Thing #9

     I had a lot of fun with this thing. I really like how most of the sites you could upload your own images and add bubble quotes to them. The first image I created using the comic strip generator of the Dalmatians could be used if I had to teach math. I could put it up on my board for the day. Of course we would have to have some other fun "101 Dalmatian" activities to go along with that lesson. I really think it would help get the children into the lesson from the start.

     The next image I created using the happy face generator I would probably have up on the board or screen when the kids first came in so they would know what to do. This would give a more visual approach than simply writing it on the board. I could also use some of the other cute happy faces to create signs with the classroom rules to hang up around my classroom.   

     I really liked the site that I created my last image on called Image Chef. Instead of just added a quotation bubble to an image, I was actually able to create a sign. I could see myself using this sign (of course I would add my student's faces instead of a dog's) if we were learning about western times or reading a western story. I could put them up all over the classroom to make the students feel as if they were part of a western town. There were also so many other things I could use on that website including a word mosaic and a poetry blender. I am so glad I was able to find these sites, because I really doubt I would have trusted them if they had not been on the 23 things. Doing this project has made me even more excited to decorate a classroom and do special fun projects with my future students.

Thing #8

     One thing I am really looking forward to is getting to decorate my classroom when I become a teacher. I love going to observe classrooms where the teacher has really taken her time to make the classroom a fun and inviting place. With the different Flickr mashups I was able to create a puzzle from a picture I drew on photoshop and a sign for my "class." I could easily see me incorporating the puzzle idea into different images that went along with my image for that day. The bad thing about it, however, was that it would cost me $40 to order the actual puzzle. I am pretty sure I will not be able to afford many of these off of a teacher salary, but it would still be fun to have a couple. With the letter mashup I could easily make name fun nameplates for my students or labels for things around my classroom.
    I feel it is okay to share images online and that it allows other people to get great ideas or use images that they would not have had access to any other way. However, being a beginning photography I know the issues people face when others simply take their images without paying. It is similar to taking songs without paying. Also with nearly anyone able to somehow take an image off of a web page, it is important to watch what you put on your own site if you create one when your a teacher. I would hate for anything to happen to one of my students because of a photo I posted of them online. With common sense and some parent permission, I think sharing photos online is a great way to keep up with the people around you.

Thing #7

     I actually got a Flickr account a while ago for my photography, however I have not added anything to it in who knows how long. Adding a few images to my Flickr again was actually pretty fun. It's fun to get your work out there or allow other people to see images of things that interest you. I am not sure if I will use Flickr in my classroom or another photo sharing program. I guess it really depends on what is popular when I start teaching. I will probably try to start using it again for my beginning photography business so I can get my name out to more people and photographers like me.
     I have not really used other photo hosting services. I mainly use my Facebook page to share my photos right now but I know that when I get my own classroom and I am wanting to share pictures with the parents of what our class has done, I will have to use something solely dedicated to pictures. I know that I will have to be careful about what photos I share of my students to protect their privacy, that is why I will probably do more research on more private photo sharing sites if I end up needing one for my students. I love photography and I would enjoy applying it to my classroom and being able to share the photos with the family of my students. I would then be able to combine my passion for photography and teaching, which would be my dream come true.

Thing #6

     I am constantly sending large files, whether they are photographs or documents. With a regular  email it can take hours to sent a large file, which can be very frustrating when you are low on time. Yousendit allows you to upload and share large files quickly and easily. I really like how user friendly it it. I was able to sign up for an account and start sending files that would have originally taken at least 10 minutes to load, in only a minute. The free account lets you send up to 50 MB. The only thing negative I can say about the free account is that you can't track your files to see if anyone received them. This could lead to a bad situation. However, if I was I had to track them I could simply upgrade my account for a total of $120 a year.
     I could see myself using this Web 2.0 tool if I needed to send pictures of certain school events to the parents. I could also send other files such as stories, homework, and other large files. By using Yousendit, I will be able to keep the parents involved by sending them photos and possibly even newsletters quickly.  I will also be able to save time worrying about emailing files, and spend more time preparing to teach my students.

