Is It the End or Only the Beginning?

• What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
• I LOVED the "thing" where we could create words using snapshots from flickr.  That was super cool and I plan on using that as often as I can for PowerPoints and lesson plans in the classroom.

• How has this program affected your lifelong learning goals?
• This has really opened my eyes to just how much the web can help me as a teacher.  I knew the web was a fun place to kill time (hello! Facebook!), but it really has become a valuable resource for teachers. 

• Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
• Again, just the wealth of resources out there for helping teachers to do their jobs easier. For example, LiveBinder. How cool is that site?!? Pretty awesome!!

• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
• I wish there was a way we could have just signed up once for everything instead of signing up for each site on its own. I realize that is probably impossible, but other than having to create an account for everything, I thought this exercise was really fun!

• How will what you have learned influence your practice as a teacher?
• I am not sure other than I have my blog and Dr. Wall's blog saved in my favorites so that when I do become a teacher, I will have all these web resources at my fingertips when needed.  

• How do you plan to keep up with new developments in web 2.0? Recommend a way that you have found to be useful.
• I have a Google alert for some topics so that I can easily find blogs and articles related to ideas for future lesson plans.  

Thing #23

I just Googled 2.0 23 Things and this site popped up for me The 23 Things.  I seriously thought that Dr. Wall had created this 23 things all on her own!  I should have known as tech savvy as she is, of course, she used the web to create this lesson plan!

I have heard that a rule of thumb for teachers is share, share, share! We are to share our ideas and thoughts with each other for the benefit of our students.  And with the help of the web, we can share material from so many fellow educators from near and far! We can help each other make our lesson plans even better!

I totally plan on using the works of others who put tag their work with CC logo to help me with my lesson plans and my work as an educator.  Because of creative commons, our world just opened up as teachers and it is very exciting!

 

Thing #22

Ok, I can totally see LiveBinder being a VERY useful tool for teachers and in my career as a teacher. Instead of having a zillion folders with different labels for different lesson plans, I can create an online binder for all my lesson plans and just go back to them as needed and/or add and/or take away information as needed.  A very green approach to saving lesson plans WITHOUT the worry of your computer crashing and losing everything you have have worked on (because if you are like me, you try to back up your computer every so often, but it gets put on the back burner more than you'd like).

The name of my binders are:

• Survey Sampling 
• Graphs 
• How to create lesson plans

Here is one binder I created to help me plan my lesson for Survey Sampling:

Survey Sampling Lesson Plan

Thing #21

Ok, now this was the most fun "thing" yet!  I am totally going to use this every way I can!  I loved this! I made this video in about 3 minutes (and it probably shows), but this was so much fun. I can see myself staying up late playing this this (and upgrading!). 

This could be yet another way for students to make a projects for the classroom in a really fun and interesting way.  Also, much like having students created podcasts for what they did that week in the classroom, this could be another way for students to create something showing their parents what they did in the classroom at the end of the week.  

The ideas on how to use this site are endless!

 
Try our video maker at Animoto.

Thing #20

Using YouTube to help explain something to your students is something I highly agree with!  As teachers, we always want to be able to explain things perfectly to our students, but that simply isn't possible.  Sometimes having someone else explain the same thing, but in a different way is exactly what our students will need for the light bulb to go "ding!" above their heads. I know, for me, having things explained in a variety of ways really helps to understand concepts that are hard. 

For my PowerPoint presentation from our Education class, I inserted this YouTube video to help my students understand how the rating system works (in relation to how surveys work). 

Also, YouTube can help us, as teachers, to find new and interesting ways to explain concepts to our students.  I use YouTube all the time to help me with my own studies when my professors leave me lost and confused. I can see using YouTube when I'm teacher in the a similar way to help me to explain concepts to my students. 

Thing #19

I joined TeacherPop. What a fun site to explore! On the front page there was a presentation, "A Teachers Guide to Using Facebook."  A very good read!  I actually wrote one of my research papers about the "Facebook effect on Teachers." 

The point of this "thing" was to explore social networking sites.  My favorite social networking site is Facebook, no irony there, right?  I enjoyed looking up educators via twitter, too.  I also have dabbled in Google+. 

It seems to me that most EVERYTHING on the internet is becoming WAY more social by the day.  Whatever site I visit, there always seems to be a comment section where users can interact with each other.  You simply just have to Google Teaching Blogs, find one that you like, leave a comment and there you go! You are part of a online social community.  It's so cool! 

