Thing 16

Making this 'Favorites' spreadsheet gave me a few moments to think about my favorite things!  I have a category titled 'favorite places'.  Mine is Algarve, Portugal.  Anyway, back to work here . . What a handy tool! Right now I'm thinking it would be a great way for my own children to enter in what they want for Christmas. How old-fashioned actually writing a Christmas list has become! This would be a great tool to use to gather ideas at school. Instead of meetings where everyone doesn't have a chance to offer their ideas, they could have access a central document to share their ideas. The meeting could be held afterwards, to share and discuss thought-out ideas previously gathered on a google doc.  What a time-saver that would be! I'm going to try this at school for our year-end goal writing.  Our team likes to collaborate, and this will be perfect.

Thing 15

I added a dropbox and put some work that I did on my home computer, that I usually email to myself at work, in it.  On Tuesday I'll check to see if I can retrieve them from dropbox.  This seems a bit easier than emailing things to myself.  It's a new way of thinking.  I also opened dropbox on our main computer but it doesn't have microsoft works on it.  I'll  need to download the program.  I figured it would be easier to open dropbox than disconnect/connect/ re-connect the printing cable when I wanted to print from my labtop.  It's a wonderful tool and can help keeping school files available while I'm at school. 

Thing 14

image from Beaver Country Day School via google images

I had trouble getting the delicious buttons onto my toolbar. I upgraded to Foxfire 6, and I still got the message that they couldn't be installed. Miraculously, I looked up, and there they were. Some things I'll never understand . . . .There is so much JUNK out there! It is hard to find 10 sites to bookmark. I can't believe all the adds on many of the sites. It's frustrating to scroll or click through. A lot of poor design, undeveloped, obvious, and boring ideas. I did manage to find some great sites though, and within the sites themselves, options for other available information. I tried looking at the sites others had bookmarked, but didn't have much luck and it was very time consuming. Some of the sites were unavailable. I didn't want to sign-up to join any sites either. I feel as though I've signed up for so much already. Hey, any ideas out there for remembering all these passwords? I certainly see possibilities with delicious. I hope I can access this from school. I will share my information with my colleagues and I know I will be using it since I discovered some relevant, nifty ideas!

Thing 13

app archive art audio bachmann bench book booth cartoon comment complete conde contents contest contributors covers culture desk digest digital edition events fair fiction golf hendrik hertzberg issue james john lizza magazine movies nast news podcast politics profiles read ryan site subscribe table talk town vanity video vogue week yorker

created at TagCrowd.com

This is cool! It may be a good way to share information, but like the tutorial mentioned, anyone can add information, so it's not the same as getting it from a reputable website. People may have different opinions on what the tag names are, so again, as mentioned in the lesson, I may not be getting/giving all the information that's relevant. Hey, at least I know what they are now! I'm not exactly sure how I would use them in kindergarten. It could be a poem of sorts. Maybe together we could enter descriptive words in plain text and then print out how it looks as a tagcloud - as a different form of the written word . . . .

Thing 12



Creative Commons  Travelin' Librarian



I finally joined Facebook! I've been meaning to get together with my college buddy's for dinner, and I will try to do it through Facebook. I was the only one that was not a member, but now I am. It will take a while to build my profile and 'friend' friends.I like that it gives you the ability to set up groups and let's you decide what information you want to share.   My own children actively use Facebook, too actively, as far as I'm concerned. I can see some benefits. When it comes to getting or giving information, it is instantaneous,  but so is all the gossip!  I can understand, from a work perspective, how information can be shared, both by grade level teachers and within a professional group not limited geographically.
I do see the merits of having a twitter account.  I would be more apt to do so if I worked with older students.  Hoping edline does the job for my kindergarten parents!

Thing 11

Hop and Scotch  http://www.weebly.com/weebly/main.php
That is my Weebly webpage.  I wouldn't say it is easier than Powerpoint.  At first, it seemed like a song but when I started dragging down icons, I ran into trouble.  The column icon needs to be in place before pictures can go side to side. When I jumped from theme to theme I would loose the main picture I chose.I'm not too happy with the page I created, but it's time to move on.
I do like colored pencils, I really do. (On this blog, Skip?)

Thing 10

I never knew to click the compose button before writing.  I was wondering where spell check was!  I choose this Donald Duck cartoon because it is what I wanted to watch this morning. . . . . . .

Now, I just clicked on the video icon and got this directly from youtube.  I thought that wasn't possible.
I tried using KeepVid but couldn't figure out how to download from there.  Then, I tried the next one.  I was able to download and save to my desktop, but I didn't know where to enter the link to get the video into my blog.   (We were shown how to enter a picture by clicking the landscape icon.)  Now, that I know to click on compose, I know where the video icon is. I see now that I can browse and pull it from my file.  This is certainly a 'learn as you go' adventure!  My daughter tells me Tumbler is more user friendly.

Thing 9

source: http://fezfilms.net/leau_life.html google images

Youtube is GREAT! I discovered this experimental film maker while reading the New York Times online a few years ago. The above picture captures his painting style, but this documentary captures the essence of his work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOA53rMmH54

I commented on this youtube video letting him know how much I enjoy his creativity and talent. He also creates a video clip once a month for the Times. The blog can be found at http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/jeff-scher

Can I share something funny? Ilearned how to swim from a youtube video!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMoJVla31tc
Recently, my rotator cuff became sore from swimming. I did see some youtube self help video research, but for some things, I think you need the real thing, like a real doctor!

Thing 8

I used http://bighugelabs.com/popart.php and a picture taken of me this morning to create this pop art design. You can even shuffle the colors around! The biggest problem for me is keeping my photos organized when I download them so I know where to retrieve them. There are many fun ideas on this website. I'd like to try a photo mosaic. Look at some of the designs in the gallery:http://bighugelabs.com/gallery.php

Thing 7

What a handy tool Flickr is! I am NOT an over-achiever, so I did NOT check out the other photo sharing sites. I down-loaded pictures of my garden, and titled each picture with the name of the flower. I have always wanted to keep account of what was what, and this is a great way to do it.
As far as using it in the class, I think displaying children's artwork is a great idea. I also liked the idea of using initials instead of names. Of course I would need to get approval from everyone first. Is our district blocked from Flickr? If so, I'm sure there is a place for photos in edline. Here, I will share a photo of my garden with you . . .

Thing 6

Where is the picture?

THERE! I guess I had to write some text first! Was I supposed to set up a Flickr account as well? Well, now I have one! The reason I choose this picture is because I LOVE ANTHONY CARO'S SCULPTURES! I went to the Met and loved this one, in particular. This photo captures my total experience: walking on the roof on a hot summer's day, over-looking Manhattan, in total awe of the massive beauty of his sculptures. I saw a few people taking pictures that day. I wonder if this could be one of those pictures!