Thing #11

I only have one question... why did I not know about this before? I am such a connoisseur of books. I am always reading several books. I try to make sure one is a professional development book and then at least on "just for fun" book. I have several authors who's blogs I follow. I will often find recommendations for other books on their blogs. The thing I really liked about LibraryThing was that it would make suggestions of books for me based on other books I have read. I will admit I did not put any of the professional development books on my list but I will get to that eventually. I am sure that adding some of my PD books to the list will add some of that type to my recommends list. I did explore the groups a little bit and found a few that looked good. I can already tell this is going to be a frequently visited site for me. Thanks to 23 things for making me aware of it :)

Thing #10

I have spent a lot of time on this task, and delayed posting anything about it. Here is my thought on the online image generators... I thought they were fun to "play" around with but I had difficulty finding where I can tie academics in to them. I think they would be fine if you want your students to play around with something new. I have previously posted a trading card that was created from Big Huge Labs, I can see ways those could be used in a classroom. As for the others, I am still working on generating my ideas for the classroom use. But they were fun and we all know every classroom needs the fun!

Avatar question

When I first set up my blog my avatar appeared but it is not showing up now. I went back to Yahoo Avatars and saved it as a jpg file and tried to add it to the blog in that format but it is still not showing up. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks :)

Thing #9

Well I am still not crazy about my Google Reader :(. It is getting a little more organized but still not as well as I would like it. I used a few of the blog search tools to locate a few more blogs that look good. I like the layout of Technorati and Google Blog Search. They both seems the most user friendly to me. I found that the blogs that were returned with the Blogline's Search were not the most useful and I had to do more refined searches with that one. I located and added a few blogs that were related to staff development, language arts instruction and technology uses in the classroom. Again, I hope with more time to play with these tools I will find it more useful.

Thing #8

I can see how setting up a Google Reader would be beneficial, it allows you view your frequently visited sites in one spot. The thing that was frustrating was trying to organize it. I am sure after using it for a little while I will figure out how to do that.
Once I get the Reader organized I can see me sharing it with the teachers on my campus so they can view the information with ease. This would be a quick and easy way to make sure they are up to date on the latest technology classroom uses.
I do need to spend some more time playing with it before I am ready to share it with others, but stay tuned- I will share it soon.

Thing #7

Like many others have said in their #7 post all the things that Google offers are amazing. I did set up a few Google Alerts and my Google Calendar. I have just started playing with Google Earth and already can tell it can eat up hours of time. I can see the instructional benefits of both Google Alert and Google Earth. I think the Alerts would be useful with current events and weather. Google Earth can allow for virtual fieldtrips to anywhere. I think the key with Google Earth is that teachers need to spend time playing with it first before they try to teach with it.

Thing #6

Really, who knew there were all these things out there? I sure didn't! I enjoyed playing with the Mosaic Maker, it was fun and I could see how you could spend hours playing with it. I see how the Trading Card Maker would be so useful in a classroom. The possibilities of how you could use this are endless- very cool! Here is a trading card I created-

Thing #5

Flickr is now new for me. I discovered it several years ago as a way to share and view photos with friends and family. I know that are many websites like Flickr but being a creature of habit, it is the one I return to because it is the one I am familiar with. I have found that it is really pretty user friendly and the 'tags' make searching for things an ease.

Here is a photo that I found to share- I really think it speaks for itself- Let's Play!

Thing #4

My blog is registered and now appears with the other summer players, I guess I am doing something right so far :)

Thing #3

Well the blog is set up and there is an avatar on there. I am not sure which habit this would relate to but I did something I often do when learning something new- I figured it by trial and error. I did not realize there were directions for adding the avatar given. I just tried to figure it out on my own and actually added it in 2 places. But I think learning by self discovery is a good thing! :)

Thing #2

Watching the 71/2 habits of life long learners was more of a reminder for me of habits that are good for anyone, not just learners. I think the one that comes easiest for me is viewing problems as challenges. I am always up for a challenge so looking at a task as a "challenge" rather than a "problem" is something I do often. The hardest one is remembering the desired outcome goal. I sometimes get distracted and sidetracked from where I am headed so there maybe mini-goals met along the way before I get to the end point. I will eventually get there, it may just take a little longer for me.

Here goes...

This is my first post, fingers are crossed that it works :)