Thing 12

These were fun tools but I did them more for personal fun than for work which I don't think I was supposed to do. I took pictures of my kids and made them into sketches. The site does lots of other things, too. It has lots of effects you can add or you can just use it to perfect your photos. The best application I can think of for school is in the slide show I want to show at the beginning of the year next year to my staff highlighting our successes. I could use some of the effects available on this site to enhance that slide show. If you are interested in playing around with photos, this is the site for you!

Thing 11

Here are some images I created.

The Mr. Rogers' photo was easy to make. It was not so easy to move. I have been having trouble with moving all the graphics even with my daughter's help and she is pretty computer savvy. I finally went to the help button to figure out some troubleshooting. First, I turned off my pop-ups but that didn't help. The second suggestion was to use Mozilla Firefox which I have not been doing. I remembered that's what we uploaded from the first but I have always still used Explorer because that's what I'm familiar with. When I switched to Mozilla it came up easily, so I'm going to try to remember to use Firefox all the time.

The heart graphic was easy to make, too. In fact, all the sites where I tried to make something - they were all easy to make. I did have trouble getting the heart to transfer also, but I was still on Explorer. Hopefully, this will work better if I start using Mozilla.
Basically, I enjoyed this lesson (except for the frustrations). I can see lots of uses for these tools and would like to incorporate some of them on the slide show I am going to make for my back-to-school slide show. I can see lots of fun uses for this as well. I am on vacation in Illinois right now visiting family and made the heart for my great niece who is 17 months. You could do lots of scrapbooking types of activities with these fun tools. I worked for a long time trying to get the Flicr Spellr trying to transfer as I did in Lesson 9, but when I did get them moved they were all over the place and I couldn't line them up. This "playing" is what's killing me because of the time involved!

Thing 10

Attributions:
Lumaxart http://www.flickr.com/photos/lumaxart/2137729430/
Pedro Simoes http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedrosimoes7/1301014184/


It was easy to make the slideshow, but I did have some troubles embedding because it would not accept the HTML code. After making a slide show 3 times I was finally able to embed it! That is the stuff that drives me nuts!

Thing 9

Now this lesson (alhough it was really long!) was very interesting and fairly easy to use. I enjoyed looking at the pictures and find different topics to research. I love the idea of sending my own personal photos here so that they will always be safe. They gave the story about a fire in your home and the first thing you want to grab is your pictures. If you put them on the computer and your computer crashes (which ours did last month) you will lose all your pictures. This way you can protect them forever and I think that is great. I see lots of ideas for educators in this Flickr site. I read several really good lessons I would like to pass on to some of my teachers so they can see the benefit of this site. This leadership symbol by Lumaxart ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/lumaxart/2137729430/ )was really cool and I'm hoping I can use it for a slideshow at the beginning of next year. I found this particular lesson very helpful both personally and professionally. And (thanks to B Babble) I am discovering why you showed us Whiteboard because it is great to take notes on while you are learning this stuff so you can remember it for your blog! Okay, I tried to stretch and spell my name using the Flickr Speller but I couldn't figure out how to get those letters to my blog. I'll keep working on that !

Thing 8

I thought the Creative Commons information was very interesting. Actually, I would love to hear the story of how someone even came up with the idea of doing this and how the conversation with the U.S. Dept. of Copywright went. I have seen the CC logo before and wondered what that was all about so that was interesting. I think this will have a big impact on my professional life and feel a real obligation to share this information with teachers. When they are spending more and more time online and using technology in their lessons more and more, I think they need to understand how and when they can use what they find online and how to protect themselves legally. I really like the first site I went to in the Stretch exercise. It listed by category different lessons teachers could pull from and delineated exactly what rights they had and how they could use them. I think that would be very beneficial to them.

