Thing #12, Google is not Just For Searching Anymore

Google is not just a search engine. There are many tools you can use with a Google account. Google-pedia, The Ultimate Google Resource (3rd Edition) by Michael Miller; Pearson Education INC 2009 is a great book to discover just how much Google can do for you. Communicating with Google e-mail, Instant Messaging with Google Talk, and Blogging with Blogger are ways you can keep in touch with others to network. Google applications include Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Calendar and Reader. You can also search for pictures using google images and maintain your own Picasa Web Albums for anyone to see the photos you have uploaded.

Google translator is perhaps one specific tool that I see teachers using with our English Language Learners / English as Second Language students. You can type in instructions or your lesson plan and convert the document from English to Spanish (and many other languages as well). This is a way to break down communication barriers between teachers and students.

www.translate.google.com can show you how to type "Good Morning students" and translate from English to Spanish which becomes "Los buenos estudiantes por la manana". No more english / spanish dictionary books crowding our desks or bookshelves, use the Google tool to translate.

Photo web sharing can be done with Google's Picasa web album / photo tool. It is basically the same as Flickr. Here is a photo I am showing to my students regarding what can happen to you if were lucky enough to be in London for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

Photo by Craig Colvin.

Here is a link to the Google Picasa webpage  http://picasaweb.google.com

You are only limited to your imagination on how you can use Google Translate and Google Picasa to enhance your lesson plans and really connect with the students.

Thanks for reading,

John P. Collins

 

Thing #11, Finding Good Feeds

I found the Google Reader search engine for finding feeds the easiest to use. I can filter by search words, have it not include feeds by not including other words. So I can search for keywords "TN Middle School Math" since that will be my subject, grade level, and location.

I clicked on some of the links posted and they weren't even RSS feeds. One link took me to the IPhone Camera App from the Cool Cat Teacher page. I was confused. I also looked at others but realized that since I have a Google Account, why not just use the Google RSS Feed Search engine.

I found 5 useful feeds that are listed in Thing #10. I don't know if we were supposed to find more. I made the mistake of subscribing to a newspaper and was bombarded with over 150 in one day. Make sure you read the actual title of what you are subscribing too. Just because USA Today printed an article about a successful "TN Middle School Math" teacher does not mean you want to be fed by USA today! It was very strange and unusual as I scrolled through my feeds reading about Money, International Political Issues, and Entertainment News from USA when all I did was click feed regarding the article I wanted. Lesson learned. HINT: look at the bottom right of feed and see how many posts they do per day / week. Choose wisely.

As stated earlier, I don't see the need to find or use other tools when I have my Google account. There are many different search tools on the internet you can use to locate newsfeeds and they want your clicks.

One final note, I encourage you to find a feed in something that interests you that is not school related. I learned from Ultimate Fighting Championship that on Saturday Night there was a "Fastest Knock-Out" in the history of the UFC. That peaked my interest and swayed me over to YouTube / UFC site to watch the clip. It was FAST!

Thanks for reading,
John P. Collins

Thing #10, Set up an RSS Reader and Add Feeds

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” It is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.
What I like about RSS is that I can choose which updates I want to receive that I feel are important to me in regards to my job and my community.
You can also use this in your personal life by setting up RSS so you know when your family members or friends update their blogs or websites. This saves you the trouble of actually going to each of these sites. Another "One-Stop Shopping" tool to simplify how you receive updates via the web using RSS feeds.
I chose the following 5 RSS feeds.

http://www.basic-mathematics.com/

http://www.ed.gov/

http://www.teachercertificationdegrees.com/

http://teachweb2.wikispaces.com/

http://www.discoverclarksville.com/articles

These are important to me and will keep me updated on certain topics. I wanted to follow basic mathematics because it is Middle School math teachers who get together and collaborate on how to use Web 2.0 technology in the classroom. I want to stay updated on this information.
Ed.gov keeps me in the loop on Federal Education changes / updates.
Teacher certification degrees gives me the tools I need as I am going through the process of becoming a Highly qualified / TN state teacher lisencure procedures.
Teach web 2.0 on wikispaces gives me even more ways to utilize technology in the classroom.
Discover clarksville will keep me in touch with my community and allows me to network for possible guest speakers in my classroom or businesses in the local area we might be able to conduct math research and projects to show students how math is important in the real world to solve problems.

