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I learned a ton of things by doing these 23 things. There are so many tools out there that are beyond helpful for teachers. Many of the things we had to do, I had never heard of before, so it was definitely a learning experience. My favorite thing had to be Thing 21, the Animoto one. I loved creating that short clip. It was very easy and fun and something you can keep for ever and reflect back on. I did not expect to learn so much by doing these 23 things, but I ended up learning lots. I think the only thing I would do differently if I was giving these 23 things to my students is assign each thing a due date so that the students do not procrastinate then have to do all of the things at the last second. Many of the things I will be able to use in my classroom so it is very helpful from the teacher aspect of things. Overall, this was a great learning experience for me!

Thing 23!!!!!!!

The 23 Things was based off of Learning 2.0 created by Helene Blowers. It was based off Stephen Abram's article 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year. I found this in the about 23 things Dr. Anne Wall created. Creative commons is a great way for teachers to use ideas of different people.  It is great because the author or publisher gets to choose how much he/she wants to share. The creative commons symbol is cc with a circle around it, which means you can use it but sometimes may still have to give appropriate credit to that person.

Thing 22

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=694625
I think the idea of an online binder is awesome. Instead of having to print off all the websites I like and put them in a binder that I have to keep up with, I can just put them in an online binder. It is very easy to add things and create new binders. It took me a second to understand how to edit these binders, but after a little whole I got the concept. The binder embedded above is called English education. It is different things I an use as a teacher to help teach mu students. The second one is called English Games. It is a binder that contains different websites for fun games that will build English skills. The third one is called Teacher Advice. It is a binder that contains websites that give advice to teachers. Overall, this activity is a great thing to use, especially for teachers who like to keep everything.

Thing 21

My Beautiful Baby
I really enjoyed making this video. It was really easy. This is one of the things I really enjoyed, may be my favorite. This could be used in the classroom as well. You could have a video of pictures of the class or activities they have done. I could link the video to the facebook page made for my class that way their parents could watch as well. It is also a good way to reflect on memories. Overall, I really enjoyed making this and definitely plan to use it again! 

Thing 20

I chose this video because it is important for teachers to remember they are making a difference and to not be discouraged. The video just plays music and has words to read, but this video is all about the message it sends. It is important to remember we are teaching future doctors, engineers, teachers, and much more. Therefore, it is important to make a positive impact on these children's lives.

I love youtube. There are so many videos available. You can pretty much type in anything and it will give you a video of it. I use youtube all of the time. Although I have only put a video on youtube like twice, for one of my math classes, it is not hard to do at all. I even included a video of a noun song that I got off youtube in my unit plan. There are many different ways to incorporate it into the classroom. There are also videos that tutor students in math or English. The videos show children a different perspective on understanding the things they find challenging in school. Youtube is definitely a good thing and will be incorporated into my classroom.

Thing 19

As naive as this sounds, I have never heard of any of these social networks besides twitter and facebook. However exploring all of these new websites was very interesting. Some of them have great potential. These are great ways to communicate with people that have things in common with you. I signed up for TeacherPop. This is a great site to share and get ideas from different teachers. This is especially good for new teachers who may not lots of help in their first year of teaching. This websites shares incite amongst teachers in order to help each other because we will always be learning. None of us will ever be perfect teachers. Plus the world is constantly changing and this is a great way for teachers to keep each other updated. It is definitely a cite I may use in the near future.

Thing 18

I have a facebook and twitter account. However, I do not feel comfortable linking mine to here. In my personal opinion I like facebook better. I have a twitter account but I never get on it. However, I am on my facebook everyday. When using twitter, you have to constantly tweet, or write what you are thinking or doing, but I am not the best at that. However, facebook is good for other things than just updating your statuses. You can have conversations with friends, find friends, update statuses, share pictures and videos, there is just a ton of different things you can do. Plus it is free, as well as twitter. All of that is just my personal opinion, but many people like twitter better, so I guess it is just people's personal opinions and what they like better. I can definitely see myself having a separate facebook for my students and their parents. It is a good way to communicate with parents, share pictures, and keep them updated with what we are doing in class. Plus all of the students and parents love facebook so it is a great way to stay modern and connect with the kids in things that they really like to do, such as facebook and twitter.

Thing 17

Creating a delicious account was very easy. Not much information was required when creating an account, which made it a quick and easy setup, plus it is free! Therefore, every student could access it as long as they have internet access. Delicious is an awesome site because it provides so much information. You can search pretty much anything you want and there is at least one thing found. I also like the fact that it shows you how many people have "saved" it. That helps you know if it is a good product or not. This would definitely be a quick and easy way to tag your students or other teachers with different things they may need such as projects or teachertube.

Thing 16

1. I choose igoogle. It was very easy to set up because it is connected to my gmail account. This is something I would definitely consider setting as my home page. There is so many things you can add to it that benefit you as an individual. Everyone may not need a calculator online, however, I use one all of the time because I hardly ever carry a calculator with me.

