Thing # 24

I really enjoyed the 23 things for the most part. It was eye opening and an adventure. I learned a lot of neat tools to use in the classroom. The 23 things was well worth the time and effort put into in and I am thankful that I had this opportunity. Without this I would not have all these new tools available to my knowledge. My favorite part was the sign generators. I will most definitly use these in my classroom among other things. I am going to try and keep up my blog and utilize it. I think this will be a good way to connect with partents and post random things going on in my classroom.

Thing # 23

The 23 things was based of the 43 things done by Stephen Abram. I am sure the copyright was allowed to be used by APSU to make the 23 things. I plan to use creative commons in the classroom one day because it allows me to use some things without asking permission, or it makes it easier to ask permission as well. I really found this activity useful and will probably make sure to utilize this specific tool.

Thing # 22

http://livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=87471

I did not like this. I may eventually come around to this website but it was really difficult to figure out. The concept is really great but it is not user friendly. It has a lot of stuff all over the page and it is hard to find exactly what you are looking for. All in all I probably will not use this website, and it was not my favorite of these 23 things.

Thing # 21

Lady A Concert! This was a really cool site, but it was VERY time consuming. There was a lot of wasted time and sitting around. It was a really cool end result but I don't know how much I will use this seeing as I do not have a lot of time on my hands. It was a good idea but it took a lot of time.

Thing #20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIxI7y6is04
This is actually my cousin praying with his Daddy. I love the fact that anyone can make this. I would definitly use youtube in my classroom! There is so much that can be done with it in the classroom, and so much more interactive than a powerpoint. I used this video to demonstrate how easy it is to make a creation of your own on youtube, you do not have to be a technology guru to be able to do this. I love this.

Thing #19

I am a member of Teacherpop and I have left comments and upload pictures previously. I actually really LOVE this social network but I currently cannot log onto it because I forgot my password and it won't send it to me because APSU changed their email accounts. I really enjoy this social network though. I looked at the other social networks but did not choose to join any of them because they did not appeal to me. I already have so much going on in my life I do not have time to use more than facebook. As you can see I did not even use my teacher pop that often. I do think these are useful though.

Thing # 18

I currently have a facebook and a twitter. I only made the twitter account because of this project and I don't like it very much. It just is not for me, so people it works for them but not me. I love love love my facebook. I can get in contact with old friends, classmates, I can communicate with colleagues and search for fellow Thirty One consultants (because I sell that) and it makes it easy to talk with everyone in one setting. Facebook allows me to search for the people I am observing right now and get background information on them as well. The downfall to this site is that ANYONE can search for you unless you have your setting set to where you cannot be searched for. I highly recommend monitoring what you post on facebook because it can be seen by everyone and you are judged on that matter.

Thing #17

I explored the delicious website and others, and I honestly found it extremely confusing. I did not like it, it was not something I could teach my Kindergardeners to use easily. I probably will not be having my students do any outside searches on the computer anyway so this would not be something useful for my classroom. (But good to know for the future!)

Thing #16

I chose to use the sticky notes tool as my homepage and will continue to use it. I use sticky notes ALL the time. And this program alone is my favorite of all time. It keeps them organized on my computer and I will utilize this program from now on. As a teacher I will probably use most of these sites. They will help to keep my life organized and in order. As the years pass things get crazier and we rely on technology more and more and these sites are one of the best ways to keep life in order.

Thing #15

My expierence with this site was semisuccessful. I was able to see how schools and libraries utilize this tool which is SO helpful! It is simple to find what you are looking for, for any topic out there. In an elementary school setting I will be covering numerous topics so this site will be helpful in exploring and finding out additional information. I love the fact that it is available to everyone. It would not let me add anything to the sandbox, I'm not quite sure why but it kept telling me that I did not have access to add to it. I would have added my number 9 "thing" because I found that site the most useful for a classroom and everyone should know about it. Other than that this was the best site.

Thing #14

Mind maps and flowcharts will be extremely useful in the classroom. Incorporating technology into the classroom will be simple with these applications. Having this as one of my centers in the classroom depending on the lesson that week and then displaying it in the hallway or on a bulletin board for others to see would be a great way to post students work. Doing individual work in the classroom is also a good learning experience. The mind maps provide in depth information and the flowcharts are for minimal information. They are both going to be easy to utilize and I plan on using them both.

Thing #13

I did not like either of these documents, I prefer Word and these were very confusing. I tried both of them, and disliked them both. They were difficult to use, hard to understand and I just do not think that they will be useful for me at all. Most of the tools on these twenty three things has been something that I will use and take advantage of but these two were NOT what I ever plan to use they were not convient and as a teacher I need to have something simple to use and not make my life more complicated.

Thing # 12

I chose the Google Calender and the Google Translator. The translator will be extremely helpful in teaching multicultural students. If they don't understand what I'm saying or vice versa. It will be perfect in the classroom use for communicating with parents who know little to no English. The Google Calender was by far my favorite. As most of us do I have a busy schedule. Going to school, chuch, work, selling Thirty One. I have a busy life and this will help to orgaize it to the best advatage possible.