To be a teacher in today's social networking world, you are only limited by your imagination with the help of Google when planning your lesson plans. 

Thing #18

In today's world, educators have to understand social networking and how it works.  Why? Because as educators, I think it's important to say on trend with current events and what is popular with students.  It can make what we teach more interesting in the classroom if we can use references like Facebook and Twitter.  We, as teachers, can't live back in the world of candlelight, Little House on the Prairie days. We have to stay current to be able to keep in touch with our students. 

Also, social networking sites help us to connect with other's in our field and that is priceless.  We live in an age where we can connect with teachers from all over the globe, why wouldn't we want to take advantage of that?!? 

I can see setting up a Facebook page for your classroom as just another way to keep in touch with parents and students about current assignments and homework.  However, I do not see a need for teachers to have twitter in order to communicate with their students.  I think that almost crossing a line that teachers should never cross.  We are not their to be friends with our students. We are there to be educators.  I think Twitter is more of a "friend" site than a way for teachers to communicate with students. I think Facebook is a much better way for teachers to communicate with their students if they want to do that on a easy social networking site with little to no fuss. 

Thing #17

What I like about the social bookmarking idea is that teachers from all over can collaborate on topics.  Much like our Diigo page, I think it's a great way for teachers to communicate with other teachers. 

For me, it's almost like, "Don't reinvent the wheel."  If a teacher has already found a way to make a dry topic fun and has shared that idea, PERFECT!  We, as teachers, are no longer confined to just communicating with fellow teachers in our schools, we can communicate with teachers from just about anyplace with a Internet connection. 

From my personal blogging days I found that I am not a huge fan of Delicious.  But I do like Diigo. 

Thing #16

Fellow teachers (especially those with a smart phone),

Did you know that you can sync your smart phone with your Google Calendar?  Super duper easy! I have had this feature on my phone years ago.  You can also sync Outlook to your smart phone (but I like the flexibility of Google Calendars and the user friendly aspect). 

I end up not using the "to do" feature because I use my phone for that, but I could certainly use the "to do" feature on the Google Calendar.

In case you can't tell, I prefer the Google Calendar above all the others.  When I first got my iPhone, I downloaded all kinds of apps to help me keep track of my time, and nothing was as easy as the Google Calendar.  It's like Google was made just for smart phones!  (Now I think you can even sync your the photos you take with your phone with Google+, but I haven't played around with that yet). 

If you want to be able to edit your calendar from any computer and your phone, Google Calendar is your best bet! 

Thing #15

Ok, so... I know we had permission (and I think it even may have been required) to change someone else's work on the wiki page, but I just didn't want to do that.  I hope this doesn't cause me to fail this assignment!  As soon as I logged in, I had free access to change pretty much anything I wanted! It was almost too easy! But, I just couldn't bring myself to change someone else's work.  Funny though, I wouldn't care if someone changed my work, I mean that is what is that page if for... to collaborate, right?  Oh well.  I went ahead and just created a page about what we did back in Thing #8 because that has been my favorite thing yet.  Feel free to change my page and/or add whatever you'd like. You will find that is super easy! 

This could be fun for students to collaborate on assignments. I liked that you could make your own page, that way if students needed a bit more one on one, a teacher can have them have their own page and she/he can work with them while not taking away from the other students.  Really, the possibilities are endless for this.  Plus, parents can chime in and offer help or ask questions as well.  I like this idea.  Very cool. 

Here is a link to my wiki page "Making Posters"

Thing #14

I used mind map (I didn't want to wait the day to get an invitation, I'm impatient like that). 

I used it to help me study for my biology test coming up. Mitosis vs meiosis.  As you may or may not know, mitosis and meiosis is all about cell division.  It's not the most exciting thing to study nor easiest to understand (especially when you have been out of high school for 200+ years such as myself).  So, this flowchart really helped me to see side by side how different the two are.  

Mind map was super easy to use and I like that, if you wish, you could share your chart with someone else.  This could really make studying between two people easy.  I could see myself using my mitosis vs meiosis flowchart with another student and quizzing each other on the different phases of cell division.   

Thing #13

Hello Fellow Soon To Be Teachers,

It's been forever (it seems) since I last posted.  It's a shame, really. This is one of my favorite things to do, but it seems as the semester progresses, the workload doubles or even triples in some classes and I can't seem to ever catch up.  Am I the only one who feels that way?

I digress.

