Wednesday afternoon - Table #2
I was able to work with the laptop microphone and record using the laptop mic.
Start -- Programs--Accessories--Entertainment. Others may need to Edit their Sound Properties in the Volume. Check to make sure that the volume is not muted, and that you have selected the Internal Mic. Once that's set up, you can record on the laptop and then save the file.
I found some music to download at Incompetech.com One of the songs I found was Luminous Rain - Rather appropriate for our very rainy day!
I'm trying to upload this file to Dr. Bishop's wiki. I've left it for about 5 minutes, but it hasn't finished. I'll give it a little longer, but then I need to move on.
Will do the Itunes download annd upload later!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Librarian Professional Development
Wednesday Morning -
Doing different things for staff development.
I am working on Table 1 - Image manipulation projects at this moment.
Most of these things: finding and saving images from Discovery and Flickr, editing the size of pictures and words to pictures in Powerpoint and creating products in an image generator are things that I have already done.
However, using the IrfanView picture editor was something that I hadn't worked with previously. IrfanView is in Programs -- Applications on the laptop.
Doing different things for staff development.
I am working on Table 1 - Image manipulation projects at this moment.
Most of these things: finding and saving images from Discovery and Flickr, editing the size of pictures and words to pictures in Powerpoint and creating products in an image generator are things that I have already done.
However, using the IrfanView picture editor was something that I hadn't worked with previously. IrfanView is in Programs -- Applications on the laptop.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Thing #21: Podcasts and Audio Books
I've created a book review in PhotoStory for Gary Paulsen's book, Lawn Boy. I thoroughly enjoyed reading his wildly funny story about the kid who starts his lawn business and ends up a tycoon.
My son has enjoyed several of Paulsen's books, and my father-in-law who until a year or so ago rarely read books, also discovered that he LOVED Gary Paulsen's humor and style of writing.
My son has enjoyed several of Paulsen's books, and my father-in-law who until a year or so ago rarely read books, also discovered that he LOVED Gary Paulsen's humor and style of writing.
This was a lot of fun to be able to create this. It was a time consuming, but it is something that I think that teachers and students could master. And, the feeling of knowing that "you did it" it a great feeling.
A special thank you to my husband for going "out in the storm" to borrow headphones for this project.
Thing #10 Online Image Generators - Update
I've finally gotten back around to Thing #10. I had seen a cartoon recently about the "hear no evil, speak.., see" and someone had mentioned "blog no evil." So, I decided to create a cartoon that would depict that. I found pictures in Photobucket, then used their Remix and added captions. However, the remix put it into a video format - something that wasn't quite what I thought that the Kickball Captains had in mind for this section. So, I paused the video as it was playing, did a print screen, pasted that image into MS Publisher, then cropped the picture, did the same for the second Monkey picture, grouped them together, and saved them as a .jpg and will hopefully upload it here:
Just a little reminder for us to "play nice!"
Thing #23 - Summary
1. I really enjoyed learning about Google docs, Nings, Delicious, LibraryThing, and Flickr. I think that these tools can be quite useful many, and especially for educators and students.
2. I think that I am more motivated now having worked through the 23 Things to be more dedicated to learning about what's new and is part of the new trends in learning, education and libraries.
3. Unexpected outcomes? I was surprised at how much I "piddled" at some of these websites. I knew that it would take a while to complete each thing, but I didn't expect that I would get so sidetracked on the many tangents available for exploration.
4. In some ways it seems that some of the things could have been condensed somewhat, (ex: #7 and #18 - the Google things) However, it was nice in some ways because we had been partially exposed to what was there, and so it didn't take quite as long.
5. I would be very likely participate in another training. However, if I didn't feel like I could do it adequately because of my sometimes insane schedule, I might opt out. (Hopefully, the next course won't be quite as long!)
6. How would I describe this experience? I did it! This is especially true after I completed my PhotoStory book review.
I have learned much about the new technologies that are available and am looking forward to using them with friends, teachers, and students in a variety of settings, and not just my workplace.
2. I think that I am more motivated now having worked through the 23 Things to be more dedicated to learning about what's new and is part of the new trends in learning, education and libraries.
3. Unexpected outcomes? I was surprised at how much I "piddled" at some of these websites. I knew that it would take a while to complete each thing, but I didn't expect that I would get so sidetracked on the many tangents available for exploration.
4. In some ways it seems that some of the things could have been condensed somewhat, (ex: #7 and #18 - the Google things) However, it was nice in some ways because we had been partially exposed to what was there, and so it didn't take quite as long.
5. I would be very likely participate in another training. However, if I didn't feel like I could do it adequately because of my sometimes insane schedule, I might opt out. (Hopefully, the next course won't be quite as long!)
6. How would I describe this experience? I did it! This is especially true after I completed my PhotoStory book review.
I have learned much about the new technologies that are available and am looking forward to using them with friends, teachers, and students in a variety of settings, and not just my workplace.
Thing #22: Nings
I really wasn't aware of what a Ning was until now. This is really cool!
