Some quick thoughts on Twilight, the movie

First of all, let me start off with a few of my impressions of the movie BEFORE I saw it.

As casting took place and actors were announced, I was disappointed. Robert Pattinson was not MY idea of Edward. Not good-looking enough, mainly. But then, to be fair, I don't think there is a man alive who could measure up to the Edward of my imagination.

As for Bella...well, even though Bella is supposed to be an average-looking girl, Kristen Stewart as she appeared in PR photos, etc., just seemed too...too...nondescript. Every picture of her, every video clip, showed her with her mouth hanging open and a vacuous, helpless expression on her face. The Bella of my imagination is Every Girl in appearance, but smarter-than-the-average-bear.

I saw the movie twice this weekend. Once alone (as alone as one can be in a packed theater, lol!) and again with three boys: a freshman, an eighth grader, and a sixth grader. I liked the movie the first time I saw it. It was "okay." Not as good as the book, of course, but then, no movie ever is.

I had to make one admission, though. I'd been wrong about Rob Pattinson. He is a perfect Edward. He is much better-looking than I'd previously thought. But most of his perfection as Edward stems from his amazing acting talent. He played the role with just-right broodiness. OMG, that intense, sexy stare! He captured Edward's internal conflict with subtle facial expression, tone of voice, perfect timing. I could sense the danger in him, but also the sweetness.

My second viewing of the movie gave me another opportunity to analyze it, and this time with even more clarity than before. This movie is more genius than I originally realized. Here are the reasons why:

1. It captures the essence of the book, which can be difficult when trying to condense a story into two hours of film. Even though some of my favorite scenes from the book were left out (like the one where Edward skips bio class because it's blood-typing day and Bella ends up passing out because she can't stand the sight/smell of blood), it still for the most part portrays the poignancy, the internal conflict, the danger, the overall FEEL of the book.

2. The way it portrays the poignancy of the relationship between Bella and Edward.

One of the main appeals of the book, I think, is the underlying sexual tension. Stephenie Meyer wrote a book that has not one sex scene...barely a kiss...yet it's one of the most sexually charged books I've ever read. The movie got to the core of THAT very well! Edward's intense stares, the first kiss between them...*sigh* But the best part of the book's sexiness is that it's about love and abstinence and self-denial.

I propose that one reason teenage girls (and middle-aged women!) love this book is that while Bella is such a temptation to Edward, he is willing to suffer, to sacrifice what he really wants--her blood, and on some level, her body--for true love. He chooses to be with her even though it means he must deny himself what he wants most. He chooses to be with her even though he knows he must "never lose control with her." Every girl and woman on Planet Earth wants to believe that a man can want to be with her for reasons far beyond just physical ones. He knows he can never have a physical relationship with her, but he loves her, anyway.

The scene of the "first kiss" in the movie, where Edward almost-but-not-quite loses control, and the subsequent montage of Bella and Edward sitting in her bed just talking and spending time together, captures the balance between the sexuality and the innocence of their relationship perfectly.

3. It's not ALL romance. The suspense is well-done, as is the climactic action scene in the ballet studio.

4. Comedic relief that I didn't expect. One name. Charlie. 'Nuff said.

5. Casting Robert Pattinson as Edward.

I predict that most teenaged girls will see this movie more than once. Maybe more than twice. Heck, I'M up for a third viewing! I know that if I were a teenager, I'd definitely be seeing this movie over and over again, and when it came out on DVD, you betcha it'd be one in my collection!

Oh yeah, and those three teen boys who saw it with me? As we got into the car after the movie, the freshman said, "That movie was tight!" And the other two agreed. :-)

BOOKR (and no, that's not a typo!)

Just playing with a new website/tool shared by another librarian. This is fun AND easy!

http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/index.php

What's in YOUR book pile?

Beside the bed, on the coffee table, in the bathroom, on your desk...most of us have a book pile somewhere. It might be books we've already read or it might be a stack of books we want to read. Take a picture of your book pile and share what you've been reading or what you plan to read!

(Images courtesy of Flickr CC)

Table 3: PhotoStory

Disclaimer: Products posted herein are for practice and NOT meant as final products.

I used PhotoStory when I did my podcast in 23 Things, but my practice with it was very brief. I did not add any music to it, only narration. This was my chance to work with the music part of it. I uploaded some pictures of a nice young man I know and set it to music. I used music from the "Sample Music" folder because it's what was there. Obviously, I wouldn't choose this music for this PhotoStory normally. I tried to go back tonight and find something good to use from Incompetech (and then I could edit it to be "just right" in Audacity), but every time I tried to go to Incompetech, Internet Explorer would stop responding and I'd have to force that window to shut. Hmmm... So here is the "work in progress":



(And thank goodness for the autosave feature here at Blogger because sometimes I do crazy things like hitting the "Back" button on my browser when I don't really mean to!)

