Is it the end? Or only the beginning?

One of my favorite discoveries was Thing 17. I love the website Delicious and intend on using it for a long time.  This whole experience has made me realize all the possibilities that were at my fingertips with the internet that I was unaware of before. I think the YouTube and the Facebook/Twitter blogs were unnecessary. YouTube is not allowed in most school systems because the schools have to monitor websites and YouTube is not filtered. To keep up with the Web 2.0 developments, I will keep up with some blogs. 

Thing 23!!!!!!!

One more to go!

Now that I know how Creative Commons licensing works, I am going to be more diligent when I go to create things with items I find online. I remember looking at the website in class. I will use it to tell my students and others I know about how it is a serious matter. I wouldn't want someone taking all of the credit for something that I took the time to do. I imagine others would feel the same way.

Thing 4

I chose to wait until towards the end to do Thing 4 so I would have more options to comment from.

Commenting helps create a sense of community because it creates conversation about all things. That way people don't feel like they are just posting things and not knowing if anyone cares. It is a way to create personal growth. There are a lot of things to be learned, and the internet makes it an easier process.

The five blogs I commented on were: Natalie Spradlin, Rebecca Black, Kelly Poole, Sabrina Watson, and Robert White.

Thing 22

I kept it simple with my binders. I have one on alphabet letters and activities, one on whole brain teaching (posted below), and one on classroom management.

Power Teaching

This binder has multiple videos because I feel there is more impact from the videos.

I could use LiveBinders as a way to organize things we did one day, or that I intend to do one day, and the parents could look up what was done if they are interested.

Thing 21

Animoto is relatively easy to use. The selection of items if you choose the free subscription is extremely limited, which I was not fond of. I'd like to see what else is available as video backgrounds if you were to choose the more expensive package. Although it was very limited, there were quite a few songs on there and I liked that you could upload your own.


Try our slideshow creator at Animoto.

Thing 20

I use YouTube for a lot of things. At my high school it was a website that was blocked with their internet, but now in college I use it for presentations since it is not blocked here. I think videos add a great quality to learning. At church I help run "OneWay Street" which is out environment for elementary kids, and they watch videos of stories from the Bible during the large group session before they go back to small group to further discuss it, and I had a small group leader come to me and tell me how it was amazing how much they remember from the videos even when you think they aren't paying attention.

I think this video is amazing! There were several like this on YouTube.

Thing 19

I have a Facebook account and now because of Thing 19 I am in the process of getting a Teacher Pop account. Below is the badge:


Visit TeacherPop

I don't know how I feel about this site yet. It seems similar to Facebook, which I said in a previous blog I don't care much for getting on. It seems to be a difficult process to just join this site. However, I was pleased with how easy it was to use the badge.

I did like the Craftster website. I enjoy doing crafts and this website has a ton of different ideas. I could easily find something I want to do with the kids in my class.

Thing 18

It is important for educators to know how social networking works because it is becoming so popular. Tons of teachers use social networks, and they all can talk about educational topics or even have pages just for education talk. I have a Facebook, and I have had it for awhile, but I don't check it often. I enjoy it for purposes of sharing things with my family or connecting with my youth girls who don't have cell phones yet. However, I don't generally like getting on it because it seems to be a good place to waste time when I could actually be spending time with someone or doing something productive somewhere else. I don't find Facebook or Twitter to be particularly helpful for education purposes because they are mostly just for socializing. The ability to post links and things of that nature could be helpful though. I will be teaching early elementary grades, so this is not something that I will really be able to use in my classroom.

Thing 17

Delicious appears to be a good tool. I bookmark a lot of websites, and I have folders they all go in, but since there are so many I get unorganized. Also, there are times when I want to access my bookmarks, but they are on my laptop, which I don't always carry with me. I enjoy the tags on the websites because when you go onto Google sometimes things you don't want pop up. Teachers can take advantage of a social bookmarking site by seeing sites other teachers use that they find effective.

Thing 16

For my homepage I chose iGoogle. I chose this because my homepage was already Google, and I like opening my web browser (Google Chrome) and having Google Search open automatically, and with iGoogle I still have the search bar pop up. Also, I like that the weather is on my iGoogle because I check the weather quite frequently and that I can add a recipe "gadget". I love cooking and am constantly looking for new recipes. I'm not fond of the idea of having everything online for multiple reasons. If I can't get internet access and I have everything like my calendar or notes online, I won't be able to access them. I keep a planner with me during the school semester, and when I don't have a planner I just use my phone calendar. Also, I have one in my room on my wall that I keep up-to-date. I don't need another one. I also feel it would just be easier to stick to paper and pencil for a to-do list. Generally I can type a to-do list on my sticky note application on my computer or on my cell phone.

Thing 15

I think using a Wiki is interesting for me. All through high school we were told to avoid websites that just  anyone could edit. I think it is great that you can create items with different people, but I see it more as something that is just for fun things to do. 

Thing 13

When using the Zoho Writer, I noticed it is a lot like Microsoft. I don't entirely see the point in using it. I prefer to use key strokes as much as I can, and I'm used to Microsoft. Also, if you need an e-mail to sign in to Zoho, then you can just e-mail your documents when it comes to sharing them. Zoho, to me, is like mixing Microsoft Word and Dropbox. It is a nice tool, but I probably will not use Zoho Writer although it was an east site to use.  If I were to pick between Zoho Writer and Google Docs, I would definitely choose Zoho Writer. There are more options on Zoho Writer and it seems more user friendly.

My Project from Google Docs:

Thing 14

I used Bubbl.us and Gliffy.com. I really enjoyed using the mind map on Bubbl.us. It was an extremely easy website to use to organize my thinking. I typed a topic and then hit Ctrl + Enter to make a subdivision of that, and just kept going. I will definitely be using that website again for upcoming papers. I like all of the different options that Gliffy had.  You can choose from a blank document, Venn Diagram, flow chart, floor plans, and much more. Bubbl would be more efficient for my particular thinking process; however, I enjoyed both websites and could use them both frequently.