My last thoughts....

I have to admit I am really glad I am done with these "things". Some were very interesting and others i wasn't crazy about. I would have to say flickr was one of my favorites! I love photography! I also really like animoto! I would have to say those two were my favorite, but the podcast thing would be next in line. I definately think I will be using those from now on! Many of these things have prepared me for later and I am glad I will have them to refer back to. I will definately jot my favorites down for later reference!

Thing #23

Since I did a powerpoint over creative commons I know a little about it. I found the fary use tale video very cool (and REPEATATIVE lol)! It is definately a good way to explain what creative commons is to children. I will probably use it in my classroom because it is important to know about copyrights and plagerism.

Thing #22

http://www.playpianotoday.com/podcasts/ppt_1.xml <- this is the feed
I went to learn out loud and the arts and entertainment section. The piano lesson online video podcast caught my eye. I would like to learn how to play the piano and found this awesome and FREE podcast. I found this podcast very easy to use and once I finished listened to the introduction it offered me to subscribe to it. I haven't yet but I am debating on it! This podcast has inspired me to use podcasts in my future classrooms! I think it will be fun to do arts and crafts on them.

Thing #21

I really enjoyed using animoto! I just wish the free version could be longer, thats why I didn't make it personal. I figured since its only 30 seconds long it should be based around my standard I chose. Overall it was pretty easy and fun to work with.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Thing #20

I love youtube! It can be used for education or entertaining purposes. The only thing I don't like about it is that anyone can upload a video and either they are stupid or offensive. I chose this video because I found it inspiring. This site could be used in my classrooms for educational purposes, but I would only allow it under MY consent!

Thing #19

I am now a member of Teacherpop. I found this sight to be useful to me throughtout my preservice and into my inservice teaching. I can connect with other students or teachers for help or ideas. I think this is a neat site.

Thing #18

Well actually I already had myspace and facebook accounts before this blog! But I do think it is important to know how social networking works because as a teacher it is important to communicate with other teachers. I didn't gain any new insights because I already have both accounts. I like both sites because I am an army brat and have friends and family all over the world and it helps me stay in touch. I may use it in a classroom setting BUT ONLY with a seperate account. If I have students who would like to add me as a friend it will be under a facebook I create for school. My person life will remain personal. I don't think it is a good idea to be friends with students so if I were to create an account it would be for school purposes ONLY! I am not giving trouble an invitation!

Thing #17

I found bookmarking fairly easy. I think it could be very useful in my classroom when my students use computers. Its an easy way for them to get to the websites that they are assigned to go to. I found tagging is a nice quick way to find material that I've never seen.

Thing #16

I choose igoogle for my customized homepage. I absolutely love google, I think i use it as much, if not more than D2L! I created a homepage that is perfect for me! I have movie times (because I love going to the theater), weather, calander, youtube (which I am using as I am typing), tv guide, comic strips ( garfield and calvin and hobbs), facebook, Artist a day, Wired top stories, and CNN. I put these all on here because I either am on them on a daily basis or because I found them to be a nice touch to my page. The online calendars will be useful to me because I am online for D2L often, and it will help me with my school tasks. I didn't bother with the to do list because I am a post-it note girl. I am constantly leaving myself notes around the house and I find that much more convinient for me. I would definately recommend igoogle its amazing!

Thing #15

Wiki's are fun to read and play with, but not 100% reliable. I can go to wikipedia and look up something simple like what something is to get the gist idea of but if I needed facts for shool or work I definately wouldn't go there. Anyone can put their thoughts or ideas on there and may not be correct about thier post. It is nice to read others opinions though. I had issues uploading my picture in the sandbox so I uploaded them here instead.

Thing #14

Earth's major Landforms
The first chart I used was bubbl.us which is the chart directly above this text. I liked it alright and found it very easy to use. I really like the flow chart program. I think I will use that one for my future classroom. It was very easy to use and had alot more to offer than bubbl.us.

