Saying Goodbye to 23 Things

Overall, my experience with 23 Things was a good one. I have learned so much from it. Not only did I absorb new knowledge, I maintained that knowledge and it will be helpful to me in my future career. I can definitely see myself coming back to my blog and the 23 things site to use for helping me remember the new told I discovered along the way.

Thing #23

I will use Creative Commons in the future as a teacher. Fist, since my focus is going towards 5th grade science, I want to teach them the importance of creative commons. By using this tool I can better help my students know the true meaning of copyright and how they should turn away from it if at all possible. 

Thing #22

The Titles of my binders are, Education Lifestyle at APSU, Elementary Science Activities, and Social Media for the Classroom. 

My Binder
I could use live binders in a classroom all of the time. Whether it be for my own personal organization or a collaboration of activities and lessons for my students. This website and tool allows for teachers to be more collective and organized with their technology resources for the classroom.

Thing #19

I am a member of TeacherPop, Facebook and Twitter. Any social network is appealing to me. I love exploring the web and being social. I loved how TeacherPop was set up just like Facebook. I felt like it was a safer environment than Facebook too, which is a great thing to participate in when it comes to my future career as an educator. Always strive to set good examples. 

Thing #21

Try our slideshow maker at Animoto.

I enjoyed this site the most! Although it is a short clip, I decided to do my video on My AP Pom experience thus far. This would be a useful tool for the classroom if you wanted to keep parents updated through a blog. They would enjoy seeing what their kids are doing in the classroom and it's enjoyable to watch.

Thing #20

I love YouTube! I constantly go to that site to view humorous things, entertaining things, educational things, and much more. I like that it has usually has exactly what I am searching for. I dislike that there are so many options that are not at all what I wanted. I can see how this would be useful is applied to my library site because I could share inspirational things, or new ideas of how to teach lessons to my fellow coworkers. 

I selected this video because I thought it was a cute way to express classroom etiquette to the children. 

Thing #18

 It is extremely important that educators know how to social network. Our society is continuously striving towards new technology and the ability to connect through Web 2.0. This is also making it easier for educators to gather new ideas and integrate classrooms worldwide. I have had a Facebook and Twitter for awhile now, and everyday I learn about a new "page" or person to follow. There are so many people (world wide) using such sites. Having the ability to connect with someone millions of miles away in just one click of a mouse is fascinating to me. There is no really anything I dislike about either site. I am on both every day. Facebook has the most useful features, but if twitter had more I feel that it just wouldn't be the twitter everyone loves. I can definitely see a classroom/school application for both sites. In fact, my old high school has both a Facebook and Twitter account to use for school news, athletic events, communication between parents and staff and just an overall easy tool for interacting with community and school. 


Kara Twitter

Thing #17

This Thing was not my favorite. However, it did look to be useful in the world of education and teaching. Usually when I am wanting to save a favorite site of mine I will put it under my bookmarks or email the website to myself. On this site, all you have to do is "tag" it and it is much more convenient and organized. I can see this tool being used in the class room without a doubt. It is an easy way to find and pull up a clean website for educational information. Teachers can take advantage of social bookmarking by showing others their ideas on a certain lesson or information on how to make the classroom experience a better atmosphere for learning. It is an easy way to collaborate with fellow coworkers. 

Thing #16

 For my start page I chose iGoogle. I love google in general, and I was already comfortable with using it. I more than likely will not make it my permanent homepage right now, but in the future probably so. Online calendars can be very useful to me because I am continuously busy. I never keep up with actually planners and I forget to use my phone calendar. Online calendars can help me be more organized and able to pull up schedules and time conflicts more rapidly/conveniently. Since I seem to stay on my computer 24/7, I can see myself using it all of the time. The to-do list I can see being a tad bit tedious, but since I stay on my computer most of the time it would be helpful for me. I can see myself using the stickies for sure in the classroom, but at home as well to help remind myself of smaller tasks. I would recommend the online calendar and the stickies to others. 

Thing #15

Using a wiki can be fun, entertaining, educational, but sometimes dangerous all at the same time. I found it interesting that as I scrolled down to view other post, my scroll seemed to go on and on and on. It was neat to see how many people had added posts or edited something. I posted my thing #7 in the APSU 23 things Sandbox wiki because it involved gathering an image from flicker, and I love photography. Honestly, I am still unsure if I actually did it right. The dangerous part about a wiki is that if you are wanting to gather information, there is a possibility of it being incorrect. The people's ability to change any and all thoughts, I do not trust it.

