Week 5: "Thing 11" #1

I chose to explore the Web 2.0 tool Hairmixer. I found the tool while searching on the SEOmoz's Web 2.0 Awards List. The site received the second place award in the "fun stuff" category.

My overall feeling? I was looking for fun and I found it. However, the tool was quite difficult to use. Once I had completed my hair mixing and was ready to save my photo, I could not figure out how to start that process and the site did not offer much help. Then once I finally succeeded in saving it (I think), I couldn't find where the photo was saved and therefore I couldn't upload to my blog. I ended up taking screen shots of my favorite photos and then uploading them as pictures through blogger. Another annoying characteristic of the site was that it often timed out or brought up a blank screen message containing the word 'forbidden.'

Regardless of the few frustrating moments, the site provided me with many big belly laughs!

Can you guess the celebrity hairstyle I am sporting? Answers located at the bottom of the post.


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Answers (from top to bottom): Lindsay Lohan, Taylor Swift, Tyra Banks, Paris Hilton, and Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Week 5: "Thing 10" #5

I love imagechef.com! If you haven't bookmarked it yet - do it now!

As you can tell from my other Week 5 posts (#'s 1 through 4) I had an extremely fun time creating images on imagechef.com.

The site was super easy to use, offered a vast amount of choices, and provided an easy step by step process to walk you through transferring the generated image to blogger.

I can't wait to share this online image generator with my friends, students, and colleagues.

Week 5: "Thing 10" #4

I am currently attending the Anchorage School District's TTL (Teacher Technology Leader) Spring Conference so the above image just seemed appropriate.

Week 5: "Thing 10" #3

This image reminds me of my goal as a lifelong learner.

Week 5: "Thing 10" #2

I am not sure the above image needs any explanation. I think it is obvious - I am one proud mom.

Week 5: "Thing 10" #1

I live in Alaska and I always have the chance to go to Maui for spring break but this year I am traveling to Canada with my daughter to visit my family instead. I know that I will enjoy spending time with my family but the above image reminds me that I WILL BE LAYING ON THE BEACH IN MAUI ALMOST ONE YEAR FROM NOW FOR SPRING BREAK 2010!

Week 4: "Thing 9"

Funny... I never really noticed the RSS feed symbol before and now it seems wherever I navigate on the web... there it is!
It is extremely easy to locate the RSS feed symbol on most blogs and even easier to add new blogs to a Google Reader account.

I explored "Edublog's" award-winning blogs and found three blogs to add to my Google Reader account.

The three blogs I added are:

1. Christina's Classroom
I found Christina's blog easy to relate to as a primary teacher. The post below (taken from Christina's blog) was just too funny and too true!

Awhile back I received an email from a fellow teacher that contained the following jokes from Jeff Foxworthy. I thought it was hilarious and every teacher can relate to. I wanted to share it with you as a way to looked forward to the rest of the year. Many times throughout the day I think about the jokes and get a laugh out of it. Enjoy!

You Know You're a Teacher When...
1. You can hear 25 voices behind you and know exactly which one belongs to the child out of line.
2. You get a secret thrill out of laminating something.
3. You walk into a store and hear the words "It's Ms/Mr._______" and know you have been spotted.
4. You have 25 people that accidentally call you Mom/Dad at one time or another.
5. You can eat a multi-course meal in under twenty minutes.
6. You've trained yourself to go to the bathroom at two distinct times of the day: lunch and planning period.
7. You start saving other people's trash, because most likely, you can use that toilet paper tube or plastic butter tub for something in the classroom.
8. You believe the teachers' lounge should be equipped with a margarita machine.
9. You want to slap the next person who says "Must be nice to work 8 to 3 and have summers off."
10. You believe chocolate is a food group.
11. You can tell if it's a full moon without ever looking outside.
12. You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today."
13. You feel the urge to talk to strange children and correct their behavior when you are out in public.
14. You believe in aerial spraying of Ritalin.
15. You think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.
16. You spend more money on school stuff than you do on your own needs.
17. You can't pass the school supply aisle without getting at least five items!
18. You ask your friends if the left hand turn he just made was a "good choice or a bad choice."
19. You find true beauty in a can of perfectly sharpened pencils
20. You are secretly addicted to hand sanitizer
21. You understand instantaneously why a child behaves a certain way after meeting his or her parents.

