Thing #22: Nings

Okay, I really liked the Teacher Librarian Ning and tried to sign up for their group and I joined the Texas School Librarian Ning. I liked that there were places discussing the things I want to discuss and brains I can pick for ideas. Texas School Librarian Ning… was typically Texas. They immediately put me on their list and and their arms around me. Apparently it takes the Teacher Librarian Ning a little longer to decide if they like you but hopefully they will. It was awesome seeing some of the topics and I jumped right in to read their ideas. I have to go to Arkansas tomorrow to check on my mom again… so I mostly lurked around and got their goodies but I promise to be more active when I get back. This is a great way to brainstorm and get ideas for library programs, find out the latest ideas and suggestions for running your library. It’s an opportunity to become a part of something that I think will be much bigger than the sum of its parts if everyone stays active. I hope I can.

Well, I have one more Thing to do and I really wanted to finish but if I’m to leave early in the morn, I better finish packing and get to bed. I guess I’ll finish when I get back.

Thing #21: Podcasts and Videocasts

I created a video using Photostory and pictures from Creative Commons section of Flickr. I did download Audacity and play with it but I didn’t use it. I just used the music selection available in PhotoStory3. If I had a headphone and microphone I would have tried but that’s all at school. I have used PhotoStory before and I have used Windows MovieMaker. Also, I use Smilebox and there are several applications there they make unique shows that I enjoy sending to my friends and family. They have a digital scrapbook, slideshows, photomatic, colormatic…lots of neat things to do with that program but it does cost. I even tried my hand at Animoto. Each of them has their own appeal so I don’t really have a favorite. I used PhotoStory at school last year for a project our teachers did for our Three Words. Our district did one, so we thought we ought to have our own. It was fun. I also used it for end of the year productions for teachers. We have used it for the awards ceremony at the end of the year for students to see a year at a glance. I have made them for Book Fair and our RIF giveaways. I am hoping this year to do some podcasting with our morning announcements. We don’t really have a way to do live production over the TVs in the classrooms but we could record it and upload to United Streaming and have it shown that way. That is one of my new projects I want to do for the year and now I just have to get all the mechanics down.

Thing #20 Part Two TeacherTube

Teacher Tube and YouTube both had some great resources to use as teaching tools. I'm sure that YouTube is blocked at our school but I am glad to know there is a way we can use them. I have used Zamzar at school before so unless they have changed I will have access to that. Hopefully we can convince someone in the Tech department to allow us in for 30 minutes to find what we need and we will be able to change the format and use it. I'm not sure if TeacherTube is blocked or not. Hopefully it won't be blocked. There were several videos I liked, and


I thought I could use. I chose this one because the library rules and procedures were very similar to my own. The light is a little dim in the picture but by the time you put it on big screen, it will lighten up. I had been on TeacherTube and YouTube before but hadn't realized you could embed them in to other places so easily until I took the 23 Things... so thanks again for helping me out. I had already embeded a video before at the bottom of my page as a gadget. I now see, I could have put it in a post... That's cool!

Thing #20 - Part One

I found this video on YouTube. It is a thank you to a library that changed a person's life. I thought it was an appropriate choice for me because libraries changed my life and it is part of why I am in an elementary library today.

