Thing #12- I heart Google

 I have loved Google forever.  I have a hard time remember when Google wasn't a household name used daily. 

I have an iGoogle page.  I inserted a picture of my home page.  I have a To Do List gadget, YouTube gadget, and a Rachael Ray gadget to name a few.  I am not sure if I you know this or not, but I LOVE GOOGLE! 

I have Google Calendar too, but I wasn't too excited about sharing that publicly.  I just feel that my information isn't that much fun, so why clog up the public domain with my boring calendar.  

The Google Translator has came in handy before.  I had a pen pal who spoke Spanish, and sometimes her emails would be a little in English and a little in Spanish.   

Thing # 11-New Useful Blogs

1. Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use? I used the site Google Blog Search to find blogs that interested me.  It was super easy to use.  I typed in "Rachael Ray", and right away there were many to choose from. 
2. What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels?  I found a blog called Everything Rachael Ray.  It has a lot of cooking tips and ideas.  I love to cook, I love Rachael Ray, and I love the tips given on this website.  It is a total win!
3.What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?  I began going to websites that I go to on a normal basis and found that Local News on The Leaf Chronicle was available for RSS.   I have been to other websites and now I am beginning to notice RSS on sites I go to daily.  I had no idea! :)

Thing #10-Google Reader

Before this assignment I had set up a Google Reader site.  I like to keep up with a friend of mine who has a blog. Heather's Blog   It is easier than bookmarking numerous sites and having to click individually on the different blogs.   

I added a few of the blogs to my Google Reader that were suggested in our lesson for thing 10.  The teachers in the blogs have great idea and share their educated opinion on new technology.   Teachers can use the RSS to connect with different bloggers who have more information on technology, and learn from them and offer insight into a problem the blogger may have.  

Thing # 9-

Thing #8- Puzzle

I chose to make a puzzle with Flickr photos.  Instead of using a photo from Flickr it allowed me to use a photo from Facebook.  I chose this picture of a quilt I made for the puzzle.   I thought it was really easy to do.  From the website a full puzzle can be ordered.  I think it would be nice to order for friends or classes.  

I tried a few of the other applications.  I really like the Flickr Color Pickr.  It was really neat how you can pick a color and all the pictures pop up around the wheel.  I am sure this would work great if a certain color is needed. 

I am not sure how comfortable I am with placing my pictures online.  Maybe my mind will be changed with all the activities of blogging. 

Thing #7- Flickr-Get better flowers

 
Get better flowers, a photo by jenniferdjackson on Flickr.

I really like using Flickr.  At one point in time, I had a yahoo account that allowed to view/share pictures with others.  The only other place I have stored pictures since then has been Facebook.  I am not a public person.  I would rather share only with people I want to see my pictures.  I think that I will use flickr now for my photos.  I am not sure if I will use it just for personal use or for the classroom too.   I guess it would depend on the school policies, and the requests of parents if pictures are taken.

Thing #6-

   I chose Etsy from the list of Web 2.0 Award Nominees.  I chose the link because I wasn't exactly sure what the website was about.  A lot of the other Web 2.0 sites I had used.  Once on the site I decided I really like it.  It is a shopping tool, but the items for sale are mostly handmade items. I like that I did not have to register unless I was going to purchase or list an item.

  I am a crafty girl in many ways.  I really love to take pics, scrapbook, sew, and quilt to name a few of my hobbies.  I think that this site could be beneficial to me in a few ways.  It could give me ideas by looking at other works on the site, as well as a place to sell my handy work.   I am not sure if it would be useful in school setting unless I was looking for a specific item that I would use in the classroom.

Etsy  <---------------weblink :)

Thing #5- School 2.0

   Web 2.0 applications are a way for people to interact with each other on the internet.  From the articles I read for the assignment I realized that over half of students between 12-17 are already using web 2.0 application to interact with others.Article  The old way of banking, shopping, buying music, printing photographs, and watching movies has changed.  So why shouldn't school change?  

  School 2.0 seems like a great idea.  Education needs to take a advantage of these web 2.0 resources for learning and teaching as well.  When I was in high school we had a distant learning class where we would go to a classroom, but we were taught by a teacher on the computer screen.   The teacher was instructing 4 high school classes at the same time, and we would interact with the other classmates in different school.  I think that this worked great.  Why shouldn't more classes be taught this way.  Or have a set of podcasts that would be listed for students to do their lessons? A teacher could even use a blog as a classroom.  I am sure that with smaller children an adult should be present, but I feel that the home school online would work.  

Technology is 2nd nature to kids.   Technology is the future for the generation that is school age now.  I say take advantage of every opportunity for School 2.0.

Thing # 4- Commenting on Others

For Thing #4 I will be posting on all semester.  There are numerous goals that are expected in this post.  I will be commenting and changing this post for a few weeks.  Please be patient.
 

These are the goals expected of me for post 4:

 

• explain why commenting helps create a sense of community and interaction
• discuss two other points from the readings about commenting that you found important
• give the names of the seven blogs (5 from our group + 2 others of your choice) you selected to read and comment on and tell why you selected them
• discuss the comments that you chose to make and why you made them

Thing # 3

Blogging can be useful for many different purposes for students in the education field and teachers in the classroom.  As a student teacher, I can use blogs to discuss issues that I have with assignments.  Bloggers are all over the world and can have different opinions that may be specific to a region in other countries.  Fellow bloggers can comment and give insight on assignments that I would not think of or I could assist them with assignments.

Before this assignment I really hadn't given any thought to blogging besides for personal use.  I like to blog to keep my family involved in my life since they live so far away.  Now I have the idea that I want to have a blog for my classroom to keep parents involved in classroom activities.  I would have a calendar of events, weekly homework listed, and have a place where I could display student art work.  I think that this would be helpful for parents who have busy lives who can just log onto the blog and find all the information in one spot.

Thing #2

   I chose to use a combination of my name and what grade I am going to teach.   I am not 100% sure what grade I want to teach, so I at least wanted to put k-6 in my title. My actual title of my blog is "Jennifer's 23 Things for Summer". I thought it was easy to create the blog.  The only problem I ran into was the fact I had a blog on blogger.com a long time ago.  The information wanted to coincide with each other.  I fixed the problem by just deleting the content from the blog before.

    I attempted to dress my avatar the way I would dress on a casual day.  My hair is similar, my eyes are green, and I love coffee!  So my avatar reflects me in many ways.   I chose to do this, because this blog is my blog.  I feel that I want to be totally honest in who I am, and where I am going in my life as a "teacher in training".

Thing #1

      The lifelong habits that I find easiest for myself is to set goals and to present each new problem as a challenge.  When I have a new assignment assigned I immediately begin thinking of how I am going to tackle the assignment.  I make a checklist of what needs to be done, set daily goals to complete on time, and begin working right away.  I have a hard time with the lesson of confidence.  I am my own worst critic.  I can set goals and problem solve, but I will still be unsure of how my work stands up to others.

     I am excited about using the Web 2.0 tools this semester.  I have used a few before and didn't know that they were 2.0 tools.   I am interested in learning more about technology.  Technology is important in today's day and age.   As Dr. Jerles said in class "children starting kindergarten have always know that iPads exist, they know no different".   

     As I worked on this assignment I felt that the process was pretty simple.  I have blogged before, and I try to keep up with a blog on a normal basis.