The Last Thing

My favorite exercise was Animoto.  I liked my video so much I put it on my Facebook page!  But one of my favorite discoveries is the blog Spencer's Scratchpad.  It is written by a middle school social studies teacher and not only does it have great ideas about projects and activities in the classroom, but it is also a great source of inspiration for me and by reading blogs that he follows I have found more great blogs.  Before this project I had no interest in blogs at all.  I had never read one and had no desire to read one because I saw them as outlets for self-centered individuals who believed that they were important enough that everyone in the world would want to read their personal journal entries.  I have learned that not all blogs are like that and that many bloggers write to share useful ideas and information, not just to feed their egos.  As a teacher I will strive to incorporate as much of the Web 2.0 into my classroom as I can.  Electronic media is now the primary method of communication for kids.  Gone are the never ending phone conversations and passing notes in class.  They have been replaced by tweets and texts and online chat conversations.  I believe that in order to connect with my students, I will need to be able to talk to them in a format with which they are the most familiar.  Not to say I will be tweeting and texting my students, but I believe classroom blogs or webpages will be an important role in communicating with my students and their parents.  I realize that I am a K-6 major and if I end up teaching the lower grades the amount of technology I can use will probably be limited but that doesn't mean I can't use any.  I plan to keep up with new developments by continuing to follow the blogs and RSS feeds regarding Web 2.0.  I have found that this is the easiest way to keep up, especially through my Google Reader account.  From the information in these blogs and feeds and I hope to be able to attend webinars and other continuing ed courses regarding developments in Web 2.0.  As far as what can be done to improve this program, well, I think the Creative Commons should be moved up in the list of 23 things because I think learning about it earlier, like before the whole Flickr fiasco, would have been helpful.  Struggling to find pictures that I had permission to use would not have been such a struggle had I known about Creative Commons licenses and known how to search for them in Flickr.  Also, some of the tutorials are out of date.  The Twitter tutorial for example.  Twitter has been updated since that tutorial was made and posted on Youtube so the page that the tutorial walks you through doesn't look anything like the Twitter page I was looking at.  Where do I go from here?  I have to say that writing a resolution and posting it here in my blog will have zero affect on what I actually do.  I don't make New Year's resolutions for that very reason.  If I decide I want to do something, then I start doing it then and there and I don't wait for New Years or Monday or anything because if you really want to do it, especially if it is changing a lifelong habit, then you have to be committed enough to that change to start it right then.  If you are not that committed, you will not succeed.  That is true for me anyway.  I do check my Google Reader every time I check my e-mail, but that is not everyday.  I am rarely on the computer on the weekends because I am primarily on the computer when I am doing schoolwork and the weekends I do my best to devote to my daughter.  If I have to do schoolwork on the weekend then I am squeezing it in when she is napping or after she goes to bed at night and I don't usually bother to take the time to check e-mail or otherwise "play" on the computer.  So, I know I will not post anything to my blog on a daily basis.  Now, that may change when I am teaching if I have a classroom blog and make maintaining the blog a part of my work schedule.  In the meantime, I will try to post to my blog when something noteworthy occurs and I will keep up with the blogs of my classmates, assuming any of them continue their blogs.  I think it will be a good source for ideas and support after this class is over.
So my fellow classmates, I hope to see you in the blogosphere!