reflections of the 23 things

In doing this activity, I learned a lot about a bunch of different resources that I did not know were available. Some of them I can see myself using in my classroom, and some I honestly don't. Some of them left me feeling more confused after I tried to figure them out than I was from the start. I believe many other non traditional students can agree with me on the confusion aspect. As non traditional students, most of us did not have access to any of these resources while in school. Hopefully now that I had an introduction to these, hopefully I can work with some of the tools I liked more and get more comfortable with them and use them to my advantage when I start teaching.

Thing 20

Youtube is another one that I also use on a regular basis. Youtube is great for finding videos of pretty much anything that you could want (and some you don't). I have used youtube in my everyday life to find tutorials of how to do things, in particular when I need to learn something new on my sewing machine. It is so much easier to watch someone do something to learn than just to read it out of an instruction book.The videos I can see myself using the most are probably science and math videos. One that would be really helpful is a animation of DNA. it describes it so much better than pictures in the book can because you can see what is happening. There are so many videos like this that can enhance your lessons.

Thing 21

It is a neat idea to make videos to music with this site, but I feel like teaching sixth graders for example, would require more than a 30 second video for anything, and I don't want to have to pay for anything. I can see myself using this to make little cutesy videos of my husband and me. Our wedding pictures would make a good video to share with our family that couldn't make it to the wedding. Although sending it now would be about four years to late. I think I may use this to compile a video from the vacation we are planning on this summer because that would be better than posting a bunch of pictures to facebook. I don't really see myself using this in a classroom though.

THing 19

i am still waiting to be accepted to the teacher pop group, for some reason I am having issues with that. Not sure why, probably a user error. I will do the assignments involving that as soon as I can. But for now, I will talk about the other social media site I like, goodreads. I had to join Goodreads for another class but I actually enjoy the site. As a self proclaimed book nerd I am always looking for good books to read and this website is dedicated to talking about books. Readers can submit comments on books and rate books so you can pick your next read.

Thing 23

Creative commons is great because it takes the guess work out of trying to get all of the correct permissions to use something. The permission is already granted, and you just have to follow the guidelines that are given.I had no idea about creative commons before this class and thought as long as I cited everything, I was good to go. well, I guess I was wrong. it will be important to teach my students about creative commons because they need to learn to respect the work of individuals. Kids can be bad about taking credit for others work even by accident.

thing 22

teaching technology

This is my helpful technology binder. I have dedicated this binder to lesson plan ideas. Livebinder seems like a helpful tool because I can organize websites into catagories. I really should have named this one lesson plans, but i wasn't really sure what I was going to do with it until I got into it. I can see using this to organize notes and worksheets even for my students so they can view anything that we have gone over in class. it can also be helpful to make sure parents have access to everything also. As a teacher, I can look at other live binders and get ideas for my classroom.

Thing 18

I already have a facebook account as most people seem too. I have had people try to get me to join twitter and I have not and have no plans of getting a twitter account. It seems redundant to me to have both. they can be useful to communicate to parents and I am already in several groups here at austin peay to keep up with need to know information.

Thing 17

I really don't see myself using delicious after doing this blog. It's not that I don't see the usefulness of a site like this, It's just it seems to me that after looking at so many search engines and organization sites, I am more unorganized and scattered around than before. I have the Diigo account and will use it to see the websites my classmates find useful and i really prefer pinterest or google to find useful information. I really think by this point I am simply becoming overwhelmed with various accounts that seem to do the same things.Being able to search by tags is the one benefit I see of this over pinterest or a google search so results can be much more pinpoint of what you are looking for. I have used stumble upon just for phone as a smart phone app and enjoyed it for entertainment, but I don't really see using it as an educational tool personally.

Thing 16

YAY! one I am familiar with! Finally, having an android phone which uses google, I actually use the calender on a regular basis. Although it is great and sometimes being able to have an electronic device go off when you have something to do helps, I honestly prefer the post it note on my fridge method as opposed to online calenders. They are very time consuming to me. I have to log on to my computer, log on to my google account, create alarms and events and hope they actually go over and the reminder will go off. In the time this takes i could fill my fridge with post it notes that I know I will see many times a day because I am always going to the fridge. The one that I really like that is not on this list though, is one I use at home called grocery IQ, you put your grocery list in it and it organizes it into sections and looks for coupons for those items. This one is worth my time and I use it all the time. As far as online calenders...I will be sticking to my sticky notes. :)

Thing 15

I think wikis can be a very helpful classroom tool. Any sort of networking site is helpful because it is an easy way to get information to everyone who needs it and to allow parents or other teachers to provide immediate feedback. I think the most convenient tool in using a wiki is the ability to quickly receive and provide feedback. I tried playing around with the sandbox feature and actually had a lot of trouble. I am sure I made it more complicating than neccesary as I tend to do with technology. I think I may have edited some stuff I didn't mean to and have no idea what or if I added anything on my own. I need some work on this, but I think it could be helpful once I better understand it.

Thing 13

My favorite of these was Gliffy.com. I liked how there were many different charts you could use and it gave examples of each. It was easy to navigate because everything was right there on the side bar. It would be useful in the classroom not only for me to make diagrams for my students but for my students to complete assignments. Having said that, the one I actually used was the mind mapping one. I had my study guide for one of my midterms with me and decided to make an easier to read study guide. I like the color coding to keep things organized and easy to see.

Thing 11

I found the google blog search the easiest to use simply because I am used to using the google search engine. I was able to fairly easily find blogs that I liked using the suggested search terms in the 23 things. I was also able to search for some blogs for outside interests such as cooking and crafting blogs. The other tools given on here were confusing to me and after playing around with them, I still don't quite get it. My favorite way to find a blog though is still using pinterest. There are so many on pinterest and they are seperated by catagories so it is easy to explore what you are looking for.