Thing Twenty-four: Lucky You… It’s a Bonus!

What? I thought I was finished… guess this is where I practice my skills as a teacher and reflect on what I learned. For starters what I really liked about this project was creating the blog in general. I like blogging and it defiantly will be something I continue to do as a teacher. Some suggestions for the program…. Make sure all the links provided are still active. Also as the web is constantly changing, so must the things we look into. I felt some of the activities viewed were outdated and new current websites should be viewed instead. Overall, I really liked the project and felt I was able to take a lot away from it.

This program taught me how to implement some aspects of technology into my curriculum such as YouTube videos. As a teacher-to-be I now know how important it is to keep update with what’s happening in the world of web 2.0. To stay current I will continue to view education websites on state procedures, view blogs to get classroom and teaching ideas, and also browse the web to find current websites I can implement into the learning experience.

Thing Twenty-three: Knowing When It's Not Okay To Borrow

For this thing I was to research what copyright laws are and browse creative commons website. As a teacher it is important to be familiar with copyright laws so that- one: we know how to properly use materials and two: so we know how to properly teach our students about them. With me being a future kindergarten- sixth grade teacher this can be a tricky topic to cover. One site I found to be particularly helpful though was the Library of Congress.Check it out here! At this site you can have students view a video, browse a timeline, and look at some common questions involving what copyright laws are. Another thing that is important to teach and know is your symbols. Such as if a site ( like the APSU 23 Things  site) has a creative commons license with some rights reserved meaning some things can be used from this site.

Thing Twenty-two: Teaching With A Binder

For this thing I was to explore LiveBinders. I created three teaching resource binders on this site title: Classroom Management, Teaching from the heart, and A Crafty Teacher. Classroom management is used for- well just that, classroom management strategies. Teaching from the heart is used for lesson plans or lesson ideas, and a crafty teacher is for ways to decorate the classroom. Take a gander at my classroom management binder.I think LiveBinders can be useful for organizing ideas but I prefer to use other storage sites that are less time consuming.

Thing Twenty-one: A Little Bit Of Me By Animoto

For this thing I was to view the sight Animoto and make a video. I was nervous when using this sight because a lot of their features you have to pay for and I didn’t want to mis-click on anything! Other than that the website was supper easy to use and had a lot of great features. I didn’t like that the video loads slow but other than that I love everything about it. I think it would be cute to make a video like this to show at the end of the school year of all the students and how they’ve grown through the year. But now here's the real moment you've been waiting for: MY VIDEO!

Try our slideshow maker at Animoto.

Thing Twenty: YouTube, More Than Your Typical Show

For this thing I was to explore the fascinating sight that is… YouTube. Oh YouTube, how I love you! There are so many useful videos on this sight that can be used in the classroom to introduce or reinforce a lesson. Just type in a subject and describe what exactly you’re looking for. For example, I typed in social studies songs for children and found the following cute little video on the1849 Gold Rush.
 

Here are a few other cute videos I found:

Social Studies Video (The French Revolution)

Math Video (Subtracting with a Pirate)

Science Video (Meet the Elements)

Thing Nineteen: Other Ways To See What's Happening

For this thing I was to view other social networking sites. The first one I viewed was TeacherPop. I didn’t particularly care for it just because its main use seems to be for this class and had very little added material than that. I was able to view some others posts and comment on them.  Another site viewed was Whats On My Bookshelf where people are able to trade books and create wish lists of what they want to read. I think this is an awesome sight; however, I have attachment issues when it comes to books and I really just MUST have them all so I could never part with mine. My favorite sight viewed was Craftster . I love crafting and especially loved this sight because it had a little bit of everything! I liked being able to see all the projects people had created, and allows me to come up with ideas of what my next crafting project will be. One of my favorites was this persons paintings Check it Out! I would like to create some cute art work like this to use in my classroom!

Thing Eighteen: Being A Social Teacher

For this thing I was to explore social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. As educators it is so important to keep up to date with the latest trends both socially and education wise and social networking sites allow you to do so. What I really like about twitter, as a teacher-to-be, is that it allows you to keep up to date with the latest happenings in education. It also links many news articles through educational twitter pages. Facebook can be useful to educators because it allow you to stay connected to fellow teachers and parents. It also allows you to create private group pages so that you can post information about your class.