Thing #12 Google Google Google

I love Google.  I use Google to search the web for information and images.  I do my personal email through Gmail.  I have a Google+ account.  And I am a part of several Google groups for various classes and extra-curricular activities.  But Google never ceases to amaze me with all that it is capable of doing.  For this "thing" I wanted to try and play around with Google Calendar and Translate.  I am a very organized person who is always on the go and I like to have my days and schedule lined up through some sort of planner.  Also, one day I'd like to teach ELL so having a translator with easy access would be helpful.

I  like Translate.  It'd be very beneficial if I ever enter an ELL classroom or just have a student who does not comprehend because communication is the key to learning.
After checking out Calendar I learned that I can plan my schedule day by day or by weeks or months.  I love it.  I can color coat things, add descriptions or send myself reminders about things that may be happening that day.  It's pretty cool.  After you set up everything, you can even print it out to have a hard copy to keep on your desk or in a file folder.  I would use this for substitutes.  I could plan ahead days as far in advance as possible.  I could print of the schedule for him/her so they would feel prepared.  This way they would have the class schedule and activities at their fingertips and wouldn't feel lost.

Google will forever and always be my good friend. :)

This is a link for my Google calendar, I posted my schedule for what I'm doing tomorrow (2/23/12) so my family and friends could know what I'm going to be doing.

https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=jessann09%40gmail.com&ctz=America/Chicago

Thing #11 Finding Good Feeds

Finding good feeds is important if you're going to get the most use out of your RSS reader.  I found it easy to find websites with the feed icons, but I found it even easier to use a search tool.  I used Google Blog Search while looking for some feeds to add.  I found it very simple to use, just like any other Google search that I've conducted.  Topix.net confused me and I didn't really care for its format.  I guess because I use Google basically everyday, I'm somewhat partial to it. :)  

I added Scholastic's "This Week In Education" to my RSS feed.  It seems that it will be very helpful down the road providing ideas and updates on things going on in the educational world.  Here's the link for it:

http://www.scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/

Another tool that is good to locate news feeds is called NPR: RSS News Feeds.  It has everything very well organized and helps you find what you are looking for easier.

Thing #10 RSS and Newsreaders

I like RSS.  It really is Really Simple Syndication.  I think this is a really beneficial tool for teachers especially to use.  I would use this technology in my classroom to have all of the blogs I like to read at my fingertips.  Now I don't have to visit multiple websites during my down time to find new ideas.  Now, with a newsreader if I only have a short amount of time to surf the web I don't have to pick and choose which blogs to read, with my Google reader account they are all there.  It's one login and password and everything is there.  It's very time efficient and convenient.  Any other teacher could use it the same way because we all know that every free minute a teacher has is valuable.  I recommend this to all future teachers with lots of things that they like to check out on a daily or bi-weekly basis. 

Thing #9 I Could Do This All Day

I love editing pictures.  I've always loved working with Photoshop and In Design and scrap-booking is one of my favorite things to do when I have free time.  I explored through several image generators.  In a classroom I would use these for fun projects to have the students do, or I would use the sites myself to make posters or collages to display in the classroom.  I especially love the sticky note generator that I used (site link is listed below).  I would use this to make sticky notes on my teacher webpage or blog because I personally use sticky notes all the time.  I think these generators could be very useful to students because I think when students take the time to generate their own things, it helps them learn better and pushes them to be creative.

Check out some of the things I generated through these websites!!!:

http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/

http://www.scrapbookgenerator.com/

http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Sticky+Note

Thing #8 Mash Up

For this thing I used the "Spell with Flickr" website and I think I'm addicted.  I have several things in my room that are designed this way given to me for birthdays and holidays and now I can make my own.  In my future classroom I could use this to help younger children recognize their letters or even older children as a fun activity.  They could do it using magazines and then using this website.  It could be a project on "old school vs new school" or something to that effect.

Another reason why I chose to use this website is because I am not completely comfortable posting pictures online.  I do have a Facebook account and I have lots of pictures posted but everything is set privately so only people that I allow to, may view them.  It is way too easy these days to access things from the internet and I would rather be safe than sorry.  This will especially be so when I have my own classroom.  I want to protect my students and their identities so when it comes to using pictures in projects I will encourage them to refrain from using personal images and to use websites like Flickr to help them.