1. My favorite tools that I discovered were Flickr and Image Generator. I really liked being able to explore Flickr and look at everyones pictures. I'm a sucker for good photography, so I could have easily spent hours looking at pictures on that website. Although I probably would only use it for personal reasons, it was still fun to explore. I also liked the Image Generator as I think it would be a great way to come up with an image that has an overview of the next topic or major ideas that you are studying. I had originally explored Tagxedo, which I definitely want to incorporate more into my classroom.
2. This experience definitely made me realize that there are so many tools out there that I should be utilizing more in my classroom. Part of my learning contract was that I wanted to not only utilize, but also organize my toolbox more. After this experience I feel like there are so many more tools that I need to add to my toolbox and figure out how to incorporate in my daily lessons. I think that over time I will also be more confident using these tools in my classroom as I have been able to play with them through these activities. This really allowed me to have some time just to explore these different tools without having to worry about generating something for an upcoming lesson, which made it less stressful!
3. I think I actually liked more tools than I thought I was going to. Just from the headings of each thing, some of them seemed daunting and boring, but I actually enjoyed a lot of the tools that we were supposed to discover and explore. Although so many of them were great, I am going to have to spend some time now and really figure out which ones would be most beneficial to my students and their success.
4. Overall I think that this program was beneficial and the different things that we had to do were outlined in a concise, easy to understand manner. If anything, I might stretch the blog out over a longer period so that you are not doing as many things each week. Most of us are teaching full-time as well as taking one other grad school class, so some times it was hard to find time to complete so many activities within each week. Other than that, I enjoyed the blog project!
Monday, October 14, 2013
Thing 16: PhotoPeach
PhotoPeach was easy to use and fun to create! I ended up creating a slideshow for the handful of pictures that I took for a wedding that I was in October 5th. One of my old roommates from college got married in Austin, so I (along with our other 4 close friends) were all her bridesmaids. Some of the pictures that included in the in slideshow were of all of us as we were waiting for the wedding to begin and of my boyfriend and I as he attended the wedding with me.
Robin and Clay's Wedding
I think that PhotoPeach could be a fun resource to use with your students for various topics, but I honestly do not think that I would use it in my classroom.
Robin and Clay's Wedding
I think that PhotoPeach could be a fun resource to use with your students for various topics, but I honestly do not think that I would use it in my classroom.
Thing 15: Things like Skype
I have used Skype a handful of times in my personal life, but I have never used it in the classroom. I will admit that I am not a big fan of Skype. I understand why people like Skype, but at the same time I'm not a big fan of talking on the phone, which is basically what Skype is, so I'm not a fan of Skype.
I can see how it would be useful in the classroom, especially for collaboration and connectivity around the world. If I was a student, I would think that it was pretty awesome if my class in Houston was able to Skype and see students all over the world. I know teachers plan Skype lessons where they connect with other classrooms around the world, but I wouldn't even know where to begin with something like that.
As a World Geography teacher, I should probably explore using Skype in my classroom more often as I think it would be a great way to connect with other classrooms nationwide and worldwide. I think it would give my students a better understanding of what cultures are like in other parts of the world as well as connect them to their peers across the globe.
If anyone knows how to set up Skyping with other classes, then I would definitely be interested in getting that information! This is going to be one of my goals for the remainder of the school year - set up Skype 'dates' with other classes around the world so that my students can collaborate with their peers from all over the world!
I can see how it would be useful in the classroom, especially for collaboration and connectivity around the world. If I was a student, I would think that it was pretty awesome if my class in Houston was able to Skype and see students all over the world. I know teachers plan Skype lessons where they connect with other classrooms around the world, but I wouldn't even know where to begin with something like that.
As a World Geography teacher, I should probably explore using Skype in my classroom more often as I think it would be a great way to connect with other classrooms nationwide and worldwide. I think it would give my students a better understanding of what cultures are like in other parts of the world as well as connect them to their peers across the globe.
If anyone knows how to set up Skyping with other classes, then I would definitely be interested in getting that information! This is going to be one of my goals for the remainder of the school year - set up Skype 'dates' with other classes around the world so that my students can collaborate with their peers from all over the world!
Thing 14: Podcasting and Bookmarking
I created my first podcast this past summer in our Distance Learning course and I loved it! Along with YouTube videos, podcasting is another tool that I want to start utilizing more in my classroom. I think Podcasts are a great way to get the students engaged and can be great for reviews.
