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.

Thing Seventeen: Why Don't We Pin About It?

For this thing I was to learn how to tag and bookmark things found on the web through using the sight delicious. And boy was it deliciously rotten! I would rather use my bookmark tab on my browser versus using this site. Now that I have that out of my system, (whew!) this is not true for all tagging and bookmarking sights. Pinterest anyone? Yup I’m an addict of it and who wouldn’t be! It’s so easy to use and helpful. What I like most about Pinterest is that when you make a pin or repin you save an image and a description to an album you create. A lot of websites even have links provided to their Pinterest page so it is easier to follow them and know what's going on. For example, if I find a recipe for a cake I like I would use a pin it button (which you add to your browser once you join Pinterest) to select a picture of the cake, add a description about the cake, and place it in a photo album that I name. I then can log onto Pinterest at anytime anywhere, look in that photo album, look for that picture, and open the website and Bam there’s my recipe! I can also follow other people’s pins and browse for pins on Pinterest by subject or category. It’s very helpful for educators. It allows you to get ideas, resource materials from various websites, and keep up to date with what other teachers you may know are doing in their classroom.

Thing Sixteen: Let's Get Organized

For this thing I was to look at start pages and explore the ways in which they can help keep me organized online. I picked the iGoogle page because I figured it would be the easiest and most helpful start page to use. I really liked the page because it does indeed put everything I need right there on my homepage. For example on my page I have a weekly weather report, a calendar, youtube and facebook feeds, news updates and links, movie reviews, and even a feature that displays an artist’s work each day. The best thing about creating the page was that it also took less than a minute to complete! I really like having the news updates right there in front of me from various sources. As far as using the calendar, I would not use it. Call me old fashion but I prefer to have a planner in front of me. Another downside to this page is that on November 1, 2013 iGoogle will no longer be available due to the fact that other devices such as apps are replacing the need for it. This just serves as a reminder that it’s important to keep up to date on the latest changes in technology. So to end on a positive note, I would like to add a link that gives some helpful tips to teachers on how to incorporate technology into class projects. Here it is!

Thing Fifteen: Wiki I Say...

Can you tell I struggled for a title for this thing. I'm cheesier than a bag of Cheetos! This post is all about wiki pages. One of the wiki spaces viewed was Westwood. Here they had student portfolios, and descriptions of classes offered. I did not like that the student portfolios could be viewed. I think that it should be set to a more secure setting. The work in their portfolios such listing interests, posting videos related to those interests, including community service work, and ideas that they had was a nice project. The book lovers was very similar to a blog I had to create in another education class where I described how to use different genres of children’s literature in the classroom.  

So wiki I say... overall I did not care for wikipages. I did not like their designs or page layouts. I just felt like the sights are not very helpful as well.  I think that webpage’s can be useful because you can keep parents informed and have student involvement with creating the page; however, there are other sites I like better. One in particular is Shutterfly! Here you can create a classroom webpage that is only open to those you allow to view it. It also allows you to create volunteer signup sheets on the sight, a school calendar, post updates about what’s going on in the classroom, and also upload pictures and videos made of students in the classroom. Parents also can purchase the pictures or videos and make their own posts on the webpage. It also allows you to link other useful sites for students and parents to view and create a chat room where parents can talk together as well.

Thing Fourteen: Going With The Flow

For this thing I was to explore flowcharts and mind maps that are available online to use. The first one I used was a mind map from https://bubbl.us/. I had some trouble typing in the information and it does not allow you to change the format of the map. (At least I couldn’t figure it out but that’s not saying much, I’m far from being computer savvy!)I do think this could be useful in the classroom when going over vocabulary words.

For my flowchart I went to http://flowchart.com. You have to request an invite to use the sight but mine came within a few hours of making the request. I like that it had designs to choose from for creating a flowchart such as a diagram, a layout for notes, family tree, vertical timeline, etc. For my chart I picked the swimlanes layout because it reminded me of writing paper. At first I thought I was going to like the sight but it was very difficult to use. Because the swimlanes layout looked like writing paper I wanted to write a few simple sentences. I thought that this would be useful to use on a smartboard as an interactive activity for students but it was very difficult to go back and edit anything already typed. I also noticed that the site had a record button at the top but the sight has no instructions (that I found) as to how it operates or how to view the video clips you made of your document. I browsed through some of the other flowchart layouts available and found them to be even more difficult to use. Most of them already had sample information laid out for you, but it would not allow you to type in the boxes already made though. This made it a mess to deal with. As you can tell I was not happy with the website. Maybe if it had more information as to how to use their website but they did not, and even if they did it was not easy to locate (because I still have not found it) and I do not have the time to dedicate to find the information.

The disappointment of the last sight left me aggravated and determined to find a better sight so I checked out another flowchart website called Gliffy. Ahhh.. It was such a relief to find this sight. It is by far the best! It was easy to use and allowed you to create a chart from scratch exactly how you want it. I decided to make an example of a brainstorm a class might have when introducing the topic of weather. This sight had a lot to offer though so the options are really endless here. It even had the swimlanes layout that the previous sight had. I did not care for them as much on this sight but hey at least it was user friendly! 

(Still wish they were all more stylish, will be looking through fellow blogs to see what they find!)

Any~who check out my flowchart: And here it is!

Thing Thirteen: Other Ways To Make Documents Besides In The Office

For this thing I was to explore some online options for creating a word document or presentation. I decided to look at Zoho Writer and Google documents. Creating the Zoho account was easy but I did not particular care for the process of verifying my email address. I also wish it had more font options and a layout that was easier to navigate. There also should be explanations for what each tab and selection can do such as what’s in Word Document. The review section of the document was easy to use though which I find very helpful, especially the thesaurus. In Google documents I decided to look at the power point presentation option and noticed it had a lot of the same problems as Zoho writer. It was limited in presentation designs, text, animations, and lacked explanations as to what items could do. Again, I also did not particular like the set up of the site either. I also could not find an area to add sound to my slides. (Microsoft Office has spoiled me!) I did however make the following short slide show check it out! Out of the two viewed I would have to say I ended up liking Google better. It was easier to figure out than Zoho.

The tools viewed would be great to use in a classroom for students to create their own presentations or papers; especially if they or the school cannot afford software such as Microsoft Office. For me personally though I prefer to stick with Microsoft Office.