Thing #19

LuLu – Okay not cheap but not over the top. I could see teachers using this for classroom books. It might be a site I keep in mind if I ever do decide to write a book… just to see it in print. One problem is they tend to hide the pricing of many of their items until they get you in there to create it.
Hmm…by reading the Craigslist blog, I found Conan O’Brien & Slash out guitar shopping and a link to a blogspot for a prostitute. I found some Zildijan Cymbals for a fair price but not awesome so I think I’ll just keep looking.
Google Docs – been there done that - Think it will be useful for students & teachers.
Wufoo- thing I can think of that I would use this for would be Bluebonnet Voting but probably wouldn’t. You could do a survey on what types of books that children like reading the most but I’m guessing I could just take the statistics from Destiny and figure that out. I can see school districts using this for a parent survey when they are looking for input, but not much that would warrant paying for a survey to fit my school library.
Omni-drive - Dead
.docstoc – Honestly, lots of cool things here but I’m not sure it is worth getting to if I had to put AdSense on my webpage or blogspot. I hate commercials getting in the way… I haven’t looked at it all but at this time, it’s not worth the “free if you add Ad-Sense” cost. Livemocha wouldn’t work with the new IE so I didn’t check that out. I looked at a copy of the page and it looks interesting. I might check it out from school using firefox. I’m not sure why if IE upgrades that people with a webpage don’t do what they need to do to keep up with the changes. I personally would like learning a foreign language for free.
Standout Jobs: not looking for a job…like the one I have. If I worked in a high school, I might really like this tool, but at elementary level, if I am not out looking then, I probably don’t need.
Upcoming: Okay, I live in a very small town, but it was fun to have them search for local events for Aubrey, Texas. It seems like if I take a drive over to Denton on a Thursday night, I can listen to a live show and meet Wes Hayden from The Bachelorette. If that isn’t exciting enough, there is a single family garage sale on Sat, but I have to drive to Flower Mound (another 10+ miles past Denton which is about 10 miles away from Aubrey. There’s also an 80’s night at a nearby Denton Mexican restaurant and a play in Lewisville if I want to drive a little further. BTW, nothing listed was happening here in the quaint little town of Aubrey…I didn’t even try to tell it Krugerville. We are a glorified neighborhood who outgrew its britches and incorporated ourselves as a city. Interesting…could be a place where we could list school events. I did search for Little Elm and found that the public library is holding a Saturday Movie Matinee but it doesn’t say what the movie is.
Im Cooked: Me, not so much of a cook, I’ll probably just skip this one, but I will pass it on to my culinary friends.
Urbanspoon however is restaurants and more to my taste.
Fun Stuff: Cocktail Builder … don’t drink but again, can share with friends. Not my elementary students though of course.
Zango.com is a closed user community – not open to anyone else. Galaxiki...not in to creating my own solar system right now but I could see where some might enjoy this.
Yelp! Love that Keller’s Drive-In in Dallas is listed as #1 in Restaurants and that Half-Price Books are #1 in Shopping. This was fun, enlightening, and worth passing on to friends, but not necessarily for school children.
Revolution Health was very interesting and seems to host a wide range of health information. From diet, to losing weight, looking for doctors, conditions a7 Diseases, healthy living, drug treatments, doctor and hospital referrals, and a place to create your own personal health record, the forum has some strange questions, but the health goal groups seem to be active and maintained.
PBWiki is now PBWorks. Good free site for a wiki
Frappr- Interesting. You can get a map to add to your site and map where your visitors come from. Might be cool if you have an active site. I don’t ever see myself needing something like that, but it is cool.
Google maps- love it! I love being able to see what a road looks like when I get to where I need to turn and it is fun to check everything out.
Twitter – I’ve heard of it and it might be something I am interested later but honestly Facebook wears me out, so I’m not sure Twitter would be much better.
Last - Okay, I really liked Last because you can look up artist, read their bio, find pictures, videos, albums, listen to tracks, find events, news, charts, similar artists (if you like this one, you’ll like this other one). I enjoyed their journal to get some feedback and the trends they see happening. It was well worth the site visit.
MothersClick – Good site for mothers…mostly for moms of younger children.
G.ho.st seems like a very handy way to keep up with this busy world where you have information coming from a variety of places. I like that it offers a way to keep up with my documents so I can access them from anyplace where there is an internet connection. I work on several different computers throughout a week and this would be very helpful for me. Now if I create something on one computer at school, I can upload and access it from my home desktop or one of the laptops I might use during the week. I haven’t created my computer in a web page yet but if I have time before I post, I’ll provide more feedback.
Picnik didn’t try but looks like fun. Honestly thought. I’ll be there for hours and I don’t have hours to spend, so I’ll just come back later.
Retail section seems to run the gamut. There is a t-shirt store (Threadless) that looks like you can give input on the design, Etsy which is more of a crafty homemade version of Ebay. Stylehive is advotaing the hot new trends and Stylepath wants to be your personal shopper.
Visual Arts – couldn’t figure out Color Blender, Swivel on the other hand had charts galore. You can use the ones they have for your needs or you can make your own.

