Thing 20

YouTube, what a life saver in the classroom.  It has yet to let me down when trying to find a video for class to supplement material that is discussed in class.  Most recently, we have been discussing simple machines in the physical science class that I teach.  I have given notes over them, worksheets, had class discussions, and even demonstrations.  But nothing gets my students more excited when I turn off the front row of lights and say today I want to show you a short video about .....   You would think that they have just won the lottery and they will be your best friend that day.  I was fortunate enough to find a video from my childhood that none of them had ever seen and by someone that few of them had heard of.  In fact some thought that this person was dead.  I am not going to tell you who or what, you will just have to watch the linked video below to find out yourself.

Thing 19

Maybe I am just an inter vert, but social media is not really my thing.  Yes I have a Twitter account, so that I can follow our school superintendent to find out when school is closed for snow or ice, and I am on Facebook, so I can post pictures of my daughter once every blue moon for my family in other states to see.  But when it comes to actively engaging others, I tend to be more of a reader then poster.  My wife on the other hand, is the complete opposite.  She will post, tweet, and pin with the best of them.

I find social media sites to be interesting and I will take the time to look through them for ideas, but actively participating is not something I have the stamina for.  One social media site that I like, (and I look at my wife's account because she is a teacher also) is Pinterest.  There are some truly neat ideas that my wife has collected for the classroom on there.  Some of which I have built for both of our classrooms.  And the recipes that she has gathered and organized, very nice.  Pinterest to me though, is similar in a lot of ways to the bookmarking sites.  The difference is that Pinterest has photos associated with the links.  For me, I like this better.  I am a more visually driven person, so seeing an image associated with a specific topic or link is much more appealing.  

When it comes down to social media in the classroom, I see that there are some practical applications.  However, social media is not something that really perks my interest like other resources do, so it is not something that I am going to incorporate very heavily or rely upon greatly in my own classroom.

Thing 18

Social media is something that every teacher needs to be aware of.  I think most are, but there are some who still live in the dark ages.  I have had a Facebook account for at least 7 years, probably longer.  My Twitter account is almost 1 year old.  Mostly I just follow, don't do too much "Tweeting".  Feel free to follow @Jim_Akins

Initially I set up my Twitter account as an additional way to keep in touch with my students, but upon reflection, I decided that I did not want to go that route.  I try to be very careful when it comes to "friending" students on social media.  It is too easy to get in trouble.  Since then I have found other ways to keep in touch with my students, however that is a conversation for Thing 19.

As far as the use of social media is concerned, I do monitor a Facebook page for 2 school clubs.  What I find most interesting though, is that Facebook is no longer the best way to connect with students.  I think because the message feeds have become so inundated with the number of people we are friends with, and all the games that send messages and advertisements, that messages with meaning are lost in the background.

Thing 17

I don't know that I see a practical use of social bookmarking for my classroom.  I think for me personally it is a great place to find sites and reviews of sites that I can then link to on my classroom webpage by subject or topic.  This way I can review the relevance of the website to the topic or class and determine if it is useful for my students.  

It may just be a bit of the control freak that I am (and think most teachers are since we are master and commander of our classrooms), but I want to make sure that if my students are going to a web page for resources, it is worth their time and relevant.

Thing 16

I think of all the customized "start" pages, I liked Symbaloo the best.  I am just simply not a fan of having a start page that requires a large amount of scrolling to find information.  Having the app icons to select what I am interested in viewing when pull up a browser is much nicer than having to scroll down to find it.  While I had to scroll down on the Ustart page, I do like some of the expanded features such as the weather and calendar.  After looking at each of the sites, I am not sure if I want to make one a permanent home page for my web browser.  I am still on the fence just a little because right now I have the page I use the most, Google Search.  I just like to look at the Google banner each day to see what they have come up with.

In regards to an online calendar, I have been using Google Calendar for quite some time.  I have it linked to my iPhone account and Wunderlist app.  I don't know if I really want to have it as a part of my home page when I open a web browser, but that is something that I am going to give some consideration too.  It might be helpful if the calendar was the first thing that I saw, instead of sports headlines.

One other tool that I have found beyond useful is Zamzar.  If this site is not on your bookmark bar, then you need to get it there pronto!  I can not tell you the number of papers that students have typed at home on old software that is not supported by newer apps at school that I have sent to Zamzar to be converted so that they can access and print them off.  Zamzar is just fantastic and beyond simple to use.

