Thing #18 As explored by me...

Mhmmm... Twitter and Facebook!

Two of my favrite pages! This is a link to my Twitter. If you want to follow me please sent me a request, and the same thing with friending on Facebook. This is the link to my Facebook. Both of them are set to private, so you can't just creep on me, but you can become my friend or follower!

Educators need to know about, and be active on social networking sites. Through the knowledge base of having full access to these social networking sites they can know what to expect to their students to be talking about. For instance, when I was in middle school I knew more about what was going on in the social world versus the political world and situations. For instance, I follow the History Channel and everyday I get multiple tweets sent to my phone to let me know what happened on this date in history! Very nifty :), by the way, this day in 1931 "The Star-Spangled Banner" became official!

Also, teachers can use Twitter (monitored, and approved before class) as a conversation start for classes such as Social Studies, or Literature it it has to do with books or media. Facebook could be utilized through groups for the class. There can be a groups for my class. One group could be for the parents in order to keep them up to date on classroom happenings. There could be a group for my students to dicuss classroom material and ask each other questions. Finally, there could be a group for fellow teachers who teach similar things in order to help each other come up with new and engaging teaching ideas!

I love both sites, but it depends on what I am wanting to accomplish as to which one I choose to use. I use Facebook more to connect with people, and keep people in the "loop" of my life and what is going on. Twitter is more for finding information out. I have a great group of followers who strive to answer questions and respond to my tweets when they know I am trying to specifically find something. I will continue to use both of these for quite sometime, for personal and teaching purposes!

Thing #17 As explored by me...

Tagging!

I tag many things in a course of a week. I tag clothing at work, people in pictures on Facebook, trending tweets on Twitter, and categories on my blog here. Tagging is a quick and efficient way to let someone know what to expect from something. For clothing, it lets someone know what they will be expected to pay for an item, in pictures it lets someone know who they will see in the picture, and in tweets and blogs it lets them know what to subject to expect to be reading about or dealing with.

Using this handy dandy tool it is possible to see many different tagged items, and how people responded to them. My favorite is this little site that is one fo the most helpful things I have ever found in terms of teaching resources. I love that you can set up a blog dicussing everything that went on in class that day, and it can be found easily especially if multiple teachers from the same all use it, too. I would love to see the school I will eventually work for use this in a way that would be benefial for students and teacheres alike.

Give and Get is Here!

Give and Get is Here!: "Enjoy 30% off from March 17-20 at Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy plus we'll make a 5% donation to a non-profit." Go shopping for a cause!

Thing #16 As explored by me...

This blog post comes as a relief to me. I can honestly say I am ahead of the game for this one. :) I cannot function without my iGoogle homepage, and my Google synced calendar! The only thing I don't use, and can't see myself keeping up with is the to-do lists. Google calendar is my version of the to-do list. I can't stand to have a to-do list, because every time I look at it, it only seems to grow. The calendar is better for me since it pops up on the top bar of my phone screen, and I can't stand anything extra up there, so I will do what the calendar says in that notification as soon as I can in order to be able to successfully clear it off right then.

I love being able to view my calendar on my homepage, and I use it for everything from to-do lists for school all the way to wedding planning!

Thing #15 As explored by me...

Sheesh! I thought I was past this stumbling block!

The devil returned in the form of Wiki. I came and conquered! This is what ended up happening at the end of the dance with the devil. I am very proud of myself of accomplishing this, and I hope to be able to collaborate with other teachers in order to better each other. First, I was doing pretty good at figuring out how to post on Wiki. That lucky streak ended when Google Chrome decided to tell me the page was too large to load, and I had to find out why and how to fix it. Thanks to the users who questioned how to do the same things I had to find out I was able to finally figure it out.

This shows only one example of why it was so helpful. I hope it stays this helpful, but gets easier to use! :)

Thing #14 As explored by me...

Some things are the devil...

Luckily, those things were the on the last activity. :0 Sorry, I just had to vent! The two things I chose to explore were fairly easy, and I was excited about it. The first place I visited was mindmeister. Mindmeister helped me create a flow chart for my research paper due later this month in World Literature.

The other tool I chose to use was Gliffy. I love Gliffy. It is very user friendly, and I used it the same way I did Mindmeister. They both worked well to express what I wanted, but Gliffy was fun to use. I actually took the liberty to keep exploring it, and came up with a floor plan for a house I one day want to build with my fiancé after we get married. :)

Thing #13 As explored by me...

AHHH!!!!

Wow! Learning how to use Zoho is ridiculous! However, I did master it! I love how it is eventually easy to create things such as banners and signs. It took forever, but I feel like it will become extremely beneficial to use as a free tool for my classroom materials. Overall, I am extremely pleased with my "Welcome to Seventh Grade!" sign I made. :)

Google Docs was not nearly as confusing. In fact, I already use it all the time. The Google Docs I created was a table to calculate my gpa in excel for my freshman year. I love how easy it is to share and edit documents on the amazing Google Docs! I plan to hopefully use it in a way that is shown here.

Thing #12 As explored by me...

Google Tools!

I LOVE Google tools! I use them constantly, and my two favorites are Google Calendar and iGoogle. The homepage on my Google Chrome is my iGoogle, and it keeps me up to date on the latest news. Also, it shows me a glimpse of my new emails, and finally it keeps me up to date on the date. I rarely can keep track of what day of the week it is much less the date of the month. :) The other Google Tool I can't live without is the Google Calendar. I never used the calendar feature on any mobile phone I have ever had, at least until my Driod 2. I love using the calendar on my phone now, because it automatically syncs my phone calendar to Google Calendar. Now if I check my email or my phone I always know where to be and when to be there!

I will definitely use these tools in my classroom, especially if all of my students have access to a computer and internet connection. If everyone of my students get and email account with gmail for my class, I can post events and due dates on calendars that can all be synced together and can be viewed on iGoogle.