Books with Bite@your library

Teen Read Week 2008 will be celebrated at thousands of public and school libraries, classrooms, and bookstores across the country. Because teens have many activities that keep them busy, reading sometimes loses out to homework, jobs or sports . Reading skills get rusty when they are not used. This years theme reflects the vampire craze currently gripping not only our school but the nation as well. Due to TAKS testing taking place in the library, we will push back our Teen Read celebration by a week. We have a variety of activities planned for the week which include taking pictures of students and faculty holding their favorite book. A contest for a Twilight themed prize and other activities. Don’t forget to come by the library and checkout all of our Books With Bite!

Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week is always observed during the last week of September. The central message for Banned Books Week is that censorship violates the right of free expression. Observed annually, this ALA event celebrates the freedom to read books that may be considered inappropriate or express unpopular ideas.
In our library we set up a display of books that are on a list of most challenged books. Many students are surprised to see some of their favorites on the list and in our display case. We often have to open the case for students who want to check out a "Banned Book".
This display has become an annual event for us and one that always prompts questions and discussion.

Inservice Day

So much planning over the summer in preparation of my inservice with the Geography teachers of our school district only to be told that I would only have half a day with them. Dilema, what to cover in half the time that would really stick with them.
Of course I introduced them to all of the databases made available through the DKC package as well as resources available through Region one. Unitedstreaming was a big hit, especially with all of the new teachers. Everyone had an opportunity, thanks to our Computers on Wheels, COW, to work with their own laptop and search for video clips and work on a short powerpoint presentation with an embeded video clip.
Animoto was a huge hit. The teachers loved it. So much positive feedback and they were coming up with many ways to use it with their students. Many of them signed up for Animoto for Educators and hopefully are using it as the year progresses. I created a video to share with them to give them an idea how they might use Animoto with their classes.

ESC Thing #23, Week 9

To sum everything up:
1. My favorite sites are del.icio.us, all the image generators and LibraryThing.
2. This program has made me realize that we can never stop learning. Just when you think you have mastered something you realize how much more there is to learn.
3. What was unexpected for me was how much I learned and how much I enjoyed the program.
4. For me, the format was perfect. Self-paced and very non-threatening. Offering the program over the summer was a great idea.
5. If another discovery program was offered in the future similar to this one, I would definitely participate. How about Web 2.0 part II?
6. The more I learned during this experience the more I realized how much more I had to learn.Technology is a great thing.

ESC Thing #22, Week 9

I must have a defective gene somewhere because I just don't enjoy the idea of downloading a book. Nothing is as comforting for me as wrapping myself in a quilt and reading. It's not just about the comfort, its the smell of the book, the feel of that book in my hands as I turn the page that completes the experience for me.

That does not mean that e-books do not have a place in our libraries. Our school subscribes to some e-books and they are used by our students for research purposes mainly. I really think that some of our students would enjoy these sites as a resource for cliff-notes, or reading class sets assigned from home.

ESC Thing #21, Week 9

Last fall I attended the Young Adult Conference held at Sam Houston State University and one of the workshops was on podcasting. I was able to create a podcast by following the guidelines set forth by the professor conducting the workshop. Upon returning home, however, I have not been able to create a podcast. I searched all of the sites provided and was able to subscribe to a podcast titled "Teacher 2.0". It was extremely easy to load to iTunes. I look forward to listening to the podcast.

ESC Thing #20, Week 9

Instead of posting a professional YouTube video, I decided to find a video just for fun. As my students, daughters, friends and I anxiously await Stephenie Meyer's latest Twilight saga, Breaking Dawn, here is a pretty good book trailer that promotes the book. I love so many of the videos on YouTube but our filter does not allow them to come through. There is much that is inappropriate, and of course high school students will be drawn to that. However, are we to keep out all of the good?

ESC Thing # 19, Week 8

LibraryThing is great. I was able to add books as requested and I joined the YA Lit group. I had previously set up an account and have been adding to my library every time I read something new. Added the widget to our school blog and will try and add it to our library web page when school begins again. What a great way to advertise new books to our students.

Dolly Part 2

It has been a few days since my last post. Our DSL line went out again and we did not have Internet service until this morning. I feel bad even mentioning it knowing that there are still some communities without electricity or worse even, plumbing.
What is it about this blogging exercise that is so addicting? We are truly social creatures. It is hard to imagine living without my favorite blogs and web sites that I have come to rely on not only for education but for entertainment and social interaction. Okay, time to get back to 23 things, I'm a little behind.

