Thing 9

I found How to Create Your Circle of the Wise an informative text. Google Blog Search and Topix.net were the easiest search tools for me. The other resources did not appeal to me due to the formatting.

Thing 8

The reader with subscribed feeds is fabulous! I loved being able to use the Google Reader's staff suggestions as a starting place because I was a bit overwhelmed at first.

This technology simplifies the gathering of new information. The main advantages that I see are being plugged into current topics and being able to get ideas by looking at other people's readers (if they are public). It is really mind boggling to me! The amount of information that is out there is incredible, but more importantly the sharing of the information is critical for continuing our learning and experiences.

A favorite professional feed that I love is about children's literature. How refreshing it will be to keep up with current books as well as get other people's opinions and/or ideas about literature. Personally, I was thrilled to find a feed for People Magazine to keep me up to date on entertainment stories.

The use of readers by librarians, teachers, and administrators is numerous. How this is done is going to depend on individual needs, but the potential for knowledge as well as networking is too good for this to not be incorporated into our professional lives.

Thing 7

Wow! There is so much to explore!

Google Calendar is very user-friendly. My first thought was setting up a calendar per nine weeks for my teammates and I to record content lessons and TEKS by color code (for example, science=green, math=orange,...). This would put everything in a consistent format, and we could all access the document.

I will take more time to explore Google Docs since my students will probably be using this rather than Microsoft next year.

Thing 6

Wow! There are so many cool things to explore! I had so much fun playing with Mosaic Maker! Here is what I created using my photos from a recent vacation.

Thing 5

I had used Flickr before, but was very interested and glad to know about the Creative Commons site. Copyright issues have always been a concern of mine when my second graders have needed photos of their research topics (such as birds, tundra animals).

I downloaded this pic from Flickr because it would be a perfect addition to my class wiki. My students fell in love with watching the panda cam I posted on our wiki.

Thing 3

I loved setting up my blog! Playing with it was so fun! I am having trouble with my Avatar showing insconsistently so it is my current challenge.

Thing 2

The hardest habit for me is one that has been an issue all of my life: self-confidence. I have made a conscious effort to improve this over the past few years. Stepping out of my comfort zone has been the biggest step to improving my confidence.

The easiest habit for me is playing. That is why I am so interested in this course. Playing is one of the best ways that I learn! If I am playing, I don't have to worry about failure.