Thing 11

The easiest way to add feeds to my reader seemed to be straight from the search for feeds option on my bloglines subscription. It just made more sense to me to search from one central location rather that navigating to another. I could not get Feedster to load. I kept getting the page load error message. Google blogs search was fairly easy to use. It provided a plethora of blogs that met the search critereia that I entered. Technorati was fairly user-friendly. It seemed to return more matches than the others. Some of the interesting things that I found while searching unders edcuation were blogs about OJ Simpson and blogs about granparents dying. I guess the most confusing one for me was Feedster, since it never opened lol! The only other way that I knew how to search for feeds was by doing a sinple Google or Yahoo search. I'm still working on becoming more savy with these tools! :)

Thing 10

The thing that I think I'm going to like about having an RSS feed is that it will cut down on the time that I spend searching sites that I go to often. I find that the hardest thing to do as a teacher is to keep up with all the correspondence and e-mails, especially since I am involved in grad school as well. In my professional life, I can use it to keep up on new trends in education and recoomemdations from other teachers by subscribing to educational support blogs. In my personal life, wait a minute, did someone actually say personal life? Haven't had one of those since about January of 2005 when I began my undergrad lol:) This technology will be ideal for teachers who have a classroom blog or subscribe to other classroom blogs for ideas. The cool thing about the RSS feed for your own class would be that you would not have to consantly check to see who had completed their assignments, it would come to you!

Thing 9

http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Motivational+Poster
I created this poster from a picture that I took at the boat dock in Danville. I like the option of changing the tint and the font color. I think that it would be cool to take pictures and use them as instructional posters in the classroom for science and social studies. For example, when studying the parts of a flower, a picture of a flower created as a poster would give an true visual of the parts. The students could be asked to take pictures of flowers around their home or school and bring them in. Another cool idea would be to have the students take pictures at a historical site and allow them to create works that are their own. That would be so exciting.


http://dummies.book.cover.txt2pic.com/
This is the link to the second image that I created. I just could not help it, I think everyone knows that this image is all in good fun. This type of creation would be strictly for personal use. I'm not sure that my fifth graders would have any academic use for images such as this; however, I just had to post. Anyone who has ever felt this pain, please reply. I hope that this is not a Jerry Maguire moment lol :) If this is offensive in any way to anyone, I'll remove it. :)

Thing 8

Puzzles are excellent for student who need to work on fine motor skills. It would make it even more exciting if the were working puzzles that encompassed things from the classroom or from their own interests. Also mashups could be used for student of the week pictures or for creating classroom bulletin boards both in the classroom and on online blogs. It does not concern me to post pictures that I have taken. When you grow up in a small town like I have you learn early what it is like to have little or no privacy. Pictures can be used as positive tools. They can represent professional works and like I stated before, students' best works; although I can see myself using this in my personal life more than my professional life.

Thing 7

I really enjoyed creating my Flickr account. It was basically self-explanatory and as usual, I just had to play around for a bit to get the hang of it. :) I probably will begin using these photos for my personal use. I could use them for student's work in the classroom as long as I did not add pictures or faces. I don't mind posting my photos. I like the idea that we can copyright them through Creative Commons, a site that I first discovered this Summer. I have never used any other online photo service, but I am sure that this is not the last time I will post here. I probably would not post any pictures of myself or others without permission. But I do like the idea that I can make come private and some public.

Thing 5

School 2.0 is coming and we as educators had better be ready. In my opinion, we will see a day where students will be issued laptops like they are issued books now. I believe that textbooks will become obsolete and that because we are a country trying to recycle and conserve this is going to be very important. I remember when a calculator cost over $100.00. In the late 70's that was a lot of money. The point that I am making is that the students that we are teaching now will think of a computer like our generation think of a calculator. All technology eventually be comes affordable.
After reviewing Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail and Learning 2.0, I began to realize that the students of tomorrow must also be ready to learn and work in a collaborative world. Gone are the days of there being only 1 way to solve a problem that only the "smartest" students could figure out. I believe that WEB 2.0 is going to change the face of all communications in education and allow for more students and individuals to showcase their intelligences.

Thing 6

Oh my! I have found the most wonderful site. I took Spanish in high school and can read and understand a few words, but I have always wanted to learn enough to speak a little. I found the following site and could not stop interacting with it. It is FREE and that always speaks to me. The name of the site is Mango Languages and it is absolutely user friendly! Here is a link to it http://www.mangolanguages.com/main . I highly recommend it to anyone with ESL students in their classroom. In my county there is no translator during parent/teacher conferences or for any correspondence. I usually go to Babel Fish for translating written parental correspondence, but I always have the student read it and make certain that it translated correctly (I don't want to send home any crazy messages lol). I could use this site in the classroom. It would be helpful for my ESL students because there is a group of lessons for that as well. I continue to be excited about all of the new tools I am finding. I just wish there was a site that could recharge me so that I did not have to sleep lol :)