2.The online calendars could be useful to me because I am constantly writing in my austin peay planner. However, with the online calendar, I do not have to carry areoun my planner all of the time. I can just get online and look at my calendar there.

3.The to-do-lists are also a great tool for me. I continuously make lists. I  find lists make it easier for me to keep up with things and what is due when. I have about 5 to-do-list on paper right now concerning different things, but with this I can just put them all online.

4.I chose the calendar, to-do-list, calculator, weather, date and time. There are all kinds of things to add to my wall. I would recommend all of the things I said to anyone. However, some of the other things I just added for my pleasure, such as hangman the game!

Thing 15

The wiki sites were kind of confusing for me. Group projects within your class may be a good way to incorporate wikis into the classroom though because anybody can go in and edit it. In college Wikipedia is not an appropriate sit to use because all of it may not be truthful. Therefore, I would not want my students to use a wiki to rely on for information just like wikipedia is unreliable. I would not want to use this to give information to my student's parents either because anyone can go in and edit what I put on there. If I wanted to keep my student's parents involved I would create a classroom blog they could look at. In which, parents and other people can comment on the things I write but cannot edit the things I write.

Thing 14

Bubbl.us was the mind map I chose to explore. This site was very easy to use and would be easy for students of any age to use. It is easy to understand as well. It is great for organization. I could have my students use this in English on the papers they have to write.

The flow chart I chose to look at was gliffy.com. It is a site that is a little more difficult to use than bubbl.us but it would also be useful in the classroom. I do not think all aged students could use this though. Middle school aged students and up could, but I think it may be too difficult for elementary aged students to use. However, there are many things teachers can use this for such as:schedules, charts, floor plans and many more.

Thing 13

The first thing I did was create a zoho account. Creating the account was very easy. However exploring through the zoho writer was very confusing. There was no directions and could not figure out where to create a document. So it was definitely something I would not enjoy using.
The second thing I did was explore google docs. It was very easy to navigate and had clear directions on what to do. I created a document which was easy, and you do not even have to create an account. I would definitely choose google docs over zoho writer.
Having options that are quick and easy in today's world are much more convenient than having to sign into an account figure out where to go with lack of directions. I would definitely encourage my students to use google docs before zoho writer.

Thing 4

From what I read, commenting is important because everyone wants to know  that their stuff is being read, because if they didn't they wouldn't be posting it on the internet. It also creates a sense of community.   Some of the rules to leaving comments include: write a meaningful comment, if you have a blog share some about yourself, and remember the power of words, just to name a few.

I commented on L. Oliphant's 23 Things, The Brennan Breeze, AshMiller's 23 Things, JRichardson Explores 23 Things, and 23 Things with Ms. Davis,

I liked L. Oliphant's 23 Things: Thing 8 because I really liked her idea of using word images as spelling words. I think that would be a great way for children to remember spelling words.

I loved the picture The Brennan Breeze made with her Image generator and the fact the she used an inspirational quote to make it. It is definitely one to hang up in the classroom!

I chose to comment on AshMiller's 23 Things because I loved the picture she found and we also agreed about Flickr.

I commented on JRichardson Explores 23 Things, because I loved her idea of using a classroom blog for the parents to read!

I commented on 23 Things with Ms. Davis because I loved her point about connecting a class blog with another class from another country! That would be awesome!

Thing 7

 I chose to just explore Flickr and not actually make an account. There are some amazing photos that I viewed on this website. It would be a great way to have students find a photo that interested them and then describe the picture using as many adjectives as they can.  It could also be used in art class for students to draw the picture that best interests them.  It could also be used for students to use their imagination and write a story describing the picture or write a story from the characters perspective. There is a ton of things that pictures could be used for. I found this photo by typing in animals into the search bar and i saw this one and thought it had great colors and was an overall great picture so I decided to use it.  

Thing 12

http://translate.google.com/#en/es/I%20love%20Laila%20Marie%20to%20the%20moon%20and%20back. Google translate is awesome especially if you have a student or a student's parents who cannot speak English. I chose to write about my child and get it translated into Spanish but there is also other languages to choose from. It would also be very helpful if you were in a foreign country and needed to translate a sign or something like that. 

https://www.google.com/calendar/render?pli=1
The second Google tool I chose was the Google calendar. It was very easy to set up and went step by step and even gave you helpful tips.  As a teacher this would be very useful to be sure and keep up with all the events you have on your schedule.  It also keeps me organized which is very important to me.  It is very easy to add events and gives you hourly times to be sure and make the event at the right time and even warns you ahead of time. Overall, this calendar is something I find very useful. 

Thing 11

Looking for blogs through the cites that were suggested were pretty easy.  The google blog search was very easy.  All you had to do was type in a key word to the normal looking google page and it would pull up the different types of blogs with the key words you used.  However, the topix.net did not work well from my computer at home because a firewall came up so therefore I could not access it. Then the last suggested way to search for blogs was Technorati Tutorial which also very easy to use.  All you had to do was type in a key word as well and it would bring up different blogs you could follow that contained that key word. So both the suggested cites that I got to work were easy. 

