Thing #23

Perhaps you may be wondering about the title...my mother had always told me that a lady does not leave the house without lipstick and earrings.

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I absolutely loved Photo Story and can see how easy it would be to create a music video project for my kids. I think they could take their own pictures that would coincide with the lyrics in a song, then easily place them in the storyline, upload the song and Voila!!!

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
I did not know how much organized and advanced certain areas of the internet were!!! I mean, I was stuck in the basic googling for information and jumping from one website to another to find information, but I really like the idea of organizing my websites for searches as well as having access from other computers. This course will greatly affect the way I organize my internet information

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
Not really! I don't think that there was anything unexpected as my librarian had already filled me in on all the cool things that Library2Play would teach me. I will say that it has completely given me a creative drive to incorporate different technology into my classroom that I hadn't really thought of previously.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
Yikes!! I'm not very critical of the way this program was formatted. I enjoyed the flow and I truly enjoyed all the information and directions as well as the helpful "how to" videos you embedded into each Thing when necessary.


5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
Without a doubt, YES!!! In fact, I am going to have to revisit this site over and over to increase and further my understanding and expertise on the things I learned. I want to become an expert on many of the "things"!!!


6. How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities?
Magnetic!!! (I loved learning and didn't want to stop!)

Now go and comment on some of the other Players' blogs:
Well, first, I am going to go back to Thing #21 and figure out how in the world to show my video that I am so proud of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thing #22

Did not find much use for Ning partly due to the fact that they had only one posting for Music Education and it was actually a Physical Education lesson plan. I visited the general teacher's website and discovered that there would be many benefits to using this site as a networking tool and a sharing place for regular ed teachers. Unfortunately, the only use I would be able to get would be from basic classroom management or general ideas for the classroom.

I am not close-minded to not visit again. I will wait for a while until more teachers have discovered this site.

Thing #21

This is my lovely Mother...


She passed away after a brief battle with cancer and is greatly missed. As you can see by the video and the title to my blog, she was quite the southern Louisiana bell. The song is my mother, myself, my sister and father singing for church.

I loved Photo Story!!! I can't wait to use it in my classroom as a student driven class project. I realized that I had to shorten my video because I had originally had 60+ pictures and Blogger was unable to upload the larger video. The video above is a shortened version. I hope you enjoy it.

Thing #20

I have always loved the variety of music videos on YouTube but the SBISD firewall does not allow us access to them. It's a shame especially when I want to show my class a performance of a particular piece of music. On the L2P website it does give directions on how to "get around" the YouTube block, but I am a little confused and will probably need more time to digest it all or perhaps sit down with someone who has done it before.

I know there are many wonderful music education videos, but I found this one that seemed clear...although a tad boring....

Thing #19

I immediately wento the MUSIC section and discovered a new free music site that I didn't even know existed. LastFM allows you to create your own library of tracks, artists, videos, and albums and listen to them completely free!! Of course, I did stumble across some restricted songs and albums that you have to download for a cost, but if you don't want to pay the cost, you can watch the video.

Although I do already use Pandora, Rhapsody, and a couple of other music free sites, I am glad to know there is another more popular one that won a Web2.0 award. I will have to check it out more when I have more time.

Thing #18

Google Docs is cool! I didn't even know this existed. Currently at home, our computer does not have Microsoft Office so I have encountered numerous problems with working on word documents. Also, I love the ide of now having several copies of a document around and not knowing which is the editted version. I can see many advantages to utilizing Google Docs.

I wasn't fond of downloading Open Office only because we have encountered a virus on our computer and so this was a con to me. I like Google Docs because there was no downloading necessary.

Thing #17

Thanks to B. Goode from SBISD for helping me understand the Rollyo with his creative video. I am a visual person and his video was very thorough and clear.

I like Rollyo because I have always been afraid of sending my elementary students to the internet to search a musician or song and having them find an inappropriate site. I can see how I would use this especially with a project on composers. I created a composer searchroll and can see how easy it would be to steer the kids in the right direction to find credible and accurate information.

Thing #16

Wikis! Finally!! I thought wiki was a little cartoonish type creature that ..well..I don't know what I thought it did, but boy was I wrong.

I like this!! I like it a lot!! Especially since I hate getting a group email and then some respond to everyone on the email list while others just respond to the sender. That creates more e-mails to clarify who knows what and what decisions have or have not been made. I hate those e-mails!!!

I can easily see how wikis will help my colleagues network better and collaborate more frequently. Up until this point, we relied on occasional meetings and e-mails sent out to the group. Having the group respond via a wiki will make things much more clearer and efficient. Me likey the wiki!

