WOW! This has been one great learning adventure within the world of technology and discovering many new things! I have learned so many new beneficial things that I can use personally and within my future classroom. It is impossible for me to choose a favorite discovery or exercise because I loved them all! One that really stood out to me though was Animoto! It was so neat to create a slide show and add music and a theme to it. This program has allowed me to venture outside of my comfort zone within the Internet world and learn so many new things that I can use for the rest of my life. It has shown me that I can learn anything that I set my mind to and that by learning new things and concepts, I will not only benefit from learning them, but my future students will benefit as well! There were a lot of take-a-ways from this program! Almost everything that we learned was new to me or broadened my knowledge on things that I already knew. I loved everything about how this program was set up! It was perfect and very well thought out. I think it is a great idea for us to create our own blog and discuss our findings and experiences. Not only was the program designed perfectly, but it will also influence my practice as a future teacher. I have now been exposed to so many more sources and tools that I can use within my future classroom. I cannot wait to create my own blog for my classroom. I think that it is a great way to keep parents up to date on assignments and about what the children are learning in the classroom. It is also a great form of communication. It seems like every day there is some type of new program or tool for people to use. I hope that I can keep up with these new tools by staying in contact with the tools that I have already learned to use. I feel like if I continue to use these tools, it will expose me to other tools that I can use. And of course, we can always Google for new tools that are available. I’m now more than ready to use all of these tools and see how they can benefit me! These tools will not only follow me into my personal life, but they will also be used within my future classroom. I feel the need to share all of these wonderful and beneficial tools with everyone!
Monday, November 12, 2012
Thing #23
Thing #22
LiveBinders is something totally new to me. Until now, I had never heard of LiveBinders. The site was kind of confusing at first, but after a while I became more comfortable with it. However, I do think that they could make it more user friendly. I created three different binders that were titled: Classroom Websites, Education Websites, and Education Resources. The binder titled Classroom Websites is composed of websites for the children in the class to use. The binder titled Education Websites are sites for my own personal that can be used for lessons and the Education Resources binder are sources that can also be used for personal research. LiveBinders is a wonderful tool to use in the classroom. This tool allows you to have everything that you need online all in one place and allows you to keep it organized just how you would like for it to be. For example, a teacher could create separate binders for different lesson plans and store everything all in one place. Not only could teachers use this, but students in the upper grades can benefit from this tool as well. This tool is very neat and I look forward to using it in the future and being able to keep everything organized all in one place! Below is a link to my Classroom Websites binder.
Thing #21
Animoto is amazing! I had never heard of this website before, but I am so glad I got the opportunity to discover it through the 23 Things. This activity was so much fun! I absolutely love the slide show that I made! Animoto was easy to figure out and very easy to work. I had no trouble at all creating my slide show and I love that I got to choose a fall theme to go with it. I cannot wait to use the tool more in the future! This would be a great tool to use at the end of the school year to create a slide show of the children in the class. Below is a link to my Animoto titled “Memories” for you to watch! Enjoy!
Thing #20
I love YouTube and I use it all the time! I had so much fun with this activity because I lost track of time and just kept searching and watching videos. This site is so useful for teachers. It offers teachers so many videos that can be used in the classroom and used for entertainment. The video that I chose was a Sesame Street video. I chose this video because it was age appropriate for Kindergarten students to watch and learn from. Plus, what child doesn’t like Sesame Street? The video focused on the five senses, which is an important concept for children to learn. However, YouTube does have its flaws. It is a very “busy” site with video suggestions and ads all over the place. But you can make the video full screen to eliminate these distractions for students. I do think that the pros outweigh the cons. This is a great resource for teachers to use in their classroom!