I've glanced at the Texas School Librarian's Ning, and the Teacher Librarian Ning. I will definitely join the TSL Ning, and probably the Teacher Librarian Ning as well. I can see great benefits of being able to benefit from the collective knowledge that is available with these groups! I'm looking forward to exploring the Nings and learning from the masters that are sharing their knowledge, tools, and ideas with the rest of us.
I've glanced at the Texas School Librarian's Ning, and the Teacher Librarian Ning. I will definitely join the TSL Ning, and probably the Teacher Librarian Ning as well. I can see great benefits of being able to benefit from the collective knowledge that is available with these groups! I'm looking forward to exploring the Nings and learning from the masters that are sharing their knowledge, tools, and ideas with the rest of us.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Thing # 20 - TeacherTube & YouTube
Whooo Hooo! I'm making progress in completing 23 Things! Although I've GOT to get this finished pretty soon, because I'm concerned that Tropical Storm Eduardo is going to come ashore Tuesday morning sometime and we might lose power, and then, oh DREAD, I would have no computer & no INTERNET!! So, onward ho!
The Evaluating Websites Tutorial ... using the CARS method to evaluate sites was good. I like the words associated with that mnemonic device: Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness, and Support. I wish that the author would have reminded us of what CARS stood for at the end, but that's a personal preference.
Three Steps: WOW! What a great video to motivate teachers to use technology in their classrooms! I want to show this to my principal, and encourage her to show this to the faculty. I think it would be cool to have teachers do the 23 things over the course of the school year.
Portal to Texas History... What a great way to showcase what an awesome collection! The PORTAL to TEXAS HISTORY hosted by the University of North Texas Libraries is a great resource! I will be sure to show this to teachers!
The Evaluating Websites Tutorial ... using the CARS method to evaluate sites was good. I like the words associated with that mnemonic device: Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness, and Support. I wish that the author would have reminded us of what CARS stood for at the end, but that's a personal preference.
Three Steps: WOW! What a great video to motivate teachers to use technology in their classrooms! I want to show this to my principal, and encourage her to show this to the faculty. I think it would be cool to have teachers do the 23 things over the course of the school year.
Portal to Texas History... What a great way to showcase what an awesome collection! The PORTAL to TEXAS HISTORY hosted by the University of North Texas Libraries is a great resource! I will be sure to show this to teachers!
I spent quite a bit of time looking for a video that I really liked. I ended up using Zamzar to convert the file to an .avi format. (Thankfully I didn't have to wait long for them to convert it, as my husband is an avid user of Zamzar and has a paid account.)
Finally I found one called "Librarian 2.0 Manifesto" on TeacherTube. It is a series of "I Will .... " statements about being proactive in providing library services. I am comfortable with nearly all of the statements, but towards the end, a few are a little uncomfortable for me. Something to work on!
It took quite a while to get this video re-formatted and then loaded, but Yippee! It loaded!!
Thing # 19 - Web 2.0 Awards
Since I have spent what seems like the entire summer away from home and on the road, I thought that the top travel site might be fun to explore. I explored Farecast. It was a fairly basic travel search engine. The nice thing about it was that it would let you do your search simultaneously in several of the other major travel websites like Hotels.com, Expedia, Hotwire & Priceline. That's pretty helpful.
Just because I was curious about what the Organization software was, I looked at Backpack. It is not a free app. It seemed very geared toward the business sector. Could be some educational value, but schools are highly unlikely to spend the bucks for it.
Just because I was curious about what the Organization software was, I looked at Backpack. It is not a free app. It seemed very geared toward the business sector. Could be some educational value, but schools are highly unlikely to spend the bucks for it.
There was a big article in a recent Houston Chronicle about Twitter, I looked at it and even registered. However, I haven't found any "friends" that twitter. Could be fun! Since this is the newest cool thing, I know that lots of students are doing this, so knowing what they are doing and how they're doing it is neat.
At the Books section, I looked at Lulu. It was a great website if you want to publish a book. I thought that the prices to publish 1 copy of a book would be quite expensive, but it was much less than I imagined. Their add on services for editing and f ormatting were somewhat pricy, but if you were planning to market your book, and not do this just for personal satisfaction, it might be worth it. If you had the funds to create a book for your classroom and give each child a copy, it would run a little more than $10 per book for a 40 page color book that was "perfect bound." Might be a fun project!!
There were LOTS of other apps that look really interesting. This is yet another site to piddle at later!
Thing #18: Online Productivity Tools
I wasn't overly impressed with Open Office. It looked useful, but not something that I felt compelled to use.
However, the Google Docs, with the video, and templates looks really cool. I like the ability to collaborate on it also. (So, how is this different from a wiki???)
I also appreciated the in the templates section the Docs for Teachers & Students. I tried uploading a document and it was very user friendly. Because Google Docs permits others to edit in real time, this is much more advanced than MS Office products that require you to e-mail back & forth to others. This is one thing that is definitely "a keeper!"
However, the Google Docs, with the video, and templates looks really cool. I like the ability to collaborate on it also. (So, how is this different from a wiki???)
