Thing #12

Two points that I see most important when it comes to commenting on others blogs' are: 1. make it easy--having to sign in each time to comment, makes me not want to comment. 2. comment on the comments people leave you, interact with those reading your blog, acknowledge them, thank them etc..for leaving a comment.
I regularly try to comment on a couple of blogs that I keep up with. The two blogs I follow are of friends from church. One of the ladies has/is going through cancer and she keeps us updated on her blog to her progress. The other blog belongs to a friend who does public speaking and her blogs are just so real to life, and seem to minister to me quite often. I also like to keep up with my principals blog.

Thing #11

I liked using Library Thing. I made a list of the recent books I have read, and also joined a couple of groups. I could definetely see where this site is beneficial for avid readers. There are so many different kinds of groups and members. If you are trying to find a good book to read this is a great site. It gives you recommendations and reviews. Great tool!!

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Quickpost this image to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

Thing #10

I loved playing around with different online image generators. My favorite was the image chef site, and of course the big huge lab site. I loved browsing my pictures and making a mosaic, christmas ornament or even a jigsaw puzzle. I also loved the image chef site where I could type in words and make an image. They let you pick colors, fonts, texts, etc...So much fun. I could spend hours, more than I already do, playing with these sights. I think my students would love downloading their pictures and making mosaics or typing in words in the image chef and picking a symbol to put the words in.

BigHugeLabs: Do fun stuff with your photos

BigHugeLabs: Do fun stuff with your photos

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ImageChef.com Flower Text

Thing #9

Google Blog Search and Technorati Tutorial were the easiest RSS feeders search enginges, to use. The most confusing I found was the Syndic8.com, it was very hard to follow and find RSS feeds. I found a couple of feeders that I added to my reader list. One of them was the Cool Cat Teacher Blog. I really liked that one and found it very interesting and helpful.

Thing # 8

I enjoyed finding RSS feeders to post on my blog. It is so much easier going to my google reader page and catching up on the blogs that I follow and the websites that I like to visit. It definetley saves time. I can use this in the classroom by putting the websites that my students go to onto my google reader and they can go to those sites easily and quickly, all they would have to do is just click on the feeder. In my personal life all the sites that I visit will be in one place, I don't have to type and look for them each time I go to visit. RSS feeders and google readers is such a benefit to those searching the internet for their information-it makes it so easy!

Thing #7

I created an IGoogle page and Google calendar. I like having an IGoogle homepage with certain newsfeeds on there and weather. In the classroom we have used Google Earth, and my children at home like using Google Earth also. It is just amazing to me the technology that is out there to help us learn, teach, and just help us to live. Google is an awesome tool to use.

Thing #6

I really enjoyed using flickr to make a trading card, puzzle, and a picture with speech bubbles. It is fun to create different things and I could spend hours doing it. I think the trading card would be a fun tool to use in the classroom. My kindergartners could pick a dinosaur or a plant and describe it using the trading card program. They could then print theirs and trade with each other. It is such an easy program to use. Using flickr you have SO many choices of photos or you can use your own. Big Huge Labs is now one of my most favorite websites. I can't wait to use it next school year.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Thing #5

Using Flickr was lots of fun. It is AMAZING how you can find ALL kinds of pictures. What a great tool for the classroom. Whenever you need any kind of picture to show as a visual to what you are teaching, it is right there. What an awesome tool.

I found downloading the image very simple and easy to do. I chose a picture of a dinosaur egg. Our last science unit that we teach is Dinosaurs. It always amazes me how much 5 year olds know about dinosaurs. They teach me something every year. It also baffles my mind how they always know the names of the dinosaurs and can pronounce the name better than me. Children are a wonder!

Thing #4

Ready and registered and ready to explore!

Thing #3

Well, I worked on getting the avatar that I wanted for about 2 hours but would never download the avatar I had saved to my favorites...It gave me one with a mohawk, that is definetley not me but I will have to work on it. There were so many choices and I tried to make one that best represents me....

Thing #2

I definitely think I am a life long learner. I LOVE trying new ways of teaching in my classroom, and learning new things with technology. I had read Stephen Coveys book a long time ago, and went through an inservice talking about the 7 habits of highly effective people. I would say the habit I have the most trouble with is beginning with the end in mind. I don't always slow down to think about a goal and a plan, I just try to get to my goal without thinking it through. The habit that I feel like I have a good handle on is teaching/mentoring others, so that I am able to reinforce my learning, and I enjoy volunteering to serve others.

Thing #1

I love learning how to do new things on the computer. I especially like being able to teach my teenagers something they don't know how to already do. After reading about the program I wanted to get started right away. This is going to be fun!