Turning to a New Chapter in the Journey

Going to Hawaii for Thanksgiving '09

Going to Hawaii by myself was not the best decision that I have made. What seemed like a great idea in April when I booked my trip, didn't seem like a great idea when it got closer to the date that I was suppose to leave. I can spend hours upon hours at the beach by myself with no problem. The hard part comes when your seeing beautiful things and you don't have someone special to share it with. Have you ever gone to a Luau by yourself? Trust me, it is not all that fun. All the married women and single women with boyfriends or significant others hold on tighter to their man especially when they find out there is a single woman in the bunch. I would probably end up being asked if I wanted to go a specific hospital if I started talking to myself about everything that I was seeing. Top it off, I think that I was bit by a spider on my stomach because I have this huge red knot that keeps getting bigger. I don't think that the spider bite was part of the travel package that I had booked.

The hotel as you might have guessed pictured to the right was beautiful and you really didn't even have to leave the hotel to find things to do. I would recommend staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village to anyone. This picture does not do it justice in anyway. The beach is awesome! That happened to be my favorite part of the trip except for the spider bite.

So, I am not sure what is in store for me right now. I have spent so many years taking care of other people and other things that I forgot abot myself along the way. I think that I was just kidding myself about saying it was ok to be single when it wasn't. So, as I follow the brick road in order to continue the "journey", I am not sure of where I am supposed to go. I just know that I have to be open to new possibilities and take risks.

Is it the End or only the Beginning???

Day 365 - End of Chapter
From Luc Pigeault


This picture says it all about this course! Even though I am glad to be wrapping this course up, there were many times that I thought about just saying "enough is enough" and ask myself "what was the reason why I took this course????" However, since I am writing the last or wait, it could be just an end to one chapter and the beginning of a new chapter on my journey. Because if I look at my title, this blog is not a destination. If I am totally honest with myself, even though I found many of these "Things" challenging and wasn't quite sure I would be able to get through them. Not to mention being able to keep my sanity. But I did! Even though I had to use my favorite "life-line", I am very proud that I hung in there and I have learned so many new things. After all, we are our own worst critic, and I am a teeny little bit of a perfectionist.

I really enjoyed looking at Flickr and choosing pictures. I totally agree that a picture is worth a thousand words and that sometimes you don't need words, just a picture. I literally spent hours upon hours checking out the pictures and uploading them to my computer. I feel that this course has been a great challenge for me as a life-long learner. It makes me realize that even though I have been an educator for thirty years, there are still a lot of things that I haven't even begun to touch the surface learning about.

I would definitely recommend this course to my fellow coworkers and other teachers in the district. I would however caution them to make sure that they complete all the "things" listed each week in order to stay on track. Because of all the responsibilities that I have at Poteet and the little things that came up in my daily "life", I did not follow the weekly assignments. However, I come up with some of my best creative ideas under pressure. I would also definitely take another discovery program like this one if it was offered.

All of the ideas that I proposed how I could use each thing as a teacher, I carefully thought about and would hopefully use. Students are changing and we can't teach the same way that we did even two years ago. We have to constantly find ways to meet the needs of our students and not think that the students need to learn based on how we feel we need to teach them. As life-long learners, it is critical that we stay ahead of the game and be proactive when it comes to educating our students.

Right now I plan to keep up with my journey and not make the end of this class a destination, but to begin a new chapter to the journey. My other favorite things that I enjoyed in addition to Flickr, was creating my avitar, creating a slideshow with animoto, getting information from my google reader, and several others. At the moment, I think I am on "Thing Overload" and don't know which "Thing" I should comment or not comment on. This has been an incredible journey that has had detours, rest stops, and full speed ahead access. I have signed up to be a member of so many new sites and have put in a password so many times, that I wished I would have had a little notebook to write down the sites as well as the passwords. I would like to thank Mary Woodard for having patience with all of my questions and for her encouraging comments. You Rock Mary!







Until I begin the next chapter to my journey:

Thing # 23: Beyond MySpace: and other Social Networks

Wow and OMG! I signed up to access the Classroom 2.0 and was totally overwhelmed at how busy the site was. There were so many replies to different discussions that I was getting dizzy trying to scroll down past them to look at the rest of the website. I did find the Visitor Map interesting of where everyone was from that had joined the site. Being educators, seems to make the world a little world a little smaller since we have so many things in common.

I did plan to make a mental note and check out the Public Broadcasting Service live Webinars: Sid the Science Kid on Germs, Viruses, and Vaccines http://www.pbs.org/teachers. With the growing concern of the H1N1 flu going around, this could possibly educate us a little more on the flu epidemic. I also found the links for various tools such as Google Earth http://classroom20.ning.com/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=gearth and Collaborative Idea Map http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topic/listForTag?tag=ideamaps and other links helpful. The site also had links by subject as well.
One of the coolest things that I saw which would really turn on teachers who are in different countries is the translation tool in order to translate this network in your native language. Just like Google Docs, this would be great to share information with non-English speaking teachers. There were also other links listed toward the bottom of the website that looked interesting for future investigation.

Checking out http://socialnetworksined.wikispaces.com/ part 2 of this assignment, I saw an intersting article on the educational networking site titled: Why Every Parent and Teacher Should Learn MySpace and Facebook and A 30-Day Guide To Losing Your Digital as a Second Language (DSL) . I found the article interesting but I am not really sure that every parent and teacher should learn about myspace and facebook. Just because both of these social networking sites boasts a lot of members, it doesn't mean that the entire world has to join these social networks. There is life outside of these networks. The author of the article did encourage parents and teachers to join a social network that they have interests in.

I did check out the Ning Network and copied the widget. But for some reason it would not load. I also tried to get the badge and for some reason that didn't work as well as getting a second widget. I have no idea of what I am doing wrong, but the deadline to getting everything turned in is fast approaching. At least I did attempt it even though it did not show up on my blog. This was very frustrating to me since I am so close to finishing up this class.