Thing 15

Wikipedia is a site that I constantly stress to my students when working on a report NOT to use as a reliable reference because of the freedom to edit them.  I do suggest they are a nice place to start to find links to reputable sites that can be used.  In playing with the APSU 23 Things Sandbox wiki, it gave me the idea of creating my own "sandbox" for my class to illustrate the freedom of changing information.  I think it will be a great hands-on exercise for my students to see this concept in practice.

With that said, I also think that wikis can be a place that I can have students create and post projects to for class.  Each of the projects can then be viewed by their classmates and open discussions can held.  I think that there are some great opportunities that can be had with wikis, however, it is something that I need to investigate a bit further to make sure that there might not be a better tool, such as a blog on Google Drive.

Thing 14

Mind maps vs flow charts ... can't say that I have a preference for one or the other.  I find that there are times were mind maps are more appropriate for the through processes that I am going through than flow charts, and vice versa.

For this thing, I looked at flowchart.com and mindmeister.  I found both to be simple to use and intuitive enough to learn.  However, for me, I personally like an app. that I have been using for the past year called MindNode.  It is very similar to mindmeister, but allows you to convert your mind map into a flow chart.

For class, I find mind maps to be the better choice, because I don't feel as constrained when I am putting together a lesson.  Typically I will create a mind map first, then upon reflection of it, convert it to a flow chart before I make a final draft of my notes for a class.  I find the flow chart to be a more organized form of my charts than the mind map.

With my students, often times I will have them take a small section of notes or chapter of the text book and create a mind map of the ideas presented.  I like to to this before I lecture or discuss the content with them, because it exposes them to the terms and they are able to see for themselves how ideas and concepts are connected and related.  I recently did this with the rock cycle, and then had them expand it with each of the rock types.  

I don't know how useful I personally find each of the tools in this exercise, but I can see their potential from a collaborative standpoint.  For me, I tend to fall back to the old pencil and paper mind map.  I just like the feel of it.  If I know it will be too big for notebook paper, then I will use my MindNode app.

Thing 13

Google Drive is a tool that I love to use in my classroom.  I will have all of my students set up Gmail accounts if they do not already have them, and write their papers or work on lab reports using these tools.  Yes we have Microsoft Office in the computer labs, however, not all of my students have access to this software at home.  By using Google Drive I can make sure that my students are able to not only have access to word processing software or spreadsheets, but are able to use them.

One of the other things that I like about Google Drive, is that I can create a spreadsheet of data for a lab, then share the link to my students and have them use that data to create graphs and make interpretations.

Another advantage that I have found in using Google Drive in my classroom is during activities that require group collaboration, such as a class presentations.  My students can share their files with each other and work collaboratively not only during class, but after school on projects.

I find another advantage to be that all of the files are stored on their accounts, so there is no need for them to bring a USB drive, or email a file back and forth, to try and keep up with their work.  All they have to do is log into their Gmail account and they have access to everything.

I looked at the Zoho site, and I don't really have a problem with it.  However, I do prefer Google Drive, simply because most of my students already have an account and are familiar with how it works.  This is a tool that students don't only use in my class, but other teachers at the school I teach use it along with sites such as Dropbox.

To see a simple file that I created in my own Google Drive account, follow this link: smiley face.  Hope you enjoy.

Thing 12

Google Tools are something that I use quite often.  In fact Blogger is a Google Tool.  I have a Google email account, use Google calendar which is integrated with my iPhone.  I use Google docs to create and share assignments with my students (spreadsheets of data for example from labs).  I have recently learned the extreme value of Google Translate with the addition of an ELL in one of my classes.  I copy and past a large amount of information from lectures, to worksheets, and tests through Google Translate for this one student.  There are times it feels like I am teaching a third class for the amount of time I spend using that tool.  I think there are a vast array of uses in the classroom for Google Tools.  I encourage my students to use Google Drive for assignments.  I have the Google Books app on my iPad, which is fantastic for all the public domain classics that I try to find time to read (I have a great collection but just not enough time to get through them all).  

While I utilize Google Tools quite often, I have created a special file to share with everyone.  I hope that you enjoy this from Google Draw: Smiley Face

Thing 11

Using Edublog's award winners and other similar sites is a great place to start.  You are going to be given some of the top blogs to look at and search through to find something of value and interest to follow.

The other methods of searching for a blog involved a bit more creativity to find sites of interests.  I think one of the most important things to keep in mind, is how often do you want to look at a site.  Some sites will had 20-30 posts a day, depending on the number of bloggers helping to maintain it.  That can pile up in your inbox and become overwhelming which to me defeats the purpose of an RSS reader to begin with.

One of the blogs that I came across was called Earth Science Picture of the Day.  They had a photo showing the seasons of the Earth, which I plan to use in class.  It was a very interesting photo that you can view at this LINK.

