One More Thing.... (Thing 24)

It's the FINAL THING!!! When I first received the assignment for the 23 Things, I was unsure. Before this activity, I had never used a blog or anything like this. I had just stuck to Facebook for social networking. I honestly didn't know what all was out there for me as an educator. I really enjoyed these 23 things. I think that there was such much informative stuff.
I loved making the avatar and blog page. I loved finding out about all of the different techniques that I could use in the classroom. I can definitely see how all of these Things can benefit me to be an effective teacher. This whole activity has made me even more excited to become a teacher. I have so many more great ideas for my classroom and ways to get my students involve through technology. I also know that I will use many of these Things from now on. Especially the blog.
Thanks for reading my blog... I really hope that it has helped someone else to get out and explore the world wide web.

Thing 23

For Thing 23, I stayed on the APSU 23 Things webpage. At the bottom of the webpage, there is information about the creative commons. It states that the information has been borrowed and duplicated. This is what the bottom of the APSU 23 Things states...

Credits:
Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers is based on Learning 2.0 - 23 Things, a staff development program for the Mesquite Independent School District. That program was based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License.

I very glad that I learned about creative commons. Before this class, I had no idea what creative commons was and stood for. Now, I feel much more informed and know how to explain it to others.

You can go to www.creativecommons.org to find out more information about Creative Commons.

Thing 22

For Thing 22, I got to explore and listen to all sorts of podcasts. Podcasts are such a great tool for the classroom. I listened to many podcasts. I listened to alot that deal with technology and computer science. It is so important for students to know about computers and letting them listen to these podcasts that can be more acustom to the increase of technology as years go by. I think children would enjoy listening to podcasts while learning about any subject. Podcasts are great for learners who learn better while listening to something than looking at it.

Thing 21

Thing 21 was so interesting! I really really like it. The Animoto site was so easy to use. It had step by step instructions. One downside to this website is that you can only make a 30 second video without paying for the upgrade. But I can see how the upgrade would be a great investment. This is such a great website because you can customize your slideshow all you want to. It can also attach to your Flickr account that way it makes it simpler to upload pictures. I loved this website and I will definitely consider using it in the future as an educator and probably even a parent or party hostess.

Thing 20

Thing 20 required us to explore YouTube and find a video. The video I found is a review video over the Solar system. It is a great short video for the students to watch to refresh them on the planets. I really like YouTube because it has so much potential in the classroom. It is just unfortunate that there is such much bad stuff on YouTube. Therefore, it is blocked for most school computers.

Thing 19

Visit TeacherPop


For Thing 19, I explored other social network sites. The one I joined is Teacherpop. I originally joined TeacherPop when I was a freshman here at Austin Peay. It was an assignment for our APSU 1000 class. I love TeacherPop mainly because it is for educators. I know that by joining this I will meet and get to know other students, classmates, and fellow future educators. It is great to have a separate teacher community networking instead of using it all on facebook. I really enjoy TeacherPop and am looking forward to continually use this.

Thing 18

I absolutely love social networking. I already have a facebook account so this "thing" was pretty simple. My facebook page: www.facebook.com; search: Katherine Lea Worsham. Facebook is a great way to keep up with family, friends, and people that you haven't seen or spoke to in quite sometime. It is very important to me as an educator to using social networking tools on and offline. There are many groups that you can join to meet other people and to communicate with others. For older students, I would definitely consider using facebook as a communication tool. It can be so helpful to the students and teachers. Most of us are on facebook all the time. Now, we can even get our's and other's updates sent to our cellphones. I did have a myspace when I was in high school but I slowly transferred to facebook because I feel it is easier to use and manage.

Thing 17

Thing 17 was great! Who knew you could tag your favorite sites without using all the space in your Favorites folder. Through "Thing 17" I found out about social bookmarking and tagging. Now, I can use the deli.cio.us account to keep up with my favorites. I can also divide my favorites into separate folders. This makes it very easy to get what I need or want to look at. Not only that but since it is online and not just on my computer, I can look at these websites from any computer anywhere. Another great aspect about this is that others can see your bookmarks and tags also. This is such a great tool that I see this being very beneficial to me in the future as a teacher. Not only that, but this is beneficial to me for bookmarking in the future :)

Thing 16

For this "Thing", we were to use different organizational tools through the web. To do this, I decided to use iGoogle to begin. Since we basically use Google for the main search engine, I decided this would be best. My homepage is very useful. Everything is there and accessible. It is informative and is definitely now my permanent homepage. The to-do lists, I would consider, too much work. For me, it remember things if they are in one central easy to access place. I have a planner that I carry everywhere and use daily. Even though online calendars and to-do lists are useful for some people, it is just easier for me if I have everything in pencil and paper form. Call me old-fashion. However, I do think the internet calendars and planners are a great back-up plan and one tool that I am using now is the post-it notes. Even though I do have the daily planner, I can never have enough reminders.