I can see how I really would use the Web 2.0 Awards, to help guide me through some of those sites that have been deemed the cream of the crop. There is so much out there, you can just get lost in all of the things but it is helpful to someone like me who doesn’t have the time to investigate all those other choices.

Thing 18: Online Productivity Tools

I’ve tried both products and they both seem quite nice, especially when you consider the price. I think both are a great option for those students/ people who need access to programming to create something and can’t afford to purchase the products. I am with others and would wonder about the security of the online document but I must say, it is a great way for that forgetful child to save his or her document from home and then be able to use it from school as well. Both will have to make sure they can stand the test of time. Great competition for Microsoft Office… think it will affect the pricing? Of course, there weren’t as many bells and whistles in these free versions but there were some bells and whistles and that my friend is a start.

Thing #17 - Rollyo

I liked Rollyo. I created one Rollyo using links I already had for a research paper my fourth grade classes did. Then, I did a few Searchrolls and found other places where others had created a Rollyo that I might use. I used one of those to create a second Rollyo.
http://rollyo.com/sassylibrarian2/chavez-famous_texans/
http://rollyo.com/sassylibrarian2/more_texas_history/

I loved that I can create a set of links and then the students can search within those links. They don’t have to go to each one to see if it has what they are looking for. This is so much more efficient and might really get them much more focused on sites you trust. I can’t wait to share this with my teachers. They will love seeing this capability.

Thing #16 - Wikis

The idea behind wikis is awesome and looks like it has great potential. I visited everyone of the wiki sites listed. Some had very interesting ideas for using a wiki: Student book reviews, student collaboration, documenting library procedures, literary circles and much more. Last spring our Junior High Librarian set up a wiki space for the LEISD Librarians (http://leisdlibrary.wikispaces.com/). She created it where she was the Content Manager and although we can all add anything to it we want, we can’t change what she added. I went in and added a discussion page. No one else ever looked at it. So it has been stagnant after one week of conception. Doesn’t say much for us but maybe we can get a clear focus in mind and get it going once school starts. As I looked over all the links, it became predominantly clear that almost all of them have been at least a year since they have been updated and some longer than that. I can’t decide for sure if it is because most were set up for one specific task in mind and then when it was finished, so was the wiki or if they all chose another route to collaborate. The link for The Literary Circle showed that the wiki had not been updated since Nov. 2007 but there was a link to Mr. Miller’s classroom blog and sure enough the activity is still continuing just not in a wiki. In Web 2.0 where everything is always being updated or replaced, I’m wondering if the wiki is losing its standing and being replaced. Why was every example except the Spring Branch sandbox not being kept up with? Just makes me wonder.

Wikis are a great way to stay green when collaborating with others and it keeps your email from getting all jammed. So, in that sense, I think they are a great idea and hopefully, I can create one for my school with a few projects I have in mind and see if I can keep mine current. Some ideas I have are to keep minutes and discussions of our Librarian monthly district meetings there so we can all collaborate on items we are trying to focus on.…budget, library procedures, new books and lesson plan ideas. For students, I am thinking about a Book Club wiki, research on Texas Indians, Famous Texans, Texas Missions. I think I’ll start with 4th graders and if that works well, I’ll create something for the other grades. I am also thinking a wiki might be a good place to have teachers request collaborative lessons and we could do our brainstorming there to get it set up to go.

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

First of all, let me say that the video “A Vision of Students Today” really has me worried. Here you have a teacher who thinks he is using today’s technology and he has the class’s total attention only to find out, they are being quiet because they are listening to their iPod or commenting on Facebook. My first thought was Oh My! Those students will be teaching at my school in the next 3+ years. Now I know throughout all the years there have always been students who are goofing off in class but honestly….Could any of them tell him anything he said in class? I really want to know that. Surely he was imparting some wisdom of importance or he wouldn’t have been there, right? I know we have entered a new age… one I most definitely want to be a part of and I want my students to be the beneficiary of my desire to know more. I just think that the internet, web 2.0, isn’t everything. Oh my! Did I just say that in this class? You know a good book, under a nice cool shade tree sure would be nice right about now.

