Saturday, February 28, 2009

Week 8: "Thing 18" My First Zoho Experience

My First Zoho Experience

This is my first time using Zoho.com.  Please pardon the extreme formating - I am having fun playing with Zoho's features!  I have heard a great deal about online word processors in the tech circles that I dabble in as of late, especially Google Docs, however I have not yet had time to satisfactorily explore these web 2.0 tools.

I am excited to be working in Zoho for the first time; it is extremely user-friendly and has a nice amount of formatting options.  I am creating this document as a requirement of an online course that I am a taking called "Raven About Web 2.o Tools."  I have found this class to be extremely beneficial in introducing me to a number of useful Web 2.0 tools that I can use as a teacher to enhance my students' learning experiences.

I am aslo in the middle of taking a class entitled "Digital Media and 21st Century Students, Creating Engaged Learners."  During our next class session we will be exploring Google Docs and one of the class projects will require that we collaborate and create a Google Doc with a number of other class participants.

I have enjoyed using Zoho and after this fun and easy experience, I will definitely use it again, as well as promote its use to other educators!   (Translation: I have enjoyed using Zoho and after this fun and easy experience, I will definitely use it again, as well as promote its use to other educators!)

Until next time,
Joni Matthews

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Week 7: "Thing 17"

I am so glad that one of the discovery exercises for this class was to explore the Learning 2.0 Sandbox.

I found it to be an extremely useful resource as it is a place to go for cutting edge ideas I can use in my classrooom, collaboration with other tech savvy educators, and professional development to continue my journey as a life long learner.

I added my own personal experiences with Blogger in the blogging section of the sandbox. I felt it was important to pass on my experiences with Blogger as it has dramatically affected student motivation and parent communication in my classroom this year.

Week 7: "Thing 16"

Before this Discovery Exercise I knew very little about wiki's.
My first attempt to view a wiki resulted in the below image.

I was a little confused as to how peanut butter and jelly sandwiches connected to the wiki world but I came to the conclusion that the above image was just a global wiki update alert. A quick google search helped me to understand that "PeanutButterWiki or PBwiki is a commercial wiki farm started by three graduates of Stanford University: David Weekly, Ramit Sethi, and Nathan Schmidt." However it is still a mystery to me as to why the three graduate students chose to create a wiki farm named after a popular type of sandwich enjoyed by small children (maybe it was the only thing they had to eat as once poor college students).

After visiting the BookLoversWiki I found out that "The term Wiki comes from the Hawaiian word wiki wiki which means quick. A wiki is a kind of website that is written collaboratively and that multiple people can edit easily and quickly."

The website entitled Library Successdefined a wiki as a collaborative catalyst and stated...
"A wiki allows a group of people to collaboratively develop a Web site with no knowledge of HTML or other markup languages. Anyone can add to or edit pages in a wiki -- it is completely egalitarian. Anyone can create new wiki pages simply by creating a new link with the name of the page. Pages are connected not hierarchically, but by hyperlinks between pages.

According to the creator of Wiki, Ward Cunningham, wikis can be identified by the following characteristics:

* "A wiki invites all users to edit any page or to create new pages within the wiki Web site, using only a plain-vanilla Web browser without any extra add-ons."
* "Wiki promotes meaningful topic associations between different pages by making page link creation almost intuitively easy and by showing whether an intended target page exists or not."
* "A wiki is not a carefully crafted site for casual visitors. Instead, it seeks to involve the visitor in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration that constantly changes the Web site landscape."

I found the above definition helpful because with all of the Web 2.0 tools I have been exploring as a requirement of this class, it is my goal to identify the specific purpose of each tool and then learn how to use it in collaboartion with the other Web 2.0 tools I have already learned about.

I am currently addicted to Blogger and maintain a class blog for my first grade students and parents in an attempt to motivate students to do their best work, as well as keep parents well-informed. As I explored the usefulness of wiki's, I could quite easily brainstorm curriculum connections for using a wiki with my students and linking it to my class blog.

