Is it the end, or only the beginning?!

I have really enjoyed this journey through the 23 Things. I have learned many new things that I can use in the classroom and learned more about things that I already knew. Some of my favorite discoveries were LiveBinders, Animoto, the different types of generators, the Flickr mashups, the flow charts, and mind maps. The 23 Things have affected my lifelong learning goals in a positive way. I have learned so many new things that will help me out so much in the future. I think  all these things will influence me as a teacher in many ways. I now know things that can make me a better teacher and can only have a positive influence. These things have forced me to think and use these tools. I can refer back to my experiences one day in the future. I can honestly say that I feel a lot better knowing that I can use each one of these tools if I ever want to. This class has definitely opened my eyes to many things that I had no idea even existed! I will definitely keep my blog going in the future when I do become a teacher! Now, onto the next step of my journey!

Thing Twenty-Three!

Honestly, before taking this class I did not know how the copyright laws really worked. I thought it was okay to take a picture off the internet and use it in a powerpoint or some of my own work. I did not really realize that it was someone else's work and I could not do that. Now, I know that I can go to Creative Commons and find everything I may need to go into my powepoint or whatever I need pictures for. Creative Commons is even free and legal to use. Therefore, now I do not have to worry about taking pictures illegally. I will be able to use this in the classroom as a teacher when finding pictures or graphics for my powerpoints, letters, or even worksheets. I can also teach my students about Creative Commons and the copyright laws so they will know where to find pictures legally without any questions.

Thing Twenty-Two!

I created three different binders on my LiveBinders account. I titled them Classroom Management, Technology in the Classroom, and 4th Grade Science. I could see myself using these binders or creating new binders for my future classroom. I could create lesson plans, find educational websites for my students, find videos pertaining to a lesson, or even classroom tips. I could arrange and organize into binders. Also, they would always be there if I needed them year after year. These binders could keep me organized and keep me from using a whole lot of paper!

Technology in the classroom

Thing Twenty-One!

Make a video of your own at Animoto.

I really enjoyed making my Animoto. I used pictures from my vacation with a group of friends over the summer. It was really simple to do and had each step on the side to follow. Anyone could make one of these and personalize it any way they wish. I will definitely use this tool in the future.

Thing Twenty!

While experimenting with YouTube I found things that I liked and things that I disliked about the site. I think YouTube is a great tool to use in the classroom. You can find many useful videos for learning or for providing information about something. It can kids students involved and interested in a way that you might not can. However, there are also many useless videos that are not worth watching, especially for children. Therefore, you have to be careful and watch each video before showing it to a class full of young students. At my high school, YouTube was blocked and we could not get on it at all on any computer in our school. I chose the video that I did because it deals with technology in the classroom. Technology in the classroom is very important in today's schools. It was very neat and interesting seeing all the ways you can incorporate technology into your classroom.

Thing Nineteen!

Visit TeacherPop

I am not a member of any online communities besides Facebook and Twitter, and now TeacherPop. Some of these social networks did appeal to me. I really like the educational social networks. I also liked the food networks and the crafts network under the Hobbies section. I found these interesting to me. I know I can use the education networks in the future when I have my own classroom. I also love to cook and bake. Therefore, I can use the food networks as well. I really liked Bake Space and Tasty Kitchen. I also like to be crafty so the crafts network also appealed to me. I can use this network for my personal use or in my future classroom as well.

Thing Eighteen!

I believe that it is important that educators know how social networking works for many reasons. I think communication is very important for a teacher. Social media sites can be a great way for teachers to connect busy parents through private messages. Social networking can be a valuable tool in improving communication within the school community, both across the entire school, and for individual classes. Using the Lists feature on Facebook, teachers can create a list of all the parents in a class to share status updates, pictures, and other information. Comments on these updates can lead to better communication between parents. They can share tips or ideas on how to help their students succeed. Social networking can also provide a great opportunity for teachers to connect with each other. Facebook can help professional relationships with teachers not only within the same district, but across the country, allowing better knowledge sharing and support networks. One new insight that I learned while exploring Facebook was the Lists feature. I did not know that you could create a list of parents that you could share status updates, pictures, and other information with. I thought it was neat that you could send stuff to only that certain list and no one else would see it. There are always dislikes with these types of social media such as the large online world that sees it. However, I do like Facebook more than Twitter. That is probably because I am more comfortable with Facebook though. I also think that Facebook has more useful features. I have not figured everything out about Twitter yet. I could definitely see classrooms and schools using these sites and having applications for them.


http://www.facebook.com/#!/kelsi.clark2011

Thing Seventeen!

