Thing 6

Today I looked at some mashups and third party sites. I had used the magazine cover earlier. I found it rather challenging in that the titles had to be very succint. Since I had a very high-maintenance class that I wanted to use it with, I scrapped the idea.

I did enjoy the Mosaic. I can find many applications of that - book jackets, student pictures, etc.

I LOVED Yahoo Travel. My husband and I have been doing this type of thing for a long time, but not online. This is great! I'm already planning a trip for Thanksgiving! Also, I have a teacher who does a unit on European cities. I'll share this info with here. Maybe she can incorporate it into her unit.

I tried the Warholizer - the results were really too weird for words.

This is definitely something I want to revisit at another time. There are some great unit evaluative pieces here!

Thing 5

This is what our library looked like for much of the year - especially at the end of the year. We weeded, weeded, and weeded some more. There were tons of really OLD books in our library that we finally discarded. I had several students get really upset that so many books were leaving the library, but now the shelves actually have books that people might be interested in using!

I am glad to finally be back at this. We decided to put our house on the market and there's been a barrage of painters, repairmen, realtors, etc. through the house. Plus we spent 10 days in Yosemite and Lake Tahoe. Now we are back to 100+ temps!

I have used Flickr before. One of our art teachers likes for the students to "research" photographs to get ideas before beginning their 3-D art projects. In the past he used Google images. I suggested that he try Flickr, and he loved it! The students found actual works that other kids had created and other photos as well.

Thing 3

Yes, I made it!!!! This has been a very frustrating experience to set up this blog and get this process started. I've been trying to sit down and get to work for almost an entire week but have been interupted countless times, gone to a myriad of meetings, and asked to do numerous unrelated tasks. Finally, it is the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! Yippee!

I also found this process frustrating because I had to read all of this info, then go back, start the blog, then go back and create the avatar, and then do two blog entries. I still don't have the time correct, so I'll have to figure out how to do that. I have a have dozen tabs all opened up, two powerpoints, and I've created three different accounts with different usernames and passwords. I'll have to have a scorecard to keep up. GRRRRRRR!!!!!

Anxious to see the next step!

Thing 2

Of the 7 1/2 Habits, I think the most difficult for me is number 3: to view problems as challenges. I tell myself that problems or setbacks are challenges in disguise, but I don't necessarily believe it. Yes, I understand on a cognitive level that one probably learns more from challenges, however, I prefer not to have them.

Naturally, since I am an educator and librarian, I feel more confident in Habit 7: Teach/mentor others. When I'm excited about something new I've learned, I can't wait to show someone else.