Thing 15.5: Twitter

I am not a big fan of the beginning process of being on social networking site. I do not like having to start at zero friends, or followers not because of an ego issue but I think that is the part that is the most boring. I rarely use my Facebook but I doubt that Twitter will be any different. I do not believe that I need to let everyone know my every move. The only way I would use Twitter is for professional uses. I would use it to connect with faculty and parents about projects that may be due in the near future, and to let the parents know about their children's progress. I will also use Twitter to send out reminders to the parents as well as my colleagues. Students can use Twitter to ask the teacher any questions if they are needed help with anything or are unsure about an assignment. Students can also use Twitter to elaborate with one another on group projects.

Thing 15: Things like Skype

Skype is a great way to keep in contact with family members and friends. The only way I found comfort with being away from my boyfriend while he was away at school was through skype. I like the idea from the teaching degree website of putting on a play and sharing that play with other classes around the school or even other schools. I also liked the idea of sharing what the classes see on a field trip and they can connect with parents and their school mates.

Thing 14: Podcasting and Bookmarking

I looked at a podcast on Buzzout Loud. They were discussing the Apple Ipad, and the new Apple T.V. The podcast was about 40 minutes long so I did not listen to the entire thing but they did say that the apple T.V. will have applications just as the Ipod, Iphone, and Ipad. I also has seen a live podcast that was created in one of my field classrooms last semester.

I looked at both Delicious and Pinterest
and I would say that Pinterest is the most interesting. It just aloud me to get lost in what I was exploring and everytime I clicked on one thing I was interested in going to look at something else on the page. Delicious was okay for just simply booking marking but Pinterest just allows you to do much more.

Thing 13: Using YouTube

Thing 12: Discovering YouTube

YouTube is definitely my favorite website. There are so many videos that I love to watch no matter if they are funny, serious, music videos, or simply music with lyrics on the screen. I dislike how people can be so rude on comments and say negative things when they can simply not click on the video. I often go to the " How to" videos and those are really helpful. It taught me a few different ways to tie my scarf and make my eyebrows thicker. The video that I added below is probably the funniest video I've ever see on YouTube. I don't understand why people will voluntarily make themselves look like a fool, but I sure do enjoy laughing!

Thing 11: Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

Delicious is a site that has several different bookmarks from hundreds of websites. They are links that has different tags such as technology, accounting, bookkeeping, blogs, and news to just name a few. I also looked at the content aggregation and management website, Wufoo. Wufoo is another site that makes it easy for people to collect things on the internet. The site helps you create contact forms, online surveys and invitations so you can collect data, registrations and online payments you need without writing a single line of code.

The delicious website would only be appropriate for the teacher to use because there are so many bookmarks and none of them are censored or child proof unless the school has a protected system that would deny access to those bookmarks. I liked that everything was just right there on one website and it was very simple to select a tag of the topic of interest.

Thing 10: Online Productivity Tools

Zoho Writer is quite interesting. It is a little more high tech than google docs and it also offers a little more as well. I believe that word processors are a good  thing to have because it can get very annoying having to carry around a stick and then maybe suffering from the possibility that, that stick can get lost or misplaced. Zoho Writer allows you to have access to the site on any computer and any where. Like google docs, it easily allows group members or colleagues to collaborate with one another. One of my favorite options so far is the spell checker. It does not just have words that are only in the American English dictionary but there is also an Arabic spell check, Dutch, Azeri, and many more. It also allows anyone to post things on their blog, and blogger is included. All of the online productivity tools are great, but I on the other hand will be fine with just a pencil and paper.

Thing 9: Play with Wiki's

The Technology Poppers Wiki was very interesting. There was an overwhelming amount of information that can be used to incorporate technology in the classrooms. I seen that there are a lot of online story books for students that allows them to read stories at their own pace and at their own comfort.

I believe that a Wiki like this could be used to add ideas for a test review and each student can do their individual questions and add them to the Wiki discussion.

