Flowgram

I must say that I was very nervous about the Flowgram presentation and embedding it into my blog. I thought that the Flowgram program was great but I hate the way that I sound on it!! I think that this is a great way to show students that a power point does not have to have a lot of words in it to make it a powerful and meaningful presentation. I think that this is a tool that I will be able to use in my classroom. I have several students that are not readers yet, by having my voice behind the pictures I think that it will keep the students attention more than pictures and then me just talking about it. I think that the technology will keep their attention and they will wonder how I did it.

Flowgram

Thing #4

I posted to Lynette's Thing #21- I chose to comment on this because she is a dear friend and I love her children dearly! I think that she is a great person and want her to know that I love her.



Gwen - Teachers are like Mirrors that she found on YouTube, this was a great motivational video and I think that it was worth the comment! I think that sometimes we as teacher need the motivation to remind us why we do what we do.



Lorrie Cooksie- Posted to Thing #2 that Lorrie had posted, I posted to this because I was able relate to the fact the blogger was very easy to use! I have been lucky enough to have Lorrie in another class that I have taken, she is a very hard worker and I respect her very much. I think that any post that Lorrie makes will be worth reading as well as commenting to.



Cindy's Blog- Thing #10 I chose to comment on Cindy's site because I to found that the RSS was a great ways to keep up with updates. I had never heard of this and was amazed that this type of site was even out there.



I think that commenting is a great way to communicate with others who are blogging. I like being able to receive comments from other and it allows me to think more about things that I have done or added to my blog. I think that by commenting to others we are able to voice our opinion about things and ideas as well as listen to others and take their opinion in to consideration.



I found two other blogs to post to, I posted to I found that Brandi Trice had a great blog and it was very interesting to read what she had to say. I also love the background and the layout that she used with her blog. I think that it is very interesting to see what others who are teachers are blogging about and what thoughts they have on topics. I think that commenting is a great way to share ideas and thoughts and love reading when others comment on my site.

Thing #23

http://classroomlearning2.blogspot.com/
http://explorediscoverplay.ning.com/

These are both websites that I was able to find that reference the 23 things. I was surprised at how many were out there, since I had never heard of them until this class.

I really enjoyed this project and feel that I came away with a wealth of knowledge to use in my personal as well as professional life. I think that anyone who is willing to take the time to do the 21 things that are listed and recommended would benefit from this project.

Thing #22

Podcast are new to me. Although I do have an IPod, I have not searched for podcast other than what can be found on Itunes. I was very pleased with the learn out Loud site, I felt that it was very user friendly and had a lot of informational podcast. I was also pleased to see that there was a free section as well as a section just for children. One thing that I think is important to remember that most people do not realize is that you do not have to have an IPod to listen to Podcast. I have not subscribed to any podcast as of yet but I plan on searching for a few that might be useful in my classroom. I know that our school does have a podcast that the librarian does and post on our county website. As of this year I do not plan on using podcast with my first graders.

Thing #21

This was so much fun!! Unfortunately I am at my sisters house in Colorado (that is not the unfortunate part) the unfortunate part is that most of my pictures are on my computer at home! I did not have some of the pictures that I would like to have. I think that this is an awesome way to create short video clips. It was so easy!! I can see my creating all kinds of video clips. I can see that this would be a great tool to use in the classroom and have video playing during open house! I also plan on using this site to help create a video for our art festival that our school puts on in the spring. I can not wait to get home and play with some of my pictures to create video.

Thing #20

I have never really search videos on YouTube before. I must say that there is so much more to offer than I excepted. I was amazed at all the educational videos that are on the site. I have never really thought to look on YouTube for educational videos or video clips. I think that the best video that I found on YouTube was one that I have seen many times and admit that I enjoy watching it even more every time I watch. It is the "The Last Lecture", by Randy Pausch. This touches my heart each time I watch it. I was not surprised at all that close to 8 million people have watch the video. I do not think that this video would have any educational value for my first graders but I can defiantly see the benefits for high school students. I would recommend anyone that has not seen video to watch it immediately. I enjoy finding video clips as well as music clips on YouTube and can see that this could become a valuable addition to my classroom.

Thing #19

I am already a member of TeacherPop, I joined TeacherPop in another class that I have taken with Dr. Wall. I was able to explore the site then and again now that there are more members. I like TeacfherPop more than I like other social networks and find that it is more user friendly. I have not used it much because I have been so busy with school and my class this year. I do think that it would be a great as well as a resource for teachers. I also am able to keep up with other teachers that I have met through APSU. I think that as the teaching program builds at APSU the site will also build and offer many more opportunities for teachers.

I did look at some other social networks and the one that stuck out to me was Bake space. I love to cook and love to cook with my girls! I was clueless that a site like this was out there. I like the way that you are able to exchange recipes and keep them online and not have to write them down. I can not tell you how many recipes I have cut out or written down that I have then lost!

I think that as far as social networks go I will stay a member of TeacherPop but that is about it. I signed up for my space only to create a site for the assignment but do not plan on continuing with myspace. I do not have much of and interest or time to take part in that type of community. I will use TeacherPop because I think that it has things to offer me that will make me a better teacher, this is something that myspace is lacking.
I am able to keep up with those that I want to and I still am a huge fan of meeting my friend face to face as well as talking to them on the phone to keep in touch. If I keep in touch online it is through good old fashion email.

Thing #18

http://www.myspace.com/teacher73

I have had a myspace account before but chose to delete it when I got my teaching job. I think that both sites are ok for social networking but do think that there can be problems because of different professions. I am more partial to myspace, and I think that this is mostly because I have had a myspace account before. Although I do know many people that have a facebook account.
I did decided to delete my myspace account when I got my teaching job because I personally felt that because I could not control what others put on my account as far as comments and such that I did not think that it was the best thing to have as a teacher. I think that being teachers there are other social networks that can be used that are much more appropriate. I did set up another myspace account only because it was for an assignement. I was able to find many teachers that I teach with and just as I suspected and was concerned about, I did not feel that their sites were appropriate.
I understand why people like social networking but I think there are so many that are not appropriate and people have to be careful.

