FINALLY!!!

I must say, I had a few pleasant surprises while writing this blog. I think my two favorites were the the Wiki and LiveBinder blogs. The whole time I was doing those, I kept thinking about how much easier my Education 2100 class would have been had we known/been able to use them, and, if it makes college life easier, it's BOUND to make high school a breeze! It has really re-enforced what I knew already that there is always an easier way to do things. It just takes a little digging sometimes to find it. The only draw back to 23 Things was how tedious the work was. If there is any way to condense it down, I'm sure it would be. But, maybe this is the condensed version. Seeing as how it started out as 43 Things, It might very well be.

As far is helping me develop as a teacher, this exercise helped me to better understand that, while I will be the only teacher in my classroom, I'm not the only teacher WITH a classroom. There are other people out there that are writing about similar problems that I will need to address in my own class. Which is nice because, if other people are blogging about their own experiences, chances are that they are researching the same things I am. So, if nothing else, it helps give me a starting point for my own research. Knowing that it's ok to comment on other's blogs is nice too. It helps to establish an open dialog so that many different ideas can be filtered through all at once. It should be called Brainstorming 2.0, really.

Overall, this has been a great experience, and, I have enjoyed learning about all of these great new ways to convey ideas to students and other teachers. I'm excited to see how this turns out! So, to answer the question of is this the end or only the beginning, I will quote from the song "Closing Time" by Semisonic- "Every new beginning forms from some other beginnings end."

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

thing 23

So, I did a little research, and found this brief history of 23 things. I found out that it was actually the brain child of Stephen Abram in 2005 which was when blogging was really starting to take off. His was called 43 things I (or you) might want to do this year. It was later adapted to fit the current 23 Things model for library employees as a continuing education exercise over the course of nine weeks in which there was a prize at the end of. Well, it just so happens that it's not exactly legal for teachers to give students gifts in any form other than a grade for completed work. So, there we have it! Dr. Wall's 23 Things was born. Thankfully, she was gracious enough to not require the original nine week deadline. *PHEW*

I'm sure there is a way to use the 23 Things model for a high school french class( and, trust me, if there is one, I'll find it). But, I don't think I would want to use it right out of the gate when I begin teaching. There will be a big adjustment period for me to get settled into my position, and, something tells me that adding a blog where I have to read upwards of 4,800 plus posts a year will be a bit of an overload for me (can you say meltdown? Sure, I knew you could). BUT, as far as using the Creative Commons law, as a teacher, I will almost be encouraged to carry that thing with me everywhere I go like a Knight carries his shield into battle!

When I was in high school, my French teacher showed us her copy of Cirque de Soliel and was most likely protected under Creative Commons. Really, I can't remember any any of my classes not showing a movie or something like that. So, it's inevitable. I'm going to use it at some point. I'm sure I'll end up using it in some shape, form, or fashion, but, I can't think of any other immediate ways that I will use it other than showing the occasional movie.

thing 22

<iframe src="http://livebinders.com/play/play?id=873882&present=true" height="500" width="100%">Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe>

Well, suffice it to say that either embedding doesn't work, or, I don't know how to do it. Here's a link.

The binders I made are pretty straight forward in their titles. One is called French Grammar (which is the one I shared in this post), another is French History, and the last one is The Influence of France. The one I like the most is the grammar one. I never sat down and looked up games for learning french until now, and, to be honest, I don't know why I haven't. I found one site that is really neat that has nineteen  games for learning everything from vocabulary about vegetables to verb conjugations. I could have really used that site over the last year in my French class. We were using this site called "tell me more" that really couldn't have told me less. The speech recognition software was terrible most of the lessons had almost nothing to do with everyday life. I had a few things that were ok, but, there wasn't much in the way of supplementary material for the class.

Last semester in my Education 2100 class, we had to use RefWorks to put all of our references for our PBL assignment. Also, we had to write a paper which had to include and annotated bibliography with printed out sources. I thought that was a waste of time, paper, ink, money, and effort.

Now, RefWorks was free for us as university students, but, what about high school students? I'm not sure. But, I know that LiveBinders is free for anyone that wants to use it. And, it can serve a double purpose in that it is a great place to store all of your research sources AND it can act as your annotated reference portion of an assignment. Because of how it's set up, all you have to do is create a new binder for a set of sources and create a description for the binder that includes descriptions for each tab in the binder. I think I may have to mention this to Dr. Preston-Sabin next time I see her.

thing 21

Here is my clip. It may have been from operator error, but, Animoto wouldn't generate an embedding code and the "share to blogger" thing wouldn't work.

<object id="vp1ICI9Y" width="432" height="243" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000"><param name="movie" value="http://static.animoto.com/swf/w.swf?w=swf/vp1&e=1367123445&f=ICI9YLngNjHDEJuHE68gYA&d=0&m=b&r=360p&volume=100&start_res=360p&i=m&asset_domain=s3-p.animoto.com&animoto_domain=animoto.com&options="></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed id="vp1ICI9Y" src="http://static.animoto.com/swf/w.swf?w=swf/vp1&e=1367123445&f=ICI9YLngNjHDEJuHE68gYA&d=0&m=b&r=360p&volume=100&start_res=360p&i=m&asset_domain=s3-p.animoto.com&animoto_domain=animoto.com&options=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="432" height="243"></embed></object><p>Try our <a href='http://animoto.com'>slideshow maker</a> at Animoto.</p>


Well, maybe that'll work. If not, the link should do the trick.