Thing 8: Wiki's

I browsed through a few of the Wiki pages that were provided; one site I used was SJCPL, or Library for Life. This site offers resources about information, and educational, cultural and community building resources. There are a lot of links that anyone can go to, to guide them on education issues, government, news and entertainment and much more. I also looked at the book lovers wiki. I navigated to the fantasy tab and It gave a few books that some people has post on different categories of books and their opinion about that book.

Thing 7: Image Generators

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/4096944/Corinthians_13%3A4-7%22
          title="Wordle: Corinthians 13:4-7"><img
          src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/4096944/Corinthians_13%3A4-7"
          alt="Wordle: Corinthians 13:4-7"
          style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd"></a>

I do not know why but for some strange reason I could not post my image to my blog. I used Wordle to create a image cloud of words that followed Corinthina 13:4-7. I believe that this tool can be used to be a focusing event in the classsroom. It is very difficult to read the words, but the students can you this site as a word scramble project or a crossword like fun project.

I also used WordShift. I can use this site to use as a learning web instead of drawing one on the board I can use WordShift to make it more creative and let that be another resource instead of just drawing a web on the board.

Thing 6 RSS And Newsreaders

Wow! I believe that the Bloglines are simply amazing! Bloglines are online newspapers that allows you to choose any news topic that may interest you. I mostly subscribed to blogs that were about movies or movie reviews because I love to watch movies. I also subscribed to USA today particularly because I am a nosey person and I knowing what's going on in the world around me. I also subscribed to Flixter and that is a site that has online quizzes. I took one quiz but after it took so long to give me my results, I didn't care what type of score that I received.

Bloglines is a great tool to use in the classroom. I would use this site to pull out specific sites that I want the students to use so they will not have to look all over for information but it can be accessible for them, especially since I will be teaching the younger grades.

Thing 5: Flickr

I looked at the Getty Images on Flickr. Getty images, are images people use in order to make a profit or someone may feel that a photo is marketable based on the eye of their expertise. I am not one to be fascinated with pictures, or picture taking so this definitely lit up my eyes when I seen that anyone can sell photos online.

http://www.flickr.com/gettyimages/

Thing 4: Flickr

Flickr is a site that allows it's users to share photos. Anyone can post pictures and share then on any website of their choice. On Flickr they have a section labeled tags and that is basically what type of photo you may be looking for and it makes sharing more accessible for the users. I chose to look at the birthday tag because my mother's birthday is coming up soon and I need some ideas on what to do about a cake.



<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lecupcake/282015869/" title="Birthday cupcakes for a 75th birthday. by kylie lambert (Le Cupcake), on Flickr"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/113/282015869_0a70235246.jpg" width="346" height="500" alt="Birthday cupcakes for a 75th birthday."></a>

Thing 3: Photo

This is me with some of my track team mates at the downtown Aquarium.

Thing 2: Blogging

I am a huge fan of blogging. There are a few blogs that I follow on a daily basis but it is usually for entertainment and nothing educational. This is my first personal blog, and it certainly wont be the last. Blogger is very easy to work with, although it took me a while to be able to post, a post. I believe that blogging can be very beneficial for the classroom and I will use it to communicate with my student's parents since I primarily want to teach the earlier grades, it might be more useful to use when communicating students' progress.


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ohhygfe9kdR_hSqVwchSgnrqg27dnxIX9tV666dbpHA/edit?hl=en_US

Thing 1: Life Long Learning

After looking at the seven habits of highly effective people I learned that I have some of all the qualities that are listed. I am always trying to change from within and try to be a huge influence on the people in my lives. I tend to set goals and do all I can to reach that goal, while following habit 2. At times, I put last things first, and first things last but it is usually well balanced. Habit 4 is definitely something that I've practiced because I am always trying to be optimistic and find ways to not only win for myself but also for the team. Habit 5 has taught me a lot of hard lessons when trying to understand people and being understood, and I too believe with Stephen Covey because it is very difficult to want to be understood and not be understanding. I believe habit 6 piggybacks on habit 5, a lot of conflicts arise from not being understanding on behave of both parties. Finally, I believe that I have the ability of building a balance between physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual dimensions.