Thing #3

Blogging is the modern day communication tool that is fast and effective. It is a convenient way to relay imperative information to a vast number of people. Creating a blog is a smart way to use technology to extend education resources to students and parents. I particularly would use blogging to link my class with another class somewhere else in the world. I think that would be huge learning experience for both myself and my students to share information, post discussion topics and additional educational activities. I would also create a reflective journal type blog to provide some how-to's on using specific technology in the class, by describing how I used the technology in my own class. I think that is it very important for technology to be used to keep the students in tuned with learning and not get bored and loose interest. Creating a blog is another way to engage students learning to writing creatively. It can also serve as a source of communication with parents of elementary school students. Web blogging will definitely be on the top of the list of technologies that I will use in my class room.

Thing #2

Setting up my own blog was challenging. I am computer literate but this is the first time I have ever created a blog. After spending six hours on creating an account, setting up a myspace account would not have been a bad idea several years ago. Finding where to create the Avatar was most challenging. I typed, "how to create an Avatar" in my gmail search bar, but that was not helpful. Then I looked on another blog and clicked on the Avatar and it directed me to create my Avatar.

My love for scrapbooking lead me to create a picture that represented my feelings about the importance of reading. My Avatar also represents how I would like to be viewed by others and that is dressed professionally and ready to teach to reading while using technology.

Thing #1

The idea of lifelong learning is that is it never to late to learn. I am an example of that idea. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to return to college and obtain a professional degree and since August of last year I have been pursuing my dream. Although I had been out of school for 15 years, at age 34 learning could not be more fulfilling of my purpose in life.

Since returning to college, establishing a learning plan was an immediate need. My plan was to read carefully and study hard. Never the less, the lifelong learning habit that has been easy for me is teaching and mentoring others. I am driven and inspired by being able to enlighten the learning youth. I always keep my ear open for those who need help academically, especially teachers who need volunteers to provide extra help to their students.

The lifelong learning habit I find hard to apply is setting aside time to play and relax. I understand the importance of incorporating play and relaxation,  but it is often short lived. I would like to think that work should be done before playing takes place, but more often then not my work is not done. Now that I am familiar with the 7 1/2 habits that life long learners exhibit, play and relaxation will be added to my lifelong learning plan.