Giving thanks for 2011!

With 2012 less than a hour away, I wanted to share my thoughts on 2011.  

As I look back on 2011, it has been a year that I will certainly not forget.  It was the first year that I truly got involved in educational technology and learning more about it.  With the help of livebinders.com, I've been able to collect all my thoughts and resources into many "livebinders" that I can share with my friends, fellow colleagues and my followers on Twitter.

Thanks to Twitter, I've been connected with great educators from across the country and have access to many resources and news alerts.  Twitter also allows me to share videos, pictures, or articles I find in a effortless matter.  

Thanks to Evernote, I've been able to create multiple notes on anything I need to remember or notes I would like to have handy at all times.  I have it downloaded on my Iphone and PC and can access those notes whenever I need them, for as long as I need them.  

2011 will also be another year that I had the honor of being my wife's husband.  We have had many trials this year, but our love never vanished.  At the end of the day, Christ was still at the center of our marriage and relationship is stronger for it.  

Most of all, I owe this year to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  I has been a year that I was uncertain many times about how things would turn out.  I've been applying and searching for teaching jobs literally everyday this year, and have been blessed enough to have had about 5 interviews at some very good schools.  Nothing has turned up so far, however, I know Christ holds tomorrow and I'll continue to cling to the Old Rugged Cross.  Because he lives, I can face tomorrow...

May 2012 be given over to Christ and prayer, and let it be a year that we see reformation in the classroom like we all need it to be--focused on the students and professional development for the teachers and the staff. 

In his name, 

Justin 

"I don't understand that Twitter stuff"

Earlier this morning, I was at my local auto shop getting a flat tire fixed on my truck.   While I was waiting on it to be fixed, I had a conversation with another gentleman about some current events and other stories that was on the morning show, MSNBC Today.  One of the stories was about one of the news anchors, Brian Williams, and the fact that he had over 55,000 followers and he has posted 0 tweets.  The gentleman I was speaking with said, "I don't understand that Twitter stuff" and it was pointless to post things on twitter about what you are doing every second of every day.  Unfortunately, my tire was fixed at that moment and I didn't have a chance to explain what Twitter is really about.

But what is Twitter really about?  Is it really a waste of time?  Most of the time, when I talk to someone about Twitter they automatically go into talking about how people will tweet something like what they are watching on tv or even when they are "using the facilities".  Sure, there are people out there that do use Twitter for this sole purpose.  However, what can Twitter really do and what is it meant to be?  

One of the things that really doesn't come in a conversation about Twitter is how it makes sharing information, news, articles, and links so much easier than just plain email or Facebook.  I started my Twitter account many months ago for a source of educational professional development.  In doing so, I have been introduced to many educators and educational tools that some may not even be aware of.  

One of these tools that I extremely love and invest a lot of time on is livebinders.com (you can follow livebinders on twitter, @livebinders).  This website has provided a great tool to gather notes, links, and other resources to make for easy and quick reference of information or website links that you can share on your website or even share on twitter.  Here's an example of how you can share your Livebinder on Twitter:

With Twitter, I can share this Livebinder and let all my followers access this free information.  The other good thing about posting your Livebinder on Twitter, is that it can be "retweeted" or "re-posted" by one of your followers.  Meaning, that a multitude of people can see this by just having posted it once.   

There are so many other opportunities that can be found on Twitter, which I will discuss on my next blog update.  In the mean time, if you are a teacher or in the field of education, you owe it to yourself to start a Twitter account and start a account at Livebinders.com, which both resources are free.  

Feel free to follow me @justinstallings.  

Children's Miracle Network Donation Event

I'm participating in a event to benefit the Children's Miracle Network, more specifically BSA here in Amarillo, TX. My goal is to reach $100 and I've joined a group at my work, Valero Energy. Please help me reach my goal and to donate to a worth cause by going to this link: http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=23924. The event takes place this Saturday, October 15th and I will be attempting from now until end of Saturday to play video games for a total of 24 hours. Please help me reach our goal!

Weather Balloon

Coming home from my interview at Spring ISD, I caught a pic of a weather balloon. At first I thought it was a star or possibly the NASA satellite coming down, but found a news article on our local newschannel about it: .http://www.connectamarillo.com/news/story.aspx?id=666870
 It appears as a bright dot in the sky: