Ending or Beginning?

    Well, I guess this is it. I have come away from this class with more than I ever could have imagined. I can't think of one thing we have experimented with this semester, that I wouldn't use in my classroom. I have enjoyed becoming a part of the online teaching community, the blogosphere, the web 2.0 community, and the APSU education family. I plan on always referring back to this blog for future references in my classroom, and maybe even for lessons in my block classes! The Livetext portion of this class has also helped me tremendously with making sure I support my selected standards in a variety of ways! If I had to pick a favorite "Thing" we did it would be the organizing tools such as iGoogle and google calendars, because I like using widgets and having everything I need right on my home page when I open it. I am also grateful that you showed us the Pioneer Woman on one of the first days of class because she is an inspiration, and I am always checking out her blog.

     I am definitely glad that this course ended up being what it was, because I now feel like I am ready to teach from a technological perspective, which is what the world is turning into anyway! Thanks for all the great tools and tips! Have a terrific summer!!



Thing #23

     I just searched "23 things blog" in Google and the first result was this blog on Blogger from 2009 that is the same structure as our 23 things

 http://resa-23things.blogspot.com/

     I guess it really is easy to use someone else's idea, but I think hers from 2009 is more for people who are already teachers, where as we are getting a head start and learning before we begin block classes. I will probably do at least one lesson with every class I have about creative commons, fair use and copyright laws, so they don't get in trouble with it in high school or in the real world. I absolutely loved the Disney video on Diigo too! 

Thing #22

     The three Livebinders that I created are:
      1. 8th Grade Required Reading- Reading list with plenty to choose from, Vocabulary Strategies, and The Face on the Milk Carton Lesson Plan
      2. Class Information- Class Roster template, Field trip/Permission Slip template, and a Rubric template.
      3. Website of the Day-I picked random ones to put in here, but it would be a collaboration of every student's WoD, much like our group on Diigo!

I have inserted Binder #2 Class Information below. I think these would be great to keep all of your students writing samples in, and even take some of the best samples and combine them to give as writing guides to your students. Or you could use some of the ones that had mistakes to show them what not to do. There are so many different things you could do with these Livebinders!

  

Class Information

Thing #21

     Well this may just be one of the most fun things ever! These would be great for presentations in and out of the classroom! I wish I had the money to spend for an upgrade because I love doing things like this! The song I picked is "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman because it is one of my favorites and has some parts that remind me of my other half and myself. These are my favorite pictures of Cody and I. I thought I would give him a little credit and put him in my blog since he is the one who brought me to Clarksville!

Make your own slideshow at Animoto.

Thing #20

     The video that I selected from YouTube is one of a Middle School teacher, giving some advice for the first day of school. This is something that I have been thinking about for a while, and it is never to early to have a plan! The teacher in the video makes a good point on being yourself with the students, because by middle school age they are able to tell if you are just trying to be their best friend or if you are actually interested in getting to know them. He says the best thing to do is be yourself regardless of your teaching style and I couldn't agree more! And he has really pretty eyes :)
     I have always liked YouTube for its fast and easy search system, and that it always brings up related videos or ones by the same member on the side of the screen and at the end of the clip. I have most always been able to find what I am looking for or something that similarly relates. If you have your students create an account, it is a good way for them to do some feedback commenting on a social site. Just make sure they don't get into any comment wars like many users do!

Here's the video I selected:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE-OAnSm4lM



    

Thing #19

     I found that Teacher pop was a little like facebook in that you can add photos and leave comments on other members' walls. I uploaded a picture of myself and Cody to the site and commented on my friend Kayla's wall. I tried to get the badge, but my embedding code would work so I gave up! The social communities that I am currently a part of are: Blogger, TeacherPop, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Project Playlist, and IMDB. The new site I chose to join was GoodReads, since I plan on teaching English and I love to read a lot anyway. During registration it has you select your favorite genres of books, and then rate some in each category. It will then automatically give you several new books that are similar to the ones you give good ratings too. You also have the option of selecting "want to read" so you can have a sort of wish list. It will then give you recommendations based on your ratings. I really enjoyed this sight and I think it would be helpful for students who need help finding a book to read on their own. I will try and remember this site to help students who don't like reading so much, or don't know where to look get a head start!

