Thing #12

My favorite and most inspiring article on blogging comments seem to be "10 Techniques to Get More Comments." Either it was favorite because it listed the comments (I am a list person) or because I agreed with most of the techniques. The two I truly felt useful:

1. Reward comments (or how I perceived it- thank people): In my everyday life I try to thank people for helping me out, giving advice, etc., so this would be a natural way for me to comment.

2. Asking questions: I have or never will be the type to actually know or pretend I know everything. I constantly ask questions on any topic that I am not really comfortable or know much about--which could seem to be about anything and everything. There is alway more to learn, and how can you learn more without asking MORE questions! (This ofcourse could drive the people I know, crazy!)

I have looked through several Bloggers in the Library2Play. I found some librarians from my district, commented on their blogs and added myself as one of their followers. I looked through some other posts, and commented on some of their great ideas. Creativity has never been a "plus" for myself, so finding new ideas was inspirational to start next year.

I had already commented on several "talks" in LibraryThing.com. I really enjoy reading the questions and answers several have posted, and posted a few of my own. I really love to relate to people and the books that they have read along with myself.

Library Thing #11

I have seen the Library Thing before, and then several of the librarians I know have used Shelfari.
It is amazing how many books I could remember that I have read, and I am sure there are more.
This program will be so helpful in reminding me what I read, and keeping track of my favorite books. When I am needing a lesson on books that I have read, I can use Library Thing as a reference tool for my library lessons. I have always wanted to keep track of these things: books I have read, books I am wanting to read, etc. Now when I am ready for my next "reading" I can go to Library Thing and find my list ( I am horrible at keeping up with lists and not loosing them).
I have joined two groups: Librarians who LibraryThing, and Read YA Lit. I even posted on one of the discussions: What is your least favorite YA Lit? I would really like to know what people think of my least favorite!

Playing with Thing #10

I have played with Big Huge Labs recently and really enjoyed it. I made a polaroid cut up of my favorite book series right now. They are by far my favorite because the ease of use, and they choices they have. It is very easy to download. I have saved all of these playful websites and put them in favorites to share with teachers.

I enjoyed Image Chef, and posted a word mosiac called READ. I would really like to print that image out and frame it in the library.

The Trading Card was cute, I would love to use this as a reading incentive, and post the kids picture and put them around the library.

Teachers could use Wordle to produce students written work in creative ways. This will be another item I will be sharing with the teachers at the beginning of the year.

This was a lot of fun, I could see myself coming back to this portion again!

Feeding Thing #9

1. The easiest tool was EduBlog's Award Winners, because I was able to pick good blogs that others have felt were worth voting on! I also liked Topix because it went right to mylocal city news. As I have stated before, my goal this year is to stay updated on the lastest info, especially in my area.

2. I felt all of them were pretty simple. Atomic Learning would be awesome in my district but I did not find ANY WHERE that you could make a username or password. I was able to find some information and eays vidoes on Inspiration. A lot of my teachers like to use technology but do not like to teach it, so this would be an I am assuming that you have to purchase a username and password.

3.I found so many about books it was almost intoxicating. I did like "A Library By Any Other Name" because not only does interesting topics but she has many other blogs that I was able to look at, and some GREAT FEEDS. One of them she shared was about a book I had read recently.

Which is why I put a picture of it above!!

Thing #8

1. It is amazing how I did not even know these existed until Library2Play! It was extremely useful when checking the news. I seem to "never" have time to see what is happening in the world, but now I was able to check all the headlines in a matter of minutes.

2. This is a good activity to show teachers next year (the one's that are unfamiliar with these types of technological quickies). Now I have something to add to my staff development with new teachers.

3.One of my colleagues was able to make our EBSCO database, with the current magazines in a RSS feeder, which I am going to be finding out how to do soon. This will be another tool I will teaching my campus how to do during Staff Development.

Thing #7

Google Earth is by far my favorite, we have been looking up things for a long time to see how often they update the pictures. It is a great tool in geography and social studies, but I am not sure our teachers even use it, since our district really tries to deter us from using Google.

Google advanced tools were often the first year I was a librarian. I was needing a PowerPoint idea for library orientation. I search using the advanced search method, only looking for PowerPoints. I found a great one: found the person that made it, and asked her if I could borrow and change it to meet the needs of my school. She said yes, wished me luck, and I found a friendly librarian in Florida to talk to you!

Thing # 6 Making a Mosaic

I played with this for awhile--the Mosaic Maker....made one for my youngest daughter!

This would be really useful in my library because I have program called the Lone Star Luncheon where the kids have to read so many Lone Star Books to get invited to a free lunch and movie.

I could take the past 6 ot 7 years of Lone Star Books and make a mosaic of each year using their cover. Since the cover seems to be the top characteristic in choosing a book, then they could have a poster of all the past covers and choose from there.

Thing 5 with Flickr

My students in my book club are obsessed with the Twilight Series....yes I even have guys in the group.

Last Fall I took my entire book club to see Twilight on the day it came out, and we had our own theater to ourselves!! The kids loved it and want to do this next school year, so I found a picture to use for the next movie in the Creative Commons area in Flickr in the attribution license choices.

The students are always downloading pictures from google and I tell them just because it is there doesn't mean you can use it!!

Now I have a place to show them where free photos are-- as long as you credit the source!

This photo was by Angie22Arts

Avatar Bending-Thing #3

That was challenging!
I have looked at other avatars.
It was much easier saving it as a jpg than putting in the html.
Now I can email the picture to anyone and post it on my email signature!
FUN!

My Highly Effective Habits-Thing 2

My best habit seems to be Habit 2--

1. I can easily take responsibility of my own learning, as long as it is "spelled" out for me.
2. When working on my Masters I saw how much I enjoyed to structure of college.
3. I could easily see myself as a life-long college student.

My worst habit seems to be when there is no structure and I have to create my own learning. I am more productive when the exact tasks are given to me, and then I can accomplish them.