Thing #19
I am a member of Facebook and Twitter and today I joined TeacherPop! I never knew such a thing existed! This is such a great social network for future and current educators. It can be used to communicate, post ideas, and so many more things! Some of the social networking sites definitely appealed to me! I already use IMDB to check out new movies and the ratings of them. The cooking social networks appealed to me the most. I chose to explore Bake Space and it was really neat! I do not cook a lot, but when I do, I find myself baking most of the time. This site was really interesting and easy to figure out. I love that you can find recipes and swap them with other people. You could even make a cookbook! I will definitely be using this more in the future!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Thing #18
Social networking has changed the way we communicate with people and has really changed some aspects of the world completely. Before, communicating with people was not right at our finger tips, yet now it only takes seconds to do so. It is so important for educators to know how social networking works. Educators need to know so that they have different ways to communicate with student’s parents and other educators. And not only should educators know how to use social networking sites, but they should know their role on social networking sites as an educator. Educators must be role models for everyone and that means acting maturely and appropriately on the sites. This activity was basically just a review for me. I am very familiar with Facebook and Twitter. I use them both every day for social purposes. I have come to dislike the advertising that has begun to pop up on Facebook and Twitter. However, I realize that since these sites are free, there is always going to be some type of advertising I think that Facebook is more useful than Twitter. It is easier to navigate and allows you to write a lot more in the posts than Twitter does. Facebook also has more features, such as: picture albums, family information, work information, creating group pages, and etc. I think that Facebook could be very useful in a classroom. A teacher could create a group page for the parents/students to communicate on about assignments, homework, questions, and etc. Overall, social networking is very popular and is changing the world constantly.
Thing #17
This tool is so useful! I never knew such a thing even existed and that it could be so helpful and convenient! This tool is very valuable for any teacher at any grade level. It allows someone to have all the websites they need in one place and allows you to access them from anywhere that you have the Internet available. It is so important for teachers to be able to get to websites quickly and easily and this website allows for this to happen. As educators, we can take advantage of this tool by using it to keep track of websites that may be useful in our classroom and in lessons that we may teach. It can also be helpful in doing research because just typing in a few key words can bring you so many useful resources. I can see myself using this tool in my career as an educator and in my personal life. I am so glad that I have been exposed to this tool! It is a wonderful website!
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Thing #16
I chose the Google start page to begin with. I chose this page, because I already have a Google account and I use Google at least once every day. Unfortunately, Google will not be my permanent home page. My homepage is set to Austin Peay’s homepage, because I use it more than anything else. I had a lot of fun creating my Google homepage though! Everything is organized just the way I want it be and I can easily find what I need. I chose a fall theme, because as you can tell from my blog, I love the season fall! I think that the online calendars can be useful and helpful, but personally I prefer an actual calendar or planner. I feel the same about the to-do lists. They were all easy to create and organize. I just prefer for things like that to actually be on paper. It’s quicker and easier for me to do it on paper, rather than on the computer. I definitely think that the Google homepage would be useful in my classroom. It is set to my needs and I can view the weather, news, and etc. all in one place and reach other websites from there as well. I would recommend all the tools to other people. They are all useful in their own ways. I just don’t prefer all of them for my everyday life style. However, I now have my own personal settings on my Google page, which is really cool!
Thing #15
This was a totally new experience for me! I use Wikipedia all the time for personal use, but I have never actually explored other wikis and edited one. Just to be clear, I do not use Wikipedia for education purposes. It took me minute to figure out how to work and edit the APSU 23 Things Sandbox wiki, but once I got the hang of it, I thought it was very simple and useful! Wikis can definitely be used within my future classroom. I could set up my own wiki and use it to post information for the class and the parents. It could also be a place for children to post ideas and research and for other students to view the ideas and research. However, it also very crucial that students are informed that wikis are not always reliable. Anyone can edit them and people can post false information. So, it is important that students realize this and know that wikis, like Wikipedia, are not sources that should be used to actually research a topic. The concept of a wiki is useful, but students need to know that it is not always reliable and correct information. This activity was very useful and informative! I now understand the concept of wikis much better!
Thing #14
The two tools that I chose to use were Gliffy.com and Bubbl.us. There was no specific reason that I chose these two tools. I just randomly selected them. Gliffy was a website for creating different types of flow charts. Honestly, it was kind of hard to understand at first. But once I took some time to explore what I could do, I got the hang of it and began creating different flow charts. Gliffy allows you to create flow charts, venn diagrams, organizational charts, and many more! I think that it is great that this tool is available to people, so that they have different options for creating flow charts. The second tool that I chose to use was Bubbl. Bubbl was also great! It was also kind of hard to figure out at first, but once I spent some time working with it, I got used to it! The overall simplicity of the mind maps was great! They were neat to make and I had fun with this tool. This tool is great, because it gives people the chance to make bubble maps if they do not already have a program to make them with. These tools can definitely be used within my future classroom! These tools offer students a variety of different ways to create flow charts and mind maps. I have tools to make charts for my students and they have tools to make their own. Overall, the flow charts and mind maps are useful tools for a teacher and students, so that information can be organized!
