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.