Living in a social media world

It seems like everywhere people go anymore from restaurants, to malls,  to professional events or even a gym there is something in the window or counter saying something along the lines of "like us on Facebook" or "tag us on Instagram."  Social media is everywhere!  Can we go anywhere anymore without checking in on Facebook or posting a selfie on Instgram?  Do people really know how much social media is impacting our lives?  Are we living in a world where all we do is use the Internet?

 Educators today use the Internet daily to find resources for the classroom, ideas for activities or even to collaborate with other teachers.   For example, Pinterest, a great social media tool that allows users to visually see and create boards based on interests.  Users are able to search for friends and follow other people. 

Here are some examples of boards users can create using Pinterest.

 







Due to the fact that social media is becoming increasingly more popular so have debates whether schools should be using social media in the classrooms.  Some schools have already started using it in the classrooms.  Some classrooms use sites such as Twitter and or Facebook for class discussions or use them to post assignments.  Should social media start being used daily in the classroom?


Until next time my friends!

Google Drive/ Docs Overload!

Just went I thought I was aware of everything Google had to offer, my professor through a curve ball at me...Google Drive.  If one is not familiar with it watch this video, it will help! 
 

Google docs have so much valuable information; you just need to know where to look and take the time to play around with it!
Goggle doc is a one stop-shop; it offers documents, presentation, spreadsheet, form and drawing.  For those that are use to Microsoft Office, I'm sure some are curious to what form is since draw is pretty self-explanatory.  Form is a tool that creates quizzes, questionnaires and surveys.  The person who creates the form can see the results in a spreadsheet and has the option to share the results with the people who completed the form.  Here is an example of a form that was intended for beginning of the school year activity!  Form would be a fantastic tool for educators to use for assessments, math lessons, exit tickets, etc.  Especially since there is a tool that can grade the forms that teachers created.  It is called Flubaroo and it is AMAZING!  The only thing I did not like about the form app is it does not have spell check, I know, that stinks!
Another feature that makes Google docs so great is that users can pick whom they share their work with; they can collaborate with one another on work without being together!
Google Docs has so much to offer especially for teachers and students!  Students can work on projects, assignments and even take tests from home if needed.  Who would of thought that Google has so much to offer?

Google Calendar, Diigo, oh my!

I love Google Calendar!  I have wanted to learn about Google calendar for the longest time but never took the time to learn it until now!  Once again YouTube played a role in my learning of Google Calendar.  This video goes through Google calendar step by step making it easy to follow!  I love that Google Calendar allows the user to pick if they want to make the calendar a public web page or send it to specific people.




Another feature that Google Calendar offers the users is they can create multiple calendars.  This feature would be great for us educators.  Educators can create a calendar for each subject/ class; by generating a Google Calendar and sharing it with students, students are able to stay up to date on upcoming events, tests, assignments and announcements. Teacher can post the calendar to the school website so parents know what is going on in classroom at all times!

This week I also discovered social bookmarking.  I always thought by adding a website to my "favorites" was the only way to save that page.  Of course it is not the most efficient way because when you get on a different computer and want to access that page under the favorites and it is not there... how frustrating!  Have no fear Diigo is here!  Diigo is a lifesaver for those who like to add sites to their favorites but Diigo can be accessed from any computer as long as the user is signed in!  Diigo is another great organizational tool for educators as well as for students; Diigo users can add sticky notes, highlight or tag specific information needed.  Using Diigo in a school setting would be beneficial for students especially for those times when students are working on projects at school and need to complete it at home, students can just log into Diigo and vuala they are able to continue where they left off! Diigo is a great resource for educators because they are able to join groups, share websites and collaborate with other teachers!  Diijo is another fabulous way for educators to stay organized!
So many great learnings this week!  Until next time my friends!

Sunday Sunday

Here I go again updating my blog on a Sunday night….grrr!!!  All week I had the mindset that I was going to have my homework completed before the weekend so I could spend some time with my husband, but obviously that did not happen!!   Like I’ve said before I thought I was pretty familiar with technology and social media until this week!  This is what I felt like majority of the week!

The assignment that brought me so much confusion and frustration was to join a Professional Learning Network, sounds easy but let me tell you it was anything but easy! Edmodo is similar to Facebook, I wish I found these two comparable because it took me until today to understand the basics.  After several emails back and forth with my professor and several calls to my teacher friends asking them for help,  I went back and reread the directions and then it finally made sense to me!  I had to be verified by Edmodo  that I was a teacher and that took several day!

 Once I was a verified I could do anything!  I could join groups, joining a public group was easy.  Joining a group created by teachers was a little more challenging until I found this list!  I was surprised when requesting to join a teacher created group it took a while for them to accept the request.  I sent some requests a couple days ago and I'm still waiting to be accepted.  Of the teacher created groups that I've been accepted to so far they've been a great resources, definitely things I will use in the classroom!  Once I learned how to join groups; somehow I managed to create my own group, which was easier to do than joining groups! This video made it so easy to make a group, it was probably the easiest part of the assignment for me.

Now that I have some basic understanding of Edmodo, I can see why teachers love it!  There is so much information and resources for teachers and students.  I like the fact that Edmodo can be used to interact with students and with other teachers.  The more I learn about the different PLNs for teachers the more I'm blown away on how much information teachers have available to them as long as they are informed on it!

Stay organized!

Busy Busy

Talk about a busy week!  I had to finish my last week’s homework in Las Vegas, not fun!  Let me tell you what, that was hard!  My husband and I went there with his entire family for my father in laws birthday!  I woke up one morning extra early so I could try and finish my homework.  This was my view at 5AM from the coffee shop at the hotel! 

Yes, that is the casino!

  After our trip to Las Vegas it was game 6 and 7 of the World Series in Kansas City so that added to the late nights and lack of sleep! Then finally ended this weekend with celebrating the Centennial Celebration at Union Station.  I have been working on this event for over the past year and it has been exhausting!  I feel like I need a vacation from the month of October!  Not only was this an extremely busy week it was another week of firsts for me!

            This past week I substituted at the school I use to teach at which brought a wide range of emotions!  The best part was seeing all my former students!  I also tweeted for the first time!  Of course, my first tweet was not that exciting!  I have had a twitter account for over a year now and I never actively used it until this week!   

            One of my assignments for a class was to tweet using a specific hashtag! First off, I was blown away by how many people use hashtags on twitter.  I knew people used hashtags on Instagram but I did not know you can follow an entire conversation using them #awesome!  I decided to follow a couple conversations using hashtags, the amount of information that was available was incredible.  My favorite hashtag conversation to follow on twitter is #edtech! Holy moly there is so much information for teachers of all levels to learn!   Just think of the conversations that can be had with students and interactions that can be had using hashtags.   I never understood the point of twitter until this assignment.  Twitter is such a good recourse for teachers.  There are so many great people and groups to follow.  My favorite group that I follow right now is @WeAreTeachers.  This is a great group for teachers to follow because all of the amount of support and material they provide!  They also have a sense of humor!

The internet has seemed like a playground for kids to me until the past two weeks.  I am now learning about the incredible amount of resources and networks that exist for teachers!  Another assignment this week was to look at different networks and starting building your own PLN (Personal Learning Networks).  I mean come on, look at all these networks; so far I prefer Classroom 2.0 but there are so many other that I still need to dive into!  While browsing on the internet I found a great website to break down the importance of PLNs.  Personal Learning Networks are so beneficial for teachers especially with all the technology being used in classrooms today!  I think it is so cool educators can collaborate with other educators from around the world and bounce ideas off each other. 
After discovering so many networks for teachers I feel more united than ever before!  #teachersunite