Thing 12

<iframe src="https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=laurajackson1979%40gmail.com&ctz=America/Chicago" style="border: 0" width="800" height="600" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

It was exceptionally easy to create this calendar. By making it public, all my parents and children would be able to view it. It would let them see what was happening that day and the days to come. Those students who are out of class can have access to their work and be able to follow along. The parents can stay informed about the assignments and upcoming events. Most children and parents have access to a computer of phone making it easy for them to stay updated. The children could also make birthday and special event calendars and share special moments with friends. The students could also use the calendar feature as a planner and keep track of their assignments in all their classes for current and upcoming assignments. As a reading teacher, my students could use this calendar to track the books that they read for the month, have their parents sign and return to me with the possibility of prizes.

Thing 11

*Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use?
I found that using edublogawards.com was the easiest. The other sites had too much information on their home pages. I was not sure where to begin and what to do.
*Which Search tool was the easiest for you?
Edublogawards. com was most defiantly the easiest to me. All I had to do was click on the blog link at the top of the page, then subscribe to the RSS feeds that I wanted to include in my Google Reader account.
*Which was more confusing?
All  the other sites were way to confusing for me. They had too much writing on their home pages. Their feeds were difficult to find. I could not find much education related on any of the other sites.
*What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels?
I found good information on taking education outside of the classroom and extending learning times in the real world.
*Or what kind of unusual ones did you find?
The ones about the government and the political aspect of education. Who cares who gets the most money or recognition, the focus should be on the children's education.
*What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?
By just using Google.com and Ask.com and searching newsfeeds sites. There are many available on education.

Thing 10

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?

I like being able to go to one site and read my research and information. This is a major time saver. they have a vast variety of information available at the click of a button. It would be helpful to keep my updated on the most current information available about children and education since I will be teaching school.

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

I think that it would help to keep me updated so that I can better serve the children that I will be teaching. I will also help me as a college student to have appropriate research for my papers and studies.

How can teachers use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?
They can research and receive information on the latest teaching strategies to use in their classrooms. They can keep up with developments on working with special needs children. By receiving information on grants available for improvements for their classroom and school.

Thing 8

The image above was created with Mosaic Maker through Flickr.com. I found it very easy to use. I thought that this would be something that the children could use at the beginning of the school year to make a family collage for an All About Me theme. This would let the children share about them self and learn things about their friends.

Thing 7

Photo by S@ilor

http://www.flickr.com/photos/-skipper-/5346767531/

I looked at pictures of sunsets because I have always wanted to see a magnificent sun set. I have been to the beach a couple of times but I have never been able to catch that perfect sunset. I have choose to cover the second grade standards in language and reading that cover punctuation marks. I found it ironic that there was an exclamation point in this photo. I could ask the children to look up things in nature that resemble punctuation marks and make a photo collage.

The group that I chose to look further into was classroom decorations. In this group was photos of classroom decorations that various teachers have submitted. As a former Head Start teacher, room decoration was always a part of our different themes. It was primarily based upon the children's free art work so I had to create the base for the displays. I was nice to be able to see other ideas from different teachers. Sometimes I have trouble coming up with new ideas and having this group to look at would be helpful in the future. 

I found flickr.com to be a very easy tool to use. It would be very helpful for finding classroom display ideas to use in my classroom. 

Thing 9

http://www.fakemagazinecover.com/
http://www.txt2pic.com/
http://www.cooltext.com/


I created the saying below using txt2pic.com. I used hearts for the words to represent the love that is felt between the two people. This site has lots of pictures to choose from.

This image was created with cooltext.com. I thought that the unique lettering and flashing words would catch the readers attention. This would be good to help students focus on key words.

This fake magazine cover was created with fakemagazinecover.com. This would be something that the children could easily do. They could write an article then design a magazine cover to reflect their story.

It was fun working with all three of these sites. The possibilities are endless on any of them. It was as simple as choosing an image and then creating. I was expecting it to be a little harder than what it was. I will continue to use the sites in the future on my projects.

Thing 4

To be continued.........