THE LAST THING!!!!!!!!!

There is so much to say for question number one.  I liked coming up with my avatar. I could have my students use this too when we establish our class website. They would get a kick out of it. I can hardly believe that I actually said it. Yes, I think it would be a good idea to have a class blog for students and parents to check on our classroom happening, assignments, and comment about Spanish cultural topics. For example, I could have the class watch something on TV for homework and then when it is over have them answer questions or make commentaries about it.  That is dependent on students be able to access the particular TV station and/or internet from their home.  It could be worked out.  I also liked the online image generators like Big huge Labs and Image Chef, the flow chart tools, the productive sites like Remember the Milk, and LiveBinder. 

This class has affected my life-long learning tremendously by forcing me to just do things that were out of my technology comfort zone.  I would become very anxious about taking on yet another tech tool that I psyched myself into thinking I will not understand the point of these tools.  In the end, I got these THINGS done and I survived this part.  I may have lost sleep and the patience of my family, as it has been said, no pain no gain. 

I would say that for me it was hard remembering the little things.  I may need to record more of my classes. It was a constant struggle to keep up at times, which took me longer to do something.

The content of this class will be a great influence in my teaching.  It has given me many other sources to use when I teach Spanish to middle-schoolers.  Teaching a foreign language requires students to have opportunities to hear and speak the target language as often as possible.  This class has introduced me to podcasts and online voice recording applications, which my future students can use to gain fluency in Spanish.  

I will keep up with new web 2.0 developments by subscribing to a online website via RSS feed to keep up with a few sites that I found to be innovative and well-maintained on incorporating technology with foreign language teaching. I surprised myself yet again.     

Here is my response for question number two.  Although this 23 Things blog was a good learning experience, I do not think I would be able to keep up with it.  I will try to keep up with the tools that I learned.  I really needed to be in this class so I could update my computer skills as I prepare to enter the classroom.  I have learned a lot.  I will try to be more reflective each day to gain better insight in what I learned. 

Thing #23: Creative Commons

Here is the attribution that shows the Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers blog was based on someone else's work and modified from its original.  I found it on the starter page of the 23 Things I two places. The first one was at the end of our 23 Things for Teachers blog. This is what it stated: 

              "*Note: This project is loosely based upon the website 43Things (which allows you to set and track personal goals) and the Stephen Abram article titled 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006)."  

 

Attribution was also found on the starter page, but on the right bottom area under Credits. It stated the following:
              "Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers is based on Learning 2.0 - 23 Things, a staff development program for the Mesquite Independent School District. That program was based on the Learning 2.0 program that was designed by Helene Blowers and adapted by the California School Library Association and others. Content and style for Learning 2.0 - 23 Things for Teachers has been borrowed and duplicated with permission, under a Creative Commons License."

 

As a future teacher, I could use Creative Commons licensing in the following ways. I could go over creative commons before we do our first research project. I would try to help them understand how other people worked hard to create something and how they need to be given credit for it or how their rights need to be honored.  It would be a good idea for me to show them how to utilize the Creative Commons website, Flickr, and Google to find images, videos, and recordings they could use.  I could also have each student find a photograph, document, or recording they would like to use for a project that has permissions on them.  I would ask the students to select a creative work that could enhance their project, but not something they would be an absolute necessity, since we are not sure how long it would take for the creator to respond.  As a class, including myself, we could go through the process of finding the creator and contacting them to ask for permission to use their work.  I think this will show them a connection to what we are learning in school and how things operate in the real world.



Thing # 22: LiveBinders

I have never used Live Binders before although I have seen that Live Binders were available on ASPU's D2L for saving class content information like syllabi, course module assignments, etc. I am curious to learn more about it. 

