Thing #23

Summarize Your Thoughts About This Program---- I DID IT!!!!!!! YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
There were many times I didn't think I would make it. My favorite things to do were the Avatar, Flickr, YouTube, mashups, and the Nings. They were fun to learn and time really flew by when I was working on these sites. Learning all of these "things" has proven to me that you can teach an old dog new tricks. I thought I was pretty good with the computer, but at times these exercises boggled my mind. I realize the importance of staying current with technology. One of the biggest surprises for me during this learning quest was how bad I am at taking images and videos from other sites and placing them on this blog. I spent many a frustrated night trying to figure out how to get things to work. I was successful most of the time, but I still would like to see some more technology courses offered during the school year. One improvement, at least in my eyes, is to give specific instructions on how to add images and video to your blog. As I mentioned above, I really struggled with this aspect. When you had step by step instructions it made it very easy. Visuals are also a plus. I would love to take another class on technology, but one that is geared towards the classroom teacher, maybe by levels taught----elementary----secondary. Just a thought. My experience with library2play has been like a real quest for the Holy Grail of Technology. Very exciting.

Thing #22

Nings---- I went to the Teacher Nings site and loved it. I enjoyed reading the blogs by other teachers and laughed at many of their stories. I looked through the retired teachers blogs and started counting the days until I can retire. :) I briefly looked through the parent blog. I was surprised there was a parent blog on the teacher site??? I also looked at the Texas librarian ning and thought it was great. I will definitely use these sites in the future. Lots of good information and resources. A teacher can never have enough resources to help keep things fresh in the classroom. This thing was a good thing!

Thing # 21

Podcasts and Audio books----I made a really nice podcast of a moth I found on my pine tree. It was so perfectly camouflaged that I walked right past it twice. I don't think I will use these in class as they are too time consuming to produce and save. I am also having trouble putting the podcast on my blog. It downloaded and then said having trouble, report to support, and listed some code number that I was supposed to report. I am sure I just did something wrong. My family thought it was great. They liked the Stevie Ray Vaughn music I added. It really was a lot of fun. Too bad I couldn't get it to post on my blog. :(

Thing #20

Explore YouTube and TeacherTube---I can see why the kids love to roam these sites. They are very funny and relaxing. I'm not sure of whether or not I will use these in school. I think they are blocked. I can say I enjoyed my time watching videos on YouTube better than the TeacherTube. I can't seem to embed my video onto my blog. I will try again tomorrow. Too tired tonight.
TWO DAYS LATER....... YEAH IT WORKED!!!!!! WE HAVE VIDEO!!! I found this clip under library on TeacherTube.

Thing #19

Web 2.0 Awards list----Favorites so far----
http://del.icio.us/
http://wufoo.com/
http://www.imcooked.com/
http://www.myheritage.com/
http://farecast.live.com/?

This site is great for simplifying a lot of information online. I thought it was fun to look through all of the sites and see what was out there. So far, this is one of my favorite things . A definite help in the classroom. I will use this site! http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0/shorts.

Thing #18

Online Productivity Tools---Well, once again I preferred the Google site to the Open Office site. I downloaded and registered for the Open Office site and then found it to be very difficult to read through all of the options and suggestions. I don't think I will use this in my class. Google was much easier and user friendly. This site would be helpful for written projects in class. Not overly impressed with either of the sites. They are good enough for now, but I will keep looking for something that is easier.

Thing #17

Rollyo---Hours spent in complete frustration. I was able to play around in rollyo and made several searchrolls, but then spent hours trying to figure out how to link to my specific searchroll for this blog. I tried several ways without success. Then I found a tutorial on another blogger's page and was able to link. Thank goodness.



http://rollyo.com/rollieotime/reference_search/

Thing #16

Learn about wiki---I love wiki!!! This is the best site yet for classes. Imagine all of the possibilities. You could have several groups using the site to make lists of different sections or important parts of a novel. I can't wait to use this.
I tried the sandbox challenge, but I wasn't able to get my comment posted on the page. It posted as a new edit on the edit page, but it wasn't listed on the main page. Confusing. I am sure it is easy and with more practice I could master it.
The common craft video and the pb wiki video were both very helpful.

Thing #15

Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and the future of libraries---The video was great. It reminds me of how different school is for our students. School and libraries must change to meet the needs of our future students, and we as educators must change, too. I feel that web 2.0 has all sorts of possibilities for our future world. We must make sure that our libraries change with the times, are inviting for students to come in to, and able to facilitate education. Technology is not just the future, it our present day reality. School libraries must become a relevant and vital part of that reality. Not just a place for the computer lab. Students and teachers must be taught how to use these new resources and how to weed out the bad sites and lock into the helpful sites.

Thing #14

Explore Technorati---I really enjoyed Technorati. It was fun to view the information. It was also very easy. I spent time reading different opinions about current events and movies. I can see how you could easily lose an entire afternoon just clicking around on this site. I don't think this site would be very useful in the classroom. I don't see how you could edit what the students read and this could be a problem. The kids would probably be reading everything but what you actually asked them to research. I think this site is more for private use. I don't see it being very helpful at school. As far as other sites goes....Technorati and Flikr are my favorites. Tagging is something I can see using at home, but I don't quite see it at school, maybe it could be used in higher grades.