#14

For my flowchart I chose Gliffy. I found Gliffy to be extremely interesting and fun. I like the floor plan tab because I enjoy using my creativity and I could see myself "decorating" for hours. I could use this tool to help with "creating my classroom" if we were allowed to use outside sources. This website would be of great use in my classroom if I plan to teach 5th grade Science. There are numerous flow charts used in Science when explaining processes and cycles. This would be a useful and simple tool to have the students use for a project or assignment.

For the mind map I chose to use Bubbl.us. At first I was unsure of how to use this site. Then after I typed in my first word, I saw how to use it. This tool would also be useful in my future classroom. The difference in this tool and the first is that with this one I could use it in more of a way to show groupings, terminology, or chronological order of events.

#13

I enjoyed viewing and getting to explore both Zoho and Google Docs. I went to the Zoho site first. I liked how it was set up like Microsoft word when I created my online quizzes. Zoho allowed for me to be creative with the quizzes I made. The entire time I couldn't help but to think how I could use tho tool when I become a professional. It was simple to navigate through and did not take up much time. Also, it didn't hurt that I had fun doing it. Next I visited Google Docs. I really liked how you could create more than just a word document. They had tables, graphs, spreadsheets, drawings and more. This would be a fun website to use in or outside the class room. Especially if there are students who may not have Microsoft Word at home. They can simply visit one of the two sites and be able to construct something similar. 

Thing #12

I enjoyed creating and exploring the Picasa Web and Google Translate web pages. Picasa Web reminded me of Flickr in the sense that it dealt with photos. I have used Google for quite sometime now and have never known about that nifty tool. I now have a place to upload and save some of my photos without worry of possibly losing them. Google translate was my favorite of the two. I have two close friends who live in France and Finland. They visit m every summer, but their english seems to worsen the longer we are apart from one another. This special tool can help me communicate with them in their native language. I'm sure it will be entertaining for them to read it as well. These tools can both be used inside a classroom. Picasa Web can allow teachers to upload photos of their class so that the parents and outside world can see what the children are learning. Google Translate can possibly be used for language classes. Also, if a class has a "sister" classroom from a different country, this tool might be a neat way to communicate with them to show interest in other cultures.

Thing #11

The Edublogs Awards Blog was the easiest method of finding feeds. It had everything broken down into organized and interesting groups. The easiest search tool for me was Google Blog just because I am so use to Google. The others were not really confusing, just new to me. However, I will try to use them throughout my teaching career because one is never enough. I found a blog entitled “Dan’s 5^th Class”. It showed what the students were learning, what projects hey were doing, and even fun facts about their class. Some other search engines that I use are bing and twitter. 

Thing #10

I like how RSS and newsreaders allow one to stay up-to-date with information specific to what he/she is looking for. Using this technology for both my professional and private life will allow me to become more aware of what is going on in the world. I could use it in my classroom to gain ideas for projects, lessons, or any information on a topic. I could use it is my private life to find new DIY (do it yourself) crafts and or new food recipes. 

Thing #9

Generators such as the ones I used can be used for just about anything. In the classroom one could use the 'Post It' generator for assignment reminders for the students or parents on a classroom website. The word generator that puts words/phrases into a shape is something that can be turned into a fun learning activity for students if they are needing to know certain terms under a specific category. I enjoyed using these tools because they allowed me to show some creativity.





















Post It 
http://www.imagechef.com/ic/final_widget.jsp

Thing #7

by Illias Polities

While on Flickr, I found numerous photographs that appealed to me. It wasn't very hard to do so because I love taking pictures, buying them for my apartment, and posting them on Facebook or twitter. the first word I searched to look for photos was 'ballet'. I have been a dancer for 11 years now so anything to do with dance will always appeal to me. The results were beautiful. I then typed in 'Greece' because it is my ideal vacation spot. I want so badly to travel the world, and Greece would be my first option. The photograph above was taken from an apartment balcony that overlooked Greece. I can visualize myself sitting in that blue chair, sipping on tea, and beginning a day of new experiences. Flickr has proven to me to be a very useful resource for finding numerous images for whatever the occasion. It is very simple to use and allows for an entertaining time. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/apartments_ithaca_greece/5623925710/

Thing #4

Commenting can help create a sense of community and interaction by allowing others to take part in a discussion. A community is based upon several people not just a single person. By opening others to discuss a topic at hand, one is indeed forming a community. Interaction amongst peers is essential in expanding the knowledge of others. Two points about commenting that I found important were to criticize kindly and write meaningful comments. These appealed to me because numerous times I have encountered comments that agree with what the author is saying, however they do not let him/her know how their post affected that particular person. The more feedback the better! Also, criticism is always needed but rather a constructive manner than a destructive one. The seven blogs I have chosen to read are Hannah Stone’s “Hannah Stone’s 23 Things”, Abbey Thompson’s “Abbey Thompson”, Chelsea Ninness’ “Chelsea Ninness’ Blog”, Jodi Farmer’s, “23 Things for Teachers”, and Stefanie Tate’s “Stefanie Tate’s 23 Things”. I chose to follow each of the five blogs at random. Each of their Thing #1 posts allowed me to learn about them and even relate to some. Another blog I have selected to follow are “Fashionista” because I like to keep up with what is in style, and there is also a fabulous article on nail art that caught my attention. I also am following “the Inspired room” blog because it has a lot of DIY (do it yourself) crafting ideas. 

