Thing #19

I signed up for lastfm.com and became a member there. I liked that you could listen to different genres of music. Imdb is another community that I like to view occasionally. I am also a part of the online community, Pinterest. I really enjoy that website, it's basically a virtual bulletin board for you to "pin" ideas and quotes, and images for future reference. I've already started pinning useful ideas for when I become a teacher.

Thing #18

I chose to go the route of Facebook, because I already have an account with them. I refuse to jump on the Twitter bandwagon, teaching kindergarten or first grade, Twitter won't benefit me much anyhow. I searched the facebook site for U.S. Department of Education and liked their page. That will be a great way for me to keep updated on the ever-changing world of politics. I never thought about using Facebook for professional reasons as far as teaching, and will definitely be taking advantage of the different sites and groups on Facebook. Social sites are also a great way to get information out to students in older grade levels. It would also work as a discussion site for students needing help with homework or assignments. With the way that social websites are expanding, I believe there is definitely a place for them in the classroom in the near future. Here's the link to my Facebook Profile

Thing #17

Tagging and social bookmarking is a great tool for anyone. It can be used to find helpful information on just about any subject or idea. While using Delicious.com, I was able to quickly find a few websites related to teaching that will be helpful when I am in the classroom. It will also be great to see fellow teachers' websites that they find helpful for more resources. It's like a giant collaboration board for any group of people to post, share, add, etc.. ideas, websites, and resources.

Thing #16

For thing #16 I already had a head start. I made a home iGoogle page awhile back (during the thing with the RSS feeds) and have been enjoying it very much. I was able to customize it to my liking. I'm even keeping up with my favorite blogs through my home google page. It keeps a link to the most updated post from the blogs I enjoy right there on the homepage. As far as the to-do list, I started one through the Remember the Milk site. It was a great time for me to start this list, since I'm going home on Saturday and have much to do before then. I'm trying to get it all done. I started adding things to the list, then before I could even finish my list, I was already checking things off my list. That sure is a good feeling. The CutePDF converter is a great tool. I had to download it last semester for one of my classes and have used it many, many times since. It was super easy to use, and is great for teachers because it guarantees that all assignments submitted online will open for the teacher. All of these tools will be helpful for teachers, the Google homepage is great for teachers to stay updated on news and blogs that they're interested in. The to-do lists, and cutePDF converter are pretty self-explanatory. Once I get in the classroom, I know I will be armed with all sorts of organizational tools to help me succeed.

Thing #15

Wiki is a great place to share information. I like that you can have a class edit a page. It would be great to use in the classroom for research ideas. If your class has to do a research assignment, and you have to approve it as they go, this would be a great way to do so. Also great for collaboration for group projects. This is just one of many websites that can be edited by anyone and that's a great tool for collaborative assignments

Thing #14

I chose to use Gliffy for the flowchart, I was even able to use this for a project I have coming up. I was able to organize my thoughts for a paper I have to write in my near future. It was nice to finally get all of my thoughts written down and I know it will make my paper soo much easier to write. I also chose MindMeister as the second site to use, I didn't play around with it very much mainly since I don't have anything to really use it for. But I do like the idea of both of these virtual charts to keep everything written down as I think of it. I really need to get back into the habit of organizing my thoughts for a paper into flowcharts so it will ease the writing process. Both of these sites will be great sites to share with students so that they can organize their own thoughts for writing their papers, and everyone always needs a little reminder to go back to the basics of writing by organizing your ideas.

Thing #13

Having to choose between Google and zoho, I would have to choose Google. For a couple of reasons, the first being that I am an avid Google user and like that I can keep most of the things I have to do online, through a single website. Also because Google offers more documents to use online. It would be great to keep my grade book spreadsheet online so I can have access to it at school and at home without having to lug a computer back and forth. Between everything that Google has to offer, they almost cover any needs that someone may have online. Google docs is also great for the classroom as an online discussion board, or even as a group project for students to do online. If each student is able do their own research for a project at home, on their own, they can share their research with other students, giving every student access to the project. This would have been nice to have the math project I had to complete earlier this semester in the Google docs, so that everyone can add their answers to the document and it would have made it so much easier to get the project done.