Online Store

I won a gift certificate last year for TeacherStorehouse.com and never used it. I recently found it and used it to buy a few books as resources for next year. If you are looking for things that you haven't found at a teacher supply store try this out!

http://www.teacherstorehouse.com/teacheradvantage.asp?k=88359

It ships from the largest teacher product warehouse in the nation, with about 30,000 teacher products in stock.  It also offers free shipping, cash back on every order, and they pay your sales tax.

Enjoy!
 

One Last Thing!

Where to begin, where to begin? First off, I must say that this course was very engaging and informative. If I was forced to name my favorite discovery, it would probably be LibraryThing. I am and have always been an avid reader and lover of novels. Now that I have a way to keep up with ALL the books I have read (well the ones I can remember) and will read, I will never buy a book twice (it is so embarrassing to return a book back to bookstores for this reason). This program was right up my alley because I love to learn about new things and will always consider myself a lifelong learner. Participating in this class has given me a newfound awareness for Web 2.0 and its countless applications in the classroom. One way this class could be better is by making sure that all the links needed work properly and are attached to the wiki with the instructions. It would also be more enticing if more hours were offered for it because it does feel as if I spent more than 24 hours working on this course. If there were another discovery course offered, I would definitely take it, because I definitely enjoyed this one to the fullest. This blog will now become an online journal, that will also help me keep up with the things that I will continue to find on the web as well as my thoughts about how to use them in the classroom. I have already resolved to share my blog with other educators and have told anyone who will listen about what I have learned in this class.

Thing #23

Ning is a website that reminds me of a social wiki. I like the fact that people can create groups that are related to their interests as well as create professional groups. I am not sure if I will actually pay for a membership, though, because there are still other social networking sites that are free. I enjoyed poking around the Classroom 2.0 and MISD 23 Things sites and felt that they could really help me keep in touch with new ways to incorporate technology online. I joined both so that I would have a reminder to always keep my eye out for new (and hopefully free) websites that will allow me to incorporate lots of technology. I found the Learning 2.1 RSS feed on the MISD 23 Things site and automatically added it to my Reader. Overall, I feel that I will use these sites to broaden my horizons and integrate some variety in teaching methods. (I am also proud of my badge to the right because I put a lot of work into being a 23 Thingster.)

Thing #22

This was probably the easiest thing I've done in this class because I grew up in the Facebook and MySpace generations. Prior to this class, I had explored both of them and my personal preference is Facebook. I enjoy Facebook because of its new privacy settings (where my students can't find and add me) as well as the number of my friends and family that are connected. I use Facebook to keep up with all the people it would be tiring to call or e-mail all the time. It is important that teachers know how social networking works because it will help them keep in touch with professional friends in other districts. They also need to know how to work the privacy settings because many teachers have gotten fired over content that was on their Facebook or MySpace page. I did not really gain much insight because using Facebook regularly is what I do and I learn about the new things as they are added. I did learn that the MySpace account I created years ago is visible through Google searches, but the content is so old that it has me living in a totally different city. I will probably never use it again, unless Facebook starts charging. I have used facebook for educational purposes, by finding colleagues and collaborating with them. The colleagues I have used in the past are all ones that I knew personally, but eventually I would like to branch out and find teachers I don't know that teach the same subjects I do so that I can collaborate across the globe.

Thing #7b

I have found many interesting things on my Reader. The most interesting and important to me was the WikiPremed post from Free Technology 4 Teachers. My major was Biology with a focus on Premed and eventually I plan to go back to medical school, which will require me to retake the MCAT. When I went to the WikiPremed site, I fell in love and immediately began browsing. I found that they had all kinds of study tools including Physics flashcards (which will help me while I am teaching Physics this year) and Physiology Crosswords (which will really make reviewing fun). Of course I could also give this website as a reference to my students that have interest in Premedicine as a major, but I will be honest: my primary focus for vewing and bookmarking this website was for purely personal (and selfish) reasons.
Another interesting thing I found in my Reader was a short blog about Creating screencasts from Tech Learning. It simply listed the Top 10 programs that could be used to do so, but it was awesome in its simplicity because it compiled this list so that I could refer to it and find my favorite from the list. I will be using screencasts to explain directions for foldables so that I will not miss a step and all my classes will get the same demo.