(When I attempted to add Christina's blog to my Google Reader account I was having a hard time finding the RSS symbol on the actual blog page but then I realized that the symbol was located in the URL address window at the top of the browser).

2. Creating Lifelong Learners
I liked Matthew Needleman's opinions on teaching young children how to become writers who love writing.
In response to the above sketch (taken from his Creating Lifelong Learners blog) Needleman writes "Let students write. Let them get their ideas out on paper without worrying about writing conventions and Big Macs."

3. Learning with 'e's
Steve Wheeler, the author of the blog "Learning with 'e's" is incredibly knowledgeable about current technology issues and truly inspires me as a fellow educator. His blog is nominated for "Edublog's" Best Individual Blog and Most Influential Post. I especially enjoyed his post "Teaching with Twitter." I have heard a great deal about Twitter but have not yet had time to explore it. After reading Steve's post I have a better understanding of the Twitter tools available and specific ideas of how to use the tools as an educator.

Week 4: "Thing 8"

I learned something new today! I had not heard about RSS feeds before.

I found the definition for RSS given on www.infinitethinking.org most helpful. The site explained "RSS allows you to subscribe to online news and updates that are important to you. Once you subscribe to a source, you no longer need to visit that individual web site to check for updates... the updates come to you. Searching or browsing the web is a good way to locate sources initially, but once you've located them there is no need to return to them over and over. If they offer an RSS feed, all you need to do is subscribe."

I created an account with Google Reader. I think that I am going to find RSS to be a useful tool as a teacher, a mother, and to fulfill my personal interests. It will provide a place for all of my interests to gather so that I no longer have to waste time searching the internet but instead can get right to reading. As a mom I can find quick and easy recipes for dinner, as a teacher I can find interesting lesson ideas, as a scrapbooker, blogger, and knitter I can find the neatest new tricks of the trade!

Click here for my public URL address to my Google Reader account.

Week 3: "Thing 7"

Since I have the freedom of posting anything technology related for "Thing 7," I might as well boast about my students and the creations they have made in Kid Pix so far this year. Therefore I have featured some of the fun activities that we have done in computer lab below.

This first Kid Pix example is a rebus poem. Each student was required to copy the template by using the text tool and typing the words of the poem. Then the student chose a stamp that would finish off each sentence and personalize the poem.
The next sample was made around Thanksgiving time. The students were instructed on how to use the draw tool and make a turkey. To finish off the task students were asked to add a stamp to eat feather representing something that they were thankful for.
The next sample is a creative thinking activity. Students were shown how to use the line design tool, hold down the shift key to make the line straight, and then divide the screen into quarters. Students were also taught how to use the text tool and add the title "Winter is a time for..." to the first section of the screen. After that students used the draw tool to add an illustration of four of their favorite winter activities in each screen section.
The last example is a fun holiday activity, the Reindeer Handprint, that the students completed with the help of a friend. One friend carefully held his/her hand up close to the computer screen while the other friend trace around it with the mouse. After both students' hands were traced, it was time to finish off the reindeer by adding color, a red nose, a face, antlers, hooves, and a tail.I am interested in everything tech that I can immediately teach my students or infuse into my curriculum. I am constantly searching the web for the latest lesson plan ideas and new ways to spice up content.

Week 3: "Thing 6"

I decided to expolre the Flickr Mashup called fd's Flickr Toys and use Big Huge Labs to create my very own teacher trading card.

I decided to make my trading card with the sky background. I uploaded a comic strip photo from photo booth that I took of myself in my classroom. Then I added a description of myself and my teaching career. I also added three fun icons to my trading card that represent attitudes I try to encourage my students to have; a happy disposition, a kind and caring heart, and completing work that will earn a thumbs up!

I could see using the trading card idea in many ways in my classroom.

Just a few ideas include:
1. Having each student make a trading card and then share it with the class at the beginning of the school year as an activity to help the class get to know one another better.

