Thing #3

I have already used blogs in my teacher education program for various things and hope to use it in my classroom when I go out into the educational world.  This includes research for projects, creative classroom ideas, and opinions other teachers have on certain aspects of teaching.  

For projects, some teacher blogs have already compiled a wealth of information on the subject that you are interested in.  It is very useful because they have already done extensive research and have made it available to others.  One has to be wary though because sometimes the research is one sided and does not support both sides of the issue.  

Many blogs also have creative and new ideas on how to teach a certain subject matter.  This is very helpful and aids a teacher at looking at teaching in new ways that may help their students learn more efficiently.  I have found that some educators will provide resources and shopping lists on the lessons they teach to help those who would like to try a similar idea.

I will also use blogs to see what other educators think about issues such as No Child Left Behind, Common Core, Inclusion, etc.  It is useful to see where the trends in education are going and how that will impact what is going on in the classroom.  Teachers who have more experience and who may have a blog will have a different opinion on these things then a parent or a law maker for example.

The website that we were directed to is very useful and it is interesting to see all of the different blogs that teachers put out there.  They put a lot of time and thought in what they are producing for others.  I think they will be very helpful.  These were just some of the ways blogs will be used in my future as a teacher.  The list goes on and on with other helpful hints such as classroom management and communication.

Thing #2

My main past experiences with blogs involve reading them.  I became obsessed with the paleolithic diet recently and have several about the lifestyle and recipes that I subscribe to.  There are also a few travel blogs that my friends created while they studied abroad that I followed closely while they were away.  I have just recently started reading a lot of education focused blogs that I find interesting and helpful.  I started a blog last fall as I began gardening.  I loved guacamole and decided to chronicle my efforts on growing the different ingredients to guacamole.  Needless to say, there are quite a few gaps in posts because avocado trees don't grow as quickly as cilantro.

This may not sound like the most creative naming process, but the 23 things instruction tells us what to name our blogs and our posts.  I now know I can probably add some pizzazz to future post titles and I probably will.  Those titles will probably be centered around witty sayings and lyrics that pertain to the number of the post. 

Creating the blog was not too difficult because I have already used blogger to create a blog.  The directions were also very well laid out and clear on what the user was supposed to do.  Adding the avatar was a bit tricky.  This is probably because I was getting ahead of myself and wasn't properly reading the instructions.

The avatar does reflect my personality.  She's pretty cute with a care free winky face and cute but casual clothes.  I think this reflects who I am because I am generally pretty easy going, happy, and laid back.  My avatar looks pretty close to how I look in real life.  I made her look like me because it was kind of fun and a bit of a challenge to put clothes and hair on a little egg person so that people would know who she is supposed to represent.  I also think that who I am on the outside reflects who I am on the inside as well and I want to portray that.

Thing #1

The hardest lifelong learning habit for me is viewing problems as challenges.  This particular habit is the hardest for me because I will occasionally just get frustrated with problems as they arise and get stuck on trying to solve them.  This can distract from the more obvious issue and I might get sidetracked.  This can also be a good thing, however, because I want to see a problem through to completion.  I see this as a good one to practice because I think it would put certain situations in a more positive light and cause me to be more focused.

The easiest lifelong learning habit for me is accepting responsibility for my own learning.  This one may be the easiest for me because I love learning and take it upon myself to learn as much as possible.  I know that I am the only one who can read a book and absorb the information for myself.  No matter how many other people read that book, I can't absorb it by just sitting next to them.  This is a good one to promote among others because many people are keen to push the responsibility of learning onto the shoulders of others.

By playing with Web 2.0 tools, I hope to learn about new tools that I can use in the classroom.  I have learned a lot in my classes so far, but I know that there is so much more to learn that this blog and class will help me discover.  I would like to learn better ways to aide my students learning through technology.  This includes different ways to communicate with them and different sources to give them.  I would also like to find practical uses for this technology in class and how to link things together.

Setting up the blog was not too bad.  I have another blog that I set up with blogger last year and it has been a very similar process.  The instructions were very clear as well.  It's hard to describe my feelings as I work on this blog.  I knew I would have to do it when a classmate first told me about the class.  I'm kind of excited to write what I am doing out for the class and I am excited to see what they find as they complete this class as well.