site as well. I think as long as you have your photos protected or made private, then you should be safe to upload them to your account. However, if you do not take the precautions to protect your pictures when you put them on the internet through privacy settings or such, then you do leave them vulnerable to public use.
Lastly, I chose this picture because I was having such a hard time with the technology. I felt like the message that is being presented is important and no matter how frustrated I became with the project, I didn't give up. In the end, I was able to learn how to troubleshoot and find the information on my own. I feel VERY confident about using the Flickr site in the future. I want to become more technologically savvy, and the only way to do that is to practice and explore. This picture helped to keep me focused because it pretty much summed up what Web 2.0 tools are all about and why they are so important, and I wanted to be a part of it.
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| Technology Use, a photo by mrsdkrebs on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsdkrebs/6400358699/ |
Now that I know how to efficiently upload pictures into a personal blog, I do plan on using this tool in the future. While browsing through Flickr, I was amazed to see the multitude of pictures that were under the Creative Commons section and appreciated Flickr's advanced search for pictures that were able to be shared without problems. I have personally never used a photo hosting service, but have heard many great things about Picasa and will probably venture to learn that site as well. I think as long as you have your photos protected or made private, then you should be safe to upload them to your account. However, if you do not take the precautions to protect your pictures when you put them on the internet through privacy settings or such, then you do leave them vulnerable to public use.
Lastly, I chose this picture because I was having such a hard time with the technology. I felt like the message that is being presented is important and no matter how frustrated I became with the project, I didn't give up. In the end, I was able to learn how to troubleshoot and find the information on my own. I feel VERY confident about using the Flickr site in the future. I want to become more technologically savvy, and the only way to do that is to practice and explore. This picture helped to keep me focused because it pretty much summed up what Web 2.0 tools are all about and why they are so important, and I wanted to be a part of it.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Thing # 6 - Mint.com
http://www.mint.com/
Out of the list of Web 2.0 Award nominees, I chose to explore mint.com. Mint is basically a free online financial manager. It allows you to link and track all of your finances together including bank and paypal accounts, loans, and other sources of revenue. Mint has the capability of tracking all of your purchases and categorizing them into separate groups for later review of spending throughout the year. Mint also gives you options to create goals within the program by calculating successful budget plans off of your current income, bills, and casual spending, while also providing helpful advice on budgeting and saving money/cutting cost.
After creating a Mint account and attaching all of my financial information to the site, I was surprised to see how accurate and efficient it was. I was able to group previous transactions of the month under specified categories, giving me a better idea of where my money was going and where I could possibly save in the future. The features that I liked the best about this Web 2.0 tool was that it has an overview of your "trends", which breaks down your spending into percentages in a graph form. Another great feature of Mint is that it allows you to create goals of budgeting and paying off bills sooner with a loan calculator which incorporates your current financial situation and gives advice on how to achieve your goal.
Another one of the features that Mint offers is a mobile application that gives you alerts for a plethora of different things. You can set this up to your liking and turn off certain alerts that you dislike. I like this feature, however, after a while I found the alerts to be somewhat distracting, as it alerted me about everything from having a credit card bill due in 3 days to having paid a certain amount in interest on a card that could have been avoided. I can completely appreciate how these features were designed as a possible benifit, but sometimes the amount of information that you are bombarded with becomes overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, Mint is such a wonderful tool for managing your finances, but I already paid my credit card bill... I didn't need to be reminded that it was due in 3 days after the fact.
As far as the options for implementing this into a school or library setting, I definitely think this would be a helpful tool for a teacher who is trying to budget a classroom account, his/her own finances, and reasonably how much they could contribute to the classroom out of their pockets if needed. Individual accounts or even library accounts could be created to manage where money is spent and to keep "better records" to access in future years to compare and progress from. All in All I thoroughly enjoy this free financial management tool and plan to continue using it for my personal finances and financial goals of school loans.
Out of the list of Web 2.0 Award nominees, I chose to explore mint.com. Mint is basically a free online financial manager. It allows you to link and track all of your finances together including bank and paypal accounts, loans, and other sources of revenue. Mint has the capability of tracking all of your purchases and categorizing them into separate groups for later review of spending throughout the year. Mint also gives you options to create goals within the program by calculating successful budget plans off of your current income, bills, and casual spending, while also providing helpful advice on budgeting and saving money/cutting cost.
