Thing #12

The first thing that I looked at and experimented with was Google Calender. It was simple enough and took me back to the days when I used a Franklin planner. I suppose that everything that I kept up with in that old planner could now be kept up with in a small ipad. I can certainly see the ease and advantage of that, but I do like the old fashioned way (pen and paper) as well. I tried to put in some cute little icons on my Google Calender but couldn't get that to work. Google Calender could certainly be useful in the classroom when communicating with others, as well as helping me keep things straight and organized.
Google Calender
I tried Google Translate next and I am simply AMAZED. I had no idea this was available, where have I been? Absolutely beneficial when working with ELL's and I can see it being used for various subjects when foreign phrases come up. I put in "Alouette, gentille Alouette Alouette je te plumerai" and got "Lark, lovely lark Lark, I am going to pluck". This cracked me up, I remember that song from childhood and the Target commercial has brought it back to me. I sure didn't know that it was about plucking a bird. Live and learn!
Google Translate

Thing #11

I started my search by reading the Cool Cat article and then continued to the Edublog's website. I chose to look at the 2010 Best Educator blog of Teacher Tom. He shares an interesting viewpoint on various subjects and I enjoyed reading his posts. I found it odd that at the end of his posts he says that he works hard on his blog and asks for donations. As I continued to look at Edublog, I got into the nominees for 2011 and long lists that were not categorized. I decided to leave and look elsewhere.
Google Blog Search turned up "TBA", short for Teaching Blog Addict. This blog has over 5000 followers so I decided to look around. I liked that it had subjects listed by category and looked into the Math section. There were a lot of posts and freebies here, some very good ideas. Each of these posts led me to the individual poster's blog.....so I guess that this is some sort of blog portal. I subscribed to this, a very good resource! I noticed that this blog also had an icon for Pinterest, which leads me to suggest to all of you to sign up! I have found some great teacher blogs and resources here!
On Topix, I mostly found governmental issues and when I searched for teacher blogs I found articles about teachers getting into trouble with their blogs, not actual blogs. Technorati didn't have an education section and it was hard to find a teaching blog, so I cared for this website the least.
Google Blog search was probably the easiest to navigate, but to be totally honest, Pinterest is just as easy and my favorite for find teaching blogs.

Thing #10

I cannot believe how simple, as the name implies, that RSS was to set up and use. It definitely makes it easier to review the blogs that I am interested in with fewer keystrokes. In the words of Thoreau: "Simplify, simplify". I'm all for that!
In school, this would be a great way to keep up with school happenings by combining my peer's blogs into one easy-to-view site. In my personal life, I would have a separate reader for relaxed reading that was separate from my work.
Teachers can use this technology to keep up with pertinent information at the school, county, state or national level. Teachers could also zone in on one particular subject to follow for improving and adding to their own knowledge and skills.

Thing #9

Buttons are fun! You could create a large variety for rewards or special occasions. You could also have a button day! Here are a few ideas from
http://cooltext.com
The happy faces are fun to post around the classroom to increase smiling :) and they come from http://www.happyfacegenerator.com/

Thing #8

More antique glassware, what can I say? I am a collector of many things. There wasn't much to doing this and disappointingly uncreative. I think these would make great gifts but I see little use for the classroom. I don't mean to be negative, am I missing something? Flickr can certainly make a teacher blog more interesting and fun, but beyond that I am just not seeing anything.
I would never make my photos public on any of these sites, I mark my facebook pictures for "friends only" and have considered clearing all of my pictures from there. It seems that as time goes on and technology advances, the more private I want to be on these matters. I keep thinking of Big Brother.

Thing #7

I walked around the house to find something interesting that could be tagged in a number of ways. I came up with these refrigerator jars. I got them at an auction a few years ago and I have only seen them one other time in my entire antiquing life. I am still not sure that my photo is going to show up in this blog, I am a bit frustrated because I have followed the instructions to a T to do this. We shall see if it shows up once I post, if not I will figure out a way.
I have used Shutterfly for a number of years and I'm comfortable with that site while uncomfortable with Flickr. I suppose it's what you are used to. Sharing class pictures with parents is the only application that I think I would use this for. I would probably use Shutterfly instead simply because it's easier and faster for me.
So it didn't show up....I grabbed the link but it's not a jpeg.....so I'm uploading my photo from my pc.....trust me, it is in flickr

Thing #6

I chose to look at http://www.etsy.com.  I had been on this site before but it had been a long time and I  had never explored it from an educational point of view.  Etsy is a storefront for those that want to sell or buy handmade goods.  I love the fact that anyone can "set up shop" easily and it certainly beats setting up at a craft fair or flea market to sell your goods.  It is a virtual craft fair and I love it, it's right up my alley!
I typed in "education" and several choices popped up.  Art, games, printables and toys were some of the available selections.  There were over 1300 educational games and there were 128 available printables.  This would definitely be a good site to explore and use when looking for new resources and new ideas.