Na, na, na, na, Na, na, na, na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye...but not for long!

I can't believe I'm finished...I'm not ready to be! I want to learn more cool stuff. This was by far the coolest class I have ever taken!

I love Google calendar, Google Book Reader, Ning, and Ta-Da Lists the best out of all the applications I learned in this class.

This class has proved to me once again that there is always more to learn. Just when you think you're "up-to-date" on technology, something bigger and better comes along! I am a life-long learner and will continue to be.

What surprised me? Voicethread! I was not aware that something of that nature existed. I love it and plan to use it very soon! I was also surprised about RSS feeds. It is so neat how the news and information comes to me:)

I have no suggestions to make this course better. I thought it was perfect! If there was another course like this I would definitely take it. (The next 23 Things????)

The things I learned in this course will help me to integrate technology into my library lessons in different ways. I will break out of the same old, same old and use some of these new things.

I will keep up with new Web 2.0 tools by continuing to take staff development through the district, taking webinars, attending TLA as often as possible, and of course reading my Google reader posts from all of those fabulous technology blogs and sites.

Thing #23

Visit 23 Thingsters


I liked Classroom 2.0, but I LOVED Teacher Librarian Ning(TL Ning)! It was so cool to see discussions that actually applied to me!

I like how Ning is very specific. This is more of an educational social network than just a social network. This is definitely one to use to enhance your knowledge in your specific field of work.

I found the coolest resource through TLNing... a wiki called elementarylibraryroutines.wikispaces.com. This is a wiki that gives great ideas on all kinds of routines in the library! I love it! I subscribed to it in my RSS feeds! It is interesting to see how other librarians do things. I am going to borrow a few ideas from that wiki.

I will definitely keep up with the 23Thingsters Ning and TLNing to help me further my professional learning. I wish I could log the hours I spend on these Nings as some CE credit:)

Thing #22

My facebook account

My myspace account

Social networking is not only fun, but important for our jobs as educators. Networking with other teachers and librarians will help to keep us on the cutting edge of our work and give us fresh new ideas to implement in our classrooms and libraries.

I primarily have used these sites for my personal life, but this "thing" made me explore further and find library related links like authors, library associations, etc. It is really neat to be updated daily by these people and associations. I feel like a part of their "inner circle" even though they don't know me.

I really prefer Facebook over MYspace. Facebook is very simple. There is not a lot of "stuff" on people's pages. It loads quickly and is easy to navigate. Myspace kinda drives me crazy because people decorate and upload all kinds of stuff to their pages (including me)! It takes forever for the page to load. I get irritated waiting. I find it harder to find people on Myspace.

I definitely think there is an educational use for Facebook. Classes could start a profile together and become friends with people and groups that are related with the topics they will be studying. The teachers could check their page daily on the promethean board for the whole class to see what kinds of posts occurred the night before. This is a great way to do some real-world learning.

Thing #7b

So my google reader scared me to death today!!!! On one of the blogs I follow, there was a story about how kitchen spoons can cause overdoses in children. They did a study on how most households have 5 or more different sizes of teaspoons and tablespoons. Most moms don't realize the difference. They dose their children with the teaspoon or tablespoon and assume their child got the correct dose....scary. Buy a medicine dropper people!!!!

Thing #20

My Google Document

Check out what I created to sell my house!

I have never used Google docs...always heard of it and seen it, but never created anything using Google docs. Well I have been missing out!!!!! I wish I had known about this before I spent $100 to buy Microsoft XP for my computer.

This is the best discovery for me and my population at my school. Most of the families at my school are economically disadvantaged. If they have a computer at home they might not have an Office package. This is perfect for students to use for school assignments because it is free:)

Google docs is perfect for collaborative assignments. Students could write a report or story together using the document application and not even be in the same classroom. It would be so cool to partner students from separate classes together to write a report or story together. Seeing things from others perspectives is always so eye-opening! They could build a story together by adding on to the previous work completed by the other student!

Better yet, what about pairing up students from different schools? Cities? States? Countries? Students could create presentations together. How cool would it be for students learning about different cultures to have a partner from the culture they are studying. Each student could create similar slides about their own cultures and merge them together into one slide show presentation. I'm getting excited just thinking about the possibilities!

The spreadsheets feature could be used for keeping track of data within a science project. Students doing the same project could record data into the spreadsheet and compare their findings with other students doing the same thing.

Thing #21

I loved playing around with all the google apps! My husband's favorite was Sketchup. He used to build houses so he had a blast making 3D models of all kinds of buildings!

