Blog ⑧

Congratulations on our football team's big win last weekend 🥳🥳🥳! Hope y'all have a great day!

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Web Design
        I have had a great time designing my teacher blog and acquiring new helpful skills. Personally, I really like how Weebly operates —from its tools layout to fonts and background photos— and it is also easy to use, too! I did not like the slideshow feature because it seemed like I could not upload more than two (2) pictures (I'm not so sure about this, but it just didn't function well for me). Also, I had some trouble displaying the Google Calendar on my web page; however, everything worked well with Professor Choi's help. I think that I will implement this task in my plans since the school webpage is a good way for teachers to communicate with students and parents outside of class. 
        Here is the link to my website: Ms. Linh's English I

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Diigo

        Some skills that I learned recently (in recent weeks, actually) are highlighting and commenting on a website via Diigo. I was able to do the job perfectly and smoothly this time :)) Whatever I marked on a webpage would also appear on the Diigo group, allowing other viewers to have a quick review of the main ideas and important notes from the source that I shared. If this application is implemented in my future class, it will be easier for me to see my students' comments and highlights all in one place without going back and forth between different tabs. I can also quickly find the links and their brief descriptions instead of reading the whole webpage again. 

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Technology and Teacher Professional Development
        Nowadays, teachers and students are using more technological devices and applications for activities than white/blackboards with chalks or markers. With the surge of online classes, teachers continue improving their computer skills, such as Microsoft Office, emails, graphic and webpage design, etc. Educators usually attend webinars, conferences, or workshops hosted by colleagues to learn more about changes in education and technological advancement. Many educational developers also produce new learning software to ease the teaching process, creating an engaging and friendly learning atmosphere for students. EdTech Magazine is a great site for teachers and students (both K-12 and Higher Education) to learn more about updated applications. It provides a variety of technology-related topics: security, software, digital workplace, management, etc. where readers can find useful sources and tips. 

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Blog ⑦

It's already Week 8 🥳🥳🥳 Hope that everyone is doing great in their classes (especially Mid-term exams) and personal activities! 

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School Web Pages

        I have visited some class webpages designed by teachers at Jackson Elementary (A Seymour Community School). Most of these sites include the teacher's name, a profile picture (or a header picture), contact information (primarily email address), external links to numerous learning resources, and a class calendar. Teachers also put in their pages expectations or agendas for their classes. Students and parents may also find instructions for daily assignments and projects on these online sites publicly. Below here is a screenshot of a Jackson Elementary teacher.

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Teacher Productivity Tools

        As a teacher, I will need to develop daily plans and assignments, manage students' information, lecture lessons, and communicate with supervisors, parents, and students. I would use Google Drive, Grammarly, and Zalo to help me keep track of my responsibilities. With Google Drive, I can store my documents, videos, PowerPoints, etc. all in one online place. I can also categorize them into smaller folders so that I can find what I need quicker. With Grammarly, I can check for spelling and grammar mistakes more easily. It also provides suggestions to revise certain sentences to make a whole paragraph or essay more organized and easier to understand. Finally, with Zalo, a popular communication app used in Vietnam (and is also similar to Messenger), I can send messages, photos, and files to my colleagues or students in real-time. 

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Wiki Platform/PBWorks

        Personally, PBWorks is quite easy to use after I got familiar with its tools and features. When I work on my personal wiki space, I can freely change things and pages; however, when I work on a group wiki, the page's owner needs to change regular users' status to administrators to fully access different functions. Besides, I don't really like how the editing tab works. The fonts and sizes keep changing whenever I go to another paragraph or copy and paste information from one page to another. Still, my team did a great job on our group assignment, and I am happy about that!

Blog ⑥

This week is such a busy one for me ㅜㅡㅜ 4 projects due and a Mid-term exam... Hopefully I will do well on all of these :)) Hope that you all are doing good these days, too! Stay safe and don't catch a cold!

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Experience using Diigo
        Diigo is a tool that I only knew after being introduced to in this class. Personally, I usually feel confused whenever I use this platform. First of all, obviously, I am new to it and not so familiar with how the tool functions so I need some time to figure it out. Second, things don't go so well as I expected. In particular, when I tried following the instructions to complete Portfolio Item #12 (Diigo Web 2.0), I could not highlight or comment the source the way the tutorial video showed me. Thus, I have to find it out myself, trying and deleting posts on Diigo several times. Fortunately, I was able to complete the task —I really hope that I did it correctly...

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Blogging
        In my opinion, this blogging activity is a good way for me to share with classmates and teachers what I have learned through the resources (including my thoughts) and to know others' perspectives on the same matter by reading their blogs. Blogger, in my opinion, is easy to use after posting several blogs. I learned how to re-arrange the gadgets on the homepage, change font styles, include pictures and links in posts, and manage my blog page as a whole. However, due to limited options such as fonts or sizes, I cannot fully decorate my blog post to make it less boring :(  Anyway, I have read people's blogs a lot and always found them interesting so I was really excited when I could start my own blog for this class. If I have have in the future, I will definitely further expand my blog and write about hobbies and experiences through blogs as a way to store my memories.

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Web 2.0 Tools
        Since I am not a style of person who explores new things on my own (although I will need to change this to become a good teacher), I will talk about a familiar Web 2.0 tools that everyone use —Youtube. This platform is where you can upload or watch videos of a variety of topics, and it is also a great tool for students to gain knowledge from. I will definitely use Youtube in my future classrooms as visual aids and/or substitutes of things that I may not (or I think I cannot) explain to students thoroughly. Just type a topic of my subject, let's say "How to write a research paper," and Youtube will provide links to numerous videos that guide students through steps of outlining and organizing an essay from start to end. Teachers can also learn how the video author presents their lessons or obtain some teaching tips through Youtube videos. One thing that I have to be aware of, however, is to restrict students from watching videos unrelated to lesson materials or inappropriate to students' ages.
        Link to Youtube: https://www.youtube.com 

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