Thing #16

Okay, love it! I absolutely HATE email because I just cannot keep up with it. Recently, I signed up for gmail because it does a great job organizing emails when others reply to an original email. However, this wiki stuff is great - having it all in one place to look at instead of trying to find emails about something upcoming; such as, the scenario of the group of people planning a camping trip created by the CommonCraft guys. I think this wiki stuff is a great tool to enhance learning and lesson planning for our students! I am hoping there are other math teachers out there who get into this 2.0 and all these great things I am learning with the 23 things this summer. Then we can all share with each other and use each other's ideas and feedback. And i really liked the main comment on the sandbox discussion page about being able to eliminate some meetings because we could have a quicker more efficient discussion space. And what about using this space for grade levels planning school supplies, that way we don't ALL have to meet and talk about school supplies (last year we could not find a time where everyone in the level could meet; math, language arts, social studies, science, etc).

I created a pbwiki and wiki page for a 6th grade math classroom (not sure which I want to use). I am not yet sure what I am going to do with this, but it's a start! I did a search in pbwiki for math and also 6th grade math, but there were no results found. I did the same search in wiki and found a ton of stuff, but I don't think you can view anyone's page unless you become a member? So, I saw a lot of pages that were set up (items on the side, like a side-toolbar), but nothing actually on the page when you click the links. So, it's hard to see what others are using it for, but you can tell some of them were by subject and grade levels.

Thing #15

I read quite of a few of the discovery resources for 2.0 web, library, and future libraries. Wow...I wonder what a library in 10 years from now will look like. This "thing" has really made me think about the last time I went into a library (not our school library)! I think it was about 3 years ago and only because I wanted a couple books on CD to take with me on a very long, road trip. I remember it being very old and out-dated in there. I really do not use the library any more. If I want to read a book, I order it or go to Barnes & Noble! If I read a ton, I certainly would use the community library all the time because that would be much better on my wallet! However, I rarely have the time to read anymore. If I need information, I certainly do not go to the library because it is all on the web! Then, began thinking about our very own school library. Come to think of it...I have observed few kids reading, and many kids on computers. That is the way our society is going. And I have mentioned before that our librarian is the best and has completed this "23 Things," so we are all looking to her for what is next! (no pressure Ms. Laucher!). I did find a "2.0 classroom" blog and added it to my blog roll.

Thing #14

1. I did the search with "School Library Learning 2.0" and also "middle school math." I found that searching under tags gives me ANYTHING that has to do with my keywords: videoes, blogs, blog posts, photos, etc. Obviously, blog posts only searches blog posts and same with the blog directory. Tags are for looking everywhere! I also noticed one of our library2play summer buddies had register their blog. :)

2. Just found it interesting that Paris Hilton and Britney Spears are both listed within the top 7 "top searches" on popular blog, searches and tags! I think it is cool that you can look at "what's popular" by category, like news, music, blogs, movies; although, I cannot see myself ever checking back to this site for "what's popular."

3. I really liked using Technorati to search through blog posts and tags. I think it will be helpful in finding math lesson short videoes (which is what I spent most my time doing in this discovery quest). I know I need to get better at making tags so that others could use what I find also (whenever I find really cool stuff). I registered my blog, so we can see if I can become helpful somewhere out there.

Thing #13

The common craft guys are my heroes! Really, they are awesome because they explain everything on MY level. My bookmarks were exactly the same way as shown on that video - chaos! Delicious is a great website to organize favorite bookmarks. This will certainly be helpful when finding good and useful websites for math. My favorites will not be so messy now with the tags. I really like how I can access it from any computer because I can find and tag something when I am doing school work at home and then easily access it when I am back at school the following day. It is like using the same computer! It will or would be awesome to know other 6th grade math teachers that are using delious also because we can look at each others findings without having to do any searching of our own! It is all about cutting the amount of time you do anything anywhere you can because there is never enough of it! I really look forward to using this one more!

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.