Thing #11: LibraryThing

I created a LibraryThing account and a list of way more than 5 books! I added my Book List to my blog and I joined the Crime, Thriller, & Mystery group, the Read YA Lit group, and A Pearl of Wisdom & Enlightenment group. Since I have many reluctant readers and students that just haven’t found that “hook” to get them interested in a certain author or genre, I think that they would enjoy exploring the different groups on LibraryThing. The forums/discussions among members about the kajillions of books out there could really encourage students to want to go ahead and pick that book up and read it. Oooh! I know…the student could find a book or genre that they find interesting on LibraryThing and then we could locate that book or books in the school library and do a little shared reading. I love that idea!!! I’m definitely trying that!!!

More Thing #10

I can't stop making things!!!

Lucky as a jigsaw puzzle and my boyfriend's dogs as a postage stamp. All from www.bighugelabs.com

Thing #10 Playing with images

This is more like it! The fun stuff! Here's my dog Lucky on his first magazine cover. http://www.fakemagazinecover.com/





My Alma Mater mosaic.


My football jersey with Dallas Cowboys former tight end, Jay Novacek's number. http://www.imagechef.com/

These are from www.imagechef.com.




Bye for now! I've got some more playing around to do to add to this Thing!

Thing #9: Locate a few useful library-related blogs and/or news feeds

How to Create Your Circle of the Wise: How to pick the reads in your RSS is very informative. I think I was just trying to add as many impressive sounding blogs that I could find! But, would I actually read them? Probably not. So now I’m taking Cool Cat Teacher’s advice and only adding a few quality blogs that I know I’ll read. I think I like Google Blog Search the best so far. For some reason I can’t open Feedster, but I want to check that out since I’ve heard that is a fav of many other bloggers. Edublog is great for award-winning educational feeds. And… OMG!!! I just read that VWB’s A Library By Any Other Name won the 2007 Best Library/Librarian Blog. Congrats!!! No wonder I’ve been learning so much from her blogs. My brain is kinda fried right now after many hours of searching RSS feeds. I did find Houston news feeds and dyslexia feeds that I added to my blog list.

Thing #8: RSS Feeds

I set up my blog list through Google Reader and added blog sites about dyslexia, learning disabilities, books for young adults/teens, high interest/low vocab., and Houston news. I’d like to find more blogs authored by dyslexia and reading teachers. It will be very convenient to read about my professional interests in one place. Now I need to search for blogs for fun. Someone posted the idea of started on blog for their classroom so that students and/or parents could post and comment about lessons, etc. I love that idea!

Thing #7: Cool Google Tools

I didn’t realize that Google had so many “Cool Google Tools”.
Google Alerts: I set up Alerts for NASCAR, Patricia Cornwell, Sue Grafton, Alagaesia, HBO’s Dexter, and Stephenie Meyer. I’m sure I’ll think of some more to add.
Google Calendar: I put all of the important dates from SBISD’s calendar on mine in addition to student birthdays and NASCAR’s schedule. I plan to add grading period information, progress and report card dates and I’m sure much, much more. Students can use this as a planner to keep up with assignments and test dates.
iGoogle: Love it!!! I couldn’t find a bird theme so I used butterflies. Now I can see the weather, memorable quotes, things to ponder, National Geographic picture of the day, dictionary, facts, my favorite computer game “Bejeweled”, and much more.
Google Notebook: This looks really interesting and useful, but I can’t install the Google toolbar through the browser extension to search for items to download to the notebook. It says I must have administrator privileges. I think I need to call GEEK because I can’t install anything on this new laptop. Students can use this to save and organize their internet research.
Picasa Web Albums: I already have Picasa, but it’s not set to where anyone else can view it yet. I’ve been using this for pictures for about a year.
Google Scholar: I think I could play with this cool tool for hours and of course it would be useful for students.
Google Advanced Search: I now know that I can search for specific formats, like PowerPoints!
Google Earth: Wow! I’ve never used Google Earth. Very cool! I was trying to download it onto my laptop and didn’t realize that it was already on it.

More Thing #6: Trading Cards

O.K. so I'm stuck on this Thing!!! There is so much to explore. I think I need to move on and then come back and play with the many different options. I agree with using Trading Cards for flash cards, vocab., story starters, visualize/verbalize, etc. I'll post new ideas as they come to me.