Journal #6 Self Reflection

I have definitely learned a great deal about coding, HTML, CSS, and building basic webpages while taking this course.  Learning how to produce webpages using HTML codes and CSS has not been easy for me.  The textbook exercises challenged me but I was able to work past my comfort zone to learn how to complete the book exercises.

One thing I struggle with is correctly entering code into the text editor to achieve the desired outcome.  I often will make one tiny mistake that impacts my entire webpage.  I have accidentally mixed up a colon where a semi colon was needed and that one mistake drastically affects the entire page.  It was also a challenge for me to understand when and where to place tags and end tags, but I think that practicing the book exercises really helped me with that area.  The more and more I practiced coding basic webpage elements in class and at home has payed off because I do feel that I have made a great deal of progress over the last 10 weeks.

The most challenging assignment for me so far has been creating the link for all my book exercises.  It was challenging to make sure all my links were correctly set up and working properly.  I also purchased a new MAC computer so I was teaching myself how to use a MAC (I have previously only used PC) while also trying to complete the assignment and transfer all my work to my new laptop as well.  This was also my most rewarding assignment I have completed because I am so proud of myself for completing the assignment!  It is very rewarding to see all my hard work come to life on the CPP server and on the web.

http://www.cpp.edu/~tkelparin/512/book.html

Journal #5 Twitter

I joined Twitter a couple weeks ago.  I definitely feel a little overwhelmed when looking  at feeds on Twitter because prior to this class I did not use any social media sites.  I did like quite a few of the activities mentioned in the Twitter resources folders. 
I think that Twitter could be a great resource to use in the classroom. I think that students can use the hashtag #DidYouKnow to find out various interesting and entertaining facts.  I think it could be used as a quick daily activity that students would be very engaged in.  They could check each morning upon coming to class and share with the whole class about the daily #DidYouKnow.  I also like the idea of using the #History to learn about something that happened that day in history.  I think it could be a fun way for students to learn about various important events throughout history. 
I am still exploring using Twitter as a professional development tool.  I think that Twitter can be a great resource for educators to connect to one another and share ideas. 
I currently do not see myself using Twitter in my classroom as a tool for the students to use because I teach Kinder and I do not think my students could use Twitter independently. I do think I could use Twitter as a resource to share with my students.  I think my students would like to know something like #DidYouKnow as long as it was facts they could relate to/understand.