Hello Dolly !!

Well hello Dolly. Brownsville took quite a punch but thankfully our city suffered only minor damage. Our backyard looks like, well it looks like a hurricane hit it. Broken limbs, debris everywhere and inches of rainwater everywhere. I am still grateful that it wasn't far worse than it was. We never lost our electricity but for some reason our DSL line went out and I felt so cut off from the rest of the world. My daughters were not the only ones going through withdrawal.

It's clean up time and we are all busy cleaning up after the storm. I will post pictures on my Flikr account soon. A big thanks to everyone out there praying for South Texas, it helped.

ESC Thing #18, Week 8

From my previous post you can see my Zoho Writer experiment. While at Zoho I looked at some of the presentations that are shared. I searched Web 2.0 and found quite a few that offered some great information. Posting to my blog was so easy, it took me no time at all to send it over.

Teacher Inservice

I am trying very hard to organize my thoughts and think of what will be the most effective way to inservice 9th grade geography teachers. While Hurricane Dolly is churning away in the Gulf of Mexico this is as good a time as any to try out Zoho Writer and finally put my thoughts down.

• Introduction to databases
  
• Unitedstreaming
  
• How to download and imbed video into presentation software
  
• Web 2.0
  
• Applications of Web 2.0, what comes through the filtering software
  
• Using Animoto and Photostory for class projects
  
• del.icio.us
  

That should keep us busy for the entire day. We probably won't make it through half of what I would like to do. I only hope I can keep their attention.

Technorati Tags Geography,Teachers,Teachers,Inservice

Twilight

Just playing with Imageloop and created a cool little slide show of Bella and Edward. Can't wait for the movie!!!

ESC Thing # 17, Week 7

There really just isn't enough time to look through all of the wonderful ideas on what to do with Wikis. I've added the California Curriculum Connections wiki to my del.icio.us account for further study.

Am very intrigued by their idea of "2.0 THING of the WEEK " "Would teachers like hearing about a new 2.0 tool or set of tools each week or so? Why not feed classroom teachers (or interested teachers only) some or all of the 23 Things over the course of a school year. Something along the lines of a chapter-a-day book club, but it would be a "2.0 Thing-of-the-Week." What a wonderful idea. I already write newsletters for my faculty, this would be something that I know many of our teachers would love to try. If it is presented slowly and very non-threatening there are many on our campus who would love to give this a try.

ESC Thing #16, Week 7

Wiki, Wiki and more Wiki. Quick, Quick and more Quick! I really took my time examining the links that ESC 23 Things provided for us because I am pondering changing our library web page into a Wiki. Still trying to figure out what is the best format for our students. I'm feeling rather inferior right about now though. Just proves that we never stop learning in our profession. If we want to keep our libraries as the center of where learning and technology are happening we need to lead our schools into the direction of Web 2.0 and then get ready for 3.0.

ESC Thing #15, Week 6

As far as libraries are concerned, I love where the next generation is taking us. As a high school librarian I have seen the shift from books to web based searching. It is impossible to teach 2500 students to properly sift through what is reliable information and what is not though there are days that I give it my best shot and I have the tired feet to show for it. Putting our OPAC online and directing students to the best possible databases accessible from any classroom and from home have worked well with our students. I have already contacted teachers about conducting inservices on del.icio.us and other social networking sites. I have never been big on keeping stuff "just in case", not in my personal or professional life. With school budgets getting tighter and tighter I have made a major shift in my book buying. No longer do I purchase expensive reference books that I know students will not use, the bulk of my money goes towards fiction and high interest non-fiction which my students love. This has kept our circulation statistics high and our students are happy. They know they can find resources online either on their own or with my help.

ESC Thing #14, Week 6

Its pretty interesting that Technorati is attempting to categorize so many blogs. The librarian in me applauds them for their efforts. I searched for "School library learning 2.0". The keyword search brought up multiple postings. Tried searching just the blog postings as well as just the tags. Noticed that most of the postings that were brought up were mostly other bloggers participating in "23 Things" for other school districts in other states. How interesting that so many of us are trying to learn about Web 2.0 and all of its applications.

ESC Thing 13, Week 6

del.icio.us is really easy to use. I spent lots of time visiting many of the different tags that people have set up as well as the SJLibraryLearning2's account that was set up for this assignment. I had already set up my own del.icio.us account previously and find myself adding to it constantly. You can set up del.icio.us on your browser's toolbar and just tag and tag to your hearts delight. Since first setting up my account I have discovered other tools which make me love this site the best of all. You can add other users to your social network and all of their bookmarks come with them. Cool!!
I have already been approached to in service all of our district's Geography teachers and this is one site they will all learn about.

