THING #23!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All I can say is HOORAY!!!! I finally finished, and it was a long push to the end! I gave into the idea there was no way I would get it done, but I didn't want to give up so I pushed through today after work. It is VERY late my time, and I am a tired girl. But at least I'm a more informed girl :) I think it wouldn't have been as bad today if I didn't have technical difficulties that took up a lot of time trying to figure out, which I never did...i couldn't post on other people's blogs, I needed to download adobe flash player but it wouldn't work on the computer I was using, and then on the last project I couldn't get my Photostory onto my blog. SO if anyone out there has ideas to help me, then it will truly be a completed project! But for me I feel successful and feel I did all the work (and wrote a lot of notes...i'm not one who can just read and take it in; i have to read, take notes, then process...making the process oh so much longer.)

I am really looking forward to sharing and using Photostory for Booktalks and as a read aloud option for storytime; as I learn more I may try it with a grade level on a project idea in history. Other fun things were Delicious, Rollyo, TeacherTube, and Glogster (I can't remember if that is from this or my other training, but either way, it's fun!!!). But an added bonus is that I found a few sites to gather information on my personal interests outside of school :)


This program has really pushed me to learn things that I may not have seeked on my own. I need to continue to learn, but I also need to keep practicing and use the skills I have been introduced to in this program so I don't forget it later. I need to revisit a few I really enjoyed and implement at least a few each semester and /or as the opportunity arises. I know me, and I can't overdo it, or I will feel I'm not doing any of it well. But, if I use a few that work well, that success will encourage me to try more as I go. And, just sharing a few ideas will spark others' learning :)

I do feel better that I know some of the "lingo" I have been hearing and that I can actually use a lot of it now. I actually feel a little ahead of the game (from some).

Truly I'm surprised I finished it and wanted to to finish it. With the deadline approaching with so much still to do, I just didn't see it happening. But I really wanted to expose myself to more so I pushed through even if I wasn't going to make it to deadline...and look, i made it :) I'm also glad that I am brainstorming ways to use what I have learned instead of feeling overwhelmed and tucking it away for later.

I think the format was great and very user-friendly. I'm so impressed with the amount of effort/time the team put into this discovery!!! At times there was a lot of reading, but I needed that for some of the harder tasks to connect the information to action. I especially loved when a tutorial video was included so I could preview the process before I ventured on my way into the unknown.


I would definitely participate again! I appreciate Spring Brach ISD for letting learners form outside the district participate. Many others have benefitted from your sharing!!!

"in the know now" is how i feel!

Thanks so much for all your hard work! Thanks also to all the peole who commented and/or sent support my way! This discovery has enabled me be a better teacher and inspired me to be a lifelong learner!!! Read on...

THING #22 HELP!!!!

well of course i am to the end and i can't get my photostory into my blog. I can't find an embed code so i'm not sure what use besides the edit html. I may not have saved it correctly (the two ways); i have 2 things in my video file but one of them is just a black screen icon and i can't use it it seems. It too late to call anyone so if nayone sees this and can offer some help i would love to finish this correctly even if past deadline...

THING #22

I'm glad I got to paly with Photostory at the end. It is something fun and useful (and I can do it overall) . I have seen projects done using this and had planned to use it this year so I am glad i got a little practice to get me started. I love it for book talks, esp if we can work our way to the studnets doing it versus me. I will borrow my coworker's idea of doing my 3 read aloud Bluebonnet books through Photostory so the story can be read to them without me having to read it live over and over again.
I created a short clip using theonly photos i had on my computer from ohter projects and music i only have as samples (this computer got wiped out and i'm too tired to go gather photos/music for practice. Not sure if i can post it though...