Anyway, I thought Animoto was pretty easy to use. It was nice that I could sign in with my Facebook account seeing as how that's where ALL my pictures are. I had one consistent problem, though. When I tried to open my albums, they would sit there and try to load, but, they wouldn't. It may have been a problem with slow Wifi, but, still... Something else I kind of thought was annoying was that it wasn't clear on how to delete pictures. Thanks to the albums not opening right, I had to just post a whole album. My reasoning was that I would just delete what I didn't want and be done. Didn't happen. Thankfully, it took off the last two pictures and left what fit. So, I suppose I can't say too much bad about it.

Overall, I am pleased with the finished product. I chose to put pictures of my son, girlfriend, mom, dad, brother, car odometer, and a cheesecake my girlfriend and I made for this passed Easter. I chose those people and things (minus the cheesecake. I just wanted to put the cheesecake in it because it was AWESOME!) because those are the people and things hold very dear places in my heart, and, I would give anything to let them know what they have meant to me over the last seven years. Longer for my immediate family, and shorter for Lindsay, (my girlfriend) but, seven years ago was when my life really turned around and I realized what they all really meant to me.

On a side note, there is a picture of Lindsay and me standing in a pair of pants that used to fit me. That was an eye opening experience if ever there was one for me. So, that one made the final cut.

thing 20

I CAN'T HELP IT!!!

To the young lady that brought this to class for her website of the day, THANK YOU!!! I love this video!

For those that aren't paying attention, I'm a French major. When I first saw this, I fell in love with it for several reasons. 1. I love it because it is a great guide for learning about the French Revolution and it makes learning fun. Most people I talk to despise history of any kind. Presenting it in this way makes it interesting. I think I would use this as a lead in to talking about the French Revolution and refer back to it as much as possible to keep my class's attention. 2. My Livetext project has a lot to do with French history, but, it has really focused on the Revolution. So, it's really a great resource. I even used this as the "reward" at the end of my interactive PowerPoint.

One really cool aspect of Youtube is that it's really easy to search. Even if you don't know the name of what you're looking for, if you type in what it might be called, it'll usually pop up. Plus, at the end of the videos, it gives you suggestions of things you might like based on what you just saw. That kind of makes life easier for educators because if we look up something like this video above, we might get a few others about similar subject matter that would be a great supplement. One thing about Youtube now is that there are a lot of ads these days. But, the longer ones have a built it skip option after a few seconds, so, it's really not that bad. 

Something that would be nifty to add to the library website is the thing that give suggestions based on your browsing history. So, if I searched stuff like "how to teach French history" a lot, I would have a lot of suggestions on how to teach history or French, or both on the library website every time I got on. It would give it a more personalized feel.

Thing 19

Well, I'm waiting for my approval from TeacherPop as, I'm sure, the rest of you had to do, too. But, in the mean time, I was scrolling down through the list of  other social sites and came across Tastykitchen.com. To this site I say, WIN!!! I love to cook, and, I'm always looking for new recipes because the ones I use right now get stale pretty quick (I hope you'll forgive the pun). I can be creative when I need to be. For example: just the other night, I made a dish I dubbed Italian Garbage. It had hamburger, red, green, and yellow bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms all sautéd (in the original spelling as opposed to the English sauteed) with garlic, parsley, salt, and pepper, mixed with spaghetti and topped with mozzarella and parmesan cheese. It was pretty epic if I do say so myself. to go with it, I made garlic cheese biscuits. You know, those things you get at Red Lobster? But mine are better. Anyway, for me, that kind of lightning doesn't strike me all that often especially while school is in session. So, Tastykitchen.com will really come in handy for me in my daily life.

As far as a professional application, part of my French class consist of a cooking project. I know a few things like quiche, bouillabaisse, and mousse, but, that's really about it as far as my French cuisine repertoire goes. So, later on, this site is really going to come in handy when I'm trying to come up with good culinary ideas for my class.

Thing 18

Here it is. My Facebook profile is here for your pleasure. It's set mostly to private, so, if you want to see more send me a friend request. I'm not big on sending out requests myself. The way I see it, if someone wants to be my friend bad enough, they'll send me one. There are certain times I will send one, but, it's rare.

Anyway, to the blogging!

It's important for educators to know how to use social networking sites for what I would think are pretty obvious reasons. In the last thing we discussed tagging and using tagging as a means of sharing information. Well, on Facebook for example, you can create friend lists within your normal friend list.By making someone a "close friend" you will receive a notification every time they post something. So, if you are a science teacher and are friends with, oh, I don't know, Stephen Hawking, it might be a good idea to make him a "close friend" so that you can get a constant stream of awesome theoretical physics as soon as it becomes available. Likewise, on the more realistic side, you can stay in contact with other teachers in your specific field to gain insight into new ways of teaching a specific topic or handling a particular problem. You know all these reflections we keep having to do?  What do you think good status updates are? I'm not talking about the "OMG! My bf jst tuk me2 da mol an bott me lyk a zillon pars ov shus!" That's not a reflection. That's what I like to call an ocular aneurysm waiting to happen.