Over the summer I created a podcast explaining the four types of Earth Systems which students can use to review that information. If I am going to make a podcast, I want to keep it to 6 minutes or less as I do not want it to be inundated with too much information nor do I want to put students to sleep. I think podcasts that are used within the classroom need to be concise and short to keep you student's interests.
Like YouTube vidoes, I love podcasts for reviewing information. Especially at the beginning of the year, we cover so many topics that students will look at the entire year and this is a great resource to have podcasts to refresh the student's memories. I am definitely trying to incorporate the use of podcasts more into my classroom this year.
I would love to try to have students make podcasts, but with freshman I would be concerned that they would not take it as seriously as they should and that they would be laughing in the background. I guess I will have to see how my students mature over the course of the year to see if I can assign them an end of the year project to create their own podcast as a source of reviewing for the final exam.
I am not as familiar with bookmarking as I probably should be - or maybe it is just that I am not a huge fan of bookmarking. I will admit that bookmarking is especially helpful when you are collaborating with your colleagues or peers, but I never remember to use it!
Luckily bookmarking is easy to do otherwise I would probably never use bookmarking tools. I have used Delicious in my classroom for helping my students gather sources for projects and last spring I did a group presentation on the benefits of Delicious in your classroom, but aside from that, I rarely use it. I do like the fact that you can access all your videos, images and websites in one convenient location.
I think I forget to use bookmarking because there are already so many other tools that I use and this one for some reason just slips my mind! I should make a point of trying to use it in my classroom more often. I think I might try to come up with a project where my students have to use the resources that I have available on Delicious in order to create a poster or paper. One other thing that I like about Delicious in the classroom is that it allows me to monitor which sites my students are visiting as I have already pre-approved them! That makes it easier (especially when using technology in the classroom) because I am not having to monitor my students as heavily or worry that they are on websites they shouldn't be on. Again, I am going to try to use this tool more often as it is really beneficial in the classroom!
Over the summer I created a podcast explaining the four types of Earth Systems which students can use to review that information. If I am going to make a podcast, I want to keep it to 6 minutes or less as I do not want it to be inundated with too much information nor do I want to put students to sleep. I think podcasts that are used within the classroom need to be concise and short to keep you student's interests.
Like YouTube vidoes, I love podcasts for reviewing information. Especially at the beginning of the year, we cover so many topics that students will look at the entire year and this is a great resource to have podcasts to refresh the student's memories. I am definitely trying to incorporate the use of podcasts more into my classroom this year.
I would love to try to have students make podcasts, but with freshman I would be concerned that they would not take it as seriously as they should and that they would be laughing in the background. I guess I will have to see how my students mature over the course of the year to see if I can assign them an end of the year project to create their own podcast as a source of reviewing for the final exam.
I am not as familiar with bookmarking as I probably should be - or maybe it is just that I am not a huge fan of bookmarking. I will admit that bookmarking is especially helpful when you are collaborating with your colleagues or peers, but I never remember to use it!
Luckily bookmarking is easy to do otherwise I would probably never use bookmarking tools. I have used Delicious in my classroom for helping my students gather sources for projects and last spring I did a group presentation on the benefits of Delicious in your classroom, but aside from that, I rarely use it. I do like the fact that you can access all your videos, images and websites in one convenient location.
I think I forget to use bookmarking because there are already so many other tools that I use and this one for some reason just slips my mind! I should make a point of trying to use it in my classroom more often. I think I might try to come up with a project where my students have to use the resources that I have available on Delicious in order to create a poster or paper. One other thing that I like about Delicious in the classroom is that it allows me to monitor which sites my students are visiting as I have already pre-approved them! That makes it easier (especially when using technology in the classroom) because I am not having to monitor my students as heavily or worry that they are on websites they shouldn't be on. Again, I am going to try to use this tool more often as it is really beneficial in the classroom!
Thing 13: Using YouTube
I created a screen-cast showing my students how to use ABC Clio for their upcoming research paper which I uploaded to YouTube. For both grad school and work, I have uploaded videos to YouTube before, so this was not something brand new to me.
The specific video that I uploaded is a quick tutorial reminding students how they can use ABC Clio to find credible sources for their research paper. It tells them about the different databases that are available within that website as well as how to perform a key word search.