The titles of my LiveBinders will be Spanish Lesson Helpers, Classroom Management Tools, and Professional Development Resources.  I selected my Spanish Lesson Helpers as the binder to embed on this post.  I liked this tool.  It was very easy to use.  I could see myself use it in my classroom and with my students.  I could have them use LiveBinders to keep their submit their best work at the end of a marking period or to create a travel portfolio for a hypothetical  trip to a Spanish-speaking country.
Spanish Lesson Plan Helpers

Thing #21: Animoto

Ok. Here is my attempt with making a Animoto Short.  I am trying to be positive about the upcoming experience. Let's see how it takes for me to do this. The time is now 8:16 pm. Well, it too long more than a hour. As I have said in the beginning of this blog, I tend to make all of the mistakes you can think of when first learning how to do something new.  At least we know the tradition continues.  Thank goodness!
My Animoto Video Creation

The Animoto application was not hard to do actually. I think I will use this with my future classes when I teach Spanish.  It would be a great tool for my class to perform skits or interviewing each other as though they were famous Spanish people in Spanish so my students could practice asking questions and responding.  There are so many possibilities.

Thing #20: YouTube and Beyond

I liked the You Tube site. There is so much to explore I lost a lot of time searching for videos.  It's dangerous to browse on such a site. 
I just loved The Kid President videos!!!! He is so adorable and relays wholesome, direct messages that we as adults tend to forget.  In this Kid President Has a Dream video, he reminds us that things do not have to stay the way they are.  Things can change by dreaming about it. Grown ups should not grow out of dreaming. He also inferred that dreaming brings joy to the world.  He challenges us to think of dreams we have for the world.

Until recently, I thought I had to stop dreaming about what I wanted out of life.  After so much time, my dreams are no longer on the back burner and are becoming a reality little by little.  It took a long time to get to this point despite it all I got here and intend to go farther. 

a=GeoBeatshttp://www.go2web20.net/site/?a=GeoBeats

On GeoBeats, they provide video clips of various places from arouind the world.  The videos like the ones I viewed of Spain and Argentina focused on a particular city of that country and described either customs, architecture, historical sites, culinary delights, places of interest when visiting, etc.  This site I chose has a lot of potential. I could use it to have students compare and contrast two or three different Spanish-speaking countries on a particular topic like etiquette or culinary specialties. Another obvious way to use this site is to have students explore places they would like visit in the future and have them explain why and track their future travels on a physical or virtual map of the country.

THING # 20 COMPLETED!!!





 

Thing #19: Beyond Facebook

Question: What did you discover about the best uses of social networking for educators?

Well, the best uses of social networking for educators is attempting to give us ideas in staying connected to the SOCIAL NETWORKING WORLD as we teach so we won't get bogged down and look to social networking for insight or inspiration. What I find funny is that it mentions to try to "Allot time for personal social media use."  It sounds like someone telling me to make sure I make time for myself and not think about work and family responsibilities so much.  Sorry, I digressed.

I am not a member of other social networking sites. For this THING I gravitated towards the cooking sites like Open Food Source and Tasty Kitchen. ( I must be hungry.) The Open Food Source had a lot of ethnic and vegetarian recipes, which is very interesting. I like to check out different recipes. I get bored making the same meals. I would use either of these at home. As for any I might use in the classroom, I surprised myself and really liked the http://classroom20.ning.com/. I liked the ideas they had to incorporate technology in the classroom.  Foreign language teachers can benefit from using technology when creating activities for oral language expression and listening activities. Look out future students!!!! Mrs. Vasquez is going to take her Spanish class to a different level!!!!

TO BE CONTINUED..............





































































































































   
 

Thing # 18: Social Networking

I signed up for a Twitter account!!! I never thought I would have a need to do so. This class is yet again getting me out of my comfort zone. Using hashtags to find some related areas of interest took some time to get used to.  Many of the hashtags I tried did not work or have many followers, so I tried others.  Wait a minute. . . . .  I stand corrected .  I did end up finding hashtags that worked after all.  I had a low tech moment everyone.  Bear with me.

I can see how it can be important for teachers to understand social networking.  It  can be great way to follow others who may have information about job searching. Plus, there's a wealth of current information on professional development opportunities, which will keep your teaching skills current and in demand.  I recognized that Twitter is just like leaving a post-it message for someone. It is brief and to the point and kind of impersonal.  Here's one thing that I did not like about the hashtag search.  When I found one that was of interest and clicked to see more of the feed (Is that what you call it?) or content, it felt like I was walking in on a conversation that had been going on for hours and had no clue what was being discussed.  I felt like I had to go back as far as possible and try to find the start of the  conversation.  In my opinion, that seemed exhausting. 

