I'll be gone for the next 3 weeks...

Off on a Canadian expedition... I'll pick up where I left off when I get back!

Thing #11

As a person that spends all her spare time reading, I found LibraryThing to be just what I was looking for. It is fun to catalog your own books, but to find interest groups, recommendations and reviews all in one spot is wonderful. I read for pleasure, but I also love to read about the field of reading. All kinds of wonderful ideas out there. I got the small LibraryThing Link to work on this blog, but I never could get the widget to work that would show some of my books. Maybe someone out there can help me figure out what I am not doing right.

I work with reluctant readers at school and am always looking for ways to motivate my kids. I think reviewing and posting about the books they are reading in a private group would be really fun and exciting for them. They will nearly always take a peer's recommendation over mine, so this might be a neat way for them to share.

Thing #10b

Next I tried Image Chef and did the Word Mosaic.. that was a lot of fun.

On to the Happy Face Generator.... so many fun things to do at that website. I will need to go back to check them all out. That is one reason I have tried to link all these cool sites on my blog. That will be another easy way for me to get back to the ones I like.

I used the Smiley Face Logo Maker to make this sign for our ranch:


Then I went on to the Big Huge Labs and tried out the
Motivator, here is the result of that endeavor....
I was wanting to come up with some inspirational pictures and quotes to help inspire our parents a little bit.

I did this Rubik's Cube on Dumpr, just for fun.

I think these websites will allow me to be a bit more creative in motivating my reluctant readers and parents. I would love to make inspirational posters using the pictures of my students (with parent's permission). They do love a little attention.

Thing #10a

Wow, all the free fun stuff one can do with the online image generators.. Here is my first attempt that was made with Body Switcher. I will add some more later in the day.

I like the thing I made in Wordle.. I wish I could put it on this page, but I guess a link will do. My wordle is based on the word Read.

Thing #9

Well... I checked them all out... took me a couple of hours, but I discovered all kinds of useful feeds and blogs.

I particularly enjoyed the Edublog Award Winners and intend to make another visit to this site. I added two blogs, Hey Jude and Free Technology for Teachers, to my list that I am following. These two blogs list even more technology ideas to wrap my head around, but some of the ideas I look forward to getting back to.

At Topix Net I was amazed that I could follow news that pertained even to the itty bitty town I live in in West Texas.

I think the most confusing site for me was the Atomic Learning. I am not sure I understand how to add RSS Feed from this site...

Thing #8

RSS feeds was something brand new for me. I like being able to access information all in one location on topics of my choosing. There is, as others have said, an overwhelming amount of information available on the Internet... I had difficulty not adding too many feeds. For now, I just added topics related to my field in teaching. Down the road I will add more topics that relate to me more personally.

I can see where this would help us all make better use of our time, as well as it being a good tool for students to gather information on topics of interest, current events, and research.

I am not sure how interesting this will be for others, but I did try to share my "public page" on this blog.

Thing #7

So many "cool tools" to choose from. Since I actually have time to explore I went through most of them on and off all day long yesterday. I have set up two Google Alerts. I am an elementary reading specialist and am always interested in learning what is being talked about in my field. I have already received some interesting information. I got the Google Calendar up and running and intend to share that with my family. I am doing a great deal of traveling this summer and that will be a good way for them to keep up with where I am. The Google Scholar is right up my alley. I like to be up with the current research in the field of reading, and my eyeballs hurt by the time I was done reading all the articles that came up. Also the advanced search already yielded some interesting power points which I have tried to list below:

www.ed.gov/parents/read/resources/guide/reading-parents.ppt

www.k8accesscenter.org/.../ThreeTierReadingProjectAccessPresentation4-27-06-handoutformat.ppt

And of course, Google Earth is amazing. I found the exact house we are staying in here in Macae, Brazil. The picture was from 2007, but it was still way cool. I still intend to check out igoogle.com soon, but I get overwhelmed with websites. I have one at school that I barely keep up with. I am planning to do a better job this next year.

Thing #6

This morning I tried... but I just could not get this Mosaic application to work. This afternoon, no problem. However, I could not upload pictures from my computer. I was going to make a mosaic of our travels, but things just seemed to hang up when I hit "upload." Nothing seemed to be happening. Maybe I wasn't patient enough. Maybe someone out there could give me some advice. The mosaic was a lot of fun to put together. The students at my school would enjoy it. I am going to try the Captioner later.. I would have made a Trading Card, but I have no pictures of me here... I'll get someone to take one and try again.

Thing #5

I had heard of Flickr before and knew somehow it was related to pictures, but I had no idea how extensive the number of photos until I got there. I spent way more time there then I meant to. I chose this picture because I am in Brazil missing my two Boston Terriers. I discovered that there were plenty of other Boston Terrier fans... thousands of pictures to choose from. I finally figured out and bookmarked the page for the Creative Commons Site. I would accidentally get out of it, find a picture that I wanted and then would realize that it was a copyrighted picture. The are lots of pictures in the Group - Dogs, dogs, dogs.... and I do realize that I could purchase them if I so desired. My students always enjoy finding pictures of people and places on the Internet that are mentioned in the books they are reading. This seems to help engage them and perhaps improves their comprehension. I will enjoy exploring this site further.

Thing #4

I have just sent my email to get registered, I hope that I am not too way behind everyone else. I'll do my best to catch up.

Thing #3

Decisions, decisions... however, I think my avatar mostly represents where I am at this moment. I may try to add a few more details a bit later... At one point I had to laugh, I kept thinking that someone in my family was going to walk in and think I was playing some sort of game... and I thought I was working so hard.. I need to lighten up.

Thing #2

As others have noted.. I also consider myself a lifelong learner. I enjoy the act of discovering new things and challenges to my abilities. Presently I am trying to improve my horsewoman skills, learn tricky new crochet patterns, understand and speak the Portugese language (husband's new job is in Brazil), and am always trying to understand how I can reach my students better so that all will be successful.

In reading over the 7 1/2 habits, I realized that "Teach & Mentor Others" is probably the most difficult for me. I am very comfortable teaching children, but in trying to work with my peers, I lose my self confidence. Quite often I become tongue tied. The easiest habit would be having confidence in myself as a competent, effective learner. I enjoy challenging myself to aborb and then utilize new information and ideas. The whole process is very stimulating.