THING # 22

Nings...
Ok I skipped 21 for now because i'm not so sure about podcasts and it may take me awhile. But I have played with nings already in another workshop so I'm going to kind of "cheat" and talk about that experience since we used a few of those resources in our class plus other things.
I participated in a tech workshop this summer in our distict doing in person the same thing we are doing online. It was less involved due to time constraint, but the idea was similar t0 introducing us to a few choice 2.0 tools to take us into the here an dnow of teaching "digital natives". I realized i am nowhere near a digital native but i'm working on being a digital immigrant...trying to get there as i learn.
In this workshop we became part of a ning (iinnovatenetwork.pbworks.com) so that we could blog as we went through our "lessons"/ "explorations" and to post products we did and comment on others. Now that the workshop has concluded, the ning is there for us to share ideas as we continue to play with what we were introduced to briefly. It is also a place for us share frustrations, questions, and celebrations as we all try to make this change towards becoming a better "teacher"/"librarian". It is nice to know I have "company" as I continue this adventure. From there we are starting a campus ning so we have a support of our closer coworkers. Fortunately for us we have a person who loves nings so she is going to continue to support our learning in this area.
Outside/inside of school I can see using nings for book talks as a starter and then for projects where you want collaboration. I looked at a few of the example nings that were posted in this exercise and can see that some of the library ones could be a good source for big library issues, but for now, I like belonging to smaller nings.

THING #20

I have mostly watched youtube videos sent to me vs. searched them mostly because it is blocked at school and by the time i'm home i have other things to do. I haven't seen much from teacher tube except in a few cases for in service. I have used united streaming a lot so maybe now i need to mix it up a bit.
I didn't search a lot due to time constraints but what i did find gives me an idea of what is out there and how i can use it. I think lookng for historical events on teacher tube is a great way to introduce a topic or book we are going to discuss that day in the library. I chose the Alamo and found actually a nice pictoral history of the battle with a nice song in the background. I t sould lead to a good discussion at beginning of a lesson or as an ending thought after reading something that involved the alamo. From youtube i searche library 2.0 and found an instructional video on picasa. I like finding these little instructional videos because they make it simple for me
I still can't figure out how to comment but I looked at my friends postings and I love both the ones they picked..so much i may "borrow' them. One of my friends chose a parody on library "Library of Tomorrow" and it got me thinking...i wonder if that is how Alamo Draft House gets all their parody clips from the "past" to go along with their movie themes...hmmmm???


TEACHER TUBE:









YOU TUBE:

THING #19

Since I'm already overwhelmed with just the sites I've been exposed to so far, seeing more was a littel intimidating at first. but what i really liked is how it is organized by catagories so you can explore for your interest/need. Most of te ones I could use in the library are ones i already knew or have explored a little with this "class": Delicious, facebook,google maps, google search blog, and the one i've seen the most used in my setting so far, pbwikis. But by recognizing those i looked at the other winners in those catagories to see if i liked any features of them better or if i wanted to stick with what i knew already. I still love delicious but i may explore stumbleupon more inthe future. I love the name/concept but need to see how easy it is to search and if it as useful to elementary library as delicious is. Organization also caught my eye but it does have a fee so i didn't explore. I like the concept though...something to help me organize all my documents (I do not use folders on my computer well and i still do paper files to hold a copy of my electronic documents i use...maybe startin with a new tool i'd actually get it organized (yeah, right).
I found a few for my own personal use to explore later in my free time - istats for workouts and i saw n my friend's blog that she liked a coking one so i may check that one out.

THING # 18

I explored GoogleDocs in another tech workshop our district sponsored this summer. We had a brief introduction to the highlights of it (through a common craft video i think so it made sense to me...so i thought). I really liek the idea of everyone being able to edit the same document and the same time from anywhere. That is a lot easier than email! I can really see the benefits when groups are working on projects - saves, paper, time, and it is a true collaboration. It sparked an idea for me to use it at our school for what we call our "pink Calendar" - a calendar that lists all of our events for the year. This way instead of people sending info to one person in email and that person then updates the document, the new inforamtion can just be added by the person who needs to add it and it's instant updates. We have a lotus notes claender that our principal uses but it is not a user friendly page to view. I think this will be great. Teh only problem though is i still need to practice with it because we didn't get enough learning time in my workshop. I tried to use it with my roommate when we were planning our shopping list for a party we were throwing so we could edit back and forth. I thought i did everything correctly but she never received it (I received it so i'm not sure why she didn't). But at least i tried to use what i learned :)

