Commenting when it comes to blogs, plays a very vital role! Without comments, no conversations can be held, or feedback given. Feedback offers peer-friendly critiques, as well as fundamental arguments that allow you to defend your ideas or see the other side of things. Commenting provides conversation with others, if thought and time is put into the comment itself; no one will want to hold a substantial conversation if all you can think of to say is "Yea, cool, I agree with this."
Commenting also allows you to interact with others, to state your opinion on matters, or even give your feedback to others to encourage them to continue writing. It is a valuable asset to blogging, for without comments or commenting you're just writing to an empty house. Might as well write in a journal!
As required I chose five of my classmate's blogs to comment on, and I chose these classmates at random, reading through each of their posts and commenting on a post that interested me. For instance, Ashley Saunders posted about google documents under one of her things and I commented on this post marveling at what cool technology this is! I myself already have a dropbox, a very similar storage system, and I recommended that she try it out as well along with google docs. I also commented on Alexis Wylie's blog about Pandora, giving my opinion on it's usefulness for the classroom. As for the two blogs, I'm still figuring out how to search for things... so I will get back too it! However, here are the names of the blogs I commented on in my class: Gonna Learn 23 Things, The Wylie Things, Miss McLeroy, Miss McLeroy, and 23 Things!. As for the two non-class blogs, I chose a fashion blog that was created by my friend and old roommate. I enjoy reading her thoughts on fashion, her thoughts on self motivation and seeing her outfit updates because she absolutely rocks the style that she has created for herself; she is just so unique and so inspirational! The second blog took me some time to find, I decided to challenge myself and search for a blog that covered an interest of mine: Yellowstone National Park. And I found one! It's amazing, and it chronicles a woman's one-year adventure in Yellowstone as a Park Ranger. She paints a beautiful picture with her words, and describes moving into the interior of the park and living there, something I dream of doing one day. She's even begun to raise a family there! I know there is a small schoolhouse in the park, so I'm crossing my fingers that I could possibly one day, move out there and teach!
Blogs I posted to:
Ashley Saunders: Gonna Learn 23 Things
Alexis Wylie: The Wylie Things
Alana McLeroy
Desmond Lymon
Amber Rose
One year in Yellowstone
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Thing #3--Blogging in the classroom
How would blogging help my career or work in the classroom? This is an interesting and stumping question, so I referred to the site Dr. Wall provided a link to in order to get some ideas churning. So many things a blog can do according to this site! The immediate thing that came to me after reading a few of these ideas was communication. By starting a blog for specific classes or classrooms you could make class communication both fun and easy for students. You could upload assignments to a blog page with detailed descriptions, links to resources, other safe informative websites and even an educational game if you find one pertaining to your subject/topic.
Another helpful thing a blog can be used to do is record your teaching experiences. By doing this you can share with teachers all of the globe your time in the classroom, how you solve certain problems, your lesson plans, project ideas and so much more! It would be a great way to give back to your teaching community and receive some feedback from peers in the field, teaching in different environments.
Blogs can potentially be a wonderful tool AND resource if only you put your mind too it; and even if you have a hard time doing that there are plenty of helpful sites out there that can give you ideas like the EduBlog Insights.
Another helpful thing a blog can be used to do is record your teaching experiences. By doing this you can share with teachers all of the globe your time in the classroom, how you solve certain problems, your lesson plans, project ideas and so much more! It would be a great way to give back to your teaching community and receive some feedback from peers in the field, teaching in different environments.
Blogs can potentially be a wonderful tool AND resource if only you put your mind too it; and even if you have a hard time doing that there are plenty of helpful sites out there that can give you ideas like the EduBlog Insights.
Thing #2--Blog creating experience
I decided to simply use my real name as my posting name so that it is easy for me to remember, and not as embarrassing as using my online aliases. I'm a bit of a geek, so it seems like it would be unprofessional to use those names for this purpose. I chose my blog name for a similar reason; I chose to simply use my name and the current year so I can easily remember it and hopefully it will be easier for my professor to find and read : )
Creating the blog however was very stressful. I didn't keep up with my username, password and url so it was hard to find my blog. I therefore had to recreate it and start over, luckily I had only done things 1-3 so catching up isn't so bad. But this experience scared me, and taught me that I need to take better care of my many usernames and passwords. Blogging in general however looks really fun, but when you have no time it seems a bit silly. Especially since I already spend too much time on Facebook and Google as it is (when I can't sleep I google animals and draw them).