Rick Anderson’s “Away from the Icebergs” suggests that “we need to focus our efforts not on teaching research skills but on eliminating the barrier that exists between patrons and the information they need…” Okay, he’s in at a University level and that may be true. However, if as an elementary librarian, I take that approach, he won’t be able to meet the patron at their level because they won’t understand it at all. At this level is where we do the teaching. We have to work hard for students to understand the connections between the information they can get and how to relate what they have learned. Somewhere there has to be some teaching or they won’t have enough understanding to know the difference between valid and invalid resources. Blogging is great and there are a lot of truly intelligent people out there who are reliable but there are those that aren’t. Just look at the fans for Boing Boing where one of the most recent post was “Jesus Christ We are on the *!?#” Moon” Hmmm… not real…not funny… How do they know when things aren’t true? I agree that the more user-friendly we become, the more likely it is to be used. Wasn’t I just the one that said, I want to teach research skills not typing skills? I want to teach the skills students will need to be able to access information but I want to help them learn how to decode what they see.

I liked David Warlick’s post 2 Cents Worth. The survey showed that most believe you can have a good teacher who is not using technology…but truly he/she is not doing his/her job.

It’s a little scary to consider not having that “Just in Case” collection as suggested by Rick Anderson. There’s nothing I like better than the smell of new books in the morning and I hope we never get out of the bound and printed collection. I agree we need to look at other avenues as well… but please don’t tell me they will all be gone in the future. I like having a catalog that my students can see from home. I like providing them with lots of ways to make book lists and book reviews and notes to me and I think that is very important. I agree the library of the future will have to do even more to meet students where they are but nothing beats a trip to the school library.

Thing #14: Technorati and How Tags Work

I did a keyword search for “School Library Learning 2.0” in blog posts, in tags and in the Blog Directory. In Blog Posts I came up with 7 results. When I changed it to tags only… there were zero results. I got the same results in the Blog Directory. When I went back and did the search without the quotation marks I got 907 results...some of which were relevant and some weren’t. I found lots of good information here and again, changing how it is searched, changed what information I got. I checked out Boing Boing which is the most popular rated blog by fans. I have to say I wasn’t quite sure why. There were broken links, videos credited incorrectly. I also checked out some of the “Top Searches” and some of the Top 100 blogs by authority. Some were useful, some were fun, and some were not useful to me.

I am however; totally fascinated by how tags work to help you find what you are looking for. It was interesting to look at Technorati and see what types of things are important to those delving into the computer world. Not surprising that many were blogs devoted to tips, gadgets and mashables. It’s amazing how many people are out there in the blogger world. I like in Delicious how I can make my own tags because I can customize it for me and how my brain works. I also like on Technorati how the actual blogger does the tagging because you get a greater sense of the writer’s purpose…even if maybe that’s not exactly what you got out of it. I haven’t gone out and tagged my world yet but I do intend to. In my world of information overload, this is just the tool I need. Now I just have to Do IT!

I am also very excited that I am 2/3 of the way finished and that Thing 14 didn’t take me as long because I had already claimed my blog on Technorati and looked at their widgets. Woo Hoo for me! I start a workshop tomorrow on Capturing Kid’s Hearts and I’m guessing my next three days will be jam packed.

Thing 13: Tagging and Discover Delicious

Well now… Wasn’t that delightful! I looked at all the info on Delicious and went crazy. Guess anyone reading my blog has figured out by now, that going crazy isn’t a true statement …that I have probably been in that state for a while….but I did just LOVE it. Oh my goodness, I am so disorganized at times and I find all these cool things and bookmark them on my computer and then I think…what was the name of that site that had that scrapbooking hints that I wanted to use, or that lesson plan that was just perfect? Then I look at the names of the sites, the folders I attempted to use but which are now so jumbled up and I just Google again to see if I can find it. I’m thinking this site could go a long ways into helping me out. BTW Furl is now Diigo, Magnolia wilted, and Digg made me mad because they had a page on top stories and the link didn’t even work. Okay, I understand when info has been there a while and now it isn’t but if it is a top site, that shouldn’t have happened. Makes a person lose confidence.

