Thing 8

I've been spelling with Flickr...



And mashing with Big Huge Labs (images from my trip to South Africa in 2007)...

And generating with http://www.bodyswitcher.com/  (in honor of my love for Jimmy Fallon and his bit, Head Swap)...

And now I am tired!!! That's a lot of work!! But, it was a lot of fun too. I really enjoyed Big Huge Labs, and I must say, it's because the site itself looked better. What a snob I am. 


But, I had a hard time navigating ImageGenerator.org and the links it took me to because of the layouts--a lot of ads, not really obvious directions, a lot of code I am not familiar with, etc. So, while it just seems snobby of me to like the more aesthetic of the sites, I think it might also indicate that students who aren't as familiar with the Internet might have similar difficulty. At least, that is how I justify myself! ;) 


I could see this being a BLAST for students of all sorts. My students, specifically, each have their own special interests and they would be totally wigged out to see their faces on characters of their favorite movies, tv shows, etc. HAH!! The idea of it makes me want to do it with them tomorrow--err, Monday. 


It is quite time consuming, though. So, if allowing students to work on these types of assignments in class, set aside a lot of time! Also, the students need to have images either on the computer they are using, or uploaded to Flickr (...when using Big Huge Labs--which was another plus for that site--you can access your flickr images for their toys, games, utilities!!). So keep in mind, there is some work to be done pre-playing around and it might suck large quantities of your class time.


But, it's worth it. Totally.  

Thing 7

My Friend Flickr! 


I have been a Flickr user for a couple years now: A paying patron playing picture posting pleasure! 


I uploaded some photos I recently have snapped while making my way through Detroit. I tagged them RESA23, and included them in the set named, "Detroit Shots."


Thanks to the last "thing," I am really excited to use flickr to help my students learn about the world around them by seeing real pictures. I can't wait to get searching--and have them search too! My school district used to have flickr blocked, but they recently allowed us access, which I am really excited about. I think the tech department is acknowledging the numerous advantages flickr offers to the classroom. 


I also could see sharing photos with my students' families via flickr. It could work in reverse, too: families could share photos from home with us at school to help make further, deeper connections to what we are learning at school.


The possibilities are endless, and truly, I feel a bit short-sighted right now--like I am not even scratching the surface of what I could do with flickr! I am excited to see what ends up coming together! 

Thing 6

Yikes + Oops = Yoops! 

Life has been on overdrive lately and I haven't had a chance to move onto the next 'things' in a while. 


So, to make up for my procrastination, here is a picture riddle based off my flickr searchings. Try to guess the terms that I searched for! 


Ready?!

Pets and water? Nope. 

Cats and plants? Nope. 

Happy and Easter? YES!! 

For my first search, I was curious as to what kinds of pictures other people would tag with an ambiguous term like "Happy"--and sure enough, there were a lot of really interesting pictures! I work with students who find the job of defining emotions VERY difficult, so I thought that would be a good place to start. (I actually can feel a social studies lesson emerging... ;) )

But, BUT, but!!! I found I couldn't save many of them. So, I had to do the Advanced Search with the "Creative Commons" option to get an image to post to my own blog. (Sidenote: my first choices were these: Happy and Easter.)

For the second term, I am so excited about Spring Break which is HOURS away, that I couldn't pass up "Easter." I was kind of hoping for an image that would be really obscure...not the typical bunnies and eggs and religious themes. There were a lot of Easter Island statue shots which were cool (and one was my first pick linked above), but I loved these raindrops too. So, there we have it! 

I really enjoyed this "thing." I personally use flickr to gather and organize my own photos, but I haven't spent much time searching through "Everybody's" images. I have contacts who I like to keep taps on there, too. But, putting in a term and searching the whole site really shows just how vast this visual resource is! My students learn best through visual examples and I can see using flickr regularly to help them see the world in new ways. 

