Thing #12

Google Calendar is my new web tool toy. With a husband, three children, my master's degree in progress, and a new house under construction, my family has way too much going on. Since my cell phone has unlimited internet and I already use it for all alerts and reminders, Google Calendar will tie everything together. You can add events easily, see the calendar by day, week, month, and list events down to very specific times, like by the hour. After adding an event, such as a meeting with a parent after school, Google Calendar will email you a reminder and a pop up reminder will appear on the calendar. Wow!

iGoogle will help me establish a central homepage for all of my accounts, subscriptions, and RSS feeds to appear together for easier accessability. It shows the local weather, my email account, and the background I chose is a sun or moon in its position according to what time it is. Sometimes its the little things that count!

Thing #11

Now that I have a nice collection of RSS feeds, I'm ready to be much more efficient when I spend time on the internet. I simply plug in the URL of the sites I visit the most (I chose that method since I know those web addresses by heart) into my Google Reader account and off I go.

Google Blog Search was very easy to use and super helpful when looking for blogs specific to Spanish learners and speakers. I also happen to be a Google fan, so this opinion could be a bit biased. It also listed the most viewed blogs and videos which I found interesting. I try to stay up on current events and what all the rage is regarding trends, electronics, and controversies. This was a good way to search current blogs so I could decide if I would follow any of the search results or not.

I was surprised when I searched Topix.net to find that it pulled up the latest news from Clarksville, TN on the first page. It then let me search blogs but I would have to say I could get easily distracted reading local news instead of focusing on what I had set out to do - search for other blogs. Not a bad idea, though, mixing local news with a worldwide search engine.

The RSS feeds that I found useful other than the feeds I had previously decided on were: SpanishPod.com is a convenient way to learn Spanish using both audio podcast lessons and mobile study tools. I plan to explore this site in depth and find ways my students can use the site for additional practice. Woo-hoo - another resource! There are also ChinesePod, FrenchPod, and ItalianPod sites if one is interested in those languages. I also found caughtoffside.com , a sports blog that had great World Cup information. I can make this relevant in class by discussing which of the Spanish speaking countries participated in the World Cup and which teams were successful in the competition. Right now, Mexico is doing wonderfully - go Mexico! I have to do whatever I can to get my high school students' attention and make Spanish fun for them to learn.

I searched CNN news feeds for which I then subscribed and it is now my main news feed other than AOL. Maybe I wasn't very creative in how I searched for more news feeds, but I know which news sources I trust and I linked them to my Google Reader.

Thing #10

All I have to say is CONVENIENT! RSS feeds are exactly what I've been looking for, except that I didn't know they existed! I constantly check the same 15-20 websites and it is bothersome opening new tabs and trying to remember the websites every time I want to check them out.

I recently purchased the new Google Droid phone which means it is all powered by Google. I have already started a Google Reader feed because it will be right at my finger tips and in sync with my gmail. I have unlimited internet, so the RSS feeds will come TO me and I won't have to be searching for what I had been wanting to see.

I have added feeds that I will access on my cell phone and on my school MacBook that I need for teaching purposes such as my new BLOG, student review websites, and Spanish educational websites. I have also added news, my bank, and the CMCSS site for school updates. Oh my, its about time I heard about this!

Thing #9

http://www.imagechef.com/ic/final_widget.jsp

Once again, I know my students will be glued to my presentations and activities when they see fun images like this. I think a good use of this online tool would be in creating logos or images to use in promotional materials for the World Languages Club that I sponsor. We could sell items with a similar image on them as a fundraiser. How cool would it be to see my image all over school on posters and T-shirts! I wonder what my kids and I will come up with...

Thing #8

Oh my goodness, this mashup is too fun! The letter photos are so artistic and I think that I'm giving my classroom "motto" HABLAMOS ESPAÑOL a new twist! I like that simply reading these words in this artistic manner gives my reason for teaching a whole new outlook, almost like a logo design.

