christmas card 10

Sparkling Scarlet Snowflakes Christmas

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Mimi and Poppy's video

Thing 23 -- in summation

My favorite discoveries throughout the 23 Things program have been PhotoStory, Rollyo, mashups, Delicious, and Wordle. I have learned so many things throughout this process and I LOVE to learn new things. Actually, I was a little surprised by all of the things I've learned. I know I don't know everything, but where technology is concerned, I'm typically the one in the room that knows the most. I think the concept of this program is extraordinary and the format is perfect. I felt like each "thing" was a fun puzzle for me to play around with and I enjoyed being able to publish my reflections about it. It was kind of addictive for me -- I went through the "things" really fast. I would definitely participate in another program like this one in the future. I thoroughly enjoyed the learning activities and found them stimulating and rewarding. I am enlightened!

Thing 22 -- A Ning Thing

I explored Nings today. I especially liked TexasSchoolLibrariesNing and TeacherLibrarianNing. I joined both of them, but I feel kind of like a poser since I'm not a practicing librarian yet. I found both of these to be useful because you can add events, videos, and job postings. There are also forums, groups (elementary, high school), blogs and a Facebook and Twitter connection capability. I think these are great resources, as they are an excellent way for teacher librarians to connect, share resources and information, and keep a finger on the pulse of the library world.

Thing 21 -- Photostory -- I love it

I just played with Photostory for the first time and I love it. I LOVE taking pictures of my daughters, and so this is a great new resource for me. I can also see how Photostory could be useful for teachers and librarians. I plan on playing with Photostory more in the future. I'd love to experiment more with transitions and music.
Here's my first go at it ...

Thing 20 -- imbedding video

I played around with YouTube and TeacherTube today. Of course this wasn't the first time I'd viewed either one of them, but this was the first time I copied the code and dropped it into a blog. I can see how this is much more user friendly. I'll certainly start doing it this way. YouTube and TeacherTube are invaluable resources for teachers and librarians. There is a wide breadth of educational items out there. I have found interesting videos about writing, reading, social issues, etc. I embedded a lesson about argumentative writing here on the blog.

Thing 19 -- Award Winning Web 2.0 Resource

I chose LinkedIn as my favorite award winning web 2.0 tool. I think this tool is special because it helped my husband get a job after he was laid off and it has helped me make professional connections to like-minded educators. I think it would be useful for libraries, as it would connect libraries and librarians. Collaboration and sharing of knowledge is just as important for school corporations as business corporations. I would like to use this tool as a librarian to keep me abreast of new technologies and happenings in the library world.

Thing 18 -- online productivity tools

I played around with Google Docs this past school year and found that I really love it. I sponsor my school's chapter of National Honor Society (NHS) and I am continually planning community service projects and signing kids up for work shifts. One main problem I have always had is kids signing up and then needing to change shifts, kids that try to come by my room to sign up and I'm running errands and they can't, or kids that decide after school is out that they want to volunteer. I created a Google Docs sign-up for every event and made it public and available for kids to change. It worked out so nicely. I like the way it can be accessed and updated by multiple people.

Thing 17 -- I'm a high roller

I just watched the Rollyo podcast provided on the Library2Play blog. I had never heard of "rolling a search engine" until now. I created a search roll focused on young adult literature. Here's a link to my search roll:
http://rollyo.com/dfarrar/farrar_--_ya_literature/

Thing 16 -- wiki, wiki, wiki

I just reported on the Spring Branch ISD's sandbox that I really enjoyed learning about RSS feeds. I feel like the whole concept is a lot like what Tivo has done for television. I think that Wikis can be used to collaborate between teacher and students. My group midterm focuses on Wikis, as a matter of fact. We chose to have students do some independent research and then come to a Wiki to report what they learned. The final component is for students to respond to each other's posts.

Thing 15 -- the 2.0 library

As Rick Anderson points out, librarians can not have the "come to us" attitude. Instead, libraries should strive to do anything they can to make the lives of patrons easier. Modern libraries need to keep up with the times. The digital librarian's role has changed in terms of what services they will perform; however, it is the librarian's responsibility to bring digital services to the world.

Thing 14 -- more tagging

I learned more about tagging today. I didn't know that you could use Technorati to search for key words in blog posts. I searched for "school library learning 2.0" in blog posts and got no results. I tried searching tags, but was only able to view a list of created tags -- nothing close to my topic. When I did a blog search, no results appeared. When I searched in less specific terms I was much more successful. I am happy to learn about tagging, it optimizes searching. Smart searching sounds good to me.