Thing #21

Google has so much to offer educators that I don't know where to begin. Google calenders can be used to let students and parents know what will be coming up in class as well as to let them know what has been missed during absences. I also learned that it could be embedded into a webpage, which means it could be embedded into my moodle as well as their classroom wiki review as a reminder of the test dates. 

Google Talk can be used to have video or audio parent conferences when the parent is unable to meet face-t0 face. Google SketchUp can be used to make a virtual 3D rollercoaster which will be an interesting activity because it teaches students to learn how to make plans in a virtual environment. Another great resource that Google has provided is Google Translator which translates the content of any webpage to another language. The translator will not only translate the site, but any links that are a part of it as well. The value of this to ELL students is beyond anything else I can ever do. The translator will also show them the content in English so they can compare the 2 languages side- by- side. I am definitely attaching a link to this to my moodle. I will even have a quick before or after school tutorial to show them how to use it if they don't already know. I believe this will allow their English to really grow because it shows them the equivalent information in their native tongue, so that they are not only learning English, but they are also learning the content as well.

Thing #20

Google Docs can be used for many things. I created a spreadsheet to track my Professional Development classes taken this summer. I also plan on using a spreadsheet to track my students progress on their wiki project, much like the progress tracker that was used for this class. I also foresee the use of Google Docs to share the responsibility for presentations and handouts to the students. Often, when teachers create something new to use in class, they either make a mistake or forget something important. However, if Google Docs is used, then more people will work on the item being prepared which will cut down on the errors made. I am also thinking about using Google Docs as a method to turn in presentations. My students could either create the presentation in Google Docs or create it using the software on their computer and then uploading it to Google Docs. Either way, they would send me the link as a viewer and it would be a very simple way to get rid of the excuses (My partner/ I lost it, left it at home, the mongoose ate it, etc.)

Thing #19

VoiceThread is a really interesting website. I like the idea of having a slideshow with audio attached. Above is an example of one that I will show in my classroom. It will probably be my introduction to Newton's 3rd Law. I will also browse other voicethreads by this author because I would like to use more examples like this to introduce a topic. I also think that I will refer VoiceThread to my students as an option to present projects. It would really help those students who are terrified of public speaking because they would be able to record their voice beforehand and let it speak for them. Another application I could use is to show and explain a project sample to my students. Using VoiceThread will ensure that all my students get the same information instead of having to rely on my memory (which isn't all that great).

Thing #18

I have tried to avoid getting caught up in YouTube because I did not want to waste my life looking at the junk that can be found there. However, if someone showed me a particular video or embedded it on my facebook page, I did watch and laugh for a moment. It is truly amazing what people will record and put on the internet for the world to see. However, having an assignment that forced me to search YouTube for educational content made me cringe because I just knew that there would be issues finding Physics related concepts. Fortunately, YouTube proved me wrong very quickly. Using the simple search "physics" I immediately found a clip that I can't embed because the person who uploaded it disabled that feature, but it is a phenomenal center of gravity demo. After finding this on the 1st try, I began to warm up to the educational value of YouTube. By skimming the comments I came across one that led me to search for the "Do Try This At Home" series that would teach me how to do it and voila here is an even better video! 

After finding this gold mine of How To videos. I got really excited and quickly found another content based video (posted on my wiki sandbox page) that gave me a new website to explore! The funniest thing about this assignment was after finding the 3 videos that I was dreading, I had fun and got to search for the one that would be just for me. I quickly went back to the homepage and found a video that was currently being watched and I found it hilarious as well. I enjoyed the last Old Spice commercial and hope they keep the Old Spice man. 