2. Making a trading card for each letter of the alphabet and using the cards at a learning center to help students learn their letters and sounds.

3. Having each staff member of the school make a trading card and post it outside their classroom door so that visitors to the school can identify their childs' classroom and teacher.

Week 3: "Thing 5"

IMG_1578
Originally uploaded by matthews_joni

Before I embarked upon this discovery exercise, I had already set up a flickr account but the assignment challenged me to learn more. I found out how to do so many interesting things.

I learned that "Tags" are keywords or labels that you add to a photo to make it easier to find later.

I found out that "Groups" make it easy to share photos and that once you become a member of a specific group you can then add your photos to that group's pool.

I also learned to upload a photo, tag it, use the edit and create options in Picnik to enhance the color, sharpen the image, and add a border, as well as link my Raven About Web 2.0 blog 'World Wide Web Quest' to my flickr account so that the next time I want to upload a photo to my blog it is a quick and easy process. I did a test post from my flickr account to my blogspot just to be sure it wasn't too good to be true.

The photo that I chose to upload is one of my favorite photos that I took on the 100th Day of School. My students and I just celebrated the 'big day' last Friday. The photo is of an illustration that one of my students drew. The assignment was to make a wish for 100 of something, write what you would do with it, and then create an illustration to go with the writing. I have done this same activity for the past seven years of my teaching career and I have never had a student come up with such a unique yet well thought-out answer. He wished for 100 moms to do stuff for him!

There is so much more in flickr that I want to learn to do like make a map of where I have been, create a jigsaw puzzle, make my own teacher badge, create my own blog header, make a photo cube, add comic book captions to some of my photos, create a mosaic of my pictures, and much much more!

In closing, I have to say that I love that flickr, picnik, and blogger all work together so nicely and I wish I would have discovered this sooner as I have been using all three of them separately for almost a year now.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Week 2: "Thing 4"

Well... I am official. I just registered my blogspot address (http://jonilmt2.blogspot.com/) with the powers the be!

I can't wait to explore flickr!

Week 2: "Thing 3" (After Thought)

After further reading of the directions on the Raven Web 2.0 blogspot, I guess I could have skipped the google search and found out how to export my Yahoo Avatar by simply continuing to read the directions written in fine print.

Isn't it ironic that the most important information in life is usually written in fine print, the print type that is most often and easily overlooked?

Week 2: "Thing 3"

I just created my 'Raven About Web 2.0' blog.

This isn't my first time creating a blog though. I maintain a blog about my 20 month old daughter in an attempt to keep in touch with my family who live in Canada and I also have a class blog to keep the parents of my first grade students informed throughout the school year.

I added a background to my blog from one of my favorite blogspots called simplychicblogspot.com and then I changed the fonts and colors of the minima template to fit my new background.

I already had a Yahoo Avatar created but I had never used it before. I had to google how to export my avatar to blogger but it turned out to be pretty painless.

I am excited to begin my 'Raven About Web 2.0' journey!

Week 1: "Thing 1 & Thing 2"

After reading the 'about' section on the Raven Web 2.0 blog and learning more about the philosophy driving this class, I am excited to be a part of the experience.

As a current professional in the education field I feel the frustration of an expanding gap between the Digital Immigrant teacher and the Digital Native student. I am hoping that by taking this class I can begin to close that gap and reconnect with my students.

I found the online tutorial '71/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners' to be interesting and a bit of a refresher as to what I need to require of myself as an intellectual and of my students as they progress academically throughout the school year.

The easiest habit for me to adhere to is Habit 71/2 - Play! I have a 20 month old daughter and every spare moment I have is spent with her. We build block towers, cover the fridge with magnetic letters and numbers, and host make-believe tea parties for five to six very well-behaved dolls at least once an evening. I could not survive without my daily dose of playtime!

The hardest habit for me to adhere to is Habit 3 - View problems as challenges! I find it difficult to look on the sunny side of life sometimes or see the glass half full instead of half empty. I find myself looking for problems in order to avert them. This online tutorial reinforced this character flaw that I possess and has laid the foundation to reverse my thinking in this area.