The End or the Beginning?

"It is vital that when educating our children's brains...
                    that we do not neglect to educate their hearts." ~~~Dalami Lama

This is one of the most profound messages I take to heart.If we educate the brain, we must educate the heart. That is what I feel is the most important job I have as I teach high-risk, low income families. Most people don't realize the word Head Start became the name of our program due to the fact that we give those children a 'head start' in life for a chance for a better future. This is my heart; This is my calling; This is my purpose in life. I do know there are things I will use and things I will not. The experience has been both exciting and frustrating. Some of the 'things' were easy and some were difficult. At times,I would get tired and ready to give up. I would always remind myself that if I knew how to do this, I wouldn't have needed the class. So, it was always forward bound. When I did learn something new, I would be as excited as a child. That, in itself, is the wonder of learning.......It's been a journey.

Thing 23-Creative Commons

Learning 2.0-23 Things for Teachers was designed by Helene Blowers with support of staff members. The "The 23 Things" itself was based on Stephen Abram's article, "43 Things I (or You) Might Want to do This Year" and the website, 43 Things. This was posted as information at the beginning of this blog assignment. It was modified from another individual's Learning 2.0 program. I think it is wonderful that people are willing to share their hard work and make it available for others to use. Creative Commons is an invaluable resource. It makes available images that are legally available to share.All these networks and sites we have visited and created an account with will allow us to exchange information. I would use it to create games for my classroom.

Thing 19-Beyond Facebook:Social Networks

Visit TeacherPop

I joined Teacher Pop and I will definitely try to use this network site. I like the idea of APSU having a network to communicate on regarding education. I did join "Craftster" as this is a site I would like to enjoy. I do mostly embroidery. I love doing pictures most of all. I started doing kits as a young woman. I now design my own on paper and then use that as a pattern. I have made many through the years and my house is mostly decorated with my work. It is a great stress release. I have sewed several and gave them to family and friends as heirlooms.

Thing 22-LiveBinders

Copy of Search Results for "Preschool" Education Pre–K Resources

I created an account on LiveBinders. I created three folders and added: 1. Information for Binders-Guide to Learning LiveBinders 2. PreSchool-Preschool Games, Songs and Music 3. Homework-Free Printables for Pre-K I did not find this site user-friendly at all. I spent more time than I planned and decided to move on. I know there are many people who will find this useful. As I do not spend a substantial amount of time on a computer, this would not benefit me. I do feel teachers of older children would find many uses for these.

Thing 21-Animoto

Make your own slideshow at Animoto.

This is the most fun I have had so far! I took ten pictures from my Facebook page, clicked them on, picked a song, and text. I opened it up and I was amazed. It was so easy. The frustration came when I tried to post it to my blog. It would not post. It just kept displaying there was an error. I just did this for the thing 20 so I just can't understand what goes wrong.I did post it to my personal Facebook page. I do plan on using this on a long term basis. I plan on paying for a membership and putting family pictures into videos. My grandchildren greatly enjoyed watching their pictures go across the screen and then fall down to the music. How great would it be for them to see themselves, from the time they were born until present? I may try to get permission to do our classroom field trips and special occasions so the children can watch them on the computer. This is a touchy subject due to confidentiality policies we have in place. I do plan to ask permission from my central staff. I'm sure as long as they stay in the classroom and not on the Internet, it should be okay.

Thing 20-YouTube

Ten in the Bed

from Super Simple Songs

I absolutely love YouTube. I use this for entertainment and for work purpose. I know I can always go there and find various videos. I mostly use it for listening to music. I have been able to find oldies songs that I listened to as a teenager. I chose this video because I can play it for my Per-K class. This is a wonderful way to teach children how to count to 10 and also subtract numbers. I use these types of songs on a daily basis. I have used these and will continue to as I teach my young students.

 

Thing 18-Social Networking

Finally, Something I am an expert at! I absolutely can't imagine a world without Facebook! I have no interest at all talking with complete strangers on the Internet. On Facebook all the members on my list are close friends and family. I keep up with a great majority of my family members. Most all of my family lives in other states and I am lucky to see some of them 2-3 times a year. This is a perfect solution for me. I feel the younger members stay in touch on Facebook, but probably would not any other way. I even have people I have known all my life on my list. Some I lost touch and reconnected with thanks to Facebook. This site has been my lifeline to those who I rarely get to see. I use it mostly for fun and entertainment. I do not care for twitter at all. I signed up again due to this assignment. I once was on it and it irritated me so I deleted the account. It doesn't allow you to use enough words to express your thoughts. I do not have time to follow other people either. Since I detest abbreviations, slang and such, it is not for me. Both of these sites could be useful to parents, students and teachers. You could interact in a way that has never been done before. I imagine there are some classrooms and schools that may be able to use the sites, but not mine. Since we cannot break confidentiality with our children and families, it could not be used in my classroom at the present time. Personally, I do not want to use my account for work as it is my way of communicating with those I love and that I am close to.

 https://twitter.com/#!/LindaSeger

http://www.facebook.com/dancingheart4
 (Linda Gayle Scalf)

(I added these on this blog. I was unable to find a place on my profile.) 

