Tool #2

I really enjoy being able to view and comment on blogs from other VOE teachers and throughout the bloggy-world. I do not comment regularly on blogs that I read, but I love that it is available so that bloggers know how much they are appreciated. There are so many great ideas out there and I am so glad there are so many teachers who spend their time blogging about their amazing ideas. I have gotten so many great ideas from teachers all over the country just by searching through blogs.

I use Google Reader to track all of my favorite blogs. When I first started reading teacher blogs, I kept them all in a "Teacher Blogs" folder in my bookmarks. It is SO much easier to use Google Reader. All of my favorite crafting, teaching, and cooking blogs are in one place and I can see all of their latest updates. Some of my favorite teaching blogs are The First Grade Parade, Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons, and The Inspired Apple. It amazes me that these teachers have the energy and creativity to produce so many amazing (often FREE) resources that I can bring into my classroom! It seriously keeps me striving to be a better teacher when I see these teacher bloggers and their (seemingly) amazing classrooms.

I also have a serious addiction to Pinterest which allows me to search any topic and find tons of blogs with ideas I can use. My favorite part about Pinterest is that it saves a picture from the website and not just a title because I am way more likely to remember the idea if I see the idea. I like that I don't have to save everything to my computer - it's all on Pinterest waiting for me! Sites like Diigo and Delicious sound like they would be great for students to save and search for information at school and be able to access the information at home.

Tool #1

Blog and Avatar created! I have a blog for the parents in my classroom to follow, so I found it to be very quick and easy for me to create a new blog to fit this project. Since I have already learned to use Blogger with my classroom blog, I also decided to add a simple banner and background... mostly because things will be more enjoyable for me if this blog is cute :)

Fortunately, I also found it pretty simple to navigate through the Voki website and it took me no more than 10 minutes to complete my avatar. It looks nothing like me of course, but there are only so many features you can choose from. I liked that you could try to make your avatar resemble you and I personally just didn't want to have an animal representing myself on the blog.

Tool #1 was quick and easy so I am excited to learn more through the other 10 tools!