Thing 15

Wiki is such a neat tool! I think it is great because you can add and edit the content in the wiki. It is also very helpful to add things that you may not know. They can correct any mistakes you make which is very helpful and useful. It is ironic that I have used wiki tools before like wikipedia but I never actually knew what it meant. Know I feel so much more informed. Wiki is so simple and easy to use.

Thing 14

For Thing 14, we were to visit different websites that help one to create a mind map and flowchart. For the mind map, I choose to use MindMeister Mind Mapping Site. It was a very interesting tool. I loved seeing all the different ideas and images after immediately creating this free account. There are some great examples of mind maps to help you get started and on your way with creating. Anything can be created into a Mind Map. This is a great tool to use as an educator because as an educator I know that I will have many ideas and thoughts that I will need to write down and this is a great way for remembering and sharing my thoughts and ideas. For flowcharts, I chose flowchart.com. The reason I chose this site is because it has numerous options for flowcharts. You can customize your own flowchart with your creative eye. With the flowchart, you can also share it. This is great because I will be able to create and share my flowchart with my students. Both of the tools, Mind maps and flowcharts, will definitely help me to become an effective teacher.

Thing 13

After trying out the Zoho writer, I begin to question why I even bought the Microsoft Office software. I made a FREE account with Zoho and it is so shocking to me how much it is like Microsoft word. I loved this feature. It is great that you can save the material online much like LiveText. Only, with the Zoho account, it will never run out. Livetext has an expiration date and it is quite costly. Zoho is such a great website because it is free and so easy to use. I loved this tool and I will definitely continue to explore and use this tool in the future!

Thing 11

For Thing 11, we were suppose to read about all the ways of finding RSS feeds. Of all the different ways, I think the easiest for me was just basically searching through My Google Reader. Many of the others were confusing and I was sort of lost when using them. I like the simpleness of just searching in Google reader and being able to find what I am looking for or what interests me. Of the ones I tried, I think that the "Syndic8.com" was the most confusing. I guess I will just stick to the simple way.
Almost done with the midterm Things!!! Only 12 More Things! WhoopWhoop!

Thing 10

For Thing 10, I created a Google Reader account since I already had a Google Account. It is so much more convenient to be able to access all of those things from one area. I suscribed to many feeds. Some of them include the Leaf Chronicle-Clarksville, Cool Cat teacher, and Fox News. This is a wonderful resource. Not only is it super easy to use but as a teacher I can suscribe to a blog pertaining to a certain lesson and the students can see things from point of views others. Personally, I can use this to stay up to date with happenings around town or the world as well. I will definitely take this Thing with me throughout teaching and life especially since we, as a society, are becoming so advance through technology.

Thing 12

Google is now one of my new favorite website!! I love it. I did not realize until now while doing Thing 12 really how much google has to offer. I choose to explore the Google Calendar and Google Notebook. I tested each out. I really feel like I will continue to use Google Calendar. It is all completely free. You can get updates and events sent to your cell phone and email. It is such a get organizing tool. I really really like it. Google Notebook is something that I may not use everyday. But I can see how we as educators could use this in the future. There is a sharing tool that allows you to send your notebook to email addresses. I didn't send myself my notebook. But I could see us asking our students to write in their Google Notebooks during Bell Ringers in the morning and then send them to our teacher email. I think that Google has so much to offer Education. I love that these things have opened my eyes to this in a whole new light.

Thing 9

Thing 9 was to explore other image generators. Image generators are a great tool for the classroom and personal life. It is very simple and easy to do. It only takes a couple of minutes to have a completely personalized image on your personal picture. It is a great way to enhance any presentation used in class.

Thing 8

I loved this Thing!! I loved looking at all the different mashup options. I choose to use bighugelabs.com. I, also, choose a picture of my lovely little dog. I took this picture not too long ago. Using these different photo websites gives you more to put into your powerpoint. For example, I could change the main picture to a picture of the United States for a Social Studies lesson. And in the powerpoint, I could say something like putting the pieces together. It is just a great idea to give a little extra to your lesson plans.

