It's not over yet!

 I have really enjoyed the 23 Things project. I have learned a lot new tools that I will be able to use in the classroom and I improved on a few things that I already knew how to use but didn't know everything there was to know about it. My favorite discoveries were definitley Animoto, Flickr, and Blogger. This project was a great way to improve my learning on web based tools.  Everything i learned during this process is going to help me in my future as a teacher. I hope that the use of these tools helps me be the best teacher and influence to my students that I can be. It is nice to know that if i ever am stuck in a rut with my calendars, or projects, that there is a tool i can use to help me stay organized. I have definitley learned a lot during my time in Education 3040.

Thing 23! Creative Commons!

Before taking Education 3040 at APSU I did not know the copyright laws or what Creative Commons was. I always thought that if you could copy and paste a picture or video that it was okay to use it, with credit to the author of course. Exploring the creative commons website was a nice thing to learn because now i know i can go there to get pictures for my powerpoints and projects. I will be able to use the creative commons in my classroom to find pictures for lessons or just fun pictures to hang in the classroom. I will be including lessons on Creative Commons and Copyright in the future to my students because I will want them to be educated before college unlike I was.

Thing 22! LiveBinders!

Using Live Binders would be a very great study tool for students of any age and even for teachers in the classroom.Live Binders would be good for college students to organize websites for each class in different binders. For teachers it would be great to organize the websites according to the binder name like mine are below.
 The title of my binders are
 1.) Tools for Teachers 2.)Games for the Classroom 3.) Lesson Plans


http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=689451

Thing 21! Animoto!

Using Animoto was actually really cool and really fun. I enjoyed being able to explore the different songs and even knowing i can add my own. Animoto would be a great tool to use in the schools at things like Kindergarten graduations, or 5th grade graduations. Showing pictures throughout the year at the end of the year class party would be a great way to use Animoto in the classroom too. I loved playing with it and will definitley be using it again. Below is one of the videos I made.


Rachel and Drew

Thing 20! Youtube!

YouTube was not a new website to explore for me because I have used in many times for many different purposes. I think YouTube is a great site to find videos for children, however it isn't a website that I would let children explore without supervision. There are also very inappropriate videos on YouTube. I like that the search bar is easy to locate and it gives specific examples of what you searched for, making it easier to find a video that you need. I can see how YouTube would be good to have applied to my Library Website. Videos are especially helpful when your trying to inform somebody on something, especially with children. Below is a video i found that would be appropriate to show to elementary children during a science class.

Digestive System for Children

Thing 19! TeacherPop!

I am a member of a few online communities, most are for my pleasure. I am a member of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. There were a few of the listed social networks that were appealing to me. The fact that there is a place to see what other education majors and teachers are doing is a real nie thing. It would be a great place to go for advice or to share a new learned lesson that others may benefit from. The TeacherPop webpage was very nice, it was easy to navigate and understand. I can see myself using it in my future. I also enjoyed signing up with Flixster under the movie category. It reminds me a lot of Netflix, but it was also different in ways. I could see myself using Flixster in the future.

Thing 18! Twitter and Facebook!

I can see that it may be important for educators to know how a social networking site works, but as for social sites like facebook and twitter, i don't see much room for them in an elementary school classroom. Even in middle and high school classes they would be nothing more than a distraction. I didn't gain any new insights on these sights because i have been using them both for years now. I do like both sites because it is an easy way to communicate with family that is out of town or even my high school friends who went our seperate ways. Between the two sites, i prefer to use Facebook, only because i am more used to facebook and twitter.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/charlotte.r.manning
https://twitter.com/Rachel_Manning5

Thing 17! Delicious!

Delicious is a very helpful tool and could be helpful for anyone, not just teachers and students. It would be a great tool to doing research or finding new websites. It is an easy to use tool so students would be able to access other websites much easier and safer than google or another search engine. The bookmarks and tags are an even better tool on the web page. You can bookmark pages to come back to and show your children during lesson plans and proects.

Thing 16! igoogle & To do lists!

For the start page I picked the iGoogle. I felt like it appealed to me just for the simple fact that it is tied in with my google email account so i can see my emails on my home page. I did infact make the igoogle my homepage. As for the online calendars, I did find them interesting, but i dont think that i would use them. I am the kind of person who would rather just write it down and make a list. Which may be why the Remember the Milk to do list page was my favorite. It was so simple to edit or add the lists, and i loved that you could change anything at anytime. I would use this one at school, home, or work and would recommend it to others over any other sites.