For example:
* Idea #1: A collaborative project on George Washington and Abraham Lincoln - In honor of President's Day our class has been studying the lives of Washington and Lincoln. Every student could add something that they learned about each former President to our class wiki.
* Idea #2: Create a "Top 10" List - Our class could brainstorm and come up with a list of our favorite "Top 10" books to read aloud and post it to our wiki. We could update the list as it changed throughout the school year.
* Idea #3: Mission Trading Cards - Each student in my class could create a trading card from Big Huge Labs at the beginning of the school year, upload it to the class wiki, and then share it with their peers in order to get to know one another better and build community and foster friendships within the classroom.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Week 6: "Thing 15"

After reading the articles, Away From Icebergs and To a Temporary Place in Time, I must agree that the days of cuddling up with a good book in front of a big library window are over. Instead, these days you see people at the book store sipping on specialty coffees and typing furiously on their laptops.

The Away From Icebergs (written by Rick Anderson) article was surprisingly interesting and upbeat; the article title lead me to believe that the content would be a little bit more "icy" and undesirable. The message that I received after considering Rick Anderson's viewpoint though was not that libraries will soon be extinct but rather that libraries and librarians still have a place in this world, there are just some changes that need to be made.

Anderson explains that there a three main icebergs that libraries and librarians need to stay away from in order to remain afloat.

Iceberg 1 - there is no longer a need for the "just in case" collection. Anderson explains that "It no longer makes sense to collect information products as if they were hard to get. They aren’t. In fact, it may no longer make sense to “collect” in the traditional sense at all. In my library, we’ve seen a 55 percent drop in circulation rates over the past twelve years, making it harder and harder to justify the continued buildup of a large “just in case” print collection. As a Web 2.0 reality continues to emerge and develop, our patrons will expect access to everything – digital collections of journals, books, blogs, podcasts, etc. You think they can’t have everything? Think again. This may be our great opportunity."

Iceberg 2 - library success is reliant on user education. Anderson says that "Libraries are poorly equipped and insufficiently staffed for teaching. Ask yourself what your patron-to-librarian ratio is (at the University of Nevada it’s about 680 to 1) and then ask yourself how you’re going to train all those patrons. We need to focus our efforts not on teaching research skills but on eliminating the barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need, so they can spend as little time as possible wrestling with lousy search interfaces and as much time as possible actually reading and learning."

Iceberg 3 - the "come to us" model of library service must change. Anderson suggests that "There was a time, not very long ago, when libraries exercised something close to monopoly power in the information marketplace. During the print era, if you wanted access to pricey indexes or a collection of scholarly journals, you had no choice but to make a trip to the library. It wasn’t a good system, but it worked. Sort of. That is to say, it worked moderately well for those privileged with access to a good library. In the post-print era, libraries no longer have the monopoly power that they had in the days before the Internet. We have to be a bit more humble in the current environment, and find new ways to bring our services to patrons rather than insisting that they come to us—whether physically or virtually."

I agree with Anderson and the viewpoint he expresses in his article. I think that the life span of the traditional library is almost up but that libraries can remain strong and prosperous, it is just a matter of changing the way things have been done in the past to better fit the needs of the future reader.

The article entitled To A Temporary Place in Time (written by Dr. Wendy Schultz) was helpful as it provided a basic definition for the traditional library but also went on to explain how the library has changed as the world wide web have evolved.

I found it interesting to reflect on the ways Dr. Wendy Schultz explained the value of the library as well as its life stages...

Dr. Schultz proposes "Libraries are not just collections of documents and books, they are conversations, they are convocations of people, ideas, and artifacts in dynamic exchange. Libraries are not merely in communities, they are communities: they preserve and promote community memories; they provide mentors not only for the exploration of stored memory, but also for the creation of new artifacts of memory." As well as that "Librarians today are not just inventory management biobots: they are people with a unique understanding of the documents they compile and catalog, and the relationships among those documents."

Stage 1: Traditional Library
Dr. Schultz asks "What was the library of the past? A symbol of a society that cared about its attainments, that treasured ideas, that looked ahead multiple generations. Librarians were stewards, trainers, intimate with the knowledge base and the minds who produced it."

Stage 2: Library 1.0 - Commodity
Dr. Schultz maintains that in the beginning libraries were just a source of commodity, for example, "The library from Alexandria to the industrial era: Books are commodities, collected, inventoried, categorised and warehoused within libraries. Libraries represent a resource base, contributing to educating the labour force, to supporting innovation processes fueling growth, and to informing the present and the future—whether in the neighborhood, in academia, or in business."

