Thursday, October 10, 2013

Thing #12



              I have actually used a lot of Google tools for various reasons for awhile now but my two favorites would have to be Google calendar and Google translate for two different reasons. I use Google calendar in my phone to keep track of all my different appointments, classes, work and observations so I don't forget where I need to be daily. Without that tool I probably would be a basket case right now and messing up my daily schedule. Google translate I used to use to help me in my old Spanish classes if I was trying to translate a web page so I can understand it better or to check if I was reading a page correctly. Google translate helped a lot! In the classroom, Google translate would be a great tool to use because it would help ELL students to understand their own homework if you wanted to translate your worksheets for them in their own language or even to translate a few phrases so they understand you. Either way both tools I have used numerous times in my life so I am thankful for both. Though I haven't used Google Book a lot I have also used Google Scholar a few times more so now than in the past. The others I haven't tried but I might try now.

Thing #11

         After trying all the different methods provided I liked the blogsearchengine.org website the best. You just typed in what subject of  blog you wanted in the search engine and the results are really good about giving you results. I typed in art teacher and received results on a wide range of blogs by art teachers all over. I really enjoyed reading some of their posts especially because they gave me some great ideas about projects and what their own experiences in their classrooms.
         Some of the blogs I found though by looking at other search engines weren't as interesting or weren't as informative. I tried looking at some through Google and Technorati I typed in the same thing and got a few results on what I wanted but there were either only one or two or not the subject I wanted. I did find a yoga blog in my art teacher search and a tarot club blog along with a blog about an angry white guy in Chicago and his opinions.
         In order to find other blogs I tried typing different things subjects into search engines in Google, Technorati and blogsearchengine.org and through different results I went around and tried looking at what other bloggers were following or what appealed to me through what other results popped up. I am definitely going to use blogsearchengine.org a lot more though its a great website.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Thing 10

RSS and newsreaders are a easier and more simple way to get up-to-date information on my favorite websites without wasting the additional time checking everyday for updates when instead it saves me valuable time and just sends me a heads up that there is something new on any blog or newsfeed I subscribed to.
I can use RSS or newreaders in my classroom by using it as a way to keep my students updated via my own website that my students can be subscribed to themselves or as a way I can stay up-to-date on any blogs I subscribe to for assistance in my classroom like for new art techniques or ideas for lesson plans. Personally, I can use it for any personal blogs or websites I enjoy reading I can subscribe to using Feedly and get updates about when there is new information.