Before completing the discovery exercise for thing seventeen, I had never heard of social bookmarking sites. As I experimented with Delicious and the other resources I learned quite a bit about them. However, I am not completely comfortable using this type of tool just yet. I can see some potential in social bookmarking. I got to see how the online tagging system works. You can find many links to different things. For example, a link may go to lesson plans, videos, and specific grade and subject areas. I can definitely see this being useful for teachers if they came together to share their resources and how they are successful teachers. They can easily track it using Delicious. They can share and collaborate on things that work and do not work in the classroom. Social bookmarking could also help with classroom management and make lesson planning  less stressful.
 

Thing Sixteen!

I chose the iGoogle start page. This one appealed to me because it was really simple to set up, especially since we use gmail as our email. Google always appeals to me more than other pages. The easier it is for me, the better! I also liked that I could choose my own theme. I chose the theme with the frogs because I thought it was cute. There is a very good possibility that I will make it my permanent homepage because everthing is located all on one page.

I also experimented with online calendars. The online calendar I chose was 30 boxes. These online calendars can be very useful to me. I can access them from anywhere at anytime. I can stay organized using these calendars. I can remember birthdays, when assignments are due, imporant dates, and I could even use this in my future classroom for lesson planninng. I think everyone would agree that an online calendar is a very useful tool.

I chose to the to-do list "Remember the Milk". While experimenting with this to- do list I found it very useful. You can manage your daily tasks and set goals from anywhere you want, including your phone. Iphones and androids have an app for this, too. You can even add tasks with Siri. You can manage these offline as well. You will never think you are forgetting something because you can have everything right there with you. You can also get reminders sent to your email and in a text message. I think "Remember the Milk" is a very helpful tool.


I thought that both of these tools had uses for school and home. I can use the online calendar and the to do list in the classroom and in my personal life. I would definitely recommend the online calendar ,30 boxes, and the to-do list, Remember the Milk ,to anyone that needs or wants to stay organized. Ithought both of these were very helpful!

Thing Fifteen!

I chose to post my "Thing Nine" to APSU 23 Things Sandbox Wiki. I changed the font, size, and colors of this post while experimenting with it. Making a Wiki post was not too difficult. I had never heard of anyone making a wiki until this class. Therefore, this is all new to me. I believe I will be able to use wikis in my future classroom in many ways. I can allow the children to post their own thoughts and ideas to the page. Then, I can put the right or corrected version on there for them all to see. The thing I thought was most interesting about wikis was that you can make your own for others to see. I did not know you could actually do that. I had no idea that wikipedia was just one big wiki!

Thing Fourteen!

I chose to work with Gliffy for flowcharts and Bubbl.us for the mind map. I thought both of these web-based tools were neat and helpful in many ways. I chose to to work with these two tools because they seemed to stick out to me. I actually liked using Bubbl.us more than Gliffy. It was more fun working with the tools on there. It was also easier to work with, and the instructions were very clear. Some of the differences I noticed between a mind map and a flow chart is that a flow chart continues from one point to another like it is actually flowing. A mind map does not flow like that. It is more of a brainstorming process where you can lay out what you are actually thinking.

Thing Thirteen!

 To the left is what my Zoho document looks like. Here is a link to the whole document below.
https://writer.zoho.com/index.do?docId=2393092000000013004






Students could work collaboratively using Google Docs by sharing folders, files, and each others Google Docs. Google Docs would be useful in any kind of group project. They could comment on each others work and provide each other feedback. Both Google Docs and Zoho are very good sites. They are also both free, which helps out low income families that can not afford software like Microsoft Word. You can create documents, share them, and even allow people to comment on them. Out of these two productivity sites I prefer the Google Docs because I can usually work Google better than other sites. However, Zoho is a great tool too.