Whew!, I thought. Now that I completed my YouTube assignment I can talk about TeacherTube which I have used many times before. I really appreciate TeacherTube because it has easily accessible (read unblocked by MISD) content that is always appropriate for the topic I am looking for. I recently found a cute clip on TeacherTube that I embedded in a wiki that I will be using to get my students to create their own test review.

Thing #17

Podcasts in education are an excellent way to introduce more topics into the classroom without having to actually having to teach them. Students can subscribe to a particular podcast and get extra information in a format that they are already comfortable with. I browsed a few Physics podcasts from Education Podcast Network, but felt that a few of them were too wordy and others were not high school level material. I finally found one from LearnOutLoud that would be helpful and subscribed to it. iTunes was really the best directory because I found that entering a few keywords brought up many useful podcasts, including one from iTunesU that is the Universist of Berkeley's Introduction to Physics class. I have an iPod and iTunes, but haven't used them for podcasting yet because I never thought to. My husband, however has a few podcasts that he subscribes to and we listen to them together on road trips. My personal outlook is that I will use podcasts as an outside resource that I recommend for students that need additional help. I will embed related podcasts to my moodle website and as a simple assignment ask my students to post to a forum about what they found interesting.

Thing #16

LibraryThing is awesome! I am an avid novel reader and I sorely needed this site a long time ago. As soon as I began reading about the website, I knew I would join even though it wasn't required. I automatically began loading a few of my books, and plan to add a few here and there as I have time. I am very excited to have my own online catalog because I needed a way to keep up with my books. Recently I was asked if I even knew how many books I owned and I had to think about it and finally say no. Now that I have my own LibraryThing account, however, now I can keep up with how many books I have read this year as well as with the number of books I have altogether. Now that I have represented my personal views of usage for LibraryThing, I can think about outside uses. It would be great for students to keep track of the books they have read both for school and recreational purposes. Language Arts teachers can track their students' reading by following their LibraryThing account using RSS feed. The teacher can also start an online forum about books the students are reading. I think the coolest thing the teacher can do is to encourage the students to join an online community of book lovers where they can receive their own recommendations as well as give them. This site can be used as the Facebook for readers. Personally, I will use this site to catalog my own collection as well as find new authors to branch out to. After I finish cataloging my own, then I will start searching for the books I have read, but don't own so that my library can be even more accurate.

Thing #15

Delicious is a great bookmarking site that allows people to tag their bookmarks to help others search. It was very easy to type in a few keywords and find sites that I wanted to visit. I ended up finding some Creative Commons websites that will help me find images and music for future use. I have always wanted to incorporate more music in my classroom but was afraid to because I didn't know the law. However, it has been my personal experience that delicious is blocked by MISD servers since it has a Yahoo login. Because I don't want to override the firewall every time I want to look at my bookmarks at an MISD computer, I find that Xmarks is much easier for me. I will continue to use my Delicious account from home to search for more websites that will help me, but unfortunately, I will not be installing it on my work computer. If you would like to see my shared bookmarks, you can find them here: http://delicious.com/pvzeta3 . 

Thing #7a

I have found many interesting things on my Google Reader. I have so many stars on items because as I scan, I find so many new things I want to learn about and incorporate in my classroom. One of the latest ones was about School Safe ClipArt. I am always looking for more ways to bring visuals, especially for my ELLs and SpEd students as well as for the visual learners. From the same feed, I came across Ad-Aware which is free anti-virus protection. I wondered why no one else has thought to make protection free since everyone needs it and most anti-virus software costs an arm and a leg. Of course, since its free, I automatically began to doubt its scanning prowess. When it comes to technology, my husband always assures me that "you get what you pay for". 

