It's that time again.

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. I was in Wisconsin last weekend to visit family and I had such a great time. My cousin's daughter turned one and it was so much fun to be there for Addie's birthday party and just escape reality for a few days. On our way to Wisconsin, my family stayed in Indianapolis for a night and we went to Howl at the Moon. If you like piano bars, you HAVE to go there and check out the atmosphere. It was an absolute blast and it is constant entertainment all night.
As for the class this past week, I had a hard time with the movie because all of the tutorials and help sites I could find were all for the newer versions of movie maker and I kind of felt like I was just trying to figure the assignment out by trial and error. I think it was a beneficial resource to become familiar with, but I didn't enjoy that assignment as much as I did some of the others. On the other hand, I did like powerpoint presentation with all of the non-linear links. I had never learned how to do that before and I loved how easy it was to make a complicated presentation so simple for students to work through on their own. As I have said before, I think all of the assignments we have completed so far are going to be beneficial resources in the future and all students and teachers can benefit from being familiar with all of these different resources.

Post #2: This weather is intense!

Will this heat ever get better?! I work at a daycare with sixty school-age kids and it has been terrible trying to keep them inside as much as possible. Since my last blog, I was semi-depressed that the U.S.A. women's soccer team lost, but Japan just made better decisions in the end. I was in Dayton last night to visit family and friends and I am getting ready to head to Indianapolis for the night and then I am going to Wisconsin tomorrow for the weekend. I have some family there and my cousin's little girl is turning one so we are going for her birthday party. I'm excited to just get away for a couple days and enjoy a little family time!
For the class, I am liking all of the projects much more than I thought I would to be honest. I never thought I would think all of them would be such valuable resources but I can truly say that the majority of them are. I had never used Google Documents before and I love how easy it is to make such detailed and visually appealing resources for your classroom. I loved being able to make an online quiz and using Flubaroo as a grading tool. I think that could be a great resource for practice quizzes that your students could work on with their parents if they are struggling or want a little extra practice.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and are surviving the heat!

My first post: I'm new to the blogging world!

A picture of the sunset from my Florida vacation this past May. Wishing I was sitting on the beach as I write this blog!

I have heard so many things about people writing blogs to keep in contact with each other and for other various reasons but I have never personally wrote a blog, until now! To be honest, I was a little skeptical at first because I wasn't aware of all of the tools out there for blogging and how personalized you can make your blogs. I think blogging could be a great tool to use with your students and their families. Teachers are constantly e-mailing parents information and answers to questions about the school schedule and assignments that parents have, but the e-mails are always individually sent. If one parent or student had the question, most likely others did as well and blogging could be the perfect tool to use to communicate with all of your students and parents.Something else I like about blogging is how personal you can make your blog. You can post pictures and tell stories and I think it would be a great opportunity for your students and their families to get to know their teacher on a personal level which could help promote a stronger working relationship between everyone.
Even though we just completed our first week of the course, I can already say that I have learned a lot about technology. This was the first time I have created a web portal and I thought it was a really cool assignment. It was awesome to learn how to create another resource for your students and their parents to use outside of the classroom. I like how the web portal and blogs create an avenue for communication between parents and the teachers because we all know there are many parents out there who have a hard time finding the time to meet or talk with teachers. These resources provide an easy opportunity for communication. To be honest, I struggled with creating the newsletter in Word. I have always used publisher in the past so I was not used to making a Word format. I have an older version of Word and I had problems trying to convert everything from one version to another. Even though it was a frustrating experience for me, I did learn a lot and I know I need to make a lot of improvements the next time I create a newsletter.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and go USA tomorrow!!