 

Ok, in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I am not a fan of Google Docs.  I don't think it's easy to use.  I have played around with Google Docs in the past and I just don't "get it."  I suppose someone a bit more tech savvy can fully understand how to use it and really use it for it's purpose... to collaborate on projects.  Personally, I am pretty old school in this department and use Word and just track my (and others) changes.  However, that isn't feasible if I want to share with the masses (i.e. students and parents on a blog). 

I played around with Zoho and really like it! It was more user friendly for how my mind operates in "tech world." 

Below you can see that I uploaded my PowerPoint presentation for our Education class and if I did everything right, I'm hoping that you (yes you!) can even make changes to the presentation. 

This is great because I plan on using PowerPoint A LOT in my classroom and I can easily upload my presentations to my blog and students and parents can ask questions right from the PowerPoint if I don't make something as clear as I should.

I can totally see this being a very useful tool in keeping kids and parents on the same page as far as what we are all learning in the classroom.

 

Thing #12

Dear fellow teachers, 

Google Alerts are awesome!  Whatever type of teacher you end up becoming (i.e. a math teacher, a music teacher, a history teacher), you can set up Google Alerts that will send you all kinds of goodies on the web pertaining to the material you set up for your alert.  

For example, I want to be a middle school math teacher.  As you might be aware (or might not be) math teachers today are encouraged to be diverse enough to teach STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math).  So, a good idea for me is to set up a Google Alert (should all that be capitalized? There is a reason I did not pick to be an English teacher, but I digress) titled "Middle School STEM Projects."  So, what is going to happen after I set up my folder is Google is going to work it's magic and search the web high and low for me (DAILY!) for anything on the web that pertains to my Middle School STEM project alert and deliver everything to my email.  It is like doing a Google search daily only you don't do the Google search yourself, Google does it for you!  Pretty awesome, eh?  It really is cool.  

And the BEST part, you know how you Google something and if it's not on page 1 or if you are feeling frisky, page 2, you just click out of it and start a new search?  Well, if you have a Google Alert, you don't need to worry what is on page 2, 3 or even 210,789.  You will get everything published on the web pertaining to your alert right in your email! Piece of advice, t it's best to be as specific as you can so you don't get bombard with all kinds of emails. Trust me on this... I have made that mistake of setting up a Google Alert for "Reality TV" thinking I would get updates on some of my favorite Reality Shows. Well, I received emails about EVERYTHING Reality TV related and I do mean EVERYTHING!  I had to narrow my search down to my favorite shows and what I want to know about those favorite shows (i.e. "Emily Maynard as the next bachelorette", not just "The Next  Bachelorette"). 

As a side note, in my previous life as an office manager I would encourage the staff to set a Google Alert with their name.  A) It's fun to see if anyone out there as your name and B) it's just another way to keep tabs on anything that is being published on the web with your name.  Employers are going to Google you, it's best you know what they are going to find.  I thought I was the only person on earth with first and last name because it's not a common name. However, what I found was a girl with my same name who has a MySpace page, Facebook page and all kinds of other information. While she hasn't gone out and murdered a family of 10 or anything like that, I do want to keep tabs on her and more importantly, my name.  Plus, I'm not alone in this trend, even the infamous Kim Kardashian has a Google Alert with her name...

photo credit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2091893/Kim-Kardashian-spotted-reading-Google-Alerts.html

Now, Google Calendar is a must have, especially if you have an iPhone or BlackBerry.  You can sync your phone's calendar with the Google calendar, plus you can send invites for meetings or birthday parties...whatever you need.   This can really come in handy as a teacher if you want to quickly schedule a meeting with other teachers after school.  You can, from your phone or computer, set up the meeting time and send out invites.  When your fellow teachers check their phones or emails during their lunch break or lesson planning period, they can respond by accepting or rejecting your invite.  That way you aren't taking time away from your classroom to try to schedule a meeting.  

Also, if you want to have open periods for parents to come in and talk to you or have a phone conference, you can have a public Google calendar set up with per-selected dates and times open where parents can just click on the date and set up a meeting with you as long as you give them permission via their email address to edit your calendar.  As long you have a public Google calendar and the parents email address (and the parents have a Google account, there should be no reason parents feel as if they have to wait until parent/teacher conference time to discuss their child's performance with you.  Also, with a public calendar where parents can go to and see when you are not busy, that might help them from calling you during your lesson planning periods and taking away from your planning time. 

Please note, it is my understanding that ALL parties involved in the Google calendar sharing thing have to have Google accounts.  Please let me know if I am wrong in the comments. 