One thing I really don't like about Facebook is that it keeps changing. I mean, change is great, but, if it's changing every couple months, that's just confusing. But, as with any change, it just takes a little getting used to. However, by the time you get used to the the last change, there is another one just around the corner. A really good feature of Facebook, though, is what I mentioned earlier about the "close friend" setting. Along with that setting, you can also make groups and get notifications from that group. As far as using this in the classroom, a group would be a great way for teachers to get up to date information from students in a "group classroom", and, that would be a good place to post assignments for students that maybe missed class. Think about D2L but more public and free. Plus, if students want to stay in the Facebook group even after they have left the class, they would be able to help those students that need a little more one on one time. There would of course be drawbacks (as with anything), but, how could this be a bad idea? I mean, who do you know that DOESN'T have a Facebook? Practically no one, I bet. So, why not use this free tool to our advantage? 

thing 17

Tagging is really pretty cool. I can really see how it will help me in my education career. As a french teacher, I won't be able (most likely) to just walk across the hall and get advice from another french teacher. So, tagging and searching tags will probably be my new best friend in a few years. Seeing as how the tags can be accessed from anywhere, I will be able to easily find and use anything I (or someone else) have tagged. One thing I found was this site that focuses on learning French by way of using catchy songs. I remember when I was in high school French class (and even now) we would listen to songs. At the time, I thought it was just supposed to be a change of pace from the same old lecture. But, hearing the songs and trying to sometimes repeat them helped me remember the language and give me more confidence when speaking. The problem is that I only know of a few songs. Now, I'll be able to use social tagging to help me find about as many songs as I could ever want that range from learning body parts to learning the days of the week. And, if I forget the name of a website (which we all so easily do sometimes) all I have to do is search a tag and there it is so that I'm not wasting valuable class time on a search for something that should always be easily accessible  but, for some reason, it isn't.

Thing 16

I chose iGoogle for my first ever personalized start page. It was pretty nifty and easy to use. I chose this one because I already have a Google account, but, I have never really explored it. I'm pretty sure that Google will one day rule the earth... either that or Amazon. Either one would be fine as long as it isn't Wal-mart. But, I digress. The gadgets were really easy to use. I just kind of looked at the page and knew how to use it. I browsed through and changed the background a few times, too, to make it stand out a little more. I did a search for some kind of link for 23 Things to put on there, but, there wasn't one which made me kind of sad. Seeing as how I'm almost done with it, though, I guess it doesn't really matter.

I don't normally make to-do lists or mark a calendar. But, I guess it would be a good habit to get into if I'm going to have to follow a written lesson plan. As far as my daily schedule goes, I'm going to keep that as loosey goosey as I can. But, I did make a to-do list with Remember The Milk. It was a little confusing at first because I started putting in my events for the day, and, it just put them all in alphabetical order. Well, it just so happens that French class doesn't come BEFORE philosophy class chronologically which is what matters. But, pretty quickly, I figured out how to set priorities which took care of that problem. It also had an easy to use "completed" feature so that I could mark off what I did as I did it. I am one of those "why waste paper?" people, but, as far as making things like grocery lists, I just use my phone's notepad. It's a little more practical.

Zamzar is AWESOME!!! I know there is a way to convert documents to different formats without using an outside source, but, it never works for me. Zamzar makes it easy! just upload the document, tell it what to convert to, and that's it. I kind of wish I had done this a few weeks ago, now. My mom was working and had to convert a file into another format. If I had known about Zamzar, I could have helped her more instead of feeling completely helpless. Furthermore, it will help later on in my teaching if I have students submitting anything electronically via Mac/PC that I may not be able to open depending on the system I'm using because it converts to/from any format for any hardware device! Kudos to you Zamzar! Jolly good show!

Thing 15

As I was learning about wiki's, I was thinking about how I could use these as an instructional tool and it came to mind that the PBL project I took part in last semester was pretty much a wiki. The only difference is how it looks and how it is delivered. I got to thinking that maybe I could have all the students create their own wiki in the form of a massive research project due at the end of the semester that counts as 20% of their final exam grade. This particular "thing" really speaks to me because I wrestled in high school. How, you might ask, can I make such a leap? Wrestling is an individualized team sport. All the team points are scored by the individual in their respective matches, and, it is the only sport where, on paper, a team can lose, but, when the scores are fully interpreted and things that are out of the control of the team (like forfeits) out of the score, the losing team ends up winning.

Where am I going with all this?

What is interesting about wiki's is that it is one document that is the collective work of multiple people that are easily identified and verifiable. In other words, If the project suffers, it is easy to see who is to blame for the failure. So, the class can work on it as a group, but, it will be graded individually based on the quality of the information and the amount contributed. Is it possible to do the same thing in other formats, sure. But, using a wiki eliminates all the "he said, she said" and allows me to tell at a glance who did what and who didn't do anything, and, it would create a different dynamic as far as group projects go because the students wouldn't just be working in groups of three or four. They would be working as a class or, possibly, as a community. By using the wiki format, I could make a bigger project for more advanced students that crosses single classroom boundaries and allows all of my classes to work together. All of this might seem idealistic, but, I really think it could work! 

Thing 14

While it is sometimes necessary to describe certain portions of my life using a flowchart, I found actually creating one difficult to do with my original topic. Eventually, I dumbed it down a bit and made one about to pros and cons of pet ownership and whether or not someone should get a pet. That one turned out pretty good, I think.

What I'm most proud of is the mind map I made. Before getting more into this one, I'll say that it really is true that a mind map is more for the creator than it is for the reader, but, on the other hand, isn't what is good for the creator just as good for the reader as it is for the creator? Just some food for thought... Anyway, I am by no means a professional writer. But, I do like to write. I was even published in the annual creative journal "Perceptions" while I was at Columbia State. I'm not trying to toot my own horn, I'm just saying... ANYWAY, I started a book about a year ago. In my mind map, I mapped out a lot of the dimensions of the main character. Here, I'll show you...