Thanks for reading,
John P. Collins

Thing #9, Online Image Generators

Image generators are fun! You can take everyday things that people see and add in your own personalization to it.

I used www.imagechef.com to come up with this clever TN lisence plate

This can be used to add in some fun to your classroom and interact with your students on a whole new level.

I personally believe this gives you a little bit of "flair" to your teaching. Spice it up a little bit instead of using the same old Word Document.
ImageChef is easy to use. I clicked on subject of photo, typed in my text, saved it to my desktop, uploaded the image here on my blog. This was easier to use than Flickr Mashups for me.

Be the teacher that STANDS OUT in the minds of our students.
Thanks for reading,
John P. Collins

Thing #8, Flickr Mashups

Flickr Mashups are a fun way to spell out certain words. This is something teachers can use so they don't use the same old boring "Times New Roman" font size 12. This catches the eye and adds "flair" to your blog. Students could easily be taught how to use this so when they start a blog or comment to your blog they add a little "pizzaz" to it. This tool also allows the students to "freedom" to "identify" / "personalize" their blog or project they are doing. Gives them a sense of expression.

http://metaatem.net/words/ is the website I used to perform this task. This "Spell with Flickr" website allows you to type in your word into a text box and hit enter. You can then click on each individual letter to change it if you don't like the pattern it gives you. I had some troubles using the source code so I did a work around. I right clicked on each letter, saved picture as JPG to my desktop, then uploaded them to my blog page. As you can see I have yet to conquer how to place the letters horizontally, but I am working on it!

Thing #7, Explore Flickr

Flickr is a wonderful photo-sharing site. We as educators can use this to our advantage in order to give our visual learners that extra help in understanding a concept we are trying to teach them. Just as everyone else has stated, "A picture is worth a thousand words".

So picture this, I am trying to draw a 3D image on the whiteboard in my class. I am not very artistic and my drawing is sloppy, uneven, and some students are just shaking their heads while others are just confused as to where I am going with this.

Today I wanted to show my students how we use Length x Width x Height to calculate cubic measurement. I am failing miserably due to my poor artistic skills.

www.flickr.com to the rescue! By using Flickr I choose this photo

by jannetajeda. I used the tag Geometry.
Full link to photo on Flickr is http://www.flickr.com/photos/75772294@N07/6960635765/

I then ask my students to start brainstorming and to "think" what this picture shows us. I ask what words come to mind. I can use this photo to clearly explain that the Length x Width x Height = Cubic Measurement. I also get to spare my students the expense of seeing how horrible I am drawing.

By the way, 3x3x3 = 27 cubic boxes

Thanks Flickr,
and
Thank you for reading,
John P. Collins

Thing #6, Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

https://www.dropbox.com/ is a website that... (taken directly from the Web 2.0 Awards Top 100 Webware winners description of the site):

Dropbox is a file storage service that syncs up files between multiple machines. Once installed, you gain access to a virtual folder that will stay synced up and pass along any new additions, deletions, or changes. All the while, the service keeps snapshots of every version of a file that's been changed, which means you can go back and retrieve older iterations.

Dropbox also lets users create shared versions of these folders, so multiple users can contribute or make changes to a collection of group files and make sure everyone is using the most up-to-date versions.

Dropbox has both a Web and desktop component. The desktop software lets you forget worries about re-uploading while you make changes, and feels just like a native folder on Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs. And Dropbox's site lets you get at all your files, no matter where you are.

