Thing 12

The two Google tools that I chose were Google Alerts and Google Translator. I chose Google Alerts because it is a really cool tool to keep you updated on whatever you want. For right now, I chose to get updates on the Chicago Cubs because I like to follow what they are doing,  but as a teacher, I will probably follow things related to teaching. I also like Google translator because you can use it to look up pretty much any language. A lot of times words have a Latin base, so you could look up the Latin base to figure out what that word really means. Both of these could be helpful as a teacher, but I think that I would use the Google Translator more than Google Alerts. http://www.google.com/alerts/manage?mqm=c&q=Chicago+Cubs&x=AMJHsmVDiJW3qcP3OQXWcfhWDvwwVSrvrg:1349726620099 is the link to my alerts for the Chicago Cubs.

Thing 11

I liked the link to http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/ It was helpful because it gave me a start off to some really good links related to teaching. Once on that website, I looked for links like lessons plans and 12 Ways To Teach During the Crazy Days of Christmas. The one that was more complicated for me was http://www.topix.net/ because it didn't show me links that were specific to me. In my findings, I got some great tips on how to keep focus on days where the kids are crazy and some really cool ideas on lesson plans. I found that by going through other people's blogs, I found some great links that are helpful to me.

Thing 10

Something that I liked about RSS was that it was easy to find websites to subscribe to. Almost every single website that I looked up, I was able to find. I think that this could be very helpful for a teacher. Even though I had a hard time coming up with websites to subscribe to now, I think that as a teacher it would be a lot easier. As a teacher, I would want to know what is going on in the world around me. Children are really curious and nosey, so more thank likely they will always be asking questions about things that don't relate to what we are doing in the classroom. Also, I'm sure that there are many helpful websites that relate to teaching. It is always important to be open to other people's opinions.

Thing 9

The reason that I chose to post two different license plates was because I am originally from Illinois and that is where I started dance, so Illinois is very important to me. I chose the Tennessee license plate because I now live in Tennessee and APSU is what brought me here. I made each one specific to me and showed the importance to both within the license plate. The link that I used was http://license.plates.txt2pic.com/. This  could be a fun activity to do at the beginning of the year to get to know your students as a teacher. They could do something that relates to them and it is an ice breaker activity, and also a way to get to know your students.

Thing 8

As a teacher you could use Flickr to make unique posters that nobody else will have. It makes things more interesting thank just looking at a poster board with letters on it. You can make it have fancy colors and pictures, you can make puzzles, or a collage of pictures. It would be a great thing to make your classroom more decorative, but I don't think it would benefit you very much in actually teaching. I think that if you want everybody to see your pictures, then it is OK to post them online, but if you don't want your pictures out in the public, then don't put them online.

Thing 7

I found it very interesting while looking through Flickr. There were so many awesome pictures on there. I think that I could use Flickr in my teaching to get pictures in order to  help teach lessons. I chose this particular picture because it is an inspirational quote. I strongly believe that it is important to inspire the children that you are teaching and make them believe that they can do whatever they set their minds to. To ensure that my students keep a positive attitude, I could post a picture every day with something inspirational on it, or just have a bunch of pictures all around the room. Whichever way I want, I would like  to keep the atmosphere positive and keep things up to date, and I could do so by finding new things on Flickr.I give credit to odekfloresmedia for this picture that I found. http://www.flickr.com/photos/61752848@N07/6708311179/

Thing 6

The site that I chose from the list was iTunes http://www.apple.com/iTunes. The reason that I chose this was because I know that kids love music. I think that it is important to incorporate things that kids can relate to into your classroom. There are many ways to use music in your teaching. For example, you could start off everyday with a different song, and that could be the theme of the day. This will get students interested in what they are going to learn that day and enjoy listening to music at the same time. You could also use music to come up with catchy songs so that students could remember. When I was in elementary school I learned a song about the 50 states, and to this day I still remember it. One useful feature about iTunes is that it will suggest songs for you that are similar to the one you picked. If you purchase a song about the 50 states, it will more than likely suggest other songs that relate to the 50 states. This could be very helpful when it comes to looking for ideas to use in your classroom.

Thing 5

I think that "School 2.0" is great. It explains very well the idea of what is going on today. In the article Web 2.0 is Not About Version Numbers or Betas, it explains that Web 2.0 is regular people that use the web everyday for their own benefit. I could not agree more! Personally, I do not know much about creating things on the web, but I do use the Internet in a regular basis to benefit myself. I think that this idea will benefit schools in the future because it refers to how the web is just normal people that post things on the Internet, and then normal people look at that information and are influenced by it daily.

In the article Web 2.0 Is the Future of Education, it gives specific links to ways that Web 2.0 is already used in classrooms today. My favorite link is the one referring to skype. It amazes me that skype is being used in classrooms because when I think of skype, I think of chatting with friends or family, not for education.

Thing 4

Commenting can be helpful in many ways. Reading what other people interpret from your post can let you know if you need to be more specific about something, or if you need to clarify what you are trying to say. It is also a good way to get feedback. Feedback is a great way to improve on your skills and let you know what works best for your audience. After all, your audience is the one you are trying to get the message across to, so they need to be able to understand what you are saying.

I found from the reading that it is important to comment back on what someone has said and say thank you. If you do not respond to their comment, it could look bad on you. It is also just the polite thing to do and could spark up a good conversation about your topic. Another  thing that I found to be important is to be open ended. In being open ended, you are allowing for people to leave comments, which is what the whole idea is. If you just state what you think, there isn't really any room for somebody to tell you what they think.

I commented on:
Samantha Fargis- Thing 2
The reason that I decided to comment on this particular post is because I could relate to it. I am not very good at technology and had a bit of a hard time starting up the blog, and she did too. It is always nice to know that there is someone out there having the same struggles as you.
Stephanie Moran- Thing 3...Blogging for Education
I commented on this post because it was a great idea that I had not thought of. She talked about how down the road, she can always look back on what she did when she first became a teacher and how she has improved since then. This is an awesome idea and I might do it too!
Amanda Blankenship- Thing #4
The reason I chose to comment on this was because I found it really interesting. By using a picture of her comments, she did not have to retype everything. This is a great way to save time and also make your blog look neat.
Katie Shaffer- Thing 1
I chose to comment on this because I also struggle with technology. I found it inspiring that she is willing to try and learn about new technology to help out her students, even though it isn't something that she is comfortable with.
Brionna Rand- Thing 2
I chose this post because again, I could relate to it. I was not too fond of the idea that we had to create a blog. It scared me at first, but now I am becoming more comfortable with it.
Danielle Witter- Thing #3
I commented on this post because I had the same idea. It was cool to see that somebody else also wanted to use a blog to post homework and calendars.
Jessica Pickering- Thing #1
I chose this one because we both had the same easiest habit for thing 1. It is easy to relate to people that share the same things as you.