Is this the end, or just the beginning??

I finished all 23 things!!!! I can't believe that this semester is already over.  Throughout this journey of new tools and websites to use as future teacher, I have discovered a lot.  Doing this blog has taught me that lifelong learning is very much a part of being a human being because I learned about so much while doing this project.  I definitely started this thinking that I would learn nothing new.... I was wrong. :)  My favorite activity was using Animoto.  I thought that was a very neat website that teachers or students could use.  I will probably start using R.S.S feeds to keep up with all that is going on in the technology world because now that I know about all the cool things these tools can do, I will want to stay caught up with everything.

Right now, because I stay busy I will probably not continue blogging but once I finish school and have my own classroom I will probably pick it back up.  I can definitely see advantages to it when trying to keep parents informed.  I think it may be a good idea to keep this blog and re activate it once I have my own classroom so future parents of students can see how far I have come. 

Thank you 23 Things for teaching me lots of new tricks. 

Until next time,
          Ms.Hughes <3

Thing #23

It is way too easy to find answers with the internet sometimes.  It's crazy how fast information can be retrieved and placed right at your fingertips.  The idea from 23 Things was originally the idea of Helen Blowers, loosely based on an article entitled "43 Things I (or You) Might Want To Do This Year" by Stephen Abrams.  This assignment has been adapted and modified to fit each classroom's needs and teaching style.  Although the idea has been transformed various times, credit still needs to be given where it is due.

 Learning about Creative Commons has taught me not to be so impulsive with the keystrokes copy/paste.  Sometimes it almost seems as if those commands are embedded into my fingers.  I have learned though that credit should always be given.  I wouldn't want anyone taking my ideas, so I don't want to take theirs.  This is something I will share with students, regardless of their age.  The sooner they are informed, they will learn not to take ideas that they did not come up with.

Thing #22 LiveBinder

Education Ideas

LiveBinder is a resource that teachers could definitely use to stay organized.  I think this is a great idea so that teachers could find all that they need in one place.  This would also be convenient so that teachers could share their ideas together.  It would be good to create binders for certain subject areas and then share ideas by email the links to the binders back and forth.  In my LiveBinder account I created three different binders entitled "Education Ideas," "Personal Stuff," and "School Assignments."  I would share the first binder with any other future teacher and the other two contain things that will help me stay organized in my day to day life like my work schedule or copies of important documents that I could upload.  Overall I am a vary organized person without LiveBinder, but I think it would be beneficial when I start juggling lots of students and their work. 

Thing #21 Animoto

Try our slideshow maker at Animoto.

This is a really cool website!!! I made a 30 second video, a picture montage, of pictures of my boyfriend and I.  I think this website could be used in several ways in the classroom.  I would use it for students to make a visual for a project or I would use it to create a video collage to show at the end of the school year.  Either way, because it is so simple to use, the students could use it themselves since it is very easy to figure out.  Anyone can sign up to make 30 second videos and I think the students would enjoy playing with this.

Thing #20 Youtube

I am no stranger to Youtube.  I'm pretty sure that I am on Youtube at least once a day.  I like that I can find anything from songs, to funny videos, to lectures from speakers to use as sources for a project.  I think that like any site, Youtube does have its down falls since anyone can have an account or post a video.  I also feel as if the comment section on each video is not necessary, especially when the comments become hateful, full of spam or are not relevant whatsoever. I think that if this site were applied to library websites in a school to show a short clip of what a book may be about, the students may have more interest in reading.  The video that I have attached to this post is a classic Goofy cartoon.  And even though this clip about being a teacher is not recent, I think all the things it says about being a teacher are still completely true.  Check it out :)