I also appreciated the in the templates section the Docs for Teachers & Students. I tried uploading a document and it was very user friendly. Because Google Docs permits others to edit in real time, this is much more advanced than MS Office products that require you to e-mail back & forth to others. This is one thing that is definitely "a keeper!"
Thing #17 - Rollyo
The video created by Bruce about Rollyo was great. Left him a comment.
I created a Rollyo account, and since a hurricane is brewing, thought that might be an interesting Rollyo. I added the National Weather Service, Weather.com, Click2Houston's weather, and a few other websites. Hopefully this will all blow over and not be a big deal. I'm not overly concernced about it, but will take some precautions "just in case."
The Rollyo process was very easy and I can see how this would be quite beneficial for teachers to create a specific list of sites for students to work on to gather information.
Here is the link for my Hurricane Info Search @ http://rollyo.com/s.malget/hurricane_info/
I created a Rollyo account, and since a hurricane is brewing, thought that might be an interesting Rollyo. I added the National Weather Service, Weather.com, Click2Houston's weather, and a few other websites. Hopefully this will all blow over and not be a big deal. I'm not overly concernced about it, but will take some precautions "just in case."
The Rollyo process was very easy and I can see how this would be quite beneficial for teachers to create a specific list of sites for students to work on to gather information.
Here is the link for my Hurricane Info Search @ http://rollyo.com/s.malget/hurricane_info/
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Thing #16 - Wikis
On the ALA conference wiki site, I checked out Lichen Rancourt's presentation about Web 2.SO?: Why it matters to libraries. The point that she makes about librarians needing to be aware of and use 2.0 tools could just as easily, to an extent, anyway, apply to educators. Her slide show was well done.
AASL Conference 2007 interactive presentation by David Loertscher with presentation notes and audience responses. I'm looking over the presentation. I came across a reference to MOODLE. I want to explore this more (sometime!) I like his question in Table #5:
what would happen if... the IL standards were more well known by teachers. .... [and librarians had] consistent planning time with teachers
Loertscher replies on his Teaching & Learning page:
Table #9: Comic Life ($ 500 per district). Example: Research Vietnam - Then a
fiction story into a comic book on "A Day in the Life of a Soldier"
.........This is something that could be applied to my 5th grade teachers who research the Revolutionary war. This would be cool!
What an incredible resource of ideas!
Also on Loertscher's weblink in the Reading section:
AASL Conference 2007 interactive presentation by David Loertscher with presentation notes and audience responses. I'm looking over the presentation. I came across a reference to MOODLE. I want to explore this more (sometime!) I like his question in Table #5:
what would happen if... the IL standards were more well known by teachers. .... [and librarians had] consistent planning time with teachers
Loertscher replies on his Teaching & Learning page:
what would happen if... the IL standards were more well known by teachers? ed note: We cannot hope to collaborate with every teacher on every unit of instruction taught in the shcool. If all students are to become better users of informaiton and ideas, the teachers must be information literate themselves and then incorcoporate those ideas into their own teaching. That is one gift of true collaboration; the teacher learns what we teach and we learn about what they teach. Together, we are better teachers and learners ourselves. consistent planning time with teachers. ed note: One of the reasons I like the concept of professional learning communities is that smart principals can easily include the librarian and other specialists in consistent planning times. What that happens, the door swings wide open for you to make a difference.
Table #9: Comic Life ($ 500 per district). Example: Research Vietnam - Then a
fiction story into a comic book on "A Day in the Life of a Soldier"
.........This is something that could be applied to my 5th grade teachers who research the Revolutionary war. This would be cool!
What an incredible resource of ideas!
Also on Loertscher's weblink in the Reading section:
The “reading” focus group summarized our conversation with these paradigmLortscher's thoughts on Teaching & Learning are awesome & worth reading & re-reading! There are LOTS of treasures there! One comment he makes is that: Attention is the currency of this century. If one method does not work, try another.
shifts: From → To
promoting reading → modeling reading
collecting
facts → deep understanding
static → active
control → synergy
literacy → multiple literacies
individual → team
gatekeeper →
engaged
Submitted by Judi Moreillon
I posted a brief message at the SBISD Sandbox.
Using Wikis to Create Online Communities had some great ideas about ways to incorporate using Wikis. My husband is in a group that is working on a large project for our church. One idea that I had was to share the concept of wikis with him so that he and the various groups he functions on can work more efficiently.
In my reality, I think wikis would be a great place for student's to collaboratively work on a project.
StudentBlogWikiTools: Free Sources (that I found on VWB's blogroll) is a "one one stop shop" for all sorts of cool tools. I've delicious'd this!
In thinking about Loertscher's comment about planning with teachers, the reality is that I don't (right now) have a set time for plannning with teachers. Thinking about this, a wiki may be able to help this communication process!
Thing #15 - Web 2.0 & Library 2.0 in the future
The teachertube video created by Michael Welsh and Kansas State students in the Introduction to Cultural Anthropology titled, "A Vision of Students Today," was very thought provoking. The students make very valid points about how teaching often still occurs as the "sage on the stage." Since technology has changed so many other facets of our lives, making them much more interactive, our ways of teaching need to change also.
