Is this the end or only the beginning? :)

I am so thrilled to have completed ALL 23 THINGS! I didn't think I would be able to at times but I stuck to it and finally finished them all. It was rough at times but I am estatic to have this huge toolbox full of new things that I am certain will help me as a future educator.
I would have to say my new favorite tool is Animoto. I really enjoy putting picture to music and telling a story.
This task has helped me with my lifelong learning goals by showing me that I can do things I set my mind to and I can tackle them a little at a time.
I think the format of the program is really good but I do wish there were maybe 4 different turn-in dates versus only 2.
To help me keep up with Web 2.0 I have added a 2.0 blog to my RSS feeder!
And remember....JUST KEEP LEARNING!! :)

Thing #4 :)

Commenting helps form a sense of community because it lets the person know you are interested in what they have to say and it makes them feel as if what they are posting about is important
I commented on  Kenna Gupton's blog. It was super cute and really caught my eye!
I also commented on Blair Offut's blog. He made his animoto of his dog and I did as well!
The third blog I commented on was Claire Albert's blog. Claire is one of my best friends and my roommate from my first 2 years at Austin Peay. She is so creative and she is going to be an amazing teacher one day!
I also comment on Emily Henson's blog. I sit beside Emily  in class and I always get distracted when she has her blog pulled up because I love the colors so much!
The final classmate's blog that I commented on was Stephanie Vorris' blog. Her blog is very well put together and thought out very well. I read quite a few of her posts and they are all very insightful!
I also commented on an adorable Yorkie Blog called Phoebe. I have a six month old baby boy and he is like my child! I am addicted to all things yorkie now! The final blog I commented on was  another one I found very interesting to me. It is a cooking for a college student blog! She makes healty cheap dishes...Cooking for College Students

Thing #23 :)

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
 -The above shows that this work was borrowed from its original creator.

I will use Creative Commons in my classroom whenever I borrow information  from another teacher or source. I will explain what it is to my students so that they know what it is and understand the legal and ethical use of technology resources.

Thing #22 :)

LiveBinder is great tool to keep you oraganized. I really like the fact that you can make different binders for every lesson. It is so easy to do. By being able to tag things, you don't even have to search through the whole shelf you can just search for what you need by just typing in the tag. I made three different binders...

Tectonic plates

earthquakes

Rocks

I think I will use this in my future classroom to help me stay organized and also for easy access to different lessons.

thing #21 :)

Animoto was so easy to use. It takes you step by step and makes the video for you! Here is one of my finished products...it is my "pride and joy" Charlie.

Make your own slideshow with music at Animoto.
This is my favorite "thing" so far! I love making cute videos like this! I have been playing on Animoto for hours now and I finally decided I better be productive! I cannot wait to make more videos!

Thing #20 :)

I absolutely love YouTube! I use it for several different reasons, from learning how to tie a tie to listening to my favorite song to learning the stages of mitosis. Youtube is a great site. I love it because anything you could possibly imagine is there. Having YouTube available on our library website could be a good thing or a bad thing. I know personally I would easily venture off topic and begin looking up Jenna Marble's newest videos. Here is one of my favorites from her....Jenna Marble's--"the face".

Thing #19 :)

I am a member of Pinterest. It is a site where you are able to share and "pin" things that interest you. You can follow people and the can follow you... here is a link to my pinboard.....but just a warning, it is extremely addictive....http://pinterest.com/bridgetteelmore/pins/
I am very excited about a couple of these social networking sites. Fuzzster looks adorable. I love animals especially cute fuzzy things... http://www.fuzzster.com/
I also really like Tasty Kitchen. I love to try to cook new things!http://tastykitchen.com/
I will be using Tasty Kitchen in the near future and I am sure I will be revisiting Fuzzster frequently.

Thing #18 :)

   It is important for educators to know how social networking works because it is what the students are interested in....no, scrath that...social networking is what most high school students lives' revolve around. As a teacher, know this could be very beneficial to you. You could use social networking as a way to give class updates or assignments.
   These popular sights can be used for more things other than silly high school drama. They can be used for educational reasons. My sister's seventh grade sciene teacher made a group on facebook and got all the students to join and she used it to update them about things going on in class. She posted their homework daily and reminded them about tests and projects. This really helped my sister because she is not very organized and slighty "blonde" I believe Facebook could easily be incorporated into a classroom to allow students to make a group and work on projects via Facebook.
I finally broke down and made a Twitter account. I'm not too into yet but I am trying to avoid it because I know I will easily become addicted. I'm not too sure how twitter how be used for educational purposes...here is the link to my profile on twitter and facebook... http://twitter.com/#!/BridgetteElmore
 http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1822698608

thing #17 :)

