Thing #6 (The Mash-up Experience)

I have tons of thoughts about how to use all of these activities.

I liked the Flickr Color Picker. I thought I could use those pictures to do some adaptations examples. The students could hypothesize about where the flowers/animals are from, why they adapted in the way they did, how it is helpful and how it is not.

The FD Toys' site had a lot of things that I thought would be fun to use. The sunset times would be great for our moon unit. The magazine cover would be fun for their famous person reports, and a little more exciting to them than the word template. Everyone will love the trading cards, especially if they have defined fields to add and then share with their friends. I think I'll also have them make badges, much better than sticky nametags!

I also really liked mappr. I almost wished I taught US or World History, because there are some really cool things to do with big maps.

Texas Waffle

Texas,
originally uploaded by qthrul.

This is for Naletta--whenever you join us. I thought the comment was priceless--there are so many of you out there!

Thing #5 (The Flickr Experience)

Photo by: qthrul on Flickr

Again reading the directions first would be easier than flying blind into a website. But I figured it out. I set up a group for my incoming class that I will post on my other blog for them to share photos of the summer with one another and then pictures through the school year. I also plan on starting a family group, this would be much easier than the process we have been using.


I like how the groups are arranged, I noticed one that would be particularly useful, about landmarks. (The photo above is part of that group.) I am getting many ideas from playing with the things, almost enough to make me excite for the fall... almost.

Thing #3

This was not an extremely difficult task, but reminded me why I spend so much time teaching my students how to follow directions. I skimmed through the instructions quickly, then had to reread a few times to get finished.

The best part was having my students help me create my avatar. They were excited of course, and that helped me get into the activity as well.

I wouldn't mind looking at other blogs, but feel it would be most useful to work with those also taking the class. How can I find those?

Thing #2

What comes easily for me as a lifelong learner is taking responsibility for my learning. Once I decide to learn something new, I jump right in. I look on the web, check out books (much to the amusement of my husband), and get started learning.

Unfortunately I never seem to set a goal, so before too long I peter out. Most of my great ideas for things I want to learn I never see through to completion because I didn't set a goal. Consequently I can do a lot of things, but none of them well.