Extra Thing - The importance of a positive attitude

CoolCatTeacher shared a great poem to remind us that our attitude, be it in the classroom or our home, sets the tone for everyone.  If you have a second, check out her poem.

Thing 19 - Beyond Facebook: Other Social Networks

A friend invited me to join TeacherPop about a year ago.  I didn't really know what I was doing back then, since I had not taken the Technology class with Dr. Wall.  I logged in today, added a profile photo and posted the following to my friend Erin Brown's TeacherPop blog:

 I also added the NING TeacherPop badge to my blog.  See?

 

I then uploaded a link to my YouTube video.  I actually created a series of videos to help my dear friend Anita learn how to clean a fish tank.  I used direct instruction, so please provide feedback as to how I can improve.  The camera work was done by my eight-year-old daughter.  Didn't she do a nice job?  Click here to see my video on TeacherPop.  Don't you just love my Austin Peay spirit?

TeacherPop appeals to me as the idea of teachers blogging and helping each other just makes sense.  Blogging with like-minded people makes sense.   I am also a member of Facebook, but that was thoroughly discussed in Thing 18, so I won't belabor that point.  Truth be told, if I am not active on Facebook, which includes all of my family and friends, will I really use ANOTHER blog?  I don't think so.  I just don't think so.  While I do find social networks interesting, I just don't have the time to put into them right now.  Maybe when life slows down...

Wait, hold the computer.  Just checked out a cooking blog The Tasty Chef.  I LOVE TO COOK!  As mentioned previously, time is not something that I have a lot of, so I'm always looking for good, crockpot meals.  In fact, my husband has said on more than one occasion that he thinks I might have forgotten how to cook meals that don't involve my crockpot.  Check out this potato soup recipe.  Look at the picture and tell me you won't be making it soon!  

 Guess who is responsible for this cooking blog?  Don't rush to see.  Really guess!

Here is a hint........

That Ree is up to everything, isn't she?!  Happy cooking!  And, yes, I signed up for this blog, too.  I only wish I could pass this blog on to my sister.  She would love it! 

Thing 18 Explore Social Networking

Facebook, my archenemy! While I have a Facebook account and have for at least two years, I cringe every time I get a note from Facebook saying that I have friends waiting to hear from me.  If you are an avid Facebook aficionado, I'm sure you had no idea that they send you notes if you don't get on in a reasonable amount of time.  Promise, it has happened to me, several times!

Why such dislike of this beloved social networking site?  Well, as a mother of two extremely active young ladies, a wife to a husband who travels way too much, a student in a demanding Masters degree program, and a worker at that same college, TIME is something that I have very little to spare. When people inquire as to why I never get on Facebook (as if I must have a serious illness to avoid this like the plague), I explain that the problem lies in the fact that IF I get on this website, I look up and two to three hours have elapsed.  How does this happen?  Does it happen to others?  My curious mind had to know.  I now have PROOF that Facebook is a total time waster.  Check out #18 in PC World's 40 Fantastic Time-Wasting Websites by JR Raphael, 7/27/09. I have now confirmed my belief.


That being said, I do occasionally treat myself to a good Facebook time waste.  It's fun looking at pictures of people that you see every day, or perhaps haven't seen in over 20 years.  It's fun to peek into other people's lives and see what they are up to today.  Look at their pictures, comment on how cute is that puppy, kids, whatever!  It allows us to bond with others that we may have lost touch with but still care about.


Educators need to know about social networking because that is what students do.  They live by and for technology.  Have you ever seen a teenager without his or her phone?  I rest my case. While I don't see classroom applications with this tool, as my cautious side screams not to mix business with pleasure, I do believe that effective educators MUST have knowledge of social networking sites to be able to communicate effectively with their students.  Twitter, with its 140-character text limitation is a bit annoying.  I understand that they are trying to minimize all that "gobble, gobble, gobble" as Edna Mode from The Incredibles describes, but come on, everyone is writing in shorthand but no one really took the decoding class. 

I really did not gain new insight into these popular sites.  I like Facebook when I have the time to play, but my life does not allow for that right now.  Facebook is much easier to navigate then Twitter.  Tweeting is something that I know that I won't do, just because of the shorthand version of the language.  I have to be satisfied to know that I know what Facebook and Twitter are, so that as a parent and educator, I can speak the kids language.

