The End or Beginning?

I really enjoyed learning how to use all the tools and sites we learned about within the 23 things! My favorites were animito, flickr, and overall how to use and make a blog. I know that learning all these things will greatly benefit me in my future job. I really liked that everything we used was so different. Nothing about this project seemed repetitive and I liked that. I'm not a person who stays up on all the technology because so much is evolving these days, but I truely think this project helped me so much. Now I have a really good idea about how to keep up with technology. I liked the ideas about staying organized as a teacher because being organized is very important to me. I thought that learning how to make the flowcharts and using the calendars were very helpful.
I know that in my future classroom I will go back to this project and use all the helpful tools and sites that I learned about. I look forward to exploring more with these sites and continuing to blog.

THING 23.........

The 23 things use so many sources within itself. Flickr, Animoto, Wikis, Twitter, YouTube, Zoho, and so many more. It has a creative commons license and is able to be used by students and teachers for educational reasons.
I know that as a teacher I will use creative commons to double check the sites available for me to use. I will be able to tell which ones I am allowed to use. I can also use this to share my ideas with other teachers.

Thing number 22!

The names of my binders are K-12 Education, Classroom Projects, and Math Chants.
Math Chants!
This is a great tool to use for lesson plans. If you chose different sites to use in a lesson one day, this is a great way to organize those sites all in one place. As I have learned so many useful sites to use in my future classroom, this will help organize my lessons. I know that I will use blogs from other teachers along with so many other sites I am now well aware of. I look forward to using this site in my classroom.

Thing 21!

Family and Friends Video
I loved exploring how to use the Animoto site. It was so easy to navigate through and although my clip was short and simple, I loved the outcome! I chose the rustic template and I thought it was really neat the way it arranged and presented the photos. I will most definatly use this site again. It is a great way to gather all your pictures from a family trip or even possibly a school field trip. It is very far from boring and really brings your pictures to life. I could not figure out how to embedd my video but adding the link was the only way I knew how to do it.

Thing 20:

YouTube Video
I liked using YouTube. It was neat looking at so many videos. I found this video and thought everyone would really enjoy it. Me and my roommates loved watching it. We thought it would be so cool if our high school could have done this. It was awesome to see how this school came together and worked so hard to make this very memorable experience and video.

THING 19!

I have a Facebook, twitter, pinterest, and now a Teacher Pop. I use these social networks daily. I keep up with Facebook mainly to stay connected with families and friends. Sharing pictures is great on Facebook. For example, my aunt just had a baby in Austin, Texas and we are looking for pictures on Facebook constantly. I use twitter for same reasons, but twitter gives you the opportunity to connect with famous people. Pinterest is my favorite. It has ideas for hairstyles, recipes, home décor, and even classroom ideas. Teacher Pop is new for me but I am excited to explore it more!

{Thing 18}

Social Networking is very popular today. It is a great way to be connected with people and groups. I have had Facebook and twitter for a while now, and I love staying connected with people, friends, and now connecting with the college of education. So many people are social networking that you can pretty much find anyone your looking for. Twitter is neat to connect with stars and feel like you know them personally. My grandparents even have Facebook accounts which they enjoy the pictures shared among family the most.

THING 17

Social book marking is great for students, teachers, and classrooms. It is great for sharing information amongst people or your students. I like that it can be accessed from any computer any time. It makes it that much more useful and accessible. Using tools like this is one thing teachers can do to be prepared.

Thing number 16....

I chose a start page with a Hawaiian beach background. I love the beach and seeing that picture will always make me happy! I added a calendar and I liked using organizational tools. I also added the weather, Facebook, and twitter. Next I added a dictionary that provides a word of the day. For giggles, I added a pet puppy and a baby penguin.  I like to have every opportunity to be as organized as possible. I use a planner and the calendar on my phone to keep up with assignments and important dates. I liked the calendars and to-do lists as other options to staying organized.  There were games that I may add in the future, but I liked the I love smart board widget. I really hope I have a smart board available for use in my future classroom.

Thing # 15!

I know that using those wikis is tricky and can sometimes get you stuck or in trouble. But I also believe that there are useful ways to use wiki. I think it can be useful for quick information but I would not recommend it to my students just because it is sometimes tricky. With so many new sites and technologies, I would probably not have to result to using this in my classroom.

Thing 14.

I thought that the Gliffy would be a useful tool for teachers to use. It gave you the ability to be very creative for your classroom which I would really enjoy. I liked the Bubble.us too because it seemed like a more simple site for students and everyone to use. It already had a set format which would make it more quick and easy. I would really like to use both of these sites more and play around with different flow charts.

Thing Number 13!

Zoho is similar to other sites that keep data for you. I made a quick drawing of something I may use in my math classroom in the future. I do wish however to figure out all the bells and whistles  that I can use.
Google Docs too is a little difficult for me to get used to using. I had to use google docs for a different class and me and my group had trouble using it. The idea of keeping everything in one place is a great idea, but I need to work more to figure it out.
This link will bring you to my drawing on zoho. All of these sites seem to be very useful just not so easy to use.
https://writer.zoho.com/index.do?docId=3216008000000013003&pc=true&wsilent=true

Thing 12!

I chose to use google Calendar! I love to stay organized and this really makes staying organized and on time easy. In a classroom I could map out our day and what times I plan to do all our activities. It would also be a good way to schedule when students go to other rooms, restroom breaks, or lunch. It's a great way to organize the day with google calendar.
Next, I chose to use Google Picasa Web Albums. It is a great way to share your photos. In a classroom this would be a great tool to share class projects or field trip pictures with students or parents. It is also a great way to share pictures of ideas you used in your classroom for other teachers.

Thing 11!

