One last thing!

I thought this was a very interesting way to help future teacher canidates learn about the useful and new technologies to use within the classroom and within our own studies. My favorite things were the one that let us be creative with our own pictures as well as the exploration of organizational sites. I will continue to use the many different accounts that I have acquired while completing 23 things. The only thing I found a little unsatisfying about the 23 things was that towards the end it seemed to be a little repetitive. Some of the things seemed to overlap. I will use many of these items from web 2.0 in my classroom as well as ensure that my students are well known with the programs. I hope to maintain my blog and keep up with others from my class so that we can all share the new technologies and ideas that are being created on the web every day. My blog would be an awesome way to track my success through being a teacher candidate, graduating, and becoming a teacher with a classroom of my own where I can share the many tools the world wide web ha to offer with younger generations to stimulate their minds.

Thing 23

I will use Creative commons in my future teaching adventures to be sure I am using correctly credited work and that the work is original and reliable. Ensuring that the things you use and reference are credited to the person who created them is professional courtesy.

Thing 22

http://www.livebinders.com/edit?id=255969
The titles of my binders are inclusion of disabilities in education, educational lessons, and education learning games. I have attached a copy of my inclusion binder. I used this binder to keep all my research pages from a recent project into one place were I can easily access my information from any computer by simply logging on my binder. Live binders would be a great way to keep an organized account for all my lessons and activities that I find useful online, as well as the best websites to receive worksheets from so that they may not be lost.

Untitled Project

Untitled Project


Video Clip from Animoto!

Thing 21

Using Animoto was a very fun expierience. I enjoyed being able to take my own pictures and create a video clip. This kind of clip would be great to use as an introduction of yourself and some of the people in your life to your kids on the first day of class. As well, this would be a great way to introduce a project within class or to your classroom. A teacher could also use this to display pictures on parent night at school.

Thing 20

http://youtu.be/fVTSojcKAYo

I found a great video while searching you tube about restrictive internet blocks for school computers to ensure that students are visiting school appropriate and research based sites. Searching on you tube for a particular video is quite easy at times, however sometimes very challenging. Some searches may come across videos that are irrelevant to the material you are searching for, however sometimes one can find much useful information. You tube does a great job of provided you with related videos not only on the search page, but while watching a video there is always a related list to the right of the website. If a library website were to have a similar site that collected videos that were appropriate for student's age or for educators, I believe it would be a very useful tool.

Thing 19

I decided to become a member of Teacher Pop. I have not yet posted anything on the site, however while searching around and reading the replies to many of the forums that had been started, I began to realize how useful this social networking site could be. Unlike many other social networks that I have been involved in, this site has relevant and useful information that a future teacher or current teacher can apply within their classroom and curriculum. I plan to use this site throughout my school and even as I become a professional. I found this site to be the best and most rewarding social network for future and current educators. 

Thing 18

I have explored both Twitter and Facebook. However, being more familiar and common with Facebook I found it much more useful and easier to navigate. Facebook is a great social networking site however I do not believe it is useful in the classroom. This site should be private and as all teachers and teacher candidates should know, you must be very careful of the information placed on public social networking sites. Facebook has been a wonderful way for me to connect with past teachers and keep them current with my success and education however, students and teachers should have separate lives on these sites.
Here is a link to my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/jessica.d.patterson1

Thing 17

After joining Delicious i found it a very interesting tool to search through. Under the education technology search I found a very neat site called teacher tube. The site had great reviews from many teachers and educators as well as parents. This is a very simple and easy way to create great bookmarks. This would be helpful for college while doing projects and bookmarking many pages as well as seeing other pages that people fund useful and relevant. I would also use this as an essential tool to mark useful pages for ideas, worksheets, and projects in my own classroom. This way I can click on button and have a list a useful sites for the classroom and be able to leave my own notes that I can understand to make finding a particular site easier.

Thing 16

I began searching by clicking on the link to the Top 25 web organizational skills. From there I searched through the sites that were highlighted until one caught my eye. My stickies stuck out on the site. On this site you can create stick notes for reminders of things such as projects, deadlines, and meetings! However, instead of simply just creating the sticky note and leaving it on that site< i downloaded the browser connection which allows me to place the sticky not anywhere on any webpage. This along with online calendars and to do list make it easier that ever to keep yourself organized. The best part of it all is it's all online therefore there is no mess of papers and sticky notes to keep up with and organized. This tool can be used for projects assignments and meetings at school as well as keeping up with a schedule of classes. At home this calendars can be useful to keep up with appointments and dates as well as a to do list for things around the home. I will definitely use the tool on my home computer.