Thing #13

Tagging and Discovering Del.icio.us---Hmmmm...I went through and looked at Furl, Ma.gnolia, and Del.icio.us. Furl was very confusing and their explanations didn't seem to make much sense. Ma.gnolia was much better and their directions seemed to simplify the entire tagging process. I must say that I liked Del.icio.us the best. The tutorial was very easy to watch and understand. I do feel that this type of site is better suited for my individual use and not for use in the classroom. It provides a very simple way to organize my information. It could be useful if the school librarian created a set of tags to help with certain projects. All you would have to do is let your librarian know in advance what topics you were studying and then let the librarian keep it organized for your students to use. Just make sure you give your librarian ample time to compile the list.

Thing #12

Creating Community Through Commenting---My first attempts at commenting on other blogger's pages was a little scary. I wasn't sure how much to say and if I even wanted to comment at all. I did enjoy the Cool Cats blog on proper commenting manners. My two favorite pieces of advice were to criticize kindly and watch out for the Darth Commenter. I had to laugh at the Darth Vader reference, but after reading some of the comments I can say that some people need to relax a little. They should read the criticize kindly section. I think manners are important in all aspects of life. Even on the Internet.
When selecting Blogs from other areas I decided to look at Texans in Brief and Tougher Standards being considered for Texas Teachers. Both blogs were informative and well written. The Texans in Brief was a set of short articles about recent news in Texas. The comments written by other bloggers were interesting. Tougher standards was a blog about Alternative Certification and what changes might be put in place. This was a good blog because most schools have teachers with alternative certificates. Very interesting. Good food for thought.

Thing #11

Library Thing---Very easy to use! The site is interesting and user friendly. I checked out the groups and enjoyed the group that discussed fiction for children. The comments were very interesting. I also checked out the visiting author section to find out who would be coming into town. All in all, an easy and fun activity. This site would be useful to get opinions and comments on books being read by the students in class.
Recent books from my library
Night of the Twisters by Ivy Ruckman
Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allen Poe by Edgar Allan Poe
The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) by Rick Riordan
The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford
The Wrinkle in Time Quintet Boxed Set (A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, An by Madeleine L'Engle
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Thing #10

Play around with online image generators---Playing around with image generators was a lot of fun. I liked all of them except Kid-friendly Image Generator----I found it very difficult to figure out how to save it to my computer. Plus they wanted me to buy it.
Happy face generator was great, and so was Comic Strip Generator.
I was actually able to put in on my blog! Success.

I'm not sure how to make it a link, so I will just say that I got the cartoon from Comic Strip Generator at http://www.txt2pic.com/toons/

Thing 9-

Useful library-related Blogs and News feeds---Wow! Way too much information! As I looked through the sites, I became overwhelmed with information. I don't see how people have time to go through all (or most of ) these sites every day and still do their work. I barely have time to read the local paper on Sundays. Working full time and taking care of everything in my life leaves me little time to "browse" other people's blogs.
As for the sites...
Bloglines was okay, it was pretty easy with good information...
Edublogs really didn't suit my tastes or interests.....
Spurglu was interesting, but seemed to have many repeat blogs...
Google blog search was my favorite, easy and to the point....
Topix was fantastic, I would use this site....
Syndec8 was hard to navigate...
Atomic learning was the most appropriate for class use.

Thing #8

RSS----What do I like about RSS????? I liked being able to select my own news. It was fun to read all the news and comments. It was also very time consuming. If you are the type of person that is on your computer all the time it is perfect. For those of us that just use it at work...a little much. Using this at school would take a lot of early work to make sure that the sites are appropriate and on topic. It would be helpful if teachers gave a list of needed topics to the librarian and let he/she set up the RSS pages for your class. Unfortunately, this is creating a lot of work for the librarian. My vote is still out on this one.

Thing #7

Cool Things with Google... Wow! I have always used Google as my main search site. It always seemed more logical and organized to me. The Google Scholars site was interesting. I was able to find out a lot of information about the novels we read in class. Google calendar was okay, but I prefer a regular paper calendar. Google Docs tour was confusing, but Google Earth 4.3 was amazing. I loved going right in for a ground level tour. Seeing the buildings and cars and streets...very exciting. The only thing was it made me remember the old saying...Big brother is watching...

Thing #6

mashups and 3rd party sites. Mashups and mosaic maker and mappr...oh my! Lots of information and things to learn. My favorites are the mosaic maker and the trading card maker. I think the trading card site would be a great hit in class. The kids will love making cards for themselves. You could even use this site to make trading cards for characters in novels. What a fun project!

Thing #5

Flickr...Extremely interesting. The groups were fun to look at, but some of the pictures might not be appropriate for school use. Using Flickr will make presentations more interesting. I do think that time will be a problem for most classes. I'm not sure about the proper form for giving credit for the picture, so I will just say the picture is by

Caitlyn Willows photo stream 100-0050.

Thing #4

Yeah!!!!!!!! I am officially registered! I hope you all enjoy my page. On to the next thing...

Thing #3

Avatar! Wow, that was a challenge. Once I figured out how everything worked it was fun to play with all of the outfits. I hope I set everything up okay. It is overwhelming when you are sitting at the computer and you don't want to mess everything up.

Thing #2

7 1/2 habits...I think I am good at playing and trying to find the win/win in every situation. Learning to blog will be difficult, but it will sharpen my saw.