Thing 5

I am regularly impressed/surprised by how technology is giving us so many new ways to define old words...subscriptions, for example. It used to mean (and, well, I guess it still kinda does... ;)), to pay to receive a magazine or newspaper. Now, when people talk about subscribing to something, they are talking about keeping tabs on the every thought and word published by friends and strangers to their liking!


For Thing 5, subscribing to feeds using the various ways on Bloglines was pretty comprehensive and could be completed with relative ease. The only blip that I ran into was that I use Google Chrome for my browser, and there is not a bookmarklet available for Chrome--YET! 


I enjoy both professional and personal interest blogs quite regularly. It is really kind of insane how much information is now available to us. Personally, I like to keep up with a variety of craft/design blogs, peek into the lives of a couple friends, and keep a finger to the pop culture pulse. Professionally, I enjoy blogs that offer technology tools and tips, insight into special needs education, and current events/legal happenings in the Special Education realm. 


A couple blogs I have come across that might be helpful to others: 
http://digitalplay.info/blog/ --A blog that highlights different web-based educational games to keep those techy students engaged in learning...and fun! 


http://www.patriciaebauer.com/ --A fantastic source of current events pertaining to and commentary on all things "Disability."


http://www.edutecher.net/index.php --A blog summarizing the newest and neatest techy tools for teachers! 


http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ --A source for technological wonders to use in the classroom. Aside from the suggestions themselves, the best part about this blog is the "Applications for Education" section. 


http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/ --Larry is a man with an amazing ability to process and gather information made available through the Internet. His lists are simply miraculous! 


And, to end, probably my "most looked forward to" blog: http://thepioneerwoman.com/ --Ree is a woman extrordinaire. She does homeschool her 'punks' and occasionally will post education-related content, but really her blog is just a "feel-good-about-being-alive-and-wish-I-had-the-guts-to-live-on-a-farm kind of read." Those are just the BEST kinds of reads, don't you think?! 

Thing 4

Phewww! Trying to catch up to my fellow workshop attendees here! Thing 4: RSS Feeds. 


I am kind of more overwhelmed by learning a new reader--Bloglines--than I am the concept of RSS feeds and following multiple blogs at once. I have been a loyal Google Reader subscriber for a couple years now. I am kind of curious, since we're using Gmail and Blogger which has a link to Google too, why are we using Bloglines for our RSS Feed aggregator experience? I am wondering if it is better. Well, I guess I will find out firsthand! 


Blogs and RSS are definitely overwhelming, but a reader can become so as well. There are times when I have to "Mark as Read" and start over at "0 New Items"! In Google Reader, there is the ability to star favorite blogs and tag them for future reference. I get overwhelmed with that too--when I go back to look for something I have a vague memory of, I have a hard time finding it even though I have tagged it as many ways as I could think of at the time. I would like to know a better way to organize that which I would like to pull out of the never-ending flow of information! 

Thing 3

Wow! The wild world of blogs! I have engaged with them as a reader for a long time now, but have never ventured in as an author. I guess I am ready to start creating my own news. :)

I am hopeful that my blog will help support the work I do by creating a portfolio of tools that have worked well in the classroom. That way, I can return to them myself, and share them with others. At this point, my students would not be interacting with this blog, but I am hoping their parents might find it helpful to see what works in the classroom.

My only real concern about educational blogging is that I won't use it regularly or properly and it won't actually be relevant. I want it to be useful. I want the time spent to be worth something.

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Welcome to my new blog! My name is Melissa and I am a special education teacher working with upper elementary aged students with Autism.

I am participating in RESA's 23 Things because I am eternally curious. Lately, that curiosity has been sparked about Web 2.0 and how I can identify and apply new tools to help my students learn. So, when I received word about TWENTY-THREE possible tools, I was hooked!

From Thing 1, I was inspired by the use of teacher blogs to promote cross-curricular planning and professional development.

I spend a lot of time online sharing with and following others and I think I have been a bit desensitized to fear of putting myself 'out there' on the Internet. I try to take some measures to protect privacy where necessary, but really, I don't find myself censoring what I say because it is on the Internet.