Thing # 14

I requested an invitation from Flowchart, but have not received it yet. I chose Bubbl.us to use for my mind map and I was astonished at how quickly you can begin creating the mind maps. I also signed up for Mindmeister just to explore my different options. I have some experience using flowcharts in the classroom; however, I don't have any experience using the mind maps. In college, we used a variety of graphic organizers but I don't recall any of them being called mind maps. Maybe concept maps? In my experiences, flowcharts have been easier to create, display, and understand for the user. Mindmaps appear to be somewhat confusing and harder to read than the other option.

Thing # 13

I explored both Google Docs and Zoho Writer. Both are very good applications to use, but I am more familiar with Google's operation, so I find the Google Docs to be a little easier to navigate around with. However, I can see how one program might defeat the other in it's features. Zoho Writer has more features and editing options. Google Docs is a little more basic and user-friendly. I think Google Docs would be a great startup tool to use and then move to Zoho Writer once the user becomes more advanced in their skills with that type of application.

Thing # 12

I played around with the Alerts, Calendar, iGoogle, Notebook, and a little with the Web Album. My favorite would be the iGoogle application. It reminds me of my beloved MSN homepage, only a little different. The Calendar is neat, but I do good to keep up with my written calendar on my desk at school. It looks like it would be useful for someone that spent most of their day on the Internet. The Gooogle Notebook is another favorite. There are so many websites and articles that I read on a daily basis. Each one is very valuable, but I usually don't print all of them out. This application makes it easy to transfer information into a web document where it can be accessed later. This tool is something that needs to be a tab in your browser while you're going through Web 2.0 tools!

Thing # 11

I signed up for a few different blogs. My first blog to sign up for was Bloglines. It was one of the easiest to use and navigate around. I really like the main homepage where you can access any of your news feeds from that main page. Then, the detailed feed opens up in the next frame. You never lose your feed list. There are so many different blogs to choose from on Bloglines, it's hard to pick and choose the ones that I want to continue to read. My next favorite is Edublogs. The sign up process was very easy and user friendly. Technorati was my least favorite. During my sign-up experience, the website had technical issues and I wasn't allowed to access it anymore. If I can't accurately use the website, I won't choose to return.

Thing # 10

I've really enjoyed learning about RSS feeds, bloglines, and google readers. I'm always looking for a one-stop shop to get all my news, email, etc and this is the perfect place for that. I have a MSN homepage where my daily email is displayed and I can pick from a selection of things to display on my homepage. For this assignment, I chose to subscribe to Bloglines because it looked very user-friendly and accessible. I signed up for the following feeds: news, entertainment, fashion, food, and shopping. In my personal life, this kinda of app makes it so much easier to get your news and other informative items when it's all located in one place. This is valuable for teachers like myself that have very busy days with little time for themselves. It's a great time-saver that allows teachers to multi-task and save the hours in their day for other related items.

Thing # 4

Blogs and related discussion boards create a community in any situation. The interaction between any group of people establishes a sense of communication and involvement from any blogging atmosphere. Whether it's an online class, a group of teachers working in the same grade-level, or just a group of friends catching up on their daily lives, blogging creates this "private" community of people that can share in their daily experiences. As I read the articles related to commenting etiquette on blogs, I've learned several important things about blogging that I wouldn't have thought of before. Some of which are just naturally occuring, and others aren't so much. The article that I enjoyed reading the most was "The Ten Commandments of Blog Commenting". http://www.brownbaron.com/blog/2007/07/17/the-ten-commandments-of-blog-commenting/ This article was short, sweet, and to the point about the hidden rules behind posting a comment to someone else's blog. Some of the points that I found interesting were:

1. Read before you write.
2. Be polite.

These points are necessary when writing a blog. Sometimes I catch myself in a hurry to read through 50 blogs, but it's a requirement for me to read each one to get the full context of what that person is trying to say. If I stopped halfway, or just skimmed over it, I might miss several important points.

Some of my classmates' blogs that I've commented on so far:

1. Miss Lorrie Anne Cooksey - I commented on her blog because we both chose the same challenging habit and we both have to play around with technology rather than read a book about it.