     I also checked out Craftster, and found some neat ideas for the classroom. There are two other sites that I am a part of that I really enjoy finding things to do in the classroom. They are Pinterest and etsy. Pinterest is a board of "pins" from all kinds of users, that give craft ideas, and videos where etsy is more of crafts to buy and sell, but you can choose to search locally so you can pick up things for your students or classroom without leaving town!

I found this personalized hall pass hanger on etsy by typing in "classroom" in the search bar for $40. It will last a long time!

Thing #18

Here is my Twitter account link: https://twitter.com/#!/ashton_ishing
And my Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1073794591

     Social Networking is the best way to share ideas and events that are going on in your classroom, school or community. Teachers need to be up to date on the latest technologies in their students' lives. Also if students see in class that they can use these sites for educational resources, it will make them more enthusiastic about doing their work and sharing their findings.

     From our previous LiveText assignment, I am already following several educational Twitter accounts. Everyday they have interesting facts, and links to current educational issues, and events that I like to check out. Even following Austin Peays accounts on twitter lets me know when things are going on around campus so these should work at a lower level too. I'm not sure that I found anything really new since I have had a Facebook and Twitter for quite a while now.

     I like both Twitter and Facebook equally and have found that they have great features. You can have groups on Facebook, and can "favorite" a tweet on Twitter and you will always have it to go back and look at. Twitter has a page that shows current issues also, but I think facebook is more universal and easier to navigate in a classroom setting.

     I think for classroom applications a Facebook page would be best for a certain class to have, or a group of students to start one for a project or assignment or something like that. At the school I transferred from I had created a group where I friended all of the freshmen that would be coming there in the fall and updated the page for events and class dues and due dates! It felt like a pretty big accomplishment to me and the response was great!

Thing #17

     The idea of tagging things other than pictures and videos is pretty neat. Delicious is a neat site that I hadn't seen before. However, I actually used Digg in high school so it has been around for a while, and I am a little obsessed with StumbleUpon! I found several sites when I searched "educational technology" on Delicious, and I also found some good ones by searching "Language Arts" I was able to see the tags on the side, which helped narrow down the search some, but I was not able to see the comments or anything.


     I didn't really want to sign up for Digg, but the articles, videos and other links that I was able to see were all very interesting. The even have current events which could be good for students in any subject to learn about. Its also very easy to share to your blog, or facebook account from these sights, so parents can see what children are learning about.


     To me, StumbleUpon is my favorite because it is the most visually appealing. At the beginning of the registration process it has you select from a very large variety of interest so it can present you with pages pulled from everywhere on the Internet. A neat project would be for students to be guided to select interest that relate to the class in general or a specific topic they were learning about and see what they come up with. Since StumbleUpon is really random, they will all get different things most of the time.


For my personal use in the classroom, I "Stumbled Upon" this great site with templates for any kind of class list you can think of: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2fOVj5/:1DT1zx3j9:bjI.gljt/office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT010253059.aspx/

Thing #16

     The home page that I chose was iGoogle because I already use Google about 500 times a day. I like the theme that I picked with my little froggy and his pond. He even sleeps at night time! I pretty much left all the widgets on there that came with it, except I edited my weather so that it would be connected with Clarksville. I like how its just everything right there on one page, and the page actually has some color and is visually appealing. I just got excited actually because one of my widgets reminded me of a TV show I was wanting to watch tonight! It is not currently my homepage because my main email account is with Yahoo! but i may switch over to it in the future.

     I chose the online calendar 30 boxes, and found that it was very basic, but its simplicity would definitely be useful in a classroom. Each day gave the local temperature which I liked, and you can add due dates, test dates, field trips, etc. to everyday. You can also add email contacts (parents) and a to do list at the top that students could use as a homework check list. I wasn't able to actually go to any of the other ones because the links didn't work!

     I picked the to do list, Remember the Milk because I like the name. I also saw that you could link it to your iPhone. I signed up but after playing around with it I didn't really like it. I would honestly just rather use the to do list that is on my 30 boxes calendar, because having another website to go to just for a to do list seems like a lot of work.

     The extra tool that I look at was the PDF converter. I feel that this would be helpful in any classroom setting because it would eliminate worksheets, and parents would be able to see papers themselves and print them if the child lost it on the way home from school. It is also great to have when reading from selections that you may only have one copy of and students can get on the computer and read your upload.