I think having videos like this available to students is helpful because it allows them to go back and re-learn what you already taught without you having to be there. This is something that all of my students could easily access when they are working on their papers at home. Also, if a student is absent the day we go over this, this is a good resource for them to use to catch-up on what was taught. I would love to have more online tutorials and videos available to my students, I just don't have the time to create them. Hopefully over this next summer, I can finally have a good group of videos created for my students to help them review materials and gain additional insight on the different topics that we cover.
I would be hesitant to put student created work on YouTube as the information they might have in their video could be incorrect and I would have to make sure that it was legal to upload their materials as well.
The specific video that I uploaded is a quick tutorial reminding students how they can use ABC Clio to find credible sources for their research paper. It tells them about the different databases that are available within that website as well as how to perform a key word search.
I think having videos like this available to students is helpful because it allows them to go back and re-learn what you already taught without you having to be there. This is something that all of my students could easily access when they are working on their papers at home. Also, if a student is absent the day we go over this, this is a good resource for them to use to catch-up on what was taught. I would love to have more online tutorials and videos available to my students, I just don't have the time to create them. Hopefully over this next summer, I can finally have a good group of videos created for my students to help them review materials and gain additional insight on the different topics that we cover.
I would be hesitant to put student created work on YouTube as the information they might have in their video could be incorrect and I would have to make sure that it was legal to upload their materials as well.
Thing 12: Discovering YouTube
I love YouTube! Whether it is for personal or professional use, I think it is a great resource for educational as well as fun videos. I have used Teacher Tube, but have not found that many resources that are helpful for my specific content. Before this blog though, I had never heard of School Tube, so I will definitely have to check that out.
My students love YouTube as well. I try to show video clips that relate to our current content, whether they are news clips, music videos or other videos whenever possible to make the material more interactive for my students. I think YouTube is a great resource for Teachers as their are so many resources available at your disposal.
One of the most popular videos right now, which my students keep requesting me to show at the end of class (and which has nothing to do with my content material) is the Fox Video. If you have not seen this music video, then you should. Although it is extremely ridiculous, it has gained worldwide notoriety and is even being played on the radio. Watch it for yourself and as a warning, I'll tell you it is very catchy so don't be surprised when you start singing it in your head! I'll even admit that I kind of like it!
My students love YouTube as well. I try to show video clips that relate to our current content, whether they are news clips, music videos or other videos whenever possible to make the material more interactive for my students. I think YouTube is a great resource for Teachers as their are so many resources available at your disposal.
One of the most popular videos right now, which my students keep requesting me to show at the end of class (and which has nothing to do with my content material) is the Fox Video. If you have not seen this music video, then you should. Although it is extremely ridiculous, it has gained worldwide notoriety and is even being played on the radio. Watch it for yourself and as a warning, I'll tell you it is very catchy so don't be surprised when you start singing it in your head! I'll even admit that I kind of like it!
Thing 11: Web 2.0 Tools
The Web 2.0 Tool that I explored was Scoop.it From the get go, it reminded me a lot of Delicious, which was not what I was expecting. It was really easy to register for Scoop.it; not only was it free, but I received my confirmation email almost instantaneously, so I didn't have to wait around to start exploring the site.
The first thing that you do once you have logged into Scoop.it, is you add the 'scoop it' button to your toolbar which allows you to add websites to your specified topic. Since we will be starting a unit on the Middle East soon, I set up a topic for Terrorism and some of my key words were jihad, Middle East, 9/11 and Islam. Once I hit the button 'curate,' then I had over 100 websites pop up that brought up those key words. Obviously the more key words that you suggest, the more websites that will appear.
I think that this website would be really helpful for finding sources for research papers (especially in Social Studies classes) as well as allowing students to look up additional information on different topics. I could see this being extremely useful if you have the technology available to your students. This is even something that students can access at home. I like how you can manage the sources as well as filter the sources by additional keywords. Again I think this would be extremely beneficial for your upper grade levels. We write two research papers in World Geography and for the second one students have to gather their own sources, so I am going to look into using this for them to 'scoop' their sources into one location.
The second Web 2.0 Tool that I looked up was Powtown. I thought that this sounded really interesting especially because it makes your presentations animated! I know with high school students that listening to 7 different teachers lecture over the course of their day can be really exhausting and tedious, so I think that this could be a great way to amp up your PowerPoint presentations and make them more interactive for the students. Although it would be a bit time consuming to re-do all of your PowerPoint's, this could be a lot of fun.