Here is a link to my make believe teacher calendar
(be sure to click on the month view and not weekly) and my email for this calendar is jferrier2(at)my.apsu (dot)edu. 

 https://www.google.com/calendar/render?pli=1

Thing #11

I have used the Google blog search tool in my reader for as long as I have had a Google reader (years!).  Also, Google suggest blogs based on what blogs you already read which I really enjoy (though I have the worst habit of forgetting to actually subscribe to blogs! It's annoying having to go keep clicking the back button or click out of all the tabs to find the blogs that I wanted to keep in my reader).  Ok, so, to make a very long story (and way too long use of the parentheses) Google blog search is my favorite.

I am not a fan of Techorati - so much so, that I don't even want to link to it! I find that site confusing and just full of hubbub. I like the simplicity of the Google blog search when I'm in the mood to go "blog shopping."

Because of the ease of use of the Google reader, I can just click on a "subcribe" on any blog and the blog appears in my reader or I can just add the link to my reader.

As old school as it sounds, I find most of my "new" blogs via other blogs. Bloggers are usually pretty good about linking to the other sites when they are referring to them in any way.  I actually found out about the Huffington Post via a reality TV blog I read. (and in true blogger fashion, the reality TV blog was RealityBlurred.com)   

Thing #10

Ok fellow soon to be teachers, I have a confession to make... I read blogs daily.  They are my mini obsession.  After Good Morning America and the nightly news at 5:30, I get most of my news information  from blogs and Facebook.  Blog and Facebook are in real time, so I don't have to wait until tomorrow morning's newspaper or next week's People magazine to find out what is going on locally or in celebrity world.  So, with my background, this assignment was easy peasy for me.

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?  

In my Google Reader, I have different folders set up for different blogs. For example, I have a news folder, a celebrity folder, and a personal blog folder.  Therefore, based on what I'm in the mood to read as I wait for class to begin or what to read as I put off doing homework, I just click on that folder and find out about the world according to whatever blog I happen to click on. 

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life?

I use my reader personally everyday.  For school and my career, I can easily add some teacher and education blogs to an "education folder" and BAM! I can instantly connect with other teachers AND keep up with what is going on the world of education with new techniques, strategies, etc. 

How can teachers use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?

We can all connect via readers!  Instead of just communicating with teachers in your school, you can connect with teachers from all over the globe and trade ideas.  The ideas are endless with the information you can gather from other teachers via their blogs, and education sites.  There is no reason for us, the teachers in training, to ever fall behind the times with the resources at our fingertips.

Thing #9

The first thing I did was go to Pinterest.com and typed in Education in the search box to see if I could find any good education pictures (with Pinterest it can be a hit or miss at times finding the perfect picture you are looking for).  I found some cute art picture projects that I could see myself making in the classroom....

Then I went to ComicStripGenerator.com and uploaded the last photo.

I wasn't sure what I was suppose to be doing with my newly found photos... so I just went for it.

I uploaded the last photo you see up there to the comic Strip Generator site and then the site asked me to customize the speech bubble. Oh Heavens! I couldn't think of anything witty that quickly! All I could think was, "Man, that looks like me while I'm brushing my teeth."  (TMI? I know, I know, probably. But am I the only one who looks like I have just be injected with about a 1000% of a rabies venom type substance while brushing teeth?) 

And here is my not so witty bubble caption, but is it kinda funny now since you know the backstory?

Given the name of the site, I thought I would have to make an entire comic strip based on my toothpaste habits.  Luckily (for all of us), I just had to  upload one photo and deal with just that one. 

My next stop was to make a smiley face via HappyFaceGenerator.com.  All I had to do here was pick out a smiley face and it asked to me customize the sign it was holding.  Again, my witty-o-meter was running low, so I went with this classic...

I could see this being really fun to play around with while trying to decorate my classroom.  Like with Thing #8, you could easily customize your images, put them on a flash drive and take them to Kinko's and make posters and other cool stuff. 

Thing #8

   

This was really fun! I can see making all kinds of posters and fun presentation covers using these tools. I can't write neatly and I am no good with stencils, so these sort of tools are perfect for someone like me who has creative ideas, but just isn't as handy with art supplies as my imagination would like for me to be.

As far as sharing photos online, I know that with tools such as Flickr, you can copyright them and make them not available for public use. Also, you can set up private accounts and share your photos with only people who you would like to see them.  Therefore, I think if a picture can be copied and used in other media platforms like this blog, it is totally up for grabs as long as the author gives a photo credit and links back to the original photo.  