Thing # 22: Explore Social Networking

I said that I would never have a MySpace or Facebook account. I know that I will never have a MySpace account. A lot of the students that I know at school have them, and I know that I would rather keep what they have on their accounts a mystery, than look them up. Some things are just better left alone. It is kind of like the old saying "don't ask questions that you don't want answers too."

I also thought that I never would want a Facebook account, but I had too many of my friends send me invitations, that I finally caved in and signed myself up. I did create a profile, and invited several of my friends to be "my friend." I did not download a picture. I hate pictures, I have always hated having my picture taken. My mom would get so mad at me when I started teaching school because she knew that teachers took school pictures, but I never seemed to bring any of them home. The reason being that I would destroy them and just tell her that I never had them taken. I am sure that she knew that I was not being truthful, but I couldn't bear to tell her that I hated having my picture taken. However, I thought she would have gotten the hint a long time ago when I would also volunteer to take pictures of them so I wouldn't have to be in the picture.

Back to the story of my Facebook experience, after having my facebook account for a few months now, I have had students who have graduated from Poteet invite me to be their friends. I did draw the line when current students that I know at Poteet invite me to be their friends. If they are willing to wait until after they graduate, then that will be fine. I also draw the line and invitations from parents of students. I will also admit that I did have a former student invite me to be "their friend" and I declined the invitation more than once. I didn't know for sure if facebook would show the "invitee that I had declined their invitation or not. I don't want to hurt any one's feelings, but I wasn't totally confident that this person would not post messages that I would want everyone to see on my wall.

I would like to point out that some people on facebook need to learn some social networking etiquette. I mean really, do you think that any one really cares what you cooked for dinner, that you did laundry, and you laid on the couch all afternoon because you had a headache? I think not! If you post things like that, you need to GET A LIFE! But maybe you don't have a life because you're on facebook all the time. I find this simply annoying and don't even bother reading what they posted. I have enjoyed getting to hear what former Poteet students are doing and seeing pictures of their families. I always comment that even though I am not getting older that they sure are.

I will also admit that I did post a comment on my wall that I had spent Labor Day weekend in San Francisco and that I ate cheesecake on top of the Macy's building at the Cheesecake Factory. And I did brag that I had to wear long sleeves and a light jacket while everyone back in Dallas was feeling the heat of over a hundred degrees. One of my coworkers and friend commented that if I posted a comment that I was relaxing on the beach when I go to Hawaii over Thanksgiving, that she would personally knock the holy crap out of me when I get back. I told her that she needed to be happy for me and that she too could go to Hawaii if she made travel arrangements. Somehow that commented didn't seem to make her any happier about the situation.

I am also very surprised that facebook has not sent me a cancellation notice since I don't utilize the social network that much. I even hate to admit that I forget that I have a facebook account. Maybe I will have more things to post on my wall when I do come back from Hawaii. Right now, I am not too sure that people really want to read that I spent an afternoon with my dog Zack at the dog park. Yes, I do cook, clean, do laundry, and a whole variety of things. I even take a nap from time to time, but I really don't think that people want to read about it. I do try to have a life even though as a teacher, we do spend quite a bit of time at the school.

I tried really hard to see if I could use either one of the sights for educational purposes and decided that it wasn't going to happen. The only thing that I could tie facebook and myspace to was that students need to keep in mind that once something is posted on these sites, that they need to really think about what they are posting. We all know the story of the former University of Texas football player who was released from the team for posting an inappropriate comment. I also think that some people who use myspace or facebook think that the sites are the next big thing to the Jerry Springer show and choose to air their dirty laundry. So as a teacher, I wouldn't even want to risk using either one of these social networking sites to teach a student a lesson.

Thing #21: Google's not just for Searching Anymore

http://www.google.com/ or http://m.www.yahoo.com/; which one is the better search engine? If you asked your friends, not everyone would pick the same one. I use google and yahoo for different things. When I first started using the internet, I decided to open a yahoomail account. I use my yahoomail account for personal emails that are not school related. I also enjoy using yahoo.com to look at the top local and world news.

The google page which is comparable to the yahoo page I started using due to a lot of my students using google. My students ask me to look at http://images.google.com/ a lot to find different images for their reports and posters. I have to admit that I never look at images on yahoo. Why, I really don't know, I guess because my students never ask me to use yahoo to search for pictures.

Several years ago, I was sent the link for http://earth.google.com/. It also happens to be an application that I downloaded free for my iPhone. I think that it is the coolest thing to look at. I went to San Francisco over Labor Day weekend and I was able to pull up exactly where I was at Pier 39. It was really cool! I have also pulled up my house and Poteet. Even though it was perfectly legal, I thought I was doing something that I shouldn't have been able to do.

Finding this out by accident, I was able to pull up Picasa Web Albums and saw seven of my photos that I had downloaded or uploaded and din't even realize it. I don't know why I had two copies of some of my pictures and only one of five other pictures. Even though I have learned a lot, there are a lot of things that are a mystery to me. I am pretty sure that when I finish this class, I will go back and investigate this site more.

Thing #20: Google Docs

I attended a Google Docs workshop given by Shane Huff and Tonya Cox at Poteet last year, so I was at least excited about knowing what our assignment was all about. I have even shared some documents with my PIT Camp co-chair for our freshman orientation. I also want to point out that I forgot my password over the summer and couldn't get back into Google Docs until now. Completing this assignment has reminded me why I was excited about Google Docs in the first place.

I was even more excited about Google Docs when we can share documents and photos without having to kill a few trees. For a teacher, Google Docs is pure genius! If you are collaborating with all the 9th grade English teachers in the district or with other districts, each teacher would be able to upload their document and the other teachers could view the document and print it if they so desire. Of course, you could also attach a document to an email and send it that way. But to ensure that you don't leave someone off the email, it would be great to have one site that you all share and have access to. Because without fail, you will always have one teacher who did not get the email no matter how hard you try to make sure you don't leave anyone off.

