Thing #12

Google has some great products. It is interesting because I was looking for a calendar to give me updates and schedule things. Believe it or not I still write things on the caledar on my wall. I set up google calendar and I liked it. I like the fact that I could recieve the alerts on my phone. I programed some appointments that I have for this week in there already and I am hoping that this works out great for me. I also tried google alerts. I put in the Miami Heat and I must admit that I got a lot more information than I thought I was going to get. I got current scores, the official website, youtube videos, and even other blogs. I set it up to receive them once a day so I am interested in what is going to be in the alert tomorrow.

Thing #11

Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use? I found the Syndic8 website the easiest to use for finding feeds. All I did was type in a word and multiple feeds were at my disposal. *Which Search tool was the easiest for you? I found them all easy. There wasn't anything difficult about any of them. They were simple, either type in a city or a key word and instantly you are right there. *which was more confusing? I would not say that either of the sites was confusing. If I did have to say something negative it would be the vagueness of the google site. It took me a couple of keywords and a little revising of those keywords to get exactly what I wanted. *what kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels? I found an extremely useful feed while using the google search bar called the US History Teacher's blog. It had a you tube video of a Malcolm X speech, a classzone map which could be viewed on a LCD screen, a recently donated collection of never seen before Civil War Pictures. It even had links to other History Teacher's websites.

Thing # 10

The thing that most impressed me about RSS feeds and news readers was the way with one simple click a lot of knowledge is brought to you. It would take a lot of time to research all that information, but Google Reader consolidated it and put it in an easy to reach location. I have all the news and sports information that I can handle. I also like it for keeping up with blogs. I have a lot of interests so I would set one up to follow all of my blogs that I would like to veiw on my personal time. I would also set up one so that I could converse with other teachers and stay up to date on the latest information. I would also make one that was accessable to students and parents. Parents would be able to keep up with what's going on with their child's education and students could use it to keep track of all the information they are given on a daily basis.

Thing #4

Commenting on a particular post may fire up other like minded individuals to make a comment. A healthy number of passionate comments can validate the blogger's opinion thus giving him the confidence to write more about the topic. Positive or even negative comments can steer a blogger into areas that you want them to focus on. If a blogger has an opinion that you agree with when you make a comment you can use something from your life experieces to strengthen it. I chose David Kennedy because he used an image gererator to put his face on Superman's body. Superman is one of favorite comic book characters. I chose Jake Peterson's blog because we are both baseball fans. I chose Goeun Kang because we are doing a class project together. I chose Akenese Atonio-Figueroa's blog because of her veiws on No Child left Behind. I chose Damaris Last because she was the "last" of the 5.

Thing #2

The first name I decided to use was my nickname blaqrob2, as the name for my post. It is the name I use for everything. I have been using the name "blaqrob2" for years. My wife has been trying to get me to change it. She feels that it is not very professional. She is right, it is time for me to choose something that says professionalism. Then one day in class Dr. Luck said that our blogs should contain our names so I got rid of blaqrob2 and just used my government name. I need to come up with something with more pizzzaz. My experience with creating a blog was eye opening. I didn't know it was so easy. I didn't know that there were so many sites that allow you to make your own blog. I have been reading sports blogs and etc for a while and I thought that the owners of those blogs went through a difficult process which probably involved payment. I will definetly continue to have a blog after the completion of this class. My avatar is a relection of me. It looks like me. It is important to me that the image that you see on my page represents me. My blogs has all of my veiws and my personal opinions and when you see my avatar I want you to visualise that he is talking to you.

Thing #1

I just veiwed the "7 habits" tutorial and I discovered that I have been following a few of the steps already. For instance I have been following "habit #1" for a number of years. I began setting goals with the end in mind for about ten years. It started once I bought one of those self help books. I also identify with "habit #2". I frequently read "how to" books. I also particpate in group discussions. Something I would need to work on however is asking questions. I generally don't ask questions and try to figure the answer out myself. Sometimes I figure it out and sometimes I don't. That is definetly something I need to work on. I also need to start veiwing life's problems as chalenges as mentioned in "habit #3". I do it sometimes, but i need to start doing it all the time. I don't let problems get me down, but I need to start seeing them in a different light.

Thing #3

I would definitely use a blog in my future classroom. Most of the kids are on the internet blog sites all the time anyway. After reading Anne Davis' EudoBlog Insight's I would definitely start a class blog. I would use it as she suggested to post class-related information. I would post homework assignments, examples of classwork, and historical information. I would post "this day in history" quotes and links to various history sites. I would make it parent friendly. Parents would be able to check their children's grades, check to see what they have going on in class and what they have for home work.