Thing 17-Tagging and Social Bookmarking

I would like to mention that I benefit substantially from any of these activities that contain a video. It helps me to understand more thoroughly the activity we are about to explore.  This activity was mind boggling to say the least. I became lost and waylaid in all the sites. It never ceases to amaze me how much information is out there. I can see all the possibilities of and the potential of a bookmarking tool in the classroom. It reminded me of  an organizer of outside sources all brought together for a useful purpose. It also enables you to share with other educators. I would be interested in exploring this one further.

Thing 16-Get Organized

Wow! Finally something I can most definitely use! I couldn't decide to use Remember the Milk or IGoogle. I will explore both of these and make a decision on which one I prefer. I do like the gmail coming up on IGoogle. Since I use Google for almost everything, I tend to lean toward it. The calendars can be useful to me to keep track of everything in my daily life. I am a chronic organizer so I feel I could make use of one of these. Maybe creating an IGoogle account to use in a classroom may be beneficial to keep up with daily tasks. It could possibly be used instead of a classroom website. I don't think my classroom could use it but I feel rooms with older students could. I did like the to-do lists. Either of these could be used at home or in the classroom. When I decide the one I want, I will put it up as my home page.

Thing-15 What in the world is a Wiki?

For some odd reason this was easy for me. I would probably never use it but I can understand how it would be of substantial use to many teachers. It could also be used among older students to share ideas and group projects. The list is endless. I enjoyed looking at other student's classroom ideas. This appeared to be the most user friendly tool I have seen by far. This is something I may want to use in my personal life.

Thing 14 Exploring bubbl.us and Gliffy

That was an experience. Once I got started I was able to maneuver the tools in Gliffy to create somewhat of a floor plan. I am wondering if perhaps we could use this for when we design our imaginary classroom plans. That could be something I could do. I also tried out bubbl.us to make a flow chart. I created my family for fun. This I could see as being useful in the classroom even with my small students. You could use it with numbers, letters, colors and many more thing the children need to know. You could make it like a game they could play.I had a fun time moving the charts from once place to another.

Thing 13 Google Docs and Zoho

 I was able to create this on Google Docs, but unable to cut the handles from it. They were not on it when I used the snipping tool. I used way too much time here. I can use this tool too many places for it to benefit me here. I spent two hours on this project. As far as I can tell it would not benefit me to use either. I do not care to have all of my folders together. I did my best to try to complete what the assignment was asking for but it was difficult. I don't care to download things on to my new computer that I probably will not use. I can understand the benefits these programs can have for teachers teaching older students. I had not ever experimented with the tools to share documents. I have not been able to figure out how to share a document. I will come back to this if time allows and work on it further. I was expecting this to be easier as I am familiar with Google. I have yet to experience what all Google has to offer.

Thing 12-Google is Not Just for Searching...

I am officially a google fan.  I set up an Igoogle page, and I enjoyed exploring the tools.  I want to explore more and become more comfortable with this resource, but so far I've put a recipe for the day and dictionary word of the day on my page.  I could possibly set up a separate page for parents and students in my classroom.  I could post helpful links to other resources and post daily information such as homework, classroom activities, etc.

I also looked at google translate.  This would be a great tool for ELL students and their parents.  It is so simple to use.  I typed in different phrases and could choose to translate from English to Spanish and Spanish to English.  I have used other sites for translation, but it looks like I never have to leave google for anything.  With the ability to use the RSS feeds, blog-finders, and the tools found in this assignment, google brings everything to me.  I had no idea that all of these resources were available.

Thing 11-Finding Good Feeds

Google search was definitely my favorite blog search tool.  I did like the fact that Topix immediately showed local information.  I thought that was helpful.  Technorati was too much for me because there was so much information.  I prefer simple, so I'll stick with google.  I was able to find many blogs that were interesting and useful for both personal interests and professional interests in education.  It is amazing that I can find a blog for virtually any topic.  As far as the field of education, it's great to know that when I'm looking for information on a particular topic, I can bet on the fact that there will be current, valuable help out there in the blog world.

Thing 10-RSS Reader and Add Feeds

I really like the fact that I can set up RSS feeds so that updates on my favorite sites are all sent to one place.  I think using RSS feeds will benefit me.  I don't have a lot of time to play on the internet right now, so I'm more likely to keep up with my favorite blogs and sites if they are all in one location.  As a teacher, the RSS technology will keep valuable educational information coming to me, and when I need a new idea or want to see what someone else is trying, I'll  just check my google reader.  As I find new sites to follow, I'll subscribe.