Stage 3: Library 2.0 - Product
Dr. Schultz believes that commodity then leads to product distribution and that librarians need to consider "How should the library package its commodity—books—as products in an environment which disintermediates, dematerialises, and decentralises? Chad and Miller’s essay, and the debates and conversations around it, raise this question and answer it with the characteristics of our emerging information infrastructure: the library is everywhere, barrier-free, and participatory."

Stage 4: Library 3.0 - Web 3D to Library 3D - Service
Dr. Schultz explains that we wil "arrive at virtual collections in the 3D world, where books themselves may have avatars and online personalities. But the avalanche of material available will put a premium on service, on tailoring information to needs, and on developing participatory relationships with customers. So while books may get in your 3D face all by themselves, people will prefer personal introductions—they will want a VR info coach. Who’s the best librarian avatar? How many Amazon stars has your avatar collected from satisfied customers? This could create librarian “superstars” based on buzz and customer ratings. People will collect librarians rather than books—the ability not just to organise, but also to annotate and compare books and other information sources, from a variety of useful perspectives."

Stage 5: Library 4.0 - The Neo Library - Experience
Dr. Schultz then predicts that this stage "will be the library for the aesthetic economy, the dream society, which will need libraries as mind gyms; libraries as idea labs; libraries as art salons. But let’s be clear: Library 4.0 will not replace Libraries 1.0 through 3.0; it will absorb them. The library as aesthetic experience will have space for all the library’s incarnations: storage (archives, treasures); data retrieval (networks—reference rooms); and commentary and annotation (salon). Available as physical places in the library “storefront,” they will also be mobile, as AR overlays we can view (via glasses, contacts, projections) anywhere. Both virtual and augmented 3D reality will enable us to manipulate data via immersive, visual, metaphorical, sculptural, holographic information theatres: the research and analytic experience will merge with drawing, dance and drama."

I found the detailed descriptions that this article offered explaining the ways in which traditional libraries have already morphed as technology has evolved within our society to be interesting and accurate. I appreciated Dr. Schultz's predictions for the future of the library and now feel motivated to keep up to date on this topic in order to best be able to meet the needs of students in the future of education.

As Dr. Schultz wraps up her article she ends with an invitation, "I'll meet you there." I have always loved the library (as a small child and even now as an adult) and I am excited for the changes that will occur. I look forward to many rewarding library experiences as the world continues to change throughout my lifetime.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Week 6: "Thing 14"

Technorati was not as user-friendly or helpful as I had hoped. After an ample amount of exploration time at the site I grew a little frustrated and a lot disappointed.

The first thing I did on the Technorati site was create an account. I was immediately put off because I had to create a member name that would be different than the standard username I try to maintain for simplicity purposes, it has an underscore and Technorati policy will only allow a username made up of letters and numbers.

The second thing I attempted to do was claim my blog. However, I kept getting the following error message...
Click the above image to enlarge it; the message is somewhat comical. "Backend issues" sounds like a personal problem.

After three failed attempts at claiming my blog, I decided to search for a blog on one of my failed passions... knitting (so many things change after you have a baby). I thought finding an interesting knitting blog might help me be bitten by the knitting bug again. However, after searching and scrolling between at least five pages of results, I didn't find much that caught my eye. The experience was not a total loss though as I did manage to find a few knitting blogs of interest. I am guilty of juding a blog by its name and the ones mentioned below I found enticing...
1. Too Many Scarves (this blog had really interesting crafting ideas)
2. Yarn Harlot (this is a blog one of my good friends follows and now I can enjoy it too)
3. Knitting Pirate (the author of this blog is witty and I enjoy her sarcasm)

In closing, I have decided that I will give Technorati a second chance to display its usefulness to me and attempt to claim my blog once more.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Week 6: "Thing 13"

The social bookmarking site De.licio.us came into my life just at the right time... my firefox bookmark toolbar and sidebar were completely full and I was getting pretty annoyed with scrolling through and attempting to find the link I desired.

Three days ago while attending a technology conference, I overheard two teachers talking about De.licio.us and after about a half an hour of exploring (I admit it - I was totally off task during the tech conference presentation), I was hooked.

I created an account and I even figured out how to add tags to my bookmarks and bundle my tags into tag clouds!

Just to show off I am including a screen shot of my beautifully organized Del.icio.us toolbar.

Thank you Del.icio.us; you help me keep my O.C.D tendencies in check.


Click on the screen shot to enlarge it and view the beauty of pure and honest organization.

