Thing #12

I found several of the points made in the blog posts about commenting interesting. I also thought it interesting how many of the suggestions on commenting seem to echo each other in the different articles. In Cool Cat's Blog I see how important it is to make your comments meaningful. In ProBlogger's 10 Techniques to get more comments on your blog I like the suggestions to Ask questions, interact with comments left, be humble and be gracious. These qualities are important for any form of communication and would make sense that they apply to blog comments as well. I also found the suggestion to "Contribute - As much as possible, try leaving a comment athat adds value to the discussion." very important. In the first few comments I left on fellow SBISD bloggers sites I would comment on their submissions but don't feel that I really added to the discussion. I really appreciated all the comments I received that would both comment on my post but then expand upon my post by contributing a new idea or application for classroom use, etc. I've valued all those comments as I've been able to learn from my fellow bloggers.

Thing #11

I created a LibraryThing account and added 9 books: 1 book that I have just finished reading, 1 book that I am currently reading, and 7 books that are sitting on my bedside table waiting to be read. I enjoyed reading the other members' comments about the books that I have not yet read. I also joined the "Children's Fiction" group and added the Library Thing blog to my Google Reader.

Thing #10

Playing around with images was lots of fun. I am going to commit to using the trading card generator at least once this year as a reflection piece after the students master a new concept.

Thing #9

Ok, I added several sites to my Google Reader by pasting the blog's URLs (I also set my iGoogle page as my home page so I could access ALL these new features easier). I also added an SBISD board member's blog to get district updates, a school collegue's blog and 2 of my school librarian's blogs. The most recent entry for all of those blogs immediately appeared in my Google Reader so I think (hope) I did that correctly.

Thing #8

I'm not sure that I'm going to be a big RSSer. I subscribed to one bundle and several blogs on early literacy and early math education. After reading some other 23things players' comments I think I'm going to go back and explore a bit more.

Thing #7

I had no idea Google had so many useful and fun features.  I created a Google calendar with the intent of asking my team if they want to use it this year to keep abreast of each other's schedules and class activities.  I also signed up for several Google alerts that interest me and created an igoogle home page.  I've used Google earth for a couple years now since I saw it used in a power point presentation.  I'd like to try to use Google notebook with my students this year for a research project.

Thing #6

Ok...I could have spent forever playing on bighugelabs.com! I had to tear myself away. I particularly liked the poster maker and the map maker. I thought the cube maker would be a fun class activity. I was thinking of using it for a math center this coming year to help the students identify and name 3-dimensional figures. As a class we could photograph several examples of each figure, the students could then choose their favorite photos to make their own cubes. The cubes then could be placed in a center where the students could use them with a simple game where they could travel along a trajectory where each place was labeled with the name of a 3-D figure. They could roll a cube and travel to the matching name.