I found that Technorati is the most difficult for me to use. I always end up with something I don't really want or need. Google Blog search is the easiest for me to use and I get the most useful solutions with this site. I have found most everything here. The layout even is easier for me to follow and go along with.The Topix site was fairly useful, but it was more difficult for me to use than the Google Blog Search. I think with more time this site would be really helpful. The Edublog site was a new one for me. It was neat to look at.

Thing #10

I like the idea of RSS. I is a simple way to think about how things have changed over time. Today there is a way to set up a subscription page so that you don't have to go to ten different sites to find out all the news from your favorites. Now you can subscribe on google reader and have all the updates and news from your favorite sites in one place. In the classroom, this would be a great way to organize all of your favorite technology you like to use in your classroom. It would be very helpful because time with your class is very commonly an issue. Even in my personal life, I would love to use this. It's a great and easy way to keep everything in one place and save time.

Thing 9!

Made on Image Chef.

I could use this image when my students come in the room. I think they will get excited and try to figure out the message. Who doesn't love group work?



This is another image I personalized on Image Chef. Little things like this in the classroom can make it fun!

Thing #8

My flickr mashup from Mosaic Maker!
Using this site was really fun! I loved exploring flickr and then letting this site make a collage of the pictures I liked. It was very simple to use.
In my classroom, I may look for pictures that involve what I plan for us to go over that day or maybe that week. It will give the students something to look forward to and think about. They can look at those pictures and guess what we may talk about in class.

Thing 7!

Photo by inmacor.

I really like this photo! I love flowers and I think this is just beautiful. If I could have flowers in my house all over the place all the time, I would.
Using flickr was very easy. I looked through the different seach methods and tools. I ended up getting this picture from most recent. I think the flickr site is very easy to use so you too can find really pretty pictures like the one I found. Flickr Pictures!!

Thing #6

I chose a site called Hotchalk. It was very neat to see how a site could have so much useful tools. It was clearly benefitial to students, parents, and teachers. It had links to any kind of website you could think of. I liked that you could select whether you want sites for educators, students, or parents. As a student working towards being a teacher, I found a lot of the websites under educator interesting. There were tools such as lesson plans and so much more. Overall, I really thought this site had everything a teacher could need. I also think that by looking at this site you could get an idea of the things you want to make available in your blog or at least give access to. I think I would use this site and get so much out of it for not only myself but also for parents and students.

Thing #5

"School 2.o", to me, means that the technology we have grown up with has been updated and tweaked and technolgy will continue to grow and update. Teachers who have taught for so many years have to adapt to all the new technology of today. As a teacher learning the ways of the 21st century need to keep an open mind about the changes they will one day have to learn and adapt to.  Technology has changed so much from when I was born and I can't even imagine what they will come up with next, but I know as a future teacher, I need to stay up to date with the technology as much as possible to keep up for the future. For schools today, I think that many of the teachers have so much to learn to know what the new standards are and how to address them.

Thing 4!

Blogging is a great way to communicate and interact. It is a great way to find people who share the same interests as you. It is also a way for you to share your ideas with other people.
I found important to know how to get more comments. Two tips I found useful are to make it easy to comment and be open ended. I know I will consider these tips in the future to get more comments.

I chose to comment on Jamie Leek's Jamie's 23 things, Megan Singleton's 23 things, Brittany Lowen's Lowen Education, Raleigh Scott's 23 things, and Jessica Hudson's 23 things. I chose to comment on Jamie's thing 1 because I really related to her problems she has faced with technology. I commented on Megan's thing 2 because she talked about her experience with her blog and avatar. I could relate to her post. I commented on Brittany's thing 3 because I liked her ideas about using blogging to help keep parents and students informed. I commented on Raleigh's thing 2 because like Raleigh I have never created or used a blog. I also experiences some of the same difficulties that she faced. Last, I commented on Jessica's thing 3 because I really liked her ideas about blogging. Looking at other teachers blogs can help you with problems you may face yourself as a teacher.

The two other blogs I chose that were of interst to me were The Learning and Teaching in the 21st Century because it had really good ideas about different media to use in the classroom. When it comes to being creative with technology I need all the help I can get. The second blog I chose was Wondersome Storytime. This blog had a lot of neat posts about different books and their effects on children's learning.

Thing #3

In the future, if I were to have a blog for my classroom to view, I would incorporate things we are working on in class. I may even put examples of how we can use what we learn in our everyday life. For instance, I could show an example from my own life. I look forward to further exploring this idea of blogging for the future, and maybe it will play a role in my classroom's learning.

Thing #2

I do not have any experience with blogging myself. My aunt has a blog ,and I really enjoy ready all of her new, funny posts about my cousins and our family. I like that I have a blog now. The set up process was not too difficult, but I had a little difficulty updating my design of my page. My avatar was made to seem familiar to me and my appearance. I made my avatar to look like me in the ways I may dress. I chose for it to look like me so people can look at it and possibly recognize me. I did not put much thought into the name of my blog. I put my 23 things because that is the reason I will be using this blog.

Thing #1

Number one, begin with the end in mind, of the 7 1/2 things is easiest to me. I have used this habit throughout my life and schooling. For example, with college I started with the end in my head. I know what I'm working for, and I also know that if I do what I'm supposed to, I'll end up where I would like to be. Without looking forward, It would make many experiences more difficult. Number six, using technology to my advantage, is my least favorite. Even with having a smart phone and using it frequently, I still face many problems with technology. With all the technology in the world today, it's hard to know and find the correct way to use something. Although, when you find out how to use it, it is very helpful. By using web 2.0 and this blog, I hope to become more confident while using technology and learn from blogging and reading what others have to say. Setting up this blog was made easy by using the easy steps and directions.