THING #17

Rollyo is very fun and useful!!! This is a good way to keep websites you find for a topic i'm teaching or set up one for a teacher on a topic (or show them how to do it). I looked at some that were already done in the explore section and found a few interesting ones for other people i know: Gluten Free, Everything Star Wars, Spanish Language, and a few others. I then looked at inspirations and added a few like travel, "high roller" debra mesing's shopping, reference, and a few more. I searched on my own and did a animal life cycles rollyo. At first not sure how to get websites since i was just brainstorming but decided to go to delicious and at least use a few that had high numbers to get me satrted. With more time later i can continue to add so i can use this rollo with my 2nd grade unit at end of year.

THING #16

Who can't like something with a name like wiki? And when you add the easy to follow common craft tutorial videos if makes all seem so simple. It seems like a popular tool (it was one of the first 2.0 tools I heard about and saw in action). I have never completed a whole one on my own yet but hope to do so this year. I talked with someone in a training about how to get my glogster idea of my decades project into project form andhe suggested using a wiki...so that will be one of my learning adventures after this is done. Having the examples to look at, like the 10th grade lit. cirlcle, and tools to help will make it a ot easier for me to learn on my own. Thanks!

THING #15

The future of libraries...
Just as teaching styles have to change with the times in the classroom, service styles have to change with trends in the library. You can't keep doing the same thing over and over and expect good outcomes. I thought the video made words without sound very powerful. And it is so true....so many students (not just in college but even already in early elementary grades) don't see the value in their classes/education because they are bored. They already come in with higher tech skills/background and their attention is caught in different ways than we are doing. In order to serve our patrons best, we need to offer what they need. Books use to be the hot item of the library, but really it was the information or the world they took us into using the book. Now that there are so many ways to gather information or share thoughts, we need to give ways for our patrons to access and share it. I agree that we need to embrace change and focus on reaching the patrons in their world vs. expecting them to come into our worlds. We do need to continue to be welcoming and customer focused but reach them in other ways. I learned the old way - use technology to get information and move on (just like using a a textbook). But now i need to use technology to share information and have collaboration throughout the library world. I think my favorite phrase was Dr. Schultz's statement; "libraries are conversations. we are communities". That is the feeling I want to have in my library, no matter waht the trends are.

THING #14

I'm not the biggest fan of Technorati. Delicious is much easier using tags for me. When i did keyword search it found a lot of hits but i didn't have much to go on except for me to look at all of them to see if they fit what i needed. Popular tags didn't make since to search the topic because i could only find school so i'm not sure i did it correctly.I like the blog directory because it helped having topics - easy to find technology and 2.0 and you knew the blogs were on topic of what you needed. Maybe with more practice and search lessons i could learn to use it better. I cracked up that one of the most popular blog searches was paris hilton...really? that's what info. we need in the world? Most of the most popular have nothing to do with what i would search...but to each his/her own right?

THING #13

Social bookmarking is a great thing! I am not very good at using my folders in my lotus notes when people send me websites in emails so i have a huge lists of emails in my inbox. I also hate just searching randomly in google and having to evaluate all that is found. Delicious is great way to search everyone's bookmarks vs, the whole web and easy to use! I love being able to search easy terms like fractions, funding sites, and already seeing how many people like all the sites so i can narrow down what i want to look at in depth. I can't wait to share this with those who have not heard how delicious delicious is :)

HELP!!!!

when i try to comment on other people's blog it wants me to choose a profile. all need an address so i don't get that so i chose google but then it doen't show up in comments??????