As I explored the SJLibraryLearning2 Del.icio.us link I found an interesting article written by Sean P. Aune on a site called Mashable that claims it is 'all that's new on the web'. The title of the article is "35 Tools for Teachers, Tutors, and Students" and it is a wonderful resource for educators; I cannot wait to share it with my colleagues. Out of the 35 tools that Aune listed and described, I am most interested in further exploring...

HotChalk.com a site where I can network with other educators and hopefully attain fresh new lesson plan ideas.

4Teachers.org
a site that has a vast amount of useful teacher tools, including a Family of Tools feature that includes links to Quizstar and Rubistar which are online quiz and rubric generators.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Week 5: "Thing 12"

I did not have to create an account in Voicethread for this discovery exercise; I have had one for the past year now. I find Voicethread to be a powerful teaching tool as it provides my students the opportunity to publish their work, comment on their peers' work, and learn to give as well as receive compliments and constructive criticism. I appreciate that Voicethread offers the option of keeping the students' work private but that parents, grandparents, other extended family, and friends can be invited to view the work and even record comments.

Below is a sample of our first class Voicethread project. The objective of this project was for each student to illustrate a letter of the alphabet in order to create an alphabet book and then I recorded each letter name and sound.



My class and I are currently working on a unit of instruction focusing on Alaskan Animals. It is our goal to complete our research and illustration of each animal, upload the animal photos to Voicethread, and then have each student comment on the animal they studied.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Week 5: "Thing 11" #3

Travel Challenge

Harder Than I Expected

Hopeful 'Vacuous Digressions' Author Skips This Post

His Score Phenomenal

My Score Embarrassing

The Ball Has Been Dropped

Will Update When Achieve Better Score

Don't Hold Your Breath

Week 5: "Thing 11" #2

Since I became a TTL (Technology Teacher Leader) grant participant I have been immersed in professional development opportunities.

I am currently taking a class from my dear friend Martina Henke. I first met her when I was interviewing for my teaching position; she was a member of the hiring committee that brought me on board with Kincaid Elementary School. We taught together for five years before she decided to move onto bigger and better things and is now a professional development provider for the technology department within the Anchorage School District.

The class that I am taking and that Martina is teaching, is entitled '21st Century Tools for 21st Century Learners - Kincaid Technology Class' and as a requirement of the class I am an active member of a Ning (for proof click here).

After attending the Anchorage School District TTL Spring Training Opportunity this week and speaking with many other teachers who are at the K - 2 level within the Anchorage School District, it is my goal to set up a Ning for primary teachers to share ideas and support one another district-wide.

I think I should ask my dear friend Martina to help me with this.

Week 5: "Thing 11" #1

I chose to explore the Web 2.0 tool Hairmixer. I found the tool while searching on the SEOmoz's Web 2.0 Awards List. The site received the second place award in the "fun stuff" category.

My overall feeling? I was looking for fun and I found it. However, the tool was quite difficult to use. Once I had completed my hair mixing and was ready to save my photo, I could not figure out how to start that process and the site did not offer much help. Then once I finally succeeded in saving it (I think), I couldn't find where the photo was saved and therefore I couldn't upload to my blog. I ended up taking screen shots of my favorite photos and then uploading them as pictures through blogger. Another annoying characteristic of the site was that it often timed out or brought up a blank screen message containing the word 'forbidden.'

Regardless of the few frustrating moments, the site provided me with many big belly laughs!

Can you guess the celebrity hairstyle I am sporting? Answers located at the bottom of the post.


P


Answers (from top to bottom): Lindsay Lohan, Taylor Swift, Tyra Banks, Paris Hilton, and Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Week 5: "Thing 10" #5

I love imagechef.com! If you haven't bookmarked it yet - do it now!

As you can tell from my other Week 5 posts (#'s 1 through 4) I had an extremely fun time creating images on imagechef.com.

The site was super easy to use, offered a vast amount of choices, and provided an easy step by step process to walk you through transferring the generated image to blogger.

I can't wait to share this online image generator with my friends, students, and colleagues.

Week 5: "Thing 10" #4

ImageChef.com - Custom comment codes for MySpace, Hi5, Friendster and more
I am currently attending the Anchorage School District's TTL (Teacher Technology Leader) Spring Conference so the above image just seemed appropriate.