I joined Delicious and as I was browsing some of the top tags in the "educational technology" search, Wikiplaces was one of the top sites. I just mentioned finding Wikiplaces in my search for more WIkis. It is a free site for educators to create wikis for K-12 students. :)
I think the best help any teacher can get is from a fellow teacher and by using delicious to tag certain lessons  it is like always being able to ask a for another teacher's ideas with the click of a button. I believe using delicious is a great tool for the classroom. It is an easy way to oraganize different lessons and taag the ones that seemed to be very effective and over time your library of lessons will grow.... I cannot wait to have my own classroom :)

Thing #16 :)

I chose the iGoogle start page and picked the theme "tea house". I chose iGoogle because I am already a "Google Girl". I think google is very easy to use and because i already have most of my stuff in Google it is easily accessible through iGoogle. I have already made it my homepage and I have added some things that I am interested in-cooking, sports, comics.
I already have a Google calendar. I love it. My brother is actually a very strong advocate for Google calendars. He gives presenations at work instructing his fellow colleagues to join google calendar. He recently got everyone on google calendar and they are now able to add and release shifts using Google Calendar features. I love google calendar because it sends text messages to my phone to remind me of anything that I have listed in my calendar.
The to do list feature would be helpful, but by the time i make the to-do list I could be doing things on my to-do list.

Thing #15 :)

I really enjoyed looking at some of the different wikis Wikis are such a neat idea. They are a good way to get children to collaborate on projects or to simply elaborate on one central idea.I searched through a couple wikis online and one of my favorites was RecipesWiki. With the holidays coming up combined wiith my love to cook I had to find a cooking wiki. It is awesome and has some really good ideas for holiday treats. I won't be selfish, so here is the link...... http://recipes.wikia.com/wiki/Recipes_Wiki Enjoy  :)
I was also searching for educational wikis and I stumbled upon a site called Wikispaces. It is a place for educators to set up free educational wikis for students K-12 students.... http://www.wikispaces.com/content/for/teachers

Thing #14 :)

I chose to use bubbl.us and gliffy to explore the differences between mind maps and flowcharts. Mind maps are simply a brainstorming tool. You have a central idea and you build on it. On the other hand, a flow chart is a thought out process of events.
I used a mind map template on bubbl.us to sort the different rocks I have to study for an upcoming exam in geology. It really helped to visually break down the different fossils. Mind maps and flow charts will be a great tool to teach my future students to help them with organization skills. 

Thing #13 :)

Zoho Writer is a neat tool. It has most of the same features as microsoft word but you can access it from any desktop. you can save things from your home computer and go to the library and pull of the same things without worry about them being in a completely different format. I aslo like Zoho Writer because you are able to add people to the document. I could allow my students to do a group project and without having to wait on  one person, everyone could collaborate throughout the entire process.
 I really really like GoogleDocs! It is alot like Zoho but it is also linked to my google account already. Google Docs automatically pulls up files on my computer that had been saved in my Gmail account. I also like GoogleDocs because you can send a paper straight from the same screen you typed it on....no worrying about saving it, finding it, uploading it, hoping its the right one. Here is a link for a random document I created using GoogleDocs...
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tIVDH6hdTKVUF2GJR6qsW3rjWWqIDdJVymmvNvboVpc/edit?hl=en_US


     - Bridgette :)

Thing 11

 Using Google Blogs was the easiest method for me to use. I already use Google for everything and I am familiar with it. When using Google Blog I felt like more blogs were available. However, on topix.net I did find an extremely cute page about a family and their yorkies. http://yorkies.com/. I also like Technorati, it breaks down its homepage into categories...news, entertainment, sports, technology, business,etc. This would make it easier to narrow down your search. Also, they have bleacher reports! Syndic8 was my least favorite. I felt like I did not get a wide variety of things to choose from when searching for certain topics.

Thing #12 :)

   I explored Google Alerts.I am excited about Google Alerts.  I just registered to get UT Vols football updates sent to my email daily. http://www.google.com/alerts. You can also get developing news stories updated to your email.
   I also explored Google Calendar. My brother has been telling me for years to get on Google Calendar and set up my entire schedule... due dates, class schedules, doctor's appointments, events, anything.
I understand why now. You can create your own calendar, color code it, and form it however you like. You even get a text message sent directly to your phone as a reminder for upcoming events! It helps keep even the busiest person on track.  https://www.google.com/calendar/render?pli=1
    Google Calendar will be VERY helpful in my future as an educator/parent. It will help me stay organized for future events as well as be able to look back and see what we did last Tuesday.

Thing #10 :)

I LOVE my new GoogleReader. It is like a one stop shop for all of my favorite websites.It makes surfing for updates just one click away. However, the easy accessibility can make it addicting because everything you are reading is new to you and you feel like you need to get caught up...I have already caught myself doing it and I just started my GoogleReader an hour ago!!
 I could use this in the future in my classroom and in personal life!
I could use it in my classroom by making my class keep a blog and give them discussion questions to answer for homework. I could put each of their blogs on my GoogleReader page and I would be able to easily access their updates.
I could use this in my personal life by subscribing to "Mom" blogs for quick parenting tips and also cooking/baking blogs for meal ideas.

