One More Thing!

I can't believe this semester is already almost over and that I am done with my 23 Things project! It feels like it just flew by! I really enjoyed this project and wouldn't mind doing work like this for my other classes. Through this project, I found a lot of different resources that I will be able to use throughout my education and then in the future, when I am a teacher. All of this is really exciting for me!

I think that my favorite thing about this project was just creating a blog in general. I think that I will definitely stick to blogging. I may blog about my education but maybe I'll create a new blog about my personal interests. I really enjoyed it and I think that it is definitely something that I can use in my future classroom as well to stay connect to the students and parents outside of the classroom.

I think that I will be taking a lot away from this project. I found so many new resources that I had no idea existed! I knew there were resources but it was really cool to be given some so that I could research and find more and more. I love that I can read other educators blogs and find new and exciting ideas for my classroom. This is definitely something that I will always keep in mind.

I will definitely keep up with web 2.0 and how things are constantly changing. I think that this project is set up phenomenally. There is not anything that I would change. It was very effective and very helpful. I really enjoyed it!

Thing 23

After looking around at Creative Commons, I really started thinking about how important copyright prevention really is. Plagiarism is a huge problem and there are lots of ways to prevent it. I will definitely use extra caution from now on with my sources and be sure not to copy and paste carelessly.

I think I will definitely use Creative Commons in my future classroom because copyright is something that everyone should be aware of. I think that the earlier students learn about copyright and plagiarism the better off they will be with their writing. Knowing the rules and laws of copyright can help everyone to use resources more safely.

Thing 22

My binders are named Poetry, Classwork Grades, and Lesson Plans. Obviously, the last two were for my use only but the poetry one can be used for my class. I think it would be neat to have one of these full of poems and stories for my students to be able to access at home. It can be something fun for them as opposed to the everyday monotony of textbooks and worksheets. Here is a link to my poetry binder. Poetry

Thing 21

I thought Animoto was so much fun! I wish I were on my own computer so that I could play around some more with the music and everything. This might be one of my favorite things we've done so far! I love slide shows and things like that so this was right up my alley. I think that this would be a great way to share videos with the kids in the classroom and a great way to remember fun class experiences! I linked Animoto with my Facebook and used some of the pictures of my friends and I that I had on there. Here it is!

Make your own slideshow with music at Animoto.

Thing 20

I am pretty familiar with Youtube. I enjoy it very much. It is really easy to use and there are videos on just about anything. I googled "high school classroom." When I came across this video, I was so excited because I found it extremely appropriate for this project. Twitter in the classroom is something that we have all blogged about. I could not agree more with what the teacher has to say about engaging the students. I think that using internet in the classroom is definitely a way to make the students more excited about learning and make them more enthusiastic about their assignments!

Thing 19

As I mentioned before, I think that staying connected with other teachers is very important to keep things new and exciting in one's own classroom. Needless to say, I thought this TeacherPop thing was very exciting! What an awesome site! Like Facebook but for teachers! I found this site very intriguing. I am always excited about another way to get new ideas for the classroom and things like that. I uploaded a picture and here is my badge!
Visit TeacherPop
Social networking is something that I really enjoy. Besides Facebook and TeacherPop, I am also a member of Twitter and Pinterest. I'm completely obsessed with Pinterest. I have planned my future wedding about ten times over and I am addicted to crafting now! I enjoy Twitter but not as much as Pinterest.

Thing 18

Here is my Facebook!

I think that social networking is such a huge part of today's culture that it is definitely something that can be used in the classroom. It can be used as a way for parents to connect with the teacher and for students to connect outside of the classroom. It is definitely an easy way to communicate.

I like Facebook a lot because of the pictures! I think that setting up a class Facebook page could be a fun activity for the entire class! The students can be in charge and they can post pictures of the activities they have completed throughout the week and other things like that. I think that parents would like this as well. It can be a way for them to feel involved and see what's going on inside of the classroom too!

Facebook has helpful features. You can search just about anything and find a Facebook page for it. There are pages for scholars, authors, teachers, students, schools, etc. I think it would be a neat activity to assign a certain author or scholarly page for my students to follow and maybe have a little extra credit quiz or something on what was posted that week on the assigned site. I am all about extra credit!

I think that Facebook is definitely the best social networking site for classroom use. It presents ways to stay connected while having fun and can also be educational! I think that I will definitely use this in my classroom as a way to connect with the parents and if my students seem enthused about it, maybe a way to give them some extra points too!

Thing 17

I really liked Delicious.com. I love anything that helps one connect with other people of the same interests. I think that using this site for new ideas and new ways to keep learning fun is something that I will definitely do. It is always neat to see what other teachers are doing and how they are teaching the same stuff but in different ways. This site will be very helpful when I become a teacher and I cannot wait to use it! I think that there is always room for improvement and new ideas so this is awesome for that!

Thing 16

For my home page, I chose to try out iGoogle. I loved it! I think the dashboard is really awesome because you can see everything on one page and then go from there. I always like to have the weather handy so I thought that was really neat that it was right there! I might use this from now on because I really liked it. I like to have my news and everything readily available. I used to have MSN as my home page but this could be my  new one!

Maybe it's just me but I found Scrybe to be a little confusing. So, I went on to 30 boxes. I really liked this because one thing I am terrible at is remembering birthdays. I liked that I can click a box that literally says "Remember Birthdays." That could really be a huge help for me! I actually found all of the options to be pretty helpful. I really like how it gave you all of the options but then gave you the option to create your own calendar.  I get overwhelmed and sometimes forget about things because, I'll admit it, I'm a tad scatter-brained. I think I could really learn to like this site!

Then I tried out Remember the Milk. I have an iPhone and I am completely addicted to it. I think that I could learn to use this but I usually just write out my list. I like having an actual list so I'm not sure if I will ever really like using a digital to-do list.

Thing 15

I thought this was very fun. It is really cool to me that I can edit other people's work. However, this was also a sort of awakening. This really brought to light why one should not use Wikipedia and other sources of the like because anyone can post anything they want and edit other people's posts to say whatever they want. So what could have started out as a reliable post, can end up as something completely out of the woodwork. While this is really neat and fun, it is something that can really jeopardize the integrity of someone's work. However, this could also be used as a collaboration tool for students. If the students post and edit things on something like this once a week or so, it can be a great way for them to communicate and discuss the curriculum!

Thing 14

For this discovery exercise, I chose to explore Flowchart.com and mindmeister. I really liked Flowchart.com because I am going to be an English teacher and I think this would be a huge help for sequences of events in stories and books that my students will read. Flowcharts are awesome ways to diagram events and what other events they will eventually lead to. I think that I will definitely use this in my classroom. Or maybe even make my  students do something like this for extra credit or a quiz grade!

Thing 13

I explored Zoho Writer and Google Docs. I found that Zoho was a lot like Microsoft Word and pretty easy to use. I liked it but I think I will probably stick to Microsoft Word, just because that is what I am used to. Google Docs, on the other hand was pretty fun. I created a drawing in Google Docs. A "welcome to my class" picture that I could hang on the door on the first day of school or something like that. I think Google Docs can be used for lots of awesome things and now that I know about it, I will definitely use it when I become a teacher! Here is a link to my drawing! Welcome to Ms. Boyd's Class!