Thing 15! Wiki!

Using Wiki was a new concept to me as well because in middle and high school and even in college, my teachers have alsways told me not to do research on wiki because of the fact that it is available to be editted by anyone. Therefore the information may lack accuracy. During my time using the Wiki post for apsu 23 things, i had a hard time, when i clicked the edit button it wouldn't move the page or let me do anything. I had already made an account and joined the group. I had to kep clicking until finally it let me edit and add my things. I also did not like the the lock could be stolen at any time. I had to repost my post twice because the lock got stolen. It was very frustrating. I don't think i would use Wiki in my classroom.

Thing 14! Flowcharts and Maps!

During my time on thing fourteen i chose to explore Gliffy and Bubble.Us.
Both of these web based tools were free and easy to use. I have used/ made flow charts and mind maps in high school, mainly for my english classes. After playing around with the websites, I see that there are way more than just maps and flow charts to be created. I especially loved Gliffy because of the Floor Plan Design and the very easy to follow instructions. These websites would be great for making charts to show my children, or printing the templates off for the class to make after reading a story. I could use the charts and things on many things in the classroom.
Between the two, I would rather work with Gliffy.

Thing 13! Zoho and Google Docs!

Using Zoho and Google Docs were both new tols for me. Between the two, I feel like I would rather work with Google than Zoho. I felt like the Google Docs was easier to navigate and easier to find the tools I needed to do my drawing. It also had more options. With Zoho I got a little frustrated trying to figure out where things were on the webpage. If I get confused by the webpage, my students will most likely be confused too, which would make it harder to do the assignment and it would lengthen the time it will take them to finish. I do like that both websites are free to use, as teachers we will always be on a budget and free tools always help. Another thing I liked on both websites was the sharing tool. It was nice to see that I could export my drawing and documents to a word document and save it on my computer. Between the two sites, I would choose to use Google in my classroom and for personal use.


Here is the link to my Google Docs drawing.

Here is the link to my Zoho Document.

Thing 12! Google!

     The two google web tools that I chose to further explore were Google Translator and Google Calendar. I chose to further explore these two because I think they will be the most useful in a classroom full of children.
     The google translator is an awesome way to help children who speak different languages understand what a word or phrase might mean. To go along with that I think the translator will be most useful when students are learning a new language in middle school or high school. If they dont know what a word means they can search it, or get the google translator to pronounce it for them so they know how to say the word or phrase correctly.
     The Google Calendar would come in handy as a teacher because I could post a schedule for the week or month and choose to share it with my students and their families. I feel like this would be a great way to keep parents up to date on our school and classroom schedule. I also love that I can print the schedule after I make it up on Google Calendar. It will make it really easy to send home with my students newsletters.


Google Translate     http://translate.google.com/#


Google Calendar     https://www.google.com/calendar/render?pli=1
  

Thing 11! More RSS!

     I found using the Google Blog Search was easiest. I felt like it brought me exactly what I was hoping for everytime I searched. With that being said I comepletley stand by that I will be using Google Reader/Google Blog Search in my future blog searches. I don't feel like any of the search engines were confusing, I just felt that Google brought me the best results.
     During my blog search I found a few social work blogs, which will come in handy to me because I recently changed my major to social work. I feel like it will help me get a better understanding on the types of jobs there are for my future and the things that a social worker has to deal with, and maybe even some advice for my future as a social worker. I didn't really find any unusual blogs because I didn't search for unusual ones. I pretty much just searched and added blogs that i knew would intrest me and encourage me to look at my RSS reader everyday.

Thing 10! RSS Reader!

     I think the RSS readers is a really awesome way to check all my news feeds and blogs at once. It is a lot simpler than just scrolling through each website indavidually. I think the RSS reader would help me as a teacher to stay up to date on new technology and to help me get advice and new ideas about teaching my students from other teachers. Like I said before it would be a really awesome way to keep communication more current and more often for teachers. They would be more likely to check one website instead of taking the time that most teachers dont have to sit and thumble through five or six seperate blogs and websites.

Thing 9! Image Generators!