As far as trying to think of a classroom or school application of Twitter, I will be against it.  Since we now live in a TEXTING & HASHTAG WORLD, the children of this generation are more accustomed to communicating in text and/or hashtag language that their writing skills have become sloppy and haphazard.  I see no reason, in the time being, to support a communication fad that badgers language in such a way.  Am I being too old school and stubborn in my thoughts? What do you think?     

On another note, my seventeen year old daughter was impressed when I told her I was on Twitter now.  I regained some of my cool points with her.  I can live with that.

Thing #17: Delicious Tagging & Bookmarking

For some reason Thing #17 almost made me give up.  I reviewed all of the tutorials and bookmarking sites without any issue.  When it came to joining Delicious, that was when my progress stopped.  I could not join or register for about three days because the window froze when I attempted to accept their terms. I could've been on Thing #20 or so by now.  I sat down again this afternoon with my twelfth grade daughter at my side I was finally able to get through with her help. I was so glad to finally have access. But, then again, I was frustrated because she did the same thing I did and it worked like a charm.  Go figure.

After hearing what a great bookmarking tool Delicious was and dealing with the defiant website, the excitement of exploring the site dissipated quickly. I did see how it could be beneficial for educators to create and organize their bookmarks. Teachers can use Delicious to add their own favorite sites to share with other teachers of the same discipline and find new ones too.

Thing #16: Organizing with Web 2.0 Tools

For this Thing# 16 post I have to talk about the starter page, an online calendar or to-do list  tool, and another tool that would help to organize myself better.  The starter page I chose was Symbaloo.  I liked this tool because it looked a lot like the desktop of my PC with the various icons and such. It did not take long to figure out how to use it. There were just endless tiles or webmixes to choose from that you could easily spend a lot of time browsing if you are not careful.  I would use this tool for school. 

The calendar tool I picked was Remember the Milk. It is super easy to use. Coming from a non-techy person, that says a lot. So kudos to Remember the Milk for making a to-do list tool simple.  I liked the name of the tool too.  As a mom, I am always trying not to forget what we need to get from the grocery store.  After living overseas while raising young children, and having to shop the odd hours of our local  commissary, we've gotten in the habit of bringing home a gallon of milk every time we went to the store.  The name of this tool can help me to remember to check my list.  At least, that is the intent.

The other tool I chose was Habit Forge. The focus of this tool is to provide users support in breaking a bad habit by substituting it with a good habit. It sends you reminders to try new habit everyday for a certain amount of time. It also connects you with others who are trying to do the same thing.  I liked this because I have wanted to start doing more exercises and it is hard for me to make time for myself to do so.  I would use this tool for personal use.

I would recommend all three of these tool to others.


  

Thing #15: Wiki World

I will say that I am/ was one of those people who did not trust any Wikipedia like sources. To me, it was pointless to go on a site to get information that could be changed the next time you access the same topic. I did not see why I should bother with such a source when anybody can change it and not be qualified to do so. I knew the information could be edited, but in my mind it would be a constant battle and exhausting.

Well, after this wiki experience, I can say that I see the advantages. The knowledge gained from the wiki world has opened my eyes to how it can be used.  I am still a little pensive about it.  But, I can see myself using a classroom wiki for students to post some assignments that their peers can comment on and learn from each other and for parents to get a glimpse of our progress.  I like how the Westwood Schools Computer Science wiki was only editable by the teacher and students and the public could view it. That would be how I would set up my classroom wiki.

As for the apsu23thingssandbox, I had no problem opening an account and logging on. I did have trouble inserting my screen shots though. It was frustrating, but I figured  it out. It is just a matter of jumping in and figuring out how I could do certain things. Before I introduce this type of tool to my students I will make sure I can do everything they are expected to so I can guide them. Otherwise, it would waste precious class time trying to figure out the kinks to an application.