From a feed that I added purely for my own interest, I found an article talking about foods that boost your mood. I thought this was interesting because certain foods (CHOCOLATE!!!!!!) have always made me happy and I wanted to see what research shows about mood-enhancing food. Although this article slightly disparages my claim that chocolate is the ultimate feel-good food (said that it would more likely prolong a bad mood- how lame is that, seriously, eating chocolate even while in a bad mood has always brightened my day), it did have some healthy meal and snack ideas that included links to the recipes. I really appreciated those links because it gave me the option to try one of the mood boosting foods to see if it could compete with the endorphin high I get from chocolate. (...I wonder if anyone can tell how much I love and think about chocolate...)

Thing #14

I tried 2 different tools and loved them both. The 1st one I tried was Wordle. I have seen the collages that other teachers made and thought they were cool, but assumed that I would never have the time to make one myself. Once I got to the website, I realized that they were much easier to make than I thought. I believe that I will use this as a word bank when I have my students working on fill-in-the-blank things. I think this would be a fun way for them to see the words and it would really be entertaining for me to watch them read while turning their heads to read sideways.

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

The 2nd tool I tried was MixBook. Of course, since I had issues finding science related pictures I liked from Flickr, I decided to use some of my own photos to create an album. Since I am a newlywed, I decided to make an online wedding album. Because I have about 800 pictures to choose from (my photographers were very thorough), it took a while to pick the photos I wanted to upload. Once I did that, I decided to let the program "Randomize" the album out of curiosity. The album came out great! With minimum effort, I now have an online album that I can allow my friends and family to see. I haven't decided if I will allow them to edit it or not since I would like to keep peace. I am also thinking about asking for help on adding the text so I might let them view and ask for comments for suggestions about the text. Either way, the album is not finished and by the time it is, I will have another decision on whether or not to buy it so that I can have a physical copy. Please feel free to comment and give me ideas.

Thing #13

Dummies Book Cover Maker 2010

Comic Strip Generator

Custom image generators are fun ways to create classroom visuals. Making these images online was fun because instead of searching for images related to a specific topic, I can make my own! At first, it took a while to figure out what to say because I was so used to living in the dark ages where images were generated for me. However, once I created a few, I immediately saw all the possibilities of having images generated to spice up boring PowerPoint presentations, using image generators to help students find visuals for projects, or even using a generated image to inspire a group conversation. Image generators will without a doubt be heavily used in my classroom.

Thing #12

No Child Left Understanding Science by Colin Purrington
Science Fiction Museum by ricardo.martins
Pentaindenocorannulene by Ethan Hein
Fields of Science by Image Editor
Science! by Andrew Huff
USA 2005 (September 09th) Washington, Seattle, Pacific Science Center by Paraflyer

Creating a slideshow with captions nearly had me in tears because I am a perfectionist. I originally started out using Rock You!, but became annoyed with it because it would not save the changes I was making to the slideshow. Once I finally got the preview to look the way I wanted and tried to save it, the website told me that my slideshow had already been saved and I had to log on to change it. Imagine my frustration due to the fact that I had not registered for the site, hence no login information. Needless to say, because that site was not user-friendly, I had to move on to make a pikistrip because I at least wanted text, if I couldn't have all the glitz and glam (not to mention music) from Rock You! Because of all the change and the time it consumed, I decided to change the original intent of my presentation to "helping my students understand the importance of science". Hopefully, the end product satisfies its purpose because it cost me a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. I am not sure if I personally will use this in the classroom to make  a slideshow for my students, but I might use it as an option for a project that my students have to present to me.

Thing #11

from "Spell with flickr" by kastner

Uploaded from flickr, photo by Image Editor

Browsing flickr was more of an experience than I thought it would be. I thought that it would be really easy and simple to find a few pictures about science and then I would be done with this topic quickly. Instead, I ended up finding out that people tag their photos with very generic things that may or may not be related to the word I used for the search. When I typed in "physics" and "chemistry" I kept running into construction site images, when all I was really looking for were images of people performing interesting experiments. The topic I want to create a slideshow about is the different ways that science can be fun and not just a difficult subject that you are forced to take in order to graduate. I plan to use the slideshow as an introductory tool next year or as a writing prompt for TELPAS. I will use the Flickr website next time I want graphics for a presentation or if I want to show my students some examples of vocabulary. I appreciate having another source for finding photos, especially one that only allows you to search for those that already have the Creative Commons license. 

