What tools will you use to reach your Success?

I find that in presentations there is so much information provided.  It is hard to absorb everything. This week Joe Evans provided us with information overload.  What I appreciated was that he admitted to "information overload".  Joe told us to explore just one or two sites that he showed us, learn about them, and consider how we can use these sites in our classrooms.  So pick two, I can do that but with so many options how do I choose?

One I have looked at is a site called AutoMotivator.  This site allows you to make motivational posters, and get this "For Free!!!"  As a broke student and future first year teacher, free is very appealing.  Browsing the site, I found it is pretty easy to figure out.  You can:

• choose a picture from their gallery
• upload a picture from your computer, or
• open a picture from the web

From this point, once your picture is chosen you choose your title and the text you want included on your poster.  I always previewed my poster before saving to make sure I was satisfied with the final product.  If you like it, save your poster and you are finished, it is as simple as that.  This is the one I created:

The quote I chose is one of my favourite quotes. Our success is up to us.  Believing in ourselves and our capabilities is the first set to succeeding. This is something I would like to introduce or revisit with my students.  I want to help them believe in themselves so that they can work towards achieving their goals and dreams.  Sometimes just knowing that someone else believes in you helps you to believe in yourself.  If I can help any of my students believe in themselves, I know they are one step closure to their goals.
I chose a waterfall for the picture because personally someday I would love to climb or descend a waterfall.

So how do I use this site in my classroom?  Do I create posters to hang in my classroom?  Do I have the students create their own posters?  If so, for what purpose?  All of these questions are possibilities.  Creating posters for my classroom would be great.  These posters would help surround my students with positive and inspirational quotes.  Having my students create their own, why not. Why not surround the students with quotes that they have a connection to.  Why not have them contribute to the atmosphere of the classroom!  Depending on what we are learning, creating these kinds of posters could be part of an assignment.  Students could take a theme from novel they are reading and use it as part of their "Book Review".  There are so many possibilities, these are just a few ideas.

John talked about Maple, Diigo, and Twitter.  I must admit I have not spend much time looking at Maple or Diigo, even though I have heard John talk about both of these sites prior to this week. There is so much to learn about these sites, I just need to set time aside to learn more about the benefits of both sites.  Twitter is a great form of communication, and slowly over time I am learning more and more about its benefits.

If you take away at least one thing from todays post, let it be:

In order to succeed, we must first believe we can! 
The first step to reaching your goal is to believe you can!!!

~ Miss Laing