I think searching for a blog is like searching for anything else on the internet, it can easily become overwhelming with the flood of information available.  You have to be careful in the sites you use and make sure that they have filters that allow you to limit your returns.  I think some of the best ways to look are on sites that recognize good blogs such as Edublog.  At that point a lot of the work to weed between the good, the bad, and the ugly has already taken place.

Thing 10

RSS feeds are a great aggregator of information.  By having one location to browse news feeds of sites that I like to visit, it helps me to streamline my day. Often times I find that I will not make it to a site I like to look at because I simply do not have the time, and that puts me behind in reading the headlines that interest me.

As a teacher, being able to categorize the sites I go to for recent articles of discussion with my students is a great help.  I don't have to go to each site and look for a new posting.  I think a great way to take advantage of this, and this would take a huge buy-in from everyone involved, would be for each teacher to create a blog for their subject and post daily activities to it.  If each teacher did this, then both students and parents alike could follow those blogs through an RSS reader and stay up-to-date on what is happening.  (Pie-in-the-sky dreaming right there, or is it?)

I have tried to use RSS feeds before and found myself overwhelmed by the information, I think it is important to filter your subscriptions to what you will look at or to me the whole purpose of an RSS feed becomes a mute point.

Thing 9

One of the biggest errors I see students commit on my tests, is not reading each question or answer choice carefully before making a selection.  I see so many students mark responses that are logically correct, but do not answer the question if they had simply taken the time to read all of the question and the options.  I used ImageChef to create the following "Yield" sign that I put on my test direction slides to help remind my students to slow down.

I found ImageChef to be a pretty straight forward and easy to use image generator.  I would love it even more if they didn't take on the watermark at the bottom of images, but that is simply because I like to have clean lines on my presentations.

Thing 8

When I started working on the mashups, I wanted to use the Mosaic Maker, and spell my last name.  However, for some reason I could never get it to display the image for "N", so I went to the Big Huge Labs and came across the mashup Bead Art.  I thought it was interesting and created the following image of my daughter Ella.  I think the image looks much better in the smaller version than larger size I have below.  You can make out more detail in the smaller image.

I think it is a neat mashup, but I am not really sure how to integrate it into the classroom.  I played around with the different settings, and think I might be able to take some images and create backgrounds for lecture presentations.  It would be something different if I could get it to work.

In regards to sharing images online, obviously I do not have that big of an issue with it.  I share photos on Facebook with my family all the time.  I do believe that you must be careful in the images that you choose to share, because once you post them on the internet, they are there for anyone to find.

Thing 7

I don't often use Flickr to search for photos, often I simply type in what I am looking for in Google, and then look under the images tab.  Often times I can quickly find an image for my purposes here.  Flickr is a bit less easier to search through, but the quality of the images is much better when I can find what I am looking for.

The image I choose from Flickr for this blog post comes from Neal and is entitled "Protection".  This image reminded me of photos I used to take when I worked for a company who conducted environmental impact surveys.  Most of my work would be done at night, often times with 20-30 minutes of down time between survey checks, in state and national forests and parks.  I would take my camera at night (seems like more things are out at night) and take photos of the smallest things I could find.  This image reminded me of a photo of some orange mushrooms that I photographed one time and brought back some nice memories for me.

Thing 6

The Web 2.0 tool that I selected was TwistyNoodle.  Mostly I liked this page because I have a 4 year old child who loves to color and is learning how to write.  So this page was a fun find.  One of the things that I really liked about the site, is that you could find a coloring page for just about any topic you could imagine.  Coloring pages can also be customized to fit what ever need you have.

Another neat aspect are the mini books that you can print and create.  Right now there are a number of featured pages for Halloween.

While the tool is geared for a pre-school audience, I know that students I teach in high school would love the break of having a coloring page that they can simply fill in from time to time and take a break from the fast paced life of high school.

Thing 5

To me, school 2.0 is an embracing of technology not only for use in the classroom, but outside the classroom as well.  The internet is no longer a static environment where information is posted for others to simply observe, but has become a 2-way street where information is discussed.  The concept of school 2.0 is a shift of teaching students not just content area, but how to communicate their ideas with others.  The ever prevalent internet allows for this and eduction will have to shift with it because businesses are utilizing it daily and demanding employees who are literate in this area.

For schools in the future, and I would say the not so distant future, but really at this point the past, this means that teachers will need to embrace technology and integrate it into their instruction.  It means that administrations will need to acknowledge and support this shift, and that school boards will have to as well.  Providing every student with the exposure needed to communicate effectively in the world today utilizing web 2.0 tools means computers in every classroom.  This is not a cheap thing to do, but not only is money involved, space is needed as well.