I know that I need to do a better job of making sure that students are practicing what they need to know for the real world and being applicable, appropriate, relevant for their education journey. Note: This is REALLY difficult when teaching students with varying levels of language proficiency who are also in elementary school.
Michael Stephen's comments about How to sharpen skills for Library 2.0 are interesting. I like what he has to say about avoiding technolust, yet embracing what we need to have great libraries, including time to learn and play with the web 2.0 "toys."
Dr. Wendy Schultz' comments "To a temporary place in time... On the way to the library experience of the future" provide an exciting way to think about the library of the future: as the Knowledge Spa.
I also read George Bishop's post titled "A Ripple Effect: A rural school district shows how one new service in 1992 put in motion a steady wave of library support." Because of connections with my previous school, I hope that this article will be helpful to my successor at Cushing. Additionally, Bishop's attitude of complete service rings true.
In exploring the Wiki article on Library 2.0, the article mentions that Michael Casey was first to write about Library 2.0 in his Blog, LibraryCrunch. So, just for fun I looked at his blog. A recent post included pictures of a new library that opened near/in his home town. I really liked the looks of the library, especially the children's area murals; the calm, yellow color scheme on the walls; and the reading porch outside! http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelcasey/2518786969/in/set-72157605232877462/ I hope that our new SBISD libraries that will be built soon will incorporate the same enthusiasm and hospitality.
I also read Chris Harris' article in May 2006 SLJ, titled: "School Library 2.0". I appreciate the comments about the article in the Wiki, but I liked his comment that "building a coffee bar next to the circulation desk" isn't what he's talking about. I also may adopt his idea of putting "Library Powered" stickers on things I do to increase the visibility of my services.
I was also exploring other School Library 2.0 aspects on the internet, and came across some images in Flickr Graphics for the Library 2.0 Meme By Bonaria Biancu & John Blyberg that related visually to library 2.0.
David Warlick's post at 2 Cents Worth on Library 2.0. gave some helpful ideas for beginners to start using 2.0 tools (if you haven't done the 23 things!)
This has been very informative! Hopefully I can continue learning about these ideas. I want to find more concrete examples of how to implement 2.0 service.
I know that I need to do a better job of making sure that students are practicing what they need to know for the real world and being applicable, appropriate, relevant for their education journey. Note: This is REALLY difficult when teaching students with varying levels of language proficiency who are also in elementary school.
Michael Stephen's comments about How to sharpen skills for Library 2.0 are interesting. I like what he has to say about avoiding technolust, yet embracing what we need to have great libraries, including time to learn and play with the web 2.0 "toys."
Dr. Wendy Schultz' comments "To a temporary place in time... On the way to the library experience of the future" provide an exciting way to think about the library of the future: as the Knowledge Spa.
I also read George Bishop's post titled "A Ripple Effect: A rural school district shows how one new service in 1992 put in motion a steady wave of library support." Because of connections with my previous school, I hope that this article will be helpful to my successor at Cushing. Additionally, Bishop's attitude of complete service rings true.
In exploring the Wiki article on Library 2.0, the article mentions that Michael Casey was first to write about Library 2.0 in his Blog, LibraryCrunch. So, just for fun I looked at his blog. A recent post included pictures of a new library that opened near/in his home town. I really liked the looks of the library, especially the children's area murals; the calm, yellow color scheme on the walls; and the reading porch outside! http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelcasey/2518786969/in/set-72157605232877462/ I hope that our new SBISD libraries that will be built soon will incorporate the same enthusiasm and hospitality.
I also read Chris Harris' article in May 2006 SLJ, titled: "School Library 2.0". I appreciate the comments about the article in the Wiki, but I liked his comment that "building a coffee bar next to the circulation desk" isn't what he's talking about. I also may adopt his idea of putting "Library Powered" stickers on things I do to increase the visibility of my services.
I was also exploring other School Library 2.0 aspects on the internet, and came across some images in Flickr Graphics for the Library 2.0 Meme By Bonaria Biancu & John Blyberg that related visually to library 2.0.
David Warlick's post at 2 Cents Worth on Library 2.0. gave some helpful ideas for beginners to start using 2.0 tools (if you haven't done the 23 things!)
This has been very informative! Hopefully I can continue learning about these ideas. I want to find more concrete examples of how to implement 2.0 service.
Thing #14 - Technorati
Technorati certainly brings functional searching to blogs.
In searching for School Library Learning 2.0, one of the posts by tsheko @ http://tsheko.globalteacher.org.au/2008/07/31/green-pageflakes/ mentioned "PageFlakes." Since I was not familiar with this, I looked at the wiki info on it as well as their home page.
Pageflakes seems like a great alternative homepage that you can customize to add many of the things that you might automatically look at as a tiled page. It was cool. I may investigate it more - later! I read tsheko's post about using PageFlakes to build a resource for students to investigate a topic. One educational idea was that teacher would select various pages for students as a guide to start from, but then student was ultimately responsible for continuing their research. I tried to find a way to leave a comment for tsheko, but it seems that you have to be a member from Victoria (Australia) to join their network. I may be missing something, though...
