Thing #9 - Library-related Blogs/ News feeds

I am feeling completely overwhelmed by all of the information out on the web, and the variety of ways in which it is presented! I'm sure this gives a big hint as to my age-range, but it is exhausting to me to try and process all of this.
On the other hand, it is phenomenal to have all of this information at our fingertips, and I can certainly appreciate the value of that. My hope is that I can remember how to get back to Library2Play so that I can get back to the incredible websites. I know, I know - add them to Favorites and my Google Reader! Right now, I'm too overwhelmed to be able to even do that.
I really enjoyed reading the postings on the Cool Cat Teacher blog and I checked out a couple of really great postings by the Edublog award nominees for 2008. I also really enjoyed the Superglu site. I can see that pictures can really make a difference in the postings.
I found the Syndic8 and the Technorati sites a bit overwhelming for me, but I promise to go back and try them on a day when I haven't been looking at so many different things.

Thing #8 - RSS Feeds

I subscribed to the Google Reader site and some of the blogs that will help keep me informed about happenings in SBISD. I think that this service is amazing in that it can really help sift through the overload of information that is now available to readers. I like the idea of being able to control the sites from which I am pulling information, since there are many sites that I might not want students to view, in a classroom setting anyway.
This is an invaluable tool for students to utilize in their search for information and it can really help them organize their information too.

Thing #7 - Cool Google Tools

I never knew Google had so many cool tools!
I signed up for a Google Alert on a topic of interest to me so that I can see how it works. I can see using this in the classroom for current events that are relevant to a topic being studied, especially in the areas of science and social studies, and health.
I explored Google Scholar to get a feel for finding a variety of resources that might pertain to a piece of literature being read. This would be a fantastic site for gathering background information or finding companion pieces, both fiction or nonfiction. It would also be very useful for current journal articles when students are studying an area of science.

Thing #6 - Mashups

On a personal level, I love the idea of using the Mappr to plot our 2-week vacation last year where we drove from Houston to Atlanta to Raleigh to Colonial Williamsburg to Jamestown to Washington, D.C. - deep breath - and then home. We took pictures of the state signs as we crossed into each state and Mappr would be great to use as the backdrop for outlining our trek!

I also love the Mosaic Maker and can see it as being helpful with mapping out stories or research projects using the big square in the middle with the smaller squares around it. The big square could be the central idea and then various parts of the story - depending on the depth of the study - could track around it. The students could use words or pictures to help them really analyze and represent the story elements.

As a graphic organizer for a research project, the various layouts of the Mosaic Maker could be utilized to keep the student on track with the research details and how they fit in with the thesis statement.

Thing #5 - Flickr

Flickr is amazing! I'm a scrapbooker and I'm thinking that I need to just set up private groups, upload my vacation pictures and let my family look at them in Flickr. I will also be sure to let my own children know about it so they can use it for reports.

We took a trip to Colonial Williamsburg last summer so I looked it up in Flickr, and I've decided that some of the pictures that I took might be cool to share with the Flickr community. I'm going to use uploading our photos as a way to teach my kids about this awesome website.

Thing #3 & #4 - Set up and Register Blog

Creating the blog took me a lot longer than I thought it would and there were points along the way where I got somewhat frustrated, but I tried to view these problems as challenges!

The avatar was fun to create and I am now longing to go to a mountain cabin to escape the Houston heat wave that is starting to roll in for the summer.

Thing #2 - Lifelong Learners

I enjoyed the 7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners. It brought to mind some aspects of learning on which I'd like to focus more of my energy. It's pretty easy for me to begin with the end in mind, but sticking to it until completion isn't my strong suit. Maybe that's where learning to use technology to my advantage will help me.