ESC Thing 12, Week 5

For some reason this gave me just as much of a hard time this time as it did in the spring. Creating your own Searchroll is not difficult. What is difficult for me is finding it once I have created it. Here is a link to my Rollyo account. I created a searchroll titled Young Adult Lit. It was a little confusing at first, not creating the searchroll, that part is easy. What is difficult for me was finding my searchroll once it was created. I was able to see my searchroll as a category in my Rollyo page but was not quite sure how to link it for this assignment. Kept at it and eventually figured it out. Is there an easier way to find our searchrolls? Here is the link to my Searchroll.
Every year I make it a point to attend department meetings to remind teachers what the library has to offer and how we can help them achieve their objectives. I have so many teachers who would love Rollyo and would either create their own Searchrolls or would like me to do it for them.

Wordle

Ms. Ovalle suggested I import my del.icio.us account to Wordle and view all of my tags as a word cloud. Thank you, it was very easy to do and my tags look great.

Just for Fun

As I attempt to keep up with all of the blogs that I like to read I came across this site, Wordle, where you can make "word clouds" from words that you provide. Has anyone else noticed how some companies are using these "word clouds" as a marketing tool?

ESC Thing 11, Week 5

Since I have been down this path before, I recognized quite a few of the Web 2.0 winners. Thank you so much 23 Things. Explored quite a few of them and here are some of my favorites.
Biblio.com was already one of my favorite sites, I've used it to look for rare and out of print books. I did a search for the book Stories that must not die and found some available. LibraryThing is great and I find myself going back to it often. As a lover of music I had to investigate Pandora, this is one cool site. I entered Van Morrison and then sat back and listened to some pretty great songs.
del.icio.us which I can't seem to live without now is a winner but we all know that.

Maybe I'm really dense but I just don't get Twitter, it's my age maybe. Ning is more my speed, I have joined the Texas School Librarians group and while I am not as active as some other members, I confess to lurking.

ESC Thing 10, Week 5

This is my favorite of all the free graphics generators. Comic Strip Generator is just great. Great for school newsletters or to add that little bit of spark to your blog or school web page. I started exploring some of the other generators mentioned in Generator Blog and tagged many for further use.
Made with free image tools @ TXT2PIC.com

ESC Thing #9

Looking for new blogs to read is always fun. Different people often commenting on the same topics really interests me. As long as the RSS feed button is available, and the blog interests me, it is easy to add to my Google reader. Google is always my favorite blog search tool and I have it set up on my iGoogle page. Technorati is easy to use and I have recommended it to others.

ESC Thing #8

When I first took 23 Things with Spring Branch ISD, I set up my own Google Reader and linked it to my iGoogle page. It is easy to get lost reading all of the news and fun stuff that I subscribed to as well as the library related blogs that I added as part of the assignment. Since setting up my Reader account I check it daily to keep up with all of the blogs that I want to keep up with.

ESC Thing # 7

Posting about something technology related is difficult in the sense of where do I begin? As I continue my Web 2.0 quest, the realization of how much there is to learn hits me in the face like a sledgehammer. How to serve our school population in the best possible way is always my ultimate goal. Converting our library web page into a Wiki is something I have been pondering. Do we add RSS feeds to the page? Would it be possible to create IGoogle accounts for our students so they could set up their own personalized pages? How do we make sure that our library databases would be properly utilized by our students? So many questions and so much yet to learn.

ESC Thing # 6

So many possibilities as I continue to explore Flikr. I liked going over some of the toys. I really enjoyed the badge maker, CD cover creator and the trading card maker. Would love to use the badge maker with our library helpers. We could probably have some kind of contest where we could have kids create their own card and we would judge the most creative. Endless possibilities.

ESC Thing #5

Flikr is a great site and I love all of the tools and applications it has to offer. It is extremely user friendly, you can upload your photos in a snap and it even gives you the option to blog. As I uploaded a recent picture I took in the library, it was easy to post a blog and it was sent directly to my blog. My only concern is, when do people find the time to sit down and apply everything Flikr has to offer?

Senior Bulletin Board

Senior Bulletin Board
Originally uploaded by sandd23

Every year we have a bulletin board for our Seniors to sign. The past couple of years we have added their Freshmen class pictures so they can see just how much they have changed. They really get a kick out of seeing their Freshmen pictures.