                                                                                                                       

Thing 9-Online Image Generators

I chose to create a center sign for my sensory table in my classroom. This is a tool I will probably use in my classroom. Usually, I find it easiest to save the creation to my computer before I post. However, this time, I decided to try and learn how to link the image with the URL. I found that it wasn't as difficult as I thought, because this site had a direct link to blogger. The opportunities for using these in the classroom are many, but I think I would most often use this tool to label centers and objects in the classroom. http://www.imagechef.com/

Thing 8-Flickr Mashups

I enjoyed exploring flckr tools and mashups, but they are too advanced for the children in my classroom.  I chose to make a jigsaw puzzle with my photo.  I would like to further investigate this tool and see if I could find larger puzzle pieces, so that my students could utilize this activity.  I have no desire to use these tools in my personal life, but I can understand how some people would enjoy them.  I personally do not like to share photos on-line, other than with my family and friends. 

Thing 7-Flickr

The first photo I posted is a needlepoint that I designed and made in memory of my daughter.  I picked the second photo because it includes pictures of my children and grandchildren, and they are the most important things in my life.  Using flickr was not easy for me, as usual, and I would not use it in the classroom, mainly because any pictures of my students would break their confidentiality.  I will not use it for personal use because I don't care about spending that much time on the computer.  I personally had rather share my photos with friends and family.  I have used snapfish, but again, I did not find it worthwhile.  If I had to choose one, I would choose flickr because it is a little more user-friendly.

Thing 6-Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

From the list of  Web 2.0 Awards nominees, I chose to explore "Remember the Milk.com". This is an application service provider for web-based task and time-management.  When I started using the application, I was trying to learn to manage tasks from my computer and offline.  This was one site I found  easy to use.  I was able to create multiple task lists, so I decided to do so for personal, school, and work tasks. This was one time I was impressed. Users of this application can also tag tasks according to priority level, and choose the method, date, and time for reminders. It will also inform you of the number of times a given task has been postponed.  This application could definitely be used in a school setting, mainly as a time and task-management tool for teachers.  You may want to try this one for yourself.   http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

Thing 5-Web 2.0

While I was reading some of the of the perspectives given concerning Web 2.0,  a couple caught my attention.  The Wikipedia description was interesting because it helped me understand a little more about the history of Web 2.0 and how it has developed into the amazing part of society that it is today. Until I started this class I had no idea how much information is out there on the Internet. "Web 2.0:  A Guide for Educators" was also very informative, and made me realize the full impact that world-wide information and the tools available have on the classroom.  I believe "School 2.0" is the future of education.  We live in a world where web is a big part of everyone's life. Even children are becoming more and more knowledge in technology.  The statement that "education must get on board" stood out to me because this is coming faster than we can keep up with it. All of these things I have struggled to learn is overwhelming to me.  We must move forward to insure the children of the future is reaping the benefits. The new possibilities for teaching and learning seem to be endless.  As educators, we have a responsibility to move forward and continue learning.

Thing 4-Blogging and Commenting

Commenting is a great way to give and receive feedback from other people who have similar interests and occupations.  It builds a sense of community among individuals that may be miles apart.  The blogs I chose to comment on were Jeremy's, Charles', Jennifer's, Miguel's, and Drumm's.  From the blogosphere at large, I chose Coolcat Teacher and The Blue Skunk Blog.  From the reading, I agree that blogging and commenting are important ways to share knowledge and ideas.

Thing 3-Using a blog

Since I teach three and four year old children, I can't think of a way to use it in my classroom. I could blog with other Pre-K teachers especially within the organization I work for. I could see it as a way to interact with other teachers. You could use it as a tool to problem solve, share ideas and communicate. Since we have 12 centers, I may want to consider talking with my co-workers and suggesting that we design a blog to use.

Thing 2-My blog and Avatar

I decided on my name so I could keep it simple. There is so much to learn. The easier I can make it, the better. Since my knowledge of technology is limited, nothing I seem to do is easy. It takes me a tremendous amount of time to go through the process. My avatar reflects my personally because I try to be happy as much as possible. Even though this is difficult, I am determined to stay positive and see it through. I created my avatar to look more like me because I am happy with myself and the person I have become.  

Thing 1-The Beginning

I always knew I was by no means 'computer savvy'. Taking this course has only reinforced that view. I understand something the professor tells me in class and do it on the Mac computer. I get home to my brand  new PC and I am totally lost. I spend more time trying to figure out what I am doing than actually completing an assignment. This is often frustrating. I say, and will continue to say that if I knew how to do all this, I wouldn't need the class.
I watched the 7and 1/2 Habits video. The easiest habit for me is number one; begin with the end in mind. Every time I start something, I remind myself there is an end and at that point I will have acquired the knowledge. It's the frustration of having ADD that keeps me in turmoil. For me, it is very difficult to focus, learn and maintain information. Once I learn something new, I am ecstatic and that is what moves me forward.  I believe my sense of determination plays a huge role in that. Since learning is difficult for me, I have a deep appreciation for all of my accomplishments. Without a doubt the hardest thing for me is learning technology. I was completely grown before we had access to computers, let alone all the numerous gadgets that are available to us now. I thoroughly enjoyed the information in the video. It was very informative and the format is easy to understand. As I learn and grow,I have every intention of paying it forward.