Is It The End Or Just The Beginning?

Here are my personal thoughts on 23 Things. Overall it was a helpful exercise. It executed what was necessary for this course which is a strengthening of usage of technology for the classroom. There were plenty of ideas and helpful tools shared throughout the Things. At this project's closing, here are my final thoughts:

This is a sixteen week course. Limit 23 Things to 16 Things and have one Thing due each week (this can be checked at anytime by seeing the submission date). I am not saying to drop 7 Things. What I am saying is maybe drop one or two that may be outdated or redundant, combine a couple of the easier assignments, and make this an assignment that can be kept up with and managed throughout the semester. This would almost eliminate the issue of students waiting until the last minute to complete these assignments, and most likely doing a less than outstanding job at completion. That is my two cents.

To conlude, I enjoyed many of these Things. Animoto was outstanding. Pageflakes is now a permanent homepage on my personal laptop. Social networking was a given, but please look into Google+ instead of so much weight on Twitter/Facebook. Just a thought. YouTube is essential for those who aren't as familiar with it. Livebinder was awful, but that is just personal opinion. I liked that Wiki was recognized and included. Frankly, I don't think it's the evil website tool that many at university level like to make it out to be, though I do understand not using it for a major research assignment. Thing 14 was another project I found relevant, but confusing. I can only imagine how difficult some of these Things are for people who lack basic computer skills and knowledge. Thing 12 was a great area for learning much more about Google (again Google+ can be touched on in this area). Thing 9 and Thing 8 were fun and were interesting as far as creativity for teachers. Thing 4 was a given, but may be a good learning tool for those new to social networking and blogging.

All in all I learned a lot from this course. The instruction was incredible. The only other improvement would perhaps be to make sure the 23 Things align with what LiveText assignments we are currently working on or getting ready to cover. Otherwise, keep up the great ideas. This obviously took time to put together, and I certainly learned a lot. I will walk away from this course a better expert at powerpoint, word, excel, and flikr, just to name a few. Thank you.

Thing 23: Creative Commons

This Thing should be way earlier in the list of Things we do for this course. We learned of Creative Commons some time ago, and I now religiously use it to locate photos for my school projects, so that I know I'm "safe." What I mean by safe is that I am not wrongly taking someone else's work off the internet. I am taking work that someone has granted others permission to use.

Dr. Wall asked that we locate something on her blog of 23 things that was good use of Creative Commons. I hadn't realized at the time of doing Thing 21 (Animoto = Animazing; yes, I've renamed it), but sure enough she had borrowed that entire exercise from a different website. At the very bottom of the exercise she said this:

 (originally posted on Explore...Discover...Play: Learning 2.1 and used here under a Creative Commons license)

I was able to click on the link to find the original assignment. She gave credit where credit was due, and did the right thing, as we've been learning in this course. Creative Commons is easily accessible, as I've learned here in this course, on both Flikr.com and basic Google Image Search. Sadly, I was unaware of it before this course. I knew of copyright laws, obviously, but this is an area that should be taught to us college folk as freshmen. It's never too late, however, and I will know for the rest of my college career (and real life that follows) how to legally use others' work without worry of breaking any laws.

Thing 22: Keepin' it Together: Livebinders

LiveBinders was an interesting (and somewhat time consuming) assignment. Frankly, I can see how it would be helpful in a class setting, and I can see how it can be beneficial to schools and parents, but it was a more difficult, timely task.

How it would be helpful is obvious: like a webquest, you (educator, school board member, parent, etc) choose the websites that children can go to. This weeds out unsafe websites. It also weeds out unnecessary websites.

I created three main folders: Eclipses, The Moon, and The Sun. I will hyperlink Eclipses since the embed instructions are not working for this assignment. I added folders and sub-folders based on where they fell in comparison to the main folders. In all, it's a very convenient tool, but much easier to use for a child than for the maker, which is to be expected with the research that had to be done, and the safety precautions that had to be followed.


Eclipse LiveBinder

Thing 21: Animoto

Animoto is animazing. I'm sharing this with friends this holiday season. I will make more. This was one of the easiest "things" of this blog, seeing how I had not heard about it before this class, and frankly is one of the niftiest little side projects. It would be of use in a classroom as a screen saver, or could be e-mailed to parents after an event such as a holiday party or a field trip. There are numerous obvious ways a person can use it outside of a work environment. It already has holiday themes up and ready for the upcoming winter season. Personally, I stuck to the oldies, as we haven't quite got our Christmas pictures taken yet. Pick your pictures from your computer, Facebook, or Flikr quickly and easily, pick a theme, pick a background song, and you're done. Another great, quick tool for teachers to use. See below titled "Aaron and Me" for direct link to my video.

