Although this statement may make me sound like I've been living under a rock, I've never really known what an RSS feed is and it is SUPER cool!!
I love that you can add whatever you want to be updated on and it will come to YOU instead of you having to search for it! How convenient! And it all goes into one place!
The best part is that it is free and so easy to do! You just sign up for some type of reader (google or Yahoo) and subscribe! So simple! Then you just log on, and all your news comes right to you! I love it!
My feeds are awesome and I like reading them. The health article is cool because it tells all about good and bad fats...and I am currently trying to eat healthier and better since I am starting softball season! This came in very handy! I also like my people Rss feed because it is just a good entertainment source!! I LOVE the fox 59 feed. I dont get to watch the news much, so to be able to get some local news is always good for me. I also like my IUPUI site with IUPUI news. That is always helpful to know what is going on in my school! And my technology feed is super cool. I like reading about what is new and current!
I do think I will keep up with these feeds, and I think they're very useful! I think it is a great idea to subscribe to websites that you enjoy looking at. It makes surfing the web so much easier! RSS feeds are much simpler that I ever imagined and I was kind of surprised at how easy it is to do!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
URL for del.icio.us
My URL for my del.icio.us account is http://www.delicious.com/megan.daugherty8807
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Assistive Technology
I tried out the Google Translation and it is just the coolest thing EVER! I love that you can translate any website into one of LOTS of different languages! I never really thought to use this technology as of recently, because when I was in middle school and in Spanish class, there were only a few translation sites out there that were free! I love that it is so easy with google to translate just about anything!
I can see how things get "lost in translation". Even back in middle school, if I typed a whole English phrase, then translated it to Spanish and then back to English, it wasn't the correct way to say it sometimes. I realized quickly that it is easier just to translate the words that I didnt know.
This will be so useful in the future in my classroom. Lots of communication is needed in education, and I will need to be in touch with ALL of my students parents. As a preschool teacher now, I know how hard that can be with parents who do not speak English. I have actually looked up common phrases in different languages such as Chinese, Russian etc., for the kids in my class, but this will make it much easier to keep the language barriers open!
The Microsoft Assistive Technologies are very useful as well. You can do so many different things such learning how to zoom in on a webpage, or navigate and do everything using only a keyboard and not using a mouse. It also has a Mini-translator that will read text aloud to you. These are really useful tools for people of all ages, disability or not!
The website for Diverse Learners is amazing. There are such good and useful tools on there. I really enjoyed the digital text portion. My brother is a very smart Sophomore in high school, but he has a reading disability and does poorly on many school assignments and tests because of that. This would be a great way to help him. I also like the Visual tab here. Many kids are visual learners and any sort of enhancement will help! Overall this whole website will be bookmarked because there is such wonderful information on there.
Finally, Information on photosensitive epilepsy was astounding! Photosensitivity is genetic and can affect many people in a family. Girls are more often affected, but boys have more seizures (due to their video game playing!) EEGs can determine the severity and anti-epileptic drugs can help to treat this condition. Several different things can trigger to this condition including the frequency of how many times the light changes , the intensity which is how bright the light is and how much of a contrast it has, and area--how much space the slight source is taking up in the field of vision. Patterns such as checkerboards can also be parts of this condition. This information is very interesting for us future teachers! I think that at some point I may deal with this in a classroom, and just the knowledge of it makes me more comforable to the condition!
I can see how things get "lost in translation". Even back in middle school, if I typed a whole English phrase, then translated it to Spanish and then back to English, it wasn't the correct way to say it sometimes. I realized quickly that it is easier just to translate the words that I didnt know.
This will be so useful in the future in my classroom. Lots of communication is needed in education, and I will need to be in touch with ALL of my students parents. As a preschool teacher now, I know how hard that can be with parents who do not speak English. I have actually looked up common phrases in different languages such as Chinese, Russian etc., for the kids in my class, but this will make it much easier to keep the language barriers open!
The Microsoft Assistive Technologies are very useful as well. You can do so many different things such learning how to zoom in on a webpage, or navigate and do everything using only a keyboard and not using a mouse. It also has a Mini-translator that will read text aloud to you. These are really useful tools for people of all ages, disability or not!
The website for Diverse Learners is amazing. There are such good and useful tools on there. I really enjoyed the digital text portion. My brother is a very smart Sophomore in high school, but he has a reading disability and does poorly on many school assignments and tests because of that. This would be a great way to help him. I also like the Visual tab here. Many kids are visual learners and any sort of enhancement will help! Overall this whole website will be bookmarked because there is such wonderful information on there.
