Blog Journal 8

 Last week, I worked on the Web Design assignment. I used www.weebly.com to design a website that I would have as a teacher to 1st grade students. Some new skills I acquired while working on the website was how to link a Google Calendar to a website. I had never done that before or really used Google Calendar so it was really interesting to see all the features I could incorporate. Something I disliked about the assignment was the formatting, I wasn't able to get the formatting right without ruining the whole layout. It was frustrating because I prefer to make things aesthetically pleasing, but I wasn't able to. Something I liked about the assignment was the news skills I got to learn from the assignment. After completing the assignment I feel like I will be more inclined to make a website as a teacher in the future and I will have the skills necessary to go about it! Here is my website: http://taelorb.weebly.com/ 

For awhile now, I have been using Diigo in this class. While using it I have learned how to bookmark websites and articles in the class discussion and write short summaries on them. I have also learned how to annotate an article and send it to my class Diigo, to make it easier for my classmates to know what parts of the article I want them to focus on. I think this application can be especially useful, as a teacher, for professional development. I believe it won't quite appeal to young students, but it can be very good for the teachers at the school to post articles and websites that share ideas and topics about teaching. 

Technology and teacher professional development go hand in hand. It is very important for most jobs, for the employees to stay updated on the tech being used for the company. A teacher has a big job to keep updated on technology trends so they stay in touch with their students while teaching students how to use the latest tech. Staying aware of the changes in technology is extremely important. I think teachers can keep updated on technology by following teacher blogs, twitters, or diigos. I, would personally use this website here to stay on top of the changes of technology. This website updates every year and shows teachers the newest Web 2.0 software that they should be paying attention too.