Thing #9 :)

I really enjoyed playing with the different generators. My favorite website was http://www.customsigngenerator.com/. I like it because it has so many different ideas for generating signs. Being able to convey short messages like this is a great way to keep a student interested.

I think the "post-it note reminder" is a really cute way to get students' attention!!



I also generated this sign ^. It makes me smile because my high school softball coach would always give us her "Confucius words of wisdom" and this was my favorite one.

Thing #8

            This is Charlie! He is my baby boy!
 I used the mosaic maker on flickr to make this collage! I really liked exploring all the different "mashups". I have to say this is my favorite because I can upload lots of picture very easily. There is a facebook link right beside the uploader. It allows you to upload an entire album and create a mosaic if you want to.  I could use this in my classroom to upload pictures onto our class website of daily activites. This would allow parents to get a visual of what their children are doing!

Thing #7

 Photo By Reto Kurmann

I loved looking around at all the different images and groups on Flickr.I really like how you can type in a word and all the images with that certain tag will appear. In the searchbar I typed in my favorite movie of all time-- The Lion King! When i found this picture I almost cried! This is the part where Mufasa tells Simba that their kingdom is everything the light touches.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/retokurmann/2384466007/in/photostream/

Thing #6 :)

                                           
I selected youtube.com to explore from the list of Web 2.0 nominees. I really enjoy this site because it has a great variety of videos. Many of the videos are very informative and best of all it is FREE!!. Also, I like this site because anyone is able to post a video.I would be able to use YouTube in my classroom for many things. Since I  will be teaching bioligy, I could show my students animated videos of microscopic things that would be easier to understand if they are able to see it done visually...mitiosis for example--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G-3BDlnK58.

Thing #5

To me, Web 2.0 is the only web I have ever known. From the time I was allowed to browse the internet it has been full of social networking sites, instant messaging, and blogs. However, it has evolved tremendously! The big thing when I was in middle school was "yahoo messenger". Everday when I got home from school I would log in and forget about my school work until my parents could pry me away. I wonder now how much was there to possibly talk about at 13 years old?!? But now facebook is the new and improved "yahoo messenger".  Every young adult who has a social life has a facebook account, otherwise, they would not be able to keep up like everyone else (or so it feels that way).


I believe within the next 10 years every classroom will be completely technology based. Teachers will no longer have the option to incorporate technology...it will be the only option. I believe with children learning the skills early on that are needed in a technolgically fast paced world the inelligence of machines will continue to become more advanced with every generation.

School 2.0 will be a great adavantage to teachers because the learning will not stop in the classroom or even in the school. Learning will take place at home. School 2.0 will be able to reach children who are sick an unable to attend school. A teacher can create a podcast and allow her children to watch a lesson from their own home. I am excited for School 2.0, but I am sure before we know it there will be School 3.0 sneaking up on us!!

Thing #3 :)

   I would love to have a classroom blog for my high school students. A blog would be a good way to incorporate technology into my future classroom. I could use the blog to have discussion questions about topics in class. Also, extra credit oppurtunites could be available for students who looked at the blog regularly. A blog for the classroom would also allow me to post photos of classroom activities.
   I would also like to have a personal reflective blog. I could reflect on my daily activites. If I have trouble teaching a certain lesson I have the entire "bloggersphere" to receive input from. On the other hand, by reflecting on positive experiences I may be able to help a fellow colleague. :)

Thing #2 :)

      The title of my blog is Bridgette's 23 things--Just Keep Learning. If you are familiar with the movie "Finding Nemo" you may know where the term "Just Keep Learning" comes from. Dorrie, the forgetful fish, keeps telling herself "just keep swimming" throughout the movie,even when she may not know why she is saying it or where she is going. So, i have always had Dorrie's voice in the back of my head when I think I am about to give up on something or I may not understand...."just keep running"...."just keep reading"...."just keep trying". So, i named my blog "Just Keep Learning"to remind myself, and my followers that when things get rough....JUST KEEP LEARNING!!
         
        I really enjoyed creating my blog. I am super excited to personalize it more. Learning where things go and how to add certain "gadgets" was a bit tricky at the beginning, but now I feel like I am getting the hang of it. :)


        My avatar slightly resembles me. I have long black hair. My favorite colors is purple. Also, I chose the beach background for my avatar which happens to be my favorite vacation spot!!


      

Thing 1

    To become a lifelong learner I believe the hardest habit to fall into would be to "view problems as challenges". Personally, when I have one problem it seems that more and more keep piling up. Rather than viewing these problems as challenges I begin to view each one as a nuisance. However, the easiest habit to fall into would be "to begin with an end in mind". Being college students, I believe it is evident we all begin with the end in mind. Every student starts college to eventually receive a degree with hopes to better their life. Personally, I have always been able to start tasks with the end in mind. I would prefer to work hard now and be able to relax later...kinda of like saving the best part of the cake as your last bite. :))