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Thing #13
Until today, I have never heard of Zoho! I did not know that anything existed that was so much like Microsoft Word! They layout was very similar, but I think that once you have been exposed to Microsoft Word, you never want to switch to anything else! But then again, I am just very used to using Microsoft Word. So, if I was never exposed to this, then I am sure Zoho would surpass as amazing. I think that it is great that there are sites out there like this, especially for people who do not have Microsoft Word and need to type a document or something else. Websites like this will more than likely make Microsoft Word a thing of the past if they continue to grow and improve!
Students could definitely use Google Docs! As a class, students can make and share presentations, spreadsheets, and documents with each other. This is also a great source for students to use that do not have Microsoft Word at home. This allows them to still have the chance to create whatever it is they need to create as if they still had Microsoft Word. Students could also use this when they have group presentations and need to work together to make something. They easily have it right there to use!
I think that both of these are great to use, but I prefer Zoho! The reason I prefer Zoho is because it is set up more like Microsoft Word and I found it very easy to use. I had a little bit of trouble using Google Docs and figuring out how to do what. Zoho just seemed much easier to use and made more sense. I did not really have to think to do anything, because it seemed like the website made it easy to figure everything out!
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Thing #12
I used the Google calendar and the Google translator. I could definitely use both of these tools provided by Google for personal use and for the classroom! The Google calendar would come in great handy for reminders! I would probably choose to use this for one specific thing. For example, I could use the Google calendar for events that only pertain to the school I would be teaching at. This way, I would not be overwhelmed with notifications and things going on. I use a paper calendar and I prefer to write things down for my everyday life, but I could definitely use the Google calendar for something like that! I also explored the Google translator and had lots of fun watching it translate words for me. I could definitely use the Google translator within my classroom. In today’s society, there are many ELL (English Language Learners) in classrooms. It is very likely that a teacher may have a student who will not speak fluent English or even speak no English at all. The Google translator would be a great tool to translate words for the teacher and the student. Overall, Google has endless possibilities! It is way more than just a popular search engine! Just spend some time exploring Google and you will see!
Google Calendar Link
Google Translator Link
Thing #11
Searching for blogs was fairly easy with all of the search tools that were provided. I really liked using Technorati to search for blogs. It also allowed you to search within posts, which I thought was neat! It was definitely my favorite. I found it very easy and even found some blogs that I liked and added to my Google Reader. I added Curriculum Matters to my Google Reader, because I felt like I could use it now and when I become a teacher. I also used the Google Blog Search and found it very easy to navigate and find what I was looking for. My least favorite was Topix.net. I just did not like it as well as the others. I felt like the web-sites homepage was very busy looking and that kind of turned me away. I also had an add pop-up when I was using this web-site and that was really annoying. I did not think that any of them were confusing, I just preferred one over the others. Technorati has my vote for best search tool for blogs!
Thing #10
RSS and newsreaders are great! I never knew that such a thing existed! It took me little bit to get it all figured out, but after I did I really liked using it! It is convenient to have all of your information in one central location. This is a great tool to use not only for personal use, but also in your classroom. For personal use, one could use RSS and newsreaders for things they personally enjoy. There are blogs and newsfeeds about everything, so it very easy to find something that you personally like. A teacher could also use RSS and newsreaders. Teachers can have all of their favorite blogs and educational news all located in one place, so they have easy access to everything they like to stay up to date with. This can be a place to check for new classroom ideas, activities, lessons, and so many more things! Overall, I think RSS and newsreaders are a great tool to become familiar with!