Thing #15

     I liked the video on Diigo about the camping trip wiki! I thought that was a neat idea, since I have been in situations where lists needed to be completed and there was so much confusion that they never were fulfilled. I found it was very easy to get into APSU sandbox and add what I wanted to the page. I added my Thing #6 about Web 2.0 tools, mine was Pandora, because I feel it is a good thing to have in the classroom to increase creativity levels, and there is music to go along with just about any books time period.

     I really wish I had more time to make my own wiki, because my friends and I are in the process of planning a baby shower and we all live in different places, so it is hard to figure out who is doing what! The only down fall that I have, is that ANYONE can sign up and edit your pages, potentially deleting important information, or posting incorrect information. Also it is hard to have a leader of the group since everyone can make as many changes as anyone else, and I usually like to take charge with planning. I'm sure if you were using for a classroom setting though, it would be important that the teacher does show some leadership so the editing doesn't get out of hand and the students wouldn't misuse the wikis.

Thing #14

    For this "Thing" I chose to create a mind map on bubble.us first. It was pretty cool. I loved how they color of the "Child Bubbles" changed automatically to a different shade eventually changing colors. It was very pretty, and I think that students will love the visual appeal to these charts. It was very easy to figure out. The editing features were great and I would definately recommend this to educators. I think I will most likely us this in my classroom for character or event maps of our required readings.
    The flow chart site I chose to experiment with was Gliffy Flow Charts. I enjoyed the large selection of bubble shapes, and found that this was quite easy to edit as well. I thought the mind map was a little more visually appealing because the graphics seemed up to date and would be a first pick of our "technology-aged" youth. Both of my charts are below.





Below is the Mind Map from bubbl.us



Thing #13

     It feels really weird/good to be doing this again, since I took a little break. First off, I want to say that it is gorgeous outside today, I am going to watch the hunger games tonight AND its the big revenge match-up between UK and IU. GO CATS!!!!! (sorry I have just been a little beside myself all week waiting for this day).

     Anyway to get on with Thing 13, I created my account on ZOHO and made a small document using ZOHO writer. I thought the tabs, and editing resources were helpful, just as in Word or other programs. I thought the structure was pretty much the same. I really enjoyed learning that you can save these online and they will be open for your friends or colleagues, even students and their parents to open and edit without any troubles. That is a huge help when dealing with jump drives, and incorrect formating, which leads to a mess. My document from is saved online and on my computer, but I really couldn't figure out how to upload it as an HTML or a picture, so that is the only fault I have with it.


      Next I explored Google Docs. First I made a simple drawing, which the program was very similar to paint. The Link under the picture goes to my sample Google Word document.

     Google Word Doc

   Google Docs would be good for students who were working on a visual project to be able to help each other out, edit and review. My only concern is that a student may make changes without permission from the group, but I understand that you can put boundaries on who makes changes.

   Overall, I think I enjoyed the programs to an extent, and I do like how you can share them for open editing, but I guess I am old fashioned, and most likely will just use regular Microsoft programs in the classroom.



    

Thing #12

     I have just signed up for some google alerts which are really cool! Similar to an RSS feed you have the information sent straight to you instead of having to search each term on a constant basis. I just picked 4 things that interest me for right now, but I am sure that my list will grow! Here is a link to the alerts I have signed up for so far: Ashton's Google Alerts! 

     The NY Times Best-seller alert is for my personal interest in reading popular books, but can also be used in a literature classroom for independent reading selections. I chose the US Olympic Team alert because it is going to be a current event at some point during your teaching career, and students like to know about it.
     I really enjoyed the iGoogle creator. I had no idea that you could to that. It kind of reminds me of the widgets and gadgets you get once you sign into APSU OneStop. Its personalized with new information every day which keeps it fresh. You could really use this in a classroom, if you wanted students to check the weather every day or find a news article to present. I thought the them I chose was so cute too. It's night time so my little froggy is asleep on the top of the screen! Maybe he will wake up in the morning. iGoogle

Thing #11

     Technorati was the blog searching tool that I found most helpful. From here I added a blog from the "Home" section called Little Birdie Secrets. I love anything that has to deal with home furnishings, crafts, FOOD, and things of that nature. This blog also has give aways which is so exciting!!! I also started following The Official Google Blog, because I enjoy learning about random bits of information and news throughout the day! This search tool was successful for me, and i enjoyed the ratings it gave with the blogs.