When I was working on my principal certification, I had an instructor that emailed us all of the handouts for the next weeks class. It was our responsibility to print them out and bring to them class. I didn't know at the time that the instructors were responsible for bringing their own paper to copy handouts, tests, and etc. an instructor could upload everything needed for their class at one time and not have to worry about making sure everything was ready for the next week. It also puts responsibility on us as the student to check the site and come to class prepared. This would be a great idea for our students to use when they lose a handout or even miss a day or two of school. They would be able to go to the site, download the assignment, and not really have a reason to be late on the assignment or need a lot of extra time to complete it. This also allows the student to take some responsibility for their learning and keeping up with their assignments.

I think my favorite part of this assignment was having the opportunity to create my document and translate it into Spanish. Not knowing Spanish, I thought that this was so cool! This would be great for newsletters, letters, or even flyers that are inviting parents to attend a choir concert that do not speak any English. This would have been very handy to know when I had to write a letter to my neighbor who doesn't speak any English. I had to ask one of the assistant principals who does speak and write in Spanish to translate the letter for me. What was interesting is that there was an entire long list of different languages that were available for translation.

Thing #19: Voicethread

I remember the first time that I ever heard my voice. I was in the third grade and my dad was stationed in the Philippines and my mom had my brother and I make tapes to send to him. The tapes that we made were not cassette tapes and I really couldn't tell you what type of tapes they were, but getting back to the story. I think the day that my mom had us make a tape was when I was sick and it sounded like I had a "frog in my throat." I think I was about nine years old at the time and really couldn't understand what my mom meant when she said I had a "frog in my throat," all I knew was that I didn't like the sound of my voice that day.

Another time that I remember hearing the sound of my voice and was a little horrified, was when the answering machines first came out. I remember taping my outgoing message over and over until I had it just right. I still was never convinced even now that my voice really sounds like that. I always wished I had a voice that would sound good on the radio, television, over the announcements, and etc. However, I am stuck with this voice of mine and whomever has to listen to it is as well.

In fact, every year Poteet does some type of Christmas project. Well, for some reason, I am always in charge of the project (I am not sure how that happens but.) Since my name is Ms. Hokanson, when I started making annoucements, I would say "this is Ms. Ho Ho Hokanson and etc." The kids really loved it and would get a kick out of it. I only allowed them to call me Ms. Ho Ho Hokanson at Christmas time. I am sure that you get my meaning if I allowed them to call me that other times of the year. I also need to mention that I had a school board members son in my class and he use to call me "Miss. Ho", when he would talk to his mom and dad about my class or about me. We laugh about it now that it has been more than five years or so, but at the time I didn't really find it all that funny. I will also mention that this school board member happens to be one of my favorites.

If I was going to choose to listen to a voicethread, it would be someone who has a deep voice. For some reason I enjoy listening to men who have deep voices. I could listen to a man who had a deep voice all day. I will add that I have a friend of mine who is a woman who is always mistaken for a man because she has a deep voice. I wouldn't like that at all! Ok, I have to snap back to reality and close this blog about using voicethreads in the classroom. I really don't think that this is something that I would want to use this as a learning tool with my students. Like them, I would probably be bored out of my mind and start singing or humming to myself.

Thing # 18: You too can YouTube

I have mentioned many times on this blog that I learn best by using all three modalities. I truly enjoy the visual and auditory modalities the best. In fact, while I am completing my "Things" tonight, I am listening to my IPod Touch, have my iPhone to my left, have the television on, and will start this lesson by getting on the YouTube site. Please don't make the same mistake that I did and type in UTube. That was definitely not the site that I wanted and couldn't seem to get out of for the longest minute that I ever spent in a site.

I started using YouTube last year when I was teaching my students cellphone etiquette. Who knew that when cell phones were invented that we would be teaching students proper etiquette. I used various AT&T commericals advertising texting. I also used commericals off of YouTube when I recently taught a lesson on commercials, slogans, and logos. The students really seemed to enjoy watching the commercials. In addition, I showed a episode of 60 Minutes where they showed managers using old clips of Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Elvis, and Michael Jackson to sell products using their faces and names on lunch pails, backpacks, and etc. Some of my students did not know who Marilyn Monroe or James Dean were, so YouTube came in handy when I showed them the famous Rebel Without A Cause Trailer and Marilyn Monroe sings Happy Birthday to Kennedy. They also got a kick out of watching the 1980 Michael Jackson Pepsi Commercial that was created ten or eleven years before they were even born. As a teacher you can never assume that a student knows about something or who someone is. Using short videos comes in handy for students who are visual learners.

I have also visited TeacherTube numerous times and have enjoyed several videos. One of my favorite videos that was shown at Convocation in 2006 Tags: Mesquite ISD Education Inspiration kids Convocation

We see a video each year at Convocation and this one has to be my absolute favorite. Another video that has become one of my favorites is
Tags: KarlFisch Jeff Brenman technology media shifthappens shift happens powerpoint

It shows us how technology has changed so much over the years and continues to change so much that we are not able to keep up.

Thing # 17: Podcasts: no ipod needed!

About two years ago, I decided that I would go out and buy and ipod. Since my neice worked for Apple, I was able to get my 16GB iPod Touch for a $100 less. I was so pleased with my purchase until I found out that Apple had just come out with a 32GB iPod Touch. In the the two years that I have had my iPod Touch, I have downloaded a lot of my own CD's and music from iTunes. My music library is so full that I am looking into upgrading my iPod Touch to a 64GB iPod Touch.

Being a teacher, student council sponsor, and the co-chair for our PIT Camp (freshman orientation), I use a lot of music in and outside of my classroom. Being a role model, I always stress to my students the importance of copyright laws and downloading music legally. One thing that I like about using the iTunes Store is that it is very user friendly and it meets two of my learning modalities: auditory and visual. I also love the fact that I can download one song instead of buying an entire CD.