When I have more time, I would like to further explore Powtown and actually create some more interactive PowerPoint's for my students to take notes from.
The first thing that you do once you have logged into Scoop.it, is you add the 'scoop it' button to your toolbar which allows you to add websites to your specified topic. Since we will be starting a unit on the Middle East soon, I set up a topic for Terrorism and some of my key words were jihad, Middle East, 9/11 and Islam. Once I hit the button 'curate,' then I had over 100 websites pop up that brought up those key words. Obviously the more key words that you suggest, the more websites that will appear.
I think that this website would be really helpful for finding sources for research papers (especially in Social Studies classes) as well as allowing students to look up additional information on different topics. I could see this being extremely useful if you have the technology available to your students. This is even something that students can access at home. I like how you can manage the sources as well as filter the sources by additional keywords. Again I think this would be extremely beneficial for your upper grade levels. We write two research papers in World Geography and for the second one students have to gather their own sources, so I am going to look into using this for them to 'scoop' their sources into one location.
The second Web 2.0 Tool that I looked up was Powtown. I thought that this sounded really interesting especially because it makes your presentations animated! I know with high school students that listening to 7 different teachers lecture over the course of their day can be really exhausting and tedious, so I think that this could be a great way to amp up your PowerPoint presentations and make them more interactive for the students. Although it would be a bit time consuming to re-do all of your PowerPoint's, this could be a lot of fun.
When I have more time, I would like to further explore Powtown and actually create some more interactive PowerPoint's for my students to take notes from.
Thing 10: Online Productivity Tools
Before this exercise, I had never heard about Zoho Docs, so I was definitely intrigued to find out how it differed from Google Docs. If I am completely honest, until last year I was not familiar at all with Google Docs and now I use it quite frequently for collaboration with my work and grad school colleagues.
From the start, Zoho Docs seemed pretty user friendly and easy to navigate. I do like the fact that you can create presentation (which I am not sure if you can do in Google Docs). I usually only use collaborative tools for documents or spreadsheets, so it was interesting to see the different options that were available with Zoho Docs.
Although I like Zoho Docs, I will probably not switch to using that in lieu of Google Docs as I do not want to have to transfer over my current documents to this new tool. If there is something in class that I can use with my students, then I might consider using Zoho Docs instead of Google Docs.
From the start, Zoho Docs seemed pretty user friendly and easy to navigate. I do like the fact that you can create presentation (which I am not sure if you can do in Google Docs). I usually only use collaborative tools for documents or spreadsheets, so it was interesting to see the different options that were available with Zoho Docs.
Although I like Zoho Docs, I will probably not switch to using that in lieu of Google Docs as I do not want to have to transfer over my current documents to this new tool. If there is something in class that I can use with my students, then I might consider using Zoho Docs instead of Google Docs.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Thing 9: Play with Wikis
Since I teach 9th grade, I commented on 'Ideas for High School students' on Dr. Wilson's Wiki. Specifically I said the following:
"Julie B. - One tool that I really like to use in my World Geography class for research is Delicious. I think that this is a great social bookmarking tool that can be used for research based projects. I like that I am able to monitor the websites that my 9th graders are on by already giving them pictures, videos and websites that have all of the information that they need in one centralized location. Students love working with our mobile laptops and this allows them to be both engaged, while also making sure that they are learning for creditable websites. Also, students can access Delicious both in and out of school."
I have used Delicious before and love it! I think it was helpful being able to see other teacher's ideas for technology use in the classroom from Dr. Wilson's Wiki. There are some technology ideas that were mentioned that I have either not heard of or would never have thought of using.
Again, I don't love Wikis, so I doubt I would ever use one in my personal or professional life, but I could understand why people like them and use them.
"Julie B. - One tool that I really like to use in my World Geography class for research is Delicious. I think that this is a great social bookmarking tool that can be used for research based projects. I like that I am able to monitor the websites that my 9th graders are on by already giving them pictures, videos and websites that have all of the information that they need in one centralized location. Students love working with our mobile laptops and this allows them to be both engaged, while also making sure that they are learning for creditable websites. Also, students can access Delicious both in and out of school."
I have used Delicious before and love it! I think it was helpful being able to see other teacher's ideas for technology use in the classroom from Dr. Wilson's Wiki. There are some technology ideas that were mentioned that I have either not heard of or would never have thought of using.