THING #12

After reading all the tips I found a few that were stated in some form or another in most of the postings. I am am one of those that doesn't comment much on what i read, including on facebook. I'm more of the observer and/or observer taking in what i read. But after reading the postings, i feel a little selfish now. I was one of those that didn't feel i had/have a lot to share, but now i feel that if i do it when i care about something and i say it in a meaningful way then somebody somewhere may get something from it, if not only me. I liked the idea that the power of the words can bring a reewal of purpose to you. you may see things from a different or new light by just expressing yourself. I especially like the tips on criticize kindly and don't use comments to rant. Reading postings like these would be a waste of my time. I agree that commenting is a great way to share knowledge and that it encourages people to share. But it's also nice to just see encouragement from others who comment to say"keep it up" hang in there, etc." like I have received on my blogs so far throughout this experience. So, I will search through some of the blogs and see what I can add.
i also searched a few of my interests: hgtv, the food channel, and the today show. I found many blogs but i found two of mine that i looked at didn't allow comments (frustrating like the articles said). When I went through googleblogsearch for today show i found many blogs and many allowed commenting. I chose one on Jon and Kate since it is all over the news daily thinking i would add my take on it, but the o ne i chose to read had a little battle between two people defending one or the other of the dysfunctional pair. So...i decided I didnt' have anything meaningful to contribute to their "converstation" and left it at that.

THING #11

I looked through the site and did a couple of searches for mystery/suspense and romance. I was able to add a few books and found a few that i didn't knwo about by an author i read often so that is a bonus. I searched a few groups and found one useful to me (the mystery.suspense) so i can get more ideas of books and authors to read. For my students i found a few groups thatmay help me in areas i'm not so interested in - fantasy, science fiction, and hisotrical fiction. Not every post is helpful but I do liek the ease of seeing what the post is about so i know if i want to read it or not. I wish i could narrow it down a bit to have elementary titles (etc.) but maybe if i keep searching it's there. I also liked the banned book groups as an interesting topic.
As for work with kids, I could maybe see it helpful if soing a book club at lunch or after school, but would have to play with it to make it work.

THING #10

I really like Glogster. I can see me using this for many projects within the library as a class project or as a presentation tool for library information. My activity i started ties in with 5th grade at end of year. When text books are gone we can continue the study of American history using online resources to gather data and then glogster to present and teach to the class. Each group could be assigned a decade, be given a rubric of what is needed for each level of grade, and then present to class.

80s

This project idea could be tweaked for all grades levels and topices - state symbols, texas heroes, austin landmarks, etc. I also like it as a way to present book reviews. I am also planning on a way to use it to introduce the Bluebonnet books this year.
I also enjoyed the Trading Cards program (example in thing #6 blog already done).
These are all very fun ways to introduce new way to present ideas...

THING #9

There was alot of information in this thing. ALmost too much. Since this is all new to me I wasn't really sure what to do in all the different resources. My biggest obstacle seems to be how to search (what tag to use) to get best results. I started with library but it was too broad, so then I tried elementary library and it narrowed down a bit, but i'm still not sure if it works the best for me. Reading the Cool Cat teacher online helped a little to know what to focus on to be successful, but it is going to take a lot of playing for me to feel I'm finding useful things. Google and Bloglines searches were simple but again it all comes down to tags to make it work well for you. Edublogs helped me see good examples since they were award winners and nominees. I found a very cool wiki- salute to seuss - that i would really like to investigate and try to use in some form. Suprglue seems like it would be usefu to me since it is school librarian blogs but i still couldn't find a lot that related to what i would wnat to talk about. Topix was super easy and loved that it had my hometown info and current things. It was easy to read, search, and so forth. Syndic8.com was way too much - very complicated and overwhelming. Technorati gave me a good ideas of tags to use for searching and made me think of another one i might be interested in - travel. Atomic Learning seemed like it would be great because the focus on 21st century skills but i couldn't get anything to load so i didn't get to experience much of it. I feel this thing was the most overwhelming so far...just because of the amount of information. But I shall continue on...