Week 5: "Thing 10" #3

ImageChef.com - Custom comment codes for MySpace, Hi5, Friendster and more
This image reminds me of my goal as a lifelong learner.

Week 5: "Thing 10" #2

ImageChef.com - Custom comment codes for MySpace, Hi5, Friendster and more
I am not sure the above image needs any explanation. I think it is obvious - I am one proud mom.

Week 5: "Thing 10" #1

ImageChef.com - Custom comment codes for MySpace, Hi5, Friendster and more
I live in Alaska and I always have the chance to go to Maui for spring break but this year I am traveling to Canada with my daughter to visit my family instead. I know that I will enjoy spending time with my family but the above image reminds me that I WILL BE LAYING ON THE BEACH IN MAUI ALMOST ONE YEAR FROM NOW FOR SPRING BREAK 2010!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Week 4: "Thing 9"

Funny... I never really noticed the RSS feed symbol before and now it seems wherever I navigate on the web... there it is!
It is extremely easy to locate the RSS feed symbol on most blogs and even easier to add new blogs to a Google Reader account.

I explored "Edublog's" award-winning blogs and found three blogs to add to my Google Reader account.

The three blogs I added are:

1. Christina's Classroom
I found Christina's blog easy to relate to as a primary teacher. The post below (taken from Christina's blog) was just too funny and too true!

Awhile back I received an email from a fellow teacher that contained the following jokes from Jeff Foxworthy. I thought it was hilarious and every teacher can relate to. I wanted to share it with you as a way to looked forward to the rest of the year. Many times throughout the day I think about the jokes and get a laugh out of it. Enjoy!

You Know You're a Teacher When...
1. You can hear 25 voices behind you and know exactly which one belongs to the child out of line.
2. You get a secret thrill out of laminating something.
3. You walk into a store and hear the words "It's Ms/Mr._______" and know you have been spotted.
4. You have 25 people that accidentally call you Mom/Dad at one time or another.
5. You can eat a multi-course meal in under twenty minutes.
6. You've trained yourself to go to the bathroom at two distinct times of the day: lunch and planning period.
7. You start saving other people's trash, because most likely, you can use that toilet paper tube or plastic butter tub for something in the classroom.
8. You believe the teachers' lounge should be equipped with a margarita machine.
9. You want to slap the next person who says "Must be nice to work 8 to 3 and have summers off."
10. You believe chocolate is a food group.
11. You can tell if it's a full moon without ever looking outside.
12. You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today."
13. You feel the urge to talk to strange children and correct their behavior when you are out in public.
14. You believe in aerial spraying of Ritalin.
15. You think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.
16. You spend more money on school stuff than you do on your own needs.
17. You can't pass the school supply aisle without getting at least five items!
18. You ask your friends if the left hand turn he just made was a "good choice or a bad choice."
19. You find true beauty in a can of perfectly sharpened pencils
20. You are secretly addicted to hand sanitizer
21. You understand instantaneously why a child behaves a certain way after meeting his or her parents.

(When I attempted to add Christina's blog to my Google Reader account I was having a hard time finding the RSS symbol on the actual blog page but then I realized that the symbol was located in the URL address window at the top of the browser).

2. Creating Lifelong Learners
I liked Matthew Needleman's opinions on teaching young children how to become writers who love writing.
In response to the above sketch (taken from his Creating Lifelong Learners blog) Needleman writes "Let students write. Let them get their ideas out on paper without worrying about writing conventions and Big Macs."

3. Learning with 'e's
Steve Wheeler, the author of the blog "Learning with 'e's" is incredibly knowledgeable about current technology issues and truly inspires me as a fellow educator. His blog is nominated for "Edublog's" Best Individual Blog and Most Influential Post. I especially enjoyed his post "Teaching with Twitter." I have heard a great deal about Twitter but have not yet had time to explore it. After reading Steve's post I have a better understanding of the Twitter tools available and specific ideas of how to use the tools as an educator.

Week 4: "Thing 8"

I learned something new today! I had not heard about RSS feeds before.

I found the definition for RSS given on www.infinitethinking.org most helpful. The site explained "RSS allows you to subscribe to online news and updates that are important to you. Once you subscribe to a source, you no longer need to visit that individual web site to check for updates... the updates come to you. Searching or browsing the web is a good way to locate sources initially, but once you've located them there is no need to return to them over and over. If they offer an RSS feed, all you need to do is subscribe."

