Thing #12

Yes! I am HALFWAY there!!! Let's see...five days left...I can post 2-3 things per day and still finish on time!

Two points I think are important about commenting are: 1.) Ask a question to get some reader feedback (a comment)... of course...assuming that anyone is reading your blog in the first place which brings me to point 2... 2.) Find other blogs of interest, and make a comment on their blog because they may in turn, read my blog and answer my question(s); therefore, making a comment on my blog! Brilliant! I already have questions on some of my posts - I just need to get some people reading them!

Non-library2play blogs: I went to the Google Blog Search and typed in "middle school math teacher." I found one blog by a girl who teaches middle school math (go figure). She has not updated her blog in quite sometime, but I did post a comment to her as I noticed we also have some other things in common. In reading her blog, I discovered another blogger who commented on one of her posts who is also a middle school math teacher. I went to his blog and again, found that I have a lot in common with this blogger also! I posted a comment as well! In his blog, he talked about a book called Joke of the Day: 180 Classroom Appropriate Jokes for Middle School which I actually already purchased for $2.99! I like the idea of being able to liven things up a little bit in the classroom, and I would love to get the kids laughing a little. There is also another book he had listed (included in this link by the same author) that looks great too. I will check into that as well (it's not as cheap as the joke book!). His blog is very interesting: http://teach.ideasite.net/2008/05/another-blog.html and added to my Google Reader! ;)

Thing # 11

I made a book list, mostly of books I've read or am currently reading. I searched "math" and "middle school math" and found some results. I added a few of the books to see if anyone's read them or find them helpful in the classroom. I joined a couple groups. I joined a math teacher group, so this could be helpful and useful to use in my classroom. I think it would be neat to have a "student" section on my book list on my blog so my students could look at math books I recommend (fun math books - there ARE a few out there!). :)

Thing # 10

(created by Trading Card Maker and the image from Flickr)







(created by Comic Strip Generator)

This one was fun. I am reading a book right now called Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow. Currently the chapter I am reading is about worrying, so that is what is on my mind. So far, this is the easiest "thing" I have done and did not cause me any anxiety! I can see this being useful in the classroom for attention-getters in powerpoints for teacher instruction.

Thing # 9

Google Blog Search was certainly the easiest for me to use, it is so similiar to the familiar Google Search that I live by! I thought topix.net was another cool one because it searches newfeeds that are recent. So often, I do a Google Search for something I just heard on the news, not only do I get a ton of results, but much of it is old and/or outdated. Cool, but not something to use in my math classroom. Atomic Learning is also VERY easy to use AND we get staff development hours when we use it!

Technorati was a little confusing at first, but really helpful in finding specific blogs. I searched, "middle school math" and found many websites to look through, some had math activities.

I didn't try bloglines because it required an email and password to create an account, and I am getting confused with all the new passwords and accounts I am getting all over. I am trying to simplify, so I skipped that one. I thought syndic8.com and the rest were too confusing and/or hard for me to use. Really, a lot of this was too much for me to look at and very overwhelming. I felt like I was looking all over the place at everything and not too sure what I am looking for. I cannot even keep up with my email (personal AND school/work). I have a feeling that some of these assignments on 23 Things I will use right away, while others will be a work in progress. Or I may never need it, who knows? I think the important thing here is to learn what all is out there and use all that I can.

Thing #8 RSS Feeds

"Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit everyday." This comment comes from our assignment page on Thing 8, and I knew right then this would be difficult for me because I do not visit websites or news information sources daily. But I did have a little fun looking around! I already have a google account and gmail, so I used the Google Reader to subscribe to my RSS feeds. I like having it all in one place. This is great for blogs that I like to keep up with because before, I would keep checking and checking them to see if anything new was posted. Then, I would forget about it, and of course, that is when something would be posted. Now, I can look in one place and see if anything new has happened without having to check websites. This definitely saves time and much more efficient. As for school uses, I added someone's blog who teaches math (I am not sure if this will be useful or not). I also added this website http://www.teachers.tv because I did a search on secondary math and found this video http://www.teachers.tv/video/26366 for probability that was entertaining and could possibly be used in my classroom or something I could get ideas from it. I also subscribed to the funniest/most watched youtube because I could use a short clip to introduce a topic (attention-getter); although, this will most likely be for my personal use since our school server does not allow us to use youtube, so I also subscribed to the teacher tube. I am not sure how useful this service will be for me (yet anyway) in the math classroom unless someone out there has some good math sites that I could use with this. Or a good idea? (I am thinking teacher use only, not students - someone correct me please or enlighten me if I should be thinking otherwise).

How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology? Well, I am not sure about other librarians, but our librarian is tops in technology. I can only imagine what she can do with this (and she has already completed the 23 things). She is always sending us interesting information on anything she finds in our subject areas, about school, related research, etc.

Thing #7 "Cool Google Tools"

I love the "Notebook and the "Google Advanced Search." I found some awesome websites for math. I put "adding fractions" in the search engine and found a battleship game the kids can play as they add fractions. Creative. (pick the "easy" level for 6th grade!) Then, I saved it into my "Notebook." I think these two items will be very useful to me now that I know about them and how to use them! I really need more computer games like this one, where the computer checks the work of the student - less time student is waiting for me to check his/her work, more accurate than a buddy check, and certainly immediate feedback. However, what I REALLY like about the Google Advanced Search is that you can search for powerpoint on your subject. I love that, because I really do not enjoy making powerpoints, and I can use one that's already been created when I am in a bind or a hurry! AND I could introduce a new math topic, for example, simplifying fractions, and the students could research powerpoints to learn more and write what they learned including examples.

Thing #6 Mashups!

Well, I know this is copyright-friendly because they are my own pictures from various places I have been to! I went to http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ and created a mosaic. I then downloaded it to my computer instead of leaving it as a link so you can see it on my blog. I completely got lost in Thing #6 because there is so much to do and look at- it's a little overwhelming. I am not done with this one! I signed up for Tripprmap which will let me have a world map that I can post my pictures from Flickr of the different places I have been. However, I think this is going to take some time to set up as not all of my traveling pictures have been imported to Flickr.

Thing #5

Can you estimate the amount of pennies raised for a charity at the Rockefeller Center in New York?

Coin pic


Answer: approximately one hundred million pennies! Do you know how many dollars that is? hint: think about how many pennies are in one dollar! (I teach 6th grade)

So...Thing #5 has been the most time consuming for me so far. I thought it was fun to look through a bunch of pictures on Flickr until I had to find a picture using keywords from my subject and curriculum which is Math - oh, how exciting! (not really). I realized quickly, I'm going to have to get creative when it comes to my subject area. I started thinking about how math is in everything - and I thought about money!

Then I thought about the math involved in recipes (measuring ingredients)...like to make ice cream!
Dippin' Dots Ice Cream!


Dippin' dots

...And cookies!


hershey kiss cookies