about me

Hello. I am Darlena Gary. I have created this blog during a technolgy class required for my major. I am a student at Austin Peay University in Clarksville, TN. I am pursuing a degree in English with a minor in Secondary Education. I hope to teach middle school English; however, I am willing to teach any grade level. I am a non-traditional student because I am 33 years old. I absolutely love learning ways to help me become an outstanding teacher.I hope to continue blogging about my experiences as a student and later as a professional in my community.

One Last Thing

23 Things was a very interesting activity.When first presented with this task, I was a little overwhelmed and unsure about technology in the classroom. Having completed this task, I am excited about using what I have learned to educate students in the future. One of my favorite activities was creating a video using Animoto. This tool will help me reach visual learners in the classroom. I can make videos using words or pictures to make a point.Something unexpected was you tube. Until this assignment, I had never used this resource. I am now up to speed on how this can be used for educational purposes. I will be using this tool in my classroom as well.I believe the set-up of 23 Things is perfect. I would not change a thing. All tools and resources were linked appropriately in the correct section of this assignment. Now that I know what RSS feed is, I plan to use this tool to keep up with my favorite resources using this tool. All updates will be sent to me automatically. How cool is that? Although this task looked to be daunting at first, it was completely worth while and has moved me into the technological world. Thank you 23 Things!

Thing 22

Pod-casts are a very cool tool that may be used to reach students who may be away from the classroom. They can also help students to gain crucial information in a fun manner before class or after class to study. Grammar Girl is my favorite pod-cast to follow because it has many different sections dealing with common grammar issues. I will definitely be using this in my classroom. Also, I just realized how simple pod-casts are to create and I look forward to making more for my classroom as well.

Thing 23

Inside the APSU 23 Things blog, everyone's posts are evidence of unoriginal material. There is also the You tube symbol at the bottom of that link verifying its origin. There is also copyright information at the end of the page. Inside our individual blogs, there is also borrowed material. Thanks to creative commons, we are able to borrow this material without obtaining permission.

Thing 21

Animoto is awesome. I had so much fun creating a video. I have never been a picture person, so I don't have pictures of me or family, but now that I can turn them into really neat videos, I will be a picture taking fool.This can be a useful tool in my future classroom to put together amazing videos of related material. I feel the students would rather see a video than look at a boring power point.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Thing 19

I thought Teacher Pop was a pretty cool tool. I was able to see what some other teachers were doing in their field.I am a member of Facebook and now I am a member of Teacher Pop. Both tools are useful in collaborating with other professional in the teaching profession.

Thing 20

I liked using youtube. This was the first time I have ever explored. It was very easy to use. I feel like one could have search overload like those popular Bing comercials. But it was very easy to find something worth while. I chose to add "The Canterbury Tales Prologue" spoken in middle english. I wanted to use this video because I feel it is important to recognize how much the English language has changes throughout history. This goes out to all English Majors. Enjoy!!!