I love, love, love Google calendar! I am going to start using it for my own personal calendar. I try to be a very organized person, but sometimes I forget my paper calendar at home. This will be a great tool for me so I can access my calendar from my laptop or any computer! I think I'm going to try to use it for my library sign up schedule as well. I still need to play with it and figure out the ins and outs. I'm not sure if others can edit my calendar or not, so we will see what happens!

Um, ok...how come none of the librarians told me about Google book reader? That is the coolest thing ever! What a cool way to get a glimpse of a book to decide whether or not you want to buy it! I played on this forever!!!!! I read tons of books, well as far as it would let me read anyways. I would like to use this with my older students to get them into other genres of books. I think because it is online and they can read parts of books, not the whole thing, they will like it. They could use it when they are not in the library to start choosing books.

This is also a neat collection development tool. I can preview books to decide which ones I want to buy for the library.

Thing #19

Voicethread is something I have never heard of until today. I am shocked that it is not more popular! I immediately thought of using a voicethread for a book club. It would be cool to upload a picture of the book cover and have students comment at the end of each chapter or at the end of the book.

I also love the idea that one of the educators had in the voice thread about
100 ways to use voicethread in education. Using a voicethread to start a story and then have each student add on. The teacher could assign a group of students a story part. Groups could have character development, setting, climax, resolution, etc. They would have to add on to the previous groups part but with their specific part to tell.

I have never taught kinder but have a 4 year old of my own. I know he needs to know rhyming words for kindergarten so I randomly had the thought of posting a word like cat and the kinder students could comment with rhyming words like hat, mat, etc.

Thing #18

I could spend hours on you tube and teacher tube! I watched a ton of authors read aloud their children's books! I will use these in the library with my students.

I learned how to use fondant to decorate a cake...I'm a nerd I know. I also learned how to bake and cook several hard recipes that I would never try on my own.

I took a trip down memory lane and watched the Thriller video by Michael Jackson and some of my favorite 80's cartoons like Jem, Rainbow Brite, Care Bears, My Little Pony, The Monchichi's, Shirt Tale Kids, etc. How fun!

Thing #17

I "heart" podcasts! This was a really eye-opening experience for me. I make podcasts with my students in the library, but rarely do I listen to other people's podcasts. I listened to quite a few, but my two favorite that I subscribed to were Just One More Book and Weight Loss Inside and Out. I loved listening to these. I was able to listen and learn while I multi-tasked doing some other things. What a way to kill two birds with one stone. I used the Learn out Loud directory to find the weight loss one. I liked that directory, but had trouble finding the RSS feed button to subscribe to a few of the podcasts I was interested in. I have used podcasts in the library as a final product in research projects. Here is a link to my mesquite blog. I posted my second graders podcasts on National Holidays at the end of last year on my blog for their parents to be able to listen to them.

Thing #7a

Ok...so I'm a little disappointed! Turns out my Crockpot Slow Cooker site that I have been following is NOT a recipe site. I thought It would post new crock pot recipes every day, but it's not. It does post cool new Kitchen tools and gadgets, tips on remodeling your kitchen, and decorating tips for the kitchen. I've decided to keep it because it did show me a cool frappe maker that I may request for my birthday:)

I am going to try and find a recipe blog to subscribe to...I'll let ya know when I find a good one!

Thing #9

My Sandbox

I don't know why I waited so long to do this wiki???? I had so much fun creating my sandbox! I already have a wiki for my library so I wanted to go on ahead and do some more of the assignments that I wasn't familiar with yet. I thought I knew all there was about wikis, but I actually learned something new...widgets! I didn't know how to insert widgets like the one I used for the table of contents! It was so easy to do, I was pretty surprised. I am going to put a few widgets on my other wiki now! I previewed quite a few other people's sandboxes before I did mine. That helped me a lot. I did each section and then saved before I went to the next one. I wanted to make sure it looked right and the links worked before I moved on.

Thing #16

Library Thing...pretty cool! I started an account and have started keeping track of the books I am reading this summer. This would be cool for students to do as well. They could keep track individually or as a class of what they are reading. Wouldn't it be cool for classes to keep track of Bluebonnet or Mockingbird reading this way?:) I've been wanting to start a book club for my fifth graders. I think I might use Library Thing as a way for us to find good book suggestions and to track our book that we read! We could discuss the book as a club and on library thing in a discussion group. The students could write reviews upon completion of each book and post them in Library Thing.