Thing 13 -- Delicious

I had never heard of "social bookmarking" until today. I created an account and added five sites and tagged them. I shared my Delicious account with my classmates. This resource would be very beneficial for research since throughout the process of research, sites are visited and revisted on a regular basis. It would be nice to have access to the sources from any computer. Additionally, teachers could use this tool since we work from multiple computers and acces sites on a regular basis.

Thing 12 -- Commenting

I like the concept of a blog, but I must admit, I'm not completely versed in proper blogging etiquette. I am not the type to immediately feel motivated to comment on someone's blog, but after reading the articles, I now realize that if I have an opinion regarding someone's posting, I really should weigh in with my comment. This sense of community that exists in the blogosphere is fostered through comments from one blogger to another. I agree with the article that highlights the importance of proper blogging etiquette. This is probably the thing that keeps me from commenting on blogs at times. I do not want to offend a person. I appreciated the article's advice in this regard. I've commented to five of my classmates' blogs -- and you know what it wasn't that bad at all!

Thing 11 -- LibraryThing

I just created a LibraryThing account and just like the Library2Play directions said, it was super simple! I first learned about LibraryThing from Dr. Gibson's Children's Literature class. She pulled up her LibraryThing account and shared with us this resource. I was very impressed by it and thought that I would really enjoy using it. I am a voracious reader and I'd love to have a nice list of the books I've read, but I've never had a chance to create an account or play around with it. Honestly, time went by and I completely forgot about it. I am so glad that this was one of the things requested of me on this list. I added several titles to my list. I will continue to go in and update it and tweak it. I think this would be useful to me in regards to my students because I could model for them the joy of reading and consuming books. I even found some interesting groups I'd like to join like the historical to contemporary romance.

Thing 10 -- More Image Generators

I just played around with Wordle and had a lot of fun. I created a wordle with the names of my family members and saved it to my computer. I pasted the link above -- I hope it works. You should really check it out if you haven't already. I was talking about it with a classmate and she said she has used it in her English classroom with the character names from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. I think this is a really creative way to review character names or important literary terms with students. I will definitely incorporate this into my lessons in the future.

Thing 9 -- My Circle of the Wise

I have been playing around with RSS feeds and creating my "circle of the wise." I now know that when I see the orange and white icons that's how I can quickly subscribe to the feed. I had never known about blog searching either. I especially like Technorati. I didn't really like Topix -- I found it difficult to navigate and I didn't like the pop ups.

Thing 8 -- RSS

I just learned that RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" and I learned about the RSS Reader, or aggregator. Essentially, instead of having to go out and find new information from web sites and blogs, the information comes to you. I learned that there are two steps to this process: 1. Sign up for a news reader 2. subscribe to news sites so they will show up on your reader -- I signed up for Google Reader and subscribed to various sites. I like the Google Reader and I know that I will use it in my personal and professional life. It makes it easier for me to get news and entertainment. Librarians will definitely benefit from this, as remaining abreast of the latest in technology is such an integral part of their jobs.

Thing 7 -- Google Stuff

I am a big fan of all of the Google stuff. I have used Google Earth, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Scholar, iGoogle, and Google Picasa in the past. This past year I used Google Docs for sign-up of community service for the National Honor Society group I sponsor at school. I liked it because the kids could go into the spreadsheet and sign up and it was constantly updated. I also really like to use the email alerts. I can't say enough about the great stuff Google has to offer.

Thing 6 -- Mashups and Third Party Sites

I played around with Mosaic Maker and Bookr today. I even created my own trading card using FD Toys' Trading Card Maker. I love taking pictures of my family and sharing them, so these tools are right up my ally! I got real sidetracked with this "thing."

Thing 5

I just explored Flickr and found many pictures that can be used in my classroom and future library. Here's a modern adaptation of American Gothic. I'd like to create a collection of books that can be paired nicely with classic pieces, and this modern adaptation of a classic image is interesting.

Thing 4

I just registered my blog -- it's official!

Thing 3

I learned about the habits of highly successful people through the Library2Play work I've been doing. These are 7 excellent guidelines for living a happy, well-balanced, well-intentioned life. The hardest for me would be to think win/win, while the easiest would be being proactive.

Thing 1

I learned about the Library2Play program today

Thing 2 -- setting up my blog

I just set up this blog for my 6336 Media & Technology Selection & Application course. I am looking forward to playing around with it this summer.