Thing #18

I tried to find videos that related to my job and the things I do in our office. I watched several on Custom Animation in PowerPoint, and learned how to fly an airplane on a path across the screen! I also watched several tutorials on how to manage contacts on an iphone. Since the videos are usually short, you can click on several in a matter of just a few minutes. This makes it seem like you are getting more information in less time.

I found this exercise video while searching for arm exercises using a stretch band.

Pilates: Pilates: How To Tone Your Arms

Just for fun I watched a video on playing "Rollin' In My Sweet Baby's Arms" on the banjo. It may have inspired me to start practicing again!


I explored TeacherTube and watched several videos. I thought the students did great jobs, especially on the biography ones. I also watched my favorite, "What Time Is It? School Time!"

Thing #17

I really enjoyed this thing, as I am a fan of books on tape and enjoy being able to just relax and listen and not have to worry with concentrating on the written word. I listened to several episodes on Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tricks. We write so many letters and must be sure we use correct grammar, so it was helpful to me to find this information. When I visited NPR Podcast Directory, I found several interesting podcasts including one on gardening. I visited NPR Education and heard a very interesting story about a Columbia University graduate, who has a History degree and no job. I enjoyed these two sites so much, I added them to my GoogleReader.
I think that podcasting in education is just one more of the many amazing tools for our students.

Thing #16

Oh my gosh, I couldn't believe all the information on LibraryThing! I love books and always have a book going. I find an author I like and read everything they have written. When I really enjoy a book, I look for lists of all the books written by that author so I can be sure to read them all. Also, to check off the ones I have read so I don't check them out again...yes, I am one of our local library's biggest customers! On LibraryThing you can get that list in a flash, as well as additional information on the author and their work. I love searching for information and found the site very interesting.

Thing #15

Well, I played around in the sand box and finally got my bearings. I had to repeat some of the steps to get my things entered correctly, but finally got my wiki set up and added the link to it in the list of other participants. I visited some of my classmates wiki pages and it was fun reading what they had written. Some are so creative! I know that mine will be better when I have more time to just sit and design!

Thing #14

I was amazed looking at these wikis! Whatever the project, the pages were filled with links that click to more and more information. The tools students have now are endless and I was impressed at what is going on in the classroom. I checked out Discovery Utopias and there is a link to Literature Network, where the book can be read online. It's almost like the students can't "not have" what they need to be successful. And in this format it's fun and exciting for them, as in the Wiki Wiki Teaching blog post. Next I visited Flat Classroom Project and thought it was exciting that students from all around the world are participating in this wiki. One neat thing I noticed in the list of schools was that the current time at each location was given, which was just another bit of information. In the wiki Go West I couldn't believe the work of third graders. They used charts, maps, and the writing was surprising to me to be from third graders. I just never realized all this was going on in our classrooms, especially in the lower grades.

Thing #13

I really enjoyed exploring this site. It is great for keeping up with all the web pages you visit. It truly is so much like a filing cabinet and that was very familiar for me as it is an essential tool in our office. When the superintendent asks for something, we have to be able to locate it right then. I have visited web sites that I wanted to return to and couldn't find again numerous times, and it is frustrating. I can use Delicious and have these sites at my fingertips...much like our filing cabinets!

When I added the 23things tag to my sites, it appeared to the right of all the web addresses on my list of tags. I am still amazed at all the new things I am learning.

Thing #7a

I was just reading Technorati Front Page and this blip caught my eye, that British teachers have been told to drop the "i before e" rule. They say there are few spelling rules with more exceptions than the "i before e" rule . That standard works in some words, but not all.