Twitter and what I have learned

One of my tasks was to follow twelve people. Here is who I have come across over the past couple of weeks:

Web 2.0 Tools
Rmbyrne: @rmbyrne
This guy is from Maine and provides a lot of free ideas for teachers to utilize technology into their instruction. He manages a blog where he keeps all of his suggestions. I have referenced some of his tips on managing a google site. When I have more time, I also want to learn more about Google labs, as the teacher mentioned it in his blog.
Evernote: @evernote
Evernote is a web 2.0 tool where a person is able to keep their notes all in one location, no matter what device that one has in their hands. Today in fact, I learned how I can send tweets directly into my evernote account. This is really, really cool.
Mary Marotta: @mmarotta
Mary is my instructor for my web 2.0 class. She is another person who is constantly in the know of new technologies that can enhance learning in the educational setting. Just this weekend, she learned about how people can create their own green screen to have their own backdrop.
Patrick Larkin: @bhsprincipal
If I want to read something technological, Patrick will have the article for me to read. He seems to always know what is going on. One of his tweets was about the top 35 web 2.0 tools that are used in the classroom. I was happy to see that I knew most of them. I also read an article about iPads and how some districts are implementing them.
Will Richardson: @willrich45
I have learned quite a bit from him. He is just like Patrick in that he constantly finds some good articles and web 2.0 tools and really makes you think about things. Not too long ago, one of his tweets pointed me in the direction of tag galaxy, a place to find pictures based on the tagging feature. It was very cool.

High School
Bedford High School Newspaper: @bhsunleashed
Bedford High School Counseling: @bhscounselingnh
I like to follow the two above as it is a way for me to quickly learn about what is happening in our school. Even though I work there, it does not mean that I know what is happening. It was great to get the tweets over vacation to learn about how the sport teams did. Also, with the counseling account, I am able to figure out important things that I need to notify my advisory students.
Bedford Education Assoication: @BedfordBEA
Just recently, our association decided to create a twitter account to make sure that all of its members were on the same page. Any information that is coming out through this means is correct information. This has been great, especially with our negotiations that are existing right now. I feel as though I am in the loop a bit more.

Elementary School
Nicole Tomaselli: @nicoletomaselli
Nicole is a former coworker of mine and now mentor. I make a point to follow what she posts as she is always thrusting for the lastest and greatest thing out there. In her most recent posts, she commented on a great way of assignment passwords to students who use glogster accounts in the elementary setting. She also notified teachers of the $1.00 deal going on right now with Scholastic. Seeing Nicole make the shift to elementary has been great for me as I am able to see what is out there in an elementary setting, especially when I do not think elementary.

News
WMUR television: @WMUR9
Barack Obama: @BarackObama
CNN News: @cnn
What I most like about these three is that I do not necessarily need to be home from 6 to 7pm to catch the latest news. I am able to check the news at any time. I found myself really using this feature over my vacation to Florida. I was constantly on the move and away from television, however, when I had a free moment and felt like doing something else, I was looking up what was going on in the world. (So, I guess you can say, yes, my vacation was not a true vacation as I still had technology with me.)
Keene State College Alumni: @kscalumni
Even though there have not been very many tweets since I have decided to follow them, I think that this is a great way to learn about what other KSC alumni are doing. It appears as though KSC spotlights what is going on.

Magazine
Tech & Learning Magazine: @techlearning
I was encouraged my mentor to get the tech & Learn magazine sent to my email so I decided to follow them as well on twitter. It is interesting reading some blog posts. Actually the last two that I read, I did not believe with the author. One was about how interactive white boards are a waste of money and are not used. The other was about how students feel more connected with their teachers who use facebook.

Hashtags
Aside from following people, I have also learned about some more educational hashtags that people use. I think that I will be following #mathchat, and #highered. I also liked seeing that there was a hashtag for new teachers (#ntchat). What a great way for new teachers to get some advice especially when it can be one of the hardest times of a teachers’ career.

Some other people that I am following are:
NHSTE: @nhste
Kathy Schrock: @kathyschrock
Dan Meyer: @ddmeyer
David Warlick: @dwarlick

Twitter as a Educational Tool

I must admit that I was not really a fan of using Twitter until recently. I will admit though that I do utilize Facebook quite a bit. Who doesn't right? Well, I will say that I am using Twitter for a completely different reason as opposed to Facebook. I am finding that Twitter is a great way to professionally grow.

Two Tuesdays ago, I participated in an online conversation through 'tweets' with other people interested in education. Each person who wanted to contribute to the conversation utilized a hashtag #edchat. This way, everyone was able to see each others posts. The particular theme that night was about textbooks verses tech devices such as iPads. It was an interesting conversation to follow to see where people are currently with the issue and what their thoughts are around the idea. What I really like about it is the fact that I am communicating with other people that I might not have followed previously. In addition, I have found people to follow as well as some blogs to follow (see my technology tab on my homepage to learn more).

Twitter has also opened my eyes to quick news facts. I am following CNN and WMUR (a local news channel). Throughout the day, I can learn about what is going on in the world.