2. Sara Kim - I commented on her blog because I really liked what she did with her photo in Thing # 8 and I like her thoughts on storing photos and using Flickr for your classroom needs.

3. Lynette Miller - We both have limited experience with Web 2.0 tools but we both find them so interesting and applicable to use in our classroom experiences.

4. Crystal Rickard - I was inspired by her post about helping others with their technology issues and trying to make her school more technology friendly.

Other Blogs that I've Commented On :

1. Katie Couric : anchor, reporter,...shooter?!? (www.technorati.com) - I searched for Entertainement blogs and I found this one about Katie Couric shooting her interviews while reporting.

2. Angelina Jolie : The Doll (www.fanmade.com) - When I came across the featured photo of this blog on the FanMade homepage, I just had to click on it and read it. This doll amazes me at how much it looks like the real actress. Who will they make into a doll next?

Thing # 9

I used Image Chef to play around with some images. I had a ton of fun looking around their website and looking at all the different things that I could do with my images. I selected the puzzle generator because I liked the way it looked. However, when I went to searching images to create my puzzle, I knew exactly which one I wanted to use. I used my official graduation photo from May 2008 because it symbolizes all of the different pieces of the puzzle that it took for me to graduate. This may be corny, but each puzzle piece represents a challenge (or assignment) that I had to complete in order to graduate. Once all of the puzzle pieces (with a few exceptions) were put together, then I had my final masterpiece (graduation). I'm very happy with my selection and I believe that I could use this generator to accentuate some of my children's photos for holidays, parties, and other special occasions.

http://www.imagechef.com

Thing # 8

I really enjoyed looking through the third-party sites that Flickr had to offer. I decided to play around with Crayon Box Experimetnal ColorPickr. This interactive site allows you to choose any color from an enermous color wheel and it displays a variety of photos that have been captured from the flickr images. I found that it's a great way to sort images by a very specific color. I chose a variety of red colors, and it seemed that every color turned up a new set of pictures. My favorite part about this tool was that you could click on any of the small thumbnail photos and it would send you directly to the larger image on the main flickr website. I could find this site very valuable in my classroom. I think it's so user-friendly that my students could use it.

Thing # 7

I really enjoyed looking at the pictures on Flickr. I am a a fool for pictures of flowers, and I came across this photo of cupcakes and flowers. It seems that the owner of this photo does her own flowers and provides cupcakes for weddings. When I came to this photo, I had trouble distinguishing between the flowers and the cupcakes. I love the colors in this photo. The dark background really captures the beautiful essence of the colors intertwined with one another. I've never used a photo hosting site before, but I can see how this website would be beneficial for use in my classroom to provide visual examples and illustrations for my students. I don't believe I would publish my own photos on this website because I






Photo by noverei's photostream - http://www.flickr.com/photos/noverei/

Link to the Actual Image URL :
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1yz9NUpq3jHdVRi95rrMpixnz-nJT06ijxaeZemvTNFLYJW6MtD8Mff2y8nV0OMSk7_vnMgR461tK9rxyCwXXtcpp74RkDQiGDBpMLNgAtTR3OJByWSQ-suXj9ne9KHYD6Fft9gWSXJkl/s1600-h/2823856335_7cde80fb21.jpg

Thing # 6

http://www.pandora.com/

The site that I chose to explore came from The Winners list. Pandora is an online website that allows you to have access to basically any genre of music for absolutely no cost, it's FREE! All you have to do is sign up, and pandora does the rest of the work. The website is based around "stations". You type in a particular artist or song, and it finds music from that artist and plays their music at random. It also includes similar artists in your station that it feels would appeal to you. You can tell the program if you like the song, or do not like the song. This website is very personalizable and I can't wait to start making my stations. I'm listening to it right now and it's very good music.

Thing # 5

As I read the articles on Web 2.0, I am astonished to see the differentiated opinions of how it is to be used in our daily lives. I enjoyed watching the What is Web 2.0? video because it pointed out the Web 1.0 trend, and how it evolved into Web 2.0. All of the tools that Web 2.0 has to offer is amazing, but it seems a little overwhelming at the same time. I have been briefly introduced to the different tools, wikis, blogs, and social networking sites in my graduate classes. However, I don't feel that I am very competent in using all that Web 2.0 has to offer.

