Thing #11

I think the Library Thing is a great way to keep your own personal books on file. I really liked the tab "Suggestions". I entered books I have read and it gave me suggestions on other books I would probably like. This is helpful when your are at the library just walking up and down the aisles!I also liked where people have written reviews. You may not always agree with what others think about a book, but it is interesting to read other opinions.

Sad Smiley

sign-generator
Originally uploaded by beckyfrierson

Thing # 10

Merry Christmas everyone! I had a lot of fun playing around with the images and creating pictures. The Image Chef was the easiest to work with for me. The smiley face site was fun, but it took me awhile to figute out how to post to my blog. Finally, I remembered that I could upload the image to Flickr and then just send it to my blog. Amazing! I think you could create really fun images with student or teacher pictures on our library website.

Thing # 9

I lookled at all of the tools that were suggested and found the Google Blog Search and Edublogs Award winners were the easiest to use. I didn't particularly like Syndic8.com. I really liked a blog I found called A Library by any Other Name through Edublogs Award winners. I have never noticed the RSS symbols on pages until we started this lesson. It is really interesting to see how many sites that are in my favorites have RSS feeds.I added the Dallas Morning News and New Releases to my reader and I also(like MT Shelf) added allrecipes.com. If you haven't tried this site, you need to!

My creation

My creation
Originally uploaded by beckyfrierson

Thing #8

I thought the RSS was interesting although I don't really have time to read the feeds that are being sent to me. I had A LOT of trouble getting my email address verified from Google. I never received the verification email so finally they just did it manually for me. That was frustrating! I can see teachers maybe using this to have something like CNN feeds sent to them. I just think it takes awhile to read through the information that you receive and most teachers probably don't have the time to do this.

Thing #7

I had fun exploring the google tools. I had no idea that google offered all of this! How do normal people know this is out here? I really like the igoogle page. I customized mine with news, weather, recipes, and humor. It is a little frustrating that everything on google is blocked.I know you can override but it would really be nice if we didn't have to. I set up the google alerts for local and national news. I don't have time to watch the news usually, so this is really helpful. I also set up the google calendar with my family's activities.It is really easy to add events and set up your calendar the way you want it. I had a little trouble downloading the extension for google notebook, but finally got it.

I can see teachers using the google alerts and the igoogle page in their particualr subject. For example, a science teacher could set alerts for certain scientific news and weather to use in the classroom. A history teacher could set alerts for current events, etc.

Teachers could create a class calendar using google calendar and then print (if students can't view at school) or let students access from home. This could have tests, assignements, etc on it.

Thing #6

Oh my gosh! I could "play" on these links forever! I love the poster maker, motivator, and trading cards. I am so proud of myself because I actually uploaded a personal picture from my computer,created a motivator poster,published it on Flickr, tagged it and THEN, added it to my blog! I think the poster maker would be great to make posters of kids/teachers reading. We could make our own READ posters. How cool!

Thing #5

I had a little trouble with Flickr at first but mostly because I wasn't reading the directions carefully enough. I found a great picture of fall follage. Fall is my favorite time of the year, and I just love all of the colors. I think Flickr could be really helpful in the library. You could save all of your library activities here so other teachers/librarians could view them. I will definately have to play around with this site more to realize all of the benefits.

maple glory.JPG

maple glory.JPG
Originally uploaded by paul+photos=moody

Wow! I just love the fall leaves. I guess fall is probably my favorite season. I just love the oranges and yellows all mixed together. We try and drive to Arkansas at least once during the fall to see the beautiful colors.

Thing #3

I enjoyed creating my avatar. It was fun to make a paperdoll of myself. I had a litle troulbe uploading the picture to my blog, but Anne Kotrany(computer guru) helped me a lot. Posting to the blog is really easy and it is fun to read other blogs.

Thing #4

I am really excited about using my blog to post library events and dates. I could just make a simplified version of my newsletter and inlude that each month. Also, I think it would be fun to have an online book club. I think more students would be involved since they wouldn't have to stay after school;they could just log in and blog away.

Thing #1 and Thing #2

Well, I have to admit that when I woke up this morning and it was coming a flood, I was not too excited about driving acros I 30 to learn about Web 2.0. (Especially since I didn't have any idea what Web 2.0 even meant!) But after our introuduction and reading 23 Things, I have a much better idea. I have to admit that when it comes to learning new technology I am sometimes very hesitate. I don't have a lot of confidence in myself. Hopefully, these lessons that we are going to be completing will help me to become more technology literate and have more confidence when students and teachers ask for my help with technology.


One of the hardest goals for me is to have confidence in myself. I do get frustrated and think that I can't do things that I am not familar with. I need to just remember that I am going to learn through making mistakes and then just have fun! I have to remind myself that I am "not too old to learn".

The easiest goal for me will be to play. Once I learn how to do something I really do love to play around with it. For example, once I became confident with creating and maintaining our library website, I really enjoy woking on it.