Thing #7--Flickr

Flickr was awesome! I was able to easily access images of some of my favorite campgrounds, as well as campgrounds I want to visit!!! South Llano River State Park (in the middle of the Hill Country) is one such place I want to camp at. I accessed more photos of that state park than I had time to look at. I could access images of sea turtles or anything else my students and I are studying.

I had lots of trouble uploading an image from Flickr to my blog.
If you click on the blank box to the left, a nice photo of a sea turtle
taken by Rajue should pop up.

By the way, there are 7 different varieties of sea turtles according to the Sea Turtle Hatchery in Galveston. Did you know all 7 varieties are threatened or endangered?

Thing #6--2.0 Tools

I browsed Web 2.0 Awards nominees and discovered Furl. This site allows the user to store all useful and frequently used websites for quick and easy retrieval.

I like this tool because I can put all of my frequently used websites in one place and never have to worry about forgetting any newly discovered websites that I feel can be of use.

There are several science-related websites that I use during the school year. Now I can put them all on my Furl account and save time accessing them.

Thing #5--Web 2.0

Before I started this course, the term Web 2.0 did not mean anything in particular to me.

However, after reading a few articles about 2.0, I am now aware of the vastness of this technical

aspect of the World Wide Web. It seems daunting....I don't even know where to start. It's

almost like, if I start learning about one tool of Web 2.0, what other tools am I missing out on?

I know this is the wrong way to approach this. But, gee whiz........as an educator, how much of

this do I even need? Funny thing is........I can probably answer that very question using one of

the tools of Web 2.0, the blog! One of my thoughts is to throw a blog post out there to other

educators out there and pose the question: What are 3 or 4 tools from Web 2.0 that are a must

for every educator? There! I am practicing what I preached on an earlier post......use questions

to invite comments from others.

School 2.0, to me, means an educational climate where students are encouraged to engage in

a dynamic, 2-way, read/write medium using the World Wide Web. This breaks us out of the old

static system of 1-way, teacher centered learning. 2.0 is very much open-ended......which

I believe will bring about more creativity from students of every grade level.

Schools of the future will need to align their state mandated objectives with Web 2.0

to prepare students for a big leap from the classroom to the workplace, wherever that

may be.

Thing #4--Commenting------a work in progress

Commenting to blogs helps to create a sense of community and interaction.

-The person whose blog has been commented to feels like his/her blog is important and meaningful enough that someone else would want to comment.

-The interaction between people who are exploring the same topic should be mutually beneficial most of the time.

-The anonymity of blogging allows people to have the security of being honest and forthright, which should enrich the sense of interaction.

I read from Problogger. I was interested to learn that only about 1 out of 100 readers will respond to a blog. 90 % are only passive readers as they browse the blogosphere.
2 points that resonated with me were how we should invite comments in our blogs. So how do you feel about that one? The other point was the importance of asking questions to elicit reader comments. So how can you, as a blogger, structure questions to elicit more interaction from your readers?

I also read from Ten Commandments. A couple of pointers I remember were to contribute comments that have value instead of, "wow", or "me too"! and to use emoticons to impart a happy disposition.

Other fellow bloggers that I learned form:

1. "23 Things" wrote of how useful blogging can be to the classroom. For example, communication, updating assignments, homework postings, etc.

2. "Cricket's corner" made the point of how a blog can allow students to interface with each otherwhile working on a project or studying for a test.

3. "Loving Summer" has a beautifully designed blog site. She made mention of Google Calendar, which I look forward to learning about.

4. "mimiswordsofwisdom" has an interesting blog about igoogle. I plan to look into that one. Also her mention of automatic updates. Cool. I have read from more than one blogger about not putting personal info up on your blog site. Good advice.

5. "technocricket"-- I agree with her on how commenting creates a sense of community and builds rapport with other bloggers. I chose technocricket in case I need technical advice.

I have gone to Blogosphere. Then I logged onto BlogScope and entered the keywords, commercial lawn equipment. I did so because I have a very small lawncare gig to make a few extra bucks. I gained instant access to dozens of blogs related to lawncare equipment for sell, technical "how to" advice on topics from blade sharpening to the best motor oils, brand name comparisons, etc. Awesome!

I then visited PajamasMedia.com, from the Blogosphere site. I scrolled through several blog articles on current events. I stopped and clicked on the blog,"Yes Virginia, There Is A Special Ed Bounty" by Greg Forster and Jay Greene. Interesting article. I then scrolled through and read several comments left by other readers. I chose to remain one of the 99% and just read and not respond.

Thing#3--Using Blogs

Some ways that I think I could use blogs in the classroom are:

-Interface with other Science teachers about labs or lessons. Share ideas and get ideas.

-Keep a journal where I monitor and adjust my lessons for future reference.

-Have an online science topic-based reading or book club.

-With my over-achieving students who actually go home and do their work, we could have a
current events in Science blog where we discuss any topic of importance in the area of Science---and that could be current events or anything else.....for example, a 10 year old, 150 lb. sea
turtle was released last week off of the coast of Georgia. This could be a source of interest and information for my students.

-For the students who have a computer at home, we could have a question and answer blog.



As far as communicating with parents, e-mail takes care of that.

Thing #2---Avatars and high blood pressure

Creating the Avatar was simple. I noticed there are more options for dressing your Avatar than you'll care to spend time looking at.

I chose my posting name and name of my blog by using names that would be easy for me to remember.

Creating my blog was easy. I think it was easy because the blogger program is laid out in such a way that a computer-challenged person can create the blog with little or no fuss at all. I was impressed and encouraged.

Creating the Avatar was easy, as I've already said. The difficult part came when it was time to export the Avatar to my blog. I copied the instructions word for word but had trouble. A
wonderful person that used to be my school librarian helped me through the thick of it. A big thank you goes out to her!!!!!!!!!!

My Avatar reflects my personality because I love teaching Science and my Avatar is happily teaching Science in front of a class. That particular image relates to me.....so I went with it.

Thing #1--Starting Over.......

My first blog did not contain the info it was supposed to......so I am starting from scratch.

The hardest lifelong learning habit for me is #2........accepting responsibility in my own learning.
The reason is that I am so busy with work, my side jobs, and most importantly taking care of my
3 children and giving them plenty of attention that there is little time left over for me to take
classes. That is why I jumped at the opportunity to take this online course....I can work on it
while the kids are asleep.

The easiest lifelong learning habit for me is #71/2.........Play and be curious and read. I can do this one with my kids........subsequently spending time with them and learning at the same time.

By playing with Web 2.0 tools, I hope to learn more about how I can use computer technology
to enhance classroom instruction.......especially since the students have access to laptop computers in the classroom.