Thing #14: Going with the Flow

I chose to open accounts with Gliffy and Mindmeister.  Flowchart.com was quickly ruled out due the wait time for an invite.  I just did not feel like waiting for an invite to access a website, especially when there are other websites I could use.  Mind maps and flowcharts differ in how they can be used.  Mind maps can be used as a brain storming tool, where you are trying to come up with as many related ideas as possible.  It is more useful for a person to clarify their ideas.  From what I understand, flow charts can be used to explain the process of how to do something for the benefit of a group or, for our purposes, our current or future classrooms.

I guess I could use the mind map to set up a plan for one of my projects. I just don't see myself doing that at the moment.

As a child, I do not recall my teachers placing a lot of emphasis on using mind maps to organize our thoughts.  Flow charts were not even mentioned.  With that said, I can see myself using mind maps to help students brain storm ideas for projects and such.  I have found after a lot of reflection that flow charts can be useful in visually presenting SOPs for classroom management.  Here is my test flow chart on how students can find out about assignments. Keep in mind that this is meant for middle school students. Let me know what you think.

Thing #13: Google Drive

For Thing #13, I have seen the video, explored Google Drive applications, did some creating with the applications, and made a post using Google docs about what I found out. You will find a link below that has my Google document. Click it to read more about my adventures in Google Drive. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OEoda6oozPNnjXB-MghfT8CVykAiTAz8ER2WAsA3phw/pub


I created a form in Google Drive that I can use personally. Check out the link.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1cLc6y8vHCouAHJTIRIcU2cRAUkxeCCKecGxxGCEtmnQ/edit?usp=sharing

One way I can see myself using Google Drive in my future classroom is by having my students compose some Spanish sentences using Google docs and share them on our class bog or site. Students can then review the work of two other students and made suggestions for improvement. This will be great way for students to reinforce the grammar points with each other.

I checked out the other web-based application, Zoho and I was not very impressed. Sorry folks. Once I looked at Google Drive, got used to its format, and everything it has to offer, I could not be convinced. I felt it had much more business based needs. I am sure if I wanted to think outside of the box and really try to make it work I could. But, if Google Drive will give me 15 GB of free storage and Zoho was offering 5GB of  the  same, my money's on Google Drive. Case closed.  

Thing # 12: There Is More to Google Than Meets the Eye

I have Google's search engine and Scholar countless of times, but I have not tried its Translate tool. Typically, I am pretty wary of translating websites because they tend to translate word for word and completely miss the context of the original text. Translating is not easy when there can be underlying meanings to what is written. To try it out, I thought it would be funny to have APSU's 23 Things website translated into Spanish. Like I said, I have not used this tool before today, so I was curious as to how the process would work. It was easy. All I had to do was copy the website address and paste it into the left text box. Then, I had to indicate which language the original text was. After that, on the right side of the window I selected the language I wanted it to be translated into. The last thing I had to do was click the blue translate button and wait a few seconds for the results. Surprisingly, Google Translate did a pretty good job in its translation.  I found only a few minor grammatical errors after scanning the first page of the site. The overall context was still there and it was easy to read. I will use this tool again. I will have to say that in teaching Spanish, I am wary of my students using translating sites because they will come to rely on them too much when composing sentences and not try to figure it out for themselves. I'll have to think about this some more. I do not want to completely avoid the pink elephant in the room.

The other Google tool I explored was Google Books. I love to read and am looking for some new books to read for leisure. I explored the site and found some books I was interested in that were samples. I added those to my library. I am excited about trying out sample books. I have never read one before. I did have problems once I selected some books to find out more about them. For some reason, the site kept loading for more than four minutes. I got impatient and went back to my search. This happened for more than four or five books. I'll look for those books some other time. It would be a good to use Google Books in my classroom if my students had a Nexus tablet so they could access Google Books in class. I know someone that has a Nexus tablet and I found out about this possibility from them.

Thing 11: Subscribe to fun......

