final thoughts

• I really enjoyed the animoto video creation. I will use that for my kids pictures from now on. Going through the 23 things has shown me that there is always something new to learn. I did not realize how many free tools are out there. I would suggest cutting the list down to 21 things because the last two things seemed redundant...we covered them in the main section of our 3040 projects. The concept behind this program is good but each task takes so much time to complete that you lose the fun element of it. Thanks to 23 things, I will be a better teacher because I will have tools to vary my instruction.
  

Thing 23

*Note: This project is loosely based upon the website 43Things (which allows you to set and track personal goals) and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006).


As a teacher I will be careful not to take what doesn't belong to me. I will know to watch for the different licenses and only use what is allowed. It is not fair to steal what others have worked so hard to complete.

thing 22

• http://www.eslteachertalk.com
• I chose this podcast because it will be useful in helping ESL students in my classroom. It contains classroom activity ideas, interactive games, and teaching insights that will beneficial for my students. I thought that all of the directories were a little confusing to navigate but I was able to type some key words which cut down on the confusion. Thanks to Education 3040, I had the opportunity to create a podcast with my kids. I will definitely be doing that again. I will also use this resource in my future classroom.

thing 21

This is the video I made. I really enjoyed this site and will definitely use it again.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

thing 20

I found this on youtube and thought it was a good reminder for teachers to never give up!

Thing 19

Visit TeacherPop

• Are you a member of any online communities? Yes facebook and myspace...but I only use facebook
  
• Are any of these social networks appealing to you? Teacher pop looks like a good source of information for my future as a teacher. I joined today.
  
• What did you find that was interesting and that you might use later? I will definitely check out teacher pop in more detail after my membership has been confirmed.
  

Thing 18

my facebook

Educators should know about social networking sites for two main reasons. One would be to stay in the technology loop. Second would be because it is a free service that you can benefit from by adding colleagues to your friend list. You can then work as a group and keep up to date with everything. I did not really learn anything new from these sites. I have had them both over the years. I have decided that I like facebook more than myspace. The main reason I switched to facebook was because on myspace, people had music playing on their profiles and it slowed my computer way down. Now I just prefer facebook and do not want to go back. The school application would be to connect all members of the faculty in a group and then you can send out one message and the whole group could see it, reply to it, and share ideas.

thing 17

delicious is a really neat idea. I have always hated using my bookmark tool bar because it get crowded and confusing. This site allows you to see your bookmarks from anywhere. That is really handy. I think it will be a good resource for the future. I will be able to keep up with beneficial websites and also share valuable information with my colleagues.

thing 16

• Which start page did you choose? Why did that one appeal to you? Will you make it your permanent home page? igoogle..I already had a google account. It was fun to add a countdown till my vacation and also a hangman game. I did make it my homepage.
  

• How can the online calendars be useful to you? They can keep you informed about upcoming due dates and birthdays. I prefer to just use a paper calendar. If I had a laptop and could take it anywhere, I may be more into the online calendar
  
  
• What about the to-do lists—helpful, too much work…? I love to do lists but it is just easier for me to make them on paper. My favorite part of to do lists is marking things off!
  
  
• Did you find a tool that has some uses for you at the school or at home? Which tool(s) would you recommend to others? I would recommend igoogle home page because it has a lot of ways to customize it to suit your interests.
  

thing #15

I learned that there are good uses for wikis. You can use them to brainstorm ideas but you must remember that ANYONE can put their two cents into the mix,whether or not they really know what they are talking about. I tried to add information to the 23 things sandbox but was unsuccessful. I created an account and went in to edit but was never allowed to post anything. I became frustrated and just quit!

Thing #14

I chose gliffy for flowcharts. Truthfully, I chose this because of the name. I thought it was silly. Overall, the program was easy to use and I will find some uses for it in my career as an educator.

I chose Bubbl.us for the mind charts because it had bright colors and looked more user friendly. It was easy to use but I am not sure that I will have many uses for it.

Thing #13

I found the Zoho writing documents to be very useful. I liked the idea that you do not have to worry about program version clashes. Also, the fact that you can save it on the internet instead of having to track down a thumb drive or email account. It was simple to use and resembled microsoft word.