Thing #10

Creative Commons is one of those things that as soon as you hear about it, you wonder "why didn't I think of that and become famous?" It will definitely impact the educational world because now we know who doesn't mind us using their work and who wants us to gain permission 1st. I have used pictures and video clips in my classroom from sites that were referred to me by the library. Now that I know about the websites that collect information for this specific purpose, I can use those to search the next time. I can also refer these sites to my students when they are working on projects. I can let them know that they will not have to ask about the author's permission as long as the Creative Commons license permits it. I also learned about fair use with regards to transformativeness. I always assumed that if I used material that belonged to someone, that I could not publish it publicly because I would need to make sure that I had permission to do so. Now that I know that if I have transformed the work, I can publish it as long as I make sure to cite the original author.

Thing #9

This assignment was by far the most time-consuming we have done so far. I had high hopes for my sandbox wiki after browsing others from the previous assignment, but once I got in the sandbox, I realized that adding content was a little more difficult than I thought it would be. It started out with the table of contents, where I didn't quite understand that there had to be 2 brackets since the example only had one set. Then I added the required headings and content. Once I figured out how to add what I wanted, it then became easier and I began to look for new things to add. In my previous post, I referred to my fascination with a voki. I am proud to say that I created my very 1st voki to attach to my very 1st wiki page. I LOVE it and will be adding one to every other webpage I create. All in all, once the page was done, aside from a few minor formatting errors, I came away from the experience pleased with myself and certain that I can make another wiki without much trouble.

Thing #8

Wikis are definitely in my future as an educator. Browsing the wikis showed me the variety of uses and applications. Wikis are as diverse as blogs and can be just as interesting. There were some that were very structured and contained many links to other sites for informative purposes, and others that were less structured and fun-to-read. By far, my favorite thing I found while browsing wikis was called a voki. It dazzled me so much that I automatically knew that Grazing for Digital Natives would be bookmarked for future use. A few of the wikis were daunting because of all the information that was presented, and seemed to taken a lot of time and effort, which I usually run out of during the school year. Even though they were perfect resources for students, after a while it seemed that making sure the weekly lessons and assignments were linked would become an exhausting task. It almost seemed that I would need a webmaster to do all this and take care of my classroom duties as well. I also thought about the over-achievers who would look ahead and be ready to teach the lesson by the time we started. This would actually be a plus because I would probably ask that student to take it further and do a little web-research to find real world applications and present those to the class. Then I saw the sites that were more student-generated. These sites seemed much more manageable due to the fact that the students performed the research and linked the sites they felt had great information. In this type of wiki, I would just make sure the information they linked was accurate and since the students generated it, I feel their peers would be more open to using it. I also like the idea of students being able to collaborate and find their own resources. My favorite example of this actually came from the Wiki Wiki teaching blog post where the students created their own wikis to study and review for their tests. I was thinking of using a blog to do this, but I believe the wiki worked better. My all-time favorite wiki, however, balanced information with fun. In this one, there were virtual clinics that had doctors (with personalities) and patients that had to be diagnosed. In this one, the students explored the human body and had fun while doing so. I plan to find some wikis like this that are related to the topic I am teaching and allowing my students to explore them as an alternative to guided practice worksheets.

