Thing 12

As a blogger for over 2 years now, I find that comments really keep me going. I will sometimes post for weeks and not have any comments. I'll feel like no one is reading it and then randomly someone will say that they read something on my blog and I want to scream "Why don't you leave a comment?!?!?". However, after reading about successful comments, I see that when I post with questions or a pondering thought, I tend to get lots of comments. When I post about my family's comings and goings, I don't get comments because they would be more of the 'right on' or 'sounds fun' type which isn't really the best kind of comment.

I found 5 blogs to comment on for this exercise on the Library2Play site.

Leaving comments on other blogs was easy, as I've posted, I have an entire iGoogle page full of feeds to all my favorite blogs. I left a comment on a Crockpot365 about a girl who is using her crockpot for 365 days in a row and I left one on Pink is the New Blog. However, I did it as my alter ego from my personal blog.

Thing 11

I am already a member of Shelfari and because I've been using it for over a year now, I'm a bit more loyal to it than Library Thing. Plus, I'd hate to have to transfer my friends over to yet another web based too. Really, they're the same thing--a Facebook or My Space but for the literary type.

I like the concept and find it's another way to keep in touch with friends (via what we're reading), keep up to date on what's new and notable, and I enjoy being in groups with other librarians and/or other moms.

So I joined Library Thing for this project but really, I'm going to stick with Shelfari. But that's just me.

Thing 10

Image Chef was by far the easier of the two and with less pesky ads. Ugh. You can see below that I tried to do the comic strip and I just couldn't get it right. There was, in my opinion, no straight forward directions. Too many ads mixed with what I was supposed to be doing.

I liked the Big Huge Lab image generator, also, as seen in the Flickr posting earlier. This was fun!

Educational uses would be to create a nametag for a famous Texan listing all their accomplishments, or having a book character motivational poster. This really was fun and I think kids will get a kick out of it. So easy (with Big Labs and Image Chef, not the others so much--too busy with all their 'stuff')

Thing 9

I wonder if Dr. Seuss knew there would be more than Thing One and Thing Two...just a random musing as I type Thing 9 in my Title box.

RSS Feed finders. I'm a big fan of blogs. It's how I keep a window on the world of friends from high school/college, family, and other Mommies. I don't do technorati tags on my blog but my cousin, who blogs exclusively about Rachael Ray uses it so that others can find her blog and so that she can make sure to give shout outs to bloggers talking about Rachael.

I found myself liking the Google Blogger search (is this where I admit that I'm becoming much friendlier with Google than I ever thought I would?). I liked looking at the EduBlogger awards and seeing the library blogs out there (I really need to broaden my blog reading--I have been in a rut of peeping on friends/family and then the lives of celebrities).

I don't see myself using Topix much as it was more of a news base than blog base.

I think I will continue to check out library blogs to add to my reader as well as some new, funny, mom blogs. I'm starting to love seeing that others out there making the same mistakes (and celebrating the same triumphs) as I am on this roller coaster ride.

Thing 8

Here's my shared reader. At least, I think this is how I share it will y'all : http://www.google.com/reader/shared/13217176151407840639

As I stated back in Thing 7, I love the RSS feed option on my iGoogle page because I can always do a quick glance for updates and if there are none, go on my merry way without clicking through all my 'favorites' on the computer. It really saves time!

For schools, you can have a reader set up for different projects. For example, I saw some Texas History blogs. How cool would it be for kids doing their Texas History projects to check updates on blogs from scholars and/or enthusiasts. Perhaps they'd learn something new--as it is being discovered!

This Google reader also allows for a librarian to, erm, 'control', per se what comes up on the reader but students feel like they have control over what they read AND they're being allowed to use Google (because up until this project, I'd scream about "NO GOOGLE" and turn into the Library Hulk if I saw any Googling in my library)

Thing 7

I already use iGoogle to help me save time. I have several friends with personal blogs, and even have one myself, and setting up feeds to the their blogs via iGoogle allows me to quickly check for new posts. It also allows me to keep up with the entertainment news and I have a tab for cooking, too, so I can check for easy recipes for dinner.

I've already begun to think about iGoogle for education purposes. This would be a great way to create pages for research projects. Teachers (or grade levels) can have a page with the project information. Updates can be viewed easily and websites that are pertinent to the research can be viewed.

I like the Google calendar, especially, for making public with my friends so they can join me and/or my family for our adventures and minimize emails back and forth to plan. This way I can say "Here's where we're at...see you there!"

Thing 6

How cool is the trip planner via Flickr Mashups? I peeked at a few trips to Wisconsin since I'm having Midwest withdrawls. I think the Trip Planner could be used to have students present on a state research project--pretend you've planned a trip to Wisconsin, keep a journal, etc. It's perfect. I also liked the tools on Captioner. As a teacher, I used to have students create comic strips to summarize a chapter or book. This would allow them to search for photos via Flickr and then caption them as characters in a book. Amazing and fun stuff out there. WOW.

Thing 5

I know several people who use Flickr while I'm still using Shutterfly to upload my photos and share with friends. I like Flickr to use but don't know if I'd use it myself. But it sure is fun to brose.

Here Flickr helps me illustrate "How I Spent My Summer Vacation--Especially Because I Forgot Batteries for the Camera"

We took my daughter to Disneyland

We had some R&R soaking up rays on Laguna Beach

Thing 3

I created a blog with a play on the whole J-Lo thing with J-Lib as my pseudonym and J-Libby-Lib as my blog title because, well, it sounds like whickety-whack and makes me feel like a hip-hoppin' library lady.

My avatar is wearing her ALA approved sweater and cute shoes. I meant to have a library background but must have forgotten to save (oops). Still, this gal is cute. Makes me want to make a hair appointment to get that snappy little slicked back 'do.

Thing 2

Problems as Challenges? Ha! Problems mean that the universe doesn't like me. And, challenge? No, no, no...if I can't do it right the first time, I don't wanna do it. Nope. No way. Forget it. So what is my hardest lifelong learning step---Problems. Working through them and learning from them and thinking like the Little Engine that Could...I think I can, I think I can and then after facing the problem and the challenge, chugging along with I thought I could, I thought I could, I thought I could....

The easiest? Teaching others. I love to do that. Especially when it makes me look like a Rock Star! Woot!