My reflection

What an adventure!!! I have really enjoyed this project even though at times it frustrated me so bad that I could have thrown my computer out of the window. The learning experience in all of the great things that technology has to offer was wonderful. Gosh, now I feel like I can accomplish anything!!LOL!!
I look forward to using these great tools in my classroom. I believe that my students can gain a great deal of knowledge in the subject matter by allowing them the use of technology.
My favorite "Thing" was the Animoto video that I created. I will definitely use this tool for a project in my classroom.

Thing # 23 Creative Commons

Being liscenced under Creative Commons allows us to share our ideas as well as use others great ideas publically and legally over the web and other forms of media. Our 23 Things project was created under a creative commons liscence. COOL STUFF!!!! Knowing what to look for when you are resaerching and needing to copy and use parts of others works is very helpful in not making an illegal mistake.

Thing # 21

Oh my GOSH!!!!

This project was so much fun. It has definitely inspired me to make more videos. What a great way to present a history project. I could have my students create a video on the civil war or any topic in history. I think they would have great time doing this and they would be learning at the same time. Great Combo!!!!!

Thing # 22

I explored the Educational Podcast Directory and Learn Out Loud. I found some podcasts that a class had done as a project on the Roaring 20s from the Educational Podcast Directory that was really cool. I would really enjoy having my class create a podcast. I think that it would be a lot of fun and a great learning experience for the students. I also found a really useful podcast on the Learn Out Loud website called The Essential 55. I thought it was interesting because it was by a teacher named Ron Clark that was sharing about his struggles and life as a teacher and how he became such a successful extraordinary teacher. He also gives lots of cool tips for future teachers to consider.
I found lots of cool podcasts about history that I look forward to using in my classroom one day.

Thing # 19

I'am really looking forward to socializing on TeacherPop. What a great network for sharing with others that are going through the same things that I am. I was quick to find Tiffany Allemand's page and leave her a quick comment. She has already been a great inspiration to me and I look forward to being her friend on TeacherPop. I created a page and of course added some cute pictures of my biggest inspirations( My Children). Please take a look they are too CUTE!!! Don't forget to add me as your friend while your there.

Thing # 20

YouTube is Great!!!!! It is so easy to find videos on just about any topic you want. I can definitely see using You Tube in the classroom for many lessons. This would be great for adding a little excitement to a lecture.
I chose to share a video from the movie Steel Magnolias. In my opinion this was truly the best movie ever made. This clip from the movie is great. Such a sad movie yet full of great humor. What a Combo!!!!!

Thing # 18

I did not have a My Space or a Facebook before this project.( I know I'm very UNCOOL!!) I now have a My Space page and I've already found myself spending way too much time on it :) I do agree that social networking is a great way to communicate with other educators. It's a great way to share ideas about your classroom. I don't think I would use My Space or Facebook in the classroom. I would prefer a classroom blog or a wiki to communicate with other teachers, parents, and my students.

Thing # 17

Exploring Del.icio.us was cool. You could definitely use this in the classroom for both teachers and students. It would make researching a specific topic a lot less stressful because of the great way things are tagged and organized. It would be a safer way to send your students out into the web world to collect information needed for assignments.

Thing # 16

I chose to create an iGoogle homepage. I've always relied on Google and have found it to be a quick and simple tool to use for numerous activities. I made iGoogle my permanant homepage and love it. It has been great to be "ORGANIZED". I'am notorious for hanging sticky notes all over the house to remind me of things I have to do. My husband is "THRILLED" that I have found a better way to keep track of things. Yellow sticky notes didn't really go with the decor!!!!!
I added a ton of great gadgets to my homepage. The online calendar and to-do list is probably my favorite. I created my homepage about a week ago and it has really been wonderful and so quick to go to and have all of the information that I need in one place. I love it!!!!!
I'm taking an International Politics class this semester and on my homepage I have instant access to numerous topics that we are covering in my class. I constantly have updated news from around the world which has been very useful for class discussions. My professor probably thinks that I'am really SMART!!!:)lol

Thing # 15

I cannot believe that at thirty one years old that I had never explored a wiki. What a GREAT tool!!!! Having a wiki is a wonderful tool to share ideas and valuable information with others. As an educator, I think that having a wiki to share ideas and concepts with other professional is an excellent way to grow professionally. It is like having an online mentor and I will be welcoming a lot of mentoring when I begin my teaching career.

