THING #23

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? I discovered so many great websites and activities that will be useful in my classroom, i.e., trading cards, flckr, Library Thing, Delicious, Technerotti.
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? I have learned some great new skills so that I can do more and feel more confident about exploring and know where to explore. I have access to other teachers' lesson plans, great photos, and so on.
Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? I learned about websites that I did not know existed and more about the ones I had heard of but did not know how to use.
What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? Vaughn was wonderful and very accessible. Some teachers may not have taken advantage of her help. The information was out there about how to seek assistance but I'm not sure everyone did.
If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
YES!!!!!
How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities? The word that seemed to come up a lot for me in my blog was WOW!

THING #22

Nings
I now know what a Ning is. The first few were okay but not good for my use. For example, Educator Ning has mostly middle school information and you have to join. Future of Education Ning lists conferences, etc.
However, Ning for Teachers has lessons. You can click on a grade, subject area and topic. The lessons come up and for the most part , but not always, the correct grade level shows up. If it does not, I found that the lessons can be adjusted. They are also rated by other teachers with stars.
Texas School Librarian Ning links librarians so it seems like it would be a good one for them.

THING #21 Butterfly story

This was fun to do!
Unfortunately it does not appear to have taken, but that won't stop me!

Well, it finally worked.

There are a lot of steps here but it is worth the work.

THING #20

You Tube was much easier to navigate. Teacher Tube was actually harder than I thought it would be or should be. I'll just have to be careful on YouTube so that videos that come after the ones I download do not appear as well. What a cool way to show brief videos and make people and events come to life so that students don't just see pictures.

THING #19

Wow again!
Who knew there were so many search engines out there?
I guess someone did because there they are. It's nice to see that they are rated so it is not so hard to pick and choose. However, as it says in the Thing #19 instructions, we have to be careful of those that charge for their services. There were also some that were URL blocked.
Some of the ones we have been using so far are there which is nice because they are in one place.

THING #18

Open Office
I like that Open Office has so many things you can do in one place. Some of the ones I opened up were Writer, Draw, Math and Charts. I played around with them. There is a lot of potential there. I just need to play around some more and perhaps have a little training on how to use it to its potential.
It seems better in that so many formats are in one place.
The Doc site seemed a little cumbersome. But it too shows a lot of potential with a little practice and training.

THING #17

Rollyo

This is a great idea! I have some sites that I frequently use.

Unfortunately for some reason they keep disappearing even though I save them. I tried a half dozen or so times, but I will not give up.

Well, I did it! This is a great idea. I will definitely go back and add more.

THING #16

Wikis can be wonderful if we use them wisely.

I am concerned about how information can be distorted.

I do see the advantage of using it for planning i.e., a field trip so teachers do not have to e-mail each other or try to catch each other in the hall, at lunch, etc.

THING #15

I was hesitant to want to buy into the idea of the new role of libraries that the writers were describing. I was worried that the interpersonal relationship between librarian and patron might be at risk. However, I now realize that this new technology may even bring in more patrons who may not have access to some of the resources that the libraries may have at any given time. That is assuming that libraries get the funding. While some technology gets cheaper over the years, libraries tend to be one of the first institutions to suffer cutbacks.
I like the idea that the exchange of services and resources as well as outreach will improve. Information will be up-to-date. Rather, more up-to-date than encyclopedias were because information can be changed more easily and faster.

Finally, as long as there is no, as one writer puts it "technoworship," and I can still hold books in my hands to read, I'm okay with the new technology. It may take me awhile, but I'll get there just as I am doing now with this Library 2play.

THING #14

Someone looking at my blog pointed out that I say wow a lot.
Here I go "wowing" again.

Through technerotti I typed in elementary school teachers which led to teachtopia where there a 51 blogs. I checked out some and here are some I found: readaloud reviews.blogspot.com has tags for other websites including websites of authors of childrens books, reviews of books, connections to other reading sites, children's books blogs, professional organizations and grown up books sites.
The teachhub education blog has news, stories and editorials.
Teachtopia also led to teaching k-12 in which there is general information, i.e., free lessons by subject areas.

I highly recommend this one!