Thing #15

The other day my 9 year old asked me to take him to the library. After reading the perspectives on Library 2.0 it is actually kind of saddening for me as I grew up with the library being a place to explore and physically hold and touch the books that encouraged my interest. My aunt taught library science at Northeastern Louisiana University and I always enjoyed visiting her library and seeing her show future teachers how to best utilize the library to fit their classrooms. After watching the video, I was forced to face the reality of kids today. Although I don't consider myself that old, it has been 14 years since I set foot in and LSU classroom and I realized that kids today are completely different learners!! I mean...I'm not oblivious to the fact, but our way of learning is ancient and archaic compared to the 21 century student. Now, I feel like my mother when she would laugh at those "kids of today" in reference to us as teenagers.

The video really was a wake-up call in that students are self-learners and are driven by their own intrinsic motivation that is fueled by the internet. The library should be a place where kids can share and develop those needs but using technology as a guiding tool and not as a crutch. I still like the idea of students being able to pull a book from the shelf or a bibliography and sitting down and reading and turning pages.

Damn, I'm getting old.

Thing #14

This one had me a bit overwhelmed. Technorati has a neat way of organizing blogs and I found the video feature interesting for my field, but there is so many different ways to go and I can see myself getting very distracted with all the tangents of wanting to read more. Of course, I attribute this to my self-diagnosed ADD which really kicks in when there is a lot on the screen.

I did use the search tool and found that Technorati seems to have a lot of technical problems. It was unable to search blogs only posts then when I went back, it was unable to do either. I waited and continued on to the popular lists and when I went back it found nothing for "School Library Learning 2.0”. I guess I will have to come back and try again. For now, I am a little put off with this site and don't see much use for it in my situation.

Overall, I do like the idea of tagging. I think it will help narrow my search when looking for particular information instead of just "googling" and getting an overwhelming amount of information only partly partaining to my subject.

Thing #13

I can see how tagging websites would be useful, but I am "old school" and just clicking on the "Favorites" button at the top is my quick and easy way to save my sites. Tagging is much more logical and more useful especially if I am able to access them from any computer. Also, I am always in favor of using colleagues' information and not "reinventing the wheel" when it comes to finding information.

Of the three social bookmarking sites, Del.icio.us seems to be the favorite and the most widely used.

Thing #12

I am not good at writing thank you letters nor commenting on blogs so this is a bit uncomfortable for me when "forced" to comment; however, I had already commented on previous blogs when I wasn't asked to and I found that when people responded to my blog, it made me happy knowing that someone was actually reading to it and reacting to it (even though it doesn't seem that interesting to me). I think responding to blogs is like writing any letter in that you don't want to insult or be rude. That maybe Rosey O'Donnell or Perez Hilton's thing, but I just wasn't brought up that way.

I am an elementary music teacher and using the Google Blog Search, I was able to locate several other blogs from other teachers. Elementary Music teachers tend to be a very proud and faithful group. It is going to be fun keeping up and learning from other teachers around the country.

Again, this Thing is an easy one as I was brought up by a very Southern Louisiana Lady (as you can tell by my blog title) and we never insult nor respond if not favorably so my responses are to encourage and entertain, but never in a negative manner (unless it is Perez Hilton...I can't stand him).

Thing#11

OOOooohh yet again!!!! First, I knew that when I signed up for this course, I was going to learn "some things" about the internet that I didn't already know, but Thing 11 is what I needed!!! In fact, I had been thinking over the past years that I wanted to catalog all my books that I use in my classroom, but I didn't really want to sit down and type them all in and not get the most out of how that would help me.

Library Thing is exactly what I have needed!! I have accumulated so many books over the years that I have even forgotten which books I have in my library. I have also purchased double copies because I didn't know I had already owned a copy. This site is fabulous and not only will it help me keep track of all my books, it will allow me to search other people's catalogs to get some ideas.

Oh, I love this site!!! Can't wait to get back into my classroom, unpack my books and start organizing them!! Yikes..I think I even have books in my garage that I have forgotten about! This is going to be a project but Library Thing makes it so easy!

Thing #10

Ooooh!!! I liked this one!! Of course, I like anything that resembles scrapbooking and using pictures of my kids. My 9 year old passed by as I was on Image Chef and we spent some time making some funny pics. I promised him I would let him play around when I am done.




I can easily see how I can utilize image generators in my classroom to motivate and interest my students. Materials/posters used to study composers haven't been that exciting, but I can see how Big Huge Labs and Trading Card maker would make learning about Haydn and Mozart lots of fun!! I love visuals in my classroom and I can't wait to make my own posters and cards for the kids to study.

Love Thing #10!!!!!

Thing #9

Ok...I have been gone for a while. Vacation then my computer came down with a horrid virus that I have yet to get rid of.

Thing #9 - There was a time when the internet first came out where I was able to network with other elementary music teachers using the AOL bulletin boards. Those have long been gone and I have searched for another way to learn and hear from other elementary music teachers on a more personal level than a mass elementary website governed by a large music corporation.

