Thing #23 - The Finish Line

Well, I made it! I really did not think I would be blogging about the 23 Thing experience already. My goal was to complete this by the end of Spring Break and I did it! That does not mean that I haven't had sleepless nights, late nights, and early mornings, but the experience was AWESOME, AMAZING, and EYE OPENING! I know my daughters and husband will be happy to have their mommy/wife away from the computer and not hearing me say "Let me finish just 1 more thing."

My most favorite discoveries have been PhotoStory, YouTube, TeacherTube, 2.0 Web Awards, Comic Strip Generator, and Library Thing. This experience has positively impacted me in my mission to be a life-long learner. No matter how old I get, there is always something I can learn. I really didn't not know in the beginning how this experience would impact me or my classroom. I was nervous to be bombarded with new technology and terminology, but was willing to give it a try. I'm glad I tried and have succeeded. My classroom and my life have been positively impacted by this experience. There is really nothing that I would improve upon for this process. If given another chance for an opportunity like this, I would DEFINITELY participate. Now I can sit back and comment on others' creations - I really enjoyed reading the comments posted about my experience/creations.

One sentence to describe this experience: AWESOME, EXCITING, CHALLENGING, EYE OPENING, AMAZING

Thing #22

Nings are very interesting, like SO many other things during this experience. I think Nings are a great way to network/collaborate with others in the library field. Valuable information can be gained by reading postings. Having a place to discuss library issues is a must, especially since most librarians are the only librarian at their school. It is also a great way to see what others are doing in their libraries and possibly adapting it to your library program. This is an excellent way to share ideas, thoughts, feelings, and concerns especially since libraries are rapidly changing.

Thing #21

I used Photo Story to create a Vidcast from this past Halloween. I had so much fun creating this for Thing 21, that I can't wait to make others to commemorate each birthday, holiday, etc. I think my daughters will love having their memories shared in another form besides photographs.

I had difficulty getting my microphone to work, so this one does not have vocals, but it does have music. I will try again tomorrow and see if I can get the microphone to work.

Classroom and library uses are endless. I plan to use Photo Story when my class learns about habitats and types of clouds. I think it would also be an awesome way to share what the library or classroom has done throughout the year (at Open House, end of year party, book fair).

Thing #20 - TeacherTube

On TeacherTube, I spent hours looking for educational videos in different curriculum areas. The amount of videos available is amazing! I finally decided to embed "Library Infomercial" http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=7567ce6b0475a63bf700 because it is about the importance of collaboration between the teacher and the librarian and how student achievement is impacted. It is somewhat silly; however, it's message would be a "fun way" to introduce/reinforce the importance of collaboration. I also enjoyed "Land in Water" http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4281b7c95cd7e7462349 as it deals with peninsulas, isthmuses, islands, and archipelagos.





Now, I have tried to embed these two videos (for the past 2 1/2 hours) from TeacherTube the same way that I did with YouTube, but I'm not having any luck. If you can help, please send me a comment. I did include the link to the videos so you can still view them.

Update - Thanks to VWB for helping me to embed the videos from TeacherTube - Your suggestions worked and thanks so much!

After exploring both TeacherTube and YouTube, I think this type of media is very powerful and an excellent way to "tease" or to stress/reinforce a lesson. What I found to be the hardest was trying to decide which video was the best to show, since so many excellent options were available.

Thing #20 - YouTube

Well, I started with YouTube and searched "library" and found about 41,800 videos with this tag. I really enjoyed "Sesame Street - Rock N' Roll Readers." It is really cute and would catch younger students attention and hopefully make them want to be "Rock N' Roll Readers"! The amount of videos available on this site was surprising! I can't wait to see what TeacherTube has to offer.

Thing #19

Wow!!! It was nice to see sites we visited during the 23 Things process (Goggle Docs, Library Thing, Technorati, Wetpaint, Ning, Flickr, Piscasa, Rollyo, and del.icio.us). There were so many sites that interested me, I didn't know where to start. So, I scrolled through the list and noted the ones that seemed to appeal to me.

I first tried SpringWidgets. It looked like a neat site to "add some fun" to my blog. I went to the widget gallery and created a count down widget for summer vacation. Yes, I truly am counting the days until the end of this school year. School uses could be to create a timer until a project is due, a teacher returns from maternity leave, or when a grading period ends.

Next, I visited Minti. This was a site for me, as a parent. I liked how it offers advice from parents, as well as articles about different aspects of parenting. This site will be one that I continue to visit as my husband and I raise our 3 princesses!