Thing #7

I had mixed feelings about comments on blogs. Since I have a blog that I can't wait for someone to comment on, I wish that more people would do it. But having read some blogs, even though you might want to comment, sometimes it is downright unnerving to do since you might not know if the author specifically welcomes comments or if your specific comment will be welcome. After reading 10 Techniques to get more comments on your blog, I decided to jump in with both feet. While searching my Reader for posts that would interest me, I came across the word autoethnography. Of course, this caught my attention and I had to find out more. It ended up being an inspiring video about the life of an Iowa teacher. Sadly, there were no comments, which led me to believe that no one had even watched the video. Since I have no comments on this seemingly insignificant blog that hasn't taken nearly as much time or effort as that touching video, I felt compelled to at least try to convey my gratitude to this person who decided to share her life with the world. It was almost as if I was validating this person's decision. After this experience I lost all commenting shyness whatsoever and started searching for anything else I could comment on. Then I also found a blog encouraging fathers to stay connected to their 21st century kids. It was so insightful that even though I am not even a parent, I was encouraged to use these techniques for the children I mentor. After commenting on these 2 blogs, I felt it was time to find an informational one, which is when I decided to search for another blog to add to my RSS feed. I ended up adding Make Friends With Food because of an post of How to spread healthy eating habits. I almost felt as if it was speaking directly to me, which of course meant that I had to comment once again to let the author know that their thoughts did not fall on deaf ears. Hopefully my blog will one day inspire someone as I have been inspired.

Thing #6

RSS feeds are the most innovative thing I have learned about blogging. I love the fact that I can go to my reader and see the titles and brief overviews of all the articles/blogs I subscribe to. Since I like reading about medical research and healthy living, I decided to add those to my reader and I am learning things that I am most interested in. I never watch the news unless there is a particular story that catches my attention and I am always frustrated because I have to wait for that story. With the Reader, I only subscribe to what I am interested in and don't have to wait. One article of interest was about distracted driving. I have seen commercials and been hearing about this topic for a while, but I wanted to know what type of research has been done. It was interesting to see the medical opinion because the author noted that physicians always ask about risky behavior, but don't ask about driving while distracted. Since I am a multi-tasker, I was also checking out the most salty foods and summer reading incentives for children. The latter was really interesting because I remember my local library's summer reading incentive program: RABDARGAB (Read A Book, Do A Report, Get A Buck). It delighted me that even though we are in a world where kids can find just about anything on the internet, that such programs still exist to encourage young readers.

Thing #5

Technology is constantly changing. Because of this, the people who keep up with technology are adapting quickly to change with it. In a recent Students 2.0 blog, one of the faithful bloggers noted that some of the students have stopped blogging because of boredom and moving on to bigger and better things. She then charged the readers to prove her wrong. I think that this blog represents the attitude that all teachers need to take with respect to integrating technology in the classroom. The same technology that teachers are trying to learn about, the students have already mastered it. Once it becomes integrated into the classroom, like all things shiny and new, the students love it for a while, then become bored with it. It is then our job as teachers to find something else new and shiny to keep the students engaged.

Thing #4

SP-817 Math Blog
This blog was very interesting because it was an ingenious way to keep absent students aware of what was going on in class. The blog was written from a student's perspective which made it easy for their peers to understand. It was not written in academic language, which is often how teachers present the information. Instead it was written in social language which would help even those students who are learning English. Students learn topics much better when one of their peers explains it. It could be a student-generated study tool for tests and exams that would help them much more than a non-interactive worksheet review ever could. This site was very useful for the teacher to also see what misconceptions students may have had during class and have an opportunity to reteach them.

CoolCatTeacher
This blog was both informative and scary. It is every teacher's nightmare that one of our disgruntled students will secretly film us and get us fired. This blog was written for information purposes and it performed that purpose very well. The teacher writing this blog however was not concerned with making sure she was 100% grammatically correct and in blogging society,it seems acceptable since it is not seen as a literary work. It is acceptable because even though it is supposed to have valid information, it is still someone's thoughts and opinions, almost like a virtual diary that other people can read and comment on. The blog is however similar to other types of writing because it has an introduction, body and conclusion, yet different because the format is very loose in structure.