Thing #19 Social Butterfly

Now a days there are so many more ways for people to become connected across the world.  Social networks are one way that help this to happen.  Besides Facebook, I am an active member of Pinterest.  I don't know if this should be considered just a social network I am involved in, or a slight addiction. :)  I have a pinboard specifically for all of the Education things I find that want to share with my followers or simply want to keep for ideas to use in my future classroom.  For this thing, I explored some other social networks that I had never heard of before this assignment.  I think that Ning Teacher Pop is a very good idea because even though it is considered a social network, I think people involved with it would be more professional in the way in which they present themselves in comparison to their Facebook or Twitter pages.  I enjoyed leaving comments posting pictures to share on this site.  Another social network that I browsed through was Bake Space where people swap recipes.  I loved looking through this site because I love to bake, especially when I'm stressed.  And since finals are coming up, I spend lots of time cooking things for my friends.  You should check out this recipe that I found... they are AMAZING! :)

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

Besides the networks with yummy recipes, I think using social networks specifically designed for educators could definitely come in handy once I am a teacher.  I think one of the important characteristics that should be found in a teacher should be that they are able to borrow an idea from someone else and change it to fit their particular classroom and students.  I will definitely be spending time on these social networks when I am looking for creative lesson plan ideas.

Thing #18 Facebook!!

My Facebook Page

Social networks are all the rage these days.  Everyone has either a Twitter or Facebook account, or both!  And although their reasons may vary, the main reason why everyone is involved in these social media networks is to stayed connected with people they know.  I think there are many reasons why teachers should know how social networking works.  I think that when teachers are educated with things that their students are involved in, a deeper connection can be made.  Also, when teachers are able to use social networking units they can stay in touch with each other in a way that does not have to be as professional when at school.  It's always nice to be friends with your colleagues.  I am on Facebook everyday and I use it for different aspects of my life and I really like that.  I am "friends" with my family, professors, colleagues, and my friends.  Facebook keeps me connected with all of these people; and even if I'm not able to talk to them everyday, I can at least see what they have been up to.  I'm not sure which I would declare as more useful because I enjoy them both, I just use Facebook more.  I could see a classroom or school application with Facebook by creating "groups" for which the students to be involved.  They could create groups for different classes, homework help, or even have a daily update page for a student who might have missed class.  I think by incorporating something that the students use in their personal lives into the classroom, they become more willing to participate in activities.

Thing #17 Tag... You're It!

Social bookmarking with Delicious was a pretty easy experience compared to some of the other tasks required of the 23 Things.  When I created my own account and entered in "Educational Technology," I was impressed at the results.  I liked to see how other people tagged the sites.  By reading through the most popular tags, I was able to find a website that was more what I was looking for rather than searching through every individual site that was retrieved during my search.  I could see this as being useful in a classroom, particularly for older students who may be on the search for research for projects or papers.  It would help cut their searching time in half.  They could also see sites that their classmates have found and tagged.  Teachers can take advantage of this when planning lessons for their class.  If all of third grade is doing a unit on the life cycle and the teachers all looked for sites on Delicious and tagged what they found, it would be an easy way to compare ideas and share websites that maybe had good activities, worksheets, or interactive materials for the students.  I think Delicious would be a great resource to incorporate with future colleagues to make life just a little simpler.

Thing #16 Organization is Key

I am a very organized person.  I try very hard "to keep all my ducks in a row."  I enjoyed working on this thing since it provided me with ways to keep everything organized.  For the start page, I used iGoogle.  I set it as my home page; that's how much I liked it!  I liked how I could "check" things that applied to me and they set up the page according to what I was interested in, which automatically eliminated some of the clutter that I would honestly never look through.  I think I will enjoy the weather feature the most since it has seemed to be pretty accurate.

In a previous thing I had set up a personal calendar using Google.  Personal calendars can be useful to me since my family and fiends are constantly trying to keep up with my busy schedule.  In the future, creating a personal calendar can keep me organized, and could provide insight to my future students parent's about what is coming, or things I'm planning on doing in the classroom. 

For this post I made a To-Do list using "Remember The Milk." .  This tool seemed pretty useful because I am constantly making to-do lists.  I am kind of torn about whether or not I will use this frequently though.  I liked how you can make lists for different aspects of your life (work, personal, school, etc.); but editing each event seemed tedious in comparison to just jotting down things on a sticky note like I am used to.  I guess I may just be set in my ways, but at least I am willing to give it a shot.