THING #8

Well, this has taken a lot of time today for me...reading all the info and looking at examples. I really like the concept of going to one place to look at all i want to look at at one time. I personally can use it to keep up on news headlines and my entertainment when i don't hae tv around. I also loke being able to put library sites or book review sites in a handy place to keep up on trends and info. I can see teachers or admin. using it to follow topics of interest or to hav eour campus do a "book study" but following info. on websites/blogs. I can use it to help my principal (or a teacher) if they need to find info. quickly on a topic for a meeting etc.
I started making a few subscriptions and arraging into folders to start. I will go back in an add some of interest later.

THING # 7

google tools...wow - oh so much! I had just gone to a brief overview workshop of gogle tools with a little work on googledocs and the calendar so it was nice to know something beforehand. I'm really interestd in trying to incorporate Google Earth somehow; i need to explore more to be able to but i think it would be cool to use the historic places and have art use the art museums link.I set up an alert for library information just to see what kind of info. it finds so i stay updated. I might change it to new children's literature to help me with my orders. I also did the igoogle and made my home page show things i like; now if i would justget over keeping my hotmail account and move everything to my gmail account (since it has everything). I played a little with the language tools feature which i thought would come in handy when i need phrases to use with my spanish speaking patrons but i will have to play with it more to be useful to me. i like the calendar idea for our school. We have a thing called the :"pink calendar" that we use to wrote all events down so we get a big picture of the year and don't overlap things. We do have our lotus notes email calendars but this one seems easier to view and use. I will play with that at beginning of year when we set up our events. Oh so many things...so little time. seems to be my theme through this whole thing.

THING #6

I really like the trading card idea. I can see me using it with Texas History where students import a picture of a Texas Hero writing name in title box, dates in sub title box, and 5 -7 main facts about person's contribution to history. I also liked the librarian trading cards. It would be a great (an more interesting) way to post our teacher pictures on the school website.
i want to explore the mosaic maker more. I can really see using many of these for cool projects or just for myself. I love the motivational posters - cool to mak READ posters on own or use the trading cards or movie posters for book reviews or to feature bluebonnet books. For myself jsut to start playing i like the trip planner and mappr in flickr. Grat to use for all my travels. Alot to play with and not enough time but at least I am connected to the right pace to start exploring when i can.

THING # 5

I read alot of the Flickr info and it seems useful when needing a specific picture (catagory) or a variety of pictures to choose from. I liked seeing the scenario as to how to use Flickr with a project just to get a feel of its usefullness. I also liked that it was easy to selct a picture and get it into the blog :) Now if only i could get to that beach that easily...but instead off to #6.

THING #4

I have registered...hoping I sent the correct info.; I have so many usernames and passwords from other thigns and now I'm adding more :) But I have completed 4 things :)

THING #3

The blog part I did fairly easily; Avatar was another story. Doing it was easy (and time not well spent becasue i started looking at all the choices to make my look...does it really matter...) but then came exporting...not so easy or fun. But I didn't give up, looked at a few more help paths on the computer and finally turned to a friend who had completed it. She in turn had had some help on her blog through a post so i used that to help me finally be successful. I feel gald that i can now move on...but i bet i will need my new "friends" again for help!!! Luckily that 's why we are all here!!!

THING #2

I think my easiest habit is Habit 2 - Accept responsiblity for your own learning. I do sign up for what i need in order to learn what I need to learn. However, just because I sign up and attend doesn't necessarily mean i am going to be able to use it when I leave :) I tall becomes overwhelming just as this is...i'm only on #3 and worn out :) The hardest habit then would be Habit #6 - Use Technology to Your Advantage. No matter how I try I don't always seem to go the easy route when learning technology. It's kind - of like when we tell a kid to go use the dictionary to figure out how to spell a word...kind of hard to look up a word when you don't know how to spell it! It is hard for me to use technology (esp. searching) to make life easier when I have trouble with just the basics at times. We shall see where this takes me...