Thing 17 - Tagging and social bookmarking with Del.icio.us

This was an easy thing for me as I have already explored Del.icio.us with my Thing 6.  I did create my own log in and even made a stack for my Great Depression unit plan.  As mentioned in my Thing 6, Del.icio.us is a fabulous tool that can be a huge help for lesson planning resources.  Not only that, but it is easy to find remediation websites for students struggling with certain concepts or skills.  Teachers can benefit from this social bookmarking site by peeking into others bookmarks, which can save time searching for the "perfect" lesson.  After successfully using bookmarks of others, they may be your go-to's to peek into their lessons in the future.  My best ideas are usually borrowed for most everything in life, so why not extend this to lesson planning?  Anyway, if people didn't want to share their bookmarks, they would have made them private, right?  Also, good teachers tend to be helpers and share well, so why not do your part, too?

I tried StumbleUpon and Digg as social bookmarking tools, but they just didn't seem as easy to use as Del.icio.us.

BTW, Google Alerts is still working on my research paper and sent me a notification that more information on cluster grouping hit the web.  I love this tool!

Thing 16 - Get organized with Web 2.0 Tools

I chose the IGoogle start page.  First, I am a die hard Google fan.  They have good tools, searches, etc. so why not try them first?  I loved how easy it was to add, edit, rearrange or remove a gadget.  Google was easier to manipulate and navigate than either PageFlakes or Netvibes.  Here is a screen shot of the IGoogle start page, which I did make as my home page.

I was able to add in minutes my favorite quotes of the day, a hamster to keep me company and a fish tank game to help me relax.  Not only that, I easily changed my news source to Fox and the weather for my favorite places.  Don't you like the contemplative pup at the top of my page?  Further down on the page, that you can't see, I also have artist of the day, quotes from famous people inspirational qoutes and free Itunes downloads.

For the online calendar to do list, I again chose Google. I have to share a secret.  I'm a control freak and like to have my ducks in a row as my Dad used to say.  Here is the calendar that I made in Google.  Note the difference from my regular calendar to my Google calendar.  That's what happens when someone close to you dies.  Everything gets wiped off your calendar and to do list and you take care of the remaining living.  Please tell your family you love them today and every day.

Online calendars really aren't useful to me, as is indicated above that I LIVE by my calendar.  Thanks to my IPhone, I'm able to take my calendar with me.  I even have reminders pop up a few days or minutes before each calendar entry, whichever is needed.  I also use the D2L calendar to manage my due outs for school and my calendar in my school email to handle work related to dos.

I tried Tada's to do list, as you can see below, however, I don't see myself using it.  Logging in online to add something else to my to do list is something I can't see myself doing. The to do list that is incorporated within my iCalendar is so easy to use and since I set up reminders, it reminds me at an appropriate interval.

As a planner, tools such as calendars and to do lists are essential.  Being a busy mom, student and worker bee, I have to be able to wear a lot of hats and juggle a bunch of schedules in order to be sure that everything is done when it should be (hopefully a bit before!) and everyone is where they should be, when they should be.  I can't imagine effectively running my school, work, or home schedule without having a to do list AND a calendar.  They go together like peanut butter and jelly.

I highly recommend these tools to all people.  I'll agree that to do lists can take a bit of time to set up and monitor, however, the setup is worth the cost and then some.  Besides, it feels great to mark something off my list.  In fact, I use the old fashioned to do list for my girls with their chores.  They love wiping that chore off their wipe board list.  Something is strangely satisfying about wiping one more thing off a list -- see, I'm showing my control freak side again!  Ugh!

Thing 15 - What in the World is a Wiki?

Hi!  Wikis are great tools for a lot of things.  My fifth grade daughter's teachers share a wiki page.  It sure comes in handy to check for important test dates, misplaced newsletters, project requirements, rubrics and more.  I checked out several of the listed wikis, however, hands down, my favorite is the teacherlibrianwiki.  There is no excuse for not finding the perfect book to supplement your lessons when you have so many resources on this wiki.

