Well, blog, this has been quite the journey. It's one that I couldn't be happier to have completed. When I first heard that we had to blog, I was none too excited to begin. My first post seems like so long ago. I quickly found myself falling behind in keeping up with blogging. Life got in the way and the blog became more of a stress looming over my head than something enjoyable. Now that I'm done (finally!), it feels great! Some of the things I remember most are bubbl.us and Animoto. There were others that I did not enjoy in the least. But, through it all, I worked towards strengthening my biggest weakness from thing 1: using technology to my advantage. I feel like I now have a better idea of tools to use in the future. There are some things we did that I can't see myself ever using again: online todo lists, twitter, and delicious.com to name a few. There are others, however, that I will undoubtedly use in my future classroom. I wouldn't say that I completely conquered this habit or made it my strongest of the habits, but I definitely learned some things that make me more technologically savvy than I was just a few short months ago. I was surprised at how easy almost everything was. There were a few things that stumped me, but overall, everything was fairly simple and I was able to figure it out with little time or effort wasted. I like the overall format of this blog. Each thing is broken down into short exercises. If any of the things were combined, it could become overwhelming. Completing one (or more) thing(s) in one sitting was definitely doable and didn't take too much time. There are definitely tools that I have learned about that I will use in my classroom. The online calendar is something I can definitely see myself using as a way to communicate with my students' parents. Livebinder looks extremely useful, but I need to work with it a little more to get a better handle on it. Web 2.0 is something that is constantly evolving. Since we started our blogs this semester, things have probably already changed. Now that I know about things and how things work and what they mean, I can tackle new things with ease as they arise. Our students, regardless of what grade we end up teaching, will undoubtedly be very familiar with each new technological advance as it develops. The more we know about technology and feel comfortable with using it, the better we will be able to relate to and appeal to our students.
I've never been much of a fan of resolutions. They're great in theory, but a few weeks in, the novelty wears off, and old habits persist. I don't often make New Year's resolutions. By February, how many people are actually keeping up with their resolutions? The gyms are so crowded in January, but by March, they're as empty as they were in December. I feel like making a resolution just sets me up for failure. In all honesty, I'll probably never touch this blog again. However, I may create a blog for my future classroom and maintain it as a way to keep in touch with and communicate with my students' parents. I could use the blog to keep parents informed of upcoming events, projects, tests, field trips, etc. Parents could refer to the blog to learn about what their children will be learning. This knowledge could allow them to work with their children on these skills and better assist them with homework.
Well, blog, that's it. Thing 24. Done!
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