This week we learned how to edit pictures using Picasa.  I have a Mac so I just use Iphoto since the editing tools are pretty similar.  Here are some that I have done!

Here is my sweet baby Caysen

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And here is another one of me and baby Caysen

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And one more!

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Technology in My Classroom

In today's world technology is such a big part of everyone's lives that it would be crazy not to incorporate some aspect of it into the classroom.  I think that in my classroom I could easily incorporate a Wiki page into my teaching units and I think I would even have a classroom blog.  I would use the blog kind of as an assignment page where if any students missed or if any students had questions at home, they could refer back to the page for help and resources.  


The only time that I have used technology in teaching is with PowerPoint projects.  I have also used an overhead projector when teaching, but Im not sure if you can even label that as technology anymore :). 

I hope to better affiliate myself with blogging, wiki pages, and other technological tools that I can incorporate into my classroom.  I hope that I can learn how to best format the technological tools to benefit and support my students.  I am not the most technologically advanced person so I may struggle a little bit or things may be very basic.  But Im going to try!

Blogging in Education

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• What is Web 2.0 and why should teachers know about it?
• Web 2.0 is interactive information sharing.  Examples are blogs, wikis, social network sites, ect.  Web 2.0 allows people to interact and collaborate by sharing ideas and commenting on others posts.  Teachers should know about Web 2.0 because it is very present in today's day and age.  Almost everyone is active on some sort of Web 2.0 source.  Children are also actively engaged in these sites and they spend a lot of time on them.  Teachers can use Web 2.0 to their advantage by providing useful information and places to allow students to share their ideas. 
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• What is a Blog and why should every teacher have one?
• A blog is a place where entries can be made to share with followers or anyone viewing the blog.  It can act like an online diary where the writer can share entries on their life, their profession, world news, and anything else they want to share.  Readers are able to leave interactive comments where discussion or debates can be performed.  Blogs can contain text, pictures, music, and links to other websites.  
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• What are the pedagogical implications of student driven BLOGS in contrast to a teacher-created website?
• Student driven blogs allow the students to have control of the blog.  In a teacher created-website the teacher is the one that starts the discussion or posts the main information and the students usually just comment and post back.  But in a student driven blog, students have the ability to start the main discussion, freely comment on each others posts and ideas, and they have the capability of leading the blog in whatever direction they choose.  The students get more out of a blog when it is driven by them and they have more freedom to comment and post.  
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