LOOKS LIKE WE MADE IT, BABY!!!!

http://rebelzen.com/2012/08/10-ways-to-be-the-most-annoyingly-happy-person-you-know/

Wow!  I cannot believe what a long, hard journey it has been.  We need to celebrate our accomplishments!!

https://dreamshadow59.wordpress.com/tag/how-to-become-a-happy-person/

I feel more comfortable with using technology in my own life, but I still have more work to do before I am as comfortable with using technology in the classroom.  I've learned how to use iPhoto, convert slides into digital photos, and iMovie to produce four iMovies (original, son's birthday, two for Christmas presents).  I am very pleased with the results and my family loves the iMovies.  
I'm able to gather information more easily from internet sources and to share that information with friends and peers.  I'm still active on Twitter and really enjoy learning from my educational twitter friends.  I feel more comfortable linking sites and embedding  content to share important content. 
I enjoyed learning how to use icons to link websites for my professional online library and professional print library.  I will use both of these libraries on my classroom website and plan to add more links.

My favorite assignment and cool tool is the ThingLink and I will use it with my students.  I want to make make more ThingLinks using real aloud/audio books and I started another one.  I was surprised that not every book I wanted to use had a read aloud version.  I am inspired to post my own read aloud books on youtube and I never thought I would post anything on youtube.  

Thanks to my second grade team and their use of Seesaw and Book Creator, I am using more technology in the classroom.  We are recording students explain their thinking about how to problem solve CGI (Cognitively Guided Instruction) math problems on a weekly basis.  The students love using Seesaw!  

I really enjoyed learning about the Cool Tools and hope to explore them on my own since we were not able to spend much time on them during class.  

The journey has been difficult, full of tears and plenty of frustration.  I've wanted to give up, but once I finally mastered the task then I felt so proud of myself.

Reflective Post #5: Digital Tattoos. 

During tonight's class, we did a data mining activity to find out as much information about an assigned person in a relatively short period of time.  I was not surprised by how easy it was to gather the information, nor how much personal information is online for the world to see. This is why I am hesitant to post pictures or comments on Facebook, and want to keep my iMovie and website anonymous.  When I was first learning about the internet, I had a medical issue and I posted a question on a medical website.  It was pregnancy related and a little embarrassing.  Years later, I was divorced and dating again.  A tech savvy suitor informed me that during a dating mining search, my question was one of his first discoveries.  I was so embarrassed!  I've been very hesitant to post anything since that incident.  I know I am showing my age, but I cannot believe how much information and how many pictures that teens share online.  I'm glad that embarrassing moments from my youth were not captured online.  


digital tattoo

I found the data mining process enjoyable as it felt like a detective game and I love solving mysteries.  The implications of the activity did leave me feeling very uneasy as anyone with ill intent is able to view, stalk, and harm us using these techniques. I was tempted to perform a data mining activity on my ex-husband, but I really didn't want to go down that path.  It is really scary what can be learned about each one of us.  

I googled myself and the first entry was from Find the Data and revealed my salary and other information about my teaching experience.  Interestingly, it had some misinformation as well.  We just cannot control all the misinformation so I guess we need to make sure we put the correct information out there as well. 

I believe it is critical for children to be taught all the ramifications and consequences of their tendency to overshare. I don't think they realize that their digital tattoo will be with them forever and it may very well come back to haunt them when they try to get into college, or get a job.  With parents, posting so many photos of their infants, these children need to learn how to mold their digital tattoo  I think it should be a regular part of our curriculum starting at the elementary level.