Thing 15

After exploring the APSU sandbox page, I enjoyed looking through things that others had posted. This is a great way to convey thoughts and share ideas with other classmates and professors. Wikis would be a great way to develop your classroom into a community of students and parents and develop a great connection of thoughts and ideas. A wiki would be useful for parents to provide the teacher with interesting things for the classroom. Wikis would also be useful in communicating ideas with fellow teachers. I think this a great tool and would love to create a Wiki for my classroom or school when I begin teaching!

Thing 14

I have always been a chart person. I feel much more organized and informed when information for something is neatly placed in a flow chart or organizational tool. After exploring the sites provided I found new interesting mind maps and flow charts that I cannot wait to use in my classroom. I was shocked with Gliffy and how simple it was to create a chart. In Microsoft you must create the charts on your own or alter them usually, however with Gliffy you can simply find the chart you like in the side bar and click, drag, and add your information. While mind maps are a little less convenient, I found it simple and interesting when creating a mind map through Bubbl.us. With the simple push of a few keys you can add new text bubbles as either a new topic or additional information on a topic your have already created. I enjoyed exploring the mind map and flow chart sites and hope that I get a chance to try them very soon.

Thing 13

This thing was very interesting. I was amazed by the similarities between this on-line processors and the regurlar office processors. Zoho and Google Doc have all the capabilities of Microsoft Office, however without the pricey installation fee. While Zoho has some nice apps such as the planner and calendar, I found the Google Doc was easier to navigate. My favorite part about Google Doc is that you can upload a document from your own computer and then with access to google you can edit it anywhere. This deletes the step of having to e-mail a paper you are working on to yourself in order to complete it on another computer. As well Google Doc has a simply way to share documents and collaborate with other classmates to get the best product. Google Doc lets each person of a group to have input on the assignment being worked on rather than a million different copies on ten different computers.

Thing 12

I never realized all the wonderful opportunities that google offered for FREE! My absolute favorite was the igoogle, where you can set up your own google page. I loved it, it was very simple the original setup took less than thirty seconds. After creating your page you may add gadgets and themes as you wish. On  my page, I was sure to include the local weather, a calendar, a to do list, daily horscopes, updates on current news, as well as a youtube feed.


Also, while exploring google, I find that the Translate site for google could be very useful for educators. When sending a letter home to a child whose native language is not English and maybe the parents are non-native English speakers. Crushing this language barrier is a great way to better connect with the parents of my students. my igoogle home

Thing 11

WOW! This this activity I truly realized how popular blogging truly is. I never imagined there would be so many different blogs for so many different things. While searching for blogs that interested me to recieve the RSS feed I found Technorati to be the simpliest and most accessible site. I found a few interesting blogs, one called Boing Boing, which gives some interesting, random, and weird news. The google blog search, I found the most difficult to use. It was hard to depict whether the results that you searched for was a true blog or just a website.

Thing 10

I superscribed to six blogs. Two of my subscriptions were for blogs relating to the world of education and teaching ideas. I subscribed to the Pioneer Woman page, simply due to the interesting content of the pictures and blogs. The other three blogs belong to my fellow classmates. I find it interesting to read their thoughts and ideas and we all travel through the education program. The RSS feed makes life a lot simpler if you are trying to keep up to date with multiple people at one time. This RSS in class can also help if your students are having problems with homework they can pose a question and classmates will instantly be able to see the post on their news feed. As well as the teacher can reply to students with questions about class assignments and homework.

Thing 9

I found the site spiffy text to be very fun and created. A small variety of logos is found at this site however by changing the options you can make many different discoveries. I choose this logo because I feel that it represents my bright personality. As well, I love bright colors! This was a fun "thing" to complete, I made many different interesting creations on other sites as well. This would be a great supplement in the classroom helping children create a preview of a book read by the class, or advertisement when discussing propaganda.

Thing 8

 

 I began to explore the many different spin offs that are related to flickr. While exploring the spell with flickr site, I found it very fun to create your name with the letters. It would be great to use in classrooms for students to create their own name tags. You can expresses your personality and continue to change the letters until you find the perfect combination for your name. I am beginning to LOVE flickr!!!!!!!