Thing #15

http://delicious.com/crystalholmes

Delicious is so tasty:) I love this bookmarking site. What a cool way to keep all your sites together in one place. I go from computer to computer. I use my desktop at home, my desktop at school, and my laptop. I bookmark different stuff on each computer. I never remember which computer I did what on! I am always emailing myself links so I can remember and open them on another computer. Delicious will put an end to that!

I could use this as a research tool with my students. Whenever we do research I pre-select sites for the kids to use. I usually put them on the library website. The students go there and navigate back and forth. I could use my delicious account instead. I could tag the sites and the kids could use those instead. They could also tag sites for me that they find about the topic they are studying. The bad part is that delicious is blocked at school. I can override it, but what a hassle!

Thing #14

This was the coolest "thing" by far! I had so much fun playing with all of these applications. Tada list is very cool. I am a list-maker, so I LOVE this one! I have already made several lists and even checked some of the items off! While I was playing with this one, I thought it would be neat to use as a checklist or rubric for student work. Instead of giving them a paper rubric, I could email them a tada list. Each tada list could be custom tailored for the student. It would be a great way to differentiate without it being very obvious to other students!

Wordle is very addicting! I used it to make signs for my daughter's upcoming birthday party. I could play on that all day! What came to mind for classroom use is to use a wordle as a culminating activity. When I was in the classroom I would always close my lessons by asking my students to tell me 5 things they learned. We would do this orally as a class. It would be so cool to have each student create a wordle about the 5 things they learned instead. We could print and post them around the room for all to see.

No more time for this post...gotta go play around with more cool tools:)

Thing #13

Trading card maker

These online image generators are very fun. I think letting students use these to enhance their school projects will create excitement and motivation. These image generators would be cool to use with research. Classes that create blogs and wikis as products could generate images to match the content of the project.








Spell with Flickr

Thing #12

Rock You and Flickr...how fun!

I created this slideshow as a tour of some of the Texas symbols for when I teach research.

Bluebonnets by Angelfly
Texas Flag by Brian L. Romig
Animals/longhorn steer by DiAchner3

Thing #11

DiAichner3 uploaded this photo to Flickr. This along with several others I found will be perfect to use when I teach the Texas symbols unit to my kindergarten classes! It took me a while to "get" the CC part of Flickr. I thought because it was part of the CC I could automatically use it...wrong!I had to go back and study what each symbol meant. I quickly found myself only searching in the sections that were free of any restrictions besides citing credit. This will be an awesome place to get photos for student's projects. Even cooler would be to let students upload their own photos and see how many comments they get or as the students would say , see how "viral" their picture becomes. The possibilities are endless for educators. These photos will aid in all kinds of lessons.

Thing #10

Creative Commons is fabulous!!!! I had no idea what CC was until I became a librarian. It is sad and a little scary at the same time. I used photos, songs, and video clips all the time in my own personal projects as well as let my students use them in their projects. Did I ever ask or seek permission? No! I had no idea I needed to. Yes, my librarian educated me about copyright at the beginning of the year, but as a teacher with a million things on my plate, that knowledge was lost about 5 minutes after I learned it. I feel so guilty for "stealing" other people's shared work, but more than that guilt is the shame about the disservice I did to my students. I never taught them about copyright. I sure hope one of their teachers since then has.
Having CC at my fingertips takes the uncertainty of whether I'm doing the right thing away! After learning about it this year, I have used it many times during research with my classes. I basically have taught them that CC is a safe place to go get pictures, clips, etc for their projects. They know if they get it from CC it is okay. Getting it from somewhere else will require permission.
My goal for my second year as a librarian is to train the teachers about CC. I have a feeling they, like me when I taught, do not know about this very valuable resource!

Thing #8

Wikis are so cool. These are probably my favorite web 2.0 tool. I already have a wiki at school for use by my teachers. This is where they sign up for the library, tell me about books they want ordered, keep track of Bluebonnet and Mockingbird reading, etc. I see many wikis in my future. I would like classes to create wikis for their research. I envision the students creating the wiki with my help and then adding in all the content that they are learning in their research. It would be cool for another class from the same grade level to read and add to the wiki.

I love how the kindergarten wiki was used just as a product. The students used the wiki the same way they would have used a power point presentation or a paper book, but instead they got the knowledge of a wiki. I commend their teacher for venturing into wikis with such young learners!

The wiki dealing with using technology in the classroom had good information but took forever to load. I think because there were so many items to load on the page that it took longer to load. I found myself impatient! When it finally loaded, I was in a bit of sensory overload. There was so much to look at (almost too much I think) it was hard for me to find the content of the page. The information was good, but I probably will not visit that wiki again.

