Thing 6-Flickr

Wow! What else can be said after spending hours looking at photos on Flickr? I had heard about Flickr previously but hadn't looked at the site. The number of images is overwhelming! I chose this image because I have Boston Terriers and these dogs look like mine. I liked the collage style and the black and white.
I present on many topics and can see how helpful Flickr would be to add images to presentations. It would be helpful to kids to get them excited about a topic, trip, or presentation.

Thing 5-Subscribing to Blogs

There are so many blogs and so little time. I am using Google Reader rather than Bloglines (never got a confirmation email from Bloglines to set up an account) and right now Google Reader says I have 162 new posts to read. I think I will have to get past the idea of reading everything and just skim. Is this a new skill we need to teach our students too? Maybe internet or Web reading is different from literature reading.
I want to find Blogs with information that I can use- rather than just somebody's personal journal and musings. I really like David Warlick's blog- think that is one I will keep.

Thing 4-RSS feeds

I set up my bloglines but didn't get the confirmation email. I saw on the comments that this appeared to happen to others too so I set up a different RSS feed with google reader. I already use several other google tools such as bookmarks, notebooks and docs to share documents with others online. Can we use a different one than bloglines? I'm not even sure I am using the right words for the collecting of blogs and news. :)
I have already found several blogs and subscribed to them-I can see that this is going to be very addictive (and my husband says I spend too much time on the computer).

Thing 3-Educational Blogs

The educational blogs are very interesting and I felt compelled to read all the posts and comments. I can see that this is going to take some time.
Students could use blogs to get assignments, work collaboratively with other students, and post their writings and ideas. I think kids would be exicted to know that others could read and respond to their work and ideas- maybe even others from different countries. That would be motivating to my students. My own kids use technology so differently than I do-I use it mostly to obtain information but my boys use it to socialize and network. I do worry about internet predators and kids posting too much personal information. I think this should be part of our curriculum-teaching kids how to discern appropriate vs. inappropriate, how to conduct a good search, and how to distinguish what is useful from what is not.

Thing 2- My first Blog

I'm surprised at how easy it was to set up my own blog. I have been reading other blogs for a long time but never set one up for myself. Most of the blogs I read are not related to my job, but more related to my children and outside interests.
I am an occupational therapist in a small district, serving infants through high school students, with a variety of abilities and disabilities. Much of my time is spent in classrooms with teachers, teacher assistants, and with parents. I have been looking for a way to share information with teachers and parents and thought that by learning about new Web 2.0 tools, I might hit on something that will work for me. I'm excited to begin learning and I am hoping for some professional networking.