I did some more searching for RSS feeds using the four suggested sites. I did not have much success using Technorati because it seemed to be hard to get an array of choices for feeds that I was interested in. Not only that, but Technorati was confusing to navigate due to its rating and authority codes.  I had better luck with Google Blog Search and Blog Search Engine.  I found some RSS feeds about genealogy, a Spanish website that taught Spanish, a site/feed that offered teaching methods for foreign languages from a Texas university. These are all, or will be, useful when I have my own Spanish class one day. I did come across an unusual feed. I had no idea that there were RSS feeds for TV shows. What an ingenuous way to keep up with your favorite shows! As for the last question, I did end up looking up RSS feeds using Feedly too. I wanted to see if the RSS feed results for the topics I was searching for had similar number of results. It turned out that it varied upon topic.   

Thing # 10: RSS Feeds

RSS brings new meaning to the phrase having information at your fingertips or, in this case, in your email inbox.  I will definitely save a lot of my time when surfing the web to get to the sites that interest me by having them send new information to me. I can see myself using this technology in my personal life and for my classroom.
For this activity I selected feeds on cooking, education technology, teaching Spanish, personal insights, and travel. My thought on how teachers can use RSS feeds is not original. They can simply use it to keep up with professional websites or blogs where they are in contact with other teachers. But, for some reason I keep coming up with a question in my head.  How is RSS feeds different from subscribing to a site and you receive new information in your inbox anyway? Maybe I am just confusing myself by reading about RSS feeds longer than I need to. What do you think?

Thing# 9: Online Image Generator

These online image generators are fun once you find ones that open as they should. It is kind of dangerous exploring them because you tend to lose track of time. As you can tell, I created these by using the Image Chef generator. I wanted to come up with something I could use in my future classroom.


This first image was made with the Word Mosaic within the Image Chef generator.  I spent some time trying to come up with different messages with different symbols. It took a while because the messages I came up with were too long and make it difficult to read. The final product reflects a how a student will get a gold star from me if they work hard. http://www.imagechef.com/ic/word_mosaic/  
 

 
This next image came from the Fun Templates in Image Chef. Once I saw the floppy disk, the message came to me automatically. I thought it was funny. You have to remember that I will be a seventh grade Spanish teacher. There will be drama and bad attitudes coming into the classroom all day long. I think this will be good to post right by the entrance to the classroom so they can mentally prepare for class. Then again, the whole message may be a lost cause because my future students will have no idea what a floppy disk is. Oh well, I got a kick out of it.    http://www.imagechef.com/c/br8a/Fun

  

  

 

I think I would use image generators in my classroom as a way to provide encouraging messages, reminders of upcoming things, or to transition from one activity to another. 







 



Thing # 8: More Flickr Fun!!!





 

 

 

To complete Thing #8 we had to check out the other Flickr applications, create at least one mash-up, copy our masterpiece onto our blog, and comment on whether we would use Flickr mash-ups

 

Here are two of my Flickr mash-up masterpieces. The first one was created using a family picture we took at the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa about four years ago.  I used Big Huge Labs to  make it. I was very surprised at how easy the process was. Coming from a technology klutz, that is saying a lot. I think next time I will use the Mosaic Maker to really accentuate the scenic photos. I thought it was fun way to visualize our family photo. The next image was made using the Puzzles mash-up. It was picture of one of my son's Lego creations that he made some time ago. I showed my son the final product and he was so happy to have it in puzzle form. I think we will be using this mash-up for other photos too. 

 

I did check out some of the other Flickr mash-ups to see if I would use them for my future classroom. I think I might use the Mosaic Maker for my Spanish classes by having them create a photoset from Flickr of places or people from various Spanish speaking countries. I thought I would use the Flickr Color Pickr for a brief color lesson for my students, but changed my mind. I came to this decision after I looked a few colors and I came across some photos in Flickr that would not be appropriate for school use. I will have to find another avenue to do so. 

Thing # 7: Flickr

I chose option two for this posting. I do not like sharing my photos via any online application. I facebook account, but even then, those pictures are older ones and I haven't put any effort to continue to update them. For this activity I chose to take pictures of inanimate objects and not people. Sometimes it is just easier to do.  