     I didn't really think any were confusing, however after an incident in highschool with Topix, I told myself I would never get on there again, for any reason. Cyber bullying is awful, and unfortunately I was a vicitm. Once again, words DO hurt regardless of if they are written or spoken. This is something I wish people would take more seriously. Anyways, this site has been ruled out for me by obvious reasons.

     There were some really great blogs that I came across that had a lot going on in them. But, I did notice a lot of repetition within categories. I came across one titled "Woman's World" and was immedeately going to follow because I LOVE that magazine. The link didn't work which was frustrating, so i searched "Woman's World Magazine Blog" in google and of course was given a link with the same title but not owned by the Magazine. It was a little disappointing so if anyone knows if Woman's World has a blog, or an RSS feed, PLEASE SHARE!!!

     I didn't come across any blogs that were too unusual, but I love the creativity in some of the names. I believe that soon I will start following some vlogs as well through the RSS feed! We shall see!!!

Just to Lighten the Mood

From Bad Paid-For Tattoos

Thing #10

  The blogs I chose to follow through my Google Reader RSS feed are:

•                         Pioneer Woman
•                         Free Tech 4 Teachers
•                         The Movie Blog
•                        Freakonomics
•                         YA Fresh

I had always seen those little orange icons, and never knew what they meant. Now I get to use them for my own updates all in one place which is so nifty! I now feel like I am officially part of the blogging communtiy and can do all the things I want to do. Some of the blogs I have followed would be great to show once a day or once a week in a classroom as a tidbit of information, or news that students would relate to. The YA Fresh (young adult) blog is a great one to give out the link to students so that they can pick books for independent reading, and get ideas of others who have read the book. There are even contests! Who doesn't love free stuff????

If you need to save time in the classroom and find yourself having to jump from page to page or continually searching for the resources you are presenting, the RSS feed will cut your time down by quite a bit. 50 minutes, or however long your class is, is precious time that as educators we know we cannot waste.

Stuff From My Follows :)

What should scare you more, sharks or big TV's? (Freakonomics)

New Young Adult Books (YA Fresh)

"There's Plenty More Where That Came From"

Thing #9

Generators

     My first text generator :) PEACE!

     I thought this one was pretty neat because there were plenty of templates, and colors to choose from. This would be a nice activity for students to do with vocabulary words or topics within something they were reading!!! Now this next one I love, because I always told myself I should have been a teenager in the 80s. I used the frame templates on the same site,

http://www.imagechef.com/ to make this.

If I wouldn't get made fun of, I would wear my hair in a side ponytail everyday.

     The next generator is one that we used to play around with in high school. It's called FaceInHole. You can choose from thousands of templates called "scenarios" where you can insert and edit your face to matchup in a picture. Some are very very funny. This one is my favorite from a long time ago:

Obviously my face isn't exactly calibrated but you get the idea.... I'm Superwoman.

   I think generators are neat for maybe posters or projects that require creative pictures. I think they should only be used on occasion though, to avoid burnout. I did have a good time with this "Thing".

Thing #8

   I thought that some of these mash ups were neat! I always get a kick out of the motivational posters on the web. Here's mine:

I used the puzzle mash up with a picture I took of NYC night time traffic from about 3 stories up:

These mash-ups are pretty neat and I did catch myself playing around with them for a while! A photo editing site that I have used since high school is one called Picnik. Unfortunately, they are shutting down their site soon. I absolutely loved the editing features that they offered. Here is one I made using their site:

Bella is my boyfriend's neice. She is a beatiful 3 year old.

Kids will definitely love to use these and other mashups to edit their photos or others related to classroom content! Using these is just another way of reaching our Student 2.0 goals, especially if parents like this activity!