Searching in Technorati for "School Library Learning 2.0” did bring up different items for posts, blogs, videos, and photos. I thought some of the photos were off topic. I scanned the top posts in the Front Page and Technology sections and found newsy posts, but nothing that was overly surprising. I tried to sign up and list my blog, but am having difficulties. Will try this later!
In searching for School Library Learning 2.0, one of the posts by tsheko @ http://tsheko.globalteacher.org.au/2008/07/31/green-pageflakes/ mentioned "PageFlakes." Since I was not familiar with this, I looked at the wiki info on it as well as their home page.
Pageflakes seems like a great alternative homepage that you can customize to add many of the things that you might automatically look at as a tiled page. It was cool. I may investigate it more - later! I read tsheko's post about using PageFlakes to build a resource for students to investigate a topic. One educational idea was that teacher would select various pages for students as a guide to start from, but then student was ultimately responsible for continuing their research. I tried to find a way to leave a comment for tsheko, but it seems that you have to be a member from Victoria (Australia) to join their network. I may be missing something, though...
Searching in Technorati for "School Library Learning 2.0” did bring up different items for posts, blogs, videos, and photos. I thought some of the photos were off topic. I scanned the top posts in the Front Page and Technology sections and found newsy posts, but nothing that was overly surprising. I tried to sign up and list my blog, but am having difficulties. Will try this later!
Thing #13 - More Delicious Stuff
When I signed off from the last post, I didn't completely understand how to add people to the network. Now that I think I understand it a little more I added the "Delicious Network Badge" to the side bar of my blog page. Didn't take too long to do this, and I think that if all SBISD librarians did this, then we would be able to share our bookmarks easily!
Also, I was excited about this and told several people that I thought would benefit from this about it at church this AM. They kind of looked at me like I was in outer space, but I think if I have a chance to actually show them, they'll get it and like it.
Also, I was excited about this and told several people that I thought would benefit from this about it at church this AM. They kind of looked at me like I was in outer space, but I think if I have a chance to actually show them, they'll get it and like it.
Thing #13 - Delicious
Wow! Delicious is cool. I found it to be fairly intuitive to use also. Right now I'm using my home computer, so at some point I will have to install Delicious on my school laptop! It is really cool. In exploring I have found some personal interest things to look at that were fun.
The TeacherTube video by Common Craft guys about social bookmarking is awesome. I can hardly wait to show this to my teachers! It was very easy to understand. I know they will have questions, but I know it will be useful!
As I look over the advantages of Furl, I am amazed that it will keep archived cache o a web page if you "save page". What a cool feature to use if you know that a website has a page you want to archive that is a non-permanent page. This feature could also be helpful for educators!! (and parents /students if they want to archive a page produced by a student that may or may not be published forever!)
I was unimpressed by Ma.gnolia.
As I was thinking about Delicious, my mind began buzzing with all of the possibilities when students are doing research and how helpful this would be. I think that I will share this with some of my friends at Cushing HS and encourage them to use this for that purpose, (and more.)
I really like Delicious and it makes sense! As educators we can use this so that we don't have to "reinvent the wheel" each time we are looking for materials. I can see that this will be really helpful!
The TeacherTube video by Common Craft guys about social bookmarking is awesome. I can hardly wait to show this to my teachers! It was very easy to understand. I know they will have questions, but I know it will be useful!
As I look over the advantages of Furl, I am amazed that it will keep archived cache o a web page if you "save page". What a cool feature to use if you know that a website has a page you want to archive that is a non-permanent page. This feature could also be helpful for educators!! (and parents /students if they want to archive a page produced by a student that may or may not be published forever!)
I was unimpressed by Ma.gnolia.
As I was thinking about Delicious, my mind began buzzing with all of the possibilities when students are doing research and how helpful this would be. I think that I will share this with some of my friends at Cushing HS and encourage them to use this for that purpose, (and more.)
I really like Delicious and it makes sense! As educators we can use this so that we don't have to "reinvent the wheel" each time we are looking for materials. I can see that this will be really helpful!
(I also decided that I needed to figure out how to embed links in my blog, so I've figured that out! Copy the website address, highlight the text, press "Control - shift- A" Then, paste the website in the box. Too easy! I'll have to go back & edit posts (later!))
Happy Summer!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Thing #12 Commenting on blogs
I've been reading Cool Cat Teacher's various blogs. In one she write about the
online predators act that she coments about. She refers to Darren Kuropatwa in another one of her posts and refers to his guidelines for appropriate blogging and how he compared his methods of teaching regarding how his use of technology emerged. http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/06/darren-kuropatwas-class-inspection-and.html
I LOVE Vicki Davis' description of her calling on her blog: http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-to-comment-like-king-or-queen.html
online predators act that she coments about. She refers to Darren Kuropatwa in another one of her posts and refers to his guidelines for appropriate blogging and how he compared his methods of teaching regarding how his use of technology emerged. http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/06/darren-kuropatwas-class-inspection-and.html
I LOVE Vicki Davis' description of her calling on her blog: http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-to-comment-like-king-or-queen.html
My Calling God (I cannot pull out my beliefs here) has given me a calling to share the things I'm learning in technology and other aspects of my life.