ESC Thing # 3 and 4

My blog has been up for a while but I can say it was a breeze to set up. Setting up my Avatar was just fun. I've worn that outfit for a while so I might change it up a bit. The only problem is I love what I'm wearing, it looks like something I like to wear. My poodle, Cosita, looks great doesn't she? Since setting up this blog I have also set one up in Edublogs which actually gets through our filter. Here is the link to our school blog , Porter Reads.

ESC Thing # 2 Lifelong Learning

After viewing the 7 habits of highly successful people I began to think of the way I learn. As a former teacher and now librarian structure tends to be important to me. I consider myself a lifelong learner with a pretty good stash in my learning toolbox. My weakest habit would be having confidence in myself. Not so much as an effective learner, which I think I am, but just confidence that the task is sometimes beyond my ability. Once I get over the mental block I work extra hard to succeed.
This is what I wrote the first time around and it still holds true. Learning about new technology is always fun for me. When I participated in 23 Things the first time I was scared to read ahead, it sounded so intimidating and beyond my scope of knowledge, but I finished and loved it. Now I know that with a little bit of help nothing is beyond my ability and new technology is just another challenge to overcome.

ESC 23 Things

Here I go again. This was so much fun the first time I decided to give it another go. It's like reading a book twice, you discover passages you might have skipped over and suddenly the book seems like new. Thank you Ms. Ovalle for allowing us the opportunity to learn about all of the new aspects of Web 2.0 technology.

Meme: Passion Quilt

VWB from A Library by Any Other Name tagged me to participate in this social meme. I must admit that I had never even heard of the term until today . Basically, a meme is a virtual chain letter. Usually I never pass anything like this along but I thought this would be interesting.

Here are the rules:

Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about...and give your picture a short title.

Title your blog post "Meme: Passion Quilt" and link back to this blog entry.

Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pounce.

Las Senoritas uploaded on October 30, 2007
by catface 3 from FlickrCC.

Our school is 99% Hispanic. Many of our students are recent immigrants and non-English speakers. Culture plays an important role in our students' identity. I see education as the way for our students to advance and succeed in our society while not forgetting where they come from.

Now I get to tag 5 people. Christine Reed, Mary Lou John, Maricela Sierra, Anne Cespedes and Lynda Corbeil. Tag, you're it. I'm hoping that if you do not currently have a blog this will inspire you to create one. Speaking for myself, I'm hooked.

Thing # 23

To sum everything up:

1. My favorite sites are del.icio.us, all the image generators and LibraryThing.
2. This program has made me realize that we can never stop learning. Just when you think you
have mastered something you realize how much more there is to learn.
3. What was unexpected for me was how much I learned and how much I enjoyed the program.
4. For me, the format was perfect. Self-paced and very non-threatening. Offering the program
over the summer might bolster attendance and completion.
5. If another discovery program was offered in the future similar to this one, I would definitely
participate.
6. The more I learned during this experience the more I realized how much more I had to learn.
Technology is a great thing. Beam me up Scottie.

Thing #23

What a difference a few weeks can make. I have learned so much and realize that there is still so much more for me to learn. This is what I love about my profession, it is constantly changing and the ride is so much fun. I have been informing my faculty about what I have been learning through my newsletters. There are plans for an inservice and I am very excited about sharing what I have learned.

Our school district filters blogs, but Edublogs is not filtered. Our library has already set up another blog, Porter Reads, and are encouraging our students to visit and leave comments. It is still in the very early stages but we are very excited about our new blog.

The format of 23Things was very non-threatening for me. If there was something I did not understand I could read other blogs or ask for help until I figured it out.

Many many thanks to the Spring Branch school district for allowing this librarian from South Texas to tag along in this fun project. Hopefully our school district or Region One ESC will offer something just as good for Valley librarians.

Here it is, thanks to my great sister-in-law who did some sort of magic, my Photostory video is finally up.

Thing # 22

You know, I just couldn't quite muster up the nerve to join MySpace. Ning, however, had me at "Hello". So many groups, so many choices. Who knew? I have learned so much while participating in 23 Things.

Explored a few of the groups, the ones that really interested me are the professional groups. Texas School Librarians and YA Lit in School Libraries are two that I will join. As I looked through High School Teacher Librarians the first post was by a librarian in the Bronx who seems to have issues with incoming freshmen students that are not motivated and have little knowledge about the library. It seems that those scavenger hunts we all use with freshmen are not quite working for him. It really doesn't matter how far away we are from each other, we all seem to have the same concerns and are dealing with similar situations.