I KNOW my students will appreciate that I am going a step further and trying to make Spanish interesting. Little things like using Spell with Flickr show the kids that I'm going above and beyond to grab their interest and go beyond the norm to teach them. I will do as much of these types of things as possible when I create PowerPoints for them in class and on our class blog.

http://metaatem.net/words/HABLAMOS%20ESPANOL

Thing #7

Flickr really opened my eyes to the many talents of photographers of the world. This is a great resource for people hoping to expand their careers as photographers and for others to enjoy great shots through the eyes of artists. It was hard to find photos with no copyright and I was surprised to find this artist, Ian Livesey, had no copyrights on his work. The images are stunning and the titles of his pieces and the captions to go along with them were clever and amusing.

I think tagging photos not only makes the piece appreciated, but also adds interest to the photo. Many people compliment the photos and have interesting comments regarding the way the photos were taken. As a photographer, I would be honored to have other professionals admire my work.

I plan to start a Flickr account so I can upload and share our family pictures with everyone. Again, I'm not a fan of having my children on the internet, so I will post wisely.

Please see Ian Livesey's Photostream for more of his beautiful work.

Thing #6

Xmarks.com

Similar to Diigo as a website bookmarking site, Xmarks.com takes organizing and storing your favorite websites a step further. Receiving a Web 2.0 award, Xmarks.com compiles all of the bookmarked websites of all of its users and creates a website database. This is extremely helpful if you are looking for other websites similar to the one you have bookmarked. I can't wait to try out Xmarks.com for review game websites and resource tools for my Spanish classes!

Thing #5

~ School 2.0 to me means that education today MUST use technology in order for our students to get ahead, stay ahead, and to shape the future of our world. The students are the future and they deserve every opportunity to use technology in our classes preparing them for tomorrow.

Many of my students learn from my class how to use Skype. We communicate with a Spanish teacher friend of mine in Chicago and we talk with my good friend from Colombia who shares with them her story of becoming a U.S. citizen and learning English. They can then go home and talk to their family member who lives out of state or even overseas. Many of my students have parents who are deployed, therefore Skype is the perfect tool for families to stay connected.

I use Google Earth, PowerPoint, and the internet for a final project in my Level 2 Spanish classes. They create a travel Powerpoint presentation where they are "foreign relations ambassadors" for our school and go on a search for next year's foreign exchange students. They must choose 3 countries from 3 different continents to show the class interesting cultural facts about that place. The students absolutely thrive while creating their presentation and it is a wonderful experience to see their completed projects.

Web 2.0: A Guide for Educators
by Susan McLester, April 20, 2007 hits on this when McLester discusses that education must "get on board" and teach relevant lessons in relevant vessels like the internet, blogging, Skype, and as many computer programs as possible to help drive the lessons home.

~ The Teachers 2.0 Blog was very interesting, I listened to the June 2, 2010

Teachers 2.0 Episode 3: teachersfortomorrow.net

podcast by two Ohio teachers who use Skype and Google Docs to co-teach Middle School history. So what, you say? Their schools are 35 miles apart and their students are the ones who actually are teaching the history lessons to each other in terms that they understand. The teachers are fortunate in that the students are 1:1 ratio with classroom computers, still a pricey concept that most schools cannot incorporate. With that being said, their kids get to have full access to the internet and unlimited resources for them to back their research so they can produce interesting lessons for their peers. The lessons they create are for the purpose of teaching each other their school's standards in a way that catches their attention and that help them truly understand history as it happened, not just as memorized facts for an exam.

What does School 2.0 mean for schools of the future?

Our students are already online for social networking as well as for educational purposes, why not encourage them to expand their knowledge and make technology an integral part of our everyday classroom?

Thing #4

Post in progress....

• Commenting helps create a sense of community and interaction because a blogger feels that their efforts and opinions on their blog are validated, respected, understood, and appreciated. It feels as if one is having a conversation with someone and that they are not alone with their thoughts. Everyone has a voice and it is nice to feel like someone hears that voice and cares enough to respond.
  
