Thing #10 Learning About RSS Feeds

Let me start off by saying that I am married and have two boys who just finished basketball and have now started baseball. Time is one thing that I do not have a lot of. It has been hard to try to keep up with all the different posts from the people that I am trying to follow. Sometimes I feel that having to change from blog to blog I lose something. But boy was I happy with this task. I love the way that it will take all of the sites that I like to read and puts them on a page where I can read all of the newest posts. There is a chance that this could get two big. I know that the instruction said to choose five links that was hard. I had to remember that the link that I would follow would send updates all the time. This can be some what overwhelming. One of the best things that it did was it brought all of the blogs that I am following onto my reader page. Now I can keep up with them all. I do not think that I needed to put the names of these link but if anyone what to know what they are I will be glad to let you know.
This will be a neat tool for teaching. One way is that you can have all of your students blog feed to your reader. Second you can have any site that is helpful and gives good advice in dealing with school issues linked. In the classroom if you are dealing with current events you can find information that you could use. As for will I be able to use this as a teacher I will let you know in two years, but personal I am hooked. I have the chance to read just a part of the stroy and if I would like to continue all I have to do is click on the title of the article. Well I hate to go but I must check for updates on my reader.

Thing #9 Online Image Generators

Well I hope that I did this one correct. This was a little bit easier. I know that I will be using this in teaching. I know that some of the students will love seeing some of these cartoons giving them advice. This was something that I will be able to have the student get on and make some of these themselves. There are many fun thing that you can do with these sites. My favorite is the last because I am from Albuquerque.I had to come back to find the linds I forget to put them on my blog. But that is the good thing about a blog is you can edit it at any time. I listed a few things that you can do with these different sites. It is a fun way when you are posting to a blog that you can let parents see massages. Like if a students birthday is coming up you can put the day on a sigh with their favorite cartoon charactor.

http://www.txt2pic.com/celeb/addams-family-lurch.htm
http://www.fansigngenerator.com/make.asp?pic=cartoons/0-willie_coyote_road_runner-06-28-000000-ff0000-660000--topleft-0-200-~24-~40-74-130-188--center
http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Walk+of+Fame
http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Letter+Soup

Thing #8 Flickr mushup

Well this was not as easy as I would have hoped. I thought that I would be able to just go in make some changes and put the picture in the mushup. Well that did not happen. I had to upload some pictures from the storm damage in my neighborhood. this made it easier for me to make my mushup. This was far from being a fun task. I did like some of the other tasks that I was able to do. Like making your name out of different letters. This was not working because I could not get all the letters for my name. Well I just took a few minutes and as you can see I did it. I have my name in the letters. This may turn out to be better then I thought.

Thing #7 Exploring Flickr

Well after five and a half hours it is done. There were many pictures that I went through before I found this one. There was a great one of a bunny, and banjo on a bench. But I could not download the picture. It was a good thing because I like this picture much better. I love bluegrass and part of learning how to play is from those who have been doing it a while. This picture was taken at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963.

                                      http://www.flickr.com/photos/amarcord108/4303967111/      By amarcord108

I learned that flickr is a great tool if it is your pictures. By uploading pictures from different events at school, I would be able to get to the pictures at any time. I do not feel that this would be something that I would use for school. There are so many rules about taking pictures of children. I do not think that I would want the hassle. If I load the pictures on my computer I will still be able to download the pictures and not have everyone in the world looking at pictures of my students. Every year my wife and I are asked if we will give permission for pictures of our boys to be used. We waited until they turned eight to sign the form. If the parents have not signed giving permission there is no telling what might happen.

Thing # 6 The 200L's of Web 2.0

There are way to many to choose just one, but it does open a new world for me. The cite that I found was called Picnik. I chose it because I thought it was about food. Just kidding. I like taking picture of different things. I take pictures of flower and birds and sports events. At this cite I can download my picture and then edit them. There are different tabs that I can open up that allow me to many different things. And I can add different images  over the top of the picture, (e.g., hearts, frames, etc). This can help with your blog. If you are like me when you set up your blog at your school you will want to take pictures of your students. You will be able to download the picture and make any changes to it before you move it to your blog. This cite is free but if you choose to you can get the premium level it will cost to use that. This cite gives you the chance to try it out on some sample pictures. Every year as a teacher you have different event. like New Year, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Breast Cancer Awareness, etc. You can put fangs on pictures of your student. There is one problem that you could have with editing all these picture. You could spend a Lot of money.


Here is the link go  and give it a try  you will have fun. http://www.picnik.com/app#/home

Thing # 5 Taking a look at Web 2.0

The other day I went to visit a teacher from my sons' school. She asked me what I was learning this semester. I told her about my technology class. I started bring up the use of smart boards and Web 2.0. She said that she did not feel as though all that stuff needed to be done in the class room. This is when I decided this could be a teaching moment. I spent the next twenty minutes telling her all about he benefits available using Web 2.0. I told her that the computer in her class is not a computer but a window to many educational places. All of which can be tied into the lesson plan. I told her that children are learning about this new technology and it make learning fun. We as teacher need to be on the front end of this train guiding them in a educational way. I do not know if she felt any different but I showed her some cites and gave her some ideas. I will find out if it took when I see her again.

One last thing we need to remember is that when it comes to teaching it is about the student. We have an obligation to them. We need to make sure that we am preparing the students for the real world. Today's real world uses technology. If we do not learn how to use this new information and how to relay it to our students we will be the ones who have suffered, and our students will be the ultimate victim.