Aaron and Me

Aaron and Me

Thing 20: You. too, can YouTube

I love YouTube. I'm not just saying that either. Years ago there was a promotional section of short, independent films, and I was sold on YouTube ever since. Some of those videos are still in my top ten when I show others my favorite YouTube clips. YouTube is my friend when there is something I need help with. While the husband was deployed, I YouTubed (see, it's even a verb) how to use an electric drill. Recently, I went a step further by learning how to upload my own video to YouTube to share with others. The reason? I rely entirely on Facebook, and when I couldn't upload a video on Facebook (it was too long, go figure), I was left with having to learn to upload it to YouTube. This is the video I will share with you, my blog reader, today. The attached video is my first, and so far only video on YouTube, but you can expect more. Everyone should YouTube. You learn things, you self entertain, and you share. No wonder it's so popular!

Thing 19: Beyond Facebook

I Ning! Once my log-in was approved, I was easily able to feel my way around this website. The badge was self explanatory, though changing my profile picture wasn't quite as simple as just uploading one. However one must expect all social networking sites to differ somewhat. It's good that it's specifically aimed at teacher and teacher educators, so you know that you are among peers, and it's a one-stop spot to reach friends, coworkers, etc., and get assistance or offer ideas or input to others.

Other options available included music ideas. Project Playlist is a nifty way to enjoy personal picks of enjoyable tunes without the worry of purchasing them. Music can get rather expensive to obtain if obtained legally, and legally is the safe and smart way to go. Another great way to enjoy and discover new music would be Pandora. Pandora is tricky because there is no definitive structure. The next song may be one never heard before, and there's a risk of music being inappropriate if used in a classroom setting, however this may not be an issue when on children's stations or classical stations. I believe the point of this exercise was to expand horizons through networking and see that interest-specific sites do exist. Dr. Wall gave us a few to look at. TeacherPop is great for reasons already mentioned, while the teacher can be a member of other sites for other interests.

Thing 18: Explore Social Networking

Social networking exploded around the turn of the century with a website known as myspace.com, and while it's no longer "top dog" in the social networking area, it deserved its due credit. Facebook and Twitter are now the "in" networks, although Google+ may be the "top dog" of tomorrow. Facebook is an excellent way to keep in contact with people you care about who you cannot keep in contact with personally on a day-to-day basis. I also have a public Twitter account that I use more for business than personal matters. Steph's Twitter They also are wonderful for keeping up with events or topics that interest you personally. While a military spouse, I was a fan (follower) of military-based facebook pages ranging from troop support networks to housewives who were crafty at making military gadgets that I may like to buy or ogle at. As my interests change and my life changes, I follow different pages. I currently follow Austin Peay pages, local newspaper pages, and smaller pages important to more random groups of people, such as pages that follow television shows. I especially love my Facebook and Twitter both because they are free ways for me to keep in touch with my international friends, one of which I met while he was here attending Austin Peay! I keep constant ties with my family in Virginia, Colorado, Georgia, the list goes on and on! I see pictures of people I care about updated and tagged constantly. Social Networking is a must have in a constantly moving world, especially one in which we can keep in touch with those far from us. We must keep up with them, learn to follow them from the luxury of our phones (this is the technology of today), and be ready for the technology of tomorrow so that we are not left behind.

Thing 17: Tagging and Social Bookmarking with Delicious

After viewing the short introductory video, I headed over to Delicious and created an account. Immediately I was looking at Featured Stacks. After searching in "educational technology," I came upon stacks at the top and links below that promised some ties to my search. The second largest link was from a website titled "howstuffworks.com." It is important to mention after opening my account that I did as the video had requested and placed a link in my toolbar marked "save on delicious." So, I went to howstuffworks.com and then clicked save on delicious, and a box popped up allowing me to make tags for my save. The tags are a great way to not only save links, but to re-find those links as vast additions of websites are added in the future. This is a great tool in any classroom, and would definitely help elementary teachers in that they could tag by different subject area as well as "homework help," "test preparation," and so on. Also, a teacher can access and save websites from the comfort of their home and be able to access their tagged links at work the next day from a different computer. Also, others can see my tags, so if a fellow teacher wants to see what websites I may be using in our are of curriculum, it's as easy as finding me on Delicious. It's easy to use and convenient, and as I've stated before, convenience is key.

