Thing # 7

What fun! All of these were fun; I made my igoogle page - but, I really liked the Google Scholor and the Google Doc. I've been looking for info on professional learning communities; Google Scholor let me do that search...and narrow down the research by year! I really liked that feature because it allowed my to look only at information that was really current. If that wasn't fun enough, when I got to Google Doc I took the tour and got hooked! Last year I had the idea of polling students by grade level to see which books they were most interested in. But, I couldn't find a way to do that other than pencil and paper (and then I'd have to calculate it by hand!). So, I let the idea float away. When I wanted anonymous feedback from teachers, I'd leave the ol' school survey in the mailboxes. Tonight I learned that I can use a spreadsheet from Google Doc, and create a form (from within the spreadsheet) with questions. Google Doc will calculate it all as responses come in. I even created a survey and sent it to myself to test it out. It worked! The other cool thing is that once the survey is answered, Google Doc will let the respondent see a summary of the survey. And, I've got to be honest.....I went back and played some more with the mashups! I'm looking forward to using both Google Scholor and Google Doc!

Thing # 6

This was a fun morning! I really enjoyed playing with the mashups! Here's what I'm thinking...the mosaic maker would be GREAT for an author's study, or a unit on a specific theme. Students would be able to select the books that they enjoyed the most and then create the mosaic. Then, they would write about what they liked about them, or how the books are related, etc. Finally, they would present that to other students. The trading cards are awesome for that too! I can see that working for a book review, research end-product, etc. I'm excited about trying this out with students from various grades. Has anyone tried the comic captions? I played with them but couldn't get them to fit onto my picture. I couldn't find a way to minimize the; anyone know how to do that?

Thing #5

Amazing! I'd never heard of Flickr. I took the tour, to check it all out, and then played on the site for a while....I lost track of time! The best thing for me was watching a few videos by Captain Hook! It was amazing to see how he produced some of the pictures that he posted!

Thing #4

Well, I've made it to number 4! I tried to go back and add my avitar using the picture gadget, but it didn't seem to go through. But, when I signed in for this post, my avitar was there (still with the yahoo link underneath). Does anyone know what I can do to get rid of that address??

Thing # 3

Well, I've done it! The exporting of my avitar was a little confusing for me...but I got through it. I'm thinking that I may have done something wrong because my avitar address appears under my avitar. Is that the way it's supposed to be?? Other than that, it wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be!

Thing #2

Okay, I know this may sound weird, but I think that habit number 7 1/2 is the hardest for me to do. I know - how can 'play' be hard!? But, it is. I tend to be grounded and guarded which for me means that I don't let myself 'go.' That is..unless I really know a person :).

Thing #2

I believe that habit number 2 (accept responsibility for your own learning) is the easiest for me. If I need information I tend to look for it (books, net, people) to get a rounded out base of knowledge.