Finally, Information on photosensitive epilepsy was astounding! Photosensitivity is genetic and can affect many people in a family. Girls are more often affected, but boys have more seizures (due to their video game playing!) EEGs can determine the severity and anti-epileptic drugs can help to treat this condition. Several different things can trigger to this condition including the frequency of how many times the light changes , the intensity which is how bright the light is and how much of a contrast it has, and area--how much space the slight source is taking up in the field of vision. Patterns such as checkerboards can also be parts of this condition. This information is very interesting for us future teachers! I think that at some point I may deal with this in a classroom, and just the knowledge of it makes me more comforable to the condition!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
MixBook
I chose to do my 3rd posting about MixBook! It is just the coolest website to create different things with your pictures! I myself chose to do a calendar because my mom had asked me to make her one anyway. The website was really easy to use, you just sign up, and then you can choose from photobooks, cards, or calendars. Since I chose a calendar, I will walk you through the process.
First you choose a template. There are all kinds, I chose one that was very colorful and fun. Then you get started by uploading your pictures. You can do this a variety of ways, either from your computer, off of facebook or picasa or photobucket etc. It makes it very easy for you. After uploading your pictures, it already has places for you to drag and drop your photos into the calendar page. You can customize this or leave it the way they have it set up. You can also add little "stickers" and words if you want! It is really a neat thing because you can have it simple if you just want it that way, or if you are a crafty person, you can add a ton of cool things to it and make it unique. You can also add specific events to the days on the calendar before it's printed!
There were a ton of great features about this site, mostly the great editing tools, and how easy or complicated you can make it. For people who are crafty, this can get fun and interesting (I spent about 2 hours making mine!) Or you can simply drag and drop and be done!
A few things I didnt like about this site were that you have to pay for these projects (obviously) but I really felt like the prices were reasonable, especially with all of the cool features it has. One issue I did have, however was that every once in awhile it would freeze up. This was more of an inconvenience than anything, as the program saves your work automatically, but it was a pain to close the program and reopen it. I did also have a little trouble trying to upload my photos from facebook.
Overall, I really enjoyed this program and am actually going to order the calendar that I made for my mom! I am still working to see if I can attach the calendar itself, but here is a preview of one of the pages! All-in-all, it seems to be a great way to get creative and share your creations with others!
First you choose a template. There are all kinds, I chose one that was very colorful and fun. Then you get started by uploading your pictures. You can do this a variety of ways, either from your computer, off of facebook or picasa or photobucket etc. It makes it very easy for you. After uploading your pictures, it already has places for you to drag and drop your photos into the calendar page. You can customize this or leave it the way they have it set up. You can also add little "stickers" and words if you want! It is really a neat thing because you can have it simple if you just want it that way, or if you are a crafty person, you can add a ton of cool things to it and make it unique. You can also add specific events to the days on the calendar before it's printed!
There were a ton of great features about this site, mostly the great editing tools, and how easy or complicated you can make it. For people who are crafty, this can get fun and interesting (I spent about 2 hours making mine!) Or you can simply drag and drop and be done!
A few things I didnt like about this site were that you have to pay for these projects (obviously) but I really felt like the prices were reasonable, especially with all of the cool features it has. One issue I did have, however was that every once in awhile it would freeze up. This was more of an inconvenience than anything, as the program saves your work automatically, but it was a pain to close the program and reopen it. I did also have a little trouble trying to upload my photos from facebook.
Overall, I really enjoyed this program and am actually going to order the calendar that I made for my mom! I am still working to see if I can attach the calendar itself, but here is a preview of one of the pages! All-in-all, it seems to be a great way to get creative and share your creations with others!
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Photoshow
Photoshow is a website that allows you to upload your photos and put them together to form a slideshow. It can be useful because you can add captions and it is a nice way to present pictures, or you could even present facts and use it as a presentation. I like that it was easy to personalize, and you could choose from a couple different fonts and themes. I was a little sad that you couldnt customize it even more...but I suppose if you paid the upgrade fee, you could have more options. If someone is just looking for an easy way to click through to set this up, this is the way to go!
you can add captions and it is a nice way to present pictures, or you could even present facts and use it as a presentation. I like that it was easy to personalize, and you could choose from a couple different fonts and themes. I was a little sad that you couldnt customize it even more...but I suppose if you paid the upgrade fee, you could have more options. If someone is just looking for an easy way to click through to set this up, this is the way to go! Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Podcasting!
Welcome to my podcasting adventure!! And an adventure is what it has been! I have attached this podcast as a video, even though there is not actually a video it's just audio. It's the only way I could make it be a part of my blog!
Podcasting is a pretty cool thing once you get used to the initial idea. It's basically creating your own radio/lecture via a voice recording. There are other things you can add such as background music and things of that nature, however I did not add those to mine as I had a hard enough time trying to just get the voice recording onto my computer and uploaded to blogger! This can be a very useful tool for a classroom because you dont have to interact face to face with your students, you can talk to them without being in a classroom. i have actually had an online class that used podcasts and it was very useful for the class!!
I had a hard time trying to figure out how to record my voice. My laptop does not come with a microphone, and we do not have a microphone for our desktop computer either. I ended up recording my voice on my smartphone, and sending that recording to my email. From there, I saved the file, and opened it with the Audacity program. Installing the audacity was pretty easy after following the youtube video. Audacity is a pretty cool program! I used it to edit my initial recording. I cut out places where I had paused for a period of time, and even edited parts out completely! It was much more fun once I got the hang of it! It was pretty user-friendly once I was able to get my voice recording uploaded to my computer. That was the most difficult part. I think this would be very beneficial to professors who are wanting to teach their students something without actually being in the classroom (i.e. an online class, or it would have been great last week when classes were cancelled due to the ice storm!)
