Flowgram Presentation

I have never created a flowgram before. I also had never created a powerpoint without words before. I think using a flowgram is a more effective way to present a lesson. It is more interesting and the students would really enjoy it. Students can create a flowgram and present this to the class. I will use flowgrams more often in my teaching. This is something the students could create easily and they would enjoy it. Learning about flowgrams has changed my perception of how I can create a presentation. I have more knowledge on how to use various tools.

Feedback

Wow! I can't believe we have discovered so many things. I didn't know some of this stuff was out there. There are so many, I hope I can remember all of them. I did learn some fabulous things that would enhance the classroom instruction. Some of my favorite things were the Flickr sites, creating the blog itself, and the you tube exercised. I thoroughly enjoyed creating an Animoto of my son and various things he has done. I thought that was really fun and exciting. Learning these things will help me to incorporate many of these items into my curriculum and also incororpate them onto our school website. Learning how to create you tubes and Animoto will be a neat way of posting things for our school.

I suppose at times some of this stuff was a little overwhelming. Looking through all of the sites provided took some time and sometimes I would forget how I got there or what I looked at because I had been to so many places. It might would be beneficial to have a couple of sites at a time to discover, but overall, I think it was great!!! I would give it a 10++.

Thing #23

I found some sites that mentioned the 23 Things of Learning. These are the sites the stuck out to me:
http://plcmclearning.blogspot.com/
http://explorediscoverplay.ning.com/

I would use this project in my classroom to allow students to explore various learning tools during their lab time. I have really enjoyed learning how to use these different type of technology tools.

Thing #22

I checked out some of the podcast resources. I found some were more difficult than others to navigate. I need something simple, and some of the resources weren't as simple as others. I did find Learn Out Loud was simple to navigate. I enjoy hearing things. I liked the languages that could be learned through this podcast. My husband loves other languages, and he would like this site. I wish I knew other languages. I think it would be neat. If I could hear it more often, I might could pick up on learning one more often.

Calvin Thing #21

Using Animoto was fun and very user friendly. It was great creating this video of my son. This would be a neat thing to use in the classroom for my students.

Thing #20

I haven't any experience with you tube until this assignment. I think it is a neat and interesting way to present a lesson. I wish I had experience with this a while back. My husband was having to create a presentation for a training he was attending. He was needing a you tube video added to his powerpoint presentation and I was having trouble getting it there. This has given me much information for the future. I found a video that my husband would like. He loves watching the WWE fights. I found a fight that made me think of him. He's in Ecuador at this time, and when I saw it, it made me think of things he likes. The address to this video is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUJbs2yNkAE&feature=bz303

Thing #19

In another class I had, I became a member of TeacherPop. I was a little hesitant about this one due to the fact I don't really like the social networking as much, but once I got going with this site, I liked it a lot. I think this is a neat way to keep in touch with other teachers you meet along the way. I think it will be great to keep up with some of the people from grad school by using TeacherPop.

As I was observing the sites, I found the Bake Space site. I love cooking. I'm thankful I have a husband that isn't picky because I like to try new things all of the time. I have a hard time keeping up with all of the recipes people give me, so hopefully, this site will help me.

I already have an account with TeacherPop. This is the only site I will use. I will only use MySpace under a fake name. I asked some of my teacher friends to join my TeacherPop friend list.

Thing #18

I am not a fan of MySpace or Facebook at all. I don't like putting my personal information out for everyone to see. I know they say it's "secure", but I am still reluctant. The people I know and am in contact with, know how to get a hold of me. I had rather communicate with phone, email, or better yet, texting. I like to text. I am going to create an account on MySpace. I will post the site at another time because it is blocked by our county and I am unable to access it. Actually, our county forbids us to participate in these types of social networking. It was told to us that it isn't professional for us to be involved.

I have now set up my fake sight through MySpace. This is the website:
http://home.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user

If I had to choose, I would say I like MySpace better than Facebook just because I have been exposed to MySpace more and I have several family members and friends that are involved with MySpace. I was able to log onto their MySpace and take a look at what they have on their pages.

I will not be using these sites for my classroom use. Our county would forbid it even if I did like them.

Thing #17

Wow, yet another site that is great for classroom organization. This is a wonderful site to tab for future references. I can see myself being able to use this site for the subjects I teach. I am learning so many valuable tools, I hope I am able to remember where and how to locate them for future classroom resources. Hopefully, between my technology buddy and I, we will be able to remember everything and apply it to our classroom and add to our students learning methods.