I was very happy (not surprised) to know that you can google blogs as well. I liked the Google Blog Search for that reason. Found it very easy to find what I am looking for and can see how it will help start my school year on a good note.

Topix was very thorough and had lots of information, but it can be a bit overwhelming and repetitive if you are already connected to other news sources, however, I do think that I can learn to "give up" those other sources and better utilize what it has to offer.

Thing #8

On a personal and superficial note, RSS and newsreader is perfect for my insatiable appetite for celebrity gossip and news. How perfect it is to read about out all the juicy stories in one place! It can be a bit overwhelming if you don't keep up with it.

On a more important note, I could see using RSS to stay abreast of current news topics or perhaps a unit of study where my students need to find a lot of information in a quick and concise manor. As far as libraries??? Well...not sure. I guess I will have to see what others say because I don't know why students would use an RSS in the library unless it is part of a classroom project. Of course, Librarians would find the same value as I would on a professional development note.

"Thing #7"

I already love google. I love google maps and I have used them extensively! My 9 year old loves to sit at the computer and search google maps for historical buildings. I had heard about Google Earth, but thought that was what I was looking at with the maps. It is so much cooler! I can't wait to get my 9 year old on the computer so he can look again at all those historical places with google earth. I will never get him off the computer.

I already use Picasa for my budding photography hobby. I had yet to create an album and so I did so with "Thing #7". My Aunt in Louisiana is going to love me! She has already been getting onto me for not sending her updated pics. They're comin', Grand Diane!!! They're comin'!! If you can't wait to see them, you can check my album out here.

I checked out the Google notebook and well, to be quite honest, it looks like a lot of work. I already have too much on my plate and I just can't imagine remembering to keep up with that one. I will check back with it at a later date, but for now, I am glad to know it is just....there.

"Thing 6"

This is getting easier!! I had so much fun using the Big Huge Labs website and looking at all they can do with my pictures. I loved the Warholizer so much that I created one of my youngest son and ordered it so I can frame it.


I also liked the Mosaic Maker. I used it to create a mosaic of the 2008 National Champion LSU Tigers...my alma mater!!! I created a mosaic of various pics of our family in LSU attire and from an LSU football game. I am going to print it out for my husband's office. He bleeds purple & gold. Geaux Tigers!!!!

This is getting cool!! Notice it is 12:45 and I am still working!!! Moving on to #7

"Thing 5"

As you can see it is almost 12:30 a.m. and I am still online working on my 23 Things. Thing 5 is about Flickr and boy, have I grasped a hold of this one!! Not only have I found Flickr, but I have joined Flidkr, uploaded photos, added a personal icon, and am now part of a group of amateur photographers who share my camera, a Nikon D40 I just got last week. Uhhh...yep..I will be up for a while. Thank goodness it's summer and I don't have to get up early!

"Thing 4"

"Thing 4" - I think I have registered, but I have to admit. I am a little confused as to what "blog" I am supposed to be posting to. Do I make my own personal post on my blog OR do I post on the "Thing" pages of our Library2Play website?!?!?!? I am confused.

"Thing 3" It's getting better!

Thing 3 - Ok, I have to admit. This is the cool stuff. I can actually create something that I have never done before. I mean...I do read blogs. Of course I didn't actually realize that Perez Hilton and TMZ were blogs. I just thought I was being nosey. The only problem I see with this whole "blog" commitment is that I never do anything half a$$ (can I say that?). If I am going to do something and be responsible for it, I am going to find a way to make it bigger and better. Look out for music in the background, little furry cartoons floating through the page, updated pics of me and the kids, and a weird cult-like obsession to blogger. com......... Oh, the humanity!

"Thing 1 & Thing 2" and no, not the Dr. Seuss "Thing" we know and love...

Ok..Ok...I get it. I need to post for Thing 2 in order to receive my credit for doing this. Ummm...uhhhh...ok...Thing 1..what should I say. I read. I understood. I followed directions. It was kinda boring, but thank goodness it was quick. My attention span has shrunk as I have gotten older. Plus my three little boys keep running in and out of the room. They don't quite understand Mommy is "working" when I am sitting at the computer in jammies.


Thing 2 - pretty interesting. Enjoyed the whole link to Covey training that I had ages ago. Good points. Just that I am a card carrying Procrastinator... I will never get a chance to follow through with my goal...that of course....what if I actually wrote it down....listed the items I would need to carry out my goal....named people who could help me succeed in reaching my goal...then....signed it as if it was a legal document!! That would be awesome!!!! hey....didn't I just hear that somewhere???
I am just ready to move on to the good stuff!! Yeee haw!!!

Oh.. the easiest step for me is #7 the whole teach/mentor others thing (I'm kinda bossy anyway)
The most challenging would be #4 "Have confidence in yourself....yadda yadda yadda" (still working on that one)