Thing #3

Using a blog in my future classroom would be a great learning tool. By posting daily activities and homework assignments, parents and students would be able to stay up to date on what is going on in the classroom. They could also post comments or questions that help them stay engaged in what we are doing. Since I plan on being a history teacher maybe I could also use the blog to post about certain historical topics or have daily “This Day in History…” posts. I also like the idea of getting students involved in the blog, by having them post on certain topics themselves and completing assessments by using links, videos, or other information that I have posted in the blog. Students can also participate in class discussions through the blog by posting their thoughts or opinions on various things, which other students can react to. Having a classroom blog opens up a lot of possibilities to create an interactive learning environment for students and provides another medium for teachers to use to supplement their instruction.

Thing #2

This is my first experience creating and posting on a blog. I have several friends that blog and I enjoy reading those as well as other interesting blogs that I have come across online, but I have never taken the time to create one of my own. Creating this blog was a fairly easy process.  The step by step instructions were helpful. I guess the most time consuming thing was setting up a new email and registering for the various sites. I decided to keep things simple by using my name to post. By titling the blog “Emily’s 23 Things”, I am keeping straight to the point and feel that it creates a more uniform look when we are labeling each activity “Thing #1”, “Thing #2”, etc.

It was fun playing with the various backgrounds and creating my avatar. I tried to make my avatar resemble me as much as possible with the choices that were available. My favorite color is blue and I do wear a lot of it, so I chose a blue shirt and jeans. When choosing an accessory, I went with the laptop since this is a technology class and we are writing a blog.

Overall, creating this blog has been a fun experience so far. I haven’t encountered any big issues yet. Maybe this project will inspire me to keep a personal blog going, even after this class is over.

 

Thing #1

Learning is something that is not just restricted to the classroom or to a certain age or time period in your life, but is constantly taking place at all times. As the “7 ½ Habits of Lifelong Learners” tutorial points out it is never too late or too soon to learn something. It all depends on your attitude on whether you want to get something out of a situation or experience or not. Lifelong learning is important for everyone because it allows us to grow and become well-rounded individuals. As educators, not only is it important for us to stay lifelong learners, but we will be expected to instill this idea into our students as well.

Out of the 7 ½ Habits listed in the tutorial, the easiest habit for me is probably habit number 2: “Accept responsibility for your own learning.”  I have always been a very self-motivated/ self-disciplined person, that doesn’t wait for someone to tell me when or how to do something. If I am curious about something or don’t know the answer to a question, I will try to find out. No one is going to do the work or learning for me, it is completely up to me. A teacher may be able to teach a lesson or impart information to me, but it is still up to me to make sure I am getting it and understanding. Also, because I know my own learning style and strengths and weaknesses, I know what works best for me and can figure out a way to reach whatever goal I am trying to attain.

My hardest habit from the list would probably be habit number 1: “Begin with an end in mind.” Setting goals for myself and keeping them is very hard for me. I usually have somewhat of a picture of something I want to accomplish that stays in the back of my mind, but as for actually writing down these goals and keeping myself accountable that’s where I have trouble. I need to be better about writing down specifics of what I want to accomplish. By writing goals down, it makes it more than just a thought, but an actual mission. If it is written down, I will be more likely to keep it and can more easily track my progress.

I am excited about this project and learning to use Web 2.0 tools. The internet has tons of resources out there for teachers and I want to be able to take advantage of them. As someone that doesn’t know a lot about Web 2.0 and only uses the computer for basic things, the tools we will be learning in this class will not only be helpful to me personally, but they will be very beneficial to me in my future classroom.