Okay, back to my happy place… I loved Delicious. At first I searched for school libraries and ending up find mostly UK, AU, Canada sites but a few were here in the good old US A. I found Mrs. Mac’s Library site which was really fun. It had lots of 2.0 ideas and it looks like she’s doing a good job of using them in her library. Good Inspiration! Can’t wait to try some of her toys…ok ok I tried a few already but not all of them. At first I couldn’t figure out how to find some friends and add them so I called my Tech friend at school and made her open an account and I added her. Once I figured that out, I just searched for Library2Play and lo and behold there was jwillia and mgdry which I checked out and liked that they had already bookmarked several things I was planning to add so I just put them in my network. Work done in half the time! I like that.

I can see how I could set this up for research for my students and it would work very well. I generally create an html page or I add links on my library home page for students to use when doing research. Although K-4 children are able to type in a website URL, it is very time consuming and instead of teaching research, you are mostly teaching typing skills, so something like this would be really helpful. With all the tags you could create your own safe search engine for the students.

I plan to truly use Delicious a lot for both personal and professional use. Oh & I found a video I couldn't resist. I put it at the bottom of the page. Off track I know, but it made me laugh and isn't that what it is all about.

Thing #12 Creating Community through Commenting

I totally agree with CoolCat when she says “Start by genuinely complimenting the blogger in some way and point out where you do agree.” It’s like my mother always told me about saying something nice. Most of the time if you don’t have something nice to say, I think you should just leave it alone and don’t say anything at all. See I listened to my mother. Sure sometimes, somebody says something that you disagree with, but unless you feel you are under some moral obligation to set them back on a different path, just walk away.
I also liked what CoolCat and Meredith Farkas said about sharing. I’m thinking that’s what blogging is all about…sharing what we know with others while they share what they know with us. It doesn’t matter if the epiphany hits you when you are commenting on someone’s blog or blogging on your own, when the spark comes, let it shine. I don’t know… maybe because I’m older but you know when I do get one of those sparks, it is important to shine where I am…. You never know when it will come back to me. (Age and A.D.D. don’t mix real well and when your early stage Alzheimer’s mom calls you every few minutes to see how to start that lawnmower you made her buy… your mind really gets muddled.)
Plus, you know it feels good when someone comments on your page… Grendel (GOI-BOK) commented on mine and I kept a huge smile on my face for hours. You know…just thanks for noticing. Big Red also commented on mine because she too suffers from A.D.D. We both have to grab hold of that old fishing pole and reel ourselves in every once in a while. Love it…misery loves company too. I loved that VWB noticed my followers link doesn’t show up correctly even though he wasn’t sure how to fix it. There again…misery loves a little company, even if it’s just sympathy.
Let me tell you what I didn’t get… if someone so nicely comments me, do I respond with another comment there on my blog or do I go to their blog. I read Draper’s Edublogger Etiquette but those ideas seem to be based on those bloggers who have lots of readers. Me, I figure I might have had three readers and who knows if they will ever come back so if I comment on my own blog to their comment, will they ever see it? You know …that’s pretty presumptuous and I did want them to know I read their comments and it was important to me. Some don’t have emails. Most don’t have a general comment area… you know where you can just say something like, “Thanks for stopping by and bringing a smile to my face.” …so what do you do? Any comments?
Made comments on:
Is the Dancing Librarian a Web 2.0 er? Maybe! about her Wordle problem. I had the same problem and took the easy way out.
Get in Gear – who had the great idea to use Library Thing to set up her classroom library. Can’t wait to pass this idea on to all my teachers.
Schock-ing Thoughts: to get her feedback on replying to comments
Watt’s Up for making a great mosaic and giving some super ideas about how to use it in a classroom/grade level. I will love sharing those ideas with my teachers.
Tina’s Treasures & Tidbits: thanking her for turning me on to a blog on “iTunes feeds for the 2.0 Teacher” It is a nice little treasure I might not have located on my own and I liked what I found there.
Chessie’s tales, motorcycles and rides is a blog I follow. She is on a ride where she has stopped at Historic Auto Attractions in Roscoe IL. They have some of the coolest cars and more with great history. She documents all of her trip with some pretty cool photos. I love riding and my summer has been so busy I haven’t gotten to ride like I would like to so it sort of feels like I am taking some vicarious vactions with her. Hopefully before school starts, my husband and I can hit the open road at least for a long weekend.
I joined The Cuttlebug Spot. I love crafting. I am the queen of craft supplies…but not the Queen of Craft. Mostly I have time to look at all my lovely equipment and supplies and go… gee..wouldn’t that make a great card, scrapbook page, insert for a picture mug, jeweled pattern for a shirt…I could go on and on but honestly if I took the time to do that, I could just go create something. Anyway found a really nice award winning card, so I commented on it.
Okay, so that’s five Library2Play members and 2 non-Library2Play so Woo Hoo! Thing 12 is shall we say…HISTORY! Well, at least completed. Now can I go back and play?