Here you have Mason in a nutshell. By no means is this his entire story. But, this is a broad overview of his surface issues. I think this would be a great tool for an English class or any other class where there is being literature taught. I am only recently (within the last two years or so) really getting into reading. I don't know what came over me, but, one day, I just decided to pick it up. Now, I can't wait to get back to it. I think one reason I was never big into reading was because it was hard to see the symbolism and hidden meaning in what was really going on with the characters. A mind map helps to cut to the heart of what the story is really all about which would have really helped me in my earlier years. From the first grade class room talking about Corduroy Bear to the Senior English class talking about Beowulf, mind maps are awesome!

Thing 13

Today, I was asked to use Zoho writer and Google Docs and compare them to see which one I liked more. To be honest, I couldn't pick. They both performed well and there didn't seem to be any real difference between the two other than their abilities to share. Because Google his its fingers in practically everything, It is able to be shared through more mediums. Zoho, however, appears able to only be shared wish other Zoho users.  So, I suppose if I HAD to choose which one I like more, I would have to go with Google Docs just because it can be shared to a wider audience with less hassle.

Either one is great for collaborative work. I say "is" because, while I only have about as much experience with Zoho as could fill a thimble, the overall set up is the same as Google Docs. So, I would think that would be just as effective as  Google Docs as collaborative work. Last semester, I had to do a PBL project in a group. Because we all lived so far apart and had such different class schedules, Google Docs came in very handy. We were always able to access it from wherever we were and meet our deadlines that we set for ourselves. Without Google Docs, we would have had to try to fabricate more time in the day to dedicate to our group work or run the chance of things getting lost in e-mail and not being able to get our points across which would have caused an insurmountable communication barrier.

Thing 12

I have to say that I have found the last few things VERY easy, and, I am really kicking myself right now for not having done all of this sooner. I think, though, that all of this is coming so easy because I already had a Google account, and, I'm always logged in to it. So, all I do is click the link, and, that's it.

 Being a language major, I must say that Google translate is an amazing resource. There are some things that it can't do, though. The biggest one is understand context. A lot of times you can type something in and it spits something back at you that it might as well have not even translated. In other words, it helps to have some kind of general understanding of the language itself before you even open it up. One example of this is that I have a friend that was a Latin major. Granted, that is a dead language, but, one would think that Google translate wouldn't care one way or another if it was dead or alive and kicking. Well,... not so much. She said that Google translate is terrible at translating Latin. From my own experience, it's not all that great at translating English into any language. In order for it to be right, the order of the English that is typed has to be the same as the sentence structure you are translating to. It has gotten a lot better over the last year or so with French. But, it still doesn't do too well with Spanish. As far as Latin goes, my friend is no longer in school, so, there is no follow up to that one. The problem with using Google translate as an educational tool is that it can make you kind of lazy if you aren't careful. It's really easy to fall into that kind of trap with something that easy to use. I don't use it as much now as I used to just because all it does is give me a word. It doesn't help me remember that word or how to use it. Plus, in the case of Spanish and Latin, it often comes out wrong. Granted, that is mostly due to operator error, but, another thing it doesn't always do is explain how to fix what's wrong or why it is wrong in the first place. I will say, however, for someone just needing to know a word or short phrase, Google translate est très bien!

I set up an alert for the Green Bay Packers draft news. I love my Packers. I do my best to keep up with their draft picks, but, some years, I get too caught up in more important things to remember to check in on them. Thanks to Google alerts, I will now be able to keep tack of who they are leaning toward picking up which will help paint the picture of what they might be able to do next year. As far as the benefits to education that Google alerts brings to the table, it can help teachers stay up to date with current trends in education and areas related to education. Just as an experiment, I set up an alert for education. The first site that came up was an article about how the senate GOP's education bill has faced a lot of hardship as of late because of cost concerns and thoughts that education has undergone a lot of changes too recently to be making any more just yet. So, I guess what I'm saying is that it's more for the teacher than it is the student. But, what benefits the teacher usually benefits the student too. 

Thing 11

Well, it turns out that Cool Cat Teacher agrees with me on a couple things: 1. just because someone subscribes to a million websites, it doesn't mean that they are well informed, and, 2. we tend to teach others what they should be learning rather than how to learn. The second part is neither here nor there. But, it's something I have been talking about for the last year or so ever since I finished my Associate's Degree and began looking forward to my time at APSU. The first point, however, is more recent for me. Like... within the last 24 hours. 

So far, the best search tool I have used for this assignment is Google blogs. The other search engines didn't even come close to what I was looking for, but, none were as bad as Topix.net. When I searched something in Google blogs, there was something there that was what I wanted to read. Topix.net, though, would search my key words and itself. It was like Google searched the world and Topix searched its bedroom. It could be that I'm just more used to Google. I hear people say all the time that Bing is a better search engine than Google, but, I just don't see it. I know bad engines. Back when I first started using the internet, I used Yahoo! for everything. Then I saw the light that is Google. But, I digress. 

Thanks to Google blogs, I found several pretty good political blogs. My favorite one is more along the lines of European current events through CNN. I read an article about how some Swiss investment banks are saying that if the salary cap is not raised on their executives, it could drive them to take their business overseas to Asia or New York where there are no caps to speak of which would cripple the European economy now rather than steadily raising the cap over the next several years (because when people give in to the requests of those who claim to have a bargaining chip, that's what happens) and crippling it later. Again, I digress. 