I created an account with Google Reader. I think that I am going to find RSS to be a useful tool as a teacher, a mother, and to fulfill my personal interests. It will provide a place for all of my interests to gather so that I no longer have to waste time searching the internet but instead can get right to reading. As a mom I can find quick and easy recipes for dinner, as a teacher I can find interesting lesson ideas, as a scrapbooker, blogger, and knitter I can find the neatest new tricks of the trade!

Click here for my public URL address to my Google Reader account.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Week 3: "Thing 7"

Since I have the freedom of posting anything technology related for "Thing 7," I might as well boast about my students and the creations they have made in Kid Pix so far this year. Therefore I have featured some of the fun activities that we have done in computer lab below.

This first Kid Pix example is a rebus poem. Each student was required to copy the template by using the text tool and typing the words of the poem. Then the student chose a stamp that would finish off each sentence and personalize the poem.
The next sample was made around Thanksgiving time. The students were instructed on how to use the draw tool and make a turkey. To finish off the task students were asked to add a stamp to eat feather representing something that they were thankful for.
The next sample is a creative thinking activity. Students were shown how to use the line design tool, hold down the shift key to make the line straight, and then divide the screen into quarters. Students were also taught how to use the text tool and add the title "Winter is a time for..." to the first section of the screen. After that students used the draw tool to add an illustration of four of their favorite winter activities in each screen section.
The last example is a fun holiday activity, the Reindeer Handprint, that the students completed with the help of a friend. One friend carefully held his/her hand up close to the computer screen while the other friend trace around it with the mouse. After both students' hands were traced, it was time to finish off the reindeer by adding color, a red nose, a face, antlers, hooves, and a tail.I am interested in everything tech that I can immediately teach my students or infuse into my curriculum. I am constantly searching the web for the latest lesson plan ideas and new ways to spice up content.

Week 3: "Thing 6"

I decided to expolre the Flickr Mashup called fd's Flickr Toys and use Big Huge Labs to create my very own teacher trading card.

I decided to make my trading card with the sky background. I uploaded a comic strip photo from photo booth that I took of myself in my classroom. Then I added a description of myself and my teaching career. I also added three fun icons to my trading card that represent attitudes I try to encourage my students to have; a happy disposition, a kind and caring heart, and completing work that will earn a thumbs up!

I could see using the trading card idea in many ways in my classroom.

Just a few ideas include:
1. Having each student make a trading card and then share it with the class at the beginning of the school year as an activity to help the class get to know one another better.

2. Making a trading card for each letter of the alphabet and using the cards at a learning center to help students learn their letters and sounds.

3. Having each staff member of the school make a trading card and post it outside their classroom door so that visitors to the school can identify their childs' classroom and teacher.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Week 3: "Thing 5"


IMG_1578
Originally uploaded by matthews_joni
Before I embarked upon this discovery exercise, I had already set up a flickr account but the assignment challenged me to learn more. I found out how to do so many interesting things.

I learned that "Tags" are keywords or labels that you add to a photo to make it easier to find later.

I found out that "Groups" make it easy to share photos and that once you become a member of a specific group you can then add your photos to that group's pool.

I also learned to upload a photo, tag it, use the edit and create options in Picnik to enhance the color, sharpen the image, and add a border, as well as link my Raven About Web 2.0 blog 'World Wide Web Quest' to my flickr account so that the next time I want to upload a photo to my blog it is a quick and easy process. I did a test post from my flickr account to my blogspot just to be sure it wasn't too good to be true.

The photo that I chose to upload is one of my favorite photos that I took on the 100th Day of School. My students and I just celebrated the 'big day' last Friday. The photo is of an illustration that one of my students drew. The assignment was to make a wish for 100 of something, write what you would do with it, and then create an illustration to go with the writing. I have done this same activity for the past seven years of my teaching career and I have never had a student come up with such a unique yet well thought-out answer. He wished for 100 moms to do stuff for him!

There is so much more in flickr that I want to learn to do like make a map of where I have been, create a jigsaw puzzle, make my own teacher badge, create my own blog header, make a photo cube, add comic book captions to some of my photos, create a mosaic of my pictures, and much much more!

In closing, I have to say that I love that flickr, picnik, and blogger all work together so nicely and I wish I would have discovered this sooner as I have been using all three of them separately for almost a year now.

Flickr

This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.