After creating a Mint account and attaching all of my financial information to the site, I was surprised to see how accurate and efficient it was. I was able to group previous transactions of the month under specified categories, giving me a better idea of where my money was going and where I could possibly save in the future. The features that I liked the best about this Web 2.0 tool was that it has an overview of your "trends", which breaks down your spending into percentages in a graph form. Another great feature of Mint is that it allows you to create goals of budgeting and paying off bills sooner with a loan calculator which incorporates your current financial situation and gives advice on how to achieve your goal.
Another one of the features that Mint offers is a mobile application that gives you alerts for a plethora of different things. You can set this up to your liking and turn off certain alerts that you dislike. I like this feature, however, after a while I found the alerts to be somewhat distracting, as it alerted me about everything from having a credit card bill due in 3 days to having paid a certain amount in interest on a card that could have been avoided. I can completely appreciate how these features were designed as a possible benifit, but sometimes the amount of information that you are bombarded with becomes overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, Mint is such a wonderful tool for managing your finances, but I already paid my credit card bill... I didn't need to be reminded that it was due in 3 days after the fact.
As far as the options for implementing this into a school or library setting, I definitely think this would be a helpful tool for a teacher who is trying to budget a classroom account, his/her own finances, and reasonably how much they could contribute to the classroom out of their pockets if needed. Individual accounts or even library accounts could be created to manage where money is spent and to keep "better records" to access in future years to compare and progress from. All in All I thoroughly enjoy this free financial management tool and plan to continue using it for my personal finances and financial goals of school loans.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Thing # 5 - Web 2.0 technology
After reading the articles about Web 2.0 and technology in the classroom in the 21st century, I am excited to broaden my knowledge of social networking sites and the extensive interactive web tools available to the youth of today's generation. How incredibly fortunate we are to have these tools at our disposal to integrate in and out of the classroom. The different links of perspectives of teachers stresses the importance for educators and educational institutions to jump on board with the Web 2.0 era and maximize the potential of each and every student with the tools that are readily available to them through the internet.
To me, Web 2.0 symbolizes growth opportunities, through interaction, that students and educators have with their changing world. It allows users to contribute and create instead of just absorbing what has been presented to them. Web 2.0 tools such as facebook, blogs, chatboards, RSS feeds, and many more allow individual people to share and express innovative aspirations across the globe. It is all about interaction and reaction. I personally couldn't agree more with stressing the importance of integrating Web 2.0 tools into educational atmospheres. It would be a shame for institutions to not utilize these free Web 2.0 tools, when children relate and are so fluidly familiarized with them. Schools of the future will be ushered into a fast pace technological environment with massive amounts of global information readily available at their fingertips. The opportunities are endless.
To me, Web 2.0 symbolizes growth opportunities, through interaction, that students and educators have with their changing world. It allows users to contribute and create instead of just absorbing what has been presented to them. Web 2.0 tools such as facebook, blogs, chatboards, RSS feeds, and many more allow individual people to share and express innovative aspirations across the globe. It is all about interaction and reaction. I personally couldn't agree more with stressing the importance of integrating Web 2.0 tools into educational atmospheres. It would be a shame for institutions to not utilize these free Web 2.0 tools, when children relate and are so fluidly familiarized with them. Schools of the future will be ushered into a fast pace technological environment with massive amounts of global information readily available at their fingertips. The opportunities are endless.
Thing # 4 - Blog Commenting
I must confess that the more I blog, the more I really enjoy it! Blogging creates a sense of community and interaction by allowing people of all cultures to connect and share their individual life experiences. This type of interaction promotes peace, understanding, and even personal growth.
One important concept that I found interesting while reading the links about blogging was simply that bloggers like to be read. People blog for many different reasons. Whatever those reasons may be, people still want to know that others have taken the time to appreciate their words of wisdom. Sometimes, a simply "thank you" can mean so much to a person who has taken the time to share a little portion of their life with the blogging world. The other important concept about blogging that I thought was interesting was under the coolcatteacher blog. She talked about the importance of having a purpose for your blog. More importantly, she stressed that your purpose should be solid and to prepare for criticism. I found this to be very informative, as I plan to manage a blog even after the end of Education 3040.