As for my avatar, or my "doppleme" I feel is a good representation of myself. I am often confused or find myself donning a look of surprise often. I prefer to wear comfortable clothing over something "cute"or professional when I can avoid it, thus she's wearing a simple t-shirt, some jeans and tennis shoes. It was hard to find a hair style that fit though haha, cause my hair is so odd. It's not straight, but not curly, a strange wavy mix that changes with the weather; flat in dry weather, and curly in humidity. She's not holding anything for now because although I love coffee, I'm too poor to buy it daily at Starbucks! So I make my own. Once I have another coin she'll be holding a pony though, I can guarantee you that, to show off my dorkiness. (I love My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!)
Overall, the creation experience for the blog was alright, and I learned a valuable lesson: keep a record of all your passwords, usernames and url addresses! It was pretty easy to get this together the second time around though, so there's my silver lining. I hope I'm able to get the hang of this new technology and stay up to date with all the progress so I'm not behind my students in the future!
Creating the blog however was very stressful. I didn't keep up with my username, password and url so it was hard to find my blog. I therefore had to recreate it and start over, luckily I had only done things 1-3 so catching up isn't so bad. But this experience scared me, and taught me that I need to take better care of my many usernames and passwords. Blogging in general however looks really fun, but when you have no time it seems a bit silly. Especially since I already spend too much time on Facebook and Google as it is (when I can't sleep I google animals and draw them).
As for my avatar, or my "doppleme" I feel is a good representation of myself. I am often confused or find myself donning a look of surprise often. I prefer to wear comfortable clothing over something "cute"or professional when I can avoid it, thus she's wearing a simple t-shirt, some jeans and tennis shoes. It was hard to find a hair style that fit though haha, cause my hair is so odd. It's not straight, but not curly, a strange wavy mix that changes with the weather; flat in dry weather, and curly in humidity. She's not holding anything for now because although I love coffee, I'm too poor to buy it daily at Starbucks! So I make my own. Once I have another coin she'll be holding a pony though, I can guarantee you that, to show off my dorkiness. (I love My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!)
Overall, the creation experience for the blog was alright, and I learned a valuable lesson: keep a record of all your passwords, usernames and url addresses! It was pretty easy to get this together the second time around though, so there's my silver lining. I hope I'm able to get the hang of this new technology and stay up to date with all the progress so I'm not behind my students in the future!
Thing #1--Lifelong learning habits
After reading the slideshow of Seven and 1/2 habits of highly successful lifelong learners, I have narrowed down the two habits that are easiest and hardest for me to deal with.
First is the easiest habit, habit number one: begin with the end in mind.
This habit is something that I've been doing ever since I started college; trying to imagine what the many, many possibilities lay ahead in the future. I am constantly thinking about what hoops I will have to jump through to get to the career I want in life, what I will have to do to succeed, what kind of job(s) can I take on to support myself until then, and I especially ponder the endless possibilities of where I will go once I graduate. There's nothing holding me back, the only place to go is up! But the end of my collegiate journey is where I always begin my thoughts.
Next is the hardest habit, habit number: have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner.
Having confidence in oneself is a very hard thing for many people. It's something I struggle with on a daily basis; some days I feel confidence, other days I'm not sure it exists at all. But these are ups and downs that any growing person has. I have confidence in my learning, but I'm not sure if I'm an effective learner. I have trouble remembering things, and I feel like this is my biggest weakness of effectively learning any subject. It's something I know I need to work on, and will continue to work on so that I can be a competent, effective learner.
This slideshow was very informative and fun, and I'm glad to know the seven and 1/2 habits of lifelong learning!
First is the easiest habit, habit number one: begin with the end in mind.
This habit is something that I've been doing ever since I started college; trying to imagine what the many, many possibilities lay ahead in the future. I am constantly thinking about what hoops I will have to jump through to get to the career I want in life, what I will have to do to succeed, what kind of job(s) can I take on to support myself until then, and I especially ponder the endless possibilities of where I will go once I graduate. There's nothing holding me back, the only place to go is up! But the end of my collegiate journey is where I always begin my thoughts.
Next is the hardest habit, habit number: have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner.
Having confidence in oneself is a very hard thing for many people. It's something I struggle with on a daily basis; some days I feel confidence, other days I'm not sure it exists at all. But these are ups and downs that any growing person has. I have confidence in my learning, but I'm not sure if I'm an effective learner. I have trouble remembering things, and I feel like this is my biggest weakness of effectively learning any subject. It's something I know I need to work on, and will continue to work on so that I can be a competent, effective learner.
This slideshow was very informative and fun, and I'm glad to know the seven and 1/2 habits of lifelong learning!
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