Thing #23

I did it!!! I completed 23 Things!!
1. My favorite discoveries – I really like bighugelabs.com. Also just learning about blogs was fun and educational.
2. This program made me realize how little I knew about web 2.0 and all the opportunities that exist for myself and my students. I realize that I still have a lot of exploring and learning to do.
3. Unexpected outcomes – well, it was hard but rewarding! Along the journey I ran into some personal road bumps. The Monday after Spring Break my mom went in for gall bladder surgery and they found cancer. She has been in the hospital ever since and I have used Facebook as a way to stay in touch with many people. I was telling a friend how exhausting it is to have to retell the story over and over for all the people who care about my mom. My friend said you should start a blog. I was blown away! This friend is not in education and not really a computer geek so I was shocked that her comment should have been something I should have thought of. So my plan is to start a blog where I can keep everyone up to date on my mom’s condition. A few months ago I wasn’t even sure what I blog was and I would have never seen myself as a blogger.
4. I’m not sure if there is anything that could be done to improve the program.
5. Yes, I would participate in another program like this. I know that I still have lots to learn and I like things to be laid out so that I have a plan of action to complete.
6. My experience was sometimes very frustrating but always rewarding and worth it!

Thing #22

I had heard the word Ning but I wasn't quite sure what it was. I use Facebook a lot but now after checking out a couple of Nings I can see how valuable that can be because you are networking with people with similar professional interests.



I searched on Educator Ning and found an interesting post on using Nings with Middle School Students. I found this interesting because I teach 8th grade and was curious about using nings with my students.



I also checked out Teacher Librarian Ning and found out that I could spend a lot of time on this site. I found a book trailer that caught my eye. It is for one of my all time favorite books: The Best Christmans Pageant Ever. I had just recommended this book to one of my students so I would love to go back to class and share the video with him.

Thing #21

I love Photostory! I have used Movie Maker a few years ago and I thought that was great but this is even better. It was super easy to import pictures and I had a blast creating music. I am happy to say that this is one thing I can actually do at school, wow!! I'm having my yearbook kids create videos to show during lunch on the scrolling announcements. They each are creating a video for something from the yearbook. I figured that this would pump up the excitement of the yearbooks which will be delivered soon and will hopefully help to sell the extras that are coming.

My English students are actually using this at the end of the six weeks to create movie trailers. I can't wait to see how those turn out.

I created a video which celebrates my daughter's 15th birthday. My daughter, my sister-in-law and I all went to Disney World to celebrate. It was the first time for both of them to visit and we all had so much fun.

Thing #20

You Tube and Teacher Tube are both wonderful resources. I am sad that they are blocked in my school district but who knows maybe one day they won't be. It is also good that there are ways around the blocking. I had actually heard of Zamar before and how it can be used to convert files so you can watch the videos when the site is blocked.


I know that my daughter lives by You Tube. She uses it for everything from checking out cheer moves to how to apply eyeshadow. I can spend hours on both sites! My students will be reading short stories by Edgar Allen Poe this last six weeks so it was only natural that I looked for videos that could help with this. We also read Poe's poem "Annabell Lee" and I was excited to find many videos of the poem. I know the kids will enjoy watching the video instead of just reading the poem. I embedded the clip that I plan to show my students.

Thing #19

I enjoyed playing around on the Web 2.0 awards list. I was drawn to lulu.com. This is an interesting site which allows you to publish, buy and sell books, music and calendars. You can also use the site for creating and publishing your art work and music. I was drawn to this on a personal note because I have a secret desire to write a novel. I also enjoy scrapbooking and I like the fact that I could publish a calendar or photo book. I have a tradition of creating a homemade calendar for my mom every year for Christmas. This year I will be very busy and I could see using this site to create my calendar. On a professional basis I could see sharing this site with my students. I have several students who are currently working on writing a novel. This site allows you to actually them to write a book and then publish it. I know some kids are creative enough that they would try to sell their books. As a librarian I could share this site with all students especially those who I know are into writing and creating. I also know that there are very creative students who could use this site for their art and music.

Thing #18

Well, I started by exploring Open Office which honestly confused me at first. I didn't really see the value in it but then I went to Google Docs and saw the light. I found this site a lot more user friendly. I particularly found the testimonials from students and teachers very helpful. I like the fact that people can work and collaborate together in real time. I could see students completing group PowerPoint's together without actually being together. I would need to play around more to find some disadvantages but right off the top of my head I'm wondering if I can get to these sites in KatyISD. Once again I learned something new.

