Week #4-School Classroom & Library Related Blogs

I enjoyed reading and looking through the Edublog Award Winners. There were some amazing blogs with a lot of information on them. It gives me inspiration to see where my blog can go! I found that it was pretty easy to search using Feedster, Topix.net, Technorati, and Google Blog Search. I didn't find Sydic8 as easy to use. The homepage wasn't laid out as nicely as the others in my opinion. I will need to spend some more time finding the value in it. When I used the search term "dogs" I got some results that really had nothing to do with dogs. I would have to look through the blogs to find anything valuable. Now that I have done some experimenting with these sites, it will be easy to narrow it down to which ones that I want to use.

Week #4-Google Reader

I decided to sign up for a Google Reader account. I subscribed to the Quote of the Day, Simply Meals, 5StarDog.com, Home and Garden News, and NPR Topics: Books. I like how I can go to the website and read from the subscriptions the articles that I want to read. I can see using the quote of the day or word of the day in a classroom to use as vocabulary expansion or a journal topic. I am not sure about putting a link on my blog, I am still trying to figure out the benefit of that. I went to a few of my favorite websites to see if they have a link for a RSS feed and a couple of them did. It will be fun to continue playing around with this.

Week #3-Technology

I have an Amazon Kindle and I love it more and more every time I use it. It is an amazing piece of technology that I think every reader should have. Even if you like the feel of a book in your hand, this comes awfully close to that. I still buy "real" books and still have shelves of them at my house (and school) but I love that I can take many of my books with me in my purse and at any point when I have extra time I can pick up wherever I left off and get a bit more reading in. Another great thing about the Kindle is the wireless access so I can download a new book from almost any location as long as there is cell phone service. It is an awesome piece of technology!

Week #3-Mashups

So mashups were new for me and I'm still not sure I can completely see the value in using them for myself. The Montagr was intriguing but I found that it didn't really do a great job with a couple of the pictures that I checked out. I enjoyed the trading card creator and added my card to my blog :) I am going to continue to explore some of the other mashups and may try to use some of their suggestions for classroom actvities.

Lake Willoughby, 20 seconds

Lake Willoughby, 20 seconds
Originally uploaded by Zeb Andrews

I was really taken by the beauty in this photo. I love to see the beauty in nature and I thought that this picture just really summed it up. I have never been to any of the Northeastern states and seeing a picture like this really makes me want to take a trip there!

Week #3- Flickr

I was amazed at the content on Flickr! I have never been on this website, although I have heard of it. I am an avid user of Shutterfly so I hadn't expanded my horizons to any other sites. The pictures that are on Flickr are amazing! I really liked looking through all of the nature pictures. I don't know if I will switch to this site for my digital photo uploading, but I do know that I will use it to find neat photos and potentially use them for journaling topics in my classroom.

Avatar

So I played around on the web looking for some better Avatar creation sites and found one that is much better suited to me!

Week #2-Creating a Blog/Avatar

I know a lot of people who are bloggers, but didn't realize just how easy it is to set one up! This site is very user friendly. I enjoyed creating an avatar although it didn't have the right kind of hair, but it's close. I am looking forward to all of the new things that I am going to learn in this class. I am fairly confident using technology but some of the topics in the 23 things I am unfamiliar with. Hopefully I will be able to immediately put to use some of my new skills in my classroom.

Week #1-Lifelong Learning

After listening/reading the 7 1/2 habits of lifelong learners, I found that I really fit into that category! Although I sort of knew that already. The habit that is easiest for me is to begin with the end in mind. I am great at seeing the end even though at times the work seems like a lot to get there, I can stay focused. The two that are hardest for me are viewing problems as a challenge and PLAY! I sometimes see problems as problems and don't think about how I can learn from them. I am going to make a conscious effort to look them as a challenge and see if that helps. I also forget that we need to play sometimes. My life gets really busy and it seems like all I am doing is grad class stuff and first grade teacher stuff. This year I am working on scheduling activities for me and not over budgeting my time as I often do.