Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Thing # 13

Delicious is awesome!! It's great to know that I will soon have a more organized way to save all my favorite sites. My Favorites tab was starting to get a little messy which made it hard to locate items. I started adding my favorites to my delicious account. So far it's going great! I was able to add a friend to my network by adding her delicious user name. Now I am able to view all her bookmarks and use the ones that interest me. I see this site being useful for various research projects. The librarian or teacher may add bookmarks on specific topics students are researching. Doing this will allow students to locate required information on sites that are appropriate. A school librarian could also create a social network for the school and tag each item by subject, theme and grade level. This would be extremely beneficial to all staff.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Thing # 12

The key points I was drawn to were to be humble and gracious. 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog states that its okay to show weakness or gaps in your knowledge and to accept any corrections to your blog. You should respond to these comments graciously without offending anyone. In doing so, other bloggers will not hesitate to make comments on your blog. It was interesting to see other Library2Play blogs. I commented on the following bloggers:

Becoming Mary Poppins
Winegar's 23 Things
Sunshine
Firefly Flight
360 Again

I commented on two other blogs that are not part of Library2Play. The first blog to catch my attention dealt with a family helping others in Nicaragua. The second blog give valuable baby advise.
nicakellys
wolfwater

Thing # 11

I enjoyed visiting and joining Library Thing. I never knew such site existed. It was interesting to see all the books available to add to your library. Searching for books I've read or want to read was time consuming. I enjoyed each minute of it but realized that time can pass me by while on this site. It was convenient to have many ways to search for a book. I viewed groups accessible and was attracted to the crime, thriller & mystery group. I plan to use Library Thing to add books I've read. It will be nice to see how many books I've read each month or year. Oh, I had a hard time posting my widget but after several tries was successful!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Thing # 10



I had a wonderful time exploring image generators. It wasn't easy deciding which to use for this blog. Comic Strip Generator, Dumpr and wordle were my favorite. I could easily use wordle for various assignments. Here are a few ideas for assignments: describe yourself, parts of an insect, traits of a character from a story or anything else you wish to assign. I've attached two of my favorite images. Here are the links for the two: http://www.dumpr.net and http://www.comicstripgenerator.com. I also created a wordle and tried saving it to my computer but was not successful so I published it. Here is the link http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/2189042/Summer. Does anyone have any idea on how to save wordles or is it even possible?

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Thing # 9

The easiest search tools were Topix, Technorati and Edublog. All three were very well organized and appealing to the eye. The most confusing search tool was Syndic8, everything was all over the place. I had a hard time finding things I searched for and the site was simply boring. Some useful feeds found were related to family, health and education which were found from the 3 search tools I listed above. I was interested more in Topix because it allowed to find news about my community. One of the topics I ran across was on the police department. Learned some interesting facts about my police department in my neighborhood.

Thing # 8

The main thing I like about RSS and readers is that everything you want is at one location. I love that I don't have to search and navigate from one site to another because readers does it for me. Using Google Reader will keep me up to date on topics that are of my interest.This tool will also be beneficial for educators. We are able to subscribes to blogs that interest us and give us fresh teaching ideas. This allows us to grow professionally.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Thing # 7

All Google tools were awesome! I didn't realize there were so many. I did further exploring with Google Alert and Google Earth. For Google Alert I requested alerts on Twilight. I absolutely loved it!! It sent everything it had on Twilight. Google Alert is useful on days you don't have time to search for news you want. Google Alert will do the searching for you and send it straight to your email. Google Earth is a nice tool which allows you to view any desired location. Students would truly enjoy using Google Earth by viewing different countries studied.

Thing # 6


It’s fascinating what things you can do with all the different "mashups". You can use most of them during the school year, but some will work great for the beginning of the school year. You or your students can create their own cube, mosaic maker or poster. By using these tool, this will give your students information about their classmates. I created a jigsaw puzzle and a trading card. Both of which I found were user friendly and easy to create. I am only posting the trading card. :)

Thing # 5


I decided to search for pictures I could use for science and/or writing lessons. Since cycles are a big part of our science unit, I decided to pick a creature whose cycle we study. Searches involved ladybugs, chicks, beetles, butterflies, and frogs. The winning picture goes to the FROG!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Thing # 4

I have sent required information to register my blog. I am waiting on my welcome email so I can be "Official".

Thing # 3

Creating a blog and exporting an Avatar has been an exciting experience. I'm amazed on how easy it is to create a blog. I thought it was going to take days to create this blog. The only battle I ran into was with deciding my blog name. I had already created an Avatar on yahoo, so all I needed to do was export it onto my blog. I failed to read the instructions on how to export so it took a little longer to do. It was a breeze once I went back to read the information needed.

Thing #2

The easiest habit for me is Habit #1, Begin with the end in mind. It is easier for me to accomplish tasks if I have a set goal for myself. There have been times where I haven't set a goal and it literally throws me off; therefore, I make sure to set goals before starting a mission. The hardest habit to accomplish is Habit #7 ½ -Play. I tend to forget about play and believe that I don't have time for it. Don't get me wrong, I do make time for play, but it’s not an easy job. I always think of other productive things I may do around the house, work, etc. I'm trying to pull away from that thought, but at times it is extremely difficult.