I have found that I am very impatient when watching a television show, documentary, or even a movie that I don't like having to watch the commericals. Whomever invented the VCR and now the DVR, are my favorite inventors. Now I can skip the commercials and watch an hour program in about forty minutes and a half-hour program in twenty minus once you fast forward the commercials. All I can say is SWEET! It is even more ironic that when I go to the movies and have to sit through all the previews, that by the time the movie is about to start, I have to think about which movie did I actually pick to watch. I know, it really probably sounds really silly to those of you who are reading my blog.

Looking at several podcasts that were listed, I saw a few interesting titles that might catch the eye of high school students such as: Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips. I am sure that this podcast is not what they think it is about it, but it might "hook" them into checking it out. For students who love to learn vocabulary, the podcast Webster's Word of the Day might be interesting. Again, today's students want to be entertained and not necessarily by a teacher. Podcasts might come in handy. Looking at the iTunes Store and under podcasts, there were several podcasts that caught my eye such as: Things your mother never told you, or things you never learned in History class. Since the movie New Moon is coming out, I decided that I would subscribe to the podcast http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=336385756&subMediaType=Video. Another thing that I liked about itunes was that you could choose between video podcasts and audio podcasts.

I have a coworker that downloads travel podcasts on his iPhone and shows them to his classes when they are studying a particular country that has a podcast available to watch. The students seem to enjoy watching them and they actually think that they are getting away with watching something on the projector using the teachers iPhone. We also have an ESL teacher that uses iPods to teach her ESL students English. Who knew that when these were created that we would be watching tv, movies, music videos, and listening or watching podcasts and not just listening to music.

Thing #16: Discover Library Thing

I love to read and never seem to have enough time to do it as much as I would like to. I really don't go to libraries or book stores very much. Too many choices and not enough time to really look. That is why when I go to the library or book store, I have a specific book that I am looking for. When I was working on my masters degree and additional certifications, I was so glad when I was done, so that I could start reading things for pleasure and not because it is required.

Even right now, I have a stack of magazines that I need to start reading. This summer I had foot surgery and was stuck in the house on doctors orders for two weeks. I am not a person that likes being told that "your under house arrest", and I could think of worse things that I would rather do than be under house arrest again. I will say that during this two week "house arrest", I was able to catch up on my magazines and read some books that I had been meaning to get to. One of the books that I read this summer and could not put down was by the author Jodi Picoult titled Nineteen Minutes . This was a great book that the ending caught me by total surprise.

A lot of high school students are reading the following books: Twilight, New Moon, Breaking Dawn and Eclipse all written by Stephenie Meyer. A number of the students that I know have personally went out and bought movie tickets for the opening night of New Moon which starts next week. Again, by reading some of the books that my students are currently reading, we are able to have discussions about the characters and plots in the novels and I get to pass on the importance of the "joy of reading" and becoming a "life-long learner.

Back to reality, I still have a lot of magazines that I need to read. I always get ideas for new books to read by asking other teachers at work, looking at the Oprah's Book Club, reading book reviews in other popular magazines. As a teacher, I also like to check out books that students at my high school are reading in order to make connections with students that who are really into books and are not your typical sports nut, cheerleader, and etc. Being able to make connections with students through their interests is a positive thing for teachers to do.

I enjoyed using the Library Thing to check out one of my favorite writers Jodi Picoult and was able to tag some of her novels that I would like to read in the future. I have always read book reviews on Amazon.com, but they are also wanting you to purchase the book as well. I am not sure if I will use Library Thing on a regular basis in the future, but I have bookmarked it to check out again in the future.

Thing #15: Social Bookmarking and Tagging with Delicious

Thing # 7A and 7B: Google Reader Revisited

I have really enjoyed visiting my google reader several times over the last week or so. I find that I spend way too much time looking at all the things and realized that time has really flown by. The whole purpose of google reader is for us to skim through the things that interest us and pick and choose what we want to investigate further. I must feel really proud of myself, because all of the sites that I chose to have delivered to my reader were all great sites and again, I spent a lot of time looking through the items.

One of the first sites that caught my eye was the 60 Second Recap which provides book summaries in sixty second video segments. This site provides a sixty second summary of each chapter of each book. Along with the chapter summaries there is a general overview of each book. You can record a simple text response to the recap if you would like. I would think that students would really enjoy watching a short video segment rather than reading a book. The concept of 60 Second Recap could be used as a student project in which they create their own video recaps of the books they read. If students don't have access to a video camera, they could use a service like Animoto or Stupeflix to create their video recaps of the books they've read.


I also enjoyed looking at the pictures on Flickr Most Interesting Photos. This way you look at the photos that have been chosen as most interesting in the last seven days and you don't have to spend time sifting through all the photos. Again, I find myself spending a lot of time on this site as well. The creativity of the photographers just really make me wish that I could take pictures like this. Here is a picture that I especially thought was cute and brought you back to the basics: This photo is untitled and posted by: Meltem Ece Poyraz. Sifting through a lot of the photos posted on this site, I found more than just one photo that caught my eye.

Students don't take the time to watch the news or read the news. I feel that it is important for students to be informed of what is going on in the world. Another particular site that I enjoy and have started asking my students to check out is: CNN Student News for Thursday 5 November where there was an article where students could Examine what some financial trends might mean for the U.S. economy. They need to learn about how important trends can impact not only the U.S. economy, but their own as well.

I look forward to continuing to check my google reader even after this class has been completed. Not only have I found new sites for my students to check out. I have found sites that will assist me in developing ideas for journal topics and creating better lessons for my students to stay engaged and on task when I am teaching.

Thing #14: Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

With five days left to wrap up the rest of the 23 Things that I have not completed, I decided to check out wordle at http://wordle.net/ .

I first experienced wordle this summer when I was taking the New Jersey Writing Workshop. We were asked as a class to design a cover for our class book that was going to be printed. I was so blown away that all you had to do was type words into the computer and it would create graphical "word clouds" that you could customize layouts, fonts, and colors. I just knew that my students would love creating their own word cloud based on their own interests and personalities, that my students would call this "pure genius" and love me the entire school year. In the past, I have asked my students to create a poster "about themselves" to bring to class the second week of school. This year, I decided that I would have the students creat graphical "word clouds" using their name and adjectives that would describe them as well as inserting words that go along with their interests.

