Thing #12- Commenting

Today I took some time to reflect on the importance of making meaningful comments. One thing that stuck out in my mind was from 10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog. Jakob Nielsen states that 90% of us are online "lurkers." I have realized that most of the time I fall in this category! Being a new blogger, I sometimes wonder if anyone is REALLY reading what I post, so from now on I vow to be a more active blogger! I really enjoy reading everyone else's posts so I should comment more right?
I also enjoyed reading the Cool Cat Teacher Blog on this topic. I especially liked how she mentioned NOT to be Darth Commenter. I have seen this all too many times when people comment on online newspaper. Ouch! I guess people feel like they can say whatever they want through the computer screen.

I found several personal blog sites that perked my interest. I am a BIG fan of Texas country music and I spend a lot of time looking up concerts coming to the area and planning out my trips. I found that Leslie T's Texas blog organizes all this information for me! I already have my next couple trips planned! I am also a fan of the Houston Rockets and I joined the Rockets Locker so I can stay up to date with all the latest news!

Thing #11- LibraryThing

I found LibraryThing to be very quick and easy to set up and get started. This is a great site where you can create a list of books that you have read and search for books you would like to read next. I really enjoyed reading the reviews that others had posted. There are times when I am wanting to read a book by a new author and not sure if I will like it. Chances are if the reviewer likes the same type of books I do, I will like it as well!
I also found the Zeitgeist feature to be helpful while searching. It allowed me to see the most reviewed books, top rated books, etc.
While exploring the different groups, I did find a few that interested me. One group I joined was Librarians Who LibraryThing. I figure I can find some useful information here as I continue my journey to becoming a librarian!
I think I will continue to check in on LibraryThing, but I know I will get much more use out of it in the future when I have more time to read for pleasure!

Thing #10- Online Image Generator

So I have become a HUGE fan of Big Huge Labs. There are so many fun things to do here. I had already found this site during my earlier searching, but I went back to play some more.
I have always thought that my cat Morris is thinking "not so nice" things about my dogs when they get too close and this is the perfect way to capture that! This picture was create through Captioner.

I was thinking this tool would be perfect to use in my second grade classroom when we discuss the questioning strategy. A teacher could create a bulletin board using the students pictures and caption bubbles to display different questions they are having while reading a class chapter book.

Thing #9- Library Blogs and News Feeds

Today I started my search to create my "circle of wise" and stumbled across Classroom 2.0. It is an online community/network of Web 2.0 users. This is a place where they can share their expertise or ask questions. I especially thought it was great that they had a beginners group for someone like me that is just starting to explore this new world of Web 2.0. It was interesting to search their posts see how others were using Web 2.0 in their classrooms.
I found Topix to be the easiest and more user friendly site for searching news feeds. I liked how you could change the location to search other areas as well. I moved here from Iowa so it is always nice for me to keep up with what is going on back there!
I was instantly overwhelmed when I look at Syndic8. This site was very busy to me and not visually pleasing to the eye.
Through my search today I did find an interesting wiki site create my the Wissahickon School District. I was not able to view the grade level wikis, but there were several other links that I found to be useful.

Thing #8 RSS Feeds

RSS feeds and Google reader were not something I knew anything about before today. Google Reader is a place where I can subscribe to different blogs/news feeds and receive instant updates. This is a wonderful way to stay current on your information and to SAVE TIME doing it! Who doesn't like the sound of that? A librarian could subscribe to author's blogs and teachers/principals could keep up with different associations to make sure they never miss a thing!

I was thinking about how this could be used in my personal life and I wondered if Pet Finder had an RSS feed. I did not see one on the site. My sister is currently looking for a certain type of dog to adapt and there have been several times that she has found a dog she likes and they already have someone going to look at it. Wouldn't it be neat if they had a RSS feed that would update you on the new dogs posted for a certain dog breed? Maybe that is wishful thinking, but I couldn't help but think how great that would be for my sister!

Learning about RSS feeds was not as fun as some of the other "things" but certainly useful for my personal and professional life.

Thing #7- Google Tools

I have always been a google user for searches simply because it is what I've known. I had never taken the time to look at all the interesting tools it has to offer. I enjoyed exploring igoogle where I was able to create a homepage specific to my interests. One of my favorite tools I found was the To Do List. I am a HUGE list maker and I don't think I could live without one! There is no greater satisfaction than crossing off something I have accomplished on my list! I wonder if using the strike-through feature would do the trick too?








I also like the tool that shows the current phase of the moon. This is one of our second grade objectives and this tool can really come in handy when the kids come to school and say " We didn't see the moon. It was cloudy.





I also looked into the Atomic Learning site. This is a site where you can go for quick and easy online training on different software applications and also submit questions you may have. I thought this was a great site, until I noticed that a subscription was needed and it wasn't cheap!

As a librarian using Google Alerts would be a great way to keep up with different authors, awards, and even new technologies.

Thing #6- Mashups and 3rd Party Sites

Wow! I don't know about you, but I have found myself losing track of the time and spending HOURS playing with these new applications! I love the idea of creating a trading card through Big Huge Labs. I plan to use it next year to give to the parents during class orientations so that they have all of our classroom information!


I am also excited to try Bookr in my classroom. It is a very user friendly application that could be used by kids of all ages. What an awesome way for my students to showcase their work! Every year we have an Author's Chair Night where we invite the parents into the classroom to share all the writing pieces they have written throughout the year. This year I am thinking each child can select their favorite piece to publish through Bookr and showcase them to the parents!

So far.........Thing #6 is at the top of my list!