Thing 10

The RSS was super easy to make. It was also very easy to subscribe to the different things I wanted to keep up with.  I subscribed to some of the ones that were suggested to us but the other ones I just typed in key words that I wanted to follow and found very interesting things. One of the ones I followed is a women's basketball one. I love basketball and I am a basketball coach at Dickson Middle School, so I thought I would follow something to do with basketball and found a good one.  I watched a video that was posted about Pat Summitt who was one of the best basketball coaches ever and a huge inspiration of mine.  I really enjoyed subscribing to things that interested me and is definitely something I may keep up with. It is also a good way to get helpful tips about becoming a teacher which is another one I decided to subscribe to. 

Thing 9

  
http://www.images-graphics-pics.com/signs/smilies/smiley-faces.asp?page=1                          
http://www.images-graphics-pics.com/signs/fancy-fonts/?text=AMELIA+&size=medium&alphabet=happy-face-smilies

The generators are a good way to make labels for things or student's names or signs.  There is many different ways I can use generators in the classroom. It is also a very easy process. All I had to do was type in what I wanted the message to say and choose the face I wanted to have then push the button and it made the sign for me pretty fast. It is also something fun for the students to do if they needed a sign or a campaign add for homecoming queen or something like that. I enjoyed using the generator. I had never used one before, so it was a fun and easy process.

Thing 8

I used spell with Flickr which was created by Erik Kastner.  All I had to do was type what I wanted it to spell then it would pop up in different pictures.  I could also change the letters to find ones that I liked better.  This would be a good way to incorporate rules and things into the classroom. I could also use it as signs within the classroom.  It was very easy to figure out how to use this site and would be beneficial and creative all at the same time.  I like the idea of sharing photos online. I have a pinterest account and I absolutely love it. Flickr is something new to me, but I still think it is a good way to show off talents and discover ideas. 

Thing 6

I chose to look at youtube http://www.youtube.com/ which is a site I am somewhat familiar with.  I use youtube all the time to watch music videos and I have also had to use it for one of my classes. I think it is a great way for people to find videos to use. For instance, I am going to be an English teacher and I am going to have to teach parts of speech, so I looked up a video that was a rap song about parts of speech which would be a good way to hook the kids and get them interested in what they are going to learn. I also thought it was a great way to incorporate teaching into my online class that I was taking. I had to record myself teaching a lesson then upload it to youtube and my teacher then watched and graded it.  Youtube is just a great way to show case things and an easy way to find useful videos as well. 

Thing 5

School 2.0 is something that is becoming more and more popular.  For instance writing this blog is one aspect of School 2.0. As advanced as technology is becoming I definitely think it should be incorporated into the school system. One of the articles said school systems would be at risk if they do not incorporate all this new technology.  However, I think it is going to be essential for teachers to become as familiar as possible with all this new technology and stay up to date because all the kids will leave the teachers in the dust if they don't.  Schools are trying to incorporate more and more technology into the system now, but in the future I think it will be even more so incorporated.  We will add new technologies that will help students and make it easier for them and the teachers.  I think we are really only beginning to see technology in schools. 

Thing Three

Considering the fact that I want to teach English to middle schoolers, a blog would be very affective in my calss.  Having them write in a blog would help them practice typing, practicing writing down how they feel, and introduce them to technology.  I would have them write about different things in their blogs.  For example, I could have the right a short persuasive speech or have them just tell me about their day. I could also have them blog about what they learned in my class today or what they may have questions about. This a great waya to get the more quiet or shy students to open up and it is a way for the teacher to get to know the students or vise versa, the students to get to know the teacher.

Thing Two

I found the creation of the blog to be lengthy and somewhat difficult.  I have never created a blog before, so it was definitely a new thing for me.  However, I like to write, so I think I am going to enjoy this experience.  My avatar creation was fun and entertaining though.  I tried to create it to look like me, but it didn't turn out to be my twin.  The options that were available to not fit my description too well.  It does have the same hair color, eye color and skin color, so it does have many similarities.  In choosing a name, I just put my own name I didn't want something difficult, so I made it simple and easy for me to remember! Overall, I think I will enjoy this experience by the end of the semester. 

Thing One

After reading and listening to these 7 and a half habits, I found them to be very easy yet inspiring. Each habit is pretty easy to remember and pretty easy to apply. The easiest one for me is probably Habit 1 Begin with the end in mind.  This is easy for me because I am constatntly trying to look at the end results. However, the short term goals are a little bit more difficult for me to concentrate on.  The hardest habit for me to apply would probably be Habit 7 and a half which is play.  I find it very difficult to take the time away from work or school work to relax and enjoy myself or to detox so to say from the overwelming work load.  Taking the time to play would probably help me be less stressed and it is definitely a habit I need to incorporate into my life.