I believe in the importance of every child and the importance of every teacher.
I believe that teaching is a noble calling and that educators need to be encouraged in a world of people who really do want to zap us with their
light sabers.Never in history have teachers been expected to do so much and afforded so little respect and that has got to change. We will create our own respect because we are professionals here to do a job.
It is time for us to share across boundaries, continents, and hemispheres. It is time for us to put our collective heads together and learn from the pockets of innovation that spring up in the strangest places. And it is time for me to be a part of it!
She also mentions CoCommenter as a way to track comments from your blog. It sounds like it could be very useful.
I read Darren Rowse blog @ http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/11/03/problogger-comments-policy/ I enjoyed reading his comment's policy.
Brown Thought's comments were also very common sense. http://www.brownbaron.com/blog/2007/07/17/the-ten-commandments-of-blog-commenting/
I enjoy Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk blog. Reading his coments about how it's usually OK to post relevant comments to older blog posts is nice to hear. I'm adding him to my Blogreader.
At http://drapestakes.blogspot.com/2008/05/edublogger-etiquette-responding-to.html in the comments:
Sarah Hanawald said... May 1, 2008 7:23 PM
To the question "are there rules. . ." I think yes, but
simple ones. My students started blogging in January. I told them that they just needed to remember two things. First was that behind every post and comment was a real person. Secondly, that whatever they wrote to a classmate (it's a closed circle with us) they needed to make sure they wrote with a tone of kindness. My students are 11, but I think the same concept applies to adults, although I might use the word respect instead. Although I still appreciate the two kind comments I've gotten on my insignificant, personal reflection blog. Even when we disagree, the (sort of) permanent nature of blogging and commenting means that what one said sticks around and represents the author long after the heat of debate is over. Tone and attitude matter, and I've really think the
edublogosphere sets an example others could follow.I really agree with the comment that behind every post and comment was a real person, and to remember to write with a tone of kindness (and respect.) When you do those things, nearly everything else would seem to take care of itself.
I left a comment on InfoGoddesses' blog for thing # 11 about using LibraryThing to track what students have been reading. That's an awesome idea.
Thing #11 - LibraryThing - more thoughts
As I was taking a break from 23 things, I was thinking more about LibraryThing. I wondered, "Can you only add books? Could you add your CD collection? Your video?" I'm still thinking that if there was a way to track your loans to your friends that this would be incredible!
I tried adding a recent CD I purchased and it wasn't listed as something that I could add easily. I also tried adding a DVD. It wasn't found on the Amazon or LC sites either linked to LibraryThing. And I know that it could be ordered from Amazon. So, I'm guessing that it is somewhat more dificult to add media to LibraryThing. Maybe this will be a future upgrade??!
Another thought that I had was that if this had a wish list feature that might be helpful also!
Just more things to ponder!
Sherri
I tried adding a recent CD I purchased and it wasn't listed as something that I could add easily. I also tried adding a DVD. It wasn't found on the Amazon or LC sites either linked to LibraryThing. And I know that it could be ordered from Amazon. So, I'm guessing that it is somewhat more dificult to add media to LibraryThing. Maybe this will be a future upgrade??!
Another thought that I had was that if this had a wish list feature that might be helpful also!
Just more things to ponder!
Sherri
#11 - Library Thing
I saw the LibraryThing website as I was looking over some things related to Thing #9 with library related blogs & news feeds. So, LibraryThing was not entirely new by the time I got to it. It is an exciting website. One question that I have not figured out yet is, if you "loan" a book to another person, will it track that for you? That would be incredibly helpful for my husband who has a large library of professional books and is frequently loaning books to various people.
I added a few of my children's books that are favorites. I joined the group: Librarians who LibraryThing . I also subscribed to the LibraryThing blog.
This looks like an exciting website that I hope to share with my teachers and students.
This website is really cool!
Happy Summer!
Sherri
I added a few of my children's books that are favorites. I joined the group: Librarians who LibraryThing . I also subscribed to the LibraryThing blog.
This looks like an exciting website that I hope to share with my teachers and students.
This website is really cool!
Happy Summer!
Sherri
Thing #10 Online Image Generators THAT ARE HIGHLY FRUSTRATING WHEN THEY DON'T LOAD!
I found the cartoon comic strip generator at to be lots of fun! I could play on this a long time. I could see where teachers could use this for creative writing. I created a cartoon at http://www.txt2pic.com/toons/ However, it won't upload to Blogger without an error. I really don't have time to play with making this work. I had found a picture of the 3 wisemen on camels as a silhouette picture with 2 captions and a title. I titled it: Just ask a woman. One wise man says, "Where was that map?" The other wise man says, "Should have asked for directions!"
With Txt2pic.com it looked like there were lots of different frames that you could insert your own text into very easily.
I've played with some of the other image generators and I like the ones on Big Huge Labs. I made a motivational poster.
I've to upload a picture that I created there also, but it's NOT WORKING EITHER!!!! I'm fairly frustrated!
Looking at my time line I need to move on to my next project.
