Thing #12

I have always known about Google because...well, it's Google. But honestly, I never really used it as a search engine. I always used Ask.com. After exploring the different things Google has to offer, I was extremely impressed to say the least. The first one I would like to talk about is iGoogle. I thought this site was really cool because you can add a bunch of different gadgets to your homepage and really customize it. I thought it was neat for some very practical reasons. First of all, I like that you can add the weather gadget for your town. I thought that was neat because nobody really thinks about how important it is for teachers to know the weather, especially in the winter months. I also liked that I could add my Google Calendar to my homepage. This is also the second site I checked out and really enjoyed. Since you can share the Google Calendar with people, I thought this would be a good way to put all of the homework assignments and test dates on a calendar so that students as well as parents can see the schedule at any time.

I also liked iGoogle because of the hamster gadget. I love hamsters. :)

Thing #11

I definitely enjoyed using Google Blog Search the best. It was the easiest to use and all I have to do was simply type in what I am looking for and *poof* there it is! Topix and Technorati both kind of scared me off. There was so much information to look at and it was a little intimidating. I did like how Topix already knew where I was located, though. That was pretty neat. I think that using these two websites would not be beneficial to me since I can just use Google, which is a site I am already completely comfortable with. I think if I learned more about Topix, it could definitely be useful because it is able to help me find blogs that are operated by people who live extremely close to me.

Thing #10

What I like about RSS is that you can keep up with the things that are important to you in one spot. It is easier to keep up with everything and it helps keep everything more organized.

This would come in handy in my personal life because I follow a lot of food blogs but I do not want to have to look through every blog everyday. Instead, I would be able to just look at my RSS feed and see if anything was posted that day that would interest me.

Teachers can use RSS when following different teacher's blogs. It would be a neat way to see other ideas but to keep them all organized be able to look at what you want to look at specifically instead of having to search through everything.

Thing #9

I chose to play around with Image Chef. I thought this was cool because you can customize a lot of things to make the picture completely yours. I can see myself using this because I am going to be an elementary school teacher and I can definitely see myself finding a way to use pictures such as my jersey on a bulletin board. Each child can have their name on a jersey and it could be used for things such as keeping up with AR points or something of that sort.

I also chose to mess around with the Happy Face Generator. I can definitely see myself using this for little notes around my classroom. This could even be used to pull up on the board with instructions for morning work or something like that. For personal use, I can see myself using these funny little signs on facebook.

Thing #8

Flickr and Flickr mashups could definitely be useful in the classroom and my own personal life. I think the puzzle piece pictures could be a cute way to decorate a bulletin board in a elementary school classroom. I also loved the idea of the Flickr Color Pickr. I plan on teaching little kids so that would definitely come in handy when teaching colors. It would be helpful to have different pictures of every color like that.

I can use Flikr mashups in my own personal life to just be more creative with pictures. I enjoy scrapbooking and I LOVE the idea of the puzzle piece pictures in a scrapbook. I am not always very creative so when I can find tools like this to help boost my creativity, I jump on them!

Thing #7

For thing #7, I uploaded this picture to my new Flickr account. I really love baking and these "ice cream cones" are actually cake pops. I made them for a birthday party over the summer and I was so thrilled with how they turned out because this was the first time I had ever made anything like this! I have made many more cake pops since but these will always be my favorite I think.

I chose this picture because this is what I love to do. If there is one thing you should know about me, it is that I have a serious passion for baking. I am always creating something new and I love it!

I can definitely see myself using Flickr in the classroom because I could easily share photos of the school day with parents. I think that would  be a neat experience and it would help parents feel even more involved with their child's education. The only other photo site I've used is Photobucket, and that was many years ago. Photobucket and Flickr are actually pretty similar as far as I'm concerned. The only thing is I never had much to do with tagging until I learned about it on Flickr. I have never had many concerns about having photos in a public place but of course, I've grown up in the Facebook era so I have never been too concerned with it.

Thing #6

While looking through the Web 2.0 Awards, I decided to use Amazon. I chose Amazon because I have a Kindle so I am a very big book nerd. The greatest thing about Amazon is that there are free books you can download to your Kindle, PC, or phone app. The site is extremely useful because it is so easy to use. You just search whatever book or item you are looking for and it pops right up on the screen.

I can definitely see Amazon being useful in a classroom or library setting. If you have computers or Kindles for the students, especially high school students, they can download and read books easily. Also, since most high schoolers read books in English like Great Expectations, The Scarlet Letter, and plays by Shakespeare, they could download and read these books for free. There are also a lot of books by lesser known authors that are also free as well.

Thing #5

The first site I looked at was Web 2.0: A Guide for Educators. I loved this site because it talked about how in the past decade, the internet has become such an important part of our lives. The internet can be used for virtually anything from running a business to using a social networking site to keep up with old friends. Teachers definitely need to take advantage of Web 2.0 and use it to give our students a more fulfilling educational experience. There are so many ways to integrate computers in the classroom and there is no reason not to use them.

The second site I looked at was Web 2.0 Is the Future of Education. This was a really neat site with a lot of different things to look at. I saw an article about how iPhones, iPads, and Macs are being used in the classroom and it really made me realize that in the near future, schools could very easily be entirely electronic. Everytime you turn around there are some new advances in technology that are changing the world as we know it. When I was in elementary school, we had one computer lab in the entire school. We used them to learn how to type correctly and that was about it. Nowadays some children go to school and already have facebook pages or cell phones. It is a different world out there and if teachers do not spend a lot of time learning to understand and use the internet, they are going to get left in the dust.

Thing #4

Commenting on blogs if you have a meaningful comment is always a good idea because it makes the blogger feel like somebody actually cares what he/she has to say. Another reason commenting is helpful is because if you comment on a blog about something that is important to you, changes are you are going to learn something useful or at least find some people who share a similar interest.

"You become part of the life of the blogger you are reading." I have experienced this before so this is definitely something I feel is worth mentioning. I bake like it is going out of style and in fact, I work at a bakery now. I followed the BrownEyedBakers blog religiously and I would wake up everyday excited to see what she was blogging about that day. When you read a blog regularly, you really do feel like a part of the blogger's life. It is a really neat feeling.

"If you have written about it, hyperlink to your post." I love this idea. Not only can you comment about the subject, but you can hyperlink to your own post and people can see your opinion on the topic and you also get more people looking at and hopefully following your blog.

The 7 blogs I have chosen to follow are:

1) Rhodes 23 Things
2) Abby Smith's '23 Things'
3) Carroll's Cavern
4) Stefanie Tate's 23 Things
5) T. Smith's 23 Things for Teachers
6) the teacher wife
7) My Little Cupcake POP Blog

This blog is partially a work in progress. I have yet to post a comment on all seven of these blogs.