Thing #16

I already have my homepage setup. I set up my permanent homepage with igoogle. I did create an account with Zamzar, but I didn't care for it too much. I like the one I chose with igoogle. I added the news, weather, and a calendar. I made this my permanent homepage because when I pull up my computer, I already have the information Ineed in one spot. I really like the online calendar I have on my page. I need calendars to keep up with everything. I don't do good with pocket calendars because I forget to look at them. I'm always on the computer or with my phone, so those two types of technology come in handy. I also created an account in Zoho writer that I really like as well. I am liking all of these different ways to stay organized.

Thing #15 Stretch Activity

I looked on the Wikipedia at the Kentucky Wildcats. I bleed blue. I absolutely love the Kentucky Wildcats. Sometimes I have a hard time finding information about them, but the Wikipedia gave me some feedback. They have a collaborative effort in working with the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky. There was several revisions of the history. The discussions were how they get involoved in the community and keeping others updated with the athletics.

Thing #15

A. I thought it was exciting about how the students enjoyed their learning. There were becoming more responsible for their learning. It was great to read about the need of this new idea of learning. I do see the need for this in the classroom. Students would love to learn with this method. Personally, I don't see a need for it, but I definetely see it for the students in my classroom.

B. The sites I explored:

* Go West: I teach a little about people settling down in the west. This site gave a great flowchart on the life of people going west. There were many websites full of information about going west. There were fun facts, timelines, history, and all sorts of great information that can be incorporated into the curriculum.

* Kindergarten Counting Book: I love learning new things for primary students. This site gave interesting ideas for younger students to learn with hands on information.

* Schools in the Past: This site gave a nice history of how our schools have changed over time. This is a great community outreach activity for students to interact with older people. It is good for them to see how things have changed.

All of the sites were great to look at and it was easy to navigate through them.

Thing #14

I have requested an invitation for Flowchart. I will post on the discoveries for that one at a later time. I really like using flowcharts. I find the students can read these easier than other types of diagrams. I created an account with http://www.bubbl.us While looking through this site, I found it user friendly. It was super easy setting up my account. I was able to set it up on the first try. I chose the Flowchart because I think it was easy for others to read and follow. I didn't particularly care for the mind map. I thought it was confusing for adults to read, let alone for students to read it. I know second graders wouldn't be able to follow that type of chart. It was too busy.

Thing #13

While discovering Zoho Writer, I noticed that some of the applications were familiar. I had the opportunity to work with Google Docs in a class over the summer. I thought at first it was difficult, but once I was able to receive the "live" communication with my partners, I was able to understand our project a little more clearly. Some of the advantages I see are: working collaboratively with each other, being able to see others work, and being able to share documents with your professors and other people. I guess a disadvantage would be not being able to understand how it works if you have never been exposed to something like this before.

Thing #11

I liked the Technorati site, http://www.technorati.com. I thought it was easy to navigate. I added this to my blogline feed. My least favorite was the Syndic 8, http://www.syndic8.com I thought this site was confusing and wasn't user friendly. I like it when I can navigate easily, and with this site, I couldn't. There have been several feeds I have wanted to add to my blogline, but I have had trouble locating them. When I subscribe to it, it gives me a message about an error. Hopefully, I can figure this out.

Thing #12

I created a Google Alerts account. It was pretty simple actually. It was so simple, I thought I might be doing something wrong. I kept checking, and it was up there. I like this site because I am wanting to sell my house. I know when the market doesn't do so good, the housing market isn't as good. I am still believing it will sell and we can relocate.
http://www.google.com/alerts/manage?hl=en&gl=


I set up an igoogle page. I like to use this page as my home page whenever I open up the Internet. I like to have several things in one spot to look at. I have the weather, a calendar, fun items, etc. on this page. I am always googling something anyway. I find it easier to find out information that way.
http://www.google.com/ig

Thing #10

I think using RSS in the classroom would be a great tool for teachers as well as students. Teachers can put up various websites for students to have access to and the material will be suitable for students since the teacher as viewed them ahead of time. My favorite part of RSS was creating five blogs to keep track of. The blogs I chose are websites I view on a regular basis. Now, I have all of them in one spot. That is another advantage for teachers. All of the websites for students to navigate will be in one location, so there will be less confusion.

http://www.bloglines.com/public/CrystalRickard

Thing #4

At first, I didn't really know what to think of blogs. I guess that's because I had never had any practice with them. After much exploring and searching, I am finding that blogs can be a lot of fun once you get going with it. As I was reading comments, I found some of the same from people. Some I think are important are:

1. Assignments are a little frustrating.
2. It takes time.
3. Be kind.
4. That looks great
5. You are doing a nice job

The following are people I commented on:
1. Daily Blessing: I responded to the love of pictures and how much she enjoys working with pictures on the computer.