 

     Today I explored two different Image Generators. The first one I explored was the Happy Face Generator. I liked the Happy Face Generator, it was very easy to use and it had some really awesome features like making the letters be formed out of objects like shown below in my first image. The third image posted on my blog was also made on the Happy Face Generator using the wooden sign method. I like the idea of making cute smiley faces that say things to put around my classroom. I think the Happy Face Generator was the easiest generator I explored. My second picture was made using the Custom Sign Generator. I liked using the generator, I just felt like there were so many options that it was overwhellming. I think that the overall use of Image Generators would be useful in a classroom for decorating, or in a library for showing what type of books are where, other than that I don't see a use for them in my classroom. 

 

 

 

 

 



http://free.text2logo.com/happy-face-smilies.htm

 http://www.images-graphics-pics.com/signs/sign-generator/simple.asp?off=10&font=holly&pic=hollywood&text=Change+This&color=azure&color2=black&fontsize=36&x=183&y=63&w=285&h=76

http://www.images-graphics-pics.com/signs/smilies/sign-generators.asp?page=1

Thing 8! Mashups!

 

 

 

 

     Flickr and Flickr mashups could be used in my classroom as fun way to decorate the class. Using Spell with Flickr would be a fun way for the kids to make their own name tags for their desks or lockers. The puzzle mash up like I did using the Jigssaw feature on BigHugeLabs.com could be used as away to have puzzles for kids to put together and identify with pictures of presidents or signifigant places in their curriculum. I liked using Flickr and I find that it is easy to use and easy to upload or find photos, i also enjoyed the Flickr Mashups because there were so many different ways to create my pictures into something fun.



 

 

 

 

 

http://bighugelabs.com/jigsaw.php

Thing 7! Flickr!

     I feel like I will use Flickr in my personal life more than I would in my classroom. I feel this way because in the classroom most pictures I show will be out of books my students have. Using Flickr in my personal life will be a great way to keep my pictures and share pictures with other people.

 

     The only other photo hosting website ive ever used is Instagram. I like instigram because it is easy to understand and a lot of my friends are on Instigram so it's easier to find friends and keep in touch. Instagram and Flickr connect in the way they both use tags to help refine searches and describe your pictures. You can also connect with friends and family members on both sites. Its easier to find a photo of a certain thing on flickr and easier to find friends on Instagram.

 

      I dont have any concerns about putting photos like the one below on a public site but photos of myself or my family I would not feel as comfortable making those pictures public. The picture I uploaded below is a picture I took in July 2011 on my senior trip to California.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/88008221@N03/8051453617/

 

Thing 6! Web 2.0!

     From the list of Web 2.0 tools I picked to explore Diigo. I use Diigo computer to go with my education 3040 course.  Before education 3040 I had never even heard of Diigo and at first I was apprehensive about learning a new tool to use on the computer. After I used Diigo for the W.O.D. I realized it was much easier that I thought it would be. The more I explore and use Diigo the more I see how it could be useful to me as a teacher and to my students in the classroom. I like that with Diigo I can organize things I found on the internet and highlight parts of an article instead of having to print it off and re-read it just to find the key points. A speical feature of Diigo would be that you can still get back to the webpage even if it was removed. In my classroom I feel like it would be an excellent way to bookmark things on the internet that I would want to show my students during class. It would also be a great way to have my students teach their peers by doing an activity like a webquest or the web site of the day like we do in Education 3040. Below is a link to the web 2.0 tool Diigo.

 http://www.diigo.com/

Thing 5! School 2.0!

     When I hear the term "School 2.0" I think of a newer way of learning, which in a sense could very well be the meaning of school 2.0. I feel like school 2.0 is a way of showing people there is more than one way to learn. Traditionally learning is thought of like children in a classroom listening to the teacher talk. But with Web 2.0 and School 2.0 I think it gives everyone a better idea of new ways to learn. With today's technology classrooms are much more advanced than they were ten to fifteen years ago. I think that the future for schools and learning in the classroom will be centered around technology. If you look in our grade school classrooms today you will see that almost every classroom has a few if not a whole set of computers. Schools are advancing with technology like Ipads, Tablets, and electronic books. I think the future of schools will be technology centered, which may not be a bad thing. Since people learn better at a younger age by introducing technology at the younger levels it may be easier for them to understand when newer technology is introduced when the become workers in our society. In the classroom school 2.0 will be the way we change our teaching methods. Instead of standing in front of the classroom talking to our students all day, we can interact with them through things like blogs and social networks. Using technolopgy in the classroom can heighten the students want to learn and help them be more interactive in the classroom. I personally am excited to see the future of technology in our school system.

Thing 4! Commenting!