Thing #12

The two tools that I chose were to set an alert and also to make a picasa album. Both of these were EASY to do. I am most excited about the photo album because I love to have ways to share pictures of my boys with friends and family. It also offers a way to order prints right from the same site. Students could use picasa to make their own photo memory books. The alerts are nice for keeping up to date on news stories that interest you. I am a little embarrassed to admit that I follow this person, but it is Kate Gosselin (from Jon and Kate plus 8). The show started coming on right around the time my twins were born so I was amazed at how this mom could care for so many babies...while I was struggling with just 2! Now I will receive automatic updates about her crazy life without the hassle of hunting.

Picasa Album

Thing #11

I tried a couple of the methods for finding feeds that I am interested in. It all seemed a little overwhelming...there is just so much out there! It will take me a while to figure out what all I would like to have on my feed. I will be paying closer attention to some of my regular websites to see if they have the RSS feed logos. I will definitely add those. I found the google search tool to be the easiest one to use. It took me right to what I was looking for. The bloglines search seem to bring up a lot of stuff that I was not looking for. I found a couple of feeds that caught my eye, one of which was a "clean" joke blog. Everyone can use a good laugh to get them through the day!

Thing #10

RSS news readers are a wonderful tool. They allow you to get all the information that you want in one location. I will be using this technology in my personal life by subscribing to news and cooking feeds that I am interested in. I can also use it when I am in a classroom by subscribing to feeds that help keep teachers informed about new techniques or items that can be beneficial to them.
Teachers can also use RSS feeds to handle a classroom of bloggers. They can see all the updates without having to go to each individual blogspot.

Thing #9

This was very easy. I just chose the background color, size and glitter color that I wanted to use. Then just typed the words I wanted and pressed enter. This will com in handy to decorate with when doing handouts, newsletters or classroom decor.

http://www.glitterizer.com/



This was also a simple process. Upload a photo (can be connected to facebook) and choose a magazine cover. Easy and fun. What kid wouldn't love to see their face on a magazine cover? Maybe they could write the article to go along with the pic. It would also be handy in my personal life to use as gag gifts.

http://graphics.imagetemplate.net/magazines/

Thing #8

I used Spell with Flickr to create my name. It was extremely easy. All you have to do is go to the site and type in what you would like to spell from Flickr pictures. I think kids would all love to use this site to individualize their name tags (placed on elementary desks or cubbies). There are several of the mashups that look like they could be useful in the classroom. An example would be the one that you can make puzzles out of your photos. Kids could work a puzzle during their free time that ties in to the lesson you are teaching that day. Personally, I do not mind having my photos online. People can keep in touch with you through your pictures. It is a little scary to think that someone may use them to gain personal information. We just have to be careful and not put up pictures that we do not want shared.

Thing #7

Uploaded on October 18, 2006
by Marxchivist
Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tom1231/273579455/

Since I have twins, I thought it would be interesting to look for pictures of twins. I found lots of cute pictures but most of them were copyrighted and would not allow me to post them here. I decided to do a search for pictures of twins listed under the creative commons attribute license so that I would be able to share what I found. There were lots to choose from but I think this picture is interesting because of its age.

Thing #6

I chose picnik.com because I like to take pictures and scrapbook. I thought that this site was nice but was frustrated by the constant questioning about upgrading to a paid account. It seemed like most of the things I wanted to check out required $$. If I decided to use this website regularly, I would have to upgrade! It did have a section to create a collage and lots of photo editing tools. It was also able to link to my facebook account so that I could use those photos. I can see using this site to allow children to learn about lighting and editing photos. Also, it would be a good place to have them create a collage of similar pictures for a project. Here is a picture of 2 of my boys that I used picnik on:

Thing #5

School 2.0 is an "upgrade" to the way classes are taught. Years ago, everything was done with pencil and paper but today there are many more options. Some of the options are blogging, podcasts and webquests. There is so much information out there and available for educators to use. The world is taking off with the World Wide Web and schools should too. I believe that schools need to jump on board in order to keep from holding their students back. This is a fast past world and as educators we are responsible for keeping our abilities and resources current and maybe even ahead of the times.