Thing #17

I have to be honest...at first I was a little lost with Rollyo but after watching the video it all made sense. I really connected with the video because I teach 8th grade English and every year my students research the Holocaust. I can see how helpful Rollyo will be next year but I couldn't wait that long. I know that we will be reading some of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories and poems before the end of the year. I usually ask the kids to do a little research about Poe so I created a Rollyo search for sites that the students can use. I like the idea of Rollyo so much better than just setting the kids loose on Google.

Thing #16

I have learned that Wikis are easy to use and can be fun. I have to say that I LOVE the Common Craft video. It is amazing how simple and easy to understand the video is. My Language Arts team at my school developed a wiki earlier in the year but I hate to say that we don't use it very much. So far we used it to discuss NCTE's National Day of Writing but that's about it. My goal is to try to get my teammates to use it more. I can also see the how valuable it can be to have a class wiki. I would like to set up one up and use it for book talks and research sharing. I've also thought about the students making a personal trading card at the beginning of the year as a get to know you exercise. I could have them post their trading cards on the class wiki. I think the possibilities are endless!

Thing #15

The video was very powerful and thought provoking. As I teacher it made me realize that I am doing the right thing in the classroom when I let the students lead the discussions and let them work in groups collaborating. It also made me realize I should use technology more but my hands are tied there because we only have so many computer labs. It would so much easier if every student had a laptop. But, if every student did have a laptop, teachers would have to deal with students off task (i.e. on Facebook or checking email, etc). Honestly, I'm still dealing with that because if they are off task will they be learning what they need to?

I also viewed with the video with the eyes of parent. My 16 year old daughter gets upset because she isn't sure what she "wants to be when she grows up", therefore I liked the part when the student held up the sign about I'll have a job that isn't even created yet. I could so see my daughter in the video. She doesn't watch a lot of tv or read many books but she is always online. She is also a multi-tasker.

Whether people like it or not the world is changing and Library 2.0 is proof of it. I really liked the article about school library 2.0 I found on Wikipedia. It discussed the many ways that school libraries will have to change. Libraries will no longer be quiet places where people come to read books. Libraries will be noisy places where technology will be used a lot. Librarians will help patrons with the technology and their search for information.

Thing #14

Tag you're it! Well, I understand tags. They are key words to help you search things and keep things organized. However, Technoratio didn't do much for me. Was I doing something wrong because when I searched for " School Library Learning 2.0" I got nothing? I guess I'm at a crossroad in my life and I'm not sure what I should search for. I'm not a librarian yet so do I search for things I can learn about being a librarian or do I search for things that I can use in my English classroom or do I search for my own personal interests? Yikes, do I still have time for a personal life? I probably should be searching for things that would be complete other projects.

I can definitely see where tags can be helpful in Flickr. I can spend all day there searching. Tags helped me in my search for photos to use in my classroom. They also helped me just to enjoy the great photos people have shared.

Thing #13

Wow, I'm shocked! Finally a Thing I actually knew a little something about. Once a month my school requires a person from the IT department to come and give us a training. Two months ago our training was on social bookmarking sites. We had to view the tutorial video on social bookmarking websites. I thought this was great tutorial! I also feel that social bookmarking sites are extremely helpful to librarians and classroom teachers. Let me back up a little before I explain why. In my district delicious is blocked but we can use diigo so I spent more time checking out that site. Now, the reason I think sites like these are helpful is because for one teachers often use more than one computer. For instance, the computer that is connected to the smartboard might not be the one the teacher mainly uses so if she or he would like to share a site on the smartboard they run into a problem. Instead of trying to memorize the site or email it to themselves they can pull it up on a social bookmarking site. When you use a site this this you can also share your favorites with other teachers and librarians.

I had never thought about the implications on research but watching the podcast opened my eyes to new possibilities. I can now see how it could be very beneficial and I would like to explore all the possibilities before I make more comments.

Thing #12

I found a lot of valuable information in all the material we were asked to read in order to complete this Thing. I am totally new to blogging (duh, big shock, huh?) so I tried to learn as much as I could. One of the biggest things that stood out to me was that I shouldn't be afraid to make comments. This information came from the Cool Cat Teacher blog. Of course, I was drawn to this one because it promised to show me how to comment like a queen. I am afraid to leave comments because I am afraid that no one cares about my thoughts. This made me stop and rethink that. I am going to work on overcoming my fear.

The other tip that stuck with me was to interact with comments left by readers. This tip came from ProBlogger. I never thought I would be interested in getting people to read my blog and leave comments but hey, why not? What intrigued me was that by leaving comments on other blogs I am interacting with the authors/bloggers in a way that was never possible before. So, I want to try to leave more comments and comment to comments left on my blog.

