Thing #5

The first article I read was Web 2.0: A Guide for Educators. This article explained how important the web has become in just a short period of time. It explained that people of the 21st century are now using the web for almost everything in their daily lives including social networking, business, and entertainment so education as well needs to jump on board. I really enjoyed this article and completely agree that as future educators we need to be able to use Web 2.0 to its advantages. Using web 2.0 will maximize resources not only for teaching, but for learning and driving innovation for students. It will do this by using new tools such as blogs, social bookmarking sites, podcasts, and RSS.

The next article I read was The Horizons Report. This article was very interesting to me because i am not familiar with very many technology tools that can be used in the classroom and this article explained many educational technology tools and how they can be applied in the classroom. One tool i found to be very interesting and that i had never heard of before was data mashups. These mashups were basically combinations of data from all kinds of different sources "mashed up" in a single tool for you to look at and interact and share with others. I thought this tool was very cool and can be useful for teachers to have and to share information with there students. It can also be fun to have for social networking, blogs, and mapping as well.

Both this articles really helped me understand the future of web 2.0 better and what school 2.0 will mean to me in the future. School 2.0 will be essicential to me as a teacher. Web 2.0 means different things to everyone. Some of the more common themes include communication, collaboration, and user-generated content. Web 2.0 is about providing a framework to facilitate people sharing information in new and dynamic ways, and as a teacher I think being able to do that and share that with your students will be more than important.

Thing #4

Commenting helps create a sense of community because they encourage discussion. Many people write blogs or on social networking sites just for the mere fact of getting feedback or comments in return. Commenting is important because it lets people know that you care. It gives people a reason to express their feelings and by you commenting it lets them know you understand and that their is a person behind the blog. Commenting also gives people a reason to return to your site, which in turn expands your interaction with that person.

One thing I found from "Your comment?" from the Blue Skunk Blog that I found really important about commenting is to say thank you when someone comments on your writing. Everyone does want their writing to be read or seen or else they would not haveO took the time to write it or post it on the internet in the first place, so if someone takes the time to read and post a meaningful comment on your blog, show them you are greatful for it and atleast respond even if it is just a simple thank you.
Another thing that i thought was important was to invite comments in your blog. If you are not getting the feedback you desire, invite them in your blog to leave comments or concerns for you to reply too. Also ask questions in your blog. Asking questions in your blog will always help you get higher numbers of comments because people will naturally want to answer your questions.
I am going to comment on some blogs now, I will be back to tell you what i thought about them later....

Im back!
One of the first blogs I commented on was Ariel Griffith's Thing 7. The was a great blog about her experiences with using flickr. She chose a picture of a groups of sorority girls because it was something that was important to her. In her blog, she talks about wings for wishes and how her sorority works to help grant atleast 2 wishes through the make a wish program by working at the wings for wishes here on compus in April. I could relate to this blog because I have also worked for wings for wishes through my job at zaxbys for 3 years, and it really is a great program, and im glad someone enjoys it as much as me.
http://agriffith3.blogspot.com/

The second blog I posted about was Rachel Jones's Thing 5. Her blog about Web 2.0 and its affects on the future of education was really good to me. I really enjoyed reading it because it was from a totally different perspective then mine. Technology to me has always been a neccesity, but for her, it has not. She says that she can remember in elementary school only using it to play games, and now it seems like people today can not go without it for a minute. I also really liked her idea of implementing internet safety into schools because people, espicially younger children really dont understand that as great as the internet is, is can also be very dangerous and I think we as teachers should make them aware of this.
http://keepingupwiththejones23things.blogspot.com/2012/02/thing-5.html

Thing #1

As I was watching the "Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners" I thought about each of the habits and how important they all are to be an effective learner. I wrote down each of the habits like the tutorial said to, and after thinking about it awhile I deciced that the hardest habit for me was was habit 3, which states "view problems as challenges". This habit is probably hardest for me because I deal with it on a daily basis at school. I get very overwhelmed with problems that I face and want to quit or stop trying or ask others for help instead of seeing the class or the problem as a challenge and doing all I can to overcome it and learn from it.

The easist habit for me was Habit 7, which was to teach/mentor others. There are many aspects of my life where i have to teach or help others. I am a mom, and everyone else who is a mom can tell you that you teach or mentor your kids on a daily basis. I am also a shift leader where i work, so it is my job as the team leader to help train and teach people new stuff about the business everyday. Teaching or helping others about stuff i know or have learned comes really easy to me and is something i love to do. Any chance i get to help somebody if i can i will.

Thing #3

Well like I said before in Thing # 2, I have never had a blog before but just from the little time I have used one I can think of many reasons they could be used in the classroom once I become a teacher. As we all know, or will learn from this class, our world is getting more and more technology based. Using the internet for blogs and forums for communication is really important for future students to know since it is already how over half the world is communicating with each other.

As a future K-6th grade teacher, I would want to set up a classroom blog and post things such as weekly writing topics for certain subjects and let the children get on the blog and post and discuss their ideas as a class.  I would also use a blog to communicate with parents, which I think is very important when teaching young children. This blog would include things such as a classroom calendar, general classroom rules and guidelines, and daily lessons plans to inform the parents of what we are working on at the time.

Thing #2

I just decided to use my name for my blog that way the class could learn it and recognize me when i write about my experiences with the class in my blog and so i could use it in the future when i am not just using it for school purposes.

I thought creating the blog was fairly easy, but that was mainly because we did it as a class and all worked together. If it was just me at home I would probably be crying lol. I thought the avatar was a little more challenging than setting up the blog as far as having to paste it to show up on your site but I had a lot of fun doing both. I have never had a blog before so all of this is new to me but I really love learning new things about the computer even if it takes me a little longer than most.

Setting up the avatar was definitely the funniest part. I did make my avatar look like me so the class would get a sense of what i look like when reading my blogs. My avatar has brown hair with blue eyes and glasses like me and is wearing jeans and high heels like me because i have a very girlie personality. I do plan on going back and playing around with my avatar some more but for the most part it was fairly easy and a lot of fun, which is why i am sure everyone enjoys the class so much.