Photo Credit: This is the same photo from my Thing #7 post.

Thing #7

I went to Flickr and typed in "school" in the search bar. I found this picture and why I chose this picture to use it is because the kids in the picture had no idea that one day that picture would be available for viewing by the entire world!  They had no idea what an amazing future they would see in the next 40 to 50 years in regards to technology. 

It makes me wonder how our pictures that we take today will be seen in 50 years.  Will Flickr be like Polaroids or even disposal cameras at that time in the future?  Will we even view pictures on laptops or will laptops be as outdated as shoe boxes full of pictures? When was the last time you asked someone to see a picture of their children and they actually pulled out a picture that you could hold? Don't we all use our cell phones as instant photo albums now? 

I just wonder if you had told the kids in this picture, "Just wait. Some random college student will be blogging about this very picture of you one day on a thing called a laptop using a thing called the Internet." I wonder what they would say.  Probably, "What on earth is blogging?!?!"

 

Photo Credit:
Link to Photo
William Fox School Title:
William Fox School
Creator: Adolph B. Rice Studio
Date: 1960 Apr. 26
Identifier: Rice Collection 2818B
Format: 1 negative, safety film, 4 x 5 in.
Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.
Repository: Library of Virginia, Prints and Photographs, 800 E. Broad St., Richmond, VA, 23219, USA, digitool1.lva.lib.va.us:8881/R

Thing #6

I instantly was drawn to Microsoft Office Live Workspace.  It is a tool for sharing documents between multiple users. I thought an awesome idea to use this tool in a library setting is for one school to team up with another school and for two students to write a joint book report.

Here how my idea would work:

• Richview middle school students who have Reading as 4^th period would team up with Rossview Middle School students who have Reading as 4^th period. 
• I am guessing each class would have about 25 students. 
• One library’s would pick out 25 books (one for each student) making sure the other library had the same book available. For example, both libraries would have to have The Hunger Games.
• Then the students would come in a pick what book they wanted to read. 
• The corresponding student from the other school who picked out the same book, together they would write a book report using Microsoft Office Live Workspace.

Of course, there would have to be more logistics worked out (I doubt both libraries have 25 computers ready to use at any given time). The students would have to have designated days and time when they would be allowed to the computer lab to work with his/her partner on this book report. 

However, this tool could really be useful in teaching students how they are most likely going to have to work in the future with a partner(s) in the workforce who lives 2000 miles away, but this project is on a much smaller scale. 

Thing #5

I listened to a podcast from the website teachers 2.0.  A teacher who introduces different technology into the classroom hosted the podcast. 

I can’t really see a way of using podcast in my classroom because I have had college professors who have used podcasts and they can come across, well, very dry and boring when trying to convey a lesson.  I can, however, see using YouTube where I can give examples and show how to actually work a problem. 

What I did like about the podcast was that it was a way for me to learn what other teachers are doing in their classroom and I can download it right to my phone (if I can find the podcast on iTunes) and listen to the podcast on the go.That is a really neat tool that I could see being very useful.

The Horizon Report had all kinds of emerging trends that us, as new teachers, will have at our fingertips.  One thing that really stood out to me was the use of social networking tools.  I was wondering if we could have professional Facebook pages (I am personally against parents and students “friending” teachers) and use it as another tool to communicate with parents and students? How would you use Facebook and/or twitter as a teacher? I am just curious what others have to say on that topic.

School 2.0 means to me that I get to be a teacher in a great period of time! I can use YouTube and blogs to interact with my students and parents. Schools of the future are going to have to take that leap into the future and realize all the amazing things we, as teachers, have at our fingertips.  We can teach from our living rooms (i.e. set up our laptops and give more examples from our assignments so students can access that information when it's convenient to them.) Also, we can communicate with the busy parents who work 2nd or 3rd shifts and aren't available during normal business hours via email and comments on blogs (and who knows what else is right around the corner!) 

Thing #4

Commenting is key for a successful blog, in my opinion. We blog because we are wanting to build our own personal community of people with like-minded ideas, habits or interests.   In order to build your blog, you have to let others know you are out there with your own blog and leaving comments on others blogs is probably the best way to let others know, “Hey! I’m here! I’m kind of like you. You are not alone in your thoughts and ideas.”   

We can let others know that we have a blog via posting a link on our Facebook pages, but for the purpose of this particular blog (a teachers blog) I doubt many of my non teaching friends would be interested in reading this blog.  However, my fellow classmates would be. So, in order for them to know that I exist, I have to leave a comment on their blogs.  It’s how you start to build your blogging community.