Happy Summer!
With Txt2pic.com it looked like there were lots of different frames that you could insert your own text into very easily.
I've played with some of the other image generators and I like the ones on Big Huge Labs. I made a motivational poster.
I've to upload a picture that I created there also, but it's NOT WORKING EITHER!!!! I'm fairly frustrated!
Looking at my time line I need to move on to my next project.
Happy Summer!
Friday, August 1, 2008
Explorations during Thing #9
As I am exploring the different blogs for Thing #9, I came across a post from The Fischbowl that won an Edublog Award. I have read it and want to ponder it more, and share it with my faculty. Hopefully, it will prompt some of our teachers to action. http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/09/is-it-okay-to-be-technologically.html
I was also intrigued by the Spanish techie group, Tinglado. I will be sure to share that with many of the Spanish language speakers @ my school! (Some of whom are more timid with technology than others.) http://tinglado.net/
Fun project to share with 5th grade (or higher) LA teacher: ( http://www.beavton.k12.or.us/jacob_wismer/leahy/2007/proverbs/proverbs.htm
Something to explore more later: Flat Classroom project: http://flatclassrooms.ning.com/profile/coolcatteacher
I read some of the posts on Mike Falik's blog. I enjoyed a video linked from the TED Project: Daniel Goleman's TED Speech: Why Aren’t We All Good Samaritans
I am intrigued by the TED Project videos and want to look at them further.
I glanced at a blog by Wesley Freyer called Moving At the Speed of Creativity. I had been searching for Spring Branch ISD on Google blog search. I' ve added his blog to my list.
A quote by Luke Fox was in Freyer's blog. Read it and glanced at some of the apps for "facilitating PBL" Project based learning. TASK JUGGLER seemed to be fairly user friendly. I noticed that Freyer's blog is listed in Technorati. Looking forward to reading more of his stuff.
Upon reflection, it seems that some of the best feeds I've found were located by looking at what other people are reading. I suppose time will tell if this is true since I don't have the luxury of waiting for several months / days to see if the feeds that I'm choosing to look at (based on past performance) will be helpful. Should prove interesting...
On to more summer adventures with family, friends and travels.
Sherri
I was also intrigued by the Spanish techie group, Tinglado. I will be sure to share that with many of the Spanish language speakers @ my school! (Some of whom are more timid with technology than others.) http://tinglado.net/
Fun project to share with 5th grade (or higher) LA teacher: ( http://www.beavton.k12.or.us/jacob_wismer/leahy/2007/proverbs/proverbs.htm
Something to explore more later: Flat Classroom project: http://flatclassrooms.ning.com/profile/coolcatteacher
I read some of the posts on Mike Falik's blog. I enjoyed a video linked from the TED Project: Daniel Goleman's TED Speech: Why Aren’t We All Good Samaritans
I am intrigued by the TED Project videos and want to look at them further.
I glanced at a blog by Wesley Freyer called Moving At the Speed of Creativity. I had been searching for Spring Branch ISD on Google blog search. I' ve added his blog to my list.
A quote by Luke Fox was in Freyer's blog. Read it and glanced at some of the apps for "facilitating PBL" Project based learning. TASK JUGGLER seemed to be fairly user friendly. I noticed that Freyer's blog is listed in Technorati. Looking forward to reading more of his stuff.
I looked at Topix http://www.topix.net/ and it seemed to be more newsy and focused on entertainment than professional topics.
As I looked at Syndica8, http://www.syndic8.com/some of the blogs linked to a search for Librarians pulled up blogs that were old, and hadn't been updated. Didn't see much that caught my eye. It was pretty confusing.
I read several blogs relating to Librarians in Technorati http://www.technorati.com/, but haven't found additional ones to subscribe to. I liked the look of the website, found it user friendly and would go back to it.
Upon reflection, it seems that some of the best feeds I've found were located by looking at what other people are reading. I suppose time will tell if this is true since I don't have the luxury of waiting for several months / days to see if the feeds that I'm choosing to look at (based on past performance) will be helpful. Should prove interesting...
On to more summer adventures with family, friends and travels.
Sherri
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Thing #8: RSS feeds
I used bloglines to set up an RSS feed to keep track of some of the various things that I want to attempt to keep up with. I have also (inadvertently) set up a set of feeds @ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=68929 I found a couple of feeds for personal use, as well as several for more professional development, including those of people I work with. I'm looking forward to learning & seeing new things on here!
I think that some of the feeds that I've subscribed to will offer ideas and advice on how to take advantage of utilizing some of the new technology and web 2.0 things that are available. I hope to be able to use some of these with students and teachers.
One of the feeds that I subscribed to was church related. My husband wanted to know if I had signed him up as well. I told him that I would show him how to do it, but that he needed to learn to do it himself. But, he was very interested in knowing that these were available.
Librarians can use RSS feeds to help keep themselves current in their field and possibly be in a better position to "know a little about everything" - something that I think is important for information professionals.
On to more adventures in 23 things!
Happy summer (thankfully - still!)
