Student Email and Twitter

I sent a request to my administrators today to allow each student to have a gaggle email account. I hope this will open up lots of opportunities for us in the Web 2.0 world!

My g/t language arts teacher also sent in a request for her g/t students to have a twitter account and follow her. She wants to do SAT vocabulary this way as well as class discussions. Since college students are participating in online discussions, we would like to start preparing our kids, especially our g/t and ap kids for this type of educational activity.

Has anyone used twitter or something similar in the classroom? How did it go?

Thing 23 The End!

This has been the most beneficial training I've ever had. After 16 years of teaching, you can imagine all the useless workshops I've sat through. Unfortunately, it has been even worse since I moved to the library. I'm thrilled that I got to spend this summer learning something I can actually use with my kids!

1. The things I am most excited about taking back to school with me are Library Thing, Photostory and Rollyo. I'm doing Battle of the Books at both of my campuses this year. I plan to set up a book club on Library Thing, so we can discuss the books even when we can't find time to meet. My students started using photostory this past year, but I never took the time to mess with it much. It is surprisingly easy! I think the kids and teachers are going to be thrilled with my booktalk. I also think I will use Rollyo to help design search engines to keep my 7th graders somewhat controlled when they are doing their initial research.
I really enjoyed playing with the image generators and mashups. I think my students will be equally excited about playing with these apps.
The RSS Feed is something that I now use daily. I love having my blogs all come to one place, so I can read them at my convenience. Honestly, I find myself using my cell phone to read while waiting on my children. What a good use for that time! My favorite blog discovery is A Chat with Mary.

2. As a librarian, I know how important it is to keep up with my students. This was a great opportunity to get a jump-start on technology that they will love to use. The RSS Feed will help me stay on top of things both professionally and personally.

3. I was surpised at all that google really offers. In the past, I've been more of a "yahoo-girl." Now that I am aware of all that google has, I see myself using it more.

4. I don't know of anything that I would change. I loved that I could work through the activities when and where I wanted. I feel like I waste a lot of time in workshops where our skill levels aren't even remotely comparable. With this program, I zipped through the things I already knew about (delicious) and spent more time on the things I needed to learn (photostory).

5. I would definitely participate in another discovery program, since this is one of the most professionally beneficial things I've done in a long time!

6. The 23 Things Program helps turn librarians into true media specialists!

Thing 22 Nings

I am only vaguely familiar with nings. I enjoyed the article with the seven things one must know about nings. It seems like this might be an option for a class project.

I will probably join the Teacher Librarian Ning and the Texas School Librarian Ning. On the TSL ning, I noticed there is a group for middle school librarian, but it doesn't seem to be too active. However, it is another nice resource to have.

Thing 21 Podcasts and Videocasts

This was the most fun thing so far. Building videocasts has been on my to do list for a while. It is really much easier than I expected it to be. At one of my campuses, we have 6 huge flat screen tv's throughout the building. I would really like to have some videocasts of booktalks looping once in a while. In my library, I have the capability of playing them constantly on my big screen.

The one I did for this activity is very simple and includes the titles of the Battle of the Books. We are going to do our first ever Battle of the Books at our 6th, 7th, and 8th grade campuses. I will probably go back and add some text before using this with me kids, but it might be okay as a quick intro to the program.

Thing #20 YouTube and TeacherTube

Our district allowed teacher only access to youtube a few years ago. I know I have used several videos in the library, and the teachers have used even more in the classroom.

With middle school kids, I like the "safety" of teachertube. They love using videos in their presentations. I think I have finally figured out how to help them embedd their videos.

Here is a video presentation of the Lone Star books that I plan to use the first few weeks of school.

Thing #19 Web 2.0 Awards

There is certainly a lot of stuff on this page. I've added it to my delicious account so I can go back to it as needed.

I enjoyed some of the more fun sites. I couldn't get the Comiqs site to open, but I really want to see if it something I could use. I also think the one sentence site might be a fun thing to use with my students once in a while. I hope our FCCLA teacher will like some of the cooking videos.

For educational purposes, the one that I see myself using most often is docstoc. I love some of the webs and maps for literature. I also found some study guides and power points that my teachers could definitely use.

Thing #18 Online Productivity Tools

I am familiar with google docs, and I'm working with a teacher to figure out a way to have the kids write a group essay using this tool. Again, the biggest issue is that all of my students do not have an email address. I hope we can get them all set up when school starts this year. I love the idea of them all working on the same essay while still being responsible for certain parts/information. The biggest advantage I see with google docs is that the students could access their documents from any computer at school or at home.

I have heard of Open Office, but I have never used it. I did read the info to learn more about it. This is wonderful if it is really compatible with all office products.

