Thing #14

Technorati is a great website for searching for blogs and information on blogs. I like that you can decide if you want to search for your key words in a blog, tag, blog post, etc. It is great to be able to find the information you are looking for in an organized way. I did try searching for "school library learning 2.0" as a blog, post, and tag, but I couldn't find anything. I did search more specifically for other subjects, and I found blogs pertaining to them.

Thing #13

The bookmarking websites are great resources to find information. The delicious site was the most useful. I enjoy cooking, and I was able to find specific recipes very quickly.

I also thought of classroom implementations. I was concerned about a site that came up as a result of an animal search that I did for when my students research animals. This made me wonder if the website would be blocked through the district. On a positive note, I typed in "perimeter" and I found wonderful websites that I could use in the classroom to teach the math concept. The websites could also be used by students for extention activities or individual practice. Here are the links to the perimeter websites:

Fun Brain Perimeter & Area

Perimeter & Area

Perimeter Explorer


Social bookmarking is a great tool to quickly find specific information.

Thing #12

I thought that it was interesting that one article mentioned inviting others comments. I never thought about this before, but I like that idea to open up your blog to others and invite their ideas and comments. I think this would be an excellent idea in the classroom. If you have a classroom blog, you could create a post about a book the class read or a concept that was just learned in math, science, or social studies. You could end the post with a question for students. When students have time, they could comment on the blog by answering the question. Does anyone know if it is possible to register students to make comments without having them create full accounts or blogs??? I just think this would be a great way for students to work on their reflective writing if it's possible to set them up on the blog somehow.

I also liked the idea that you should respond to what the person has posted to show that you are listening and care about their ideas.

Commenting on others' blogs was fun. I saw some great things and got more ideas to use in my classroom.

Thing #11

Library Thing is a fun way for teachers and students to learn about books.

I put different children's books into my collection. It would be neat for students to be able to learn a little about a book they are about to begin reading. They can also post reviews and thoughts about the book after reading. This will help them reflect on what they've read and allow them to share their thoughts with classmates. I also like that the website gives you book recommendations. This will help students find more books they might be interested in.

Thing #10

I liked exploring the different image generators. I used trading card maker to make a trading card about Pecos Bill. When we study different people in social studies, my students could make trading cards about each person.



I also like image chef and wordle, but this website is blocked at school. The technology department allowed us access to the website for a day. We were studying word choice in writing around the holidays, so my students each chose a holiday item and wrote all the words they could think of to describe the noun. They went into image chef and typed the words to create the picture of their noun. We uploaded the pictures in Photostory and the students narrated their picture. We were able to create a fun holiday movie with image chef to help students improve their word choice.

I also like the comic creator. I think this is a great tool to use when studying direct quotes. I know comics don't have the quotation marks and other punctuation in the speech bubble, but students could add them to demonstrate their understanding of direct quotations.

Thing #9

I tried using the different blog searches, but some of them were blocked. The one that I liked the most was Technorati. When we read a new story in class, we often talk about the other. I searched for different others, and found blogs about them. Eric Carle's blog was very neat, and I thought this would be a good way to let the students discover information about different authors.

Thing #8

It was easy setting up my RSS, and I love that I can go to one place to read all of the new updates to the blogs that I follow instead of going to each individual blog. What a timesaver!

I think that in the educational setting, having an RSS will save teachers, librarians, and administrators valuable time (something that we are always trying to manage).

Thing #7

I didn't know about all the google tools that are available. I like Google Earth, and enjoyed playing around on it. This will be a useful tool to teach geography and get students motivated about maps. We could also look into different areas that we study about during the year.

The advanced searches that google has will also be helpful in class. I like that you can search for a power point about a topic to use during a lesson.

Thing #6

Mashups are so much fun! I played around with Bookr since I like my students to create books during the year. In December, we study similes, and I had my students create a mini book over winter/holiday similes. I made an example of one on Bookr, and I can't wait to use this project with my class this coming winter!



I wanted to play around with embedding objects into the blog and creating links, so here is the book as a link too.

Winter Similes by By: Stacy

I think that using Bookr will get some students excited about writing! I will also explore and play around with the other mashups!

Thing #5

I've never used Flickr before, so I looked around for awhile. It is a really great website. Since I teach ESL students, I could use the pictures a lot during lessons. We have a lot of teachable moments when students stop me and ask what a certain word is. I often forget some of the words that they aren't familiar with. I can easily bring up Flickr to find pictures for them.

We also do a habitat project in science. Students get to choose an animal to research and create a PowerPoint about. I think it's wonderful how Flickr groups pictures in the Common Collection, and the tags and groups will help students find pictures of their animals. This past year, I had a group researching sharks and horses, so I found pictures that they could have used in their project!

Thing #4

I finished setting up my blog, added my avatar, and sent the email to have my blog registered.

Thing #3

Creating a blog was easy! I played around with the templates a little, but I would like to learn about more ways to customize blogs for my classroom blog. I've never created an avatar before, so I was surprised with all of the choices and combinations that could be made.

Thing #2

The habit that I find the most challenging is to begin with the end in mind. A lot of times I just do things that I'm interested in and don't necessarily know where I want to go with everything. Sometimes I think about the end, but things change along the way. The easiest habit for me is to view problems as challenges. I like puzzles and trying to solve problems. I will get frustrated after awhile, but for the most part, I enjoy trying to work through problems.