2. Lorrie Cooksey: I responded to her puzzles blog. I enjoyed reading about how puzzles make her feel and why she likes them.

3. Stacy Jones: I agreed with her blog about this assignment being some what frustrating and difficult to complete.

4. Elizabeth Shepherd: She doesn't like dial and she used a cute smiley face to send her message on Thing 9.

5. Jennifer Menees: I liked her blog and the format she used.

6. Joe Hall: I commented on his clipart and the image he created. It reminded me of me when I get frustrated.

7. Stacy Averill: I responded to the website she chose to create her work. It is a nice website for a classroom newsletter.

Thing #7

I found this picture while searching through Flickr. This has been one of my first times really going through this website and discoverying all of its capabilities. There are so many things that you can do through this website. I have used other types of photo uploads for my pictures and worked through other types of sources for creating things I needed with my pictures. Working with Flickr was really easy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/capnsurly/1809605411/in/set-72157600169376857/

Thing #9

I liked smiley generator a lot. I have used some of this smiley faces on my webpage. I think they are so cute. I enjoyed putting different comments on their signs. I chose a police officer one because my husband is a police officer of ten years. The other saying I chose is what I said to my son the other day and he laughed. I thought that was cute. I like using the animated clipart. It brings new light and makes things more attractive to look at.

http://www.happyfacegenerator.com/sign-generators/2.htm

Thing #8

While searching through flickr, I thought I would have a little fun. I found out how to make badges so I put a picture of my son and I when he was dressed up for Halloween last year. I think this is a neat way to create things for your school and/or classroom to make them personal. A teacher can take pictures of their students and create passports for specific lessons, etc. to incorporate into the curriculum. I think sharing pictures online is a great way to allow everyone to see them, especially when you have family out of town. I think you should always use caution, but it is a convenient way to allow friends and family to see who is growing up.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eccentricities-studio/2896497417/

Thing #6

http://www.flickr.com/

I like this particular tool. This tool allows you to organize, upload, and send photos. I am always taking pictures and putting them on the computer. I also use this for my classroom to organize photos for my website. I have a photos page of things the students do throughout the year. I find this tool useful for the classroom as well as school wide for the school website. I am also in charge of taking pictures and putting them onto our school website. Flickr is a great tool to use for this type of project.

Thing #5

I do not currently use Facebook or MySpace. I have never really gotten involved with that sort of stuff. I did participate in TeacherPop in a previous class, and that was interesting. In previous classes, I have heard of Web 2.0, but I don't know much about it. I think it can be beneficial to a classroom. I believe School 2.0 will be our future. Blogging, social interaction with Facebook, etc., and wiki's will be more popular than ever. I can see blogging taking place in the classrooms on a regular basis in the future. In order for teachers to keep up with the new era of technology, they will need to be trained on how to use the equipment. Future teachers and students will have access to use Web 2.0 more in the classroom and will be trained on it.

Thing #2

I had a great time creating my avatar. It was fun trying to pick different things. I tried to create an image that looked like me. I was trying to dress one in a way that I would dress at school, but when I found the volleyball outfit, I had to use it. I love playing volleyball. I have played for years. I alway enjoy watching the beach volleyball players and usually wish it was me out there. After I got started creating the blog, it was really easy and fun to do. It took me just a minute to get going real good with it, but once I got started, I was off. It was really hard to stop working on it. I finally decided I needed to do a little teaching, ha ha. I am really enjoying this assignment.

Thing #3

I have really enjoyed creating this blog. This is the first time I have ever created a blog. I have ready many blogs in the past, but never created one. I am always wanting to learn more things that I can incorporate into the classroom and my teaching career. As an educator, I would use blogs to post my classroom newsletter that contains vital information from about our classroom and what we are learning. I would use blogs to post important events. I teach second grade so working with blogs might be somewhat difficult, but I would like for my students to know how to log on and read a blog. The would need to be informed about our classroom blog so their parents would know how to retrieve the information.

Thing #1

I liked all of the habits listed, but the easiest one for me is #6, using technology for my advantage as well as #7, teaching and mentoring others. I work on our school website and I enjoy mentoring others on how to use technology to better benefit them in their classroom. The hardest one for me was #4, having confidence in yourself. I sometimes find it hard to find the confidence I need to accomplish something. I don't really give myself enough credit. When I do things I enjoy, I find more confidence. I really enjoy technology, so this assignment is a good one for me. I am really enjoying this class.