Thing #5

     Last year I attended one of the largest county fairs in Tennessee and I loved walking around the little makeshift village that was complete with everything from an old fashion mill to an old school house. I went into the schoolhouse with two of my little brother and the lady there had us sit down and do a little lesson like they would have back then while she told us a little bit about how a school used to be ran. I could hardly believe what I was hearing as she went through the rules and procedures that they used to follow. I mean look at the schools now, instead of a blackboard there are interactive smartboards, computers instead of paper or flat rocks, and technology instead of well...nothing. It is amazing to see the difference in the education system then and now, and how something that they would have never dreamt about, Web 2.0, is being Incorporated in many classrooms today.
     School 2.0 means a various things to me. First I think that incorporating Web 2.0 into the children's curriculum is a great thing, after all we live in a technical world so the children will need to learn to work it for most jobs they will encounter in their future. I think that schools could take it too far, however, if they forget to keep some of the basics, such as if students do not write on actually paper as much then how will America's handwriting look 50 years from now? I know that might not be a very good example but I think the education system should still consider things like this. In the future I believe students could be doing their homework and reading their texts on IPads or something even more advanced. The school system might not even bother purchasing textbooks anymore and move to an all digital class.
     One of the articles I read mentioned how technology is basically second nature to kids nowadays. The Wiki article talked about what Web 2.0, its history, and how it is used. I never realized until this class that I was participating in Web 2.0 by using places such as Facebook and Yahoo to add stuff to the Internet. The video The Machine is Us/ing Us really overwhelmed. Overall it's just amazing to me how far technology has come for the education system.

Thing #4

Like a car needs gas to keep it running, a blogger needs comments to keep up their enthusiasm to blog. If bloggers are continuously writing blog posts but not getting any comments, they will not be able to gear their blogs to their readers. With commenting bloggers and their readers can really get to know each other and be able to help each other. One thing that I have not really thought about is how you become a part of the blogger’s life when you comment on their posts. In Vicki Davis' blog she tells how she feels like she’s gotten to know people either through their comments or through people commenting on her posts. I have always just thought that the reader gets to know the bloggers, but that the bloggers never really gets to know their audience on a more personal level. Another thing that I found important was to watch out for “DC” or “Darth Commenter.” As a blogger one has to truly know why they are blogging and be willing to accept a bad comment every now and then. It is also important to try to not be that “DC” by commenting negative things on fellow bloggers’ blogs.
The first blog I chose to follow was Kelsey Gardner's blog. The biggest reason I chose to follow her blog is actually because 1. we are roommates and 2. because I really like the creative ideas she has when it comes to education. I commented on her "Thing #9" because it was one of my favorite things from this half of the project and I really thought her creations were fun for a classroom setting. 
The second blog I chose to follow was Brandi Reed's blog. I chose her blog because I really liked a lot of her ideas she had when it came to using technology in the classroom. A lot of the tools she chose to explore and post about where different than mine, so I was able to learn more about the other applications before trying them out. I commented on her "Thing #8" because I thought the idea of making a collage with Flickr was a great idea, especially if a teacher is making a poster for the classroom wall. 
The third class blog I chose to follow and comment on was Mallory Stewart's blog. Because she is a good friend of mine and I enjoy reading someone's posts who I will probably be going through a lot of education classes with in the future. I really think it's important to form a relationship with people in your same field so that away you can share ideas. I chose to comment on her "Thing #11" because we both pretty much had the same feeling about the tools we can use to search for blogs. We both really loved Google's search tool but did not care so much for Synic8.com.
The fourth blog I chose to follow and comment on was Jessi Wright's blog. What really drew me into her blog was that she had a different blog title that everything else. Just from her title I could tell she would probably have fun posts. I chose to comment on her "Thing #7"  because it really looked like she took a lot of time to post all of the pictures on it. I also thought her idea of using Flickr to show students images from around the world was great and something I had never thought of doing. 
Last but not least, the final blog I chose to comment on from Education 2030 was Bletlea Apple's blog. To start with I really loved her blog layout and all the polka dots since I am a major polka dot fan. But aside from that I can tell she puts a lot of thought into her blog posts. I chose to comment on her "Thing #8" because the tool she chose to use is one that I did not run into in my exploring, or at least not the particular way she used it. I thought she had a great idea about using the photo collage to quiz students using more visual elements. 
One of the blogs I chose to follow that were not in my class was Adventures in Educational Blogging. I really like this blog because it fits exactly into what we have been learning about in this class....blogging and technology! What better blog could I choose to follow for this assignment? The blog post I chose was all about different tools that are available to use to make the work flow easier. I basically just commented how their post helped to further my understanding on various web tools that are available. 
The last blog I chose to follow is Ideas and Thoughts. I thought this was an interesting educational blog because not only does he post about education, he also posts about stuff that is interesting to everyday people such as him learning to play the guitar. I chose to comment on his post where he states that he had just started learning how to play the guitar as sort of a learning project. I thought it was a fairly clever idea. 
Commenting on various blogs has really helped give me a sense of community with my fellow education majors. It really makes me stop and actually read their blog posts in order to give a proper response. Throughout the rest of the semester I plan to keep up with these seven blogs and comment on them regularly. Who knows, by the end of this semester I might be the next commenting queen! :) 

