Tech Task #5 All About Me Part 2

What do I get when I Google myself?  Not a whole lot that has anything to do with me actually!

On the first page of the results that I find you can see both my Twitter and my Facebook. ( My twitter is actually just farther down on the page and didn't make it in this screen shot!) But the problem with my twitter is that my name is Courtney Lynn, I don't use my last name. So unless you know what (or rather who) you are looking for, you could overlook that link thinking it was not me!

But the problem here is that I don't really have much of an online identity! 

My Facebook is a personal page that I use, so I have my privacy settings pretty high and anyone who is not a friend of my cannot see a whole lot about me on here. 

If you're not my friend, the above picture shows you everything that you are able to see about me. The only pictures that you are able to view are my profile picture and my cover picture. 

The second thing that is problematic about my online identity as presented by Google is that amount of links that come up that are not actually me! 

The very first link that appears is a YouTube channel that is not mine! Neither is that the link to the Twitter,  account that you can see in the screenshot above where I have Googled myself.  If I were to have scrolled down farther on that page when I took the screen shot you would have also seen Myspace, Pinterest, and Soundcloud accounts that also do not belong to me.

After looking at the first page I was curious as to what else I could find about myself, so I decided to check out the second page of results. 

Here I found a few links that were actually about me such as Favstar Best Tweets (I have no idea how or why this exists, but when I clicked on it, it showed me several of my Tweets from the past few years). I also found a link to Pledge Music because of my recent pledge towards Bleeker Ridge's new album Four (P.S. Its a great album! :)) . 

But on this page I also found that someone named Courtney Bisson was a 2013 Phi Beta Kappa initiate as well as a Model of the Week ... Definitely not me! 

What I have learned from Googling myself is that my online identity is actually pretty boring and doesn't tell you a whole lot about me. 

I think part of the reason for this is that I often go by Courtney B, rather than by my full name online. Googling Courtney B will never find you anything about me by the way. 

I was also slightly concerned about the number of links that appeared that were not actually me. If someone were to Google me that did not know me in advance (perhaps a penitential future employer) how would they know which of these pages were me and which were not!?

The biggest thing that I took away from Googling myself is that I need to work to build my online identity, because right now it is pretty non-existent! 

No More Homework?

Many students HATE homework (My three younger siblings constant complaining about homework being a prime example of this). So, why not try to change things up and assign homework that students might actually enjoy and find interesting. 

I came across this chart with some alternatives to traditional homework that eliminates the need for students to take work home in some cases and in others suggests activities to engage students in their work at home in new ways. 

I will definitely be trying out some of these homework alternatives in my classroom!!

Source: http://kbkonnected.tumblr.com/post/11571986428/gjmueller-alternatives-to-traditional

Can Two Years Make A Difference in Life and Death?

So this post is a little off topic, but I saw a story on Fox News that really bothered me and I felt that I needed to share.

A 10 year old girl with cystic fibrosis is in desperate need of a lung transplant, but organ donor rules state that you must be 12 years old to be placed on the adult lung list. Because she is two years younger than the required age, she can only receive lungs after ALL of the adult candidates. Even adults with less serious conditions. You can read the full story here.

I personally think that this is a ridiculous rule. The life of a child is precious, and her life should not be determined by a matter of two years. I am not trying to say that the lives  adults who are on the donor list are not important, it is just so sad to think that this girl might not get the lungs she needs to live because she is only ten, not twelve. The teacher in me can't help but imagine what if something like this were to happen to one of my future students and it is because of this that I couldn't help but share this story.

So I did a little more digging into this story and found that the parents of the girl have started an online petition to have the rule changed. The petition can be viewed at Change.org

The Art of Teaching

I saw this quote today and I thought that my fellow pre-service teacher bloggers would enjoy it! :)

"I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artists and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit."
~John Steinbeck

Some Neat Ideas!

I am always looking for new ways to use technology in the classroom and get new ideas for lesson plans that I could possibly use during my internship this fall. In my search I came across a website called Teach Hub.

This website offers a ton of great resources and lessons, but there was one article in particular that I came across titled 12 Easy Ways to Use Technology in Your Classroom, Even for Technophobic Teachers
that I thought offered many useful tips and ideas.

This article has some great ideas to engage students with both the technology and the lesson. One example that I liked was having the students summarize by practice tweeting in 140 characters or less. And the best part is an activity like this could be used in any classroom or subject area!