During my "travels", I searched for "french culture" and came across a blog begging the question, "Why are French people so rude?" He says that he went to France and noticed that the their manners were like those of animals and that the men could pass for "queers." My first reaction to this blog was "No wonder they were rude to you. You are judgmental. That's what happens to judgmental people in France! They get treated as if they shouldn't be there!" But, I held my tongue. 

My opinion still remains the same as it was in Thing 10; these are great tools for us as future educators. But, we have to be very selective about, not only the information we find and use, but also, the search engines we approve for use while our students do research. Students are highly impressionable at any age. The last thing we need is for them to come across something bashing other cultures for being a little different from us and carrying that home to their parents or, worse yet, on into their own lives. It's things like that that lead to a life of ignorance and bigotry. If that doesn't speak to my point about teaching students how to learn, I don't know what does. 

Thing 10

RSS, you know, that little orange button that you see every now and then that makes you think "huh? what about my wifi?" really is pretty cool. It turns out that it isn't what I thought it was. I thought it was just like a compatibility thing or some kind of trademark or copyrighting thing. Not only is it not that, but, IT'S ACTUALLY USEFUL! Thanks to RSS, it's now possible to have information come to me instead of having to go look for it. Also, I already had a Gmail and Google plus account, so, my account was already there for me to use.

Just yesterday, I got into a debate with someone (via Facebook of all the ridiculous places) about guns, gun laws, and their global impact. The only good thing about having debates online is the fact that you can cite your sources a lot better than you can in an impromptu face to face debate. In a debate such as that one, I wanted the most up to date facts that I could get my eyes on. The newest numbers I could find were from 2011. Most of the time, that's a good time frame, but, in a debate like that, I wanted numbers from last week! If I had known about how useful RSS is and had been using it to follow current trends on those kinds of things, I may have been able to have a source that was more up to date. As far as teaching goes, RSS wiill help me stay abreast of the current trends in effective educational strategies and  pop culture. In thing nine, I talked about helping to relate a foreign language to a student's life by way of their interests. I used Bart Simpson as an example, but, times change. It will help having a child roughly the same age as my students, but, if his angst is anything like mine was, I'll only see him at dinner time.

I do think, however, that RSS is useful to a fault. Yes, the information that is being received is about as up to date as possible. But, the information is all totally subjective and biased according to what the reader WANTS to read. So, at the very least, the information needs to be researched a little bit at first to make sure it's really what it claims to be and not just some guy sitting at his computer in his dads basement making stuff up based off of Dragon Ball Z Abridged videos and something he read off of a Cheetos bag. I've heard plenty of stuff that sounded like that may have been the origins of a "factual argument." So, don't tell me that those kinds of things don't exist. Overall, I think it's a great new resource for anyone that is hungry for information and wants to know more about knowing more.

Thing 9

So, chances are that you are all familiar with the much beloved memes we see on Facebook. I'm particularly fond of the philociraptor myself. While these have become a part of our social networking lives, what is stopping us from using these as learning tools in the classroom, nothing. The "philociraptor" is cool because it is primarily used to point out contradictions in logic that are typically held as being true statements. While the statement itself may ultimately be true, the main object of it is to be thought provoking which, as teachers, will be our job.

memegenerator.net

That awkward moment, indeed...

These two memes were both created by me at memegenerator.net. It was really easy and free to do. there are a few pictures that can only be accessed if you have an account. But, it's free and only requires an email address and a password. As an historical reference point in my future french class, this meme would be a particularly good tool for showing about how far back France has influenced American culture and vice versa. It's important to note, here, that while the french monarchy aided us in the Revolutionary War, the people of France found it hypocritical that they would be paying for a war for freedom of another country from one monarch just to live under the tyranny of their own. Hence, the French Revolution was born.

 comicstripgenerator.com

One way that really helped me in high school french was translating catchphrases from American pop culture into french. In this example, Bart is demonstrating proper use of the imperative tense by using his famous quote "Don't have a cow!" In order to maintain proper retention of any subject matter, it's important to relate it to the everyday life of the student. By using things like these easy to use picture generators, we can make life easier on ourselves and let the meme say the thousand words for us instead of doing it all ourselves. 

Thing 8

It's a well known fact that visual aides (like colors) help us learn because our brains then can associate things like letters, numbers, and even whole words or sentences with that color which allows us to retain the information better. That being said, one thing people find difficult to learn is a foreign language. With the use of mashups,  visual aids are easier to generate and use, kind of like this one: Bienvenu!







For anyone that may not know, this is "welcome" in french. I grant you that there seems to be too much going on on the surface because it's a new language and all of the letter are in a different form even when they repeat in the word itself. But, because this is (supposed to be) a compound word and the i's and e's sometimes sound the same, it's sometimes hard to keep their positions straight. So, remembering the shapes and colors of the pictures is a good way to remember the overall structure of the word. Also, the word "venu" is the past participle of the verb "vinir" which is "to come". Given that the hardest part of any language (in my opinion) is verbs and tenses, having a visual aide for things like this really helps to keep it all straight.

As far as sharing photos online is concerned, as long as it is done for the betterment of society and there is no real malevolent intent behind it's posting and can thereby do no harm to the poster or others that might be tagged in them, why should there be a problem? There is now a huge problem with people posting pictures or statuses that are doing nothing but make them look immature. Seeing as how potential employers are now wanting to use social media as a tool to delve into the real life of their new hires, it's a good idea to keep certain conversations and photos out of the public eye. I think the old adage of "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" should be invoked a little more often now.