****UPDATE**** I finally got to Incompetech, so the PhotoStory you see here has music provided by www.incompetech.com.

Table 1: Image Manipulation

Disclaimer: Products herein are for practice and NOT meant as final products.

Image manipulation is probably the area where I have the most practice. I've been putting pictures in PowerPoints and resizing them with Irfan view for a long time now. What I didn't realize until now is that Discovery Education has an image gallery in addition to the video streaming aspect. Duh! I also finally figured out how to determine which are the "okay to use" images in Flickr Creative Commons. When I did 23 Things, I was still a little confused about all the different rights attributes and which photos were okay and exactly how to credit them. Now I know that as long as it's "noncommercial" and lets me choose a size and actually download, it's okay. (I was right clicking as doing "save as" before, and so I'll admit, I think I used some photos I shouldn't have. Eek!)

The image generators were a bit frustrating. It seemed as though when I'd click on a type, it would send me to another page where I'd just have to choose all over again. Some of the links didn't make it past the district firewall. I finally found a magazine cover that I thought would be funny with the picture I chose (the Constitution), but I either I failed to save it, or I didn't pay attention to WHERE I saving it because it's not in the folder it should be in. (It was Wrestling Magazine. Get it? We wrestle over the meaning of the Constitution all the time...) So here is another one I did with it on the cover of Time Magazine. B-O-R-I-N-G.



It IS worth noting that when I uploaded the image here, Blogger automatically placed it at the top of the page. I had to highlight it, cut it (using ctrl-x) and paste it where I wanted it (using ctrl-v).

****UPDATE*****

I found my other magazine cover! I'd made a folder for it all on its own. The lesson here folks is to PAY ATTENTION when you save. Another example? When I saved my PhotoStory I have in my PhotoStory post, the wonderful Sherri M. was walking past our table. Someone said, "Hi, Sherri!" just as I was typing the name of my file for saving...and what did I call it without even realizing it??? Sherri.wp3! That is NOT what I intended to call it. Go ahead, laugh. I did. :-)

Anyway, here is the Wrestling mag cover:

Table 2: Audio Manipulation

Disclaimer: Any product posted herein is solely practice and NOT intended as a finished product.

Number One on the checklist was "Turn on laptop microphone and record using laptop microphone." I was a little confused. I'm guessing laptop microphone means the built in microphone (that picks up a voice, but also all the background noise. See my podcast in Thing 21, where you can hear a doggie having a bad dream in the background...hehe), but what application were we supposed to use to record? Hmmm..skipped this one.

I moved on to Audacity. I eavesdropped on the people around me and heard at least four people mention that for them, Audacity didn't seem user friendly. I've used it and been okay with it, but then I haven't done really advanced projects with it yet. I recorded myself reciting a part of Robert Service's "The Cremation of Sam McGee" and played it back. Yes, I'm finally getting used to hearing my own voice and I guess it's not so so bad. :-P

Then I checked out Incompetech (www.incompetech.com). This was new to me, but yea, I really like it. It's a music download site, but what I thought was great is that you can choose music by "feel" (mood), such as "ominous," "lighthearted," or "triumphant." Wouldn't it be fun to have students choose background music for parts of their favorite books? And at the same time, they are learning about mood and being exposesd to mood words. It's awesome! Dowloading is easy, too, except the day I did this, I kept getting a "page not displayed" error, but it magically solved itself. Probably just a temporary network or server glitch. I imported a piece of music into Audacity and edited it so that I had just the section of it I wanted and it was the length I needed.

Table 4: Video

today our library professional development was intensive technology training...an extension or practice of more 23 Things things, but also some new stuff for me. This post is part of that staff development. Here is my disclaimer: any product posted herein is not meant as a final product, but instead as a "work in progress."

The Table 4 task was video. The first thing on our checklist was downloading a video from TeacherTube and posting it here. I downloaded a cool video of "Ma and Pa Kettle" math (thanks to A. Reynolds from Terrace Elementary for pointing me to it!) and here it is:



Then, on to YouTube, which of course, we couldn't access from inside the district. I think that's a shame. Yes, I know there is lots of inappropriate material on YouTube, but there is also lots of great stuff. It would be like banning search engines because kids might search something inappropriate. Besides, I guarantee any kiddo with Internet access at home knows the ins and outs of YouTube. I know elementary students who can record their own video, edit it with MovieMaker, and upload it to YouTube! I think we're remiss in teaching students to be responsible consumers and producers of information. Okay, okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.