Thing 16: Get Organized with Web 2.0 Tools

To start, I created a homepage that I was unfamiliar with. I chose Pageflakes. This is also why it appealed to me. I wanted a challenge. I was not disappointed. In actuality, it was a pretty incredible process. Being slightly familiar with iGoogle, I was expecting basics, such as the weather and possibly a calendar, but there was much more. First, I personalized the weather section. Next, I decided to be creative and attempt to tie my previously made Google calendar (from this class) to the generic calendar on the homepage, and it worked! At this point I was pretty excited, but I digress. I tied my e-mail, my facebook, and my twitter to the homepage. Alerts would just pop up without me having to have these different links open. There was even a news box and flickr box for local news and photos. Simply put, I'm sold. This covers my social network (Facebook, Twitter, Email), my local news, events, weather, and my own personal calendar from google! Not only will I use Pageflakes in the future, I will be asking my boss if I can incorporate it at the office (minus the social networking, of course).

The online calendars are an area we've touched already in our 23 things. I am in love with my Google personalized calendar and am still currently using it. I was excited to find that it even rolled over onto my iPhone, and to this day I don't know how! I was literally marking my phone calendar one day and saw that my events saved on Google were now there, so I can only assume my calendar on the iPhone was always the Google calendar, and I simply wasn't aware. This calendar has been incredibly useful because, since it is online, it can be accessed anywhere. Even on my phone. There are also nifty calendars that you can find at 
http://www.icalshare.com/ that offer options as neat as a personalized Nashville Zoo calendar.

As far as to-do lists, Pageflakes also offered one of these. I was sad that I could not tie an outside url to it like I had been able to for the calendar. I already have a great to-do list account also learned of from this course from remember the milk. I like my to-do list, however I find it just as easy to mark events on my calendar and set reminders. Then to find my calendar now personalized on a homepage is as easy as snapping my fingers. Plus, those same reminders pop up on my iPhone like a text message. I imagine everyone will have their own preferences for what they like. I'm learning that applications and formats that are usable in different ways are the most beneficial, and probably are more so in a classroom setting. A calendar accessible from any computer and also a mobile phone sells itself, especially when it's free, easy to use, and sends reminders. Others may prefer a to-do list. I may use Remember the Milk after this course, but until it is transferable to my new homepage, it may not be as convenient for me, and when someone is busy, it simply comes down to convenience.

Thing 15: What in the World is Wiki?

Ironically, this is my first class in my college career that has asked me to do anything on Wiki. I also happen to agree with Dr. Wall that Wiki can be a great tool for researching and learning, however I understand the huge implications of inaccurate information. This is where Wiki can be problematic. I did enjoy uploading my Thing 8 on to the 23 things wiki wall for everyone to enjoy. It's not so much my photography session I'm sharing so much as the map of where they were taken. Someone in Clarksville may want to know where that nifty mid-century style train is located that I am leaning against. Certain things are not found every day.

To go further, on Wiki I can even create a new wikispaces like the link that Dr. Wall had as an example in Thing 15. There could be a wikispaces specifically for downtown Clarksville, and part of the "Things To Do" area could show the nifty red train on tenth street.

When used wisely, Wiki is a great tool. It can be fun, it can be helpful, and it can even be edited and personalized. The important key with any wiki usage is simply to make sure the information is accurate. 

Thing 14 - Go With the Flow

For thing 14, I created a Flowchart account and played with mindmaps on mindmeister.com.  Frankly, I found Flowchart relatively simple to understand with its choices of basic layouts that could be used, altered, or recreated, whereas I found mindmeister.com to be difficult. For the mind maps on mindmeister, I had to create from scratch. Also, flowcharts were more concrete, where mind maps were relatively abstract. In this I mean that there were solid connection in both cases, but a flowchart used straight arrows, block shapes, and even a grid to keep everything looking professional. A mind map on mindmeister was bubbly and random. Mindmeister would be a fun tool for a random connection of thoughts, however for a straight play-by-play of events, such as a timeline or a family tree, the flowchart seems to be the more realistic choice. Although a sample was not requested, I included the fun I had on Flowchart.com differentiating solar and lunar eclipses.