Finally, I visited DonorsChoose. This is a site that lets donors choose where their donation money goes. It profiles teachers who need particular items for their classroom, why they need them, and the donor can choose which teacher/project to fund. Donations can be any amount and the site calculates how much money is still needed in order to completely fund a given project. This is amazing - impact of student learning is so far reaching. I have read several profiles that have touched my heart.

I found several other sites that I interested me: Be Green, picnik, Med Story, One Sentence, and Wufoo. When I have some downtime, I'll be looking at these sites to see what they have to offer.

Thing #18

Well, I did not like OpenOffice.org. It took SO long to download and once it was downloaded, I had a very difficult time maneuvering around the application. I hope that with more practice, I will become better at using it.

Features: Writer is similar to MS Word; Impress is like MS PowerPoint; Calc is like Excel.

On the other hand, I LOVED Goggle Docs. I found it very user friendly and easy to maneuver around the site. It too is similar to MS products. I'm planning to upload some of the files I created in MS Word to see how that function works when I have more time to "play."

Thing #17

Okay, I just left my mark in the sandbox - what fun! Wikis have so many possible uses in the educational setting - note taking, collaborative project planning, or research - to name a few. Since wikis are new to many, a "sandbox" like we used would be a fantastic way to practice wiki skills before utilizing them for meetings, collaboration, etc. Once people are hooked, they will be more willing to use them for other purposes. I can't wait to set up my first wiki!

Thing #16

When I first looked at the syllabus for the course that required Learn2Play as an assignment, I was terrified. I had absolutely no idea what a wiki was and nearly had a "breakdown" as I read that I would have to create one. Thank goodness I decided to stick it out until I attended the first class meeting and learned what a wiki was. It really was nothing to be feared - just something new that I needed to learn about. I loved "Wikis in Plain English." This is the second time I had viewed it and the way wikis are presented makes learning this new technology easy, fun, and something to not fear. I really enjoyed reading Library Success - A Best Practices Wiki. I could see this being an excellent wiki to tag and read. It offers such wonderful ideas - weeding, job seeking, etc. As a librarian, I would like to have a wiki to use to increase collaboration with my teachers. Since time and different conference periods are such big factors, wikis would help to eliminate the need for common planning times, as either party/parties could update information at their convenience.

Thing #15

The video "A Vision of Students Today" was very interesting and has me thinking about the statics/information offered. I see how students today are immersed in technology/video games and have to be lured into learning. With their technology-savvy ways, they are not always grabbed by a lesson that does not involve technology (that they get to use instead of the teacher or peers) - Sitting and watching others is not the same as them being the ones clicking, searching, etc.

Now, I'm not that ancient, but I still remember sitting in typing class in 9th grade with typewriters. I did not have my first computer class until I was in high school. However, my oldest daughter started on the computer when she was a little over 3 and is very good finding her way around the computer/Internet at 5 years of age. With that said, we, as teachers and librarians, have to be mindful that students today are very much into technology and probably know more than we do, but with everything we've been learning through the 23 Things, we are sure to be up to par.

Library 2.0 is a wonderful way to keep technology infused into our program. It seems to be the way of the future. I loved "Into a New World of Librarianship" by Michael Stephens. His views/traits about Library 2.0 are easy to follow and mold into my library program.

Thanks Learn2Play and the Kickball captains for the opportunity to learn about this new world of libraries.

Thing #14

Technorati is a neat way to organize blogs using tags. I did a search about School Library Learning 2.o, as suggested, and was amazed by the amount of "hits" I found. This would be an easy way to keep track of blogs that interest you. Tagging is an easy, quick, and effective way to mark entries with "key words" that help to jog your memory about what a particular site/blog has to offer. I decided not to register/claim my blog at this time. However, I did add a News Widget to my blog - Read to see what is happening!

Thing #13

Using del.icio.us was very interesting. I did search using "clouds" as a tag and found many wonderful photos to share with my students showing the different types of clouds we have been learning about. This site is awesome as it is easy to bookmark/tag your favorite sites, as well as look at what others have marked as their favorite. This could be used in the classroom to tag favorite sites that you use frequently or those that you use to teach a particular unit/lesson. The same could be used in the library to tag important sites related to library information.

Thing #12

Rollyo is awesome! I added Teacher Helpers - sites I like to use in my classroom like Busy Teacher Cafe and others - to my Rollyo. This is a neat way to keep the sites I use regularly in one easy to find place.

Now, it was a little difficult to figure out where to start this process, but after clicking here and there, I figured it out. I'm gaining confidence in my abilities with all of this new computer information and look, I'm over 1/2 way done. I can't wait to see what lies ahead in the second half of this experience!

