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!