The next thing I did was play around with MovieMaker. I imported my own video that I took of my son's dwarf hamsters with my Flip. Import was successful...EXCEPT for the audio. For some reason, the audio, my narration, was much too fast after the import (but the video speed remained "true"). It was actually kind of funny because it seemed as if the hamsters were doing the "talking." :-) I played around with "cutting and splicing" and transitions. It will be fun to play with MovieMaker some more. Oh, when I tried to save, though, it was VERY slow. In fact, I thought it had frozen because I'd waited about 5 minutes and it still hadn't saved. Lo and behold, though, I left it running through lunch, and when I returned, SHAZAM! It had finished saving. Woo hoo! I'll be interested to see if that is a problem that continues.

Thing 23: Summin' It Up

Woo hoo! I made it, an especially sweet thing since this is my second attempt at this. :)

Library2Play and the 23 Things has been a marvelous learning experience. I know I won't incorporate EVERYTHING into my repertoire right away, but the opportunity to become familiar with all the tools has been priceless. My favorites are podcasts, YouTube/TeacherTube, Rollyo, blogging, Google reader, wikis, and the wide world of mashups. There a couple that I think are awesome, but I've found it more difficult to internalize their use. Del.icio.us, for example. I see the potential, and I know it's really easy to use, but for some reason it hasn't become part of the "way I do things" yet. I'm confident it will, though. It will just take more repeated use for it to become second nature to me. I can't wait to get the students involved in podcasts and online image generators and wikis. Actually, the entire faculty!

What I think is great about all this 2.0 stuff is that it's in its infancy. New applications are being developed by brilliant people everyday, meaning that there will always be something new for people like me to learn. I never want to be the "oldster" who's out of touch. I guess that means the kickball captains will have to host new "games" on the "playground" each year! I wanna play! I wanna play!

(And the anthropologist in me is fascinated by the way our world is changing...how our social interactions are changing, etc.)

I'm going to keep working on commenting more. For some reason, it was hard for me to do. And as I try all these great, new Things with my students this year, I'm going to post my experiences here on this blog.

Keep "Two-point-oh-ing," everyone!

(photo courtesy of Emile! at Flickr)

Thing 22: Nings

As a novice librarian (I only have one year under my belt), the TeacherLibrarianNing is awesome! It's a great place to ask questions and solicit advice. With "back-to-school" right around the corner, I was particularly interested in the discussion thread about how to "jazz up" the beginning of the year, or what kinds of activities make great school-year starters. I signed up a long time ago, but confess that I haven't ever really utilized it. Duh.

Thing #21: Podcasts

Confession: I've been dreading this one. I've been worried about what my podcast would be about, what equipment I needed to do it, and hearing my own voice. Ugh! Now that I've done it, though, I'm thinking, "Wow! That was fun! I want to do another one!" I guess what I put together is considered a vidcast? Do I HAVE to make that distinction? I used PhotoStory 3 to make a booktalk photostory of this year's Texas Bluebonnet Award Nominees. I got the covers of the books and the book descriptions from www.amazon.com.



Sorry about the extraneous noise. I ended up doing the audio on this some place other than home, where my microphone was, so I just used the built-in microphone on the laptop. If you listen closely to the narration for Marvelous Mattie, you'll hear my sister's golden retriever in the background yelping as she has a bad dream. Hehe... I plan to go back and redo this so it's more professional, but I wanted to get what I have up on this blog for 23 Things. Also...*ducks sheepishly*...I got tired before making it to every book, so after Lawn Boy, there's no narration.

(It IS taking a while to process the video.)

Thing #20: YouTube and TeacherTube

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE YouTube! I've been a fan of it for a while now, but never really thought of using it for teaching purposes. I used to teach 8th graders, so I heard about YouTube and MySpace before they became household words. I can spend hours looking up cool stuff, most of it music related or humorous. There are some really talented people out there, and how wonderful that they now have an avenue to publish their work. Makes it easier for those of us who AREN'T talented, too, because now we don't have to try to reinvent the wheel when we aren't inventors!

I searched YouTube for librarians and found some funny stuff. I particulary liked a video of "The Librarian Song," but I couldn't get it embedded because for some reason the entire code wouldn't paste into blogger. Grrrrr.... If you want to see it, go to YouTube and search "librarian song."