Thing #11: Library Thing

Wow, Library Thing was fast. I picked some older titles and BAM! There they were. I have a copy of The Shepherd of the Hills and was surprised when the title even came up. It didn’t have a listing for my 1907 copy but I was able to take another one and just edit it. Too bad you can’t download MARC records from here. I looked at several groups but with all the blogs I joined and trying to get my 23 Things finished, I decided to only join the three most relevant to me which were “Librarians who Library Things,” “Children’s Fiction” and “Children’s Literature.” It was fun to see other people who had books similar to mine. It will probably be more interesting when I add a lot of books and found someone who reads the things I read. It was nice to see some of the …if you read this book, you’ll like this other book… when the person recommending it is a librarian. The Librarians had a humorous feed on “Funny Requests from Patrons.” Even though most of them were a public library, I could still relate to the crazy requests some of them had. I added Library Things blog to my blogspot.

Thing #10 Online Image Generators

Here I come, sliding into second base on a wing and a prayer. Obviously this wasn't meant for those with A.D.D. unless of course, you intend on giving me another month to finish. I have played for the last three days for hours... let me tell you HOURS, on all of these toys. I just finished with my last one today. I started Wordle this morning at 7:00 and I went to Glogster and it's 3:00(luckily I talked myself out of making another trading card, since I made one the last time I was directed to Flickr toys). I of course had a blast with all of them. I made Smiley face everything. I made comic strips, word mosaics, magazine covers, morphed pictures, and of course spent hours on Wordle. By the time I got to Glogster, I convinced myself to make just one poster. You did say to "Have Fun" right? I suppose Wordle was the most fun however I obviously had fun making comic strips.

I made a lot of wordles but I'm only uploading one of them.

(CREATED BY WORDLE.COM)

Here’s a link for my poster I made from Glogster. http://stinkerbell2.glogster.com/My-First-Harley/ I really wanted to include it but I am too tired to figure out how to shrink it at the moment. Here’s a thumbnail. You know you can only get your first Harley once in a lifetime and that moment should be commemorated some way... even if the picture is a little blurry.

Thing #9: Useful Library-Related Blogs and News Feeds

Google Blog Search was pretty good and I came up with mostly relevant items in the various searches that I did. I liked it and would use it again. Bloglines was right on topic and provided me with the most relevant information. I liked Edublog’s Award Winners and added a few of the winners to my Google Reader. I also really liked School Library Blogs on Superglu. I love how they pick up current information that is relevant to me as a school librarian and bring it front & center. Topix would be good for finding news and it was an easy tool to use. I didn’t find a lot here that helped me in searching for library ideas, but I could see that it might work more on finding some up to date news information. Technorati was another candy store. So many goodies, so little time.

I didn’t find any that were too confusing. Some took a little longer to figure out but I figured them out.