Thing #17 Rollyo

This is one more thing I have never heard of. I can see this being extremely useful when doing research. With our 7th and 8th graders, most teachers like to give them specific sites to explore. With Rollyo, I can easily design a search engine that will eliminate all the completely useless hits that the kids might find if using google or yahoo (their two favorites).

The searchroll that I set up today was YA Book Reviews. I use Amazon when creating carts for school book orders or looking for something for me to read. By including it in a searchroll with other review sites, I could have everything right in front of me rather than going back and forth between several sites.

I will certainly be exploring this further and sharing it with my teachers and tech people.

Thing #16 Wikis

Since collaboration is key to a successful library program, wikis might be a good place to start. One of my English teachers wants her students to do group essays. We discussed using google docs, but a wiki is another option. If we decide to go with a wiki, I think it needs to be ongoing throughout the year. A class wiki would be a good place to work on essays, post notes, hold discussions, post book reviews, etc. I'm certainly going to show her some of these wikis to see if she is willing to give it a try!

Thing #15 Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the Future of Libraries

Loved the video! I hope to have the opportunity to share it with the teachers on my campus during one of our inservice meetings at the beginning of school.

As a librarian, I am completely aware of the need to integrate technology into every aspect of our curriculum. What I see happening right now is a big push to use technology just to say we used technology. Unfortunately, a lot of teachers think technology consists of powerpoint and movie maker. Our job as librarians is to get everyone on board and make them aware that there is so much more for our kids out there. Of course, this means educating our teachers, administrators, and students while working with our technology department.

My main reason for participating in this project this summer was to learn more about what is out there. I have lots of teachers that are terrified of anything beyond powerpoint and word processing. If I have a better grasp of what is available, I can persuade my teachers to "play" and find out what's out there.

Thing #14 Technorati and Tags

This is my first time to spend a lengthy amount of time playing on Technorati. Needless to say, it would be very easy to get sucked in and waste a lot of time there! Obviously, it will be very useful when trying to find info for students or teachers and their projects. At least once a year, some teacher on our campus assigns some crazy food assignment. With technorati, there is a ridiculous variety of recipes, not to mention the videos on how to prepare the foods.

I loved the Popular Blogs and added several baking blogs to my google reader. I think Mashable: The Social Media Guide might be a nice way to keep up with what's going on in social networking.

Technorati will certainly be one of my go-to sites when I'm helping teachers prepare lessons. The tags will make searching much easier than just going to yahoo or google!

Thing # 13 Delicious and Tagging

I have had a Delicious account for a while now, but I rarely used it until I started traveling. I discovered very quickly that every time I needed a website, it was bookmarked on my computer at the other campus. I remembered my Delicious account and life got much easier!

I looked at the other sites, and I am currently trying to decide if I should switch to one of the other sites. I need to figure out the benefits and decide if it is worth my time to make the switch.

The benefit to delicious that I've seen so far is with the tags, I instantly have research sources ready to go. If a teacher needs sites to do colonly research, all I have to do is go to my Delicious account and find the sites that I've already saved.

Thing # 12 Commenting

On the Blue Skunk Blog, Alan Levine was quoted as saying that "it can be more of a dialog than a sermon." Sometimes we are hesitant to blog because we don't think anyone wants to read what we have to say. However, but looking at a blog as a discussion rather than dispensing wisdom, I'm much more willing to blog. I love discussions!

Cool Cat talks about how all blog readers become a part of the blogger's life. I know from my experience on message boards, online "friends" are very real. I know from reading blogs, I feel like I really know these people. After reading how important comments are to bloggers, I plan to start commenting more.

In Google Blog Search, I typed in Gifted Children. My son was identified several years ago, and my daughter will be tested this year. While I wouldn't trade my kids for anything, parenting gifted kids certainly has unique challenges. The author of this blog has a son that sounds very much like my own. I willl be checking out Hormone-colored Days very often. http://hormonecoloreddays.blogspot.com/

One blog that I read regularly is written by one of my best friend's from high school. We don't see each other often (families require most of our time), however, when I read his blog, I can hear him telling these stories. If you need a good laugh, check out Do You See the Glory at http://www.jaxxshirts.com/blog/

Thing # 11 LibraryThing

Talk about getting lost for hours! What could be more fun than a site where people talk about books!

Setting up an account was super easy, but I didn't do the profile yet. I'll do that later today. Throughout the years, I've had teacher book clubs and student book clubs. I've always thought it would be fun to have a book club that involved both students and teachers. However, I never want to take up more of the teachers' time. This site, though, would allow for a book club where we could all participate as time allows.