Again, I don't love Wikis, so I doubt I would ever use one in my personal or professional life, but I could understand why people like them and use them.
Thing 8: Wikis
After looking at a few Wikis, I like the setup for a lot of the pages, especially the Educational Wikis. I thought it was really convenient having a plethora of Wikis at one location which would give teachers a lot of resources. Also, I liked how the Educational Wikis were Wikis from all over the world and not just from our country. I think it is important to see what other countries are teaching and to have access to those ideas. It was also interesting to me that some of the Wikis you had to request access to as opposed to being a public website. I think that limits the amount of people that you are going to have accessing your Wiki, but at the same time I'm sure some of these Wikis (like the Bull Run Library) has a specific reason for only allowing members to enter the site.
The one thing that I do not like about Wikis is that they are editable. I think that this makes the Wikis less credible, which would make me cautious about allowing my students to use information that they found on a Wiki. I think that depending on the specific Wiki will depend on how credible the source can be, but again with Wikis being editable you can have incorrect information on them. I would only trust a Wiki source that was not editable, or that had a moderator who was approving the edits before they posted.
Overall, I don't use Wikis in my classroom as I don't always trust them and would like to have more credible sources used by both myself and my students.
The one thing that I do not like about Wikis is that they are editable. I think that this makes the Wikis less credible, which would make me cautious about allowing my students to use information that they found on a Wiki. I think that depending on the specific Wiki will depend on how credible the source can be, but again with Wikis being editable you can have incorrect information on them. I would only trust a Wiki source that was not editable, or that had a moderator who was approving the edits before they posted.
Overall, I don't use Wikis in my classroom as I don't always trust them and would like to have more credible sources used by both myself and my students.
Thing 7: Image Generators
The first image generator that I explored was Tagxedo. I really liked Tagxedo and think that this would be a really great way to introduce a new unit in class. You can use the major vocabulary words of that particular unit to create a Tagxedo to engage the students. I think this would be very beneficial in ELA and Social Studies classes. I also liked how you can change the background shape of the image. I used Lincoln's Gettysburg Address speech, so it was really awesome to be able to use the United States as the backdrop for my Tagxedo. The only thing that I did not like was that I was not able to change the font or the colors schemes.
The second image generator that I looked at was WordSift. I did not like WordSift as much as I liked Tagxedo. Again, I think that this could be used for introducing a new unit through vocabulary practice. The hot links would not only give students the definitions for the words, but also probably visuals to help them associate the words with. I think this would also be good for ELA or Social Studies if you are learning a famous speech, about a famous document, or with Poetry and Sonnets. I think students would like the fact that they have links which would give them additional information.
Overall I like Image Generators and I think that they could be beneficial when teaching. Plus, I think students would enjoy being able to create something creative!
Thing 6: RSS and Newsreaders
For this activity we were supposed to create an account with Netvibes. Until now, I had heard of RSS feeds and have been a subscriber to a few of them, but had never heard of newsreaders or Netvibes for that matter. I like newsreaders because they allow you to access so many different resources in one convenient location. I can access my personal email, facebook and twitter accounts on Newsvibe while also being connected to news outlets and my other interests. Some of the feeds that I subscribed to included Cooking Light, Bible Gateway's verse of the day, Edublogs and Urbanspoon.
I think that newsreaders could be extremely helpful in the classroom by allowing students to access a plethora of resources in one location. This would be extremely helpful with researching for projects or papers and I especially liked how you could link your Delicious account to Netvibes. I could see myself creating a public page and having my students access it both in school and at home for their information. We have two research papers that our 9th graders write, so this could be a great resource for the students to use with credible resources.
At home, Netvibes would be easy to use as it allows me to have everything in one central location. Realistically though, I will not use Netvibes at home as I do not like having all of my accounts linked to each other. I do see why people are attracted to newsreaders, but again I do not think that I would use it in a personal setting.
I think libraries could take advantage of RSS and newsreaders for research purposes as well. As technology begins to be used more frequently in the classroom, I can see libraries using these resources more than having paper copies of books, research materials, etc. It would be extremely beneficial because you could also access the RSS and newsreaders outside of a library setting.
Unfortunately I did not realize how to make my Netvibes account public until after I had already created my page and bookmarked quite a few feeds, so I can't add the url to my account. If I have time though, I will create another page so you can see my Netvibes account.