The assignment was a hit and my students loved creating their own "word cloud." I asked the students to come up with their own way of how they wanted to display their "word cloud" and we would put them up in the room. It was really cool to see which students would be as creative as possible and which ones would do enough just to get the project done. I did ask the students later if they had to choose doing a poster or creating their own word cloud, which one would they rather do. The majority of the students said that they enjoyed creating the word cloud and that they would probably keep it rather than having to hold onto a poster.

I did investigate http://www.toondoo.com/ and created a cute little cartoon, but was getting frustrated because I could not insert it into my blog, that I got frustrated and decided to write about wordle. I did have fun creating my character, background, text cloud, and any additional props. I was just spending way too much time creating my toon when I should be wrapping up this portion of the assignment.

Being and English teacher, I chose a wordle that was already created on the site entitled Project G by Meredith. Later when I have more time, I plan on creating a wordle based on adjectives that describe me and my interests to put up with my students creations. You can use this website to creat wordles just about anything. I would think that extrememly shy students would enjoy this assignment as opposed to creating a poster about themselves. Especially if they don't like their picture being taken.

I also plan on looking at several of the other tools listed in this lesson to see what they are all about. Right now, I am on dealing with "thing overload", and have had enough "things" to deal with tonight.

Thing #13: Online Image Generators

I was so happy when I was able to put something on my blog from the Happy Face Generator. I found Thing #9 very challenging. In fact, I had to skip Thing #9 and go ahead and work on Thing #10 and Thing # 11. This class has been fun, but at times I really don't understand what I am supposed to be doing and feel very lost. I really liked the ability where I could choose which happy face I wanted to use and also supply the caption for the sign. I could use this link to add some things to writing assignments for my students or to use for directions on a teacher created worksheet or test. This could add a little "fun" to a wikki, blog, and possibly slide show. It allows the creator to show their personality.

Using the program Image Chef I was able to creat some pictures that would show how others about my trip to San Francisco that I took over Labor Day Weekend. The three pictures also went along with the title for my blog. I have traveled twice to San Francisco in the past six months. It is one of my favorite cities and also known as the "Gateway to the Pacific." I first went to San Francisco when we were moving from Texas to the Philippines when I was nine years old. I have left out of San Francisco other times when we moved to Thailand and Okinawa during my teenage years. These places were able to provide me with experiences and memories that will last a lifetime.

Image Chef is a site where students can be creative when telling a story. You could also use this site in order to illustrate a journal prompt, create a travel brochure and many other things. Students could really show their personality in the projects that they create. Students could also use this site when illustrating SAT vocabulary words. Students can also create their own newspaper headlines which will provide students with possible discussion topics, and etc. I feel that using any of the generators will provide endless opportunities for students to show their creative sides, show their personalities and interests.

Thing #12: Create a Slideshow

Creating this slideshow was simple until I tried to embed the video. It took several times, but with the help of my "life-line", I was able to do it. You can never have to many "life-lines" in your life. I am 100% sure that I will use http://animoto.com/ again to create other videos. I found that the site was really easy to use with the help of my "life-line." I think that my students would also have fun creating slideshows as well. Being able to use images that I had saved from Flickr was also fun. I just wish that when I go to Flickr, that I could just select the photos that I want and be done. However, when I go to the site, I find that I spend hours looking at the photos and not even realize it. I am also very particular and have to choose the right photo.

I hate to admit that I did not even look at the other options that were given in this "Thing." Due to the deadline being tomorrow to finish everything for this online class, my "life-line" suggested that I use animoto. It was so easy and quick that I didn't get to frustrated. Except for the fact that when we would preview the blog, the slideshow would not be on my blog. We decided that because of the many filters that the district has, that it might be the reason why. Luckily, when I was able to pull up my blog at home, I was able to see my slideshow.

I wasn't quite sure if I was going to like the music that I picked to go along with the slideshow, because I had no idea of what the music was. Again, I got lucky and picked something fun and upbeat. So I hope that you enjoy the show!





Slideshow Credits
Cannon Beach.From coulombic
Still Life #30 Day 365 - End of Chapter
From Dreamer7112 From Luc Pigeault

Thing # 11: Photosharing with Flickr

WOW! I had no idea that I would be spending so much time picking out a picture to go along with my blog. I began looking at pictures at 9:00 and finally decided on a picture at 11:40. Time flies when you're looking at pictures that you didn't take. I am very sad to have to admit that this was the very first picture that I saw when I started to explore flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/. I wonder how many other people in my class spent hours exploring pictures before selecting the first picture that they saw. Please leave a comment on my blog if you did this. I think that they haven't come up with a twelve step program for people like us.

I remember the very first assignment that I worked on when I went attended Stephen F. Austin in my dorm room. I was majoring in Elementary Education at the time and we had to illustrate all the letters in the alphabet with pictures. Now would be a good time to mention that computers had not even been invented yet (boy am I showing my age) and all we could use were at the time were pictures from magazines. Thinking back to that assignment, we also had to use rubber cement to glue the pictures on to pieces of 8X11 1/2 card stock and laminate them as well. If we had to do the assignment now, we could use Flickr, cut and paste the pictures to a word document, print them out and laminate. I am sure that the assignment would be completed in record time using today's technology. I couldn't begin to tell you the hours, days, and nights that I spent on that first assignment.

The reason why I chose this particular picture for my blog has a lot to do with the title. Even though life takes us on a daily journey to "who knows where" and "anything can happen", at some point in time "there is no place like home" as simple effulgence wants us to remember. We all have times where we would just love to click our heels together three times and repeat the phrase "there is no place like home" just as Dorothy did in the Wizard of Oz and be able to magically get there. If it was only that easy to get back home or out of a sticky situation.