• A point I found interesting was the topic of the etiquette of a blogger. Some people felt saying thank you was important while others said it was not necessary. I don't think thanking someone for posting a comment is needed, however commenting on their comment could be worthwhile. Especially if their post was insightful or spurred a question or new idea.
• Another interesting point was how to get more comments from readers on your blog. By asking questions, by being open ended, and by inviting comments readers might feel more open to commenting on your post. Other techniques to attracting more comments are to be gracious and humble when responding to post comments and to reply to posts so followers know you also appreciate what they say, even if they corrected an error you made. I will have to put a bit of effort into the blog posts for my students and if I reply to some of their comments hopefully the class blog will be a success.
  
• The five blogs from our class I am following are:
  
• Lindsey Maholland because I thought I would understand some of her posts due to the fact that we are taking the same three graduate classes together;
  
• Matt Schmitz because he plans to teach high school like I do so I'm hoping to get an idea or two from his posts;
  
• Kara Brown since she commented to one of my posts - IN SPANISH! Her screen name is Ms. Brownie...she scored some "brownie" points with me for that one!;
  
• Rachel Davis because her blog's title is in German and I appreciate people who learn another language. I also think she is a good writer and I enjoy her blogs; and
  
• Heather Bryant because she is a very nice, intelligent, and helpful person with lots of valuable thoughts. I am interested to keep following these people to see what they have to say. I feel it is very important to have a large networking circle and what better place to network than in a graduate educational technology class!
  
• The two outside blogs I am following are:
  
• discuss the comments that you chose to make and why you made them - will discuss in the future
  

Thing #3

For my Spanish classes, I will incorporate this blog into the Scope and Sequence. My students will use this blog as an additional resource and I hope to encourage them to look at foreign languages, travel, and other cultures as positive, exciting adventures.

I will be adding supplemental resources to my blog as well as comments on our classes. The students will be able to visit the blog and see what they missed if they were absent, go to websites if there was a lesson they did not completely understand and get additional practice, and maybe most importantly, feel like they are part of a positive learning community with their peers.

Thing #2

• I will DEFINITELY be using this blog in my High School Spanish classes next year, which is how I decided to use the blog name ¡Hablamos español! (we speak Spanish!). This way, my blog is established and ready to use in the fall. Woo-hoo! My posting name is Señora Tejeda which my students will recognize since that is what they call me.
  
• I have many friends with children who use blogging as a way to share photos of their families and tell us what adventures they have been on, so I have seen numerous blogs before. I had not ever created my own, though, and I thought the whole creation process was quite simple and fun. It was exciting to design my blog because I wanted to make sure it comes across in a fun fashion for the students to enjoy visiting, yet also a professional manner when the parents read the posts.
• My avatar was chosen by finding a close resemblance to myself so the students can laugh at who I created for myself. I think the hair style is spot-on and I liked the "classroom" background I found, quite fitting for the way in which this bog will be used. I would love to experiment more with other avatars, I think the choices were limited. I will try to incorporate having the students create an avatar of their own if I can find a wider variety of options. I think getting students excited about their avatar will encourage them to post more frequently, therefore practicing Spanish more!
  

Thing #1

I would have to say that the easiest Habit I found for me personally was Habit #1: Begin with the end in mind. I have always been a goal setter and I can relate to this habit and will continue to incorporate planning in my future endeavors after Graduate school.

Habits #7: Teach and Mentor Others and #7 1/2: Play combined are the most difficult for me to apply. It is healthy for people to take a moment and enjoy life and equally as rewarding to share their knowledge by teaching and mentoring others. I have been so busy setting goals and achieving what I planned that I haven't taken much time off to enjoy the fruits of my labors and share what I have learned with colleagues as much as I would like. I need to redirect my focus on my career and relax enough to share with others and play!

I bet we could all use a little sharing and playing nice - sound familiar teachers?! Let's practice what we teach!