 

I loved the service CoComment from the blog Cool Cat TeacherBlog.  You can see all the places you have commented and read recent comments to that post. That is a really awesome tool especially if you get “lost” in bloggerworld and forget all the blogs you visited and left comments. 

I also love the idea of leaving open ended questions toinvite more comments. Honestly, I just think asking any question at the end of your blog would be a great way to get more comments, especially if you are using this blog as a way to communicate with other teachers and get ideas for classroom assignments.  Ask a question! See what other teachers from all over the place have to say.  I think asking questions on your blog (while should get more comments) it can also be an invaluable tool to be a more successful teacher (if you do end up having a teachers blog). 

I chose Britney Elliott’s  I commented that I loved her idea for using a blog in her class.  She had the idea to use her blog as a way of giving examples to her students for different problems. I love that idea. Whereas I was thinking more along the lines of using a blog for the parents benefit, I love the idea of using a blog as a tool for the students benefit as well.

My second blog I picked was Nick Caudill's blog Gadfly. He made me laugh because he said that he thinks he will be a nuisance to the teacher because he doesn’t feel he is at good with technology. I think the fact that he has his blog set up and registered proves he is better than he thinks he is and I told him that in my comment to him.  

My third blog I picked was Tiffany Anderson’s blog, “FromChalkboards to Smartboards” I LOVED that title! Her blog is very creative and pretty. I picked her blog randomly because she was from the other Education 3040 class.  I pretty much just gushed to her in my comment about how much I loved the look of her blog and the name of her blog. 

My fourth blog I went to was Kendra Donaldson 23 Things for Teachers.  She and I both want to go back and spruce up our avatars.  I told her in my comment to her that I need to change my avatar to be more reflective of who I am. 

This fifth blog I visited was Emily Mount's blog, Ms. Emily Mount's 23 Things. I told her in my comment that I hope this blogging exercise helps us all to establish more friends outside the classroom because I for one, don't have many friends at APSU being a non traditional student. 

One of my favorite blogs is, Miss Britt In Pursuit of Happiness.  I love her blog, though comment rarely.  I commented on her last post "Happy Birthday" because it was her birthday.  She wrote a post in honor of her 32nd birthday titled "32 ways to be happy."  It's a great read if you get the chance. 

Another blog I read all the time is Sarah Joy.  She is a college student in Portland.  My last comment to her was about how similar she and I are. She was writing about how there isn't enough time to do everything she need to do, like call her mom more often. It's blogs like her that I really enjoying reading the most.  The personal ones that allows us a little insight into another person's world.

Thing #3

How I might use a blog for my classroom? Oh the possibilities are endless!

I would like to use a blog as a way of generating “newsletters” to parents about what we are learning in our classroom and special events coming up. I would have the option of parents being able to subscribe via email to my blog so that the parents would not have to worry about checking the blog each week for updates and would get an automatic email.

I know as a parent to two children in the school system, I can get bogged down from time to time with all the papers that come home and trying to decipher which papers are important to keep and which I can throw away just as quickly as I read them.  I am guilty of saying to my kids, “Oh just put all your papers on the kitchen counter and I will read them later.” Only later never really comes. 

A blog would be a good way to reinforce important dates and material for parents that, like me, get overwhelmed with the amount of paperwork that comes home daily from their kids.   Also, if parents had questions about a date or an assignment they could leave a comment under the blog entry or email directly. 

As I mentioned earlier, I would like to keep the blog private meaning password protected so that not just everyone on the internet can access my blog information. Not that I would be putting personal information on the web, private or public, I just think the parents might feel better knowing that whatever is discussed on the blog is just between us and the other parents in the classroom. 

As I am writing this, I have come up with all kinds of other ways I might use a blog... have the children write blog entries, post pictures of the kid's projects for all the parents to enjoy throughout the school year, and many other things, but I have to stop myself now or this entry could quickly turn into a novel!  

Thing #2

Hi Everyone!

I chose to use my first and last name for my blogger name.  I picked for my blog address APSU Teacher in Training because that is what I feel like, a teacher in training. 

I found that setting up this blog was really easy.  However, my page isn’t very creative just yet, but I am excited about sitting down for a few hours and playing around with the layout and all the fun and different things I can add to my blog to make it more personalized. My avatar is not that reflective of whom I am, but again, I’m looking forward to making it more personalized when time allows.