Thing 13 - Web-based Applications

While visting Zoho Writer, I was shocked to import a Microsoft Word document with no issue. The document came on to the screen just as if I were using Word. Word, software that starts at $69 if you get it at discount, can be mirrored by a free website. Unbelievable. There are tabs along the top as you open or create new documents. There is a file menu similar to that found in Word. There are differences, naturally, as well. There is an insert tab, and you can insert equations into the document. You can enter quotations. You can switch to the view tab and view a document as full page, or as normal view, etc. You can even get an html link to your document! The benefit to this website is obvious. For the students that don't have access to Microsoft, here's a free, easy-to-use replacement.

I then played on Google Docs. Docs not only has a version of Word, but of other Microsoft-like products as well. They are relatively easy to use if one has prior knowledge of Microsoft products. Here's a link of a random spreadsheet I made: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?  key=0AvfvT_Ro_88VdE41bms5NWZRcnFUa3M1WnhkRFpJekE&hl=en_US
Both of these websites can be shared with students so that they can function on a computer that doesn't have Microsoft. They may even be better than using old versions of Microsoft. I'd venture to say they are, as they are way more up to date than say, Excel or Word 03. I had no clue products like this existed. Now I can tell my friends about these sites instead of purchasing generic Word products at a store. Free is better than paying for generic is something is needed but Windows is unavailable.

Thing 12 - The Google

I titled this "The Google" because this is comically what Google is referred to in social circles since it is the go-to place for anything internet. I decided to look into Google Calendar as I love to keep myself organized, and I'm hoping to look into sharing my Google Calendar with friends and visitors. I began putting in basic information, and was immediately blown away! I am already in love with Google Calendar, and this is why: ease of use. I lined up today's schedule for myself: class at 8 am, class at 10 am, work at 11 am. Then I unchecked personal reminders, as I know daily where I need to be currently, however now my friends can see where I am at a given time (once I know how to share this information). However with each event I was able to set a repeat function, and this is where Calendar really got cool. Not only could I set a repeat function for, say Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but I could place an end date as the end of the semester. So after the end date I am free to put new data without having to delete any old information! Some events are daily, some are every other day, and different events may or may not be repetitive. This would also be fabulous for yearly reminders, just as my rememberthemilk.com calendar is. A calendar such as this would specifically help in the educational atmosphere, as it would allow for public viewing, aka coworkers and students, and students families, so that there is an understanding of when an open house is, or when a project is due, or when you may be at school late. Google Calendar is a super tool for organization, and reminders can be sent to email, which in this day and age means immediate alert via a cellular phone. All around, Google Calendar would be excellent for a teacher. Here's my link: https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=aaronandsteph10%40gmail.com&ctz=America/Chicago

I also played around with Picasa. I was unaware that Google had a photo site. It was interesting because my photos from different sites automatically were already there! Even my new blogger photo was there. Then I learned how to link to the photo directly, so I can send someone a link to a photo of mine without having to give them access to a social site! I think that's neat. Picasa would be great for a teacher since they would already have that google account because of their awesome calendar I mentioned above, so they can pull up photos, or download photos, and they can e-mail parents a link to pictures from the classroom! I think that's just the neatest thing. Here's a link to a random photo of me that Google had saved from a year ago: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/wa4-52p95AlmhStQurKEPQ?feat=directlink

I just continue to love "The Google."

Thing 11 - Finding Good Feeds

With my RSS reader on google already having 5 relevant subcriptions, I am on the hunt to learn more about seeking RSS feeds. Some recommended by 23 things were where I started. Hands down, Google Blog Search was the simplest to use as far as finding blogs by keyword, and entering into those blogs to use the option to follow them. However I found their blog choices by my keywords necessary to be lacking. So I moved on to Topix.net where I was easily able to find science links, and from there it easily walked me through saving new websites (and what I specifically wanted from them) into my Google Reader. The most difficult for me to use or understand was syndic8.com. It was an advanced RSS finder that would be more helpful when I have more experience of RSS feeders. I found a great science feed from Science News, and chose to only follow their articles in hopes it doesn't consume my Reader feed. When using Google Blog I had found a neat older blog from an astronaut which was fun to read, but I couldn't find a way to follow it. I have discovered that simply Googling "RSS feeds" gives lots of websites with information on understanding RSS feeds and how to use them. I plan to look into this more, as I understand the idea and the benefit of them, but am still a little confused on how to follow them via different websites.