Thing 7

For Thing 7, We are suppose to explore Flickr. I have explore Flickr before and actually used some of the pictures for projects or powerpoints. I find it very interesting what people will put on Flickr and how much you can use Flickr for. I had no idea until today that you can join groups on Flickr with the same interests that you have. For example, I choose animals as one of my searches and you can join all types of Animal activist groups. You can even join like a Vegan or Vegetarian group. In these groups, you can participate in group discussions. It was so interesting. Another picture that I found that I absolutely love is the O.P.I nail polish!! I love getting my nails done. So I search nails and found this adorable picture!
I would be a little worried about using this in a classroom though. You can upload anything to Flickr. Since I intend on teaching elementary school, I may pull or use pictures for the website but I would not just let my students go exploring. That is to risky...

Thing 6

For my Web 2.0 Awards site, I choose RememberTheMilk. I choose this one because I was rather curious about it. I explored the site and I really like what I found. I created my own account. This website is much like a to-do list. It has a personal, study, and work link. So, for example, if you have an assignment do in class the following day, you can just type in the assignment and then it will notify you when the assignment gets closer to time. This would be a great web 2.0 because since we are looking so forward to the future. This website could substitute a planner in schools. I loved this website and I am pondering continuing to use it.
More Things to come shortly...

Thing 5

School 2.0 means that we had heading quickly towards the future. A future were writing with pencil/pen and paper will be something that only our grandparents did. There are many positive aspects to School 2.0 and Web 2.0. It gives educators a new way of instructing and teaching. Teachers can now add in interactive aspects to every day school life. Interactive aspects that include social networking and online demonstrations. It is truly amazing as to what all is out there in the worldwide web for us to explore and inform students about.

Thing 4

Commenting is a great way to express ones opinion about the blog. When commenting, one must remember to make the comment worth while. If you just leave a "good" comment, you aren't really giving the blogger any real detail or insight to what they are writing. Two other great points that I read were Don't be afraid to blog and You draw attention to your own blog. I had never really thought about how commenting on others blogs gives attention to your own blog. But it's true! By commenting on a blog, in return that blogger is curious about your blog. And the cycle just continues. The five blogs from class that I am following are Anna Canaan, Stephanie Pierce, Heather Atkins, Shanacia Thomasson, and Amanda Bradley. I look forward to learning how to add personal interest blogs in Thing 10 and 11. I did comment on all of the blogs that I am now following. Mainly, I agreed with them or I gave insight into my own decisions.

Looking forward to more THINGS to come

Peace Love & Happiness.

Thing 3

I feel that blogging in an education setting would be extremely useful and helpful. Not only could I use it for reflecting on a day of teaching or a specific lesson plan that worked really well, I could also use it for the students and parents. I think that it would be a great communication tool between the teacher and parents/students. One could start a classroom blog that includes the events and schedule of things to come in class. Students to blog about the different aspects of the classroom. It is always better to write about things to get your mind off of things and to let someone know so to speak. Students could post anonymously that way they would not have to deal with other students knowing that they felt this way. I am currently reading "The Freedom Writer's Diary" by: Erin Gruwell. It is an amazing book. It is comprised of diary entries from the students. Each diary entry is very detailed and some are even quite graphic. But it really does let you know what the students feel be it about lessons or life in general. Each student has a story to share and at the high school level I feel like this would be a great tool to use and instill in the classroom.
Stay tuned for more THINGS! to come :)

Thing 2

For Thing 2, we were to create a blog and an avatar along with posting both to our blog. I really enjoyed doing this. I decided to post blogs under the name of K. Worsham, my first initial of my first name and then my last name. The title of my blog is "Worsham's Junk in the Trunk". I chose this name because I wanted the title to be eye catching. The hardest thing when creating the blog was figuring out where to add/post the avatar. I loved playing around and creating the avatar though. My avatar does resemble me somewhat. However, there are quite a few differences. The easiest thing for me would have to be posting. I love being able to just sit down for a few minutes and post an assignment. At times, I am sure it will be difficult to think of what exactly to write but it is easy for me to reflect on an assignment. A blog is something brand new to me but I am looking forward to making use out of this bit of technology.
Happy Blogging!

Thing 1

After watching the 7 1/2 Things tutorial, I feel that many of the habits are great advice for educators. All 7 1/2 Things should be goals that we as educators strive towards. The habit that may be the hardest for me to adapt to is Thing 4: Have confidence in yourself as a confident, effective teacher. I think that at times everyone will doubt themselves. For me, this will be the most challenging. Having confidence in what I am doing will give me that ability to effectively teach and mentor my students in and out of the classroom. The Thing that I feel will be the easiest for me is Thing 1: Begin with end in Mind. This is a Thing that I try to strive for daily when making goals. Having a good goal means making it measurable. Goals that one sets should be set for a time period that is obtainable. When one has an end in mind, it makes that goal a little bit easier to pace oneself for the goal. I thoroughly enjoyed the tutorial video. I am looking forward more Things to come....