The code blue wiki was neat. I like how it was kind of just a list of really good resources about the body on the home page. The students work was linked to view. The diagnosis assignment they did was really meaningful and relevant. I loved it.

Thing #7

Commenting...I know I should do it, but I don't! I am a self-professed lurker. I do love to read blogs and all the comments that follow, but I never really felt comfortable putting my own two cents in to the mix. After reading all the blogs about commenting, I realize how important it is to the author of the blog and to the comment conversation. I know I always feel acknowledged when I get comments and that feeling fuels me to add more posts. I need to think about that when I am reading other people's blogs. I want them to know I am paying attention and that I care. This will be something I have to conscoiusly work on but I will...I will start commenting! I am going to start with finding one positive thing about the blog and making that my comment. Maybe that will ease me into the commenting world:)

Thing #6

I promise I did read a ton of educational stuff...but I also read some shameful celebrity gossip! I admit it, I am a TMZ junkie! I added this blog as one of my RSS feeds. I read about Jake and Vienna (latest Bachelor couple) breaking up! I am not surprised, but that is some good gossip to read:)

I also subscribed to a Crockpot slowcooker recipe blog. I have printed several great recipes! Yum!!!

Finding blogs was a little harder than I expected. There were so many to choose from that I had a hard time narrowing them down. It was especially hard for the educational blogs. I really wanted to find some good elementary school library and technology blogs. I did find a few, but would like some more suggestions if anyone has any.

Thing #5

Overwhelmed is an understatement! RSS feeds are awesome but I felt buried immediately! I skimmed and read for hours!!!!! After I finally figured out how to navigate through Google Reader and read about 50+ feeds I decided enough was enough. I can see how this is addicting!

One of my favorite finds was on the NPR site. I listened to a broadcast about the top summer cookbooks. I love to cook so this was awesome to listen to. It talked about all kinds of cookbooks from barbecue to vegetarian cookbooks. I will be making a trip to the bookstore soon to purchase a few of the cookbooks they discussed!


Summer cookbooks broadcast

Thing #4

I love reading blogs because they are so personal. Since anyone can be an author on a blog, we get to hear some opinions that we might not otherwise hear.
Blog reading and writing is much different from other types of reading and writing because it is uncensored and unedited. The raw material you are reading on a blog is straight from the mind of some passionate person. When you are writing a blog you know there are no restraints on you. No one will be grading, editing, or making suggestions to change it...It is all yours!
Commenting on blogs brings so much meaning to the content. Some comments make you see another side of what you wrote about and often broadens your horizons. Other comments are reassuring and make you feel good, and still others may spark anger and create a debate.
Is there a blogging literacy? I'm not sure. Often times I see blogs written like you might write a text message... I luv u...what r u doing? etc. I think this is okay. We are living in a world of texting and technology in short hand. The teacher in me would prefer for everyone to use correct spelling and grammar, but we all know that will never happen. If you can't beat them, join them!
Blogging can facilitate learning by keeping the line of communication open between teachers, students, and parents. A teacher could create a classroom blog and update it daily with all kinds of information from homework to spelling word lists, to field trip information. Students and parents could use this as a resource other than email or phone calls. They could ask questions or comment and get feedback from the teacher on the blog. Students could create blogs about what they are studying or a book they are reading in a book club...the possibilities are endless!

Thing #3

Web 2.0 is already affecting students at my school, but not all of them. As the librarian, I can use web 2.0 tools with every class during daily lessons and research. Students want to use technology and often times are not offered the opportunity at school. The library can be the place where students at my school learn to blog and make wikis and podcasts. Students who do not know how to interact with these tools will be behind. It is certain that to be successful in the unknown digital future, students will have to be web 2.0 natives.

Thing #2

My biggest challenge: Begin with the end in mind.
I am a "right now" thinker. It is often hard for me to see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Although I know I will leave this class much wiser and more tech-savvy, it is hard for me to envision being finished. I feel like I will never be done (probably because it is summer time)! I will have to really focus on reminding myself how excited I will be at the end to go share all my new learning with my school!

The easiest for me: Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner.
After completing my master's degree, I feel like I can do anything! Getting through some of those classes was quite challenge for me, but because I did, I gained a lot of confidence. If I can do that, I can do anything!

Most important for me: Teach/mentor others.
If I don't teach a new skill I have learned, I am prone to forget it. It will be very important to me over the summer to teach the new skills to some body. Since I will not be in school to teach the little people, I will be teaching my husband...he doesn't know it yet! Isn't he lucky? :)