The First Day of the Rest of My Life

I suppose I have joined the masses of people who blog about their lives. I can't keep up, but I am hoping I will have enough interesting things happen to me to keep the wheels turning.

The real reason I want to keep a personal blog is because I will be going to Wales (and other cool places) this summer, and a blog is the perfect way to document the experience for myself and those I love back home. I will be leaving early in July, so until then I will try to get the hang of blogging.

SUMMER. It is here for me. I finally finished Winter Semester, after going to school since Fall Semester 2008. Burnt out. I feel much like Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes) when I think about all the nothing I want to do this summer and how little time I have to accomplish it.

Things I want to do
1. Read. I have quite the list of books to tackle in the next 2 months. The first is the sequel to "The Hunger Games" - "Catching Fire".
2. Yoga. I have my own cool yoga mat, a living room perfect for a sunrise session, and a hot yoga instructor at my local Gold's.
3. Make solid use of my recently acquired Netflix account. I have already added a substantial number of movies and TV series to my queue. I just received "Gone with the Wind" in the mail after the harping of my office friends to watch it.
4. Cook. I am excited to reinstate "Treat Monday" in the LAO (Library Administration Office) and to learn how to cook lots of cool things. I found an awesome site and I'm constantly adding recipes to a list of things I want to make.
5. Laying by the pool. Obviously.
6. Softball/Baseball games.
7. Nintendo 64
8. Go to every local music show physically possible. I love them. Velour and Sammy's always deliver.
9. Make some bad decisions.
10. Sleep.

This is a pretty good list. It's making me antsy. I also need to plan my trip, but that'll come. I will continue to post about my plans for Wales and any other interesting things that happen to me. Long live the blog.

In a Flash

For my Project #3, I decided to use an online flashcard builder as tool for an assignment for a history class. I created a worksheet outlining the process and instructed students to create online flashcards for their textbook unit.

Unit Term Flashcards

At the end of each unit you will be expected to create and show proof of a set of flashcards made for the unit terms listed in the text and at the end of each unit. You may create traditional 3x5 cards or you may use an online flashcard builder like Flashcard Machine. For the first unit, your assignment is to create a set of flashcards using this website, so that you may learn how to use it.

Steps to Create a Flashcard Set
1. Go to www.flashcardmachine.com to create an account
1.1. Choose the tab “MyFlashcards”
1.2. Click “Register Here”
1.3. Enter your information. Make sure you indicate that you are a student. If you do not have a personal email account, please let me know. I can sign you up under my teacher account.
1.4. Check your email for the verification link and validate your account. Then click the link “Get Started Creating Flashcards”
2. Create a New Flashcard Set
2.1. Follow the directions to identify the flashcard set.
2.2. You can add your flashcard set to the Flashcard Database if you want to coordinate and work with friends. Similarly you can give your flashcard set Read-Only Access. This means that you can get a URL for your flashcard set to share with others who may not have an account with Flashcard Machine.
2.3. Save the flashcard set
3. Add/Edit Flashcards
3.1. Click button labeled “Quick Editor” to add and edit cards. When you become comfortable with Flashcard Machine and want to take your flashcards to the next level, you can use the Advanced Editor to attach images or audio to your flashcards. For now, Quick Editor does everything you will need.
3.2. Click “Save” after entering in all of your cards, and then “Exit
4. Begin Studying
4.1. Click “Start Study Session”
4.2. A dialogue box will come up asking for the study session settings you would like.
4.2.1. Order – You can choose Random, or Ascending/Descending if you have a specific order.
4.2.2. Term vs. Definition – Choose which you would like to see first. I recommend doing each in separate study sessions.
4.2.3. Flagged Cards – Once you have flagged cards, you can leave those cards out (if you already know them by heart), do only those cards (if they are particularly difficult or important) or just leave them with the set. You may flag cards in the edit screen or while studying.
4.2.4. Auto-flip – If you would like to set a specific time limit to spend on each card or not have to click them over, you can choose auto-flip and designate how long you would like each card to stay up before flipping.
4.3. Click “Begin.” It will bring up a flashcard window. You may then choose to flip, change cards, and finish your session.
4.4. You may save sessions for up to 1 week. The dialogue boxes will walk you through it when you log out.


To exemplify the process, I followed the assignment details and created a small set of flashcards for unit terms in one of my textbooks. My set of flashcards can be found here.

This is a project I will definitely use in my history and other courses. I will even use it in my studies here at BYU. It is incredibly helpful to have access to the flashcards whenever I am on a computer. This is an incredibly easy tool to learn to use and to implement in the classroom.

Puzzle Pieces Always Fit Together

This has been, by far, the most useful education class I've taken at BYU yet. I think I use everything we have learned. The most useful part of the course was just developing the skill to find and learn to use new things. New technology can be daunting. If we think we're doing fine without it, why bother? But often this new technology is surprisingly easy to use, and very useful. If it doesn't work for you, that's fine. At least you know how to use it. You never know when that knowledge might come in handy.

Making videos was helpful for instruction, as was learning to create a blog. I would say the most helpful assignment was creating my website. I fully intend to create a website for my classes when I begin teaching. Google sites was super easy and I would be able to keep modifying and updating it to meet my needs. It was incredible to see the finished product and I felt proud to show it off to my technology-deprived parents and technology-rich friends, both of whom appreciated it.

Personally, I use Google Reader, Twitter, blogging and video chat because of this class. I had not used them before and thought they wouldn't be helpful to me. Google Reader in particular has helped me find materials that I would like to use in my lesson plans, and it is easy to tag and organize them for that purpose.

I plan to continue using the skills I developed during this course to find new ways to connect and share to better help my students learn.