Thing 7

Thing seven is about Flikr and how to use it. I found it really easy to use. there were a lot of really interesting pictures and groups to browse. I started my search by looking around the most recently added pictures. There were a few that I really liked, but, I ultimately decided to search for something a little more noteworthy. I searched through a French tag and found some really beautiful pictures including a few artist renditions of the... well, Leonardo DiCaprio Titanic variety. I finally settled on a picture on on the twentieth page of the philosophy tag that I searched. It was taken by Cody DeMatteis and was taken in 2008 and posted to icanhascheezeburger.com.  The picture is of a cat with a piece of cheese on its face, and, it has a quote form a post modern philosopher named Marshall McLuhan much like the now popular memes that are all over our social media such as Facebook. "Good taste is the first refuge of the non-creative. It is the last-ditch stand of the artist."

As soon as I saw this picture, I fell in love! First of all, the picture itself is pretty hilarious. Second of all, the quote enhances the picture in quite a remarkable way. I see this picture and see a funny image of real life: it isn't cruel, it isn't cute, it just is. To take it a step further the quote is a great explanation of the death of creativity in life and the resurgence of kowtowing to the masses instead of doing something new. An example of this is all the movie remakes in the last several years. I don't know if it's just laziness or if it really is lack of originality, but, don't those two things go hand in hand? There is just such an overwhelming fear of what is out side the box that people are more than willing to think on the edge of it, but, they never take the big plunge and say what is REALLY on their mind. That flows into the new direction and changing face of education right now. We can't be afraid of stepping outside the box and trying new things to get our points across to our students. The reason there is so much pressure on us as future teachers is because the things that worked twenty years ago aren't working as well now. It's up to us to continue to improve ourselves and be creative even when it seems too hard.  Is that what was really meant by the picture as a whole, I doubt it. But, I do know that that is what it means to me.

Thing 6

In thing six, I was asked to browse through Go2Web20 and find a website that I thought was a good learning tool. Well, I normally start these things out with my major in mind since that's what I'll be teaching. But, it's hard to find learning tools for French. So, I went with a broader approach and looked for "education." In doing so, I came across E-learning for kids. It's a pretty awesome tool. It's mostly not in my field of secondary education, but, it is full of great things for people of all ages. It does have some things on there for teenagers and college students to develop leadership, marketing, and other professional skills.  It can also be used for parents who might not know how to explain something to their child just right so that he/she understands it better. Being a parent, I know how difficult it is for me to simplify things so that my six year old can understand them. It could also be used for parents who are home schooling their child. I had that idea because I remember having to be home schooled and how hard it was sometimes for my mom to come up with a good way to keep my attention and listen to what she had to say.

This site has age appropriate tutorials and tests which would be great for lesson re-enforcement, a pretest before starting a new lesson to gauge how much is already known, or just a test in the middle of the lesson to see if the child is paying attention. Between the grades of 1-6, the subject areas range from math, to environmental skills, to English. There are a few things on the site that require a specific download, but, most things on the the site that are completely open for use anytime.

Thing 5

Before I get started with Thing 5, I would like to go ahead and make my main point now because, well, I just can't think of a better way to get this one started.

Web/School 2.0 IS the future of education because the internet has been the future of everything since the first website was launched in the early 90's. And, as far as all this hate of fonts is concerned... GET OVER IT! PLEASE!? It's a font. As long as it's readable, does it really matter? Yes, there are some situations where certain fonts really should or should not be used , but, fonts like Comic Sans are better than fonts like Zapf Dingbats which, when I tried to copy and paste it onto this post from Microsoft Word, the computer pulled what I call a "Google girlfriend" on me and interpreted it and posted what it thought I meant. It didn't do that to Comic Sans, did it? No, because, compared to things like Zapf Dingbats, Comic Sans, is a sight for sore servers. As my friend James just said, "people have too much time on their hands" if they are going to spend their time worrying about the evils of the dreaded Comic Sans. With that much time on your hands, why not do something productive and talk about the new direction of education? 

Now that I'm done with my rant, I have a few points to make from it. 

To me, School 2.0 is the next evolutionary step in education. Rather than teaching students how to find information, over the next few years, the goal should be teaching them how to interpret the information and make sure it makes sense. I think that Steve Hargdon makes a good point when he says that in order to understand this pile of information called internet content, we must add to the pile with our own content. I see this as his way of explaining the difference in fact and truth. Fact is empirical while truth is subjective. The only way to make sense of it all is to look at it and delve into what we think it means. If at the end it doesn't make sense, we start over and go from there. Or, we shift gears in the middle and do something else by pointing out the flaws in our own logic.

However, in order for students to point out their own flaws in their own logic, they must be taught how to reflect on their own logic and not be hypercritical of themselves to the point of discouragement. Steve makes another good point in saying that the the search for information has been taught for decades, but, it now needs to change to interpretation and thinking skills. Some might say that what college is for. Well, guess what. Not any more. Students these days are bored of sitting in a classroom and having facts preached at them from the front of the room. As aforementioned, facts are readily available these days. Sure, some of the same things will still need to be taught in the same factual ways, but, the bulk of most subjects will need to be taught from a real world perspective rather than just being pounded from pulpit in a "BECAUSE I SAID SO!" kind of way. It didn't work for me when I was in school, and, that trend seems to be catching. Now is the time to catch up completely before it's the students that leave us behind.

