Thing #7 Google Tools

Wow, I think I spent 3 hours on this Google tools exercise. I loved every minute of it!

Google calendar is much easier than Outlook. I like the Google Homepage and was a snap to make it. I made a "to do" list and it is not done at all today.....
The google calendar would be a great tool to set up and let parents access it. Would be easier than sending group emails and one could change it quickly.

Older students could make their own for assignments.

The notebook took much longer for me to figure out. I can see the value and would just have to play with it. My younger children would not use that much in class but I can see older children using it.

The Picasa was not user friendly at all. I will stick with Flickr. It was harder to upload and manage pictures. I was not impressed at all with that program.


I have used Google Earth for over a year and even use the paid version. It is fun to use and I use it at school, also.

Sending home links for parents to try is always a big hit. I like to have "Internet" homework and that goes over very big with the family. I will include many links you have shared with this course.

Thing #6 Trading Cards

Trading card option is so much fun. The kids are going to love to do that. I can see a new way to teach young children to keyboard. They will love to type in anything to do with themselves, animals or a short story they wrote on a trading card. I love this feature! I have made several and sent them to my "20 something kids"!

Thing #6 Mashups

I created a mosaic with pictures I had uploaded to Flickr from our last trip to Louisiana. We pulled off the side of the road close to the Texas border on I-10 to watch the sunset and I snapped away.

I can see classroom application with the students taking pictures of their work and making a mosaic for parents online. That would be cool!

Thing #5 Flickr

I am feeling GREAT since I figured out how to capture and then add the picture to the blog! This step was very easy to do!

I can use flickr for my classroom in a "feelings" lesson since I teach social skills lessons each day with primary age children. This is a bulletin board idea from another teacher that I hope to use in August. It could be an ongoing "feelings" board to help the child express how they are feeling each day.

Another picture I liked of hers was of her classroom rules :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindah/113841605/

This is a great medium to post pictures of the kids work, your room for future reference, each child could have a group to add to.... nearly unlimited.

So many library ideas from Flickr that one could be up all night browsing. I do like the challenge from "the library man" to other library's to add one picture a day. It would a great photo log/memory album for your school.

I noticed that on Flickr that some things are copyrighted and others say "some rights reserved". http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en The teacher's picture I posted had "some rights reserved" so I was careful to give you her link.

I have used Photobucket and Webshots but I think I like Flickr better even in this short time.

Things #1, #2, #3... Library2Play

Yeah!! I did it! I am working on dressing the dull blog a bit. I managed to add a picture of a red swing to my title and move the avatar over by saving it as a picture then adding it as a pic instead of the html code.

I have explored several of the blogs of our team and some are very creative! I will head back to the list and read more.

Swinging Along

I am working hard on the Library2Play lessons and loving it! The Avatar and I nearly went to fist city but I managed to move her into place. I could not figure out how to use the html code, or rather "where" to get it posted to use. So, I saved it as a picture then uploaded it. It worked. I guess that is what counts??

I have been blogging on myspace for about a year just to keep up with my kids. This is good to get me out of the box and try a new format.

Now to go read fellow blogger's notes...

Sign on the Dotted Line

I was intrigued by suggestion to make a contract with yourself about your life long learning goals and to SIGN the document.

This idea brought to mind an incident from spring of '07 in our Sunday School class that reminded me about the power of our own signature. Our teacher gave us a form to fill out about ourselves, some things we would like to learn, change, explore, pray about, etc. over the course of a year. This was a personal experience not to be shared. We completed the form, signed and dated the bottom then sealed it in an envelope. The envelope was given to our teacher and one year to date, we opened and read our words to see if we followed through on our goals and plans.

Our signature was at the bottom making it binding to ourselves. It was hard to read the words written a year ago since not all goals were reached.

Powerful. Our minds need to keep going and growing until we leave this earth.

New in the Eblog world...7 1/2 Habits Comments

I always have a book in my hand so I am very glad to find out that I am a life long learner! My Mother, age 75, is my shining example of life long learning since she is active in a study club and is always calling me with news "of an article I just read".

The easiest thing for me would be #2 of being a life long learner is my attitude and joy of learning new things. I plan on learning how to play the harmonica this summer but have not decided on the "goal" yet.

The most difficult of the "7 1/2 " for me would be expanding my toolbox to strive to use technology to my advantage. I love trying new things on the computer and it might take me twice as long as my kids to get it accomplished but I will keep on trying!!