Getting back to the reality of this entry makes me realize how much we use images as teachers. There is a lot of truth to the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words!" Not everyone sees the same things in a picture. Having students brainstorm and write about what they see in a picture, or how it makes them feel, or why they chose a particular to write about is pure genius and allows them to express themselves.

Thing #10: Creative Commons

Being a teacher, we have been told numerous times to make sure that we pay attention to the big "C" laws as in copyright laws. As consumers, we continue to be warned about the copyright laws when downloading music. I don't know of anyone who would like to be given a astronomical bill because they were caught downloading music off of the different "free music websites" that are really not necessarily "free." I am sure that everyone remembers the first music download program called Napster. I am also sure that no one was ready for the "Napster" nightmare that occurred not very long after the program was shared by millions of people. I know that downloading music using itunes can be expensive, but I would rather buy some of those old must have songs than download them illegally.

Not all people consciously break copyright laws, we are all humans and I feel sure that sometimes we may break a law or two without realizing it. I just hope that the "CC" police never have to knock on my door and have an endless list of questions for me to answer. I can't recall ever noticing or hearing about CC on any websites that I have visited since I began using the internet. I will say that I am more aware to make sure that I check to see if there is a CC posted on a website. I am not really sure if the "CC" police would actually like hearing people begging forgiveness for their infractions.

Because I learn best using all three modalities, I try to incorportate all three modalities when I am creating my lessons for my students. Not being an artist, nor claiming to be an artist, I use a lot of pictures and clipart when I put together powerpoint presentations, journal writing assignments, and etc. I also use "clips" from movies, youtube videos, commercial clips, and songs in order to show real-life applications. My students seem to enjoy all of these different and creative ways in which I teach material they are required to learn. It makes it also very enjoyable for me as a teacher, because I have to think "outside the box" when I am preparing these lessons. I make sure that I stress to my students that their are copyright laws out there that they need to pay close attention to.

At Poteet, I am the co-chair for our Pirates in Training Camp (PIT Camp), which is our freshman orientation that we have each year. The other co-chair and I wrote a curriculumn that we have shared with the other four high schools in the district. After the second year we used the curriculumn, we added a copyright to the curriculumn. Knowing that one of my creations is copyrighted is kind of cool. We were also having a discussion the other day at lunch that all the lessons that we create are copyrighted as well. It makes me feel just a little bit more important for just a few minutes at least. I wonder if the powerpoints that I created using "CC'S", are mine? But I do share them with other teachers, and I wonder if they give me credit for developing those lessons. I don't really think that I want to send the "CC" police to check it out.

As teachers we borrow a little bit of this and a little bit of that to create our lessons. You have to look pretty hard to find something that is original and has not been modified by someone. My heart does go out to a lot of the musicians and recording artists that have lost income due to Napster and Limewire. Technology has created a lot of cool things for us to utilize, cut and paste, download, and etc. in order to for us to make our lives easier, create teaching lessons, and etc. We just need to ensure that we give credit where credit is due. So

As a way to stretchlearning about Creative Commons I decided that I would check out a few sites. The first site that I check out was Shutterstock® Photos which is the largest subscription-based stock photo agency in the world. Every day thousands of photographs, illustrations, and vectors are added to an already outstanding collection of premium, royalty-free images. You were able to sign up for a convenient subscription and download up to 750 images a month. where you could purchase a subscription for one month for $249 or three months for $709. This really did not sound like a great deal when you could go to Flickr Creative Commons and download photos for free. As I was checking out the website, they had something called interestingness. It really caught my eye, but looking ahead to Thing #11, I think that is the next thing that I am supposed to be learning about on this incredible journey. So, I guess you need to keep reading this blog to find more about it.

Thing #9: Play in the Wiki Sandbox

Somehow playing in the sandbox this time was not as carefree as it was when I was a kid. In fact, I had to go ahead and start on another assignment while I waited until the next day to print out the cheat sheet and instructions since I don't have a printer at home. Did I mention the fact that I am an all three modaility learner? I even think that I used my "wiki page guardian angel" to the max and that I can't ask her/him for anything until I start Thing #10. Ok, maybe I am stretching the truth a little on this one, but I did have to use some major "life lines" in order to complete this assignment.

After leaving this assignment alone for a few days, I sucked it up and started working on the assignment with the help of one of my "life lines." We worked on the assignment step by step with a few difficulties. At one point we got down to the fourth heading and somehow everything on the wiki was gone and we had to start over. That was highly annoying, but since I had my "life line" working with me, we were able to laugh about it.

Here is the link to my blog: Another Leg in the Journey which is finally finished. I am not sure if I will ever want to play in this sandbox again or create another wiki. I was really glad to get this Thing completed and overwith. Somehow playing in the sand this time is not as fun as playing in the sand when I was a child.

Thing #8: Stretch

I love using Wikipedia especially when I am creating power point presentations for my students. It gives a lot of information and I can just cut and paste it into my presentation. It is also very well organized and has links included in the document to get more information. It was great to see that Wikipedia had some ground rules for people wishing to make comments such as: "Be polite, Assume good faith, Avoid personal attacks, and Be welcoming.

Even though Michael Jackson has been dead for a little over two months now, his name enters many students conversations on a weekly basis. Having grown up with Michael Jackson and the "Jackson 5", I was really impressed with the large amount of information that was listed. It included every aspect of Michael Jackson's journey through being the "King of Pop."

Looking at the information under the discussion tab, it was interesting to find the following quote: "While Biographies of living persons policies do not apply directly to the subject of this article, this article may have content that directly relates to other living persons, such as friends and family. Controversial material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately. If such material is re-inserted repeatedly, or if there are other concerns related to this policy, please see the biographies of living persons noticeboard. " This is the first time that I had looked at the Discussion tab, and was really impressed that Wikipedia wanted to ensure its readers that controversial material would be removed immediately in regards to living persons as such as friends and family. I was also impressed that Wikipedia went on to further say that: "This is not a forum for general discussion of Michael Jackson." Any such messages will be deleted or refactored. Please limit discussion to improvement of this article. I could see people posting inappropriate comments or information that would only hurt friends, family, and other readers. I also found it interesting that "Michael Jackson's religion was nominated for deletion. The debate was closed on 12 October 2009 with a consensus to merge."