      Commenting is important because it can bring about an interaction with people you may not know or people you may not talk to. It can help you realize that somebody else is having the same thoughts and ideas you are or it can help you by giving you advice for a problem of your own. Commenting can help you better understand the bloggers point of view by asking questions, or you can comment on it to give in put on your experiences with something. I definitley think commenting can be helpful and can help you gain knowledge.

        The two posts that I read were Cool Cat Teachers and Ten Techniques to Get More Comments On Your Blog. I enjoyed reading both posts and could see why what they said made perfect sense in the blogging world. I liked the way Cool Cat Teacher said that you should care when you comment. If you comment and just say something like "yeah" or "cool", then your comment could go unnoticed and doesn't really have a point. If you comment saying "Yeah i totally agree because...." then you seem like you care a little more about what the blogger is saying. To go right along with the the Ten Ways post says that you should be humble when you comment or if you are the blogger be humble to your commenters. Saying "Thanks for your opinion" then your readers are much likely to come back to your blog rather than if you just had no response to their comment.

     The first blog I commented on was Kelsi Clark's. On Kelsi's blog she said that in the 7 1/2 habits tutorial the last habit, play, was the hardest for her. I can relate because sometimes it is hard to remember to slow down and have a little fun. Another student had commented on her blog saying that you can think of ways to be productive but still relax. Like walking the dog, you can exercise, take the dog out for a walk, and still relax and enjoy the outdoors. I loved that comment!

     The second blog i commented on was Lacera's Education 3040-01 blog. Lacera had a wonderful idea about using the blog in an art classroom. Even though I don't want to be an art teacher, I think it is a wonderful idea. It would give students an oportunity to voive their opinion about the artwork. The third blog I commented on was Emily Rittenberry's blog. My comment on her blog was about the idea she had to use the flickr mashups as an introductory project for her students. They could use flickr to put pictures of their hobbies and family members while spelling their name for the classroom. I think it would be a very fun idea and it would also get the creative minds rolling!

     The fourth blog I commented on was Samantha Fargis' blog. Her post about thing 2 said that during her blog making process she had some difficulty and I feel like I could relate to that while making my blog and especially my avatar. The last blog I commented on was Caitlin Hayes blog post about the habit number 3 in 7 1/2 Habits. Habit 3 was seeing a problem as a challenge and I shared a peice of advice my mother shared with me, because i also see number 3 as a hard habit.

Thing 2! Blogging!

I had fun creating my blog and being able to pick a layout and theme for it. Actually creating my blog was the easy part for me. I struggled more trying to figure out where everything was and how to work with the website. I chose to name my blog "23 wonderful things with Manning" because I needed to include my last name and I wanted to ass a little something extra to it so that it was boring. Creating my avatar was fun as well because i got to design a mini me. I chose to make my avatar look as close to the real life me as i could. I wanted it to reflect who I was instead of somebody I wanted to be or somebody who is nothing like me. The directions for creating my blog and avatar were very well explained through the 23 things blog as well as by Mrs. Richardson in class.

Thing 1! Hard Habits!

From the link to the 7 1/2 Habits tutorial I feel like Habit number three is the one hardest for me. Habit 3 is to view problems as challenges. I feel like whenever I encounter a problem, instead of sitting back and analyzing it and figuring out how to fix it, the first thing I do is freak out and think of the worst possible things that could happen. If I changed the way I approached a problem then I probably would not find myself in such stressful situations that aren't ever as bad as they seem.
Habit number one is probably the easiest for me. Habit one is starting with an end in mind, like setting a goal before you start something. I feel like this is easy for me because I am a very organized and structured person. Before i ever start a project or paper I always set a schedule on when I will work on what part. Everyday I have a list of things I need to get done that day and I know those are my goals for the day. Not only do I have short term goals, but I also have longterm goals for myself.

Thing 3! Blogs in the classroom!

Blogs are used in many different ways. Most people blog to share their stories about their everyday life, life events, or even things they make that they want to share. I feel like i will use my blog now to share how i feel about the things we have to do for this project with my fellow students. I feel like in the future i will use my blog as  communication tool with my student's families. A blog would be an easy way to let parents know what is going on in the classroom that day or week. It would be a great place to put podcasts of lessons for students who missed that class or that day or school so that they can hear the lesson and not have to play catch up on the next day of school. It would be a great place for my students to communicate to one another about things they may be struggling with on their homework.