I think that newsreaders could be extremely helpful in the classroom by allowing students to access a plethora of resources in one location. This would be extremely helpful with researching for projects or papers and I especially liked how you could link your Delicious account to Netvibes. I could see myself creating a public page and having my students access it both in school and at home for their information. We have two research papers that our 9th graders write, so this could be a great resource for the students to use with credible resources.
At home, Netvibes would be easy to use as it allows me to have everything in one central location. Realistically though, I will not use Netvibes at home as I do not like having all of my accounts linked to each other. I do see why people are attracted to newsreaders, but again I do not think that I would use it in a personal setting.
I think libraries could take advantage of RSS and newsreaders for research purposes as well. As technology begins to be used more frequently in the classroom, I can see libraries using these resources more than having paper copies of books, research materials, etc. It would be extremely beneficial because you could also access the RSS and newsreaders outside of a library setting.
Unfortunately I did not realize how to make my Netvibes account public until after I had already created my page and bookmarked quite a few feeds, so I can't add the url to my account. If I have time though, I will create another page so you can see my Netvibes account.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Thing 5: Flickr Montager
One of the Flickr Mashup sites that I visited was Flickr Montager. It was a really interesting sight where you search a tag within Flickr and then it will bring up other pictures that have that same tag as well as create a 'collage' of pictures that look like the original one. I probably search 30 different tags from dogs to Texas to football, before I finally found my favorite collage which was from a search I did of 'water'. The original picture that was shown was of the sun setting over water and the 'collage' looked identical to it!
Apart from searching different tags, you can also upload your own pictures which you can tag and they will be added to the database of pictures. I did not upload any of my own pictures, I just searched other people's instead. Again, Flickr Montager was a really neat website that allowed you to search thousands of pictures based on Flickr tags. This is definitely something that could consume a lot of my time!
Apart from searching different tags, you can also upload your own pictures which you can tag and they will be added to the database of pictures. I did not upload any of my own pictures, I just searched other people's instead. Again, Flickr Montager was a really neat website that allowed you to search thousands of pictures based on Flickr tags. This is definitely something that could consume a lot of my time!
Thing 4: Flickr
I am somewhat familiar with Flickr as I have used it in another grad school class this past spring. I have never used it for my own personal pictures, but I can see why people would use Flickr for their pictures.
Instead of creating my own Flickr account, I looked at some of the pictures that other people had posted. One of my favorite pictures that I came across is a picture of Eastern Sierra that shows a road lined with trees during Autumn. I love this picture because fall is my favorite season and I enjoy seeing the fall foliage even though we don't really have fall in Houston. I thought this picture was gorgeous looking, especially the contrast of the rainy day with the bright orange leaves in the trees. Again, fall foliage is one of my favorite things and I love taking pictures of it as well as seeing pictures of the foliage. I wish that I lived somewhere where I had access to fall foliage.
There were quite a few other pictures that I liked as well, but again the above picture was my favorite! Hopefully you will enjoy it too!
Instead of creating my own Flickr account, I looked at some of the pictures that other people had posted. One of my favorite pictures that I came across is a picture of Eastern Sierra that shows a road lined with trees during Autumn. I love this picture because fall is my favorite season and I enjoy seeing the fall foliage even though we don't really have fall in Houston. I thought this picture was gorgeous looking, especially the contrast of the rainy day with the bright orange leaves in the trees. Again, fall foliage is one of my favorite things and I love taking pictures of it as well as seeing pictures of the foliage. I wish that I lived somewhere where I had access to fall foliage.
There were quite a few other pictures that I liked as well, but again the above picture was my favorite! Hopefully you will enjoy it too!
Thing 3: Photos and Images
I used to be a lot better at taking pictures every time that I was doing something, but over the last few years, I have not been as diligent in my picture taking. Usually I just take pictures now if I go on vacation or it is a holiday or some other special occasion.
This summer my Mom and I went on our annual 'Mother-Daughter Trip' and we spent a week in Virginia seeing all the historical sights. As a World Geography teacher, I love history and especially visiting all of the historical sights in the New England area.
In the picture above, we are at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house. His home was so unique compared to some of the the other historical houses that I have toured. He was a true renaissance man who took an interest in science, cartography, and numerous other ventures aside from politics. This picture is on the back lawn of his house when I was being attacked by a cicada. If you can't tell by my face, I clearly don't like bugs.