I used Google Blog Search to look for a blog on YA literature. I found a blog that gave great recommendations on new YA books. I'm always looking for new titles to share with my eighth graders so I really liked this blog. I also found out that Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight saga author, has a biography coming out. I would like to encourage my students to read this since there is such a big push for reading more non-fiction. I left a comment here thanking the blogger and asking her thoughts about getting my students to read this book.

I also commented on my favorite blog, I Hate Green Beans. This site has has nothing to do with education but everyone needs a break, right? I thanked the blogger for entertaining me with her great writing voice and told her to keep up the good work.

Now in order to totally complete this Thing I have to comment on five blogs that belong to my classmates, so I'm off, wish me luck!

Well, I have really enjoyed commenting on the blogs of my fellow classmates. I have learned some great things from them. I've also become more comfortable leaving comments.

Thing #11

I found LibraryThing very interesting and fairly easy to use. I set up an account and quickly added 5 books. I checked out some of the groups. I found the one about challenged books for 2010 very interesting. I feel as a future librarian who will probably end up in a junior or high school library that this group could be very helpful. It could keep me informed as to what books are being challenged. I already have a Shelfari account set up and I've been using it so I'm partial to that site. I created a group for my students so that we can share information about books. What I really like about Shelfari is that you create a virtual bookshelf where people can see what you are reading, what you have read and what you want to read. I think that this is useful because my students can keep up with my reading. If there is a reluctant reader out there they can check out my shelf and maybe find a book that they will like. My avid readers are a huge help to me because they keep me up to date with the current titles. This also allows me to have something to talk with them about during the school day. Which every site you decide to use is up to you but I do feel sites like this are very important and helpful to teachers and librarians.

Thing #10

Good thing I'm on Spring Break because I could play around with these image generators forever. I have a co-worker who had made us a Wordle to use but honestly, I had never played around with the site. I had a blast!! My co-worker used the text from the back of a novel we were about to start reading and the students had to predict what the book would be about just from the Wordle. I think it is a great prediction strategy to use. I also like it more for an all about me first of school year assignment. The one I share on my blog is a Wordle that's all about me. It includes my likes and words that describe me. I absolutely love the fact that you can change the font, color and layout of the text. Another fellow teacher has used Glogster so I played around with it for awhile. I also like the comic strip one. I can see so many possibilities for these sites in my classroom. I often have the kids make comic strips with their vocabulary words so I think it would be fun to have them use the comic strip generator next time. Glogster has endless possibilities but I could see it for book talks. I had a friend who created a Glogster and sent it out as her family's Christmas card so wouldn't it be fun to have the kids create a Glogster for a character they are reading about. Well, again...so much to learn!

Thing #9

I found the easiest search tool was Google Reader. Just like you would expect, Google made it very easy to search for blogs. I also really like the Edublog one. I didn't know they even gave out awards for blogs. I had heard of Edublog before but I had never checked it out. I spent a lot of time checking out the various award winning blogs. Since I am totally new to all of this, I'm not sure if anything was really confusing but for sure overwhelming. There is so much out there. Who knew? I did like the first post that we were asked to read. I found it very valuable in the aspect that it gave sound advice on picking and choosing which blogs to follow. Well, Spring Break is allowing me time to work through my 23 Things but I still have a way to go and a short time to get there.

Thing #8

Again, I am so out of the loop. I had no idea what an RSS feed was. I have seen the little symbol but never tried to figure it out. RSS seems really cool. It is nice to have everything new on one page. I think that will really save time. I have to admit I don't follow many blogs. I am overwhelmed at the moment with work and grad school so my free time which there is very little off is saved for sleep. However, I do have one favorite non-school blog that I do enjoy and it has a crazy name. It is called I hate green beans. It is written by a women from Texas. I love her voice and her topics which are reality television shows. Yes, a strange addiction I have. She follows one of my favorite shows, The Bachelor. When I have more time, I can see finding more blogs that relate to my school life and adding those feeds to my Google reader. Wow, so much to do and so little time.

Thing #7

Wow! Am I living under a rock or what? I had no idea that Google had all those tools. I thought it was just a search engine. I set up a Picasa Web Album and a created a calendar. Sorry, didn’t make it public because I don’t think anyone is interested in what’s going on in my life. However, I do think it will be a great tool for my daughter and I. We both have very busy lives and I think this will be extremely helpful.

As far as educational uses, oh my, there are endless possibilities. It would be great to set up a calendar for my students and parents. I also didn’t realize about the advanced search on Google. I’ll definitely use that next year when the kids do research. I know that Google Earth is loaded on my desktop (in KatyISD) but I have never used it. Ummm, maybe I should think about how to use that.

