Safari vs. Firefox.....?

I have a question for you: 

Safari

or

Firefox

Okay so here's the story:

I have a "Quote of the Week" at the top left of my blog. It's right above my count of "visitors to my blog." I update it every week and last week I went to update it on Safari. To add this I simply went to "layout" and then added a new gadget labeled "text." My new quote wouldn't update so I had to delete the "text" gadget and add a new one. However, when I went to add a new one it would let me type in it but it wouldn't let me click "okay." It just wouldn't do anything so I constantly had to close it and delete it. Today I tried again to add a text gadget and once again, surprise surprise, it didn't work. So... IDEA! I thought I would try to use Firefox and see if it made a difference. TOTAL DIFFERENCE!!! It worked like a charm. Didn't even take a second to load! It updated so quickly. So now I am left with a dilemma. Do I stay using Safari or switch to Firefox?! I'm a total mac person so I've always used Safari and never thought twice about it. However, my brother is a big PC person so we always have fun debates about mac vs PC.

What do YOU use? (Firefox or Safari?) 

Are you MAC or PC?!

Blogging in the Classroom

Since beginning this class I have learned how to blog, gained blogging experience and even learned to love blogging! I regret not blogging in my internship about my class! I think in the classroom it's a great way for students to view their progress, parents to keep in touch with what's going on in the classroom, and for teachers to moderate. When I get my own classroom, I think I will definitely consider starting a class blog. I think the kids would be very excited and keep them more involved with the idea of community that I want to have in my classroom.

I can remember being in grade 5 and having a fantastic teacher. She was very technological and we LOVED IT! She even made a class website for us and we had a class mascot. We were called the 5B Chameleons. I can still remember that off the top of my head, so clearly it made quite an impact on me! I remember being so excited to go home and check the website to see if she updated pictures or to read what she would type about our school day. 

I think that having a class blog would cause students to build as a community and connect to the class outside of school at home. Obviously I would have to get the parents to sign consent to have photos online, or just not put the childrens' faces online. In today's world, most parents and even lots of kids are always "connect" to technology. I think parents would appreciate this because they could check the blog whenever they have time and check up on what their child is doing in school. I strongly agree with keeping communication with the parents so they know what is going on in their child's life. Blogging would be a great way to do that. 

After you've read this blog I have a few questions for you to comment to me about: 

1) Did you create a blog in your internship? If not, do you wish you could go back in time and make one with your class? 

2) Would you create a blog in your classroom this fall? 

3) What are the pros and cons of having a classroom blog that come to mind? 

Piktochart

Since I heard about the website "Piktochart," I have been wanting to test it out! I thought it looked so neat and easily accessible to use for both teachers and students in the classroom. Basically it's like making an interactive poster. Normally I would use Microsoft Publisher or Powerpoint to do something like this, but this website is so cool! Very easy to use and navigate.

As neat as this website is, I have a few critiques... I found it a little slow at times to upload pictures. I also found it slow to change the background colour. I tried and it kept slowing down and glitching. That is why I am stuck with this lovely turquoise colour...

As you can see, I created a poster about my blog. I displayed what operating systems that have viewed my blog, how many visitors, my pages, my labels, my blog title and my web address! I really liked using this because it made it so fun to make posters and it's very VISUAL! So for teachers who have very visual learners... this is PERFECT! There is no need for lots of typing and paragraphs, but simply less typing and more visual pictures. As you can see, you can probably read my poster in about 20 seconds and understand it!

New Websites!

In my ECMP355 class from this week I've learned about lots of great websites from Steve Dembo & Adam Bellow. They've listed many websites that I've been interested in looking at and will use in the rest of my university, then in my classroom for both myself and my students. To see some of the websites they gave me and I've listed, check out my new page labeled, "Educational Websites."

Some sites from Steve are:

• Padlet
• WeVideo
• The Noun Project
• Piktochart
• desmos

Some sites from Adam are:

• Capzles
• UJAM

Has anybody used these sites? If so, what are your thoughts on them??

My Journey Thus Far

To reflect on my journey in ECMP 355 thus far, I have learned to appreciate more and grow in many areas. I've really enjoyed reading comments on my blog and seeing new ideas and input from people who have read posts of mine. As stated in posts before, I'm continuing to see that we learn more from each other and our life stories (or life curriculum as Cori commented on Story Bundles). I'm also beginning to find blogging easier, and the topics I blog about. In the beginning I was stuck most of the time, not knowing what to blog about, but as I read and learn more in life and university, I'm finding ideas are coming to me easier than before.

Regarding the formatting and appearance of my blog, I feel like I keep changing, altering, adding, and taking away certain things. Personally, I like change. I like when things look different or new or adding new concepts or gadgets to make my blog look modern. I feel I'm a way that my log reflects who I am. I am organized, neat, and like calming colours. I'm the sort of person who gets a little stressed out if my desktop on my laptop is cluttered or if files aren't organized into folders on my computer. I like my blog to be neat and organized so people feel calm and easy to navigate when they visit my page. I feel as though this is very important. If I feel overwhelmed or not sure where to go on a webpage or blog, I find that I will probably find a different webpage. It's frustrating when you go to a website to look for something and can't finds anything anywhere, it's confusing, and there is way too much going on! I think most of us have had this feeling.

In closing, please let me know your thoughts on my blog! Be brutally honest (I don't mind!). I appreciate your thoughts and comments and will definitely take them into consideration. We are all learning and we need to help each other learn the best we can through this technology and blogging process.