Thing #8

                           

 

 

 

Flickr is a fun and easy way to use photography as a learning tool or for a decorative use. I enjoyed selecting different forms of each letter in my word. There were big, small, tall, short, colorful and dull selections of letters. This would be a fun tool to use in the classroom at the beginning of the year. Each child could create their name with the numerous designs given, and that could be their name tags for their desks for the year. It would be a way for each student to express his or her own individuality. When it comes to sharing photos online, I'm on the fence. Photos can be a great thing to share if done appropriately and for a good reason. If it's for school, say to show parents what projects their children are doing for the day, then yes I believe it is a great thing to utilize. 
  

 

       
            

Thing #6

The tool I chose was Pandora Radio. This is a tool that allows one to access all types of music to fit whatever one might be wanting at the time. I liked using the search bar in Pandora because one word opens up to so many possibilities. However, with those possibilities comes difficulties. It might take awhile to find the station that suits you best. Pandora could definitely be a useful tool for school. Music teachers especially would find this tool useful. For example, if you are teaching a Kindergarten class and need a fun and creative way to teach ABC's there are multiple songs that do just that. It not only helps a teacher to be more effective, but allows the students to have fun while learning which should be an ultimate goal. 

Pandora Radio tool

Thing #5

While reading Web 2.0: A Guide for Educators and Web 2.0 is the Future of Education several things came to mind about the world wide web. I have never taken the time to consider all of the infinite possibilities of how one can achieve anything through the web. Our world has become the web. People are making their mark on the web every second of every day. The statistic given from Web 2.0: A Guide for Educators about over half of adolescents ages 12 to 17 use social networking sites to communicate amazed me. I never would have guessed that many young people use social networking. Also, I enjoyed how Web 2.0 is the Future of Education gave a place for teachers to blog about what's going on in the classroom or special things they have done, view forums, see magazines, and even enter contests. Before the web teacher's had very few ways of sharing new and/or creative ideas for the classroom. It was kind of, well, boring. Now with things such as "School 2.0" all teachers and future teachers can learn new ways to do things inside the classroom and even share some things with their students. "School 2.0" is important in my life because it is a new innovation that will allow me to bring in new ideas, techniques, and teachings into the school that I will be employed. Being a school who has teachers that are utilizing "School 2.0" means a more diverse learning environment for it's students and also a rise in using more advanced technology down the road. 

Thing #3

Using a blog in my future teaching profession can be substantially helpful to me, my students, parents and/or other colleagues. I can use a blog to create a dynamic teaching site, posting not only class-related information, but also activities, discussion topics, links to additional information about topics they are studying in class, and readings to inspire learning. A blog can also be helpful for parents if I were to post pictures of activities being done within the class room for them to see. Finally, posting a weekly newsletter allowing both the students and parents aware of what to expect throughout the school week can be very helpful. 

Thing #2

I am a very simple person, so that is why "My Blog Spot" felt good enough for me. Creating my blog was not quite simple to say the least. It wasn't that it was difficult, it just took some time due to my indecisiveness. I tend to spend quite sometime on choosing what makes things look good. The over all process was not difficult just time consuming. My avatar reflects my personality because love wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and my hair down. I wanted the ballerina tutu because that reflects what I love to do most. 

Thing #1

As I was going through the lifelong learning habits tutorial, I evaluated myself on whether or not I have such learning habits. I found the easiest for me were habits one and six. I like to set goals for myself so I have something to work towards, and I using technology is too intriguing not to take advantage of every opportunity it is present. Some learning habits I struggle with are habits three and four. For habit three, viewing problems as challenges, I especially struggle with because I get easily frustrated and I sometimes allow a problem to "defeat" me. Habit four is difficult for me at times because I second-guess myself and I lack the confidence needed to become an effective learner. By utilizing Web 2.0, I hope to effectively learn how to access new and emerging ideals from the web for educators. I have never created a blog of my own, so setting up one slightly worried me. However, as I began to read on how to set it up, I became intrigued and anxious to create it. The process was easy due to the directions given. My favorite part about creating this blog was being able to personalize it with something such as a background.