Thing # 7 - Cool Google Tools

I was familiar with some of the things that Google had to offer, but a lot of these tools were new to me. The two tools that I took a closer look at were Google Earth and Google Calendar. Google Earth is a great tool to use in geography. I really liked playing around with the 3D Tours. I created a calendar for this class. Here is the link to my calendar:
http://www.google.com/calendar/render?gsessionid=zTFEJbFlPjznhHjfQYJoFw

Thing #6 - Mashups and 3rd Party Sites

While exploring Flickr and Flickr Mashups, I found several tools that could be used in the library. Mosaic Maker could be used to put pictures together to illustrate any given unit of study. I spent time playing with FD Toys. Using Calendar, students could be creative with pictures that go with studies. I really enjoyed playing around with Magazine Cover and made this cover with a picture from my daughter’s wedding.

Thing 5 - Flickr

I was impressed with all of the pictures available on Flickr. I will use it in my classroom. I found this beautiful picture of the Texas State Capital to use when teaching the Texas Unit. It was uploaded by cybertoad.

Thing 3 - Setting up blog and avatar

Creating the avatar was fun. I enjoyed looking at the outfits and backgrounds. The directions were easy to follow. After setting up my blog for this class, I clicked on my profile and a blog showed up that I had started for another class. I was surprised to see it show up. I had not posted on it in over a year.

Thing # 2: Life Long Learning

After learning about the 7 1/2 habits, I would have to say that I am most comfortable with Habit 1: Begin with end in mind. When I start something I want to know what goal I am working towards. The hardest for me is Habit 3: View problems as challenges. I tend to view problems as a crisis. I am going to work on changing this viewpoint.