Thing 4

After reading through some of the blog spots like coolcatteacher, I found some really interesting ideas. I realized that blogs and comments are important because you can get and share excellent ideas from people that otherwise you would never have contact with. The really cool thing that I found was that you can be reviewing one blogger's site and end up finding links to things that you never imagined. The only downside is that you can never have enough time to view everything that you would like to. I found another helpful link to a teacher's site from reading comments on coolcatteacher. This particular teacher uses the blog to help the students learn important writing skills. This is something that I would really like to do. I'm just not sure that it would be accepted by my my school system. I also got cracked up at a comment that said something about using blogs to say everything that you never have enough time to say in a grad./undergrad classroom. I can completely relate to that comment, as I am never at a loss for words lol!
I found it interesting that adding a list of comment rules might increase the amount of comments you receive on your blog. Up until now I have not thought a great deal about blogging so in turn I never considered rules:)
I completely agreed with the commandment 3 on the Ten Commandments of Blog Commenting site about showing emotion in your comments. Often times I find that it is most difficult to convey your feelings with words only. I use smileys :) a lot in my discussions with others online.
I believe if you have a blog that you truly want to be a success, you have to find time to read the comments that others leave. I have already read all of the comments that have been left on my blogs posts. It does not mean you have to respond to every one but by reading them, you can gain insight on things that are important to you as a blogger. That s also why it is important to only leave meaningful comments.
The following are the blogs that I responded to:
Kelly Brown I selected Kelly because I have known her all my life. We are from the same hometown and her kids go to school where I teach. I wanted to let her know that even though school seems like a lot of work; it will all be worth it someday. I also think that it is important for those of us who are already working in the education field to provide a positive view of the profession and not always complain.
Lynette Miller I chose to comment on Lynette's blog because we have had many discussions since the beginning of graduate school. We are both non-traditional students that returned to college and had to face some daily obstacles to complete our degrees and see our dream through. I think that we understand each others need to be successful at whatever we do often at all costs. I just wanted to let her know that however intimidating the assignments may be; we will get through it!
Ebony Freemon I responded to Ebony's blog because I had a couple of classes with her in my undergrad and she always seemed very serious about her career and education. She made a comment in one of her posts about students being able to have a way to express themselves without ridicule. I completely agree. Too often we want our young people to let their feelings out but often we do not give the type feedback that is encouraging. I think that anonymous comments would be great to help with this issue.
Stacy Averill I commented on Stacy's blog because I loved the pic. she posted of her son. I also wanted to ask how things are going in another class we have together.
I also plan to leave some comments for Kristan Bland because we have known each other since we began our journey down the road to get our degree. This will be a great way for us to keep in youch and discuss and compare things we use in our classrooms.

2 other blogs
http://christmasplace.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/have-you-heard-about-the-synchronus-fireflies/
This is a blog from Pigeon Forge Tennesse, my favorite place in the world. I commented on a post about synchronous fireflies. Anything about that area is interesting to me.
Linked here is an interesting blog site that I found and I plan to comment on later in the semester: http://teachersteachingteachers.org/

Thing 3

There are endless ways to use a blog in the classroom. I teach fifth grade so the most usable way to incorporate a blog into my classroom would be for parental communication and to showcase student work. The students and parents could use the blog to check on up and coming events or reminders for assignments. Pictures of student work could be posted for everyone to see. The downside would be that there are 8 out of 17 students in my class that do not have any Internet access in their home, so it could really only be used as a back up for info. Since fifth graders have a writing assessment, I think that putting their best work on the blog would be very beneficial and fun for the students who have Internet access.
As far as using my blog in my teacher education program, the most helpful way would be for communication between myself and my instructors and classmates. The good thing about it is that you can express yourself and your opinions and feelings for others to view and comment on without face to face contact. It opens up the entire world to who you are and and makes it possible to collaborate world wide with others in your field. I can also use this blog to obtain and give advice and opinions to other teachers and those in the education field.

Thing 2

Well, I've been working on this blog for two days now in every spare minute that have. Creating the avatar was a blast. For those of you that do not know me, I have been a hair stylist for over 13 years. So that is why I chose the beauty salon background. My avatar actually kind of looks like a younger, thinner, much cooler, me:) I chose the short blond hair to match myself and picked out an outfit that I might actually wear. But the coolest things that I added were the earrings and the glasses. I actually wear green glasses and hoops in my ears most of the time. The entire time that I worked on her I thought, "oh my, those fifth graders would get a kick out of this." (lol)
I decided to use my posting name because it is what I hear all day long. I'm not sure I relate with anything else. haha!
Blogger is so easy that I think a first-grader could create one. I am having a blast and may be addicted. It is so much more personal than my MySpace because it is all about me!

Thing 1

I found the video about the 71/2 habits of lifelong learners to be very interesting and insightful. The habit that I feel is easiest for me is habit 71/2, play. I myself learn best when I am able to play with and manipulate what I am trying to gain knowledge of. For example, I have a terrible time following directions when putting things together. I usually just have to get all of the parts in front of me and find a logical way for them to fit. Another example is the assignments that I have right now with Photo shopping pictures. Wow, I never thought that it could be that difficult. Even with the book for "dummies", I'm still struggling. I find that it works better for me to just play around and explore.
The most difficult habit for me has to be viewing problems as challenges. Often times I let bumps in the road cause me to feel overwhelmed. For example, this summer I took 3 graduate classes in 5 weeks. By the end of the 5 weeks I had said to myself, "Lorrie, what were you thinking?" Although at the same hand, I believe that I do a good job of prioritizing and I am very efficient at setting and meeting goals. This was a hard question to answer.
I have had a very good time creating this blog and I hope to continue. It is extremely user friendly. There are so many things that I still want to add. I wish I had more time to devote to exploring (and playing with) tools that are out there. I hope that by completing this degree, I will have the knowledge to encourage many veterans teachers that are afraid of technology to hop on board and join the party! :)