Thing #19... Social Networking!

This was actually very interesting to me. I had no idea that Pinterest had things for teachers. I figured that educators posted things but they actually have a link! This is a great way to share new and effective ideas to teach students. Learning should be fun; this is a great way to share reflections on your lessons as well, so others, not only yourself, can benefit from them. I am a member of both Facebook and Twitter. They're great ways to look up and share information via smartphone. Face it, we always have that thing with us now, don't we? I will be plundering Pinterest for Teachers in the very near future!

Thing #18... Whimsy To Go!

Hey again! I made a twitter account for my thing 18. The account can be found (and followed) here. Woohoo! Thanks Guys! I did tweet a bunch of tweets for the hash tag things. There is a lot of great information (on the go, I might add) for educators! I went through and searched each of the hash tags that I tweeted. This can be done by clicking them. Hashtags on the timeline are hyperlinks! Woohoo! So, I found some awesome accounts to follow. Within minutes, I found a whopping 30 accounts! I was shocked. Twitter is a great way to keep up with what is "trending." Students will be aware of it. Keep up or ahead with the technology avalanche trying to bury educators. Impress them with your knowledge of their current events. This wil definitely help me with my autism research. The available information is boggling.

Thing #17... Social Bookmarking is... Delicious!

Guess what?! I've got another social bookmarking website! It's called Delicious, and trust me you guys. It is. It's awesome and I think it would be a great way to integrate bookmarking into the classroom. It even has a smart phone app. This means, even if you're sitting in traffic (not moving, of course!), at the doctor's office waiting to be seen, or laying in bed at night because your shoulders are too tense to hunch over a pile of ungraded papers and a laptop any longer, YOU CAN LAY IN BED AND FIND WEBSITES TO BOOKMARK AND INTRODUCE IN CLASS THE NEXT DAY!!! I don't know about you, but sometimes my best discoveries have been when surfing the internet on my phone because I'm sick of tossing and turning! Plus you can just drop off to sleep and the worst thing that could happen is going to be a black eye from dropping your phone on your face. This is when you learn to lay on your side and hold the phone out instead of over. Speaking from experience, people.

Thing #16... Woohoo, Symbaloo!

I've got a new home page and it is no longer Google! Can you people believe it? I've had Google as my homepage for the past 8.5 years. Who wants to know what it is now? Okay! Since I got the million and a half screaming and jumping up and down "I do's," I'm going to share. My new homepage is Symbaloo. Everyone who knows me knows very well that I am a list person. I have lists EVERYWHERE. My life has gotten more eco-friendly since I've gotten a smart phone. I use the electronic notepad and can have as many notes as I feel like it, all in one place. But then... I forget to look at the notepad application on my phone. So then what good is it doing? It's doing me about as much good as having bat eyes and trying to see in the sunlight. I'm now able to completely put EVERYTHING on my homepage so I can see it every time I open my internet browser. I don't know about you, but as a college student, the internet is my best friend. I will see this list a lot, and it can compile my bookmarks in ONE place! And it's easy to edit! Woohoo!!!

Thing #15... Wiki's On The Scene!

Hey guys! I made a Wiki! Look at it sometime! and if you click here, it will link you to it! It's only taken me 15 posts to figure out the link thing. I think using a Wiki would be a great way to make an electronic syllabus. This would make it accessible to anyone with a computer and an internet connection. Instead of the students always hounding me as their teacher, asking what is due next, I can say: Check the class Wiki. Due dates and such could be listed here. I think it would be a great way to save time. Lord knows that we only have 24 hours in the day to eat, sleep, teach, plan, grade, and try to relax. Haha, what is this relaxation of which you speak? I certainly have no clue.

Thing #14... Go With The Flow! Bling!

Okay, so I'm back again. This time I went to two different websites and compared them. The first one was Gliffy and the second was Bubbl.us I really liked the options between these two sites. I had heard of flow charts, but I'd never heard of a mind map. I am actually very impressed with a mind map. I want to begin to use the mind maps for my own brainstorming tool and to help me organize my thoughts for a large paper. I think that a mind map would be a great way to teach the organization of a paper. Using the bubbles, you can have one for introduction and then have mini bubbles underneath them that contain individual sentences. This would be a great way to teach students without them realizing they are having to write papers. It could inspire children to write.

Thing #13... Google Drive is a dream!

Thing 13! I prefer the Google Drive, personally. I think it is much more accessible than Zoho, but that is my own opinion. I think this is great to help students with group projects. They would all have access to the Google Drive through an account and resave it so everyone could see the updated version. This is awesome.