Thing #17

What a great idea!! I have never come across del.icio.us and was not really sure what it was until I really looked around the site. I have so many sites saved and bookmarked on my computer, both desktop and laptop and I do not use most of them. There are to many to remember what they are and why I bookmarked them to begin with. Using tags to separate topics is a great idea. I really like the fact that this can be accessed from any computer, I am one of those whose has some bookmarks on one computer and other bookmarks on other computers. I can also see were this could be a huge benefit to teachers that teach on a team or even teachers who teach in the same grade level. I think that this is a great tool and look forward to using it and introducing it to the teachers that I teach with.

Thing #11

I found that the Edublog site was very user friendly and easy to navigate and read. I like that way that it has things broken down. I have added it to my RSS Feeder. I found many interesting and useful blogs. I was very impressed with the best blogs and award winning blogs, I found it useful and liked that all of the winning blogs were listed all together. I was not impressed with syndic8.com, I was overwhelmed by the site and felt as if it was not simple enough for me. I like simple things and simple sites. I like to have simplicity in my life, the simpler the site the better for me.

Thing #16

I had a great time with iGoogle. I absolutely love that I can personalize so may things on my home page. I love that it has so much information right there on one page for me. I also love that I can add my to do list to this page. I love that every time I get online and my homepage starts up I have my to do list staring at me reminding me of all of the things that I need to do.
The calendar that be used through Google also adds to the advantages that I am discovering through this site.

The more I use Google and see the many features that it has the more and more I like the things that I am finding. For so long I have used the Internet to search for information but I had no idea how many ways the Internet could help me organize my personal as well as professional life. I use my calendar and my to do list (that use to be attached to my calendar) on a daily basis and feel that these tools that I have been introduced to are going to cut down on the time that I spend on simple task to keep myself organized. The many things different aspects of my life both personal and professional are going to be simplified by using some of these online tools.

Thing #15

I was first introduced to a wiki by Dr. Luck. I was not a fan at first and I will still admit that I am still getting use to them. I have found them to be helpful in many situations and the more that I work with them the more I am able to do with them. I think like many things that we are introduced to we have to become comforatble with them before we are likely to use them in our lives. For some reason I have not been as comfortable with wikis as I have with other aspects that I have been introduced.
I can see where the wiki could be used in a teachers professional life, right now I do not see the need for a wiki in my personal life. I am not sure that as a first grade teacher a wiki is something that I will be using in my classroom either.

I was able to look at some wikis that are being used by teachers as well as others. I must admit that one that caught my eye was created by the Princeton Public Library and was a book lovers wiki. I think that it would be great to be in a book club and this is what it reminded me of. I think that one of the things that I will do when I finish graduate school is took clus read more. I have not had the time to enjoy reading and I can see after looking at the book lovers wiki how a wiki coould be a great alternative to a book club.

Thing #14

I am more familiar with flowcharts than I am with mind maps. I was able to use flowcharts.com I was very impressed with the applications that I was able to use and manipulate. As far as the mind maps, I used mindmeister.com and I think that this is something that I am going to be able to incorporate into my classroom. At my school we use a tool that is called Thinking Maps. The thinking maps that I use with my first graders are very similar to the mind maps that I was able to create on mindmeister. I think that I will try to not only teach my class the importance of thinking maps but use this site to allow them to create mind maps.

I am absolutely loving some of the things that we are learning in this class! I am sharing them with many of the teachers at my school that teach in the upper grades. I think that my school is enjoying me taking this class just about as much as I am!

Thing #13

Zoho Writer has many of the same features as Google. Docs. I was introduced to Google Docs over the summer semester while working on a group project. At first I was not all that comfortable with it but the more that I worked with it the more confident that I became. It took some time for me to become comfortable with working on a "live"document.

I see that there are many advantages to a tool like this:
1. Collaborative work is much easier and less time consuming.
2. Editing and revising collaborative work is immediate- no more waiting.
4. Documents can be shared or may be kept private.
5. Several options on how to save the documents.

I see that as I continue with my professional career this type of application will become a very valuable tool.

Thing #12

I have always used Google as a search engine I had no idea that there were so many other things that you can use Google for. I had always heard of the calendar that you can create through Google but had never tried it. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to create and add events to the calendar. I also like the idea that you can share the calendar with others. I am always creating calendars and sending them through email to family members so that they are aware of the activities that my children are involved in. The other Google feature that I am pleasantly surprised with is the Google alerts. I was completely clueless that you can set up to have Google email you with alerts with news events etc. I am very excited to see the alerts that I have choosen. I see that this can help a teacher that is teaching current events save tons of time. I also think that an elementary teacher could use this tool to help teach science and social studies topics as well. I think that the time that can be saved by using this and the time that can be saved by using a RSS will help in my personal as well as professional life.

Thing #10

I think that the RSS is great! It will save me a lot of time in checking the blogs that I like to keep updated on. I have several blogs and sites that I check regularly the RSS will cute down my time that it requires to stay current with these sites. I plan on using the Google reader for my teaching sites as well as for keeping up to date with the blogs that I keep up with in my personal life. I think that the RSS would be great for teachers that are requiring their students to post on to a blog. In higher grades teachers can require students to manage their own blog and by using a RSS teachers would be able to check for updates that students have made. I had no idea that this type of technology was available. I think it is great! I am very excited about this and think that it will save a lot of time for me. I look forward to using the Google Reader and learning what else it has to offer.