My exploration of several of these wikis did pose an important and (I'll say it.....) irritating problem.  If you have a link in your wiki/blog/document, whatever!  You need to be sure to update and check links often.  Maybe mark your calendar so that once a month you check the links.  Just an idea and an honest revelation of one of my many pet peeves.

I played in the APSU Sandbox and posted my tribute to Steve Jobs.  I could see that playing in the sandbox and modifying others work could and can be fun.  Not only that, but as the YouTube link describing wikis showed, wikis can be easy communication/organization tools, especially when planning trips, parties, etc.  As a teacher, I would probably imitate my daughter's teachers and make my wiki too, especially if I was team teaching, as her teachers are doing.  A blog is great if you are only modifying content, but if you need to share, wikis are the way to go.

Thing 14 - Flow Charts and Mind Maps

Gliffy is a nifty little tool.  The only downside that I could see is that there was no spell check.  I’m a stickler for spell check.  I chose Gliffy for my Venn Diagram as I liked the name and the preview on the Thing 14 looked interesting.  There are a lot of pre-set flowcharts in Gliffy.  I may want to access this tool when I’m making my classroom layout later, as it does have some nice floor plan layout tools.  However, as I have said before, I am a Microsoft girl, so PowerPoint is my go to for almost any graphic need.  Here is my Venn Diagram that I created in Gliffy.

Mindmeister is an awesome mind mapping tool.  I tried Bubble.us, but it lost its brain and I was unable to do anything in there.  A friend had recommended Bubble.us previously, so I was a bit disappointed when I couldn't get it to work.  I tried Mindmeister and it is so easy to move, organize and map your thought process.  I am working on the history standards for the Great Depression time period for my project.  I mapped my thoughts for my lesson plans and here they are:

On a totally different note, Steve Jobs died today.   How very sad.  While I’m discussing my Technological Things, it seems fitting that I pay tribute to such an innovative, creative entrepreneur.  He has changed the lives of many, including myself.  Goodbye, Steve.  Thanks for making life easier for some many of your fellow Americans.  May you enjoy an Apple a day and then some!

Thing 13 Web Based Applications

I just had to do a shout out with the above to say I'm halfway done with my Things!  Thanks for letting me share my joy.  While I've loved learning new Things, I have spent a LOT of time doing my Things.

Back to the task at hand.  I tried Zoho Writer first.  While I loved the fact that you can access your accounts anywhere without "dropboxing" them, I'm not sure I like the fact that you can only access the last 25 documents if you go offline.  I do I lot of running with my girls, and need to have access to all of my files, and may not always have wireless access.  The setup is very similar to Word, which is my go to word processing program.  The pros outweigh the cons, however, when you are talking about a group project.  The availability of the document for all members to access and modify is awesome.  It also provides a feature that let's you track who made changes.  This is a handy feature for identifying those nonparticipating members, too.  I did have a problem when I tried to delete the smiley face graphic.  I tried the Control-X and the delete and once it was in there, it was staying.  That may be a deal breaker for me. If I want something changed, I want it to be easily changed.  Here is the doc that I made in Zoho Writer:

 

 I decided to try Google's version of PowerPoint.  While it was super easy to use, it didn't have the fun souped-up themes, or animation that PowerPoint had to offer.  The choice of slide options was also less than PowerPoint.  I guess I'm spoiled!  I can see that students could easily share this documents with others.  It could be a good tool if you have a group project.  Everyone would have access and rights to modify the documents.  Here is one slide of my Google presentation:

I compared the productivity tools in Google and Zoho and really can't say that I like one whole package over another.  I like the setup of Zoho and it's colorful screen images.  It just seems more inviting than Googles plain screen.  However, exteriors can be deceiving, as both offer similar products.  I thought that the Zoho Planner was a bit redundant, as it already has a calendar.  After reviewing these tools, I have to say that for collaboration on projects, students may find the Zoho more user friendly and to their taste, due to the vivid background and graphics.  Personally, I'm a Microsoft girl at heart and will stick with them for my productivity needs.  I will admit that Google has won me over for my online tools, such as my Google Reader, Google Pictures, Google Blogger and Google search subscriptions.