I played with some of the other tools like "MyStickies" and enjoyed playing with them just because I love using sticky notes.  But honestly, my favorite discovery from this thing and the one that I would recommend most highly for those who like to be organized is the iGoogle start page.  I could rave about this page and make it seem like it is very complex, but it is actually very simple to use and help a busy future teacher stay organized.  Which is just what I need. :)


 

Thing #15 Wiki

Wikis are something I have mixed feelings about.  I think it's cool that there is now an option for websites where people can correct others mistakes; but only if it is done constructively and accurately.  I don't think I would honestly ever use Wikis in a classroom.  I've come across lots of other online tools this semester for students to use rather than using Wikis.  I feel as if Wikis would need lots of rules about posting, correcting, and editing.  I also feel as if they could lead to hurt feelings or students being upset after being corrected if they put in hard work into a post.  I did like looking at one wiki that was listed, BHS English 10 Community Book Talk Page.  The way in which this particular wiki was setup would be good to use in an older age reading or English class because it could  provide a good way for discussion.  I also found this interesting because this wiki was set up for a book talk (literature circle) and I currently do these in my Children's Literature class.  It was interesting to see how other people use the same ideas for their classrooms.  The sandbox portion of wiki was fun to explore though.  But I would definitely want it to be more organized.  I felt lost in the clutter.  Overall, I was not impressed with the wikis.  I would maybe use them for a literature circle or book talk, but only with older children with very specific guidelines and rules.

Thing #14 Just Go With The Flow...Chart

Flow charts and Mind Maps are a way to keep children engaged in a lesson.  They can also be useful to have the students present material in sequential order or even just plan for an upcoming project.  For this post I played with Gliffy and Bubbl.us to learn about flow charts and mind maps. 

Gliffy was pretty cool to use.  Not only can you use it for flow charts but you can also Venn Diagrams or website templates.  There are either standard flow charts or fun ones that have all sorts of arrows to follow.  I would only use Gliffy in a classroom for older students.  The process of making a flow chart with this program is very detailed and I would only use it with younger children if there was plenty of time for them to learn about it. 

Bubbl.us was a very fun way to make mind maps! I will use this site from now on when brainstorming about paper topics.  I have a paper that I am currently writing on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and I used Bubbl.us to plug in some of my ideas.  This helped me because as I saw my ideas taking shape, I was able to see the direction in which the paper was going and more and more ideas kept coming to me.  I think this would be great to use with students of any age because it makes putting your ideas down on paper more fun.  It could be used as a way for students to make their own graphic organizer rather than filling in one with just a pencil and paper.  I recommend Bubbl.us to everyone.

Thing #13 Web Based Applications

Web based applications are all the rage these days.  Because of their convenience to access them, more and more people have started to use them.  For this post, I checked out both Zoho and Google docs. 

Zoho Writer is a word processor that allows a person to create a document and then share it via the internet for people to see.  This is convenient because the people allowed to see it are invited and notified that there is a document to view.  Its convenience is also present when it comes to viewing a document because there is no need to worry about different computer applications or tedious downloading processes.  Zoho writer could be very helpful for teachers when communicating to their students, parents, colleagues, or administrators.  You can also have those who have read your document add comments.  This could be beneficial for older students to see who is checking out the documents you send out and who is not.  I think of the coolest things about Zoho is the ability for one to create a document and then export it straight to a blog.  There is no need to worry about hyperlinks or the uncertainty of the conversion of files.

I have used Google Docs before but never so extensively.  I used it for this assignment to create a drawing (a flow chart) of how I do my 23 things. Check out the link HERE!  I think Google Docs would be a good resource to use for older students who may be working in groups on a project because they could work on a lot of it outside of class.  They could communicate over the web and each edit either the documents, drawing or presentations as they see fit.  Another reason why Google docs is useful is because the items will not be deleted.  Students or teachers can recall things from previous activities to refresh their memories or use again.

Out of the two, I think I prefer Google Docs better just because I am already an avid Google user.  I did not know that I could make presentations using Google docs though.  I will definitely be using that in the future.  I will not have to worry about transporting files via a USB drive, they will always be in my Google docs account.