Thing 6

I try to check my reader list every couple of days. I'm still not understanding the numbers listed by the side of the blogs I'm following. I thought that indicated the number of blogs I've not yet read, but the one that says it has 10 - there was only one I hadn't read. Maybe that just tells me the total number of posts to that blog. I'll play with that a little longer until I figure that out. Really, I need to spend some more time finding blogs I really like. I've enjoyed following the two classmates blogs I've adopted, but most of the other ones I find I'm really not interested in. My favorite one is on leadership. One article in particular dealt with student motivation. It was very cleverly written and really hits home on why kids misbehave in class - they're bored! This particular blog I will keep because it really does discuss issues that are of interest to me in my job. Some of the others that I felt I might have a more personal interest in really didn't turn out to be what I thought. But, I think that is just the nature of blogs. You really have to find out what is of interest to you.

Thing 7

I found that commenting is easier for me when I know the blogger. I commented on the two classmates' blogs that I adopted and I know them both and it was like I was having a conversation with the and I could visualize that. When I commented on the other blogs I was a little more intimidated. First, the two blogs on which I commented seemed like they were composed by folks who were much more savvy than me with all this stuff. However, I commented on the content of their blog so it was probably OK. I think that commenting is important. I guess I look at it from my own perspective. How would I feel if no one commented on my blog? That would speak to me. It would either tell me that I must not have anything too important to say OR that no one agreed with me. Either way, it would impact my confidence. Also, on one of the sites you had us read on commenting, the author spoke about how we all like to be validated and that happens when someone reads our work and comments. It's just like when I taught writing as a teacher. The kid's improved so much more when we commented (either in writing or orally) on the good and bad things they did in their writing. It's kind of funny because you may not even realize that 100 people have read your blog if no one comments!

Thing 5

Phew! This is tough stuff! It actually was easy to add the blogsite to my reader. But, for some reason, one of the required ones just won't go. Tried to use my two first contacts for help, but they couldn't figure it out either. At any rate, the other four sites are there. I like the Students 2.0 site and the article about from one student's perspective. She was a little put out with all the students her age going to exotic places to do good work so they could put it on their college resumes. She stayed home for the summer and knitted and went to the library, both things she enjoys. Helps us remember that not everyone has the same desires!

Thing 4

I feel like I'm in a Dr. Seuss book when I title these things. I just viewed a number of the educational blogs and enjoyed them all. I loved the very first one about not giving homework. This has been a hot topic on my campus and I have convinced a couple of my teachers to try it due to several of the reasons Dan mentioned in his blog. I think many teachers are convinced we have to teach students responsibility and homework is the way to do that. But, this is a changing world, as we are experiencing in this class and sometimes you have to change the way you do things. It is interesting to see the thoughts behind what we do and the reason we won't let go!

Thing 2

I believe there are many implications about how Learning 2.0 could affect us in the world of education. If I were still a teacher I would jump on this blogging stuff to do interactive journals with my kids. I can see it having value with any subject. Math would be an awesome place to start to see if the kids can explain their thinking in problem solving! I would have loved this when teaching TAKS writing because I think it would be so motivating for kids and get them excited about writing every day! As a principal, I can see the power in blogging with fellow principals or with my teachers. This would be an awesome way to get input on a problem or concern without holding a meeting! It would be great for teachers to blog each other as well to get ideas about lessons or classroom management. I would love to use this with brand new teachers or with my student interns. Very powerful!

Thing 1

Okay, reflection on 7 1/2 habits - The habit most challenging for me in this endeavor is probably viewing the problems as challenges. This is difficult for me 'cause they really seem like problems! I am sorely lacking in technology skills and feel like I get farther and farther behind each day! The only way I know how to solve a problem I encounter is by asking someone. Luckily, my girls are home for the summer or I'd never be able to figure this out! The habit that would be the easiest for me? Accepting responsibility for my own learning. I realize that the reason I am behind in this learning is that I have to have this as a constant goal. And while I often state that, I never seem to have the time to actually learn (and play) with it so I can reach that goal. I know that is the only way I will learn it. I've taken the Excel class 3 times now and I still am not very good at Excel. But, it is because I don't use it and play with it until I become comfortable. I used FileMaker Pro in my old job and feel so comfortable with it that I use it all the time! I use it when Excel would probably be better, but I don't ever feel like I have the time to learn it by playing with it! The habit that is probably the most important for this class is probably to play, which is the one thing I just told you I didn't have time for! That is what is going to either make me or break me in this endeavor!