Thing 5

What does School 2.0 mean to me? It has turned the Internet into something that people can not just read, but now be a part of. It has turned the Internet from "passive to active." It allows people to connect by social networks. As stated in "Web 2.0: A Guide for Educators", "the opportunity for instant global publication is something our students take for granted as normal and common place." This is so true. I remember having a myspace at 14 and getting a Facebook later in high school. I think that our generation does take these things for granted. They do also seem common place. These days almost everyone has a Facebook and it is a main way that we communicate and keep in touch with each other.

This will be very good for schools of the future because, as we have seen, teachers can create blogs and comment on blogs. This creates a way of communicating and colaborating with other teachers as well as communicate with parents about problems that may be going on with the child. This is also a good way of letting parents know about upcoming tests, projects or post newletters. If one of your students is struggling in a certain subject you could put practice problems and practice quizzes on your blog for the child to do at home and their parent could help them with. This helps the child get a better grasp for what they are struggling with and also helps the parents to stay involved.

Thing 4

Commenting on blogs is beneficial in many ways. After all, if nobody commented they would be pretty pointless. The whole point is to post something and then to see what other people have to say about it. It is a positive way to get feedback and to know the negative and positive to the things that you have posted. Comments also give other people that look at your blog a beneficial conversation to read. Conversations that people may have on your blog may answer a question that they had. I chose five people from my class to follow their blogs and I also chose two other blogs about elementary school teachers. The five classmates that I chose are Shanna Young, Rebecca Sloffer, Leslie Littleton, Erin Beifuss, and Shelby Rogers. The two other blogs of interest that I chose are titled, "Elementary Teacher Blog" and " Teaching Blog Addict." The comments that I made on my classmate's blogs were mainly about the 7 1/2 habits because I could relate to most of them. The comments that I left on the two blogs of interest were about the useful links that were on the page about writing papers, being creative with learning in the classroom, and ways to effectively communicate with parents.

Thing 3

A blog would be very useful and beneficial in my future classroom. I could post calenders that had assignments that are due each day and that also listed what would be covered in class each day. This would allow parents to prepare their students and also help them to feel included. I could also post projects that the students did in class so that their parents could see their child's creativity. Creating a blog would be very useful for parent/teacher communication. It would allow parents to post and respond to other parents as well as the teacher. It would also allow the teacher to see what all of the parents have to say to each other and how they feel about certain things. Another useful thing to put in the classroom blog would be practice homework problems such a writing prompts, vocabulary activities and math problems. If a child is struggling in any of these areas, it gives the parent the opportunity to help their child from the comfort of their home.

Thing 2

Creating my blog was a little frustrating. As a said in Thing 1, I am very bad with technology so it was a little hard for me. For my posting name I put my first and last name. I thought that it would be easier for the professor and everyone else who reads my blog. For the name of my blog I kept it simple. For me personally, I don't like when people make up weird names for things like this online to where there is no way you know who it is. I just tried to keep both as simple as possible for everyone. Creating the blogwas hard for me. There were so many different things that you had to register for, get confirmation emails for, and create usernames and passwords for. It was all so much and it got really overwhelming. Creating the Avatar was my favorite part. I tried to make it look as much like me as I could. Even with the Avatar I still struggled a little knowing what to click on and for what.

Thing 1

After watching the video, it was very obvious to me what was going to be the hardest and easiest habits for me. The hardest habit  for me is habit 6, using technology to my advantage. Even as a child in the third grade, I can remember stuggling with computers. Technology has changed a bit in the last ten years. Each course I take seems to go more and more in depth with the technology we have to use and requires more and more knowledge about it. I have been forced to become more familiar with technology but it still confuses me. I am sure that if I knew how to use technology to its full potential it would benefit me and make my life a lot easier.

The easiest habit for me is habit 1, that I begin with the end in mind. College is a long road and it's very easy to lose sight of why you are doing this and your goals. When a class seems overwhelming I just have to remind myself that each class I take is necessary to achieve my end goal. My end goal is to become a teacher and there are many things that I need to do to make that happen. It can get very depressing when you think of how long it's going to take and all of the things that you have to do. You just have to constantly remind yourself that all of this is necessary to achieve your end goal.