I can see this working on group projects where each person is assigned one area.
I can't see this as a teacher who might be doing work on his home computer and then have to retrieve files on his school work computer. What I was taught long ago was this can be accomplished in 2 ways.
1. E-mail the file to yourself. I use yahoo, so I open up yahoo mail and attach a file to an e-mail I have sent myself. You can then open up the e-mail at work and download the file to your desktop.
2. Store the file in one of the folders in your yahoo mail. Start a draft e-mail, attach the file, don't send it. You can open up yahoo mail at work, go to your "Work" folder where you attached the file to a draft e-mail and simply open up the folder and save the file to your computer at work.

I have always done it this way and I am sure I will always continue to do it this way because it works for me. I don't feel the need to have another account on another website to do what I can already do on yahoo mail or my google account (which has a DOCS page that stores files on your account).

I do see the potential for this website for large corporations who constantly update huge data files that need to be retrieved and updated by all employees. It is a great concept, but then again I am sure a large corporation has dedicated servers to handle this. Why go somewhere else to do something you can do "in-house" with the tools you already have?

Thanks for reading,
John P. Collins

Thing #5, Some perspectives on Web 2.0 / School 2.0 and the Future of Educaiton

Tech Learning: Web 2.0, A guide for educators was my first article choice. School 2.0 is a term used to define how schools are using technology to facilitate collaborative teaching by giving us the tools to conduct a professional learning environment for our students. This means that schools better get on board and become School 2.0 using Web 2.0 technology because our students are already using this technology and they are the future of our country. Let's talk to them and teach them in a language they already speak by using the web.

Teachers 2.0 was interesting to view as it was a website that made it possible for teachers to blog, use pod casts, and the forums to communicate with each other and collaborate on successful teaching methods and ideas. Teachers 2.0 has been shut down since March 21, 2012. The reason given was that in recent years the trend from blogging / pod casts / forums has shifted to twitter (all in one package or one stop shopping, pick your language). They also explained that the pod casts turned into a "one man show" since others did not upload podcasts of their own. Interesting to note that because of a lack of pod casting contributors, one person was able to dominate that section on the website. Web 2.0 is meant to be a "world-wide" interaction.

Thanks for reading,
John P. Collins

Thing #4, Why commenting is important

Commenting helps create a sense of community and interaction because a blog is a vehicle for a group of people with common interests to communicate, share, and learn in spite of barriers of time and distance. By writing a meaningful comment you are showing the author that you hear them, you can cast a vote on the importance of the topic, you can draw attention to your own blog, and you become part of the life of the blogger you are reading. Commenting is very powerful.

2 points that I found important about commenting is to Teach Commenting and Remember the Power of Words. People feel the need to converse and when they do they will improve the performance of their work. It gets people involved and motivated. The Power of words can either build up or tear down, we as educators need to remember the influence we have on children with our words alone. Remember this when commenting on blogs.

Our assignment in class was to select 5 blogs from students in our class and comment on them. The names of 5 students in my class I have selected and commented on are as follows:
1. Kaytlyn Wright - A picture is worth a thousand words. I commented on the potential any teacher can have in using pictures to assist them in explaining the concept of something we are teaching our students. As a Math Teacher I understand students may feel overwhelmed when I begin writing formulas on the board, but with the aid of digital media we can help our students understand the concept easier.
2. Sydney Saunders - Continually Learn / Continually Grow. I commented that the easiest thing for me was to teach and mentor others. I wanted to share that with Sydney so we could connect on a "blog-level" and let her know she is not alone in feeling that way. I commented on my experience in the US Army teaching and mentoring soldiers and that we wore many hats, we will continue to do so as teachers.
3. Charles Irwin - Web 2.0. I commented to Charles on his blog because we are about the same age and when we went to school (back in the day) it was lecture, copy notes on boards, memorize and reguritate for standardized testing. Web 2.0 allows us the opportunity to teach in a format that our students are accustomed to with the technology boom. Board the train future teachers! I also cracked my first joke in a comment to Charles to ease some of the tension of this project. Hope it made you laugh.
4. Jon Phillips - Discovery Tools for Thing #6. I applauded Jon on being the first blog I read that was not the usual "praise" while doing these "Things". It was nice to know I wasn't the only one feeling this way. New websites are popping up all the time, but in my opinion they are just riding the coat-tails of the "first" site to come up with the idea. Why have 100 ways to do something when you are used to doing things the first way you learned how to do it. I used the age-old quote, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".
5. Olivia Voie - Thing #10, Google Reader account. I thought to myself and commented on Olivia's blog, "Great, just another account to set up and track yet another pair of login / password info. Olivia brought up a great point, use Google Reader to your advantage to track updated laws we as teachers need to know in order to correctly inform our students in case they come to us for answers.

