Thing #12

When this class began I thought Google was nothing more than a glorified search engine. However, Google is much more than a search engine. You can create a calandar, translate words, blog, youtube, and so many more options. Google is quickly becoming an everyday part of my life. For this thing, I choose to use Google Translate and Google Calendar.

I really enjoyed using Google Translate. One of my goals in life is to learn to say "I Love You" in the language of every individual that I meet. So I explored this tool by doing just that, I translated I love you in Vietnamese, German, Spanish, Japanese, and Thai language. I was able to hear the actual translation, which helped me brush up on my skills. In the classroom, teachers could use this tool with to translate the Language of foreign countries if the became penpals with students from abroad.

The other tool I choose to use was Google Calendar, a tool that I have already explored and blogged about before. I absolutely loved this tool the first time I explored it and love it even more now. I love how you can create, personalise, and publish your calendar for others to see. In the classroom, teachers can create a calendar of the months assignments and events and post it for all of the students to see. You can also break this calendar down to a daily and hourly view, allowing the user to detail the calendar as much as the want. I really enjoy this tool due to its apparent usefullness in daily life.

Here is a link to my Calendar. Made it to where my PE classes could know what we were doing in class each and everyday.
JC PE Calendar = Click on monthly view and scroll to march to see my creation.

Thing #11

As I began this i was fairly optimistic about finding plenty of blogs about physical education. However, it was the exact opposite. I found myself getting highly frustrated, but equally excited when I found a top quality blog. The tool that I found the easiest to use was the Google Blog Search. It was straight forward and gave me content that was relevant to the materials that I was looking for. The easiest method was just hunting and gathering. I would type in various keywords and just hunt and gather information that I found helpful. The most confusing method to me was all of the other ones that were not affiliated with Google. After several attempts using both, I was highly frustrated because nothing useful or related to physical education popped up.

The most useful blog I found through my searches was Biggar High School PE Department page. It detailed their whole physical education departments goals, standards, and activities. The program was both detailed and structured which I feel will help me out in my searches. Some of the unusual items I found was a page devoted to Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and many pages on Physio programs, which I had never heard of. As for other methods or techniques, I did not venture out into others because I barely knew how to use the ones that we were given.

Thing #10

I absolutely loved the RSS feeder; it has saved me a lot of time and grief. It drove me crazy having to click on a million different links to get to any blog that I wanted to read, however that has all changed. Now all I have to do is sign into my reader account and everything is there. How amazing is that? It is extremely convenient and time efficient which I like. I can use this technology in my classroom to stay informed on what other physical educators are doing. I can also use this to follow credible physical education sources and provide materials for my class to study and look over. In my personal life I can use this to follow blogs or any other form of information that I want with one easy click of the mouse. As I mentioned earlier, teachers can use this technology to stay up to date with what other teachers are doing and going through in their classrooms. RSS feeder is in my opinion the best tool we have been introduced to so far in this class. I typically do not trust technology, but I do believe that RSS feeder as recently gained my trust.

Thing #9

I really enjoyed playing around with the image generators. I spent most of my time in The Happy Face Generator, and had an absolute blast. There are many uses for these image generators in the classroom and in my personal life. In the classroom these signs could be used for encouragement or provide you with something to put your class rules on. Personally, I could see myself using these generators to put Bible verses on or simple words of encouragement.

I created this smiley sign with the Bible verse John 3:16 because this verse speaks the truth about God's love for us. He gave his one and only son for us, which is totally awesome because it is evident in my life. Praise be to God for giving us his one and only son.

I created this smiley image because "KISS" is my motto. As the sign shows it stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. I have to constantly remind myself that I need to keep things simple, so I decided to share it with you guys. I feel that it is even more fitting for this setting since I am not a wizard when it comes to using technology. Hope you guys enjoy.

Thing #8

I decided to use the jigsaw application on Flickr because it was the only one I was smart enough to figure out. After viewing the list of mashups I was frustrated due to the fact that I was not able to use most of the ones I clicked on. This whole process with Flickr has really frustrated me, and has caused me to have a negative outlook on the site as a whole. For me personally, there is no use for Flickr in my classroom or personal life. I prefer Google or Yahoo images. However, if someone knows how to use the site there are many creative tools available. I choose to use this particular picture because I plan on being a P.E. teacher. This picture shows me being physically active, which will encourage my kids to be active as well. As far as posting pictures on the web, I have no problem with posting the pictures. Just don't get upset if someone uses your picture in a negative light, or you get in trouble for posting. After all, you were the one who posted the picture.

Thing #7

Sat. Oct. 29, 2011 Homecoming APSU vs EIU_09092009_Brittney Sparn_ 001, a photo by The All State on Flickr.

Flickr was the most frustrating thing I have ever tried to use in my whole life. This whole process was a complete disaster, and I am sure I will never use this website again. I found searching for images to be highly confusing and ineffective. Attempting to upload the picture to the blog was a complete failure. After 563 attempts on top of extremely high blood pressure I was finally able to upload the image, thanks to a fellow classmate. I believe Flickr is a good site for people who want to keep their photos online, however I do not believe the site is good for individuals looking for images to use. Yahoo and Google images are much more convenient and user friendly, and provide the user with a picture they can use much quicker. With that being said, I choose a picture I found of myself to blog about. This was taken prior to kickoff of our homecoming game against Eastern Illinois. I was calm and relaxed, preparing myself for the task at hand. I was in the complete opposite mindset for this part of my blog. The photo was taken by Brittney Sparn of the AllState on October 29, 2011. Let's Go Peay!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theallstate/6332543628/