 

This first picture is my attempt at being creative. I called it Perspectives of life through one window. This picture represents how one scenario can be viewed so differently by people from different walks of life.  The second picture is of some zombie sports figures we have at the house. I think they are hilarious. I am the Chicago Bears zombie cheerleader. DA BEARS!!!! The other two are my husband's favorite New York teams. The last picture is a welcome home sign my son made about three years ago. My husband was  coming home from a two year tour overseas. My son was in the third grade and he stayed up late making this sign to surprise him. We loved it so much we kept it up on the wall in our livingroom. It is a big part of our lives.

 

As far as, using Flickr for my future classroom, I think I could use it for a project with my seventh grade Spanish students. We could use it to explore pictures from Spanish speaking countries and their cultures. I could have them interpret what the picture is trying to convey about their traditions, history, and the like. Personally, I do not like having my personal pictures on a photo-sharing site, even though I can select a privacy option. I am not comfortable with it.

 

 

Thing #6: Discovering Web 2.0 Tools I am.

After what seemed like an endless search on the Go2Web2.0 site, I finally found a website which appealed to me and would benefit my future students.  It is called Forvo, the pronunciation dictionary. It can be found by clicking on this link http://www.forvo.com/. 

I immediately became excited when I opened Forvo. It allows you to select how to pronounce words from over ninety different languages. Plus, you can participate in the site by submitting a request for a word to be pronounced, pronouncing a requested word, or becoming an editor. To do pronounce a word for the site, you must register. How awesome is that for a Spanish teacher, or any foreign language teacher?!! 

This is a great resource for foreign language students to listen to words in the target language and practice them for themselves. I think this is a great application to use in a library, classroom, and home setting. On Forvo, there is the capability for registered users to create their own list of favorite pronounced words. I think could create lists for several categories of words and have students log in somehow and pronounce a certain number of words each and also have them add a few words of their own in a few categories. By doing this, it will help students practice speaking orally and hopefully give them more confidence.

Thing #5: Web 2.0 and The Future

The topics at hand are Web 2.0 and School 2.0 and how they can take their place in our future or, for those already in the classroom, your current classrooms. To me, Web 2.0 is an endless technology toolbox that is used by anyone who has access to internet service and a PC/ Mac, tablet, and the like to help make their lives and jobs easier and more creative. School 2.0 comes about when Web 2.0 applications are integrated in schools and into our classrooms.  

Upon viewing many of the resources for this post, I had mixed feelings. I felt so amazed and overwhelmed by all of the applications and their possibilities in the classroom. (Bear with me. I am not tech savvy.) For a moment, I reverted to an "old school" mentality. I asked myself, "Why do we need to use all of this new stuff when there was nothing wrong from teaching from the textbook?" Not to worry I quickly brought myself back to reality after a quick review of my high school days and of my experience as an Alternative Licensure teacher. For a long time, all teachers had were textbooks of varying qualities, worksheets, library resources (like encyclopedias), and much later on a computer or two without internet service. Classroom instruction was very limiting and confined to a singular place.

School 2.0 brings the world and its applications to the classroom or more importantly, to the students. As a future Spanish teacher, it will be possible to use mobile voice to text apps to have students record themselves practice speaking in Spanish and  connect with students in Spanish speaking countries via a blog. These activities will facilitate the learning of a second language in ways that were never thought possible twenty or thirty years ago.

I guess the fear is that all of this technology in the classroom will create an impersonal atmosphere. What are your thoughts?   

By the way, did anyone else have trouble opening or viewing any of the resources for Thing #5?
  

Thing # 4: To Comment or Not to Comment.....

For Thing # 4, the following was required of us:

• explain why commenting helps create a sense of community and interaction

I must say that prior to this class, I thought that blogs were impersonal. Remember, I am new to this game of blogging. But, from what I can tell so far, commenting on blogs does connect you to others with a similar interest and there is potential for a support network to blossom from it. By commenting on blogs you can meet people from all across the country and maybe the world.

