Thing Nine

I always wanted a personalized license plate. I believe this tool would be great to use on PowerPoint presentations to make the lesson being taught more fun. It can also be used to make kids feel special. For example, if it was someone's birthday, you could create something to be displayed on the smart board with that student's name on it.

Thing Eight

This took me a minute to figure out how to post. I am finally getting the hang of this. I choose the word "mommy" because it puts a smile on my face. I love hearing this from my daughter. To be honest with you, hearing her call me "mom" kind of breaks my heart. I feel like she is growing up way to fast. I think this would be a great idea for using in a classroom. It would be neat to have the students create letters from some of their own art work and post the images online for others to use. I don't mind sharing pictures online as long as I know who has access to look at them. You never know these days...

Thing Seven

 

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/flicknwiththegrahamfamily/

I don't know about anyone else but I feel like I am a little behind on times when it comes to this new technology. It took me several years just to get on facebook and now it seems that I'm learning a new site everyday in our class with Dr. Wall (thank you). I'm honestly not sure if I would use flickr in the classroom or not. I thought that a facebook account would be a good tool to use for the class especially getting parents involved with their children's education. I had a hard time with the flickr website. I have mentioned in an earlier post that I live out in the middle of nowhere and my internet is super slow. I'm sure if I had faster speed then I could explore more and see what it has to offer.

Thing Six

As I am sitting her reading the directions on Thing Six, I chose www.pandora.com to see what kind on music was available. My four year old daughter is sitting behind me on my bed and I am trying to get her to take a nap. Pandora has children's music and in less than 3 minutes, I had some of her favorite music playing and she fell asleep. This site will be bookmarked and used very often.

Thing Five

What does School 2.0 mean to me? To me, it means that I have to catch up on some of the  new technology coming out. I think that it is wonder to use technology to learn in the classroom. Example, PowerPoint Presentations, Blogging, things to that nature. I just hope that it does not "take over the world". If we think about it, when we call a customer service hotline to get help with something, what happens? We do not get a live operator. We get a computer. Sometimes it's ok, other times I want to talk with someone. Same goes for education. Is it going to get to the point when we will not need teachers in the class room, just computers?
I believe that most of the technology that was shown in these links are helpful when it comes to education, I just hope that it does not get too crazy.

Thing Four

Commenting helps create a sense of community and interaction because it shows an interest in the subject that is being discussed. It shows that the reader cares and understands what is being posted and can help others by giving them ideas of a different way of looking at things. 

Two points that I found interesting from the readings about commenting were “You become part of the life of the blogger you are reading” and  “Only 1 out of every 100 Readers Comment on your Blog”. 

Reading a blog is like reading a book. Some are good and some are bad. If you enjoy a blog, then you can relate to it more. If you do not enjoy a blog, you might have something to say but it may not be good.  If one out of every 100 readers’ comments on your blog, that would make me want to write something worth reading.

The following are the names of the 5 blogs from our group that I selected to read and comment about.

1.      Rittenberry’s 23 Things

2.      M Donahue’s 23 Things

3.      Bellafatto’s Blog

4.      JRichardson Explores 23 Things

5.      Blair’s 23 Things

6.      Jessica Shaw’s 23 Things

7.      23 Stehle Hoots

I chose the three of the seven because I have had a class with them and was interested in what they had to say. The other two I chose randomly. The comments I left were positive and agreeing with what the blogger had to say.

Thing Three

I was thinking about some ways that a blog could be used in the education field and came up with several ideas. One of the main ideas was basically using it like facebook but strictly for teachers. Homework assignments can be posted on it, calendars, projects and anything that pertains to the classroom. Several parents have a hard time getting off of work to attend parent teacher conferences and things to that nature. They can stay up to date with school activities by reading the class room blogs.

Thing Two

I decided to choose an easy name form my posting name and name of my blog. I just used names that I have used in the past for other log ins. My experience in creating my blog was not so good. I live out in the middle of nowhere and my internet is not the best. I have been working on my blog for about two hours and think I would have enjoyed it more if I did it with faster internet. It seemed easy to do but I needed more speed.

My avatar reflects my personality and looks like me. I’m a blue jean, t-shirt kind of girl and that is the outfit I chose for my character. What you see is what you get.

Thing One

1. Begin with end in mind
I am beginning my journey with the end in mind. After taking six years off, I decided to come back to school. The end of this journey that I am on now is graduation. After graduation I start another journey, my career.

2. Accept responsibility for your own learning

Who else would be responsible for my learning? I am the one who wants to be a teacher. I am the one who decided to go back to school. I am the one who is suppose to be in class everyday to take notes and listen to the instructor. It is my responsibility to learn what I need to know to become a teacher. If I don't like it, then I should quit. But I love it, and I will never quit. This is my dream and I will do whatever it takes to learn what I need to know.

3. View Problems as challenges
I will have to say that this topic is my biggest problem. I started at APSU back in 2001. Since that time I have had several things come up in my life that slowed me down on getting my degree, or so I thought they did. Instead of looking at these problems as challenges, I stressed too much and put my education on hold. I now have a fresh start and I will face any problem as a challenge. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.  

4. Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
I am really back at second guessing myself, I freak out when I take a text and I always think the worst. I took a quiz in a class the other day and had no idea what to do. I sat there for a few minutes and asked the teacher what exactly she wanted on this piece of paper she handed me. I could tell her everything she said in class that day and I knew that the information she went over was on the quiz. I got an email the other day and she said I made 100%. :)

5. Create your own leaning toolbox
In all honesty I had no idea what this was about. Too me, everyone will have different "tools" in their tool box. No everyone learns the same and have different ways approaching topics. I am interested to learn what other peoples ideas are for their "toolbox".

6. Use technology to your advantage
I am glad that I am taking Dr. Wall's class. I was introduced to Blogger this summer and I thought I know everything about it. Today, I learned how to post an Avatar of myself and how to change the layout of my page. There are so many other options that I can choose from to change my page and I'm looking forward to exploring these.


7. Teach/Mentor others
I started to volunteer my time this summer to help people in my class with their studies. I also have a four year old daughter that I teach/parent. We read books, play games and do several other activities that will help her become a great student when she gets to school. Today was my first parent teacher conference for my daughter's Pre-K class. I was told that she scored highest in her class with 100% on the testing they do to determine if she is learning at the right speed. They said that she should be reading a book by Christmas. This mommy is a very happy camper!

7.5 Play
I play everyday. Weather it be a board game, outside activity, school work or something else, I find that my "play time" is my "me time" and it helps me to relax, recollect and take control of what needs to be done.