Thing #11

Library Thing is an excellent way to catalog your book collection. I find myself wondering if I have a certain book when I'm at a book fair or the book store. This is an easy and excellent way of keeping track of books in my collection.

I started with books from my classroom library. Since it is Spring Break, I was working off the top of my head. When I get back to school, I'll have to go and add all the books that I own. I would love to set-up another account so that I can keep track of my daughters' books. Our students could even track their book collections at their homes or track books they have read.

I'm still looking into the groups, but it was neat to see the number of members that owned a particular book.

I also enjoyed watching the You Tube skit! I've added books from my school collection on my blog. See if we own any of the same books.

Thing #10

Okay, this is the funniest "thing" yet. I could spend all day creating! I loved using Comic Strip Generator and Custom Sign Generator. The hardest part was trying to decide which item to create (especially in the Custom Sign Generator) and what to say. I need to work on my creative (for sayings). I have added two of my creations to this post. In the classroom, teachers could use these items to create motivational posters for the students. Students, too, could use the sites; however, several of the images were not appropriate for student use. Maybe the teacher could select the image to use and then the students could add their sayings.

Thing #9

I must say, this was not my favorite "thing" to complete. I found most of the tools confusing and hard to maneuver. However, out of them all, I liked Google Blog Search the best. I was given lots of possible feeds to add, but not many were to my liking. I hope that with more practice, this "thing" will be easier in the future and I will find more pertinent feeds that I like.

Thing #8

RSS feeds and readers are awesome! I love how information you are interested in comes to you and you can read it at your leisure. With a very busy life, I don't have a lot of "free time" to surf the net looking for items of interest to me. I found this easy to set up using Google Reader and began with a bundled feed about food. I love to cook and I'm always looking for a new dish to try. I also added "A Library by Any Other Name" so I can keep up with library happenings.

RSS feeds would be beneficial to both the library and the classroom. I could see a librarian subscribing to a feed to keep up with changes in "library land." Teachers and students would benefit from up-to-the-minute information provided by RSS feeds, especially on topics like science and technology that rapidly change.

Thing #7

Google is amazing! I've only used it as a search engine and was surprised by everything it has to offer. I enjoyed using Google Earth. I think classroom uses are endless. Students would love seeing where they live in relation to other places in the world. I also enjoyed using Picasa Web Albums. I created an album using photos from our family farm in Hallestville, Texas. We have about 100 acres, 2 horses, 1 donkey, and lots of cattle. I hope you enjoy my photos.

A link to my album: http://picasaweb.google.com/jobabeskla/OurFarm?authkey=UeAsjFN09_U

Thing #6 - Trading Card

I finally have time to post a trading card (posted on the side of my blog). I used a photo from this past Christmas to practice. This would be so cool to use when I teach my students about types of clouds, landforms, or animal habitats. The students could create "cards" to show what they had learned.

Thing #6

Okay, I'm having too much fun! There are so many things that you can make: CD covers, jigsaw puzzles, mosaics, trading cards, badges...

I loved the trading cards and badge makers. Trading cards could be created for books that have won honors (Bluebonnet books, Newberry, etc.) or for a series of books. How cool would that be for students to read over and get an overview of the book before they checked it out? It could be a mini book review, book summary, or facts about the author or illustrator. The badge maker could be used for volunteers, student helpers, or visitors to the library. Let's see what else I can create with this cool "thing".

Thing #5

I loved using Flickr. This is my first experience with this type of photo sharing. I need more practice to get better at using it, but that too will come. I love using tags to label and sort my photos when I upload them to my computer. It makes life so much easier when I'm trying to find a particular photo for a project or to print. The photos available on Flickr are amazing! I can't wait to practice with my own photos. Watch out Thing #6 - here I come!

Thing #4

Well, I'm registered and ready to go. The registration process was very easy and I received a quick response saying I was ready to "play." Here I go...

Thing #3

Well, setting up my blog took some time. This is my first experience with blogging, but I finally figured it out. I even created my avatar without any help. Boy, I can do this!!!! I have looked at other blogs, but haven't had time to respond to any. I'm really beginning to enjoy this.

Thing #2

After completing Thing #2, I find the easiest habit for me is having confidence in myself as a learner. I have always been a life-long learner. Pursuing my master's degree has been a dream of mine for several years. As an educator, I have to keep up with best practices and new and emerging teaching strategies so I can help me reach all of my students. The hardest habit for me is using technology to my advantage. Personally, I'm afraid I might mess something up and then it won't be able to be fixed. Hopefully, after completing this "course" I won't have this as my hardest habit, but high on the list of habits that are easy for me.