Thing #9
I really enjoyed creating all of my images below! They were all super easy to create! All you had to do was choose what type of image you wanted to create, I chose the word mosaic and the awareness ribbon, and create your image. You got to choose what words were in your mosaic and the words you wanted on your ribbon. The link to this web-site is below if you would like to try it out! I could also use all of these images in my own classroom. The awareness ribbon can be used to show students what it means to be passionate about something and want to support a cause. I chose to do breast cancer awareness, since October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. It is important for children to know what is going on in their community and what they can be raising awareness about. This image could definitely be displayed in my classroom. The other two images that I created could also be used in my classroom. One says, “Teaching is Learning” and the other says, “Reading”. These could both be displayed throughout my classroom. I could also use this image generator as a classroom activity. As a class, we could make these together and hang them up in the classroom, so that the class is personalized to what the children are passionate about.
Image Chef Link
http://www.imagechef.com/
http://www.imagechef.com/
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Thing #8
I absolutely loved the “mashup” that I chose to do, which was the Mosaic Maker. The image that I created is posted below. Although I used the Mosaic Maker, I used my Facebook photo album to make the image that I created. However, you could also use Flickr images to make something as well. This would be great to use in classroom at the end of the year when you have collected many pictures of your class over the year and want to capture all of those pictures into one image. A teacher could also use Mosaic Maker to combine pictures that the students want to share with their families. It could be used as a “fun” project to do together as a class. You could use Facebook or Flickr to make this image. You could also use it personally to create images for yourself or even make a collage of photos from a specific event. Mosaic Maker can be used in the classroom and outside of the classroom for personal use. I think sharing photos online is great, as long as you are safe and cautious about what you are sharing with the public.
Thing #7
Flickr is a totally new web site to me. I have never used it before or even explored it. I decided to do option one. I really enjoyed searching and looking for photos! I chose to search for fall images. I chose to search for fall photos, because fall is my favorite season and I love all of the beautiful colors! All of the pictures were breath taking! There were so many to choose from that I had a hard time deciding which one I wanted to share on my blog, although I finally found the one below that I absolutely loved!
I’m not sure that I would ever use Flickr in my classroom. I think that it is a great web site, but I feel like if I wanted to share pictures with the parents of my students, I could do that through a blog or even a classroom Facebook page. I also do not think I would use it for personal use either. I use Facebook and Instagram to store my photos now, and I really like both of them. Flickr, Facebook, and Instagram are all alike because you can share and store pictures on these web sites, but I did not feel like Flickr was as easy to navigate and understand as the others. I’m also not sure how I feel about my pictures being available to the public. I keep Facebook and Instagram private, so having photos available for the public to see makes me kind of nervous.
This photo was taken by: Kees Straver
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Thing #6
I chose to explore Pandora! I absolutely love Pandora and use it every day! Pandora is a way to listen to all genres of music for free! Yes! I said for free!! Pandora is also very easy to navigate! I use Pandora in my car all the time! I have an auxiliary cord that allows me to listen to my own music and I am almost always listening to it. You can listen to all different kinds of stations and can start by choosing a specific genre or artist that you would like to listen to. There is not a single thing that I dislike about Pandora! I love the variety of music that is offers and the fact that it is free! A teacher could definitely use this in a classroom. I remember listening to music very frequently all throughout school. It was usually given to us as a reward for behaving well or making a good grade on a test. Pandora can be a great resource for teachers and people in the everyday world!
Thing #5
I loved learning about Web 2.0!! School 2.0 means various different things to me. First, it means having access to many different Internet sites in the classroom. It means that students can do more than just read information on the Internet. They can interact with their peers and broaden their knowledge about many different things by having access to the great educational sites the Internet has to offer! School 2.0 also means using supplies other than pencil and paper. It means showing and developing the skills for children to become comfortable with technology. School 2.0 also means many different things for schools in the future. First, it means that technology is being incorporated more and more into teacher’s lesson plans. Students are becoming more adaptable to technology and using it all the time to learn concepts and standards. Students are using School 2.0 for blogs, podcasts, and even student/educational networking. I think that one day in the future, pencils and paper will be completely obsolete from the classroom. It is amazing to think how far the world of technology has come in just the last few years!