• discuss two other points from the readings about commenting that you found important

I think asking a question when posting on a blog is a good practice. Yes, it can draw attention to your post. Is that all I want? No, I want to know what others think and see how I can open myself to new ideas. I am all for new ideas to solve problems. The other important point regarding commenting on blogs had to do with sarcastic remarks. The Cool Cat Teacher Blog said not to use sarcasm when posting on blogs. I agree with The Cool Cat Teacher Blog despite the fact that I like making sarcastic remarks to make things funny. That is just me. But, blogging and sarcasm will not work well together because there is just too much that can be misinterpreted from it and cause negative tension. Any thoughts on this?

• give the names of the seven blogs (5 from our group + 2 others of your choice) you selected to read and comment on and tell why you selected them

Here are the blogs I chose to follow and why.
     Emily Ellison. After reading her posting for Thing #1, I found that we have so many things in common that I had to choose her as one of my five. In my comment to her I gave her some examples on our similar experiences and mentioned that I was hoping to learn how to make blogging a useful learning tool in my classroom. 
     Matthew Nixon. Since we have so few males in the class, I thought it would be a good idea to get a male's perspective on how to "begin with the end in mind" and how he deals with problems versus challenges.
     Ester Yum. I chose to follow Ester's blog because her strength is my greatest weakness. I admired the way she went back to her birth country to teach English for a year. I commented how I thought she did something my Hispanic family would have been totally against, which was great. 
     Melissa Suss. I chose to follow Melissa's blog mainly because I think her playful strength is bound to rub off on me.  On her post I gave her an idea how she can incorporate blogging for her future PE classes.
    Theresa Hines. Overall, I thought her blog had a lot of personality and her strength is admirable. Theresa mentioned in her blog that she has come up with different strategies which have helped her be a lifelong learner. I asked her to reveal one of her strategies due to my curiosity.

http://creativelanguageclass.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/is-your-lesson-perfect/
     The above link is to a blog titled, the creative language class. It is a blog for foreign language teachers that covers a variety of topics like, using stations, tech applications, class routines, teacher problems, and much more. I commented on a topic called Is your lesson perfect? I mentioned how great it was to hear of ways veteran teacher handle unexpected situations.
http://teachinglearningspanish.blogspot.com/
     The seventh and last blog I commented on is called teaching learning Spanish. One of the things that drew me to this blog was that it has been active since 2008. Its longevity proves that is has merit to me. It offers a lot of creative yet affordable ways to teach Spanish. I commented about an application that can be used on I-pods where Spanish Language learners can listen to news casts that are spoken slowly. I commented on how helpful this will be since native Spanish speakers tend to speak very rapidly while the target language learner will have difficulty in keeping up.

Thing # 3: Blog Registration & Future Usefulness in Classroom

Write about ways that you might use a blog in your teacher education program or your future classroom.
    I already have some ideas how I might incorporate a blogging to my future classroom.  I think creating an educator blog during my first year of teaching will put me in touch with other teachers for support and ideas. It will never hurt to get as much support as you can, especially in the first few years of teaching. I think having a blog set up for my classes will give them opportunity to discuss current issues facing other Spanish-speaking countries that we learned in class. Many times in Spanish language classes there is a lot of time placed upon learning the basics of Spanish-speaking countries like there geography, some customs, and a few important people. By learning about current issues facing Spanish-speaking countries, the students will gain a different perspective of these nations and be able to identify with them.    

Thing # 2: My Blog and Avatar are Born

Question 1: What previous experiences do you have with blogs, reading or writing?
     My previous experience with blogs is very minimal.  Every once in a while I would come across a blog on the internet when searching for something. I would read a few postings, but never felt compelled to post anything in return.

Question 2: How did you decide on your posting name and the name of your blog?
     I decided to use my actual name for my posting name with this blog because it will be easier for the professor to track my participation and give me credit for what I have completed.  If the professor is happy and has no problem tracking a student's progress, then the student will receive credit for completed work without a problem. Everyone is happy. 
    As for the name of my blog, I decided to make things simpler for everyone and drop my maiden name and the hyphen. Everyone knows me by that name anyways. It just makes things less complicated.   