"The times are a change'n" as some would say and teachers need to recognize and adapt with those changes.

Thing 4

Commenting is an essential part of blogging.  The whole point of blogging is to communicate your thoughts and ideas to others.  Without feedback, you might as well be speaking to a brick wall.  However, in commenting we must be careful in what and how we type.  Voice inflection, facial features, emotions, and all the other non-verbal ways we communicate are lost when all we have are words to read.  We must be careful to make sure our comments are appropriate, meaningful, and build each other up, even when criticism is given.

As the writer of "The Blue Skunk Blog" put it, "writers like knowing they have been read".  People do not put their thoughts and opinions on the internet just because they like to write.  That is what pen and paper are for.

I think it is also important that a blogger be careful in how they reply to comments that they might find rude, offensive, overly critical, etc...  Again we must keep in mind that the only thing we have to go on are typed words.  I have seen back and forth comments that have completely spiraled out of control simply because words were taken out of context and feelings were hurt.

With that said, I think forcing people who tend to be introverts (as I am in some ways) to comment on other's blog posts is just cruel and unusual punishment.  But with that said I randomly decided to read and post on the following folks blogs who had completed at least things 1 -3:

• 1st I commented on Stephanie Freeman's Thing #3 about the use of a blog to reach parents because this is something that I agree with.
• 2nd I commented on Tyler Imhoff's Thing #9 about his image creator of the magazine cover. That was simply a cool find.
• 3rd I commented on Whitney Butt's Thing #12, because I loved her optimism of being over halfway there.
• 4th I commented on Casey Martin's Thing #9, because I felt like there were a number of uses for Image Chef in the classroom, even though he did not in his blog post.
• 5th I commented on Julie Eskew's Thing #11 and the difficulty in finding blogs and other information on the internet, mostly because of the massive amount of information available and learning how to filter the junk out.

Thing 3

I think some useful ways to incorporate a blog into my classroom, would be to create a blog for each subject I teach, and each day post our daily agenda along with links to handouts, presentations, and notes.  This could also be a place to put reminders for upcoming activities, such due dates for reports, test dates, and general information about school.

I think one advantage of this would be to incorporate an RSS feed where the blog could be subscribed to by both students and parents, so that they receive a notification when something new has been posted.  It would be a great way to reach out to parents.

I think another great use for blogs in a science classroom, would be for students to use the blog as their science notebook for labs.  Students could set up a blog, and speak about their experiences conducting different labs.  I think this would provide a create atmosphere for students to interact with each other, not only in the same class, but from other classes about their experiences.

I believe these would be some useful ideas for using blogs in the classroom.

Thing 2

Setting up and creating the blog was pretty straight forward.  While I don't have much experience in the past with blogging, I have set up blogs and taught students at a tech camp how to blog.  I decided the name for this blog should probably follow the directions given in class, so nothing fancy on that end.  But I did want to have some fun with the "Things" idea and have created images for Thing 1 - Thing 23+1.  I hope Dr. Seuss doesn't mind.

The avatar I created for my blog, is more of a self-reflection of my real self.  I have another avatar that I use for my Engrade account that all of my students can see.  I have added it below.  I think it is less a reflection of myself, and more a reflection of my fun mischievous side.

All in all, I like the idea of blogging and have some ideas for other blogs I would like to set-up and create.  My biggest obstacle in blogging though, is simply having the time to keep and maintain a blog site.  Perhaps when I finish working on my MAT I will find a little more free time to that can be devoted to some of my ideas.

Thing 1

After viewing the 7 1/2 habits of lifelong learners, I would say the easiest for me is Habit 1 "begin with the end in mind" and Habit 3 "view problems as challenges".  I think I see Habit 1 as the easiest because it is a practice that I have been implementing in my life for the past 5 years since I went through a 5 day seminar of Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  Perhaps this is why I don't view Habit 3 as difficult, because I do set goals, and keep those at the end view regardless of what hurdles jump up along the way.

I think the most difficult habit for me, is Habit 7 1/2 "Play".  While this seems to be the most simple of them all, I find it to be the most difficult because then I feel as though I am neglecting something that needs to be accomplished.  Play is perhaps though the most important of the habits.  I view it as Covey's Habit 7 "Sharpen the Saw".  We all need to take time to step back, reevaluate, relax for a moment, before we dive back into our busy hectic lives.  If we don't do this, then we will burn ourselves out.  At that point it doesn't matter how well you have adapted the other habits, if you don't play (sharpen the saw) then all your effort will be for nothing.