Reflection on Maker Project

I very much enjoyed working on this project.

I think we had a lot of good ideas, but as one person pointed out in the peer feedback, they could be condensed or else it would have to be a very complex app. I wish we could have actually made an app, although none of the members of my group knew how to create an app.

I am very glad that we changed the name, although the new name "Label the Lobes" is much less creative. I did not know about the first name when we presented, and I will admit my first thought was that it was a little offensive. I'm extremely glad we changed it, but I wish we had spent more time thinking of a more creative and less offensive name.

All in all, I enjoyed working on this project and I hope someone in our group takes it further and creates a real, working app.

PLN Step 5

I have very much enjoyed this blogging experience. I think it is a great way for teachers to journal about their experiences and life in the classroom and learn from one another.

I have started following some blogs and discussions on teaching-related sites, and although I admit I'm not very good about reading them every week, when I do have a chance to look at them I feel like I learn a lot.

I'm not sure that I am the blogger type. I don't think I could pull from my experiences enough to form actual sentences and strategies about my classroom experiences. Maybe that will change. Maybe I'll just have to force myself into becoming that type of person and see where that gets me.

I have really enjoyed blogging as an assignment. I think blogs are a great way to monitor student progress and work very well as an online journaling type of experience. I hope to use blogs as a sort of ongoing assignment for my future students, because it is a useful skill to have and a fun and different assignment.

PLN Step 10: Making Connections

I will admit that I am a it apprehensive about making connections with other teachers online. I feel like I'm not a "real" teacher, yet, so I shouldn't be sharing strategies and problems at this point. I may just stick with lurking until I get into my student teaching experience, when I think I will feel more like a "real" teacher and be more comfortable sharing with others.

That being said, the Classroom 2.0 experience has forced me to put myself out there and become a online presence as a teacher. I have had one person whose wall I commented on friend me on Facebook already.

PLN Step 7: Diigo

I have very much enjoyed using Diigo. As a resource, I find it very helpful when I want to annotate a webpage, article, or other multimedia source.

 In fact, it helped me as soon as I got it. I had an essay I was doing some research for, for another class, and I like to mark up articles when I want to use them as resources, so I usually print my online sources. However, I was able to use Diigo to write notes, thoughts, comments, and highlight portions of my online sources. This was amazing to me! I'm saving paper and space, because I tend to sprawl all my resources across my desk when writing research papers, and I didn't have chunky articles spread across my desk, just my desktop.