Is It the End or Only the Beginning?

Some of my favorite exercises was learning about everything Google had to offer. I always thought Google was simply a search engine, and now I know it’s defiantly not. At the start of this program, I did not think I was going to have fun doing all the activities. I was so wrong! A lot of the “things” were so much fun! On top of fun, I can see my self using some of these programs in my classroom one day. I know for sure I’m going to have a blog for my classroom. It’s such a great idea that I never would have thought of with out this. I think it would have been neat if on a couple of the “things” we picked what we wanted to blog about. Like doing a website of the day. Blog about really interesting website we found and how we would use them in our classroom one day.

Thing #23

Creative Commons is such an important thing that very one should know about, but in reality, I’m sure a lot of people on this college campus still don’t know what it is. I know I have done it before simply with out thinking, but it’s not fair to take someone’s work without giving them credit for making it. How would you feel if you spent a really long time creating something and someone else copy and pasted it, and just said it was there’s? I’m sure I wouldn’t be very happy. Creative Commons is great for teachers for that reason. Now I’ll know the symbols to look for on web pages. I’ll also teach my students how this is a serious topic and not just to think it’s not a big deal.

Thing 22

Livebinders is a great program and I can see how it would be very helpful in a classroom. It would take away the stress of forgetting a website you wanted to go back and use one day in class. It is also a great way to stay organized, which is always helpful. I made three folders. My first one is Technology, the second is Games, and I know they were all supposed to be educational, but my third binder is Cooking. It’s so cool how the whole webpage is there and you don’t have to even click a link. In my technology binder I included Animoto and Flicker, along with Google Calendar. In my Games binder I added the website I did for website of the day and Education.com. And last in my cooking binder I added Tasty Kitchen, because ever since I got on there the other day, I can’t get my self to leave. This was a really enjoyable Thing to do.

Thing 21

I really loved using Animoto to make a video. I upload a hand full of picture from my trip to London over Spring break. The first couple pictures are of me and the rest are of places I went. It was so much fun! I already want to go back! Making this video was really fun too. And a lot easier than I thought it would. It was as simple as uploading pictures and you were just about done. I was defiantly use this website more offend. It is was a great way to put all your memories together. I am so proud of this video!!

Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

Thing #20

I have been YouTube since before I can remember. I took communication online last year and we had to make a YouTube account to be able to turn in our speeches. I love this site! You can find anything you ever want to know. From movie preview to how to cut your own hair to how to cook. This website could be used in the classroom everyday, if you take the time to find the video your looking for. That's the only problem, sometimes it takes forever to find a video it took you one second to find yesterday. This is a preview for the new movie Bully.

Thing #19

I looked around Teacher Pop and the website is really cool. This is another website that I have never heard of, and I can see I have been missing out. It’s so much fun! Social networking is everywhere now. Pinterest is huge! If I’m not careful, I can spend so much time on that one website. Another one I get on all the time is IMDB. Every time I’m going to the movies I pull up that page. As a matter of fact, I was on it today. My roommates and I were trying to pick a movie to go see later. Were seeing Lockout, I hope it’s good. Tasty Kitchen was amazing! I have already planned to make some dishes from that page!

Thing 18

Social networking can be a very good and useful tool, but at the same time they can have negative influences. They can be useful in the classroom if you have a Facebook page for your class and all your students and student’s parents can join and come together. You could remind them of upcoming work that is due and have a very easy way to talk to the parents about any problems that are happening in class. On the other hand, Facebook can get you a lot of trouble. Now days, everyone looks you up on Facebook as soon as they meet you, just to get to know you a little better. Facebook can very easily be the reason you did or didn’t get the job you wanted. In some cases I think this is fare, but in others it’s not. I don’t think Facebook is a very good way to get to know people because there is no way to know if they are being truthful.  Although I do have a Facebook myself, I hardly ever check it any more.

Thing 17

I think teacher could use bookmarker sites in the classrooms very easily.  They are such a simply way to find new ideas and remember old one. I use Stumplupon all the time. I went to London over Spring break and bookmarked a lot of websites with ideas of neat places to visit and things to do when I was going to be there.  Bookmarking is just a great way to communicate with other teachers in different school and even in different states.  If you have the internet; you have an unlimited amount of information already out there, you just have to find it. With websites like these, it makes it super easy for teachers to share these great ideas.  

Thing 16

I already have iGoogle as my home page on my lap top. I love it! I love having the weather right there everything I log onto the internet. It is also really nice to have it be the same website that is my email; I don’t have to keep going to different tabs. Everything I need is there and that is what makes it my favorite. I really did not like the idea of online calendars; I simply do not see myself using them in reality.  I have a calendar hanging on my wall in my bedroom and I write all my important events on it. Although if calendars were one of the things you had time for, it would be a really helpful thing to use every day. I make to do list all the time, so that tool was really nice and easy to use. The to do list could also be used in the class room for the students to make their own list of things that need to do turned in by the end of the week.

Thing 15

Just like a lot of other high school students, I was always told not to use Wikipedia for any of my papers, research projects, or group work assignments. One day, I will more than likely tell my students the same things. I guess after hearing the rule for so long, that it is still hard to trust the site even if you are sure the information is a fact. After looking at some of these Wikis, I found out not all the information on these sites are false.  These websites are actually really good sites to visit if you simply need information about a topic fast or just clarification on an event.  I could tell by just looking around on the sites that a lot of people spend a lot of time making the Wikis what they are.  Just like a lot of other people have been saying, I would use Wikis in my classroom in group work projects. The students would be allowed to have time in class to research topic in History and write a summary of the events that occurred.    

Thing 14

I have always been a fan of flowcharts and graphs, simply because they make everything so much easier to see and understand.  Gliffy would be my favorite website to use if I ever needed to create any type of charts.  As I was looking through all the things you could make on Gliffy, all I was thinking was how I could use all of these in a classroom.  You could make Venn diagrams, organization charts, flowcharts, site maps and more.  All of which could help children understand the concept of an event better or explain the main characters in a book your reading in class. The organization charts could be used to show upcoming events or when homework and projects are due.  Over all I really love the idea of using charts and graphs and this website makes it really easy to make whatever you have in mind.