Thing 10: RSS Reader and Add Feeds

I initially went to Google Reader only to find that I already somehow had an account going. In this account I was already following two blogs. The two blogs I am following on Google Reader are two of my classmates in Educational Technology, and their blogs were viewable to me immediately. I subscribed to three additional sources to achieve my goal of 5 subscriptions. The three subscriptions I chose to follow were: Dangerously Irrelevant (because the name was interesting, and Dr. Wall recommended it specifically), The Leaf Chronicle (to keep up to date on local happening news and events, and CMCSS (Clarksville Montgomery County School System). I was surprised to find that I could follow the newspaper and our local school system.
I like that RSS brings my interests to me all at once instead of having to google and locate different topics in different areas. I'm looking forward to taking advantage of the newsreaders, as I'm already somewhat familiar with following the Leaf Chronicle on Facebook, so I'm hoping it's a similar idea.
This technology is a great way to quickly keep up to date on things important to me, my life, or my job. It may assist my classroom if it saves me time to focus on other things for my students.
Teachers can use Reader for following a certain subject that may be necessary for their class, or what they are teaching at that time. It also again may save them time in other areas so that they can put more time towards other projects. Time for teachers is very important.
I still really enjoy the feel of internet searching, especially when it comes to random searches or discovering new things, so I don't know if I would fully rely on Reader, but it's a neat new internet tool I may find a reason to use.

Thing 9: Online Image Generator

http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp 

This is a super-fun website! It was incredibly easy to make this fake article, and children would love something like this. It's something like their parents read, but fun and easy to read for them. The website also has other items to generate. I wrote this story myself.

Thing 8: Flickr Mashups

You can see Thing 8 on my wall below my avatar. You can also follow this link: http://imapflickr.com/1ddc51
It took many not-so-great apps to find this app, and it's not only easy, but perfect for a classroom. Start by uploading pictures to Flickr. Next, map out your pictures on Flickr through the "organize and create" link. Map out your photos, then use the iMapFlickr app to map out your photos. This would be a neat way to show children neat landmarks and where they are located in the world, or even in their area. The idea is very neat, however people should always remember to pay mind to what photos they put on the internet, as others will see them if there's a way.

Thing 7: Explore Flickr

I've had very little experience on Flickr before today, and it was a little different to use than say, Facebook photo adding, editing, and tagging. I was able to upload easily however, and I was able to tag "apsu23things." I'm not sure how I feel about my photos being public. These photos are not super personal, so other than negative comments I don't know that I would be too concerned about sharing these photos, but in the future I would probably make my personal photos private. Flickr could be used for a classroom, as it's so easy to upload and share to blogs. I would like more practice with it, as again it's different than anything I've used before. This was a fun project.

Upload Oct. 3rd 2011 074

Upload Oct. 3rd 2011 074, a photo by Stephanievoris on Flickr.

APSU23THINGS Thing7

Upload Oct. 3rd 2011 073

Upload Oct. 3rd 2011 073, a photo by Stephanievoris on Flickr.

APSU23THINGS Thing 7

Thing 6: Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

As I discovered in Thing 5, Web 2.0 is different from 1.0 in that it is easy for us to not just read what's online, but also to blog, network, make webpages, etc. A 2.0 tool I chose to check out was:
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/
Upon first glance, this website appears archaic in it's simplicity, however upon playing with this website I immediately took a liking to what it could let me do, and how it could help me. This website is specifically great for organization. Not only is it a basic organizer, but one can organize in categories, or view all events in one area. The areas are easily bookmarked by tabs. I was immediately sold when I put in a yearly event, and was given the option of having a yearly reminder! This by itself helps with annual events (birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, etc) that otherwise people tend to forget.
Another great aspect of rememberthemilk.com is the inbox tab. On this website you can choose contacts, and you can send, or "share" events or reminders with them via their inbox, and they can do the same to you!
The best part of this website is that it's iPhone app friendly. Not only can you keep organized reminders, and not only can you be reminded annually, and not only can a contact inform you of a cookout next Friday, or not to forget an important meeting, but this is all accessible via smartphones. This app could be incredibly helpful in a classroom. A teacher could have her students join as her contacts and they could even correspond to events or due projects in this fashion. I've never even heard of this website, but it will be an app on my iPhone when I've completed my 23 things.

