THING 10

I really enjoyed the student run wiki. It was like a school newspaper, but in a wiki format! I currently teach our school newspaper and this would be a great addition! Many times we have to cut articles that don't fit or are old news. The wiki would allow our reporters to easily add information as often as they'd like and it wouldn't cost the other students anything to read it! I also liked that wiki's enabled classes from different geographic locations to collaborate. As long as I knew how to make and maintain a wiki I don't see any problems!

Thing 9

I couldn't download pictures onto the first site, but was more successful on the second! http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ I tried the movie poster, but the creative juices must be sleeping because I couldn't think of a single creative thing to say! I will go back to it. I'm not sure how I would use this in my classroom, but it is very cool to see all of the different things you can do! Trading cards would be very cool for the children to make!

thing 6 picture

Thing 8

What fun to play around with! I thought the spelling one was great fun! I can't wait to figure out how to save them and put them onto my blog or another dcoument! I was helping my 9th grade daughter study for her science test and had her play memory with pictures of aurora borealis (that's what we were studying!). I could not get the sudoku one to open any pictures, but was amazed with the others! The one with the color schemes was very cool too!

Thing 7

I uploaded a picture of an oak tree in my yard up north. It was very cool to see the other pictures that have been uploaded. I am very excited about this site because I just received a new book, Reading Photographs to Write with Meaning and Purpose, and this site makes it easy to find a photo of everything and anything! We are currently researching Native Americans and I was thinking we could bring up a picture and just write whatever story, poem, or info that come to mind! I think it would be a great way to get everyone excited about the topic!

Thing 6

Very cool!! I'm a snapfish kind of gal and was not overly enthused about going to another photo site...but this one is awesome! I love that you can search for different photos that people have taken!! I found a moonrise, flamingos, beaches, moose, butterflies...and more! We just started a research project on Native Americans and the photos here are incredible! Great story starters, descriptive essays, compare/contrast...

Thing 5

I'm not loving this one! I subscribed, but now what? I check it every day to see if anything new was posted? I guess it's great if you surf blogs every day. It would definitely save time...but it takes time to wade through all of the new posts you missed. I did find a cool blog called Grammar Girl that I liked. I don't know. I can't see using this often. Am I missing something?

Thing 4

Well, RSS sounds wonderful! I wondered how people had the time to check all of the bazillion blogs out there! It's a little daunting right now, as I'm not sure how to choose my "favorites" out of the bazillion! I am looking forward to learning more so that I may confidently call myself a "blogger." (I don't know if I want to-the term doesn't sound very flattering)
I'm getting there and am very astounded at how easy it is so far! Woohoo!

Thing 3

My students and I discussed what I had learned about blogging today, and decided to create our own classroom blog! I am going to post an extra credit question every so often, the students can add anything exciting that they have learned outside of class, and we are also hoping to encourage questions from both parents and students! It'a quite an adventure, and I'm excited to see where it takes us, and what works!
Adding other authors and deleting posts before the are added were very important things to learn today, as I wanted to include my co-teaching partner and was also worried about inappropriate posts. (not that my students would EVER dream of doing such a thing!)

Thing 2 (not the Dr. Seuss kind)

That last post was my husband, I'm really not talking to myself. I guess in a way that's what a blog feels like...talking to myself!
I'm taking 23 things because there is so much I don't know and it frustrates me. I can email and surf, but that's about it! My 14 year old daughter, Kayla, was not impressed with my blog success ("everyone does it"), but I couldn't be happier! I send a daily email to my students' parents outlining the days assignments, but now I'm wondering if a blog wouldn't be more beneficial so the parents & students can talk to one another about assignments and check it when they want to. I recently assigned a science project and the students came in today with, "My mom wants to know..." A blog would alleviate this! HMMMMMMMMM...

Very impressive..... You didn't kill my computer!

Welcome!

Welcome to my first step to becoming less of a technological moron!! I am so proud of myself for getting this far and hope when I click "publish" it all doesn't disappear into cyberspace!! Two steps down and 22 to go on my journey to technological enlightenment!! (I'm going to click "publish post" now; wish me luck)