I found a blog called Awful Library Books which was fun. I even put it on my Google Reader. I added a few more to my reader as I came across them. One thing off topic was a video I found on Technorati about 25 Things I Hate about Facebook. It was very humorous but went right to the point about the problems of Facebook. It was done by Julian Smith. It seems like he might have several videos out there but I liked this one.

zcnaidesuf

Thing #8 RSS Feeds and Readers

I set up a Google reader account. It was really easy and fun to do. I loved finding all these different bloggers and seeing the ideas they are willing to share. I feel a bit on information overload, because I want to finish all my 23 things but I want to check out all the cool stuff they’ve found access to. With my A.D.D., I tend to wander off and get sidetracked by lots of goodies that are out there. It seems every place I go has a gadget to lure me into playing with it. I have had fun but not as much forward motion as I would like. I love that I can keep up with people whose blog really interest me and I don’t have to go back there to check to see if they have something new. I can just go to one place and check it all. It’s really fun when someone puts something new up…. Like here is a piece of candy… You know because it’s just SWEET. I found a lot of information I can use in my library and that I can teach my team to use to help our students be more prepared for the 21st century. I want to learn how to make book trailers and then teach all my students how to do it. I want to find out a way to get our students logged on and participating. Would love to do a blogger spot for my 4th graders, I just have to get a little more tech savvy and I’ll be there. I think this is a great way to keep up with some professional reading and for having some fun. I did create a public page and linked my blogs I am following back to my web page but now I have them on their twice so I guess I’ll have to fix that.

Thing #7 - Google Tools

Fun but not quite as exciting as Flickr. I created a calendar for my busy month of July and made it public. Calendar: http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=lesliewoolsey%40sbcglobal.net&ctz=America/Chicago I created an iGoogle webpage to use as an additional page to my home page. I had already set up a Picasa Web Album with my blog photos but I didn’t add any more pics there. I have downloaded Picasa and use it on my computer for my photos. I tried Google Scholar and as with all searches, some things came up very productive and some things weren’t productive. I did find some interesting articles on Web 2.0. I loved Google Advanced Search. I found quite a few library powerpoints already out there that I can use. Some I will need to contact the original creator to see if it is okay to make a few changes to fit my library but some were good to go. I liked that. Google Earth was awesome. I had tried to download it when it first came out and there were some problems with it so I just deleted the download. I had lots of fun looking over the map and the different pictures and webcams. I can’t wait until it gets even more populated with pictures. As it does, I can see lots of educational uses here. Looking at the Disneyland Resort in Paris sort of reminded me of a Sim city with the illustrated buildings mixed in with real photographs. I had a great time and I can imagine that teachers and librarians alike will be able to help students in learning about geography, global awareness, landforms, and much more. Google Docs- I created a google doc and saved it but it took so long to upload a picture to it that I canceled. I tried drawing a picture and inserting it. My artistic talents left much to be desired, so I deleted that. I have used google docs from school before. It is very helpful when you are sending documents to others that you don’t know what types of software they have or can read. If you are creating document links from your school web pages, Google docs would be a perfect too so if they don’t use Microsoft Word or whatever, you can be assured they can read yours because Google docs are free. A librarian friend introduced me to it when she was sending me a document from home. She thought it would just be much easier to ensure everyone could read it. It’s a good way to save documents that you need to be able to access from lots of places. Saves you from having to find that jump drive that seems so elusive at times. I also created a Google notebook and made it public. Address of the web page:
http://www.google.com/notebook/public/16447532635979240897/BDQooDQoQiPP7u6Uk
My Google notebook is about reroofing my house. It’s not finished but I have a start on it and hopefully it will be helpful in making an informed choice in purchasing a new roof.

