Thing 23

I can't believe I made it!! This has definately been a very challenging experience but so forth it. Doing this in 4 weeks was tuff. I really wished I had more time on each thing to explore. I felt rushed! I do have to admit, I do feel a little more techno savvy.

1. I loved the photostory, trading card, and learning about Flickr. I will be able to use Photostory in my library. I could use it to show the Bluebonnet books, or give the teachers a sneak peek at the book fair. I did have some trouble downloading my photostory to my blog but once I signed up on Switchpod, I was able to put the link in there. I just love the trading card idea. I will be able to use it in so many ways. My students are always needing pictures for projects that we are doing on the computer. Clip art sometimes doesn't have what we need. Flickr will be a great, safe alternative.

2. This has definatley made me more curious. Because I felt rushed in these 4 weeks, I plan on going back and taking in depth looks at the stuff I liked or did not feel comfortable with.

3. I found out real fast I didn't know as much about the web as I thought I did. I figured this exercise would be expanding on what I already knew, but it was a whole new ball game for me. I learned new vocabulary, websites, and of course new tools to use for me, my students, and fellow teachers.

4. I would have liked more of the "In Plain English" videos. Even after reading and going over some the things more than once, I was still confused. Thank goodness I made new friends to call for help-thanks Cheri!

5. I would do this again. Doing it during the school year and taking college classes would be hard for me. I would do it again in the summer but would like to have more time so I could explore further.

6. Challenging, but a great learning experience!

Thing 22

Today I played with the Nings. There were some intersting things on them. On the Ning for Teachers, there was a place to search for lesson plans. I selected my grade and subject and received some really cool lesson plans that I could use. I like the idea of social networking on the computer but I am more of a face to face type person. I like to see facial expressions, hear tones in their voices, and watch body language. This is a good idea for meeting teachers around the country but again I would prefer face to face.

Thing 21

I liked doing a photostory of my family pictures. Friends at school always send me albums of slideshows they have created and I never knew how they did it. Now I know how to do my own. Every year for Open House I have put together a power point of my students doing various activities to be playing while I was visitng with parents. Making a photostory would be so much easier and faster. I tried several times to download the video straight to my blog but for some reason it would not work. Here is the link to photostory via Switchpod.
http://media.switchpod.com//users/hmathison/myfamily2.wmv

Thing 20

I was aware that YouTube existed but had no idea that TeacherTube was out there. In past years I have been sent so many cool videos and would have loved to share them with my students, but YouTube is blocked in our district. ZamZar will make it easier to get by this. If not, now that I know about TeacherTube, I could try to find a similar video and show it to my students. Here is a video I found about the Earth and some of the terms that my students have trouble remembering. It is kind of corny, but it gets the point across and I think the studnets will remember it beacuse it is so corny.

Thing 19

On this thing, I looked at the tools that had me in mind. I was already familiar with CraigsList, but explored it a little more. The one I really liked was MothersClick. The main feature they had today was meals that last a week. They started with chicken on Monday and gave you five different recipes that could be made with chicken. For a Mom that rarely has time to cook, yes I admit we are fast food junkies, this was nice and very helpful. I can cook all the chicken I would need for the week on Sunday, and have 5 different recipes to use the chicken in. How cool is that?! This site also had a place for Moms to write blogs. I could only read the featured blog but had to register to read more. So I did. This was a free registration. They had different Mom groups: working moms, stay at home moms, single moms, expectant moms, etc. I could designate which Mom group I wanted my information shared with. I don't see how I could use this site in the library. Maybe I could share some of the information I learn, but it's not a site I would give my students access to. It is definately a site I will share with my co-workers.