THING 6: Mashups and 3rd party sites....

This is very cool - I found the tools available to be exciting, and of course there are more to pick from than one could possibly use. I love the mosaic maker - I have many summer shots of the lake and fossils I'd love to piece together to share with the kids when school starts. I plan to experiment with the trading card maker for school projects for various topics, and hope to find a way to have students develop these themselves as a project and a way to help them learn the topic while having fun doing it. Has anyone ever used the puzzle maker from BigHugeLabs? What a terrific idea to create unique and personalized gifts for family or friends - I'm curious what the quality of the photo is like as well as how durable the puzzles themselve would be. Let me know if anyone knows about these. FYI on the picture - this is my "puppy" Buddy. He was our favorite family member and we lost him two years ago. I used a folder of his pics when I was playing with the BigHugeLab activities and got a little sentimental - thought I'd share him with you all.

THING 5: Explore Flickr...

I have recieved several messages in the past from friends who post albums for sharing on Flickr. I had no idea what the site was all about. There are some amazing photographers out there...and what a great way to search and view other's work by using the tags and groups. I am spending the summer on Lake Whitney and did a quick search for my area - this photograph looks just like the view at the end of the path outside my cabin. There are so many ammonites, like the one shown here, just outside our door.








My students would love it here!!!!

THING 3: Setting up my blog......

Oh My! .... the blog is set up; that part has actually been done since last week. Two blogs, in fact, for those of you that knew of my concerns about getting it right. The Avatar was a bit more "interesting". I did not download the html code as directed, as it continued giving an error message. Anyone have that same problem? Instead, I saved the file from yahoo, then saved it to my blog as an image. Same result, I am guessing, without the moving background. And the directions for THING 3 say "now the hardest part is over". That is a good thing, as my hardest Habit (remember the one that says I don't do well with problems and challenges?) has reached its limit for the end of an evening. Until tomorrow.....

THING 2: The Hardest Habit of the 7 1/2 Habits....

Habit 3 is the hardest habit for me to use in my lifelong learning journey. I won't say I've NEVER used a problem as a learning tool or opportunity, but I do find a good problem will slow me down or frustrate me when trying to meet a goal. The most frustrating part for me of meeting a challenge is the time it takes to overcome it, or to figure out how to pass it up and keep going. I will be putting this habit to the test with our summer "library2play" activities. After having said technology was my easiest habit, I found setting up and understanding the blog a bit challenging and eventually frustrating. I'm still not sure I've done it right :o(

Angels Among Us - please review, advise and let me know I'm out there and viewable!

THING 2: The Easiest Habit of 7 1/2 Habits.....

For me, Habit 6 is usually the easiest. I find that using technology and the endless forms of technology can make learning so much easier, and yes even a little faster at times. It is an interesting tool to use when trying to continue the lifelong learning process - whether it be with general research, recording information, or acquiring new skills, there is always a form of technology to help master any new goals one might have.

Science Rocks

I have set up my page, created two separate blogs (not intentionally) and figured out how to post a slideshow of photos. I'm not sure yet where the photos came from, but very cool shots nonetheless.