Thing #6 - Mashups & 3rd Party Sites

I felt like a kid in a candy store. I must have played with every Flickr toy there was and my Flickr account has the pictures to prove it. I loved the motivational poster. I kept thinking this would be a great tool for students to use when they come back to school and they are setting their goals for the year. They can make their own motivational poster to keep them on track. For the library, I thought it would be great to have students identify the type of reader they are and they could either use one of their own personal photos or one from the Creative Commons. It would be fun to see what they come up with. I could put them on the outside hallway walls of the library to share with everyone. I made a poster for one of my granddaughters. She's at that stage you know... I loved the Map Maker. Students could map where they went on their summer vacation... or you could even have them do it as a class to show where all they have been as a class. That would look cool. You could use it to highlight things like westward expansion, Trail of Tears, Major Civil War Battles... lots of things. The Trading card was lots of fun too. I made two of those. I think I will suggest we do a Vacation Trading Card to do among teachers when we get back... kind of catch us up on what everyone did all summer. I did a librarian trading card as well. That was fun. I made mosaics, warholizer (sp), the cubes...thought that would be a creative way to create story blocks. I also made wallpaper calendars, did a fun FX creation that I really liked.. I think I'll turn the art teacher on to this. I thought the badgemaker would be great for field trips. Too bad you couldn't get it to put in a real barcode and everyone could make their own library card. The CD cover was cool. We have a family band where most everyone plays something, so I made a cover for a CD I am making that has pics, videos, and music. Loved it! The trip planner was really cool. I searched for a place I wanted to do a weekend bike ride to and found that even for a short visit the place is a great one to visit. It took a lot of time but I truly enjoyed playing.

Thing #5 Explore Flickr

Flickr... well, I had a Flickr account (looks like it was about 2006... since that was my last uploaded photos.) Mostly I used it to share pics with family and loved ones. Obviously Flickr has grown a great deal since then. I had fun looking at some of the awesome photography available. It was fun visiting the library groups and seeing what all they had to offier. It would have been nice if some of them had been a little more detailed on the group focus because looking at some of the pictures didn't give it away. I suppose if you had been there with a group as it was starting, it might have been a little more clear. I loved searching the creative commons for pictures. I loved seeing photos of some of the libraries and getting ideas about different ways to set up my library. I noticed one message that reminded librarians to tag their photos and I also noticed that some photos were extensively tagged while others were very basic... book... name of library...state. I can see that the more tags available makes it easier to find. I've decided to go back and tag my photos so that my family can do better searches... of course, I think I'll update some of the photos.

Thing #4 Register your blog

Hmmm... was I supposed to blog that I sent an email to be included in the group. I did but I got a return email that everyone was out for holiday... so I will continue to act as if... be confident that someone will allow me to continue and hope for the best. Happy Independence Day!

Thing #3 - setting up new blog

Well, this part wasn't too hard. Mostly I just wanted to make sure I did everything I was supposed to do, in the way I was supposed to do it. I have one problem, under followers it comes up as not displaying properly and that really bugs me. I decided to go ahead and post to follow through with what I am supposed to do and then I will use this as an opportunity to learn something new.. a new challenge... wasn't that habit 3? I tried posting my avatar through html first and then when it didn't work, I went back and read further to see that I needed to do it as a pic. Did that and there it is. Woo Hoo! Now on to bigger challenges....

Thing 2- about life long learner habits

7 1/2 Habits
#1 I have no problem with goal setting first. If I don't know where I am going, there is no way I can get there... so this is definitely a habit for me. The problem is that even when I identify the goal, I sometimes don't follow through to get to it.
#2 I most definitely do accept responsibility for my own learning. I'm a bit A.D.D. and I have to redo things in my own way so that I can lock it down in my memory bank. If I don't, it's gone.
#3 Hmmm... View problems as challenges. Well, my normal first reaction is to view a problem as a problem. Grrrr... but I refuse to let something get the best of me so I forge ahead and generally can look back on things as learning experience.
#4 Confidence in myself... Well, if I don't who will? I suppose I could do just about anything I put my mind to... problem is sometimes I don't put my mind to it.
#5 Learning Toolbox. No problem there... I usually have access to a wide variety of resources and I put them to use as needed.
#6 Use technology to your advantage... Duh... see number 5.
#7 Teach/Mentor others. Being in the same district for over 15 years has given me the opportunity to mentor other librarians and teachers. I find that by helping someone else, I get my thought waves in much better sync for what I like about my library and what I would like to change.
Habit 7 1/2 Play. I tend to be one of those who works a lot more than play during the school year but I always take time to play during the summer. Recently my husband and I have been practicing with other family members to create a band. Our goal is to get me good enough that we can play in nursing homes and such. (Everyone else is already good enough.... I'm the new learner)