thing #14 - technorati blog search

At first, I didn't care for Technorati very much because it seemed busy and complicated to me, but as I watched the videos and read the blog about it, I began to realize what a great tool it can be in searching for blogs about topics that interest you. In the YouTube video, one of the executives said that blogs are stories of real human experience unedited, while shows and websites for companies may have gone through layers and layers of editors. He also said that Technorati connects real people directly with other real people. Now, someone searching for a normal person's real opinion about something can search the web using Technorati's tag system and connect with that person.
While I was at the Technorati website, I went ahead and registered my blog and am including the link here:

Technorati Profile

Thing 13 - social bookmarking

I really like the common craft videos because they make everything that's confusing seem so easy. I used the Delicious website to create my social bookmarking account because it was recommended and it's was easy to create and use. I can't wait to share this with my colleagues at school so they can share websites with each other and I can share with my fellow district librarians. I think this is a powerful tool for organizing all of your websites whether they are professional or personal. I am going to use it in my Scrapbooking business as well as at school. Now, I won't have to remember which computer I saved websites in and can find them easily from any computer.

thing 12-creating community through commenting

I got alot out of this activity. I am a rather shy person and new to blogging and it all makes me sort of nervous. After reading helpful tips from "coolcat teacher" and the Rowse's 10 techniques to get more comments, the 10 commandments of blog commenting, blue skunk's comments on commenting and Drake's takes on edublogger etiquette, I feel a little better about putting my comments out there for others to read. All of these bloggers made it clear that they welcome and appreciate relevant and meaningful comments to their posts, as long as the comments add value to the "conversation." Also, if you have written a post about the topic and refer to your post in the comment, a hyperlink should be included that links to your post. That way, others can read and comment on your blog.
Another point I read that makes a lot of sense is to be polite and not condescending when pointing out errors in a post or comment. Opinions can be expressed in a friendly manner and sarcasm will never work in blogging.
One last thing that I'm grappling about is whether or not to use my real name or an alias. Giving too much information about myself is rather scary for me, but using a complete alias is cold and impersonal. I'm thinking of using my part of my name with an alias to help distinguish myself from others with the same name. (Maybe Terri @ the Library - what do you think about that?)
More after I read posts of classmates....

I've blogged to the outside world today. I blogged on a scrapbooking website called Smilebox and on a Chronicle website on a baseball blog. (The baseball blog was still loading when I started this blog, so I hope it works. Since it's through the Chronicle, I wonder if it always takes awhile to load?) I've also blogged to several classmates and I'm enjoying continuing to blog with them.
Terri - Memorykeepermom uhcl

#11 - Library thing

I really love this tool for keeping track of your personal books! I wish I would have known about this 15 years ago when I was really buying a lot of books for my classroom. Now, I have so many books that it's going to be hard to start. I guess I'll startwith my more current books that I'm reading and eventually work my way back.

Setting up my account and entering some books was extremely easy. I even put in some tags for future use. I also like how you can join a group with similar people. I joined the Librarians who Library thing. I didn'e enter into any dicsussions yet, just watched for awhile. I also skimmed through the talk tab at the top and clicked on a few of the Harry Potter discussions. Very interesting!

The last thing I did was to look at the local tab and entered my zip code to see what events are taking place. It said there weren't any listed within 10 miles of my area. I might need to broaden that out to 20 miles or so, since La Porte doesn't have many big venues. I tried to enter the RSS into my reader for my group and local events, but it popped up that there weren't feeds available for those links.

Online image generator - thing 10

I think using online image generators can be used to promote library etiquette, procedures and programs. It will be fun to play with these tools some more to make signage and etiquette reminders to display in the library. I was able to create a few fun items that I can implement pretty quick at the beginning of the year.

This one can be posted around the circulation desk as a reminder to turn bookd in on time.

comic strip generator:

http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/

These happy faces are not going to be very happy if

patrons do not usee their shelf markers when looking for books!!!

happy face generator:

http://www.txt2pic.com/comic-strip/smile.htm

Here is a fun banner that can be used at the top of a blog, or Wikki for the library. Of course, the name would change to reflect the name of the library or book club, etc....

image chef - banner:

http://www.imagechef.com/ic/banner/

direct link to my banner:

http://cdn-img1.imagechef.com/w/080727/anm643acec6cdb8ec16.gif

This fun trading card can be printed and used as book marks to hand out to patrons to remind them of the circulation rules.

trading card with garfield:

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/deck.php

I did have some trouble navigating the custom sign generator and actually creating a sign for use in the library. I will play around with it more because I think it can be very useful. I was trying to create a sign with a popular character, like the Hulk, to remind students to use their shelf markers or not to leave unwanted books on the floor, both big problems in our library.

