Thing 9

I took some time looking at many different sights tat helped me search for blogs. I liked Technorati because of the different categories. Then descriptions of blogs came up to give me a good idea about the blog. I found some feeds on baking, family, and books. I enjoyed reading comments on books I have read in my book club and on ones we will be reading. I would love to start a blog for our book club. Is there a way to set up sections or links on the blog--comment in one area on chapters 1-5 and another on chapters 6-10...? The cool cat teacher blog was interesting, but I did not choose it to place on my google reader. I know that I will enjoy using Atomic Learning in my classroom. I know many teachers who have used it over the past few years. Their students enjoyed watching the videos that have helped solidify their learning.

Thing 8

This was frustrating--until I finally click on the icon that showed all of the blogs I added. I could n't find some of them added on Google Reader; therefore, I was looking for specific blogs that I didn't have to cut and paste. Ughhhh!
I have enjoyed reading the news over the past few days and have been laughing at the information presented in the "fun" category. I will look forward to reading and reponding to others' blogs. I think this is great for my personal life because I can open it up and get brief summaries of articles. I can skip and read quickly. It can be helpful in the classroom if I set one up that revolves about what the class is learning. I will have to do much research and will have to get more comfortable with this. This is great for the library, too. It can target children of certain ages and topics of study.
After my frustration, I think I have figured out the blogs now :).

Thing 7

Over the past two days I have looked at what Google had to offer. I created a calendar and liked that comments could be posted on the calendar items. The idea of Google Earth was very neat. I could easily use it in teaching. We could look at particular buildings that revolve around the heroes that we study. Unfortunately I could not download this program. I tried several times. I did not have administrator rights. Any hints?? I also created my own Google page. I viewed a few items on You Tube and sorted the windows. I uploaded a Windows document and played with it. I thought it was neat that you could make comments on others' documents. Lastly, I tried to search for PowerPoints on iGoogle--I think that is what you call it. I found some that sounded neat. I downloaded them, but I didn't know how to view them. Any hints??

Thing 6

There was so much to explore! I enjoyed the many different projects that you could complete with photos. I created a mosaic and put a nice frame around a picture from Flickr. I also found pictures on Flickr by clicking on a specific color. I liked this but i couldn't figure out how to edit the pictures. Some I wanted to keep, and others I would have wanted to replace.
In the classroom (not library), you could put pictures of children on the dice. You could roll to determine who would go first, answer a question, etc.... You could use the trading cards in social studies. A student would study a famous person, dress as him/her, and then talk with peers one-on-one. Students would trade cards. I enjoyed Thing 6.

Thing 5

Flickr was very interesting. I did not know that anything like this existed. The groups were kind of humorous in the sense that there were so many rules. It reminded me of a sorority.
The neatest parts for me on Flickr was one photographer's work and seeing pictures of the university where I completed my undergraduate degree.

Thing 3

I have begun blogging and have placed my Avatar on my blogging page. This took me quite awhile with many interuptions. The avatar cracked me up :).

If I wanted to run blogging in my classroom, how do you only let certain people respond?

Thing 2

The easiest habit for me is viewing problems as challenges. The most difficult one is Using technology to your advantage. The Internet is really not part of my life. All I do is email.

Thing 1

I am excited to learn about so much technology. This sounds like a convenient way to keep up with it!