Thing 5: School 2.0

According to Susan McLester at techlearning.com, as many as 55% of children 12 to 17 years old use social networking for anything from school-related to simple social-related searches. Personally, I believe 55% is a low estimate. The reality is the age of technology is here, and it's expanding and offering more to educators and students by the day.  What is school 2.0? First understand, according to the Atomic Learning video, the internet was first web 1.0. This meant the internet was accessible to read, but not to do much else. This was also the internet of the prior millenium. Web 2.0 is fast, easy, and cheap. Not only is there much to read and find, but it's simple to build webpages, write blogs, and have social networks. School 2.0 takes advantage of this accessiblity to aid educators and students in the classroom. What are the benefits to school 2.0? David Jakes of techlearning.com defines these benefits as "individual, continual, and highly customized experiences"   "connecting individuals to form a community of learners" and "all contribute and collaborate in what amounts to a global discussion of ideas." Some keywords here would be "continual," as the internet offers social networking and information at any time of the day or night, Monday through Sunday, "connecting" "community" and "global," as in world wide web, literally.
The future is here, and it's fast. At this point it is imperative for educators to keep up with technology for the child to gain the best access to knowledge available, throughout the world from many different sources. We must keep up with our technology, so that our children keep up with the world. That is school 2.0 to me.

Thing 4

Commenting is necessary to help a blog grow and thrive. Also, commenting is a way to share thoughts with those who are discussing topics either of interest to you or areas that you may be able to assist in enhancing a blog with your own insight.

I chose to comment on five recent Things that were of importance to me, or that I felt I had a weighted opinion on.

First, my classmate Amy Mills Thing 21 on Animoto because she and I both agreed on how super of an exercise this was. If a teacher made one of these for one of my daughter's classes and emailed it out say, after a holiday party at the school, I would be ecstatic. What fun.

I commented on Adriana Tate's Thing 18 on Twitter because I have personal feelings on the social networking discussion in Things. Personally, as I mentioned in the comment, Dr. Wall needs to integrate Google+ into this Thing. Google+ may well be the social network king of tomorrow, and frankly from what little I've learned of it thus far (I've had a hard time ditching Facebook simply out of habit), it is very handy about different circles of friends and who can see what post. This would be excellent for someone who has professionals, friends, and family on one "friend list.

I commented on Hannah Shearer's "Is It The End Or Just The Beginning," because I agreed with what she had to say. Some of the assignments were relatively time consuming and redundant, and I would love to see this project condensed down, if for no other reason that to truly appreciate and remember more of the assigned online tasks.

I agreed on Hannah Shingler's comment on Thing 22, LiveBinder, because I agreed with her that it was just too much work for what was involved. However I continued to say that I do see the importance of having something like this for children. Like a webquest, it controls what websites they are going to (assuming they stay on the websites that are put into the folders and subfolders), so it's certainly important to have, just a timely process to create.

Last, I commented on Emily Henson's Thing 20. Emily's an outstanding student and I wanted to check out how her blog was going since last I viewed it. Her YouTube video was too fun, and touched on two things kids love, cute animals and music, that was turned into an educational rap tune. YouTube is incredible. Keep YouTube on this 23 things. It's an essential tool for life, not just teachers.

Thing 3: Blog on using blogging in the classroom.

A professional blog within the curriculum could be essential to involving parents in the day-to-day experiences and expectations of their children, and can also be beneficial to students as well.  Daily blogging on assignments or upcoming projects would keep parents in the loop as to what is due or upcoming for their child, and the child can also use blogging as a reminder of important project dates, or as a way to double check what homework is due the next day.

More experienced blogging may allow for "tagging" of a student, so that if an assignment or project is being mentioned that pertains to them, they may receive an immediate alert on the information instead of having to wait until the next school day.

Blogging would be greatly beneficial to any classroom, K through grade 12 and beyond, whether aimed at parents, students, or both. By the time many of us graduate and enter the education system, blogging may be an expected part of our work day. It certainly seems an excellent way to remain in contact with students and parents, and a great way for parents to remain in touch with the educators.

Easy and Hard Habits of the 7 Habits

The easiest habit to me of the 7 learning habits would be "Play!". Play is the fun time I allot to my family, and we are always on the go, whether we are being active, volunteering our time, or just having a quiet night watching a movie. We make a practice of trying to find fun in fitness and together-time.

The hardest habit out of the 7 habits to me would be "Viewing Problems as Challenges." I don't like problems. I live life trying to avoid them, therefore if a situation arises, I will likely view it as a problem, and simply that. This habit is one that apparently I need to work on breaking.