Thing #13

I really liked Zoho! Too bad I didn't know about it sooner! In the past I forgot my flash drive at home or in my car! If I had Zoho I wouldn't have to worry about any of that! No flash drive needed at all! With this cool program I can have all my documents online! No more up loading to school computers! This definately is way cooler than Word! I can see this becoming a great asset to me during my teaching years....my work will always be with me!

Thing #12

Well at first I was going to do the Google notebook but was informed that the development of it has been stoppped and it will no longer be improved upon or open to new users. :( So my next choice was to go to google homepage. I found this tool really neat! I created a homepage that had all of my interests on it. http://www.google.com/ig. (In order to do this you must have a google account.) I next checked into the google alerts. This page is really nice because if I were to have a question, a student had a question I couldn't answer, or even if I wanted more information about something, I could easily just go to this site and type in what i want to know. I will then be alerted by email when google has information on my topic.

Thing #11

I had a hard time choosing specific feeds to follow that pertained to my path in education. Although I did add the "Adolescents and Pre-teens news" from TOPIX to my feed because I saw some information that was interesting about the age group I intend on teaching. I think it could be benifical to me when I get surrounded by "pre-teens". I tried to find few things from different sites so I next went to Google Reader (easisest). I really liked this one because I liked scrolling through the reccommended items. There was alot of cool stuff on there. I added two things to my list on here that I thought were interesting. They were "10 Photo Manipulations to mess up your mind with" and Su Blackwell's pop-up art. I think that I may incorporate those into my classroom because I can see students really enjoying them. Then I visited Technorati and I found it kind of confusing. I poked around a bit but I don't know how I would be able to add a blog from there to my feed. The blog from Carol Richtsmeier "from the school house- abc' of education" I think would be interesting but I couldn't figure it out.

Thing #10

OK so I don't know if my laptop just doesn't want to cooperate with me or if there is something wrong with the all the links except for the one on youtube and the It really is really simple: RSS for educators article. I did find those two links very informative and now I know what RSS is and how I can use it in my everyday life or in my future classroom and know that the information I am receiving is constantly updated. It's really cool because once you subscribe you no longer need to return to the website looking for updates, and they will be sent to your aggregator, and you can have more than one feed, all for free! This will be a good tool for in and out of my classroom.

Thing #9

I played around with the custom sign generator and created this silly sign. Since I hope to teach 3rd grade, I found this to appropriate for the age group. When I have my own classroom I plan for it to be a fun learning environment. A sign such as this would be a good ice breaker for the first day of school. I found this one in particular at http://pryat.com/signs/danger/signs.asp?page=4

Thing #8

Flickr may be used in the classroom for visual aids and/or homework assignments. Children relate well with pictures. I chose the lightning pictures because electricity will be a topic I will have to cover in my future (and I also find them very fascinating to look at). Flickr may also be used in personal life by creating collages of family photos, pets, or just things of interest.

I think photo sharing is a wonderful idea. I like the idea that I will be able to use this site in my classroom and not have to pay for it!

Thing #7

I found using flickr to be fairly easy. I really enjoy the flickr website because I am a picture person. The picture of the icicles is from my front porch. I love the way the sun sparkles off of them. I took it I believe, when it was the second big snow Tennessee had (2-9-2010). http://www.flickr.com/photos/47833514@N08/4377759266/in/pool-850534@N23

Thing #6

I chose to go under video because I am a visual learner and my favorite site You tube came up under #1 (no surprise). http://www.youtube.com I love youtube it is a great tool to use for learning or just entertainment. I like to listen to music while doing homework or just playing on the computer so i just type in an artist and all of their songs will show up (beware of the horrible immatators). I also like to use it for laughs, a lot of people have their home videos uploaded. It is also useful if I need to know how to do something. I can see youtube being used in a school or library setting if there were limits to what could be viewed, but it is a good tool for visual learners. The only thing I dont like about it is that anyone can upload a video, some videos should not be on there and may be offensive to viewers.

Thing #5

School 2.0 means education will be endless! There is and will constantly be something to learn. With all the technology we currently have and how it continues to advance I feel like our gernerations to come will be so intelligent! Technology is used for everything now! It makes teaching easier for teachers and more fun for students. With the web 2.0 education can continue out of a classroom. It can also help people get back into the swing of things or brush up on their intelligence.