The blogs, within my classroom atmosphere, that I chose to comment on were Kendra Donaldson's 23 Things for Teachers, JRichardson's thoughts about 23 things about teachers, Darryl Haislip CourtofHaislip, Kayla Satterly 23 things KSatterly, and Erin Beifuss Mrs. Beifuss. My comment to Kendra Donaldson was in reference to commenting on people's blogs. We both agreed that you should keep it respectful and admired people who could actually put themselves out there for the world to view and critique. Jasmine Richardson's blog inspired me because she said that her best habit of learning was viewing every problem as a challenge instead of a distressing obstacle. I sometimes struggle with this, so it was nice to see that someone else felt confident in this area, meaning it could managed efficiently. Darryl Haislip's blog was humorous and I could sympathize with him. We both referred to the lack of knowledge in technology and appreciated the learning curve and opportunities that the class was presenting to us. Kayla Satterly's blog was very full of great ideas about how to utilize a blog for a future classroom atmosphere. I especially liked how she mentioned adding practice material aside from homework on the blogs for parents to access with their children. Erin Beifuss's blog about military wives was nice to read. She spoke of finding women educators just like her and how she could relate to them. I shared her passion for education and thanked her for her contribution to our country as a military wife.
Lastly, the two blogs that I commented on outside of the classroom were Patterns of Time - Manual lens photography and The Happy Stepmother. I chose Patterns of Time because it is a photography blog that shares beautiful scenery pictures from around the world. I just recently acquire a Canon Rebel T2i camera and I have been learning to shoot more professional photos. Patterns of Time gives me inspiration to continue to shoot on manual instead of auto! I left a compliment about how beautiful the pictures were and thanked him for sharing his photos. The Happy Stepmother was chosen for more personal reasons, as I can sympathize with the silent struggles that some Stepmothers face with the world's predetermined misconceptions of "evil stepmothers." I found the blog very supportive and uplifting and thanked the woman for her contributions to it.
One important concept that I found interesting while reading the links about blogging was simply that bloggers like to be read. People blog for many different reasons. Whatever those reasons may be, people still want to know that others have taken the time to appreciate their words of wisdom. Sometimes, a simply "thank you" can mean so much to a person who has taken the time to share a little portion of their life with the blogging world. The other important concept about blogging that I thought was interesting was under the coolcatteacher blog. She talked about the importance of having a purpose for your blog. More importantly, she stressed that your purpose should be solid and to prepare for criticism. I found this to be very informative, as I plan to manage a blog even after the end of Education 3040.
The blogs, within my classroom atmosphere, that I chose to comment on were Kendra Donaldson's 23 Things for Teachers, JRichardson's thoughts about 23 things about teachers, Darryl Haislip CourtofHaislip, Kayla Satterly 23 things KSatterly, and Erin Beifuss Mrs. Beifuss. My comment to Kendra Donaldson was in reference to commenting on people's blogs. We both agreed that you should keep it respectful and admired people who could actually put themselves out there for the world to view and critique. Jasmine Richardson's blog inspired me because she said that her best habit of learning was viewing every problem as a challenge instead of a distressing obstacle. I sometimes struggle with this, so it was nice to see that someone else felt confident in this area, meaning it could managed efficiently. Darryl Haislip's blog was humorous and I could sympathize with him. We both referred to the lack of knowledge in technology and appreciated the learning curve and opportunities that the class was presenting to us. Kayla Satterly's blog was very full of great ideas about how to utilize a blog for a future classroom atmosphere. I especially liked how she mentioned adding practice material aside from homework on the blogs for parents to access with their children. Erin Beifuss's blog about military wives was nice to read. She spoke of finding women educators just like her and how she could relate to them. I shared her passion for education and thanked her for her contribution to our country as a military wife.
Lastly, the two blogs that I commented on outside of the classroom were Patterns of Time - Manual lens photography and The Happy Stepmother. I chose Patterns of Time because it is a photography blog that shares beautiful scenery pictures from around the world. I just recently acquire a Canon Rebel T2i camera and I have been learning to shoot more professional photos. Patterns of Time gives me inspiration to continue to shoot on manual instead of auto! I left a compliment about how beautiful the pictures were and thanked him for sharing his photos. The Happy Stepmother was chosen for more personal reasons, as I can sympathize with the silent struggles that some Stepmothers face with the world's predetermined misconceptions of "evil stepmothers." I found the blog very supportive and uplifting and thanked the woman for her contributions to it.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Thing # 1 - Life Long Learning Habits
After accessing the life long Learning tutorial, I found that I agreed with the presented steps of successful learning. One statement that I really felt related to me was that, "It's never too late (or too soon) to learn something new." How very true that is! Being a non-traditional full time student who decided to go back to school after graduating more than ten years ago, I know all too well how easy it is to feel discouraged about "wasted time." With that being said, I am determined to meet my goals with success and always remember it is NEVER TOO LATE to learn, take control of your life, as well as your future career.
