Thing #20

This is from TeacherTube. I teach Texas History, so I typed that word in and this is one of the videos that I found. To be honest, I didn't even know that TeacherTube existed....I did know about youtube. This will be very valuable to me as a teacher. My students are going to be so excited to see more videos this year. Do any of you use TeacherTube a lot? Have you found it to be a reliable resource?

Thing #19

I went and checked out google earth. This website/tool is really neat. It allows you to see pictures of different parts of the earth that you have or will never get to see. This could be a great resource to use in a library or classroom. What special about it is that they are real life pictures that people have taken. It is like you are actually there!!!! How cool is that? My students could use this for projects or I could use it to show the students different parts of the world, especially Texas because I teach TX History in 4th grade! The kids will love to be able to actually see what I am talking about!!

Thing #18

I used GoogleDocs when doing this assignment. When I downloaded it, it was part of my google account, which I like. It is easier to access and didn't have to create another account.

Advantages: Collaboration, easy to use and access, there are templates already created for you

Disadvantages: possibly loosing your data because it is online and not saved to a disk/CD

Thing #17

This is by far the most useful to me. I can't wait to use it because this will save not only me, but my students ALOT of time. It will also allow me, as the teacher, to modify which sites I want my students to be looking at. No more worries for me as to what sites they are getting their information from. YEAH!!!

I went on a created a searchroll on where my 15 month old should be developementally. As a first time mom, I am always wondering where he should be developmentally. I know....I'm a little crazy! He is 15 months old today!!! Here is the link to what I found.... http://www.rollyo.com/search.html?prevsid=567561&q=15+month+old+development&sid=567561

Thing #16

Using Wikis are very cool. I didn't even know of such a thing. My experience of writing on a wiki was need. The only thing I though was weird is that anyone that has access to the account can change what you have said. That is kind of scary to me. If I create a class wiki...will students change other students work just to be mean? That is my only concern with wikis. My first thought is that this would be a great resource for my students to use when writing papers and allowing others to edit their papers. What if they edit incorrectly and would the student need to create an original incase his/hers is all messed up? Has anyone used this in their own classroom? How did it work out for you?

Thing #15

I believe library 2.0 is a great resource. I feel it opens many more opportunities for students, teachers, and others. It is a resource that we all need to learn and become familiar with because lets face it....that is where we are going to get the kids' attention. They would much rather use technology than dig into paper resources. That being said....I do feel that paper resources are very important and that they should be familiar with them just as well. Library 2.0 is just one that I feel that they would be more likely to use.

Thing #14

This was interesting to me. When I typed in "School Library Learning 2.0", I did find different results when I modified my search. This could be very useful when looking for somehting imparticular.

When I searched for the popular blogs, I found that I am apparently not "in touch" with the world. I didn't know what half of the tags meant. Which is pretty scary. This was definetly and eye opener for me.

I think that Technorati could benefit me if I take the time to use it. To me, it is a little confusing and overwhelming. Like anything, with time, I'm sure I would get use to it.

I feel the value of tagging is very important. I'm glad I know that know before I started. If you tag something incorrectly or off the wall....it can be very frustrating to those who are truly searching for something imparticular.

Thing #13

I absolutely LOVE the idea of social bookmarking. This is going to be a very useful website for me and I hope to introduce my friends to it very soon. This could be a great tool for teachers and librarians. I did see where I could add friends to my account. So, does this allow me to view all their saved bookmarks or only ones that they choose for me to? This leads to another question.....Can your students see all your saved bookmarks? I guess they would....so you could create a special account for just your class to use? That would be cool. It can be very frustrating having to wait on all your kiddos to "find" the website that you want them to get on. This way they just log on to delicious and have access to all the websites that you might want them to view. I also like the fact that I have access to my bookmarks from home or work. YEAH!! I can't wait to use this this year.

Thing #12

This one was the most difficult for me. It is not only way out of my comfort zone, but very strange to me. I did go on to 5 blog pages and leave comments....not too hard.

There are 2 points that I felt were important to know about blogging. I really never thought to ask questions before. It makes since though. When commenting on some of the other blogs....I tried this technique. The other one that I found interesting was to actually interact. DUHHHHH! I guess that is the point of blogging in the first place. So, I will be checking back on some of the bloggers websites that I visited and see if they replied!

I went onto Google Blog Search and found one headline right away that caught my attention. It was from www.insider.com. It was over the whole Jon & Kate fiasco. I LOVE that show. It is really sad to see what has become of it. ANYWAYS!! I did leave a comment and let them know how I felt, but I'm sure they personally will never read it. Oh well! Sometimes it is just nice to let your voice be heard. Then, I typed in another show I liked to watch....Big Brother. I found a website/blog called welovebigbrother.com That was pretty cool. I left a comment on that blog as well! I guess I didn't realize how many blogs there were out there!!! This is definetly opening my eyes.

Thing #11

Well, I joined LibraryThing! I hate to admit, but I am not much of a reader. So, I went on and added 5 books that I have either read to my children at school, my son, or for my profession. While doing that, I did explore some of the groups that had been created. The one that could my attention was children's literature. I found it very interesting what they had to say and their advice on different books. This could be a place that I could go as a teacher to get ideas of what literature to read to my kids. Does anyone else have any other ideas on places to go to find fun and exciting literature for 4th grade students?

Thing #10

I created this one from www.imagechef.com:



I created this one from www.dumpr.net:


Create your own Rubik's Cube


Using these in the classroom could be fun!! During writing class, you could have your students create a comic strip. This could be a fun, but good way to get their creative writing skills going!!!

Thing #9

I found that both google blog search and topix were the easiest for me. They were very user friendly. Syndic8, on the other hand, was very difficult for me. I had no idea what it was all about. Personally, I'm not sure if I am into all the RSS feeds. I would prefer to go to a particular website or search engine and just look up whatever it is that I need to know. I guess it is because that is what I am use to. I'm sure through time I will get use to RSS feeds and find them very useful.

Thing #8

I like RSS/Readers do to the fact that I can go to one site for all my updates. I personal added my friend's blogs that I like to keep up with regularly and other educational websites that can benefit me as a teacher. This will definetly help me to stay current on issues that I want to, but seem to never have the time to get to on a regular bases.
Librarians could use this to stay current on new book arrivals. Teachers could have their students each create their own blog and follow each other. This way the kids can go to their igoogle to check all their classmates latest postings in one place. Administrators could use this to keep up with their staff. I think this would be great for our school to stay connected and let each other know of new ideas/lessons. What a way to build a community!!!