This discovery activity was fun to play with!

Finding feeds - thing 9

It took me a long time to try each of these search tools and I was successful in finding some pertinent feeds to add to my reader. The easiest tools to use were Blogline, Edublogs award winners and School library blogs on suprglu. In Blogline, I just used the key word library and, though there were way too many sites listed, I did find a few great blogs on the right under "matching feeds." I found even more great blogs when I narrowed my search to school library. The best tools were the Edublogs and School Library blogs on suprglu. Of course, the award winners were all good and separated by category. There, I just clicked on the "Best library blogs" to get to the sites most relevant to my library! How easy was that!?! In School Library blogs, I found a great site created by "The Loud Librarian." It's a blog set up for a library using Blogmeister created by David Warlick. By using the tabs at the top, I was able to read how class bogmeister was set up, and it seems easy enough that I can do this at my elementaty school this year.
When I tried to use Syndic8 and Technarati, searching with keywords, I wasn't very successful. At first, my keywords were too broad (library and school library) and when trying to narrow it down (school media center and school media center programs), I didn't get very many feeds and in Syndic8, what I did get, were all older and no longer usable. Maybe I wasn't using the right keywords, or something. In Technarati, I tried to use the blog directory where the preselected tabs are and there wasn't a category for education at all. When I used key words such as "school library" or "school media center" I got sites totally unrelated to school or libraries. That was sort of frustrating to me.

RSS - thing 8

I really enjoyed watching Leelefever's video on RSS and Google Reader. He made the concept so clear and easy to understand. It was easy to add Reader to my Google account. I added the news bundle and 5 sites like suggested. I found 2 scrapbooking and 3 library sites that I like. Since I own a small scrapbooking home business, I want to keep up with the latest digital technology in scrapbooking and now the most current news will come to me at home instead of me having to look for it myself. Maybe now I can keep up with my tech savy customers.
I really found the Library TWeeter site fun! I liked that someone out there is reading the same thing I am and experiencing the same things in her library. I look forward to blogging with her about current releases, award winners, library programs and such. I think it will help me keep my school library current and interesting to my students!
Terri

google tools - thing #7

I never imagined so many tools were available through google! I created a calendar, a homepage with igoogle, and a picasa web album, which can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/terrimay1984
Though this album can be viewed, the user cannot download or purchase photos from this album for privacy concerns.
I linked my homepage and my calendar to my husband's emial so he can view it as well.

mashups - trading cards and mosaics #6

While working on thing #6, I had a great time playing with the mashups and third party sites, and all the toys and tools they offer. The mosaics will be great in creating signage and presentations in the library. Also, the trading cards will be fun to make with my new book club participants. With parental consent, we can take photos of the kids and they can add text, like a summary of a recent book they read. We can then print a few of the trading cards on card stock and the kids can hand them out to their friends.

This is a trading card I made of my son pitching for his select baseball team this year.

Terri

Flickr - thing 5

I love the Flickr website, however in using the search term butterfly, I found some questionable photos that I wouldn't want my kids to see. I did find this photo capturing 2 of my favorite animals! What wonderful photography! It is called

Alfredo and the butterfly by murilo- and was taken on November 17, 2006, uploaded November 17, 2006
See more of -murilo-'s photos, or visit his profile.

Since I teach elementary K-5th grade kids, I'm not sure about using flickr creative commons in the classroom. I'm not sure the photos are screened properly for young eyes in mind. I will use it to enhance some of my lessons, planned in advance, of course.

Terri May

Things 3 & 4 creating a blog & avatar

Well, I'm not sure still if I even got it right yet. Creating this blog and adding the avatar was hard for me and very frustrating. I finally was able to get back to my blog page and paste the avatar on there, and there it will stay! I hope this post is going in the right place. I'm not sure what I'm doing, or how to find blogs from my classmates to respond to them. I'm going to try that next.
Terri

Thing 2- 7.5 habits response

In reponse to Thing #2 - 7.5 habits of successful people, I have to say, first of all, that blogging is an experience I've never had before. I'm very uncomfortable with the whole idea.
Of the 7.5 habits listed, teaching and mentoring others comes very easily for me. It is something I do everyday in my life, whether it's at school or in my home business, which is scrapbooking with Creative Memories. My web site is
http://www.mycmsite.com/sites/terrimay
Using technology to my advantage, however is not my strength, oblviously if I've never blogged before about anything. It's all new and maybe blogging can be used to my advantage in my business. I'm looking forward to learning alot about media and technology in this semester!
With Blessings,
Terri May
Memory Keeper Mom