Thing # 13

Zoho Writer was great. I was thrilled about how quick and easy it was to use. One thing that I have learned by taking this class is that "SIMPLE" and "TECHNOLOGY" do not usually go hand in hand but exploring Zoho Writer was actually "painless"!!! The toolbar straight across the top of the document was perfect for quick editing. I will definitely be using Zoho Writer again.

Thing # 14

Created at:http://www.gliffy.com/pubdoc/1513420/S.jpg



Creating my mind map and flowchart was a very simple process. Both websites offered tons of great tools and made it very easy to set up an account, create it, and then to send the finished projects to my blog page. I enjoyed creating my flowchart at Gliffy.com the most because I was able to lay out my own design. I spent numerous hours messing around with all of the cool tools. This would have been a great website to use to create our classroom drawing.
Students and teachers could use flowcharts and mind maps for numerous projects. I think that these would be excellent visuals to use to study for exams and also to organize complex stories for better comprehension. I look forward to using these tools in my classroom.

Thing # 4 Commenting

Commenting helps create a sense of community and interaction because you are building relationships with fellow bloggers. Your getting to know them through their blog. Commenting whether disagreeing or agreeing shows that person that their blog is being read. In PROBLOGGER'S "Ten Techniques to Get More Comments" I related the most with #6 "Be Humble". It says that it is easier to get comments when you are not a know it all. Showing your weaknesses and mistakes makes you seem more laid back and easier to talk to. I find this true because I tend to comment more to blogs that appear more humble.
I plan to comment on all of my classmates blogs but for this specific "Thing" I've chosen:Tiffany Allemand because her page is so crafty and inspiring to me. Christine Poindexter's posts are uplifting and confident. My self-esteem rises just reading her posts :)!!!!!!! I commented about her being an inspiration as a teacher because of her strong sense of confidence.
I really enjoyed reading Heidi Burns posts and her Avatar holding the baby was great. I commented on her "Thing #2" because of her motherly Avatar. I absolutely love being a mother and it was great to share that with another gracious mother.

I will post more comments throughout the semester and finish my "THING #4"

Thing # 12

I created a Picaso Album of my family. This was so easy to do and a lot of fun as well. I was thinking of ways that I could use this in the classroom and came up with a really cool idea. I will be teaching History and was thinking that a great project for the students could be to create a slide show of historical events. This would give the students an opportunity to explore history and help them to understand why learning about the history of the world can connect them to what is going on in the present.


I created this at: http://picasaweb.google.com/michelle.burkhart3/MyLife#

I also played around with the calandar and alert tools and think that this is another great project for the students to learn organizational skills. In which we all know is a struggle for most people especially for middle and highschoolers.

Thing # 11

I foung this "Thing" to be very informative. I really enjoyed reading about what people out in the "Web World" had to say about technology and education. One blog that I found reaaly helped me realize that I am definitely not the only one that struggles with technology. I already knew that I wasn't BUT it was funny to read about all of the problems that these people were having with trying to locate things and then the ultimate task of UPLOADING them. Uploading things to my blog page has been my ultimate struggle so far.
I did find that using the search tools from Technorati for completing this assignment was very easy to do. It was simple to find blogs that I would be interested in following. After I searched my topics and went to subscribe to them it sent me to a step by step process for adding these to my RSS reader. Finally something that didn't take me a day to figure out. I also subscribed to many of the Cool Cat Teachers followers. Her blog was very interesting and informative for a future educator.I found this quote on her blogpage that I think is very meaningful!!!! "The next best thing to be wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are." CS Lewis

Thing # 10

I think that this is very useful in keeping up with the latest news, stocks, banking and many more imformative topics that you relate too everyday. It was very easy to search and subscribe using google reader options. I think that you could definitely incorporate this feature into your classroom. This would be a great way to teach the students how to explore technology and use it for their benefit.

