Fun With Text

I had a blast experimenting with Wordle and Tagxedo. They are so easy to use, but a great way to connect things together in an exciting way. You can choose different designs or shapes to have your words expressed in. You can choose the colors and background you prefer, which way the words are shown, and so much more. The more times you type a word the larger they are; therefore, you can show which words are most important to you or to a lesson. You can use these websites for so many things such as research papers so that you do not repeat yourself too much, in your classroom, or just for something fun to post on your website to "brighten" it up a bit. I plan to use these websites for many more years to come, and it is also free! Can't get much better than that!

Animoto in My Classroom

I LOOOVE Animoto.  It is so easy to use and create an amazing photo which just a few clicks of a button.  All I have to do is choose the photos I want to use and the rest is pretty much done for me.  And...IT'S FREE..for my purposes at the moment anyways.  I could use these short videos as a lesson beginner in my classroom to interest my students in the subject.  I could also take photos throughout the year of activities we do in the classroom and do a short video about our class at the end of the year.  The possibilities are endless with Animoto.  If I would need a video longer than 30 seconds, I could pay the low monthly cost of only $30.  I recommend this site for educators and everyone else.  You can always make a video for something!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Reflection 2: CDK’s Education Technology Place

Exploration of Website

On this website, I found several YouTube videos, links to blogs, and so much more!  The videos were my favorite part.  They were extremely inspirational!  I loved the one about the school that wanted to encourage their students to read.  Not only did they encourage them, they got the students involved!  The video of "bad teachers" encouraged me to not be like that, no matter how long I have been teaching.  Teachers like that show students that they do not care and in return the students get the same attitude about school and life in general.  To me, it is terrible to think of having a teacher like that in classroom setting a bad example for not just one group of students, but years and years of students that they have taught over the years.

Reflection 1: Technology Bits, Bytes, & Nibbles

Cool Cat Teacher Blog

"Hey-I'm not messing up-I'm learning!"

After reading this blog I realized that in order to be a successful teacher, you have to be willing to admit your mistakes and learn from them.  Nobility is a great characteristic that all teachers should have.  I knew that everyone needs to learn from any mistake they may make, but I never realized that it is taken to the degree that it is today.  Not only do teachers need to have this characteristics, but people in all professions need to have this personal trait.  After reading this post, I realized that I need to make sure that I am always learning from my mistakes no matter what it may be.  I also need to make sure my students know that everyone makes mistakes, and that is okay as long as you use it to your advantage (learn from it).  As a future teacher, I need to have the courage to own up and admit to my mistakes.