School 2.0 means that over time, technology is going to become an enrichment tool that is essential to learning. (Article : New Literacies : Enrichment or Essential?) In the near future, classrooms are going to be full of technological opportunities to enhance the learning process. I know from personal experience that when I'm covering a social studies unit, I try to go and find a video from United Streaming or PowerMedia that will allow me to implement technology into my students learning. We watched a video on harvest/farming this past week and my students loved it! It was very kid-friendly and the information was relevant to their learning. I was very pleased with my tech selection for that particular day. I believe that schools of the future are going to need some improvement as far as their technological abilities are concerned. Most schools are lucky to have a computer lab, or even an individual computer in the clasroom. I think schools are going to need multiple computer labs with workstations located in various parts of the building. Schools will also need to host workshops to better prepare their teachers for the new and upcoming technology that will soon be used in schools everywhere.

Thing # 3

I've been brainstorming on ways that I could use my blog in my teacher education courses and in my classroom functions. In my teacher education program, my blog could be used in a variety of ways. My blog could enable me to communicate with my professor and my colleagues. It could serve as a means of reflection on my teaching experiences throughout the masters program. This could be a good place to share my thoughts about how I've implemented technology into my classroom since I've started my Instructional Technology program. In my own classroom, a blog could work wonders for my first-grade team. We have a school-wide telephone line, but we all have computers too! A blog could serve as a quick means of communication to share ideas, thoughts, questions, attachments, printables, e-mails from administration, etc. I can't wait to see what my fellow teachers think about it.

Thing # 2

My experience with creating my blog was relatively simple. When I began the project, I wasn't sure what to expect but I found the whole process surprisingly entertaining. I chose my blog name for my profession. I wanted something that would be easy to remember and suited my personality. I really enjoyed creating my avatar. I tried to create it to match my eyes, hair, and personality. I tried to pick out an outfit that looks like something I would wear to school. I am very conservative, so I didn't dress my avatar up very much. However, I love my chosen background with the kids swinging. I think I love my recess/chatting time as much as my kids do :)

Thing # 1

As I watched the 7 1/2 lifelong learning habits, I found a little bit of myself in all of the habits. However, some were closer to my own personal habits than others. All of the habits were very reasonable, but I found that Habit # 1 (Begin with the end in mind) is definetely the easiest habit for me to acquire and keep throughout my lifelong learning process. I've always lived (and learned) to find the rainbow with the pot of gold at the end of the road. Even as an undergraduate, I always looked forward to that final day (graduation) and that's what kept me going through all of the classes and challenges that I faced on that journey. I would have to say that Habit # 3 (View problems as challenges) would be the most difficult habit for me to acquire. As a first year teacher, I've been faced with several bumps in the road that have slowed me down just a notch. I've always came out of those challenges with a smile on my face, but some were quite difficult for me to get past. I believe that I need to begin to see these challenges as a learning opportunity that I WILL get past and continue on with my life as a teacher. For example, I've got 4/18 students in my class that come from hispanic families. One of which is a very limited english speaker. This student and his non-english speaking family has thrown me for a loop as a first year teacher. However, I've made some significant progress in my ability to get around the language barrier. For instance, I had an ELL translator sit in on our parent-teacher conference, and that allowed me to communicate with his mother; whereas, if I hadn't had the translator, it would have been very difficult for me to talk with her about her son and some of the progress that he had been making in my class this year. This student continues to surprise with me challenges everyday, but I do believe that after my first year is over, I will be a better teacher because of this particular student.

As I continue to play with Web 2.0, I am constnatly surprised with all the technological tools that it has to offer. I would love to learn how to effectively navigate through that giant system of tools and be able to implement those in my classroom to be a more effective first-grade teacher. When I was setting up this blog, I really didn't know what to expect. I was surprised by how easy it was to set it up and begin writing my first blog. It only took about five minutes for me to set it up, and I believe that I've been typing for longer that it took me to set the whole blog up.