In order for this to not be difficult, I would just advise getting a microphone to hook up to your computer. If you had one, it would be much easier to record your voice, and edit it right there all at once!
Enjoy my podcast!!
Podcasting is a pretty cool thing once you get used to the initial idea. It's basically creating your own radio/lecture via a voice recording. There are other things you can add such as background music and things of that nature, however I did not add those to mine as I had a hard enough time trying to just get the voice recording onto my computer and uploaded to blogger! This can be a very useful tool for a classroom because you dont have to interact face to face with your students, you can talk to them without being in a classroom. i have actually had an online class that used podcasts and it was very useful for the class!!
I had a hard time trying to figure out how to record my voice. My laptop does not come with a microphone, and we do not have a microphone for our desktop computer either. I ended up recording my voice on my smartphone, and sending that recording to my email. From there, I saved the file, and opened it with the Audacity program. Installing the audacity was pretty easy after following the youtube video. Audacity is a pretty cool program! I used it to edit my initial recording. I cut out places where I had paused for a period of time, and even edited parts out completely! It was much more fun once I got the hang of it! It was pretty user-friendly once I was able to get my voice recording uploaded to my computer. That was the most difficult part. I think this would be very beneficial to professors who are wanting to teach their students something without actually being in the classroom (i.e. an online class, or it would have been great last week when classes were cancelled due to the ice storm!)
In order for this to not be difficult, I would just advise getting a microphone to hook up to your computer. If you had one, it would be much easier to record your voice, and edit it right there all at once!
Enjoy my podcast!!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
A Little About Me!
Hello!
This is my first blog post, so I will introduce myself! Here goes...
In my spare time I love to read (although I dont have much spare time!) and go camping in the summertime! I also like to scrapbook, my latest project being our engagement/wedding scrapbook!
I work full time as a preschool teacher at a private preschool on the southside. I am the lead teacher in the two year old room, and I love my job! Two year olds are SUPER smart and can do so much more than most adults think! I love teaching them new things, and watching their little brains work! It's a wonderful feeling!
I am also a full time student at IUPUI and am going to school for Elementary Education. I cannot wait to graduate so I can start my own little family!
Creating this blog was much easier than I had originally anticipated! I am really enjoying playing around with all of the cool features! I'm sure I will be uploading many pictures on here! I found it pretty easy to edit everything and personalize my blog! I especially had fun changing all of the fonts!
This is my first blog post, so I will introduce myself! Here goes...
I am Megan Daugherty, and I am 22 years young! I live on the Southside of Indy, and work as a preschool teacher teaching two year olds! I am engaged to be married in May of next year, and we are getting married on the beach in Destin, Florida! I cannot wait!
I grew up here in Indy, going to school at Southport until my sophomore year when I transferred to Center Grove. I graduated in 2007 from CG. I lived with my mom until she was transferred to Kansas city, Missouri (my sophomore year) and then I moved in with my dad until I graduated. I have an awesome family! My mom remarried when I was 7 and I have a sister, Mara who is now 15! My dad also remarried when I was 4 and he and my step-mom have 2 kids, my sister Kelcey who is almost 18 and my brother Austin, who is almost 16! I am very close with my family! My mom now lives in Kansas City, and I have a stepsister, Ashley who is 23 and she has a BEAUTIFUL daughter, Sophia who is my only and MOST FAVORITE niece!!!
I met my fiance when I was a freshman in high school, and we dated (though not too seriously) throughout high school. After I graduated, we moved in together, and are currently living on the southside of Indy in an apartment with our furbabies! We have 2 cats and a puppy! We have one male black cat, named Yoshi, and a female gray cat named Delilah! Our puppy, Khloe, is supposed to be a german shepherd-black lab mix, but shes 6 months old and only 35 lbs, and her coloring is brindle, which is not characteristic of either of those breeds! So we dont know what she is, but shes our baby and we love her just the same! We are getting married on May 20, 2012 on the beach in Destin, Florida and I cannot wait!
I work full time as a preschool teacher at a private preschool on the southside. I am the lead teacher in the two year old room, and I love my job! Two year olds are SUPER smart and can do so much more than most adults think! I love teaching them new things, and watching their little brains work! It's a wonderful feeling!
I am also a full time student at IUPUI and am going to school for Elementary Education. I cannot wait to graduate so I can start my own little family!
Creating this blog was much easier than I had originally anticipated! I am really enjoying playing around with all of the cool features! I'm sure I will be uploading many pictures on here! I found it pretty easy to edit everything and personalize my blog! I especially had fun changing all of the fonts!
More to follow...!
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| Delilah and Yoshi! |
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| Khloe when she was little... |
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| Khloe now! |
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