Thing #3

How I might use a blog in the classroom. Students could be shown how to set up a blog if parents agree and use it as a tool to communicate with their classmates and teacher just as we are. Some students who wouldn't necessarily ask questions in class may be more open to do so in a blog format, especially if they made themselves anonymous. Some students are uncomfortable asking questions in a formal setting whether they are just shy or feel that their questions are dumb. By setting up a blog this would give students a tool to get questions answered on class lessons that they may just otherwise choose to not learn. I think though this would only be appropriate for middle school and high school students.

Thing #2

How I decided on my name was easy just made it simple by using my first initial and part of my last name. I also made my name the title of my blog with the class number to make it simple. My experience in creating this blog was honestly a little frustrating to get started. I felt a little overwhelmed at first setting it up, but as I go along I am learning the features and how to use them. Hopefully by the end of the semester I will be a pro at using most of them. The Avatar reflects my personality fairly well. My wink is that I usually find some kind of amusement in most things and my favorite color is black.

Thing #1

The lifelong habit that is easiest for me would be habit 2 accepting responsibility for my own learning. It has been a struggle to go back to school and I will admit I have not necessarily enjoyed the experience. I think the reason for this is that I need to improve on habit 4 and have a little more confidence in myself as a competent learner. College is a different experience when you are a single, working mother of two than it was in my twenties, but as I go along I am feeling more adept. Habit 5 creating my own toolbox is easy and hard. I am an avid reader so collecting books is not a struggle, nor is making friends or using people I work with to help mentor me through some of my classes. I struggle with the technology and hope this class will get me through the technology barrier I have, so I hope to learn a lot by playing with Web 2.0 tools, but mainly to not be afraid to use more technology. Habit 7 teaching or mentoring others is not hard either, I enjoy helping others if I can. I think most of us probably feel a sense of accomplishment if we can teach others, which is why we are becoming teachers.