Is it the End Already?

I can't believe this semester is already over. I can truly say I enjoyed this semester and especially this class. I have always enjoyed technology and learning new ways to use it, so this class was a great learning experience for me. I have learned so many new resources that I look forward to using in my own classroom. Some of my favorites were Animoto, Delicious, and Gliffy. I think most of the resources we used I will use in my own class. I set up an email account just for all the websites we had to register for, but I think this will be an easy way to keep up with all the sites. I really enjoyed this blog as a whole. I don't think I would change anything about it. I look forward to being able to keep up with these websites and also Web 2.0 to see what new things come along.

Thing 23

http://plcmcl2-about.blogspot.com/

I found this website while searching 23 things in Google. I chose to use this website because it has many links to reliable websites that talk about Learning 2.0. I plan on using the creative commons tutorial that I have made along with my knowledge of creative commons to make sure that all the resources I use in my classroom are legal.

Thing 22

Math

Livebinders I created 3 Binders to help me organize some websites that I have found in the past. Creating these binders will help me to stay organized an be able to easily find the websites that I am looking for. I created a binder for education, math, and geometry. These binders will all be helpful as a math teacher to find resources to use in my class. I think Livebinders would be good for students when working on a big research project to organize their websites to be easily accessible later.

Thing 21

I am not going to lie, when I started seeing other classmates posting these videos on their blogs, I was a little worried about having to figure out how to make a video. Animoto made making a video of pictures so easy. I was amazed at how easy this was to use. I thought it would be hard to put my own pictures and music in the video but I was wrong. I think this website would be great for making videos for special occasions or even in a classroom. Being a math teacher it would be simple to make my own video of graphs or shapes to show the class so they would actually pay attention. Making a video would also be good to show progress on a project that the students may be working on. Animoto has many uses and I plan on trying out this website in my own classroom and sharing it with others.

Here is the video that I made.


Make a video of your own at Animoto.

Thing 20

                         


I love Youtube! I have been on Youtube for awhile already today, listening to music and watching some videos. Youtube is probably one of my favorite websites. I love Youtube because you can find a video for almost any subject. I chose to put this video in my blog because my unit that I have been working on all semester has been on polygons and this video goes along with it. Just like this video, I plan on using Youtube to find other videos that could be used in my classroom. Using videos would be a great review or learning tool for the students that are a more visual learner.

Thing 19

Visit TeacherPop

Teacher Pop was a really neat site for teachers. It is a great place for teachers to go to share lessons or just talk to other teachers. I really liked this site to be able to get new ideas from other teachers. 

Besides Teacher Pop, Facebook, and Twitter, I am also a member of Pintrest. I think that Pintrest is another great website for teachers. I have found many different ideas of crafts and activities that I would like to incorporate into my class one day.

Thing 18

Social Networking websites have gotten significantly more popular lately. I have been a member of both Facebook and Twitter for a long time. However, I am not a fan of twitter. I don't find any interest in keeping up with people on that level. I like Facebook though. I can keep up with friends that live in overseas without have to pay a costly phone call. Facebook and Twitter also has some advantages for teachers instead of just personal use. As a teacher Facebook is a good source to keep up with other teachers for insight when creating lessons. Also parents could be your friend to be able to contact you as a teacher for important information regarding the classroom or their child. Twitter is a good resource for teachers to collaborate with other teachers or teaching websites for ideas on lessons.

As much as I enjoy Facebook, I think it can be used for the wrong reasons. As a teacher, you have to be careful what you post on your Facebook when you have co-workers or student's parents as a friend. There is no need for a teacher, who is a role model, to post about their weekend outing or Friday night fun. Facebook and Twitter need to be used responsibly when you have many people that look up to you.

Thing 17

Delicious was a very neat website that can help you organize websites that you want to bookmark for later. I really enjoyed this website. It is very easy to use and to store websites that you want to save for later. I was actually thinking the other day that I needed to condense down my bookmarks menu on my computer. With delicious I can do that. I went though and quickly and easily moved all of my teaching websites that were saved on my bookmarks menu to delicious. I selected a few tags for the websites to make it easy to find them in the future. I think I will definitely use this website as a teacher. I plan on using this website more as I work on my degree and hopefully by the time I begin teaching I will have a lengthy list of websites to use for my classroom. I hope that as I use Delicious, more teachers will begin to use it and we can share our sites together.

Thing 16

I chose to look at iGoogle, 30 Boxes, Ta Da List, and Engrade.

I really enjoyed using iGoogle as my start screen for a little while. It was easy to see all of my apps on one screen. I could see my mailbox, calendar, quotes, the date and time, and even the weather on one screen. I thought it was very easy to use because you could add or delete apps as you wanted. Even school age kids would be able to navigate iGoogle and be able to customize the start screen for their needs.

Next I chose to try out 30 Boxes. I also thought this website was very easy to navigate. It was easy to add events to the calendar and you could even set up a to-do list on there if you needed to. I liked that you could share the calendar with people. I think this would be good to use in my classroom to share what we are going to be doing in class with the parents.

I was not a fan of Ta-Da Lists. The website was easy to use and easy to sign up for but it just seemed to simple. I don't think I will ever get on this website to make a to-do list when it does the same thing I can do with a pencil and paper and without the internet. It was not a bad site, I guess it just did not have anything different to offer for me.

The last site I explored was engrade. I chose this website because when I was in high school, the teachers started to use it right before I graduated so I wanted to see what it was all about. I really enjoyed the site actually. Teachers, students, and parents can all interact on this website. Engrade makes it easy for a students and parents to keep up with their grades and messages from the teachers. I think I will use this website in my own classroom to make things easier not only for me but also the students and parents.

Thing 15

I found the wiki to be pretty awesome actually. When I started this assignment I was skeptical about wikis but once I found out  how easily it was to edit, I was shocked. I really like the whole idea of the wiki. It would very useful in a classroom for assignments for the students, where the students can ask questions and help each other find answers. It could also be helpful for parents with questions or a get back to school list for the parents. I could see myself using a wiki in my classroom since it was so easy and user friendly.

Thing 14

I chose to explore Bubbl.us and Flowchart.com at first. I wasn't able to figure out Flowchart.com or at least I didn't see the significance in it, so I looked at Gliffy. I was more happy looking at this website. I enjoyed how many different things you could choose to make. There were so many different choices from Venn diagrams to even floor plans for a house. I definitely think I could see myself using this is my classroom. Making Venn diagrams are helpful in math so this would be a good alternative to just drawing one. This website would have been beneficial several weeks ago when I had to make a Venn diagram for a class.

I also made a flowchart on Bubbl.us. I just made something simple to see how it worked and I was kinda surprised how easy it was. All you had to do was hot command+enter to create a new line or tab to add another point to that line. You could also change the colors of the different points to prevent confusion.

I really enjoyed both of these sites. They were both easy to use and I think my students would be able to use these in my class. I look forward to using these again whether it be in college or my
own classroom.

Thing #13

I explored the Zoho writer and Google Docs. As I explored Zoho I found it very similar to Microsoft Word. I did not find it hard to use but I am use to using Word so I think I would use word instead of Zoho. However, I enjoyed using Google Docs. I made this picture above with the Google Docs drawing tool. I made this picture to go along with all the lessons I have written. I think that not only the drawing tool in Google Docs would be useful but the presentations and spreadsheets would also be useful. I think I  would use Google Docs in my own classroom. I think the students would enjoy using the drawing tools to create study guides for tests and I think I would use Google Docs to create documents and post them online so if a student is absent they can look online and find their homework.