Thing #4

Commenting creates a sense of community because it allows the blogger to form friendships and connections with their readers. There were a couple of things in the blogging articles that I read which caught my eye. Both of my examples are from the How to comment like a king (or queen!) article. The first got my attention because I am not sure that I completely agree with it. The writer stated that we should make a meaningful comment not just a statement like good job or right on. I think that a lot of people would enjoy the encouragement and pat on the back just as much as a paragraph discussion. The second thing, that I had not really thought about before, was the fact that you can comment on blogs to gain readers for your own blog. I also learned to beware of Darth Commenter and to not let him still my enthusiasm for blogging. One last bit of wisdom is that when I become a "regular" commenter, I should also looked further into the comment tracking service that was discussed in the readings.

Time to start commenting(will be back to complete this entry later)....

information to come: names of the seven blogs (5 from our group + 2 others of your choice) you selected to read and comment on and tell why you selected them
discuss the comments that you chose to make and why you made them

Thing #3

At first, I thought that I would not find any uses for blogging. I am beginning to change my mind on that issue. I can see several beneficial uses of this form of technology. More than likely, I will be using a blog to help keep parents informed about what is going on in my classroom. This would be done in addition to our weekly newsletter but would also provide a way for parents to give feedback directly to me. I am also finding it helpful to write out my thoughts, it has already helped me to pinpoint some of my problems and what I need to do to correct them. I think that just a general blog about my day, kind of like a journal(but for the world to see), will be a good technique to use in working out any personal or teaching issues I am having.

I am still a little bit nervous about what kind of comments I will be receiving but I am sure they will be helpful too.

Thing #2

I named my blog Fulfilling My Childhood Dream for a very obvious reason. This whole blogging process is bringing me closer to my dream of being an elementary school teacher. Since I was a little girl, I have always wanted to be a teacher! Life sidetracked me for a little bit, but now I am back on the road to complete my goal. As I said in my first post, patience will play a big role in my success. I am trying really hard not to get discouraged, but I do tend to focus on the fact that I have been in school for so long and have more than enough credits, yet I still have about 2 years left before completing my teaching degree. I need to remember to keep my eyes on the prize instead of letting the numbers get me down.

I had fun while choosing my avatar. I did consider choosing someone completely different to base mine on. In the end, I decided choosing based on other people would only cause me to feel less confident. I am very happy with the way my avatar turned out. The eye and hair color (and kind of the style) are really my features. I also chose a purple shirt, well as close to that as I could get, because it is my favorite color. One last choice I made was more for my own encouragement, I placed myself in front of a classroom. That will be the ultimate completion of my dream.

Thing #1

After viewing the information on being a life long learner, I realized a couple of things about myself. First of all, the most difficult habit for me to master is #4- having confidence in myself as a competent and effective learner. I can not remember a time that I did not deal with poor self esteem which has caused my confidence to be very low in all aspects of life. As I have gotten older, my self esteem has become a little better. I am not sure if it is just a sign of my own maturity and that of those around me or the fact that having kids makes you say and do things you never thought you could. Whatever the reason for the improvement, I am hopeful that it will continue and I will be able to remove habit #4 from my problem list. Secondly, I found the easiest habit of a life long learner for me to follow is #1-begin with an end in mind/set goals. I am a wonderful goal setter! Unfortunately, I am terrible at following through. I find myself setting goals and then getting side tracked or depressed when things are not going as quickly as I would like. As I am writing this, I am beginning to see how my patience needs to improve. If I work on my patience, then I will be able to complete my set goals without loss of focus or getting upset.

I am looking forward to completing the 23 things and learning about the Web 2.0 tools. It will be nice to see, play with, and learn about the different free services available to me as a new teacher. I found the first few steps of this process to be rather easy. The blog set up just took a moment and was basically point and click. The hardest part of this is going to be the actual blogging. It was difficult to share the beginning of this post and I am sure some of the ones to come. I do not find it easy to open up and talk/"blog" to everyone. Hopefully, that will become easier too.