I'd like to see YouTube opened up in the district. Yes, there's inappropriate material that kids can access, and it will require more diligence from us, but really, shouldn't we be teaching kids to be responsible internet consumers?


TeacherTube is fabulous. I plan to use it often this year. Here's a photostory that shows the life cycle of a butterfly. I like it because it's simple, colorful, and of good graphic quality. I chose to embed it with the TeacherTube search bar.

Thing #19: Web 2.0 Awards

I really enjoyed checking out the list of Web 2.0 award winners. I saw names I recognized and a bunch I didn't. Over the course of the next months, I plan to investigate even more of them, but for this "assignment" I chose to check out Twitter, which won first place in the Social Networking Mainstays category. First, I'd read about it in several other library professionals' blogs or seen links to their Twitter pages, but what really caught my attention is that it came in first place over Facebook and MySpace, which seemed like quite a feat to me since those names are immensely popular, verging on eponymous with social networking. I wanted to see what Twitter had over them.

If I had to describe Twitter in one sentence, it would be, "It's a social network where people post 'updates,' little blurbs of 140 characters or less about where they are or what they're doing, or their latest observations about life, etc.) as often as they like that other people can sign up to follow and vice verse."

I signed up, posted a tweet (what folks call the updates about their lives), and thought, "Now what?" The directions page said the whole point was to tell people what you're doing at any given moment. That's what it's all about. I thought it was all rather anticlimactic. Just a few days earlier, I'd set up a MySpace page, which was a whole lot more fun since I got to write a few paragraphs "about me" and choose music and a skin and embed other cool widgets.

I spent some time looking for friends on Twitter, but I didn't find anyone I knew. I wasn't keeping up with anyone else and no one else was keeping up with me. It seemed rather pointless, and I was disappointed.

Then, I was reading the Houston Chronicle online, and a headline caught my eye: The tweet life is all about the social. How timely! It was an article about Twitter! After reading this article, it all makes much more sense now. The part that was missing for me was the most essential: the networking! Duh.

Now the question is, How does this benefit me professionally? I can see it as a great way for librarians and/or teachers to let others know about successes they've experienced. On those days when I've facilitated a lesson that went well...beyond expectation...and I'm riding the high that comes with it, I want to share it with others. Not just my emotions, but how it all worked, what caused it to go so well, even what could be done better next time. In the past, this sharing usually took place via impromptu chats with other teachers in the hallway after school. That was great, but I see Twitter as an opportunity to share with even more people. And now that I'm a librarian, and a "one-of-a-kind" on my campus, I don't have the opportunity for hallway chat with colleagues (meaning other librarians...of course I still chat with the teachers). Blogs are a wonderful way to share, but sometimes I don't feel the energy or committment to a blog. There's a feeling that blog entries should be longer, more in depth. With Twitter, I can jot off a few sentences and not feel the pressure of the "fully-loaded" blog entry. Twitter is like the sticky-note version. Likewise, I can see what successes and frustrations my fellow librarians are experiencing. And the best things is that it's asynchronous, so we don't all have to be in the same place at the same time to offer each other support.

Anybody else on Twitter? Let me know so I can add you!

Thing 18: Online Productivity Tools

Wow! After a looooong vacation from the 23 Things, I'm ready to get back to it and finish things up.

I like using Google docs because it's accessible from any computer and it's free. People working on a group project can have access to the docs they need without emailing them back and forth to each other--wish I'd known about this for those group projects in grad school! It doesn't have quite the functionality of Microsoft Word, but who really uses all the tools Word offers on a regular basis?

There's also OpenOffice.org, which for the most part, is almost exactly like Office, except you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for it. It's great for those people who are on the wrong side of the digital divide and may not have access to Office. I tried out the Word equivalent and liked it very much. It had all the functions that *I* use in Word, plus you can choose which format you want to save in. It's compatible with all the versions of Word. I admit, I'm not a spreadsheet expert, so I didn't really check out that part of it. At least not yet.

When a tool is online, it makes it much more accessible to everyone and "collaboration friendly," for sure.

Thing #17: Rollyo

Way cool! This is one I'd NEVER played with at all, and now I wonder why it's not more "out there." Or is it just that I'm that out of it? I love this tool, especially being able to search any site with the Rollyo roll bar. That way I can always search from the same place and not have to look for each individual web sites search window. Plus, being able to add sites to a search roll on the fly is just awesome.

