Activities 21, 22 and 23

Caldecott Award Winners


I watch YouTube quite a bit, both for personal and professional reasons. Every year we have a Red Clover Day at our school, organized by our wonderful librarian. The students are in vertical teams and they rotate through the rooms, where each teacher develops an activity around one of the books for the year. Last year I did Pale Male, and while the students were drawing and painting I played several YouTubes of the hawk flying around NYC. The students loved it, and it made them realize that the book really was about a real bird.

I also download and subscribe to podcasts, but I haven't made any yet. I viewed a number of podcasts made in elementary classrooms, collecting ideas for possible topics and tools to enhance the podcasts. I definitely want to do this with my class this coming year, probably starting with book reviews.


I really enjoyed doing the 23 Things, and loved the format. I was able to work at my own pace and during time blocks that worked for me. I liked the organization of the site, with clear steps and directions that reflected different learning styles. I was able to quickly scan information that I was already familiar with, or watch a video for things that were new to me. There were always numerous resources and other links for further exploration. Everything was clear, and it covered a wide range of sites and interests.
As is so often the case, time was the real factor in completing this. I have wanted to explore many of these technologies in the past, but just never seemed to have the time to do it. Being a classroom teacher, and having most of the summer free, it was the perfect time to explore. I feel that I do have a good understanding of everything that I did, and that I just need to continue to use and practice what I have learned. I really like the fact that the website will be there for me to use as a reference if I forget how to do things, or need additional resources and information.
I am excited about using many of these in my classroom, expanding on ones that I had already begun, and incorporating new ones. It is critical to keep up with new technologies that help differentiate learning and enhance the experiences of all students. Thank you so much for setting up this wonderful resource.

Activities 19 & 20

I checked out Addict-0-matic, Social Mention and Google Alerts. I loved Addict-o-matic - a very appropriate name. It seemed to search very quickly, and I liked the set up of the page with the boxes for the different categories and sites. This is definitely something I will use.
I was less impressed with social mention, but perhaps I should keep trying. It seemed slower, and the format less exciting.
I also liked Google Alerts, which seems very adaptable; I liked the fact that you can control how often and how much information you can receive on any given topic.
Great resources.

I spent HOURS exploring the Web 2.0 awards site. There was so much to look at, and I kept getting side tracked and going off in different directions. Some of them I was already familiar with, like Pandora, which I love to listen to when I'm working on the computer, but I also checked out the other music sites, as well as Picasa and Picnik, which I didn't know, as an alternative to Flickr. I used Yahoo Answers to find out the answers to a number of questions, and used some other map sites. For fun, I looked at cooking and geneology sites, as well as just exploring a wide range of sites for different information. I have bookmarked several of these, and will definitely return to them. Some clearly have application to my classroom, or professional activities, others are for personal use.

Activities16, 17 & 18

I checked out all 3 of "23 Things" wikis, and commented on one of them. I also added my blog to the favorites on the PBWiki. I already regularly comment on 4 other professional wikis, and am an administrator on one of them. I find them very helpful and a great way to share to plan and share information with colleagues.
I checked out some of the other wikis listed, always searching the sections for favorite books to read.
I also explored a little more on Google docs. I had used it once for a class this summer, but would like to use it more often; it has great possibilities.

Activities 13, 14 & 15

I had set up a Delicious Account about a year ago with great intensions to organize everything together from Safari and Firefox. It hasn't happened, but I do see the advantages of tagging all my bookmarks in order to find things more easily. It is really handy to not have them tied to one computer.
I also looked at the 23 Things Delicious account, which has a lot of useful information all together.
I spent quite a bit of time on Twitter, but found it really disappointing. There were a lot of comments that weren't informative, and it just seemed like whatever topic I chose, there were just a lot of people just making general statements or opinions that weren't helpful in any way.
The articles about libraries at Web 2.0 was interesting. Although I am not a librarian, a lot of the information applies to classroom teachers, too. The focus needs to be on content and and relevancy, not just "cool tools." (Although a lot of the cool tools are fun!)

Activities 11 & 12

The Image Generators were a lot of fun - I spent a lot of time exploring I ended up creating an Avatar and posted it here.
I remember actually having a "poodle skirt" when I was little.


I also explored LibraryThing, but being a classroom teacher, rather than a librarian, I created a personal account. I added books to my account, and explored the reviews written by other members on 10 of the books that I entered. I am definitely interested in using this, and plan to change it to find reviews on children's books for my classroom.

Activities 9 & 10

I did create a Facebook page a couple of weeks ago, but have made most of it private. However, I was amazed that after I "friended" ONE person, I had a list of emails from people wanting to be my friend. It happened SO fast. I haven't decided whether or not I will continue this.

Activities 7 & 8

I already had a google account, which I set up for blogger, so I used Google Reader. I am using Safari for 23 Things, but also use Firefox, so I checked out Sage. I looked at some of the sites listed under Library Weblogs, Library Information Science Blogs, and Topix.net Then I did some other searching on my own and subscribed to some news feeds as well as sources for new fiction and nonfiction, as I am always looking for a good book to read.

Activities 5 & 6

I played around with Spell with Flickr, Montagr and Flickr Color Pickr, and explored other options using flickr. Lot of fun!

spell with flickr

Rainbow Books

Rainbow Books
Originally uploaded by bluemarla

As I was searching Flickr (and honestly just playing and having fun) I found this photograph and thought it was really funny. The person who posted it said that after trying alphabetizing and other systems, she decided to organize her books by color. She said she loved how they looked, but couldn't find anything! I have many bookshelves in my house; some are well organized, while others have no discernible system. I know that I also need to start using delicious more often or come up with other ways to organize websites.

Activities 3 and 4

Setting up the blog was easy; the hardest part was deciding what pictures to put on the site from my computer. I would like to use blogs in my classroom more often, particularly to have students respond to the books that they are reading.

23 Things- Activities 1 and 2

I like the concept of "23 things" - being able to do this at my own pace. In writing up my contract, I knew immediately that the largest stumbling block for me would be finding the time to complete all of these. I already have several other lists with at least 23 things on each of them! But I am determined to finish.

How I Spend My Summers