Tech Task #4: Be A Better Blogger

After our ECMP 355 session with Sue Waters  last week I learned a few things about being a better blogger. The first was linking things within my posts to give credit to other people, or to direct my readers to other places!

I also learned that I still need to know more about what photos I can use and how to properly credit any photos that I do use on my blog.

From now on I plan to use this information as well as everything else that Sue had to share with our class to become a better blogger!

Tech Task #2 - Googliciousness Part 2 Google Calendar

I usually have several calendars on the go and now that  I have found Google Calender it would be a great way to keep my crazy life organized and it is stored online so I don't ever have to worry about the hard drive on my computer crashing.
But Google Calender so much more than being a handy calendar that cannot be lost to keep your life organized. One of the great features is the ability to sync the calendar with the calendar on your smart phone!keeping all of your important info in one place! It also allows  you to create more than one calender to keep different types of events and information separate, and then it also allows your to share these calenders with other people. You could share a particular calender with your students and their  parents to keep them up to date on their homework, tests, quizzes and any other important dates that they might need to know.
Google Calender could also be useful if you were coaching a sports team or leading an extra curricular activity where you needed to create a practice/ meeting  or game schedule that you needed to share with the students.
With the Google desktop software you can even have your calender appear right on your desktop.
Who knew that there was so much that you could do with a simple calender! I have only just begun to explore what Google has to offer and I have so much more to learn, but I do know that I am very excited to continue exploring the calender app and continuing to learn how to use even more of the Google Apps!!

A Little Inspiration

I stumbled across this on the internet and I thought I would share this with you.
Feel free to share your thoughts! :)

Edmodo

Edmodo is a website that is similar to Facebook and can be a great way to bring technology into the classroom! It allows teachers to connect with their students outside of the classroom. I explored this website for one of my education classes this year and I am very excited to be able to try it out in the classroom this fall during my internship.

With this website you can create groups for each class that you are teaching, keeping everything organized! With Edmodo you are able to post notes, alerts, quizzes, assignments and polls for your students.

I think this is a great way to connect with your students both in and out of the classroom. Students can also never say that they didn't know about an assignment or test as they can be reminded of this with an alert to the group! Also students are able to submit assignments directly through Edmodo.
Students can not only interact with their teacher on Edmodo, but also one another helping to promote the idea of a community of learners.

I am still fairly new to Edmodo, but I am excited to keep trying it out and learning new things. Hopefully my students in the fall will enjoy this as well!

Tech Task #2: Googlicisousness Part 1

Hey Everyone!
Here is my attempt at making a Google Form! So please fill out my form to let me get to know a few random facts about you! :)

Surprise, Surprise

As a future Social Studies teacher I find this song and video to be an interesting commentary on society.

Students and Social Media

How can we effectively use social media in our classrooms?

Famous Failures

Just some food for thought. After reading Calli's post "Not all students fit, but should they?" it reminded me of this. Just because you don't meet one person's ideal it doesn't mean that you cannot achieve great things.

Tech Task #1: Who Are You?

Hey everyone!
I wanted to try something a little bit different to introduce myself so I decided to create a video where I could play one of my favourite songs, tell you about myself, and show you some pictures.
Enjoy! :)

Using Music To Create Awareness

I am a strong believer that we can use music to spread awareness in the classrooms. Many songs, and their accompanying videos, present a strong message and give students something to think about.
One issue that I have found to be well represented in music is homophobic bullying. The following two videos are ones that I have found and I think that they have a very powerful message to be shared with music. I believe that using videos such as these can be a way to connect with students through a medium that they can relate with and, hopefully, allows the message that goes along with the video to leave a meaningful impact on the students.

Same Love - Macklemore

Same Love by Macklemore follows the life of a young male individual who battles with being homosexual. He explains the stereotypes that go along with being gay and what society expects from people. Macklemore's message in the song and video is for equality in the world and that we should be be accepting of people and who they are.

Rise Against – Make it Stop (Septembers Children)

Rise Against's video focuses on the effects of homosexual bullying. Tim Mcllrath, the lead vocalist, of Rise Against says "The song was written inspired of the teen suicides in the month of September 2010, who were bullied for being homosexual. It deals about how people are treated from homophobic bullying and feeling so tormented that they feel there's no place for them in the future and that killing themselves is a better option. It was written by my nephew, who wrote it about his best friend. His friend had killed himself a week before it was written."