Sherri
I think that some of the feeds that I've subscribed to will offer ideas and advice on how to take advantage of utilizing some of the new technology and web 2.0 things that are available. I hope to be able to use some of these with students and teachers.
One of the feeds that I subscribed to was church related. My husband wanted to know if I had signed him up as well. I told him that I would show him how to do it, but that he needed to learn to do it himself. But, he was very interested in knowing that these were available.
Librarians can use RSS feeds to help keep themselves current in their field and possibly be in a better position to "know a little about everything" - something that I think is important for information professionals.
On to more adventures in 23 things!
Happy summer (thankfully - still!)
Sherri
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Thing #7 - Google Apps
've worked some on the Google Calendar. (Trying to keep track of my incredibly busy summer!) Here is the link to my : Google Calendar
This is pretty cool!!!
I have done some exploring also on Google Earth, and it is pretty darn cool also! I tried looking at the Illinois River near Tahlequah, Oklahoma and the resolution on the image is not great, so, I can't really show other people what it looks like. I also went to see another of my favorite vacation spots: Red River, New Mexico. The images from there were better, but it still wan't the same as being there!
This is pretty cool!!!
I have done some exploring also on Google Earth, and it is pretty darn cool also! I tried looking at the Illinois River near Tahlequah, Oklahoma and the resolution on the image is not great, so, I can't really show other people what it looks like. I also went to see another of my favorite vacation spots: Red River, New Mexico. The images from there were better, but it still wan't the same as being there!
Gotta go get ready to float down the Illinois River and go to Tahlequah, Ok.
Happy Summer!
Sherri
Friday, July 25, 2008
Thing #6 - Making Mashups
The Trading card maker is something that could be very useful in the classroom. Fun for kids (& adults) to do.... It's a way that they could do a report on a scientist, state, animal, dinosaur, etc. and yet incorporate technology easily. One other idea that I had was to do invention cards, and then match the inventor to the invention in sets of cards.
Some of the other things at Big Huge Lab's website that I thought looked interesting were the CD label maker, the Magazine cover, Movie Poster, and the Warholizer, (great for art!).
I thought that The Cube could be an interesting tool if someone were reviewing a concept, and wanted to create a picture cube that could be used to stimulate discussion.
I spent some time trying to make a trading card. I didn't realize that I needed to use a .jpg or similar photo format when I tried to load a picture from a URL. It didn't work and I've ran out of time that I've allotted myself to work on this. Oh well.... It was fun and I've learned a little more about this than I knew!
Happy Summer!
Sherri
Some of the other things at Big Huge Lab's website that I thought looked interesting were the CD label maker, the Magazine cover, Movie Poster, and the Warholizer, (great for art!).
I thought that The Cube could be an interesting tool if someone were reviewing a concept, and wanted to create a picture cube that could be used to stimulate discussion.
I spent some time trying to make a trading card. I didn't realize that I needed to use a .jpg or similar photo format when I tried to load a picture from a URL. It didn't work and I've ran out of time that I've allotted myself to work on this. Oh well.... It was fun and I've learned a little more about this than I knew!
Happy Summer!
Sherri
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Thing # 5 - Fun with Flickr
One of my first experiences with Flicker was when one of the father's of another player on my son's soccer team took pictures of all of the kids playing soccer. He wanted to share them with people easily, so, he loaded them to Flickr, then sent us the link to it. That sure did make it easy to be able to share the pictures of our kids and let the grandparents and other relatives "oooh and aaah" over how much fun our children had playing their favorite sport.
I explored the geo-tagging and was intrigued with the idea that my students could take pictures of what their life is like, and then compare it to other areas of the world. I think that this will have some great possibilities.
I am also inspired to show this to my art teacher and let her post our student's art on here, but also she could help students discover art as well.
This is one website that I will continue to use!!
Happy summer!
Sherri
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Thing #3
Creating the Avatar was fun, a little frustrating, but all in all- fun.
It took a little time to set up the G-mail and Yahoo accounts, but was worth it.
The frustrating part was that my computer (not the new school laptop, but my older personal comptuer) kept freezing and I would have to restart Explorer. Finally, it froze completely and I had to shut it down a while. I was able to finish this part of the project fairly quickly.
Have a great day!
Sherri
It took a little time to set up the G-mail and Yahoo accounts, but was worth it.
The frustrating part was that my computer (not the new school laptop, but my older personal comptuer) kept freezing and I would have to restart Explorer. Finally, it froze completely and I had to shut it down a while. I was able to finish this part of the project fairly quickly.
Have a great day!
Sherri
Monday, June 23, 2008
Thing #2
One of the hardest things I have is having time to "play."
I know that "it's summer" and I'm supposed to have LOTS and Lots of time to do this, but my summer seems to be even more scheduled than my very busy school year! - At least this summer!
I think that I have confidence in myself as an effective learner, and I try to pass those skills on to others.
I'm looking forward to learning more!
I know that "it's summer" and I'm supposed to have LOTS and Lots of time to do this, but my summer seems to be even more scheduled than my very busy school year! - At least this summer!
I think that I have confidence in myself as an effective learner, and I try to pass those skills on to others.
I'm looking forward to learning more!
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