Creative Commons

I can use my dog, Libby the Italian Greyhound in an elementary setting to help me teach lessons of trust, respect, kindness, ect. On special show and tell days I would be able to bring Libby in so the students could meet her and I could continue to have her help me teach various lessons. I believe this is a creative way of engaging students in values lessons.

Libby by Michael and Alison Watt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at picasaweb.google.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://picasaweb.google.com/qualifiededucator/Libby#.

I would also use

Social Networking

I traditionally have been reluctant to jump on the so-called social networking band wagon. However, Linkedin is such a great tool professionally and I am glad that I have this tool to show-case myself. Personally Facebook is nice to have because I can update my friends and see how they are doing as well. I just started using Twitter and am still getting my footing with it. I believe that it is an educators responsibility to learn these tools and understand these tools. Students today communicate using Facebook, Twitter, ect. If we understand how to use these tools and utilize them correctly we can reach our students in a different way.

PC Maintainence

I watched the spyware tutorial, the free anti-virus tutorial, and Karen replicator free back up tutorial. From all three tutorials I did not realize you could get these items for free. Another item I learned and never really thought about is the fact that you need to make sure your computer is safe from malware. Also I have always known I needed to back up files, but never wanted to pay for it or take th time to do it, however, now that I know I can gt it for free I probably start backing up my files. There was not anything that really surprised me from these tutorials.

Michigan State Spartans Football- Fight song

RSS Reflection Blog

The blog that I am following ‘Education Nation: Higher Education Blog’ may not use the type of language that I find appropriate; however, the content is interesting. The blog entitled, Equality In the Public School System (Or the Lack Thereof) discusses two books that shed a light on the public education system. Both books (Five Miles Away, A World Apart by James E. Ryan, and In Brown’s Wake by Martha Minow.) look very intriguing and will be on my Christmas list. While tracking the changes of my RSS Reader I felt a little overwhelmed. For example, NPR went from 20 reads to now 538. The NPR site has a mix of ‘silly’ stories like ‘Canadian John Stewart explains Thanksgiving’ to more serious stories like ‘Despite U.S. apologies Pakistan blocks supply routes. The basic theme I have gotten from my RSS Reader is education is ever evolving and there will always be a great debate to follow. I am not sure how I would utilize my current content in my RSS Reader with my current TA position as it does not pertain to business or marketing. However, as a former Financial Aid Counselor, I would utilize the articles in possibly finding a better way to inform students. I think as my role changes in education I will be able to find different and betters ways to use my RSS Reader. I guess I’ll just have to keep you posted.  

Getting Things Done

1. How did you organize your process? (are you using paper and pencil, a phone, a piece of software)? I used to keep a planner to organize items that needed to be done. As I learned about other technologies I stopped using the planner and put my items on Outlook.  It is easier for me to have a digital copy then a paper one.
2. What was it like for you going through the process the first time? It was a little overwhelming going through the process for the first time. Sometimes we do not realize how many things we have on our plate.
3. Do you think that this process will help you? Why or why not? I think this process will keep me on top of what needs to be done and what can wait.
4. Do you think you will continue this process? If not, what will your process be? I believe I will keep up with this process because if I don not then I will fall behind.