Question 3: What was your experience in creating the blog? Was it hard for you or easy? Why?
     Creating this blog was hard for me.  In the instructions on how to create this blog using Google's tool Blogger, Dr. Wall stated that it would be "extremely easy to use."  Well, I must confess something about myself.  I am a complete klutz and nervous wreck when it comes to using new technology.  I tend to make every inconceivable simple mistake before finally getting it right.  For starters, I had trouble logging back into the new Goggle account I created for this project within minutes of opening it.  I tried about five times on my own before I asked for assistance from the professor.  It took her less than two minutes to figure it out. I was so embarrassed to discover that I misspelled my email address when I created it.  So, I had to close or delete that email account and recreate a new one I order for me to open this blogger.com site.  I also had trouble navigating the blogger.com site.  I kept getting frustrated because I kept forgetting where I had to go to create a post, preview it, and the like. Thankfully, I seem to have grasped how to function within the blogger site now. 
     Since the purpose of this project is to document our journey in Dr.  Sigears' and Dr. Wall's Blog Adventure, then I am going to be as forthcoming as possible about my struggles and successes.  I have waited so long to take graduate level classes that I am going to get my money's worth.  A major set back I had in creating this blog involved writing my posts.  I tried to sit at the computer and compose the my posts for Thing #1, but I had trouble in getting my thoughts together.  I kept getting frustrated because I could not stop revising what I just wrote and it did not flow as it should.  It was a mess.  The fourth habit of lifelong learning came back to haunt me, but I had a breakthrough.  It dawned on me to write as though I am journal writing. Blogging is just an electronic/ interactive form of journal writing.  I used to keep a journal many years ago and it was quite eye-opening how much I learned from it.

 
Question 4: How does your avatar reflect your personality? Did you create an avatar that looks like your real self or someone totally different? Why?
     My avatar was so fun to create.  I created it to make her look like me because I am just too literal that way. I am smiling because I am taking classes again.  I dressed my avatar in an outfit that I would wear to teach.  I like to mix a casual item like a jean jacket with a skirt and high heels to dress it up.  As a teacher, I could also dress it down with a pair of flats because there will be long days when earing high heels at school will not suffice. My avatar signifies my versatility and professional demeanor. You'll also notice a cat next to my avatar.  He represents our family pet, Darth Kitty, who we named in honor of our love for Star Wars.  Darth Kitty had to be included with my avatar because he has spent many hours next to me giving me moral support while I am typing away on the computer.         

Thing #1: Lifelong Learning

     The 7 1/2 Habits of Learning online tutorial we had to read for this assignment was very interesting and thought provoking. It was thought provoking because we had to choose which lifelong learning habit was the easiest and hardest for each of us. While the easiest lifelong learning habit was very evident for me, there were quite a few habits that have always been a challenge for me.

     The easiest lifelong learning habit for me is teaching and/ or mentoring others. I do not claim to be a walking encyclopedia. Nor was I the valedictorian in high school or in college, far from it. I have found that I have an innate nature to teach and mentor others. Looking back at my past work experiences, the positions I held always involved some level of teaching or mentoring others. I tend to gravitate to jobs or opportunities to teach someone whenever possible because it challenges me to present information in a different format so that it is relatable to whom I am speaking. Teaching or mentoring others is something that I love doing because I want to help others help themselves. To me, knowledge is more powerful when passed along for others to benefit as well.

    There are two lifelong learning habits that constantly test me. The first one is having confidence in myself as a competent, effective learner. I have struggled with this my entire life. Never mind that I was the first in my family to get a college education, I tend to overlook what I have accomplished and push myself to work harder. In working harder, I tend to not leave time for me to unwind or play. Taking time to play is the other lifelong learning habit that I do not make time to do. Yes, the easiest habit is the hardest one for me to adopt. I get caught up in doing the next errand, chore, etc. that the next thing I know the time for me to play is gone.

     By working with Web 2.0 tools, I want to be able to using these tools efficiently in order to teach 7th grade Spanish.  The actual setting up of this blog was not too hard. I just kept forgetting where to access my blog draft for editing. So far, I can see myself creating blogs for my future Spanish classes. It can be a way we can have a weekly class blog commentary on a particular topic.