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.