Looking at the history tab was also very insightful. Even though Michael Jackson has died, they have made numerous revisions as late as November 1, 2009. I applaud Wikipedia for keeping the information current and ensuring that they are posting factual information.

Thing # 8: What in the World is a Wiki?

When I first started on Thing 8 in regards to Wiki's, I remembered an old 80's or 90's song that used the term "wiki, wiki, wiki." I am sure that their definition of "wiki" was not the same definition. I just remember scratching my head and wondering "what is all that about?"

Not knowing what to expect, I went to the first wiki FHS Wolves Den and was presently surprised. I thought that she had a variety of things that you could investigate as a teacher or a student. She listed her "top ten list of the most interesting things on this wiki, which really peaked my interest. I went as far as to check out her professional wiki My Professional Wiki. I am not sure what the whole "web wardrobe" was about and didn't even dare check it out for fear that I would get side tracked. Even though I liked this wiki, I felt that it had way too many choices to be able to choose from.

Since I am from Germany,I checked out the Holocaust Wiki Project. The students were asked to write branching stories" about families in the Holocaust. "They have to come up with realistic decision points, describe the pros and cons, address the consequences of each decision, and fill it in with a narrative that reflects their research on the Holocaust." It makes the students be responsible for their learning about the Holocaust. Even though the wiki had not been updated since 2006, there was a lot of useful information that students could check out that were written by students in language they would understand. The site was very simple and easy to navigate.

The last wiki that I checked out Salute to Seuss was just for fun. I teach high school students and they still enjoy hearing a Dr. Seuss book from time to time. I have never met anyone who didn't like Dr. Seuss and his books and would be highly surprised if I did. The students did a great job with illustrating the book and it brought back a lot of memories of when I was a kid and read these great books.

I am not sure if a having a "wiki" is in my future or not. At the moment, I am just excited that I have a blog and have expanded my technology horizons a little. I will have to do a little more exploring of the other wikis that were listed in order to make my decision.

Thing #7: Creating Community through Commenting

Being given the opportunity to make a comment in reference to a survey, blog, or etc. is a great way to involve readers. However, not all individuals who comment do it with tact and respect for the writer. When making comments we need to keep in mind that we can "agree to disagree." Not taking another persons comments personally also helps when you are asking for comments. I am sure that more than one comment has stirred an interesting topic of discussion for the readers. Writers want their readers to enjoy their blogs, think about and process the blog, and see if they can relate the blog to their own personal beliefs or lives.

Sometimes people think that they have a sense of anonymity when it comes to making comments to a blog. Unless you know the person who is writing the comment personally, more than likely, you will never meet the person. People tend to forget that they need to use etiquette when posting comments. The Golden Rule; "do unto others as you would want them to do unto you"; always comes to my mind when I think of making comments. Do you really want everyone that reads a particular blog to read an inappropriate and negative comment? Would you really want a comment posted on your blog that was inappropriate and negative? People are human and do not all think alike. That is what makes us unique. My mother use to always say "unless you can say something nice; don't say anything at all." That is true when making comments. Ask yourself if the writer of the blog inspired you, gave you things to ponder,
or do you have a different viewpoint that really needs to be told? I think some people comment on things because they think that they have to. Not everything written needs to be commented on. Do you really think that the writers of the Constitution wanted to know what everyone thought before it was published?
Not everyone is comfortable in speaking with other people in a public setting. Being able to read a blog and make comments from the "safety of your own home," is a lot more comfortable for some. The bottom line is that we all need to "agree to disagree" with the comments and to remember that it is just an opinion. I have enjoyed reading the my fellow classmates blogs and the comments that they receive. Commenting makes me think of the television show "American Idol." Last season there were four judges to critique the singers. Simon Cowell was the one judge who would not sugar coat things and at times would be brutally honest. I would rather have someone give me their honest comment than say something that they think that I would want to hear.

Thing #6: Feed your Reader

Who knew that you could get all this information sent to you "free" by hitting a subscribe button. No magazines or newspapers piling up on the coffee table to be read "when I have time." What's cool about having all these feeds delivered to you, is that you can really skim the story a lot quicker to see if you're interested in it or not.

One of the cool things that I found in my quest looking for feeds was a photo of the Beatles song "Hey Jude" from http://tumblr.com/. As an English teacher, it would be something that you would need to see in order to appreciate. If you're old enough to remember when it was thought to be very important for students to to learn diagram sentences, then this photo will bring back some type of memory. Those of you not old enough to remember will need to go to the url and you will be able to view it.

The English Blog is a cool site with cartoons with analysis, speeches from movies, and free film clips, and an amazing section titled CNN Student News from . CNN Student News actually has a rap of the weekly news. I know that today's students are not going to be excited about being able to rap the latest news story, but the weekly rap may catch their attention just to see what it is all about.



I really enjoyed reading the blog A Teacher's Writes . It is one teacher's thoughts about life, literature, and learning. The writer comes up with eye-catching articles such as "The art of surreptitious note-writing appears to be lost. Students are too busy texting one another to drag out a pen & paper" in order to catch your attention. He also goes on to write helpful hints, practical activities to try, and what we all can relate to "the trials and tribulations of teaching."

The more I learn as we go through each thing, the more I realize that I am very overwhelmed and wonder why I didn't learn about all of this before. I do know that technology keeps changing and something new is coming out on a regular basis. The Free Technology for Teachers is a great resource blog for teachers. The blog lists links to fil, movie clips, games for learning, current news issues, and etc. I have learned that I just have to take each "thing" at a time.

Thing # 5: Getting Started with RSS

I read several posts from Students2oh.org and was captivated by the post titled: Don’t Save the World As teachers, I believe that we all begin our teaching careers in wanting to "save every student" that we teach. But in all reality, we can't "save everyone!" It's just not humanly possible and it is sad to admit that some students just don't want to be "saved."