Thing #7

Fickr :)

     I have had a Flickr account for about a year now. I used it for a Photography class I was in at my previous college. I added 4 photos to the apsu23things group, that are some of my favorite pictures I have taken. Thing #7 was very easy for me as I already knew how to use Flickr, add tags to pictures, and join groups. I definitely would use flickr in a classroom setting as a photo sharing site to directly link to my Classroom blog in the future. I would also allow my students to add pictures of classroom related topics if they chose to do so. I haven't gotten a chance to use any other photo sharing site, but I am pretty content with this one so I don't feel a need to change. I am completely fine with my pictures being in the public eye, if I didn't like it I simply would not participate in a site like this. Here are my pictures!

                                         



He Likes To Pose!

Hope you enjoyed these :)



Thing #6

The Web 2.0 tool that I chose is PANDORA radio. I use this site on a daily basis. When I'm getting ready, when I'm drving, when I'm doing homework, when I'm cleaning, when I'm running.... so this tool has made an impact on my life.

   One of my favorite things about Pandora is that if you hear a song you like you can select the "thumbs up" button, and it will remember and play it for you on other occasions. If you don't enjoy the song you can select the "dislike/thumbs down" button and it will NEVER play it again. You can select genres of music to listen to and it will play songs related to that or a specific artist.

I HATE THE ADS.

Pandora is free, however there are ads every so often because I guess they have to make money somehow. You can buy an Ad-free version called "Pandora One" but I just block the ads out.

I have already experienced pandora in a classroom setting. Some of my teachers used to play it on the computer while we had free days to work on projects, and believe it or not it did help me think of some creative ideas. As an educator, if you wanted to let students get a feel of a certain time period, or selection of music you most likely can find it on Pandora. I think it would really help in a Special Education setting because lots of those students use music to calm them.

I listen to Pandora while doing homework. I put it on an upbeat channel and it really gets me motivated to do my homework. Thanks Pandora!

If you haven't got a Pandora account on your computer, downloaded it onto your phone, iPad, or Kindle you are missing out.

Join Here: www.pandora.com   



Thing #5

     To me School 2.0 sounds pretty fancy! Don't get me wrong, it is high-tech, but its is not something where you have to be a high class individual to get into. If i were to give school 2.0 a definiton it  would go a little something like this:

   "...the expasion of technology that is managable by people of all levels of education, into the lives of teachers, students, families, and community members, that directly relates to the successful functioning of the 21st Century Classroom."                                                          

                                                               -Ashton Kearns (always wanted to see my name here!)

In other words, it is the accomplishment of getting students and parents Actively Engaged in the classroom world.

     Obviously, the web is expanding more and more each day, and is a foreshadow of what is to come in our classrooms. Hopefully School 2.0 makes learning easier for students (and parents), but gives them challenging achievements to help them grow as Web 2.0 participants. I really see a great future in the classroom. In my school we never had smart boards or anything of the sort. So, to see it being common in classrooms now, only makes my mind wonder about what other extravagant technologies are coming to apease the struggle of getting the school community to be active.

Thing #4

     Getting comments makes people happy, and it makes them happy to give them! To me they are like virtual compliments that keep you wanting to blog! They create a sense of community because once you have a blog you ARE in a community. It's sometimes nice to escape the drama of the real world and be able to talk to others who may be on the other end of the country, and to get great responses in return. The comments I have received have really made me feel welcome, because I was  a little unsure of myself at first.

     The things I found important from the readings were"
             1. Beware Darth Commenter.  I thought this was hilarious but true. We even get this with Facebook now because everyone has those few friends who are just straight up

"Debbie Downers" 

There are always going to be those people who put others down to make themselves feel better, but don't let it get to you!

             2. Criticize Kindly.  Be kind to one another! No one is making you comment on anyone else's blog, so don't take your frustrations out on an innocent person who is just sharing their ideas. Words DO hurt!

Blogs I Commented On :)

•            Anita Taylor:  I commented about the need for donations to the school food pantry and how much it affects our community. (Love the "David's Mom" name)
•           Abby Thompson: I commented on her picture of the ocean and sunset because I share a similar interest.
•          Jared Sexton: I knew Jared would have funny blogs so I added a spontaneous comment to the shark picture.
•          Colby Moates: I commented on Colby's rainbow swirl picture because I thought it was adorable :)

         Bliss Smith: Both of our thing #3's were similar, and I really enjoyed her use of pictures to spell JOY.