Of the habits that were presented, I feel that many of them are already incorporated into my life and learning goals. For example, Accepting responsibility for your own learning is something that I feel passionately about. I take my schooling very seriously, as I have been in the work force for many years now and know how important it is to have a college education. I want to express this to my future students as well, instilling in them the desire to learn. However, out of the 7 1/2 habits, the one that I have the hardest time incorporating would have to be viewing problems as challenges. Sometimes it is hard to appreciate the challenge of a presented "problem" when it seems more like a burden. I completely understand the concept of being humbled, blessed or fortunate to have the opportunity, but distressing situations do not always make you feel "fortunate." Ultimately, finding the good is a bad situation supports a positive attitude, and this is a virtue that I want to exude to the children that I will have the opportunity to teach.
Of the habits that were presented, I feel that many of them are already incorporated into my life and learning goals. For example, Accepting responsibility for your own learning is something that I feel passionately about. I take my schooling very seriously, as I have been in the work force for many years now and know how important it is to have a college education. I want to express this to my future students as well, instilling in them the desire to learn. However, out of the 7 1/2 habits, the one that I have the hardest time incorporating would have to be viewing problems as challenges. Sometimes it is hard to appreciate the challenge of a presented "problem" when it seems more like a burden. I completely understand the concept of being humbled, blessed or fortunate to have the opportunity, but distressing situations do not always make you feel "fortunate." Ultimately, finding the good is a bad situation supports a positive attitude, and this is a virtue that I want to exude to the children that I will have the opportunity to teach.
Thing # 3 - Blog Uses
Ultimately, I am very excited about expanding my blogging experience. As I stated in my earlier post, I am looking forward to the ability to express myself and log memories from within the classroom as they unfold. I feel that blogging about my different encounters as a teacher will be a very useful tool for me to reflect back on, with hopes to provide a better learning experience for my future students. Reflection is so important for growth, and what better way to reflect, than to document accounts of my struggles and ideas.
Another way that the blog may be useful is by being accessible to other teachers as a support system. As a future educator, I plan to collaborate with my colleagues, in order to contribute ideas, provide support, and share student accomplishments. By doing this, I hope to create the most conducive learning environment possible. By making the blog available to parents, I could give more insight to the happenings and progress of classroom learning and the scheduled curriculum. An open line of contact through the blog will allow parents to leave feedback and express their concerns or clear up misunderstandings about classroom objectives or assignments. By encouraging parents to be open-minded about a classroom blog, the amount of parental involvement with their child's education might increase. In any case, a blog will be a wonderful way to document experiences for later review and reflection.
Another way that the blog may be useful is by being accessible to other teachers as a support system. As a future educator, I plan to collaborate with my colleagues, in order to contribute ideas, provide support, and share student accomplishments. By doing this, I hope to create the most conducive learning environment possible. By making the blog available to parents, I could give more insight to the happenings and progress of classroom learning and the scheduled curriculum. An open line of contact through the blog will allow parents to leave feedback and express their concerns or clear up misunderstandings about classroom objectives or assignments. By encouraging parents to be open-minded about a classroom blog, the amount of parental involvement with their child's education might increase. In any case, a blog will be a wonderful way to document experiences for later review and reflection.
Thing # 2 - Creating a Blog
Phew! It works! Being as this is my first experience with creating and maintaining a blog, I feel that I have done very well. I must say, the idea of dialoguing all of my experiences of working through the mandatory twenty-three things was initially a bit overwhelming. Technology has never been a huge passion of mine. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it and utilize many current trends of technology, but I would have never taken the time outside of Education 3040 to figure out how to successfully create an avatar (let alone a blog). However, I was reassured with the straight-forward guidelines that were set out for the class under apsu23things.blogspot.com. I had no trouble setting up either account through Blogger or Doppelme. After finishing, I can honestly say that I am glad that I did. What a wonderful new avenue the Blog has opened up for transcribing important moments in my life or future classroom experiences.
By nature, I have a tendency to be very precise and descriptive when organizing material for later use, especially for school purposes. Therefore, I decided on titling my blog Sloffer: Education 3040-01. I suppose I figured that this would also be easy to recognize for classmates and grading purposes. As far as my choice of Avatar goes, I generated a simple but true replication of myself: long strawberry-blonde hair, green eyes, slacks, black shoes, and a dressy sweater. I chose these features because they reflect who I am as a person, someone who is simplify content with being comfortable with myself. To sum up, my posts contain my thoughts and I wanted my Avatar to reflect my likeness, as it was linked to my blog.
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