Thing # 9

I created these pictures at: http://www.imagechef.com/ic/final_widget.jsp?size=medium

Image Chef is an interesting website that kids could go to and express themselves and share their ideas with their classmates. This would also be a great way for the teacher to get the students involved by having them open up and be creative in their own ways. Also, students could use these tools in powerpoint presentations.

Thing # 7

I created this from flickr photostream at:http://flickr.com/photos/burkhartgirl/2911557250/
I got this picture from 884 C's photostream at:http://flickr.com/photos/30525614@N02/2911587354/
Exploring flickr was neat. I had never heard of it until this assignment so it was all very new to me. I think that flickr is a great website to use in the classroom for creating projects. It would also be a fun and interactive way to share ideas and photos with other schools.

Thing # 8

I created this puzzle from: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/jigsaw.php

Creted at: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/
I had so much fun creating this on Flickr. This would probably be the coolest "THING" I've done so far. I don't think that I would ever use this in the classroom. We would probably never get anything else done. I will personally be using this tool to create and share my photos. This is GREAT!

Thing # 6

I found an interesting site while exploring the Web 2.0 tools called "My Heritage". Since I want to teach history I think that this tool would be great to use for projects in my classroom. It was so easy to navigate around this site making it a very useful and informative tool for adolescent minds to explore. http://www.myheritage.com/

Thing # 5

After reading two different perspectives on Web 2.0 from "Web 2.0: A Guide for Educators" and "Web 2.0: Is the Future of Education" I think that Web 2.0 will be a great tool for interacting with students, teachers, parents, and the community. It would also be a very helpful way for teachers to communicate with other professional educators in order to grow and learn from each others experiences.
The Web is already "second nature" to over fifty percent of students so I think that Web 2.0 is going to contribute to a major breakthrough in educating in the future. This innovation can also impact lifelong learning abilities.

Thing #3

Creating my blog has been so much fun so far. With me teaching middle or high school aged children I think that creating a blog page for my classroom will be a great way to interact with my students. Being a parent I would personally love to be able to interact with my child's teacher and actually see what was going on in the classroom through a blog page rather than simple e-mails. For me as a teacher I would love to use a blog to share my enthusiasm for history and to lay out a visual of my lessons rather than just using a textbook. I think that having a blog page would be a great hands-on and visual tool that would contribute greatly to the students academic advancements.

Thing #2

Creating my Avatar was a lot of fun and at times a little frustrating. I definitelty learned a lot about technology through trial and error on this project. Creating her was easy, trying to export her through cyberspace took five hours. I guess she was just not up for the trip. The funnest part about creating her and putting her in the coffee shop was that it reminded me of one of the best days of the year when I get to spend the day with my out- of- town girlfriends shopping and hanging out at the coffee shop.

Thing #1

I really enjoyed listening to the tutorial on the 71/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners. My biggest weakness would have to be habit #4. I have never had much confidence in myself and I find myself second guessing a lot of my decisions. It took a lot for me to build up enough confidence to go to college and I'm so glad that I did. I had my daughter when I was eighteen. I got married and pretty much dedicated my whole life to them and didn't spend too much time on myself. Building my confidence is something that I'm working hard to do. Being at Austin Peay has helped tremendously by allowing me to feel good about myself and all of my educational accomplishments.

My strongest habit is #2. I definitely take responsibility for my own learning and know that it is up to me to accomplish my goals. I'm not afraid to ask questions or ask for help and googling has become my favorite pastime. I look forward to continuing my journey as a lifelong learner and to be able to teach others the importance of being a lifelong learner.