Thing # 21

I surrender!!! You have got to believe that I read all that I was supposed to read, I created a podcast on Audicity and a video on Photostory, which is so easy to use. What was not easy to do is to upload my podcast or my video into this blog. When frustration hits I walk away and gather my thoughts. Well my thoughts are neatly gathered and I still can't make it work. Both of my endeavors sound and look really nice and I am very proud of myself. I only wish everyone else could view my accomplishments. So sorry to disappoint. I will continue to get this to work. Tried saving as different extensions and it still would not help. Any suggestions?

Thing # 19

Drumroll....the winners are!!! I recognized quite a few of the Web 2.0 winners. Thank you so much 23 Things. Explored quite a few of them and here are some of my favorites.

Biblio.com was already one of my favorite sites, I've used it to look for rare and out of print books. I did a search for the book Stories that must not die and found some available. LibraryThing is now familiar to me also. As a lover of music I had to investigate Pandora. This is one cool site. I entered Van Morrison and then sat back and listened to some pretty great songs.

del.icio.us which I can't seem to live without now is a winner but we all know that. As I am currently trying to help my daughter plan a senior trip the travel sites were a great help. Germany anyone?

Thing # 20

I'm a little bit out of order but I wanted to do this first. YouTube is blocked by our school district but TeacherTube is not. Located quite a few videos I would like to use both with faculty and students. Really couldn't resist this video. My youngest daughter had to recreate a Picasso when she was in the 6th grade, she actually did a pretty good job. Our Art department would love to show their students a video like this one. They are very good with technology and would jump at the chance to show their students something different.

Thing # 18

Okay, so I downloaded OpenOffice and began to play. Maybe it's just me but it was very easy to use. Microsoft Office anyone? I really like the fact that it downloads to my computer and is not stored elsewhere. Google Docs seems more like a Wiki to me, my opinion I may be wrong. I plan to play a little more with Google Docs and see in what other ways it would be useful in our high school setting.
What I really find cool about OpenOffice is the fact that students could download it from home. Many times our students have computers that don't come with Office installed and use Works instead. This would be a great product for them to use.

Thing # 17

I couldn't help myself, I had to post this picture of the cast of the Cullens. It seems the Twilight movie is well underway. Can't help but wonder who will be Jacob. My students are so excited they can hardly stand it. I even received a phone call from a former student who is at MIT to tell me about the cast.

I played in the sandbox and was very nervous doing so. I kept thinking about the video on Wikis and how easy it looked and thought okay here I go. As our Senior AP English class hosts a "Beat Nite" in the library every year I feel a Wiki would be a perfect tool for the class to collaborate and organize the event. So much is involved in this project. From setting up the stage to decorating the library to refreshments, getting ready for this poetry reading night is a huge job. I will suggest a Wiki to the teacher and see if together we can make this work.

Thing # 16

Wiki, Wiki and more Wiki. It always takes me a while to gather my thoughts after reading the latest "thing" and then deciding what I will be posting. This much I know right away, as I progress deeper into the 23 Things I realize how much there is to learn.

As I look through some of the teacher and school produced wiki's I keep thinking of the teachers and students on our campus and what they could put together. Our city of Brownsville is getting ready to celebrate our annual fiesta, Charro Days. Our art teachers have been using the library with their classes having students search for Mexican symbols for art projects and ideas for our school float that will participate in one of the parades. An art Wiki where all of the classes could collaborate would work so well with this project.

Thing # 15

So much to think about. The video was especially compelling though I am not quite sure how I feel about it. As a parent of a college senior I would hope she is not off task on MySpace while her professor is lecturing. I agree with the outrageous cost of textbooks but have no sympathy for students not reading them or skipping class. Should our teaching methods change to reflect new ideas and technology? Yes, although I feel some students are not motivated enough to learn and explore on their own. Reading blogs and collaboration in cyberspace is one thing, learning microbiology or calculus is another. Okay, I guess I'm a little old fashioned.

As far as libraries are concerned, I love where the next generation is taking us. As a high school librarian I have seen the shift from books to web based searching. It is impossible to teach 2500 students to properly sift through what is reliable information and what is not though there are days that I give it my best shot and I have the tired feet to show for it. Putting our OPAC online and directing students to the best possible databases accessible from any classroom and from home have worked well with our students. I have already contacted teachers about conducting inservices on del.icio.us and other social networking sites.