My own personal children have tons of books. People always want to know books to buy them, but I can't keep up with what they already have. If I will take the time to enter the books, I would have it all the books they own in my hands anytime a relative asks, "Does he/she already have this book?"

Thing # 10 Online Image Generator

I looked at several of these sites. As with many of the others, I could spend a lot of time playing on these different sites.

Word Mosaic from Image Chef is a fun tool that I can use to promote novels with my teens. Since we recently started an integrated technology program at my campuses, the teachers are always looking for new ideas for final products. It is one thing to do the reasearch or read the material, but we can only do so many power points. My teachers are always excited about new presentation methods!

My 8th graders do poetry books, so I can see them using the poetry blender to "illustrate" their poems.

When I was in the classroom, I always enjoyed having the kids make comic strips to illustrate the plot of a novel. With the comic strip generator, they would love it!

Thing # 9 Library Blogs

I'm beginning to feel more and more comfortable with the different google tools. As a result, the Google Blog Search is the easiest one for me to use.

This is something else that I could spend hours playing with. I started on the Cool Cat Teacher Blog, then looked at some of the blogs on the blog roll. From there, I moved to another blog roll, then another. Notice a pattern here!

The blog that I am most interested in looking at more closely is A Chat with Mary: A Blog for Teachers. I can see using this when collaborating with teachers. Our campus uses United Streaming, but I'm not sure the teachers are aware of all the possibilities. I also like the way she links some of the more interesting blog posts of the day.
http://achatwithmary.blogspot.com/

I also like the way Technorati has divided the blogs into categories. Something else to explore later.

Topix is not something I will use often. There is too much on one page, so it seems overwhelming. I'm sure I could get used to it, but I don't see myself taking the time to figure it out. The other blog search sources seem more user-friendly.

Thing # 8 RSS Feed

I've never been a huge blog follower. If I stumble across something, I will read it. Sometimes I look at it again; sometimes I don't.

I think with the blog reader, I will be more likely to read blogs on a daily or at least weekly basis. Obviously, the education/library blogs will help me find new ideas or keep up with new books more easily. I've also subscribed to a few blogs of friends so I will be notified when they add new posts rather than having to go into their blogs individually whenever I think about it.

A lot of educators are not comfortable playing on internet. If they learn how to use rss feeds, they can still get the info they need through updates.

The biggest problem I see with rss feeds is how addictive it could be! With so many blogs out there, one could spend a lot of time reading blog updates each day!

Thing # 7 Cool Google Tools

I had previously toured google tools at a conference session. I have a google calendar, but I don't use it often. I still heavily rely on my dayplanner. However, for keeping up with two libraries, google calendar might be a better option. Not only could I keep straight what is going on at each campus, but I could also share it with the staff. Then, they could see when I'm available and what campus I'm at without having to track me down.

Google docs is another tool that I plan to use with my students. I have one teacher that wants to do group papers. I told her Google docs would be a fun way for the kids to work collaboratively on one paper. We didn't get around to it last year, but it is certainly on the agenda for this coming school year. Hopefully we can sit down together to explore the tool at the very beginning of the year.

Thing #6 Mashups

This is the most fun thing we have done so far! I could spend hours playing with all the different mashup tools. The possibilities with trading cards are endless...favorite books, characters in books, historical figures, planets, colonies, states, elements, etc. My kids would also have a lot of fun making movie posters for favorite books. The Captioner and Billboard apps. could be used in various creative writing activities.

Thing #5 Flickr

I've looked at friends' pictures on Flickr before, but I've never really explored the site. I love that there are so many pictures under the Creative Commons group. I see projects all the time where students use images from all over with no thought to copyright. My first project is to educate my teachers about Flickr as soon as we get back to school in August.

I selected this picture by Laram777 because our district-wide theme next year is Surf's Up. Adding it into the blog was amazingly easy!

Thing #3

Setting up the blog was the easy part. Uploading the avatar was a bit tricky! It would show up, but when I went to view blog, it wouldn't be there. I'm still not completely sure what was going on.

I've actually created blogs before, but I never seem to find time to update them.

Thing #2

I watched the video a few days ago, so I've been thinking about this since then.

The habit that is most difficult for me is viewing problems as challenges. That is not my typical first response. Fortunately, with experience, I am learning to get into challenge mode much more quickly than I did in the past.

The habit that is easiest for me is accepting responsibility for my own learning. I am definitely a control freak. I much prefer working through things and figuring them out on my own, rather than asking someone to show me. This has worked well for me with the exceptions of math and playing golf!

Getting Started

I am so excited about participating in the workshop this summer! I'm thrilled to have time to sit down and really figure things out rather than learning as I teach my students.