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SlideBoom

     Slideboom is a presentation tool similar to Microsoft Powerpoint and Google Slides. This application allows you to play the presentation as a movie and add sound. Offering you to create an account, all of the projects can be saved and returned to. This Web 2.0 tool allows students and teachers that want to create and share projects online. This could be used for students that want to access their presentation at all times rather than only once through a flashdrive.

Glogster

     Glogster is an online application that allows you to use multimedia to create a large poster. Various templates and content libraries that can be used and applied to your poster. Glogster has also released a mobile application for iPhone and Android. Students in the classroom would be able to use this when presenting a project over a specific time period or event in history. The Smartboard would be able to display their poster for the entire class to see and interact with.

Just Paste It

     JustPaste.It is a large information based tool, mobile and desktop. Text can be pasted into the website and once it appears, it creates a new note that can be found at a new web link. Similar to a blog, you can post videos and photos as well. Students would be able to use this when responding to an article or journal in a prompt. When their link was shared with others, it can be viewed by other students or their teacher. 

School Wax

     SchoolWax is an all-in-one website that contains other mini-tools for students. Research links, online textbooks, and homework help are just three of the many that are available. The entire web tool is free to use. Students can use this when writing a research paper or even finishing history homework. When finished, they would be able to cite their source from this credible website.

Know It All

     Acting as a large interactive and exploration database, KnowItAll is available for students and parents. The tool offers educational videos, hands-on workshops and virtual tours of a South Carolina rain forest. The website is organized and easy to access for all ages with parents. Students would be able to use this site during free time throughout the day. Rather than talk to each other or do nothing, they would be able to access this site and still work on puzzles to keep their brain flowing.

Diagrammr

     Diagrammr is a site that does what it says - it creates a diagram of your sentence. By breaking down all nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives, you will be able to see what part of the sentence is missing or what needs to be changed. Basic tools are available, creating easy access. Students could use this tool when developing a paper or simple writing project. This would teach them sentence pieces and how to use them.

Webspiration

     Designed for higher grades, Webspiration is a visual based site offered for a small price. The site is used to improve writing and thinking skills. The classroom version (grades 5-12) and a pro version are available (college ages and business professionals.) Students could use this site in order to organize their ideas and display them. Other students could also use the peer review and collaboration options as well. 

TinyPic

     Tinypic, similar to Flickr and Picasa, offers an online sharing option of photos and videos. Others users can log in and view your photos. This site is free to all users. Students could use this tool in the classroom when creating a group project and sharing their ideas with their group members. If one student finished their part of the project, it could be uploaded and the other students could view it when needed.

Scribble Maps

     Simply, design your own map! Scribble Maps, offering the export option of Google Maps, allows you to draw your own map for any use. They can be made and then embedded into other sites. This tool could be used in the classroom by students when doing a scavenger hunt or even a math problem involving a series of problems. Once creating their own, it can be shared with other students.

Braingle

     Braingle is a brain teaser website for all ages. Offering puzzles, riddles and problems, this site is great to keep your brain flowing and your free time well spent. This site is generated by the use of public problems - submit your own problem and have others solve it! Students could use this site in their free time when finishing another assignment early. Students could also submit their own riddle on the site and have others respond to it.

Social Net{work}ing or Net{play}ing?

My Twitter page:

My Instagram page:

In response to the blog posts that I have attached, their advice could work - increasing the amount of people that see your pages every day is possible. It works great for advertising a company or brand or even spreading the word about an upcoming event. I have friends that post two and three times a day with barely any followers. I also have friends that post once a week with more than 2,000 followers. Granted, the amount of followers you have does not make you less of a person but whoever has more will create a streamline of networking for getting a message across.

However, there are possible adverse effects. Bullying is a major problem in younger generations - middle to high school level - and that is the age range that uses social media the most.

In my opinion, Facebook is for your parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and second cousins twice removed. Twitter is for businesses or teens with catchy 140-character thoughts. Instagram is for a normally boring photo that you pair with a good filter and caption. All are ways to communicate and express yourself.

I can remember creating my Facebook page in the Spring Break of my sixth grade year, my Twitter in my eighth grade year and Instagram somewhere between ninth and tenth. I used Facebook almost every day and now I might post once a month. Twitter and Instagram fall somewhere around once a week.

I wouldn't call myself addicted simply because I don't use it as much as I used to but I do find myself spending extra time on it or checking it more than once a day. Some pages are made strictly for advertising and others for social networking - a blend of both is what someone with several followers needs; the more followers that someone has, the more likely it is that the message will serve its purpose.



How to Easily Double You Traffic from Social Media
A Handy Little Guide to Creating Visual Content for Social Media

Welcome! Don't forget to wipe your feet!

Hi! How are you? Silly question, considering you're reading this and not talking back to a computer screen.. I hope.

My name is Stormi Chaloner.  I am a student at Henderson State and pretty new this whole new "blogging" thing so bear with me and we just might get through this together - don't get me wrong, everyone has their niche, so maybe this will be a new one for me.

Fun facts about myself are as follows: I currently work two jobs, one on campus and one off. I am a Resident Assistant in the hall I live in and I also work at a tee shirt shop in my home town. I am the oldest child in my family and have nine younger brothers and sisters that I help raise. I have a boyfriend of almost four years named Austin, whom has changed my life in many ways. I am more organized than your average human being. I love to help people and try to reach a best-fit solution in almost every situation. I am a member of the Christian sorority on our campus and a Reddie Ambassador. (If you haven't noticed, I am a very busy individual, but I don't like sitting still so it works out.)

I am attending Henderson State to attain a degree in Elementary Education. From the age of three years old to tenth grade, I had fully declared that I wanted to be a Medical Malpractice Attorney at University of Texas. However, I was accidentally placed into Orientation to Teaching 1 at my high school. I wasn't interested in this class until we began observation hours at a local elementary school. I fell in love with the art of teaching, helping others and being a role model and leader for the children that stood before me. My education path changed and so did my life. My goal as an educator is to help students achieve their goals and further their education just as I had teachers do for me.

Join me through this journey and the steps it will take me to get there!

(Note: if you find a typo in this first post, blame it on the Girl Scout cookies I am eating... I have provided a recipe link for you to make your own at home!)