I have never been big on keeping stuff "just in case", not in my personal or professional life. With school budgets getting tighter and tighter I have made a major shift in my book buying. No longer do I purchase expensive reference books that I know students will not use, the bulk of my money goes towards fiction and high interest non-fiction which my students love. This has kept our circulation statistics high and our students are happy. They know they can find resources online either on their own or with my help.

Thing # 14

Tag, tags and more tags. I don't think I played this much tag as a child. I searched for "School library learning 2.0". The keyword search brought up multiple postings. Not all were as helpful as when I explored blogs. Visited the blog of an educator who works with ESL low income students and was fascinated by what he had to say about technology and getting more educators to use it. As a school librarian at a low income school with a large ESL population it is always interesting how other educators work with their students.

Thing # 13

del.icio.us was really easy to use. I spent lots of time visiting many of the different tags that people have set up. Once I felt ready I set up my own tags and now have a couple just for fun. Cooking is one of my favorite things to do since eating is one of my husband's favorite things. I have some tags for cookbooks and cooking and have even added some blogs to my Google Reader. Love, love, love the videos on Common Craft. I am already planning on presenting at an inservice and using some of the videos with my teachers.

Thing # 12

Well I did it, after a little bit of work, I finally was able to create my own Rollyo Searchrolls. The title is Young Adult Lit. It was a little confusing at first. I was able to see my searchroll as a category in my Rollyo page but was not quite sure how to link it for this assignment. Kept at it and eventually figured it out. Here is the link to my Searchroll. By the time I figured out how to make it public I was also able to add more links.
Every year I make it a point to attend department meetings to remind teachers what the library has to offer and how we can help them achieve their objectives. I have so many teachers who would love Rollyo and would either create their own Searchrolls or would like me to do it for them.

Thing # 11

LibraryThing is so much fun. I was able to add books as requested and I joined the YA Lit group. I am already looking forward to joining an online book club. It is so refreshing to know that there are other readers like me. As a child growing up I always felt like I was weird because I would rather read than do anything else. Now I realize there were lots of kids just like me. Too bad they didn't grow up in my neighborhood. Adding the widget was so much fun and very easy.

Thing # 10

Have had so much fun playing with Comic Strip Generator. I plan to use this in the library for my faculty newsletters and with the kids for displays. I wanted to post this cartoon because this is the look I get when I tell the students that the internet is down.

Thing # 10

Have had so much fun playing around with some of the great sites for this assignment. I used ImageChef to create the cool dude with the shaved head and the so cool message. Will post more later, I am going to catch up with Masterpiece Theatre and watch Northanger Abbey. If you are not watching Jane Austen on PBS, shame on you.

Thing #8

Okay, I finished reading all of the information on RSS feeds and set up my own Google Reader. I even linked my Reader to my iGoogle page. It is easy to get lost reading all of the news and fun stuff that I subscribed to as well as the library related blogs that I added as part of the assignment.
Sometimes it feels like I am swimming upstream and just can't seem to keep up with the ever changing world of technology around me. As a high school librarian I understand the necessity of these tools but feel that I am just playing catch up. I can see myself saving time reading all of the information I normally take time looking up all in one place. Students probably already use technology and would adapt to using it at school quickly. What a great way to link teacher blogs all to one page.

Thing #7

In case no one has noticed, Google is taking over the world. How did we ever survive without "googling". I have had so much fun exploring everything Google has available. Google notebook is something I want to teach my students to use. Only recently did I begin using it and have enjoyed it. Created my own iGoogle page with some of my favorite activities. Love, love, love to cook and art is one of my hobbies. Merged my Google calender to my iGoogle page so my family and friends could keep up with what is going on in our lives. I plan to play with it some more so I can add some of my recently uploaded Flickr pictures.

Thing #6

So many possibilites as I continue to explore Flikr. I even discovered that my youngest daughter has an account. Found some interesting pictures of myself that she had posted. I liked going over some of the toys. I really enjoyed the badge maker, CD cover creator and the trading card maker. Would love to use the badge maker with our library helpers. The trading card is not really my cup of tea but the kids would love it. We could probably have some kind of contest where we could have kids create their own card and we would judge the most creative. Endless possibilites.

Thing # 5

Explored Flickr. WOW!!! Question? Where do people find the time to take so many pictures, and secondly to post and tag and belong to so many groups? Sometimes its all I can do to get home from work, make dinner and get ready for the next day. My pictures are more family centered and easily uploaded to Walgreens.

Thing # 4

My blog has been registered and I am officially participating in this online course. I wonder if there is anyone else from the Valley?