Thing #11

 I found all the feeds I decided to follow on the Educational Blog award winner site. There were so many to choose from and there was an index for different types of awards as well. I chose a handful of teaching blogs one of which the lady teaches first grade and posts all her creative ideas with pictures on her blog. It is really awesome. The other sites were harder to use, there were more confusing and not as easy. I found that the one site was extremely easy to use. The ones I subscribed to are ones that I will actually use in my teaching career.

Thing #10

  The RSS and newsreaders is a really neat idea, being able to see all the updates on one page versus going to each individual page is a definite plus as well as a time saver! Using this RSS feed is going to incorporate technology more and more into my personal and school life. I am not a huge fan of computers, I usually check facebook, email , and write papers and that is my extent of computers. The rest I leave for my fifteen year old brother to help me with. This RSS feed will actually minimize the computer use I have to encounter. It will show everything on one site for me. Teachers can utilize this new technology to sign up for educational blogs and save time seeing as teachers have minimal time as it is. This was not the most exciting activity of all, but it was very educational and a well needed and useful learning tool that I will definitely utilize from now on.

Thing #9

The online image generator was amazingly easy and one of my favorites. These can be used in the classroom in so many different ways. Making signs to hang on the wall out of the two I made above would be perfect use of them in the classroom. Creating these images took me the max of two minutes. You just pick which one you want, then you input the text you want. After that you just play around with it until you get it the way you want it, by picking your font, color, style ,etc. These generators will be one of a kind ideas for your classroom which means you can add creativity to you classroom as well as originality.

 http://www.customsigngenerator.com/

Thing #4

Kristen Barrett, Megan Kerns, Megan Sills, Sara Bara, Brandi Baggett, Megan Pitts, and Cory Fricke are the five classmates that I chose to follow. I really did not pick Megan's out, honestly I picked random ones and tried not to pick certain ones, and this is how it turned out. Commenting on blogs is important to show your opinions with that topic. It also give the author insite to what you wrote on what they think about it. I really think commenting promotes further blog writing, when someone comments on your blogs it lets you know that there are peope out there still reading it and care. With that you actually want to write more. I find it very uplifing when someone comments on my stuff because I know people are actually caring about what I write enough to comment on it. I chose to comment on how I felt about what they used, I mostly chose to comment on the Thing 8 because I wanted to see what everyone else had chosen and found useful to them. I also wanted to see what they found interesting about it.

Thing #8

http://kr.ma/C1
I found this card maker on a third party website of Flicker. It is really cool. I love to scrapbook and make cards so this was right up my alley. You can use your own picture, or just pick one of theirs. This would be really neat for when teaching to send parents for gifts for  your classroom, for their time and help, or really anything. It was so easy to do and only took me a few minutes. I absolutly love this site and for sure will be using this in the future!

Thing #7

Exploring Flicker was really cool. The website has so much to offer. I saw so many interesting pictures it was hard to choose just one. I found this cool one with ferris wheels. It has different views of them, in different towns and different settings. I realize this has nothing to do with my topic, but it was one that stuck out to me. I found that there are so many different pictures on this website that as a teacher I will have so much available to me to utilize. These pictures can be used for powerpoints, projects, etc. I love this website!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciarasc/galleries/72157622437827848/#photo_3928850042

Thing #6

WikiHow Is a great site that can be used in the classroom and the library. If you are looking for quick answers and something that is not specific this is the site to use. I like how you could input the subject area you were referring to, but it also produced a lot of results as well. WikiHow was intesting in its own way. I learned a lot from it and will most likely be using it in my future teaching career.

Thing #5

School 2.0 is a great idea for teachers. It is a way for teachers to post ideas about lessons and such. It enable teachers that are stuck on a topic or tired of doing the same thing every year to see what other teachers are doing and if it works for them. School 2.0 is going to make a huge impact on schools of the future. Enabling more collaboration with more than just the school you work at.

Thing #3

I am just getting the hang of this "blog" thing. It appears to be simple as long as you put the time and effort into learning about how to work and utilize every tool from it, as with any type of technology. Blogging and following blogs will really help when I am a teacher and out in the field. Being able to read about ideas and even see what teachers are going through the same things I am going through and use that information to overcome my obstacles.

Thing #2

When creating my blog I was hanging out in the living room with my mom and I just asked her what I should name my blog. She said The Kerns Reality and it sounded good so that is what I went with. I have never had any experience with a blog but creating it was pretty easy and self explanitory. The only thing that was more difficult than anything else was creating my avatar, which really was not crazy hard. While making it I tried to make it look similar to me, but not identical because I wanted to have fun with it too.

Thing #1

One of the easiest life long learning habits for me would be "beginning with the end in mind." I feel like that is an easy task to accomplish. Looking at the future and seeing the good that can come out of whatever you are doing is a good way to keep you headed in that direction. While without that thought in mind it would be fairly discouraging and I might just give up without a goal in sight. The hardest habit for me would be seeing problems not just as problems but as challenges as well. Sometimes it is very hard to see a problem and anything but a problem. So for me that will be something to work on myself.