Basically, for those of you who are not using Twitter, you should. It is a great, quick way to learning about what is going on in the world, other than knowing that Craig Sheil is sleeping. Just remember, if you are posting a comment, it must be done within 140 characters or less. Also, if you have a link that you think people would be interested in, you might want to use a website called 'TinyURL' so that it can shrink the url to the website. This way the url does not eat up all 140 characters!

Happy Tweeting!

Some Pictures From My Disney Trip

I just uploaded all of my pictures (484) that I took from the week and found a couple that you might enjoy.

Can you see a line of smoke in the mix with the clouds in the sky. (It is almost in the center of the picture.) If you can, this was from the Discovery Space Shuttle from its take off. It was really cool to see this in the sky for its last mission.


This is a drawing that I did when I was at Disney's Hollywood Studios. I did this in 20 minutes with a character artist showing the way. I must say that I am very proud of it!

Last Day

So I am in the process of packing right now getting ready to head back to New Hampshire. I understand that there will be about 4 inches of new white snow waiting for me! Bummer. It has been really nice walking around in 80 plus degree weather all week. Yesterday was a special day as it was my father's birthday. Who knew you could let Disney know and they will get you a birthday pin for the birthday boy to wear all day! We decided to spend the day at the magic kingdom. I hope that someday I will be able to spend my birthday at the most magical place ever! I think another cool moment was being able to say that I saw the Discovery space shuttle launch in the air for the very last time! It was cool! I Love Disney!

Technology even used at Disney...It is amazing how much technology has changed the way we do things. One prime example is that most people use a Disney app to let them know what the wait times are before even arriving at the ride. What have we done before this? This just goes to show how much we rely on a fast pace environment!

Good morning folks. I am now waiting for the monorail to go to Epcot. I am really looking forward to the Soarin ride. Yesterday i went to Disney's Hollywood Studios and i attended a couple of 3D shows. i realized that a couple of years ago that technology was really cool and different now you can get this experience everyday at the movie theaters. Soon we will see a different experience with what technology will be able to accomplish. what that will be, who knows! Now sitting on the monorail. Oh and an update on the family is that everyone is feeling much better! Thank goodness! The best part of yesterday was drawing tigger with a character artist.

So yesterday was a very jam packed day. We spent the whole day at the magic kingdom. The park was busy but only waited in line once that was longer than 20 minutes. Space mountain was a 60 minute wait. After the light parade we took a bus to downtown disney for dinner and shopping. I just wish that the rest of my family was well. One has a stomach bug, one sever migraines, and two with a bad cold. REALLY? Oh well. We really cannot do much about it. Today is the animal kingdom. More to come

Going to Disney World

So, as I sit hear next to my packed suite case waiting for a friend of mine to pick me up to bring me to the airport to spend the week at Walt Disney World, I think about all of my other trips I had had to the wonderful place. Everyone knows that Walt Disney World is the most magical place on earth.

I myself get excited once I enter the park. There is just something about it that I cannot explain. Is it because everyone is always happy? Is it because the park is always clean? Is it because you feel entertained while waiting in lines that you do not even know you are waiting in lines? Is it because you are reliving the story that you heard when you were a kid while you are riding the rides? Is it because you feel spoiled and are treated well?

What I am most excited about is spending the time with my family as an adult. It will be a new experience. I have also learned that there will be a couple of rides that I have not ridden yet. (More posts and pics to come!)

So, I ask you, why is Disney the most magical place on this earth to you?

ISTE 2011

Just realized that the program is now available for viewing for the 2011 ISTE conference. I am really hoping that I will be able to attend the conference this year as will be applying for a grant with my good old friend Amanda. This would be a great adventure for the both of us as we have never attended the national tech conference and are looking to see what is out there! Wish us luck...

If you are interested in seeing what the conference is all about, click on the link http://www.isteconference.org/2011/

Just testing out the mobile feature with blogger. Tonight I spent my first time tweeting through #Edchat. Very interesting concept indeed. All should try it!

Tag Galaxy

I came across with this website from a tweet today. On this website you are able to search for pictures in cool new way. It is called Tag Galaxy. The task is quite easy. You type in the 'tag' of your choice. Then, the website searches flicker for all pictures that have been tagged with that name. All the pictures that fall under this category show up in what appears as a big sun. Any 'planets' that revolve around the 'sun' are pictures that have been tagged with that word. For instance, if you type in the word astronaut, 25665 pictures appear in the sun. Examples of other planets that appear around the sun are space, moon, NASA, Apollo etc. If you choose space, 11672 pictures appear in the new sun that have been tagged Astronauts + space. Again, this is just a fun, different way of searching for pictures. Happy tagging!
Website:

This is a short Animoto of pictures from when I traveled with 18 high school students to Baltimore, MD last April during spring break. We participating in a Habitat for Humanity build. It was a unique experience as we were part of a demolition rather than a build.

Blogging for the first time

This is the very first time that I have ever blogged before.  I am so excited.