I can really see how Google can be a verb and that many options it has! However, I have some more “things” to do so I’ll have to Google more later.

Thing #6

I loved making the jigsaw puzzle. I used a picture of my daughter and me. I thought it would make a great puzzle due to all the blue in the background. I think kids would love this! Matter of fact, I'm hoping that KISD doesn't block it because I would like my publication students to play around with it.

The trading card maker was another awesome tool. I would love to have students use this when they are researching authors, poets, and/or other people. Every year one teacher has the kids make a hand made trading card to give to their favorite teacher. I can't wait to share this site with the teacher so the students can make really professional trading cards next year that will wow the teachers even more. Again, hopefully, I can get to this site while at school because now that the yearbook is done, I think my publications students would enjoy making trading cards.

I have to confess that I still don't feel I have conquered this all this web 2.0 stuff. I had to call a friend and ended up asking my daughter for help. I always find it difficult to get my creations (like the the puzzle and trading card) saved to my blog. As I type this, I started laughing. I feel like I'm on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" and I'm using my lifelines to complete this task.

Thing #5

Thing #5 - Flickr

How did I not know about this site?! I'm the yearbook adviser at my school and I love to work with photography with my students so what a great site!

Flickr is a photo sharing website which is one of the fastest growing sites on the web. Anyone and everyone can upload photos. People can also make comments on photos thus making it an interactive 2.0 technology website. Flickr is also free so what a bonus. Once you upload photos, you can make them private or public. Of course, copyright is always an issue so Flickr has diffferent settings for different photos. As a teacher I would use the Creative Commons part of the website because these photos are not copyrighted.

Flickr uses tags which are keywords you can use to search for pictures. There are also groups where you can find people who have the same interests as you do. People can do so many things with Flickr. Besides uploading and sharing photos you can also edit your pictures. I can see my publications students exploring this site once we meet our final deadline.

I can see myself spending tons of time on Flickr however I have tons of work to do so for now it will have to wait, rats! I found out that libraries are doing many cool things on Flickr. The one that grabbed my attention was the 365 Library Days Project . This is a group which challenges librarians to upload a total of 365 photos. There is a lot of discussions going on within the group for ideas to use with the pictures, etc.

As an English teacher, I love to use picutres as prompts for writing, so again, wow, this site will be great for me. Point of view is an easy objective to master with the use of pictures. I found a great picture of a wet dog in a bathtub. The really great thing is that the dog looks just like my dog. I would love to have my students write from the point of view of the wet dog.

Thing #3

Setting up my blog wasn't too challenging that is at least until I came to adding my avatar but we will get to that later. One of the hardest parts of creating my blog was coming up with a name. I decided to go with a character from one of my favorite artists, Mary Englebreit. She has a character named The Queen of Everything which I have always loved so that seemed like a natural choice for my blog. I had a blast creating the avatar. It reminded me of playing paper dolls when I was a young child. Now comes the hard part: Getting the avatar onto my blog. I read and re-read the directions but finally gave up and asked for advice from my sixteen year old daughter (Sarah, Princess of Quite A Lot, another of ME's characters). Of course, she quickly, very quickly solved my problem and then laughed in my face. She suggested I take a computer course and laughed more when I said that was what this course is about. So, needless to say, I'm tired and a little frustrated but I'm hanging in there.

Thing #2

7 Habits of Successful People

After watching the video, it was very hard for me to pick my strength. I feel that I am strong in several of the "habits" but I guess my strongest one would be number four. This is the habit of having confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner. I do feel that I have a lot of confidence and I do consider myself a life long learner. That's probably why none of my family and close friends were shocked to hear I was once again going back to school. I have toyed with this idea for many years. Most people were shocked to hear I wasn't getting my PHD, crazy people! Anyway, my weakness would be number six which is the one about using technology to your advantage. I know that I don't do this. I for sure do not use technology to my advantage. I'm not scared of technology but I'm going out of my way to learn new things. I know that I missing out of a lot of things technology can do for me and I'm hoping that I will start to learn more and do more with technology.

Thing #1

Well, I'm off on another adventure. I've started graduate school in order to get my librarian certification. Yes, I've heard the jokes: don't you already know how to say "shh" and when do you get the chain for your reading glasses. All kidding aside, I'm very excited and a little scared. I've just complete Thing #1 in Library2Play. It was interesting to learn more about something I hear a lot about at work, Learning 2.0. It was interesting to learn who designed this and scary to see how much I don't know. So, sit back, buckle your seat belts and enjoy the ride with me on my new adventure.