Electric Sunrise (Explored)

Electric Sunrise (Explored), a photo by . : : v i S H a l : : . on Flickr.

While exploring Flikr, I began by searching fall images. The weather has taken a sudden dive into fall temperatures, which means fall colors. This season is my favorite time of the year to enjoy nature's beauty.This site has many many wonderful pictures taken my talented people. I would really like to begin using this site and posting my own pictures on here to edit and share with everyone.

Thing 6

For my website I chose Google Calendar. This tool is pretty cool. It allows teachers to create a calendar to document events in the classroom and effectively keep parents informed on classroom events and deadlines. The calendar is very simple, all you have to do is click on the date and time at which you would like to make your calendar event, instantly a box pops up and all you have to do is type in the name of your event and click create. This site always has an agenda where you can see all the events your have planned. As well, you can track the phases of the moon and the season, which would be a great supplement for a lesson on seasons are moon phases because students can track the phases of the moon from school and home simply by looking at the calendar.

Thing 5

School 2.0 along with Web 2.0 has incredible potential to help form a more technology integrated classroom for the students of the twenty-first century. During the short video of "what is web 2.0" the speaker described social networking, as truly meaning student/educational networking. I believe this puts everything in a great perspective. Through the extensive array of tools found in School 2.0, teachers have endless opportunities to motivate their students in a way that will interest the teacher, students, and parents. This interest will, hopefully, promote students to embrace learning. In the not so distant future, I predict web 2.0 and school 2.0 tools to be utilized and essential to every learning environment.

Thing 4

Commenting on blogs is essential to receiving the full experience of blogging! Blogging helps people to communicate ideas as well as share with others what you may be doing!
I commented on Claire Albert's blog, she is AWESOME at blogging and has been very helpful throughout helping me to create and find my way around the blogging world! I commented on Kenna Gupton, Alex Duchscher, Tabitha Beard, and Candice Yingst. Each of these students in my classroom provided wonderful thoughts and ideas about blogging, as well as having very creative backgrounds and avatars.
The blogs not from our classroom that I choose to comment on were Mrs. Cassidy's Classroom blog, which gave many great ideas and videos of ways to incorporate hands on learning in the classroom. I also commented on a blog called ScienceFix. As a student in elementary school I had a difficult time with science, this site provides interesting and fun experiments that will help to get students motivated and excited about science.
Through reading the I found interesting the importance of making meaningful comments when expressing my ideas about others pages. Also, I never thought much into what commenting effected. However, it is a great way to draw attention to my own blog and keep my readers and followers interested on my thoughts.

Thing # 3

I think a blog would be an excellent way to keep in touch with the parents throughout the year. Once a week I could post on my blog that activities for the week, making it simple and easy for parents to track their children and know what is going on in the classroom for the week. A blog would also be a great way to involve the opinions of others in my lesson, such as suggestions for activities or ideas for projects from other colleagues. Blogs could also be helpful throughout my teacher education program to communicate with other students and generate ideas to use in my own classroom upon graduation. Blogging would be a great way to introduce myself to parents when I begin student teaching as well.

Thing #2

Creating a blog is something that I have always wanted to do, however I never quite sat down and took the time to understand blogging and why it was so popular. When I was given this assignment to create my own blog as I worked through the list of 23 Things, I was excited. After creating my blog, I'll admit I was a little lost on the concept, but now that I have begun blogging and creating posts, it is clear. Adding the avatar was a fun thing to create, who doesn't want to have a cartoon character made especially for them. Hope my experience as a blogger continues on as exciting as it began.

Thing #1

Here goes my first blog ever!
So after watching the tutorial I was inspired to not only promote life long learning to my students when I become a teacher, but found it as well to be a great motivation for myself. Looking over the 7 1/2 Habits, I realized that many of the habits are a natural way of life in many situations. In the contract, each element represents a large part of this whole idea. Everyone should have goals in life, no matter what age. Obstacles are a part of life and we must learn to accept them. Essentials of learning should always be kept handy along with the resources with which one learns best. Keeping track of your progress to the ultimate goal and sticking to the habits will help you achieve success before you realize it. After watching this tutorial, I will continue to learn for many years to come, not only to expand my horizons, but it is a great way to keep my mind sharp.