The 2 others of my choice are CoolCat Teacher Blog and Problogger. I commented on Coolcat's blog on how to comment like a King or Queen. I mentioned the impact it is having on our class. The Coolcat Teacher is definately a role model for us and inspires us to become the best Web 2.0 Teachers we can be. I wanted to comment on Problogger's Blog regarding the 10 techniques to get more comments on your blog but the "leave comments" section was closed. The same was true for our other 2 choices. They have received so much traffic (in the form of so many comments) that they had to shut down leaving comments, ironic. Problogger did suggest to leave open ended questions so others would comment and when you do comment, remember to be gracious and humble.

Thanks for reading,
John P. Collins

Thing #3, Register Your Blog

Today we had to officially register our Blog, I am excited as this makes my blog "official" in the eyes of my instructors here at APSU.

I plan on keeping this blog throughout my adventure on the road to becoming a successful Teacher. I know this is a requirement for our class but this blog will continue to assist us in the years to come in our professional careers as Teachers of America. I remember hearing the phrase, "Remember where you came from" and to me this rings true with this post. When I am a Teacher I can refer back to this blog to remind me of the many tools that are available to me as a Teacher. I plan on coming back to the earlier posts of my blog so I can remember different methods and strategies that are in my learning toolbox.

Thanks for reading,
John P Collins

Thing #2, Create a Blog, Add a Post and Create an Avatar

I decided to use the title "John Collins Teaching Blog" because it was simple and to the point. I also wanted to use my actual full name and my future profession to identify myself and introduce myself to the World Wide Web.

I had a little trouble creating the blog. I used the default blog landscape and when it was time to post my avatar I ran into problems. It wasn't until a fellow classmate suggested I try a different landscape that my avatar finally posted. I plan on experimenting with my blog until I get a comfortable feeling with how it is presented on the web.

I would say my avatar does reflect my personality, although we are limited on the number of changes we can make to the design and appearance of our avatar. I am wearing a camo shirt to reflect my 20 years in the US Army and I decided to go bald since I usually shave my head. I wanted to pick an avatar that resembles me so when I get visitors to my blog page they can already have a connection with who I am.

Thanks for reading,
John P Collins

Thing #1, Lifelong Learning and Learning 2.0

I watched the video titled "7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners" and it was very interesting, it reminded me of the book titled, "The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People" published way back in 1990.

The easiest of the habits for me would be Habit #7, Teach and Mentor Others. I feel this way since I have been doing just that for 18 of my 20 years in the US Army. I was a Non-Commissioned Officer and it was my job to train soldiers. I am confident that this will be a smooth transition from teaching and mentoring soldiers to teaching and mentoring students in the classroom.

The hardest of the habits for me would be Habit #6, Use Technology to your Advantage. I am not scared of technology, but I have seen what happens to people who rely heavily on technology only to see the technology fail and those people did not have a back-up plan. Computers get viruses, files get lost, the projector may be broke, or we may lose power in the building and then we are stuck wondering what to do. Technology is a wonderful tool, but I feel it is necessary to always have a back-up plan in case your technology fails you.

Thanks for reading,
John P Collins