I went to the directory and found mostly news items which I would rather read in a newspaper.
The tags led to good informational articles but again not what I was looking for.

THING #13

DELICIOUS!
Anyone who knows me knows that I love this one! Life's short, eat dessert first. Desserts spelled backwards is stressed so to undue undo stress... well you get it.

I tried to use some of the popular tags, but they were overwhelming especially when I did find a particularly interesting topic, it took so many clicks here, clicks there, that it hardly seemed worth the effort when we already have so many resources closer to home. It was also disappointing that some of the links were URL unfriendly.

Oh well. Back to my desserts.

THING #12

I read the article about using one's real name vs. an alias. Both sides made interesting points. If you don't want people to know your true identity the alias is obviously better. Some people don't have a problem using their real name. However, many folks may have the same name so the alias or a photo make that person more recognizable when commenting. I for one prefer to use my name here, SheliMom because it's different and defines who I am. Those close to me know about it.
Some of the other blogs were long and too cumbersome to get through. I tended to skim them because their was too much information.

I looked for information about one of my favorite authors, Bill Crider and there were some interesting articles about and by him. I also looked up information about great pyrenees dogs. The blogs I looked at showed photos of different pyrenees, but our Sheli is still the most beautiful of all. Just ask our neighbors and others who drive by when she's out for a walk and stop to compliment her.

THING #11

Library Thing
Wow!
This is really cool! I created an account so now I can list my favorite books for different units that we study. I added 5 books about Texas that I love to read for that unit in the Spring. I found one of my favorite books, I'm Going to Texas, on Amazon.

THING #10

It was fun playing with images. I enjoyed making the cartoon of myself and trying different hairstyles, clothes, backgrounds, etc.


Now I am going to try to attach the picture. Well, it did not seem to take even though I tried about 6-8 times. Then I could not find the site so I made the sign above.





This is a very kid-friendly site. It will be fun to use in class. Wordl can be used in any subject area. For example, in a unit on insects the students can use the vocabulary they have learned. This can be true for any subject. They can even made a Wordl about themselves.

THING #9

The easiest was the Google Blog Search Library 2Play. The news articles that came up were detailed and easy to read. Spring Branch ISD information was interesting to read. When Library 2Play came up I found a blog by my friend Mary Katherine which was very cool.

Some of them, i.e. Bloglines Search Tool, came up with the message "No permission to use" and School Library Blog came up with the message "Cannot display webpage."

I found some of them a little hard to navigate. On Edublog's Award Winners it was difficult to find the winning blogs. Topix Net only had short articles with few details. The ones that were there were hard to find and took awhile to come up.

THING #8

THING #8

Who knew that it would be so easy to find information so fast? In this case RSS brings info to us without even looking to hard for it.
This will be great in my class as I can set it up ahead of time to look for info when I know what we will be studying.

THING #7

THING #7

I have googled before but this activity opened up a whole new area for me.

After doing a Scholar Advanced search I found some amazing articles about Texas symbols.

There were some specific sites for students. The pictures and the information are perfect for what we do in our Social Studies Unit.

I also set up the iGoogle homepage so that gets me there faster.

THING #6

I did it! See above.

THING #6

Well, I made a trading card. It took awhile, but it was fun so I think I'll just make some more. I'm going to try to attach it now.

THING #5

Wow! These photos are great! I found a lot of pictures of the Pyrenees that will be great for our country study.
I can't wait to look at more in other subject areas.

THING #4

I DID IT!

THERE I AM!

I set up a blog and an avatar picture!

I am ready to go on and play!

THING #3

THING #3

My blog is set up. It took a couple of tries, but as I said before, I can do it!

Now I just have to get my Avatar picture over here. It's done but there I don't see a place to add avatar.

THING #2

THING #2

The hardest of the 7 Habits for me will be #4 - to be confident but I am bound and determined to learn more and be able to do more technologically.

I can do it, I just don't know how, yet.

The easiest will be #7. I love teaching. If I can teach some aspect of technology, then I know that I have learned it. If I don't understand well enough to teach, then I'll go back and learn more. This will help me become more confident.

THING #1

THING#1

I have heard a lot about this program and an looking forward to learning more.