Rollyo allows educators to create kid-friendly search rolls or subject specific search rolls for their students to use. It's also fun to make subject specific search rolls for your fellow educators. I made one that includes some blogs that do reviews of children's and YA literature: http://rollyo.com/infogoddess2b/childrenya_lit/.

Not a Thing, but Pertinent...

There is an interesting conversation going on over at John Green's Weblog about whether Google (and by implicaton, the Internet) is changing the way we think. (John Green is the author of the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award winner, Looking for Alaska.)

He's asked folk to read an article in which the author proposes that our thinking skills are going downhill. Considering what we're doing here with the 23 Things, I highly recommend going over there to check out the article and the comments...and to add your two cents' worth, if you wish!

I'll update this with MY opinion a bit later!

Thing #16: Wikis

Hurrah for wikis! Getting everyone's ideas down in one place without everyone having to be IN the same place...woo hoo! The possibilities are limitless IF everyone has access to the technology. Teachers can use them for planning within grade levels, across grade levels...heck, in ALL kinds of planning! I'd like to have a wiki to help me collaborate with my teachers and another one set up for students where they can share book reviews and create lists of "must-reads." How about one to collect website resources for student learning? If you find a good educational website, let everyone know...add it to the wiki!

I'd like to have book clubs for my teachers, both for professional development and just for fun, but sometimes it's difficult to get everyone together. Perhaps a wiki is the solution (although I think the face-to-face synchronous interaction is an important part of a book club).

I wish I'd been able to use a wiki back when I was teaching eighth grade langauge arts. I taught three different sections a day, and often, these classes were reading the same shared reading passage. The students of each class would annotate a passage as I recorded the annotations on the overhead. They had complete ownership of the annotations, so as you can imagine, each class's perception of the piece was often different from the other classes'. First period might find something in the text that third period didn't. I was perplexed. How to share first period's observations with third period without seeming like I was pointing out that third period had "missed" something (and implying they hadn't done a good job)? With a wiki, all three of my language arts sections could have worked collaboratively as one unit and put all their ideas together as one shared understanding of the text. Fabulous!

Thing #15: Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the Future of Libraries

How exciting it is to be a librarian in this age of technological and informational revolution! What 2.0 means to me...

1. It means the library as a network of people sharing, using, creating, manipulating information. The library is not necessarily about physical space.

2. It means collaboration. Not just collaboration among library professionals to make information more accessible to patrons, but collaboration between library professionals and patrons and among patrons themselves.

3. It means continual re-evaluation of the information needs we information users have and the information tools we have, and adapting our methodology. It is constant evolution.

4. It means the librarian as innovator and integration specialist, a person who can take new technologies and create ways for them to improve the way we find and manage information, and therefore, the way we live.

Thing #14: Technorati and How Tags Work

Technorati is another one of those places where I could end up spending hours just surfing around. Anyone else out there sometimes feel voyeuristic?

First, let me give a little summary of what Technorati is in my own words to be sure I have it right. It's a search engine to find a particular topic in the millions of blogs in the blogosphere. You can search for blogs, blog posts, or simply by tags. Unlike Del.icio.us, where users/readers create the tags (post-publishing), bloggers/publishers create the tags in Technorati (pre-publishing). It's a way to find what the "unwashed masses" are talking about, what they think is news. It's a way to keep up with your favorite blogs (but don't I already have Google Reader for that?) or to see what everyone else's favorite is?

How can this be useful to me? Well, I do like to keep up with current events, and as a long-ago anthropology student, I'm interested in culture and pop culture, so I'm fascinated by what everyone is blogging about. I guess that's why I can get lost for hours poking around, moving from link to link. More specifically, though, I can search the topics that interest me and see what other "real people" think rather than "elitist" news, review, and publishing sources. AND, with the nature of blogging, I can actually converse with the writers! It's almost as if, rather than being consumers of news and information prepared by small numbers of people, the masses are actually the news MAKERS and information CREATORS now. I think that's very cool.

Can I see a use for this in the classroom? Not so much, at the moment, but then I haven't given it full thought, I'll admit. It WOULD be great to show students that "real people" write everyday, that there IS a purpose for being able to express oneself. No, we're not ALL going to be Judy Blumes, Stephen Kings, or Stephenie Meyers. But we ARE all writers in some form or fashion. Also, I can see myself using it to find appropriate topic-related blogs for students to follow. Say, birds again. Surely there are some bird-watchers and bird-lovers out there who have blogs about, well...birds. I could turn students on to those. Real-life learning through real-life interests.

As for tagging, I think it's great. I see benefits to both Del.icio.us type tagging and Technorati type tagging. I think bloggers