Thing #4
Commenting is a great way to build a sense of community and interaction, because this allows people to build on one another’s blogging and offer great insight and advice to someone’s blog. Commenting also allows bloggers to connect with one another. One thing that I found important and interesting from reading about commenting was to invite people to comment on your blog. I had never even thought about that, but it is such a great idea and way to get people to comment and offer their input on your blog. Another thing that I thought was really interesting was privately e-mailing people back when they comment on your blog. I also had never thought about that. I think that would make it more personal to your commenters when you respond back.
I chose to comment on Wendy, Marianne, Kala, Alexis, and Alana’s blogs. I selected these blogger’s randomly. There was no specific reason why I chose to comment on their blogs. I commented on Wendy’s blog post about Thing #2. I commented about how we both found it easy to make the blog, but had trouble getting our avatar on the blog. I also commented on Marianne’s blog about Thing #3. I commented about how we both want to teach lower elementary grades and also how we both had similar ways to incorporate the blog into our classroom. Another blog I commented on was Kala’s. I commented on Thing #6 on her blog. I commented about how we both love to use Wikipedia. I also commented on Alexis’s blog about Thing #7. I chose to comment on hers because I have yet to do Thing #7 and her information was very insightful. Lastly, I commented on Alana’s blog. I commented on her blog about how technology is becoming more and more prominent in the classrooms. I made all of these comments because I felt that I made a connection with all of their posts. They all had great information and interesting posts.
I also commented on 2 separate blogs outside of our classroom community. I chose to comment on http://preciousscraps.blogspot.com/. I chose this blog because it is a blog for a store in the community that I am from. The blog is for a scrapbook store and she posts her products, supplies, and scrapbook pages on this blog. I commented on a product she posted, because this allows me to know what new merchandise she is receiving in the store when I do not have time to actually go to the store. The second blog that I chose to comment on was http://christysstudio.blogspot.com/. I chose this blog because I visit it at least once a week! It is a blog of photography from a lady in my home town. She takes gorgeous photos and I absolutely love to look at all of them! I had never had the guts to comment on her blog until now, but this assignment gave me the push to do it!
Thing #3
There are so many ways a teacher can use a blog in the classroom! Since my ideal grade to teach is Kindergarten, I could use this as a place to post calendars, upcoming events, and even the homework and assignments I do in class with the students. This could also be a place to post what is going on in the classroom. I could even post pictures of the activities we are doing together as a class. Since my ideal subject to teach is reading, I could also use the blog to post links to stories we are reading and the worksheets, activities, etc. that we are doing in class. It could also be used to post extra practice activities as well, so that parents can practice standards with their children outside of the classroom. Some other ways to use a blog in the classroom include: reflecting on teaching experiences and posting a specific lesson plan for your students and parents to view. This will help keep the parents involved in the classroom and make them feel like they always know what is going on. A blog is so beneficial in the classroom once everyone is familiar with the purpose and benefits of it!
Thing #2
My experience with setting up the blog was great! I did not have any trouble getting it set up, since you just follow the steps. However, I do have mixed feelings about the blog. I am not used to putting information like this on the Internet where it is available for everyone one to see. I think this will be a great experience though, and help me become more comfortable with the idea! I came up with the name of my blog, “My Learning Adventure”, because this is an adventure for me. I have never used a blog before and this will truly be a learning adventure! I chose my posting names to exactly reflect which “Thing” I am posting about. I tried my best to create an avatar that looked like me, but it was really hard to do with the options that were given to choose from. I think she looks similar to me and reflects my looks the best it can. I did have some trouble getting my avatar uploaded on here, but I eventually got it figured out. Ultimately, I think this will be a great experience and help me learn more about blogs, so that I can possibly use them in my own classroom one day!
Thing #1
While exploring the 7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners, I discovered that Habit #2 was the easiest for me. I find Habit #2 the easiest, because I understand that the only person that can make me learn is my own self. No one else can learn something for me. I must apply myself and want to learn whatever the task is at hand. The ultimate responsibility relies on me, and no one else. I also found that Habit #1 is the hardest for me. I have a hard time seeing the end in sight at times, especially when I am learning something that is difficult. I think that if I kept the end in sight more, I would see that just because something is difficult does not mean that I will not be successful. Overall, learning is fun and challenging all at this same time!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)