Thing #3

     The children's homework for the week, special events, updates on what the class is learning, and just my experience as a whole working with the children would all be things I would blog about if I created a blog when I start my teaching career. If my class was having a special play that I wanted the parents to know about, it would be a lot easy and more accessible if I put the information on my blog than to send each kid home with a note (who knows where the child will put the note!). Also if I needed parents to bring items to a specific class I would be able to post the list and the parents could easily comment on the post to say what they could bring and see what other parents are already bringing. The biggest problem I would probably face if I relied only on a blog to relay this information would be the fact that not every home has access to the Internet. Therefore I would still have to keep up with which families I would have to either sent notes home with or call. In the future hopefully most every home will be able to access the Internet so that teachers are able to use blogs more.

Thing #2

     When I found out that I was going to have to create a blog I did not realize that I would have to think of a name for it.  I am normally a very creative person however, with my blog's name I decided to stick with the name of the assigment since I only plan to use this blog for this class. If I get a blog in the future for my teaching career I will try to come up with a name that is more catchy.
     Creating the blog was not very difficult for me. Becuase of my photography, I am fairly used to following blogs and keeping up with a facebook page for my little bussiness. I really think I am going to enjoy keeping track of what I have learned in the class in a way that I can share it with everyone. If I really enjoy keeping up with this blog I am going to try to blog more about things I do in my other education classes and also get a blog for my photography. I might even put them both together to be like the pioneer woman.
     Creating my avatar was really fun, it reminded me of when my family first got a Wii a couple of years ago and we all created our little "Mii"s. The avatar reflects my personality because I smile pretty much all the time and I love wearing jeans and a teeshirt. I tried to create an avatar that looks like me, but I really don't think it looks like me. The hair color and how pale I am are a match, but the hair style and pretty much everything else about it does not even get close to looking like me.  

Thing #1

     I have honestly never thought about being a lifelong learner. When I think of learning I have always thought of learning things such as math, science, English, ect. This tutorial really opened my eyes as to things I can learn throughout my life to help me to become a better, more well rounded person. I have always enjoyed taking various classes such as art, dance, photography, and horse riding. Now I see these classes as a learning experience instead of simply for fun.
     The habit that would definitely be the hardest for me would be habit 1. I am constantly starting something and setting unrealistic goals for myself instead of setting a reasonable end. Sometimes I do not even stop to think what I want the outcome of a certain project to be. The habit that would be the easiest (besides play, of course) would be habit 3. Every since I was little I enjoyed overcoming problems. Even if it is one that stresses me out, I still try to look at the bright side and see what I will learn when it is over. Now I know what steps I should take in order to be the best lifelong learner I can be.