I think that being a new educator fresh out of school will be beneficial to our first students because we will be a breath of fresh air assuming we play our cards right. Young minds change as the times change and the times change as technology changes. Given that technology changes in the blink of an eye, their minds will change just as fast. In order to make sure that the facts they are looking up are correct, it will be up to us to guide them through the never ending barrage of information and show them how to tell what is real and what is really as stable as a house of cards in a hurricane. Are facts important, yes. But, what matters in the real world is how we interpret those facts and apply those interpretations in life. But, before all else, it's up to us to make sure they are doing their own interpreting and not letting someone else do it for them.

Thing 4

So, in my reading I discovered that it's important to comment. Well, I suppose I knew that it was important all along, but, I have gotten out of the habit because I was tired of being attacked for having an opinion. So, now, as I scroll through my Facebook page, I mostly just like things I agree with and keep my opinion to myself. When someone says something about something I post, though... well, it's fair game then. After all, it is my page. I try to keep it civil, of course, and, when it gets out of hand, I step in. I have rules of decorum and have sometimes had to act as something of a moderator. But, for the most part, my news feed and notifications are pretty quiet these days.

But, one of the topics in the reading was about how commenting helps create a stronger sense of community. I remember a few years ago when I lived in Texarkana, I felt alone. Back then, the only way I had to stay in contact with my friends was through Myspace. When I would post a blog and someone commented on it, I realized that I really wasn't that far away from home. All I had to do was get on Myspace and there I was.

One thing that was mentioned about commenting in  Cool Cat Teacher's blog was the always present Darth Commenter. The Blue Skunk Blog actually called it "being a troll."  Cool Cat Teacher said, basically, not to let one person with a bad attitude get you down. Just because they want to be a jerk doesn't mean that you have to let it get to you.  She also said that when dealing with these "Darth Commenters" that the best thing to do is to merely reflect on why you're blogging. It is a good exercise in figuring out who you are and staring in the face of adversity and either setting the record straight or backing down.

I liked the 10 Techniques to Get More Comments. I think my favorite suggestion was to leave posts open ended. I have a tendency of making things definite and unwavering. Sure they sometimes get a lot of likes, but, likes don't actually mean much in such a wide world of opinions. But, at the same time, some of the things I would talk about end up becoming heated arguments assuming any comments are left (mostly politics in case you were wondering).

The final part of of this assignment was... (drum roll) COMMENTING ON BLOGS!!! I found this part to be more interesting than I initially thought it would be. I found one blog about a woman's weight loss journey called Fashionably Late. It's called Fashionably Late because she got started very late in life with exercise and weight loss. I chose this particular blog because I, too, have struggled with my weight all my life, and, it's nice to know that there is someone out there that has the same thoughts and feelings about it as I do. One thing she said was that she realized that happiness is a choice. I know that it may sound absurd to say that, but, it's true. We are faced with choices every day that we must live with for the rest of our lives. We can either be happy with them or not. If we aren't happy with them, we fix them. If we are happy with them, we leave them be.

The second blog I found was one about another passion of mine which I only acquired a couple years ago during my time at Columbia State: philosophy. The post I chose to comment on was titled "To Thine Own Self Be " The main idea of this post was that there is no such thing as an unauthentic self. The author argued that even people that act in a scripted way are acting in an authentic way because they are still themselves. They did not become a different person. They are merely playing a role, and that someone that may act one way in public and another in private has no alternate persona.They are just authentically acting as a different person. I disagreed starting with a quote from H. Jackson Brown Jr. which stated “Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." From there I inferred that, by his logic, " In the case of those who commit suicide or commit mass murder, many times they are only described as seeming outwardly happy, or keeping to themselves...", "if people only act one way and there is no unauthentic self, then, we can infer that all people that are happy or that keep to themselves are very likely to commit suicide or mass murder. In reality, many people are very outgoing and happy and never commit such atrocities. On the other end of the spectrum, many people are perfectly content with keeping to themselves..."

 Next I found several blogs that were about the 23 things themselves. I wanted to stick with blog posts that were about things that I have already done or was in the process of doing. So, first I found Hayley Carney: Thing 3.  She talked about blogs are a great way of keeping parents involved with their child's learning and teacher's education process. As I was reading I began to think that if the parents remain involved on such a level as she talked about, it could, potentially, do away with the need for parent teacher conferences because all issues can be addressed in real time rather than waiting a couple months to have the meeting and than waiting another couple months for the results.

Next I commented on  Valerie McAllister: Thing 1. She said that she has the most trouble viewing problems as challenges and that it's a challenge in itself to not view problems as problems. I told her that it sounded like she was on the right track because she had already identified her first challenge. I also told her that it also could be a contextual problem because some use their solutions to problems to define them where as others use the experience in overcoming a challenge to define them.

The third group member blog I came across was Alena Glassford: Thing 2. She talked about how excited she was that she was being given a chance to pick up blogging again and how difficult it was for her to set up her new blog because of how much had changed since she had last done it. She also talked about how hard it was to close out all of her old blogs. I felt compelled to contrast our individual experiences and tell her that I wasn't excited at all to begin with, but, now, it's really not so bad. I also told her that I felt the same way she did when I closed out my blogs but solved the problem by copying and pasting them into a word document so that I could revisit them whenever I needed to.

