Thing # 6

Every time I post I know I will return to school wanting to add more assignments to my lesson plans than I will have time to complete. My students are so impressed with what I know. This time is no exception. The list of mash-ups available is so immense. Bookr offers a great way to incorporate pictures with text. In my library I would suggest that students take advantage of this mash-up to put research information with photographs that correspond. Another web site I would incorporate is Flagrant Disregard's name badges. Students can identify a person and include important facts, including birthdate, aliases, and claims to fame. These tools can be used to modify research or simply add creative displays for the information students locate. These tools are easy to use and would be easy to explain to teachers, even reluctant ones. I cannot wait to coerce... I mean convince my team members to try these sites.

Thing # 5

As an English teacher I immediately wanted to search for pictures of books. When I couldn't find just the right one I instead typed poetry in the search box. This is a pretty cool photo uploaded by Steve Rhodes to the Flikr Commons.

I really like the Flikr website. I usually stay away from pictures on the web because I am always fearful that I will break copyright laws; however, I am excited to find pictures that I feel comfortable using in my classroom. It is very neat how the commons breaks down what is acceptable for each group of pictures.

Thing #3

I did it! It only took me 1 hour to figure out how to get the avatar on my blog- I think I read and reread those directions 25 times. Creating the blog was cake. Designing the avatar became fun when I realized it doesn't have to look like me. One cool thing was when I looked through other blogs I noticed I can have the avatar anywhere on the page. What a feeling of accomplishment! I am on my way!

Thing # 2

After viewing the 7 1/2 Habits, I realize I am extremely nervous when it comes to learning how to use technology and then blog about my successes let alone my failures. It will be difficult to get over my lack of confidence in being competent in this. However, something that contrasts this fear is my determination to see how important the end result of my learning. I know that eventually I will look back and see my struggle as a "necessary evil" that led to my ability to communicate effectively.

On a different note- I love that my blog posts are automatically saved every few minutes. This makes life so much easier, and I do not have to worry about losing what I typed because I forgot to save it immediately!