Thing 12 - Commenting

I liked the suggestions offerred at Ten Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog.
I think being honest and humble are important. By asking questions, you are inviting comments. It's important to interact with the comments that are left by your readers.

Thing 10

Not as user friendly as I hoped. I first viewed other team player's graphics and read some of their comments. Some of these website have errors and don't work correctly or not as expected. Even the "Kid Friendly" site had some problems. I found refuge at Image Chef - I hope my animation ends up working...

I sent a cool one to my daughter as a "pick-me-up". I could add these to my school webpage or class documents to add excitement and intrigue.

Thing 9

Now that I'm looking for the RSS feed logo, I'm surprised at how often it IS NOT there. The Google Blog Search was quite friendly - once again. On some, can't remember which ones, the search would send me to pages and then there would not be an RSS logo. Why? This added to my confusion.

I did get some juices flowing and set up a feed to help me with an ongoing problem I've been trying to solve in my computer lab. Found some good tips!

Slowly getting the hang of things.

Thing 8

This one has consumed me for several days. In fact, I was thinkning about it while trying to sleep last night - this is not supposed to be happening in June!! I have very little time in my life to read, read, read information on the internet. Therefore, I rarely visit sites with daily updates. So, it's taken some thought to see how I could benefit from this.

I subscribed to Google Reader and found it easy to use. I linked up with one of their Bundles dealing with Photography. Over the past few days, I've viewed the updates.

I realized that I could use this on my school website to notify students when there is an update to my calendar or other pertinent information.

Libraries could use this to keep up-to-date on research information taking place or community changes that are happening that could impact their school (ie., School Awards or Competitions, Disasters (local or national), Re-zoning information, TAKS test results)

The process to make it work is Really Simple but I need more time to put it to use.

Thing 7A

Want some mental stimulation, learn new words and have someone else donated money to a good cause, all with one click??!!!

Go to www.freerice.com and enjoy....

Great for teens preparing for the SAT/ACT.

Thing 7

What would we do w/o Google?!!! Those guys keep working hard to make the internet a Productive Place to work. I have started using their Calendar, Docs and Alerts for personal use. I've played with Google Earth in the past but had a hard time downloading it today.

Google Docs would be good for students to move documents from home to school.

Thing 6

Sweet...

Lots of goodies at http://bighugelabs.com/flickr and http://www.krazydad.com/colrpickr. I love the many options at bighugelabs (puzzle, calendar, cube, cd cover,pocket photo, borders, movie poster, pocket photo album (can’t figure it out), warholizer, mapmaker). At the krazydad site (a mashup!), you can select a color and search flickr for photos matching that color. I think this is really cool and a good example of a mashup.

At bighugelabs, I really like the warholizer. Below is my favorite photo (of bluebonnets) that is warholized.

Thing 5

I did a search on "Rule of Thirds" to help me teach a Photography Lesson. This photo also shows texture, pattern, and depth.

I'd like to use flickr.com in my Multimedia class but it will require the students to understand and follow copyright rules for this website.

Thing 4

It's official. I'm now part of the kickball team. In the 3rd grade, I could kick that red sphere over the heads of everyone. I was always picked first. Maybe someone will want me to be a captain!!

Thing 3

It's done! Not as hard as I thought. I figured out how to paste in my avatar by myself and THEN went back to the instructions to see the HELP that was given. I need to read ahead before I go off and work on my own.

I'm ready to start rolling....

Thing 2

The easiest habit for me is accepting responsibility for my own learning. Since I became a teacher, I've taken many classes to learn new things, get additional certificates and keep up with technology.

The hardest habit for me is teaching/mentoring others. Not really teaching students but mentoring to other teachers.

Thing 1

Nice intro to get started on this techno journey. It's good to start off slow, it's June!