I then commented on Desirae Sheppard: Thing 4. As I mentioned before, I have always struggled with my weight. Well, it just so happens that my girlfriend has too. When I went to Desirea's blog, I didn't find anything about weight loss, but, she DID mention that she loves to run. I have been trying to help my girlfriend stay motivated keep going to the gym even though the benefits are not immediate. Given that Desirea is a highly motivated runner and a female, I sought her advice on how she stays motivated as a woman to keep going to the gym or the track. Staying motivated as a male is different, I think, because men see results faster than women. So, I can use all the help I can get as far as helping my girlfriend stay on track.

The last blog I found was Rachel Burkhart: Thing 3. I actually sought out Rachel's blog because of Desirea's blog. She mentioned that she thought Rachel made a good point about students spending a lot of time on the internet and how students open up easier online than they do in person. So the use of blogs makes sense. Needless to say, I was concerned because there was nothing in her post about the possible dangers of opening up online and shutting down in person. I went to Rachel's blog and was discouraged to find that she hadn't mentioned those dangers either. I took it upon myself to point out that "...using blogs is a good starting point to increase student involvement..." but "...it will be our responsibility as educators to ensure that our students understand that they aren't just talking to a computer or a cell phone."

In conclusion, I realized that commenting is important is many different ways. It's important to constructively point out mistakes or omissions. And, it's equally as important to re-enforce the position of the thoughts that are worth re-enforcing so that they may take root in your minds and make their way to our hearts and allow for the maximum amount of growth possible so that we can all reach our potential as one race: a HUMAN race.

Thing 3

     Last semester, I had a group project to do. Given that we all lived far away from each other, one way we stayed in contact was through the use of our AP onestop discussion board which acts (in a way) as a small scale blog. There was never a time when we weren't all more than a few clicks and key strokes away from each other if there was ever a problem. Thanks to that, we were able to put together a fantastic final presentation. Somehow, I expect that I will have to use that feature in future group projects. 

     Likewise, I think that blogs would be very useful as an aide for high school students learning a foreign language. When I was in high school, one of the things I loved about my French class was that we hardly ever had homework. Looking back on that, I know now that she never gave us homework because she knew that most parents wouldn't be able to help with it even if they were willing to help to begin with. Through the use of blogs, I would be able to have an open dialogue with students that need help in a specific facet of French and give a little more work to those who might need a little extra challenge. I have heard from a lot of people (including teachers) that every student needs an IEP. Blogging, while not perfect, is a step in the right direction of allowing students to work at their own pace and be more involved in their own education. 

thing 2

    Before now, I had only had one prior experience in blogging. But, to be fair, it wasn't really a success. Back when it was still popular in America, I had a Myspace account. Mostly, I wrote about sports and cars. My first ever blog post was a rant about how ridiculous lowered trucks and jacked up cars are. Compared to this experience, setting up my Myspace was really easy. Writing blogs came quite naturally to me because I have a tendency to rant, and, blogging acted as an outlet for certain things that I like to rant about... like sports and cars. Later on, it became a way to stay in touch with my friends and family along with a kind of journal that I could always go to when I had something on my mind during troubled times.

      I think the difficulties I had in setting up this blog, though, stem, primarily from my frustration of having so many new accounts to keep up with that began last semester in 2100. By the end of this semester (right when I will no longer be required to keep some of these accounts active) I should be a lot less stressed about all of it. The main problem I have been having is with syncing all of my accounts together. For some reason, when I synced my Yahoo, Gmail, and Blogger accounts, my passwords all changed. But, that could very well have happened while I was in some sort of zombie like state of fatigue thanks to the stress that every new semester seems to always bring to me.

     I am very direct. What you see is what you get. So, it makes sense that my avatar and posting name should reflect that. My avatar is probably pretty bland compared to what I could have done and what others may have done. But, it's me, nothing more and nothing less. I am a fairly laid back kind of guy. To be otherwise isn't very conducive to learning or educating in my opinion. My avatar was created in as close to my own image as I could get. If there is one area of my personality that I might be called a stickler about it is probably self comfort. I know what it's like to not be comfortable in my own skin, and, I don't want to feel like that again. So, I do my best to be myself in all aspects of my life which includes the creation of an electronic version of myself. I have worked long and hard to be able to answer the question of who I want to be in one word: me. I see no reason to change that even if it is just an avatar on Blogger.
   

thing 1

     For the most part, I think lifelong learning will come naturally for me. A few years ago, I worked with a man that said when we stop learning we stop living. Before that moment, I thought  I wanted to teach, but, after he said that, I knew it was what I wanted to do.

     The habit that would come easiest to me would be seeing problems as challenges. I have never been the type to shy away from a challenge. In fact, that's how I got myself to quit smoking. When people look at things like problems, they seem insurmountable. But, when faced with a challenge, people take it as an attack and like to lash out and fight back. It's human nature. Much like Kennedy said, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

     The hardest habit for me to pick up, I think, would be playing. When I was 18, I moved out on my own, and, my idea of play changed to something that many others don't typically enjoy. So, it's hard, sometimes, to fully enjoy myself when no one else is able or willing to do what anyone else thinks would be fun at the time. Also, my son wants to play sometimes, but, it's hard to find the time to play with him, or, I find myself bored with playing with toys, so, it often ends more abruptly than what it probably should. Perhaps looking at finding time to play as a challenge will help me. 

     In conclusion, I think that lifelong learning will come fairly easy to me as long as I keep an open mind about life in general and remember that just because something is new doesn't mean it's bad. Even if it seems scary at first, it's nothing more that a challenge to be overcome.