Teaching 2.0 Teaching Brevity
This blog was very interesting because it was a well-thought out persuasive for teachers to consider emphasizing brevity in the classroom. This is very similar to other persuasive writings I have seen before, but different because since it was a blog, it had hyperlinks that made it much more interesting. It was also interesting to note that this particular blogger chose to include a short biography and a picture like most authors include on the back cover of their books. This blog was structured more like an editorial in a newspaper and captured my interest because of it. I also noticed that the author charged those who would respond to use the very concept he was writing about, which I enjoyed. Of course some of the responses followed and others did not, but it was wonderful to see that some agreed, others disagreed and some wanted more information. One commenter even gave the blogger another thought to blog about which is great because that person obviously enjoyed the blog and planned to read others by that author.

Weblogg-ed
This blog was completely different from the other 3 blogs in that it was 2 quotes from articles. The writer simply wrote a brief comment on the quotes, then asked for comments. This was much more interactive because the blogger was less concerned with showing off his writing skills and more concerned with other people's opinions and what could be done about the situation. This blog was by far my favorite because the focus was on the comments as opposed to one person's view on a subject. This type of blog could be a very easy way to get the student's opinion on topics discussed in class. I would enjoy having this type of blog the most because it is a way of having a debate or discussion outside of the classroom.

Thing #2

Certain teachers on my campus have blogs and moodle websites where the students can interact with them online. This is completely new to me because when I went to school, if I wanted to interact with my teachers, my only option was to talk to them by either raising my hand in class or attempting to catch them before or after class. Students nowadays can post questions on the teacher's blog after they have had sufficient time to process the information instead of having to track down an adult (that has a life and may or may not be available). Some students are also not as outgoing in personal situations as they are in online forums. These students now have an avenue to comfortably seek the help they need without the public humiliation they fear.

I want to have an interactive website that will allow students to blog their assignments. Lots of students do not realize that when teachers ask them to write, it is not a punishment. Teachers really want to see what their students’ thought processes are and if learning has really taken place as opposed to students faking it until they make it. I also would like to incorporate more online tools that appeal to my English Language Learners as well as my students that are not traditionally good test takers. It is important to incorporate technology especially the Internet in the classroom because students use it for so many other things. Using the Internet not only engages them into the lesson, it also helps them learn without them even realizing it. It also uses the medium of communication that they are most comfortable with.

I am already using Web 2.0 to learn new things, just by taking this class. Already I have thought of new ways to incorporate these things in my classroom and I am ready to start interacting with the Web more to find even more things.

Thing #1

The habits that may be the most challenging for me during my Learning 2.0 -23 Things experience are Habits 3 and 5.
Habit 3: View problems as challenges
Usually my 1st reaction to a problem is not to see it as a challenge. My 1st reaction is panic, pure and simple. After I calm down and become a mature adult again, I do find that the problem is just something that I have to go through to make me stronger. I would like to work on making the mature reaction into my 1st reaction.
Habit 5: Create your own learning toolbox
In life, I have been blessed with many resources. Many times, I feel as if I will be bothering that person if I call on them to do something, and I don't use them. After the fact, the person usually tells me that they would have been more than happy to help in that situation, had I only asked for it. I would like to work on using my toolbox as my 1st resort and not my last.

The habits that will be the easiest and most resonant for me are Habits 2 and 4.
Habit 2: Accept responsibility for your own learning
I have always loved to learn and I definitely take pride in it. I feel that my education and my yearning to learn more are things that can never be taken away from me. I value them dearly and don't mind sharing my knowledge with others because I have always believed that knowledge is power.
Habit 4: Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
I have always had extreme confidence in my learning abilities because I love to learn so much that I know that I can learn anything I put my mind to. If I really want to learn something, all I have to do is let it catch my attention and once it has, nothing can stop me from learning all I possibly can.

The habit that I think will be most important for me as I work through this course is Habit 1.
Habit 1: Begin with the end in mind
As I work through this course, I know that I will get discouraged. When I decided to enroll in this course, I read the description and decided that I would like to know how to become a better lifelong learner. So when I get discouraged, all I will have to do is remember that this is helping me do one of my favorite things: learn more. This will keep me motivated and on track more than anything else I can use.