Outside Blogs With My Comments

• Web 2.0 Collaborative Projects in the Middle School (Free Tech 4 Teachers) I commented on this woman's blog entry because it gave some great ideas for Middle School collaborations!!
• Egyptian Hieroglyphics Crafts (Pioneer Woman) I thought this activity was so neat, and The Pioneer Woman is always so resourceful with what she has around her, and incorporates it into her lessons!

So far I am Loving my RSS Google Reader!!

Thing #3

   After searching through some educational blogs, chat rooms, and Twitter accounts for the Live text assignment, I have come across some great ideas to use in the classroom. My favorite was the Pioneer Woman's "Home school" tab. After browsing through her amazing pictures of her "students" on the ranch, and hearing what she had to say, I realized that many of the activities and worksheets she was using would easily transfer over to a classroom setting. (I did think it was awesome that she let the kids lay on the floor and sit wherever they were comfortable for lessons). She has helped me with her blog so my ultimate goal, if I start and Educational Blogging experience, would be to help others just starting to teach. Everyone needs a hand when they are doing something for the first time. When the time comes to get my own classroom, I will most likely be on blogs and websites for a big chunk of my time, trying to bring life to my room.



Look How Cute These Are:

(From Pioneer Woman)

     Additionally, I love photography so I am hoping to get a great camera one day and document everything my class does!

     Communication is the next goal I have for a personal Education Blog. I want it to be fun, easy to read, and appealing to parents and students. Simply giving the parents/students the link will allow them to check in on the class. I would love to have a Parent's Only section, as well as a Student's Only section so that they can each contribute to the blog, giving them a technological experience, too! Posting homework assignments, Upcoming events, Upcoming Projects and Tests, Pictures, and attaching files important to the classroom are just a few of the things I would include. I can visualize it in my head, but may need a Shutterfly web page to accomplish everything I am wanting to do.

Thing #2

Blogging is something that I had always heard about, and wanted to do on my own someday. Finally, since it is for a grade, I am being pushed to do it, and I am glad. Since we have started this process and viewed other blogs, such as the Pioneer Woman, I feel more encouraged to start a blog for fun, about things I am interested in or passionate about. The steps to bogging seem pretty easy to me; I mean you just write what ever you want to.... adskfhapdfaihgakj.... or   o_0 , and publish it for the world to see! Obviously if you want any blog followers or want to grow as a blogger you have to make sure your tone of voice, or tone of text, is upbeat!! a n d  n o t  d  r  y...........

Monotonous voices drag on, and so does writing, so I will try to make this a positive and LivEly experience for myself : D

As for the stats of my blog, I kept it simple, because I am a simple person and pretty easy to please.

My avatar has long hair like myself, and I randomly chose some clothes to throw on her (much like myself in the mornings).

I have had a good experience so far! 

Thing #1

   After viewing the tutorial over the 7 1/2 Habits of Successful Lifelong Learners, I realized that the habits really are present in almost every occasion for learning, whether it be in a classroom setting, something your parents have challenged you with, or even something your friends are encouraging you to do. The easiest habit I believe that I follow from the 7 1/2 is "Use technology to enhance your learning". Computers have always been easy for me to understand, as well as other types of technology. Usually, when faced with a problem in school, I always turn to the Internet to "Google" the answers to my questions. Or use my iPhone, or my Kindle, and so on. Even if I am wanting to learn about something outside of a classroom environment, I will use my gadgets. My best friend's brother was just diagnosed with Stage 2 Lymphoma, and I honestly had no idea what it was. I knew her family was going through an extremely hard time, and were having difficulties talking about it, so I informed myself through technology to ease my questioning mind.
    The hardest of the 7 1/2 habits for myself would be "View problems as challenges". Over the past few years I have been able to improve in this area of learning, but I do struggle with it occasionally. I can get frustrated when things aren't going my way, especially something for school. However, I know that this will need to be completely turned around before I become a teacher, because it will require an extreme amount of patience!
    The youth that we have today know nothing other than technology and the latest gadgets! This will be very helpful in the classroom, because it will make almost everything fun and exciting for them and they will enjoy learning. Technology can have glitches though, and when it does, that's when viewing problems as challenges will come into play. Yes, we may have to resort back to the dry erase board, and (need I say it...) the chalk board, but it will be a learning experience on its own. Each of the 7 1/2 habits can be connected with each other and need to all be present in your and your students' lifelong learning.