I currently teach at the high school level where the district has instilled a new program titled "myfuture." We do need to encourage all students to get a college education, assist them in ways that they understand that it can be a reality for them, and to make sure that they check out every avenue possible. At the same time, not all students want to go to college and don't want to be "saved" in order to go to college. Some are happy attending a technical school, enlisting in the military, or working a full-time job. However, I do believe that every student should have the opportunity to attend college no matter what type of background they have.

Another thing that I have realized as a student council sponsor, is that a lot of students join different organizations for the purpose of "it will look good on my college application." They will not necessarily join the organization because it offers a variety of community service opportunities, but to get the community service hours to make their profile look better. The author Hannah Feldman writes that "Reading through college handouts, I can’t help but notice that the students they choose to profile have almost always saved the world in one way or another. This is the point where I tilt my head and sigh. Because, quite frankly, I don’t want to save the world." She goes on to point out the fact that; "students should be able to participate in what they are genuinely interested in, and forget about whatever looks good on an application. Passion looks good on an application. " I happen to agree with Hannah in that students need to participate in things for the right reasons. I often wonder if colleges check back with students who they have profiled in their handouts and asked them how just many things they participated in because they actually wanted too? Would that college write a retraction in that same handout and say, "not all results are typical with each student participant." That would probably raise a lot of eyebrows.

Speaking back as a sponsor, I would rather have fifty members in my student council who really were passionate in giving back to their community and participated for the right reasons. It this instance "size"of the council participants does not matter. As a teacher, wouldn't my students want a teacher who was "passionate about kids, passionate about the subject matter that I am teaching, and passionate about living life in general?" Life would be pretty boring if we weren't passionate about something. Life is hard enough to live without adding the fact that you hate what your doing with your life.

Don’t Save the World

Thing # 4: Blogging begins with Reading

What is interesting about the whole "Blogging" topic is that I would have never even thought I would have one without having taken this online class. Now that I have one, I am actually excited that I stepped out of my comfort zone and joined all the other millions of people who do have blogs. Making comments about blogs is not different from giving your opinion on anything else. You would hope that everyone would follow simple rules of not writing offensive comments, but we all know that it just takes one bad apple to spoil the whole bunch. The most important thing that I would think we would need to remember is; that like with everything else, you will have people that agree with you and those who will disagree with what you posted. By the same token, you will either agree or disagree with the comments that are posted in response to your blog. In that respect, I would hope that people will "agree to agree or disagree " with a comment and not get our feathers ruffled. Being able to comment on a persons blog can give the actual writer another perspective to what they posted.

Life is all about making decisions and having consequences that are good or bad that go along with the decisions that we make. Being able to be given a choice sometimes helps us make the best decision. We just have to be willing to accept the consequences whatever they may be that goes along with the choice/decision that we made. As a teacher and aspiring administrator, I am all about giving my students choices. When I have to assign a detention or even in-school-suspension as a consequence from a poor decision that a student made, I try to give him a choice when he/she serves that detention or day of in-school-suspension. That way, even if they don't agree with the outcome of the situation, they were given the opportunity to choose when they would have to serve that consequence.

Life can get pretty hard to deal with at times for all of us. Why do we want to cause ourselves more grief or heartache than what is necessary. In the grand scheme of things, is it really going to matter that John Doe or Mary Doe agreed with what we wrote? Maybe yes and maybe no, but getting your feathers ruffled is a lot of wasted energy that you could spend just enjoying "life".

Thing # 2: The Effect of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 and this online class "23 Things" have already made an effect on my life personally and as a teacher. This is my 30th year to be in education, but please keep in mind that I started teaching when I was five. Ok, maybe not and I am just kidding! I use that phrase a lot when I talk with other people, teachers, teaching my students, and riding the "experience" rollercoaster of dealing with "teenagers" on a daily basis. When I first started teaching thirty years ago, a teacer would consider a "ditto machine" as technology. I am sure that some of you are wondering what the heck that is? Watching the video link "Shift Happens" shows us just how technology has changed through the years and how it continues to change. In fact, it is so constant, where it is hard for all of us to comprehend and know how to use technology effectively.

This year I have started using a ceiling mounted "projector" and an "Elmo"! How did I teach all those years without these two things? The fact of the matter is; I did and I will continue to step "outside the box" and use new and bigger things. Students are bombarded with images that stimulate the brain while experiencing life, watching television, playing video games, and by reading a book or magazine, and etc. As a result of all of these images, they have developed the need to be "being entertained" and not always taking a personal responsiblity for their learning.

With accountability being an important word in connection to education and students; we can't teach the same way we did even two years ago. Keeping students in school, engaged, and on task will continue to change if we don't step out of our comfort zone and turn to a different way of teaching. That is where technology comes into the picture and will help us stay ahead of the game. People in general should not be afraid of "technology;" but embrace it and take risks.

Thing # 1: Lifelong Learners

I am not sure if all of us have heard of the book titled: All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum? But the simple rules that the author wrote about fifteen years ago still applies to getting through life, dealing with your family, your work, and becoming lifelong learners. These rules are:



1. Share everything.

2. Play fair.

3. Don't hit people.

4. Put things back where you found them.

5. Clean up your own mess.

6. Don't take things that aren't yours.

7. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

8. Wash your hands before you eat.

9. Flush

10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

11. Live a balanced life; learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

12. Take a nap every afternoon.

13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

14. Wonder

15. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

16. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.

17. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

18. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.



Becoming a lifelong learner is pretty simple. You just have to make up your mind to do it and just do it! I wish that I could say that this process is relatively free, but if you made the decision to get a higher degree; the tuition can become very expensive. Making the decision to learn something new everyday is free. We never get too old to learn something new and you can "teach an old dog new tricks." I am sure that everyone has their own favorite happy story and horror story about school, dealing with family, and just going through life on a daily basis. Take a risk and make the decision to become a lifelong learner and sit back and enjoy the ride. You will be glad that you did.