Thing #4

Blogging helps create a sense of community by having an open window for anyone to peer into. It is a place for opinions, thoughts, ideas, and questions that is open to anyone. People can interact with just a click of the mouse and read posts. Complete interaction is supplying feedback on the posts that are read. I learned from The Blue Skunk Blog that is good to leave a comment on a bloggers post, because reguardless their remarks of "blogging for personal growth", everyone likes to know that someone is paying them some mind. They also explained it is polite to thank every responder for their time they took to read the blog. I agree and will use those pointers in my blogging.
The five people from my class I choose are: Morgan Hill because I have her in another class and I think she is intelligent, I'm sure she will have some good posts. Lindsey Byrum because I have had her in another class and I think it will be nice to get to know her better. Pam Dwyer because she sits next to me in class and Chonta Dillingham because she sits on the other side of me in class. The other two blogs that I intend to read are Shanna Borgeson because she is ahead of the game and is one of the people who has the most posts in my class.
The two from 3040-01 are Alli Walker because I went to high school with her and Jerita Reese because I have had two prior classes with her and think she is humorous.
I left Alli a comment about her blog on thing #8 and the fliker program. She made a good point, the program could be used to get images to personalize student's desks.
Jerita's thing #2 caught my eye. I left her a comment lending a hand for help with anything because the blogging isn't too difficult for me and she said she was having issues with it.
I left Morgan a comment on her thing #4. Seems now that we know a little about one another we can agree on quite a bit.
I commented on Lidnsey's thing #3 because I agree that blogging can be a good way to help peers with assignments.
I left Pam a comment on her thing #2 letting her know that if I can help in anyway with asssignments that I will. Her and I seem to be the only ones who use PC and have issues converting to MACs!!
I left Chonta a comment on thing #3. Seems everyone agrees blogging is a good way to help others or be helped...and I added that its also nice not to have to give out your phone number!
I like Shanna's blog on thing #6. It is a good site and I think its a good idea to incorporate it in the classroom.

Thing #3

I found many ways the blogger is useful yet important for when I begin my teaching. Most importantly it is great for keeping in touch with parents, posting assignments, providing examples for assignments, and how to's for the technology used in class. This will give the parents a better idea about what is taking place in the classroom and aid them in helping their student when they are at home and have difficulties. I would also use it for displaying pictures of class activities and the student's artwork. I think blogging will be very useful to students and their parents and a great way to keep everyone involved.

Thing #2

So the name of my blog is like the example because I honestly had no idea what to put! I figured maybe I could go back and edit it later if I thought of something clever, but I now think I am stuck with it. This is somewhat of a new experience to me because I have my own web page, I've blogged before but it was in My space. I don't find any of this difficult by any means, but I can also get by OK on my own with computers. I've created an avatar for the wii so I that's not new to me either. I've given my avatar on here reddish hair because my hair has a bit of a red tint to it. I put her in jeans and sneakers because that is what I usually wear. The orange kitty is my cat named Mojo who follows me around everywhere. If there was a gray cat option I would have put that one on there as well for my other cat, Rambo. I have the country in my background because that is where I reside with my boyfriend, Chris.

Thing #1

I found the video on 7 1/2 Habits of a Highly successful life very informing. The video gave me many helpful pointers. I found #1- Begin With The End In Mind The easiest. I often make goals for myself and when I want something bad enough I will try my hardest to achieve it. I found # 3- View Problems As Challenges the hardest. I sometimes view problems as a crisis that needs to dealt with like the video said. It isn't until afterwards I realize it was a challenge I could learn from. I want to learn as much as I can about the 2.0 tools! I would like to learn the cool new ways to make classroom life easier yet exciting. I hope to teach 3rd grade so I have to be able to keep their attention. I did not find setting up the blog difficult. I am the type of person who likes to explore things before I read the directions on how to do it. I just clicked around a little on the site to see what it has. Other than that the directions were pretty easy to follow. I've blogged before so not all of this is new to me.