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.