Thing #12

There were many interesting and important comments about blogging. I would like to have my students blog concerning books they are reading, so I especially took note of the comments on student blogging regarding etiquitte. This is especially important for middle schoolers. Also, I think the use of an alias or nickname is important for students.

Blogging, in general, can be useful if one has something relevant to add to a discussion and finds other responses useful or informative. In reading various blogs, it seems that some bloggers like to be heard more than they like to hear. I would definitely stay away from them.

I replied to two very interesting blogs. The first was by Roger Ebert discussing his 50th high school reunion. Since my own H.S. reunion is approaching in October, I related to many of the examples of how his classmates have stayed the same and how his community has changed. The other was a review by Marti Schwartz of a book, Teaching Grammar (do I have to?), by John Norton. It was an excellent review with many examples of practical and useful ways to teach grammar without the dreaded fill-in-the-blank worksheets. I would like to read the book.

I have commented on Ms. T's U.S. History Story, Thing 12 on blogging. Time for blogging presents the biggest challenge to me personally at this time.

Now that I have finished all 23 Things, I have had gone back and commented to four other blogs, Whirled World, RKnapp, Melanie's Things, and Camille M. I seem to have an issue with the Camille M. posting, and will return to it later to see if it has been posted. A message appeared that my comment would be posted when it was approved.

Thing #11

LibraryThing seems like a great site. I belong to a book club and really enjoy discussing books we have read. LibraryThing will be an excellent site to read reviews of new books and to discuss books with others. In my L.A. classroom, the students could create accounts and discuss books they are reading with their classmates. I will definitely try this activity.

Thing #10

Well, I took my time exploring, but it was more frustrating than fun. Some of the sites didn't seem to work, and I didn't find some sites very user-friendly. I had a Wordle ready but couldn't find a way to save it to my blog. That was the first disappointment. I changed to Sign Generator, and was able to create the sign shown above. I can see many possibilities to use these image generators in the classroom if I can master using them.

Thing #9

Once I started searching for RSS feeds, it was hard to stop. I subscribed to several that interested me personally and several that will be useful for school. I found subject from travel to local news to teaching grammar and creative writing. I realized that I chose ones that expressed ideas I tend to agree with. I guess most of us do that. I wish I had unlimited time so I could read many different opinions.

Thing #8

This was fun! I like the technology of RSS to streamline my information-searching time. Like everyone, my time is extremely limited, so finding favorite sites in one easy step is great.

Today, I chose five blogs of personal interest and the Houston Chronicle as an on-line news source. There are many blogs related to education, language, world cultures and events that I can add for use in curriculum preparation and instruction.

Teachers and administrators have a wealth of information and opinions to learn from and to interact with using the sites they can quickly bring to their fingertips.

Thing #7

Although I "Google" every day, I enjoyed exploring the Google tools that are new to me. The two I chose to use are Google Alert and Picasa Web Album.

I have set up Google Alerts for two topics for the summer, and I can see excellent possibilities for gathering unit information during the school year.

I was especially interested in Picasa Web Album. My niece is vacationing in England now, and she is posting her trip pictures daily for her family and friends. It's a fantastic way for us to enjoy her trip with her now rather than later. I am anxious to transfer all of my family's vacation pictures in an organized way to my own Picasa album.

Thing #6

After wading through the Wikipedia article with difficulty, I really enjoyed exploring all of the ways to use the information and viewing many of the examples of each. I saw several that I can use with my students next year.

The Mosaic Maker would be an excellent tool for the students to use to create unit pages for their studies of regions of the world. A mosaic of sites from pictures found on Flickr to show the diversity of the physical features of a continent would be great.

The students could use Mappr to display pictures of important sites on a map of a region.

I really like the activity of students making Trading Cards of animals unique to a region. I will definitely include this in my plans for next year.