Although we spent a week in Virgina, I can't wait to go back and see some more of the sights!
This summer my Mom and I went on our annual 'Mother-Daughter Trip' and we spent a week in Virginia seeing all the historical sights. As a World Geography teacher, I love history and especially visiting all of the historical sights in the New England area.
The picture above is of my mom and I at the Williamsburg Winery a few minutes from Colonial Williamsburg. We were able to tour the winery and taste test six red and white wines. The winery was really interesting and they had a cute restaurant attached to the winery with local, farm fresh food. This is definitely a place I want to go back to when I'm in the area again!
The picture above is from when my mom and I were visiting Jamestown. We were able to see what the original settlement looked like as well as tour replicas of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria. In this picture we are on one of the ship replicas!
In the picture above, we are at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house. His home was so unique compared to some of the the other historical houses that I have toured. He was a true renaissance man who took an interest in science, cartography, and numerous other ventures aside from politics. This picture is on the back lawn of his house when I was being attacked by a cicada. If you can't tell by my face, I clearly don't like bugs.
Although we spent a week in Virgina, I can't wait to go back and see some more of the sights!
Thing 2: Blogging
I am a pretty confident Blogger as I have written blogs in the past. Two summers ago, I volunteered at an archaeological dig in Israel and blogged about my experiences while I was there (Confessions of a Makeshift Archaeologist). Also, I wrote a blog when I was living in New York, but I only wrote on that blog for about 6 months before I stopped blogging. I also subscribe to a few recipe blogs. I love cooking and there are two specific blogs (The Crepes of Wrath and Spoon, Fork, Pig) which I receive recipes from. It is interesting to read about the different foods that these two blogs are creating as well as here tidbits about their lives.
Although I have written a blog before, I think that there are always things that you can learn about blogging since technology is always changing. I think the hardest part of blogging is writing your actual posts. I am a perfectionist, so I am constantly re-reading and editing what I write until it sounds perfect which can be quite time consuming! As I have not blogged for a while it is helpful to read advice from professional bloggers about the dos and don'ts of blogging. I have written comments on blogs before as well as responded to comments on my own blogs. Having readers give feedback or ask questions definitely helps you become a better blogger. I'm looking forward to getting back into blogging this semester with my 16 Things blog!
Although I have written a blog before, I think that there are always things that you can learn about blogging since technology is always changing. I think the hardest part of blogging is writing your actual posts. I am a perfectionist, so I am constantly re-reading and editing what I write until it sounds perfect which can be quite time consuming! As I have not blogged for a while it is helpful to read advice from professional bloggers about the dos and don'ts of blogging. I have written comments on blogs before as well as responded to comments on my own blogs. Having readers give feedback or ask questions definitely helps you become a better blogger. I'm looking forward to getting back into blogging this semester with my 16 Things blog!
Thing 1: Lifelong Learning
Every person is a lifelong learner, whether they are learning in the workplace, an educational setting or through their peers. After looking through the 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful People, the easiest habit for me is accepting responsibility for my own learning. If I did not value learning and realize that I am responsible for bettering myself, than I would not be in graduate school.
The hardest habits for me are being confident about myself as a competent, effective learner and creating my resource toolbox. I am very hard on myself when it comes to my grades and learning and I constantly doubt myself which is something that I need to stop doing. Also, I have so many resources at my disposal to create my toolbox yet I never seem to find the time to organize and utilize that toolbox to my full advantage both in and out of the classroom.
In my Learning Contract, I have outlined a plan to have confidence in my abilities as a learner and to implement the technology related tools that I have in my toolbox which I am not currently using. I am hoping that by the end of this semester I will start noticing a difference in my classroom by utilizing more of my tools.
The hardest habits for me are being confident about myself as a competent, effective learner and creating my resource toolbox. I am very hard on myself when it comes to my grades and learning and I constantly doubt myself which is something that I need to stop doing. Also, I have so many resources at my disposal to create my toolbox yet I never seem to find the time to organize and utilize that toolbox to my full advantage both in and out of the classroom.
In my Learning Contract, I have outlined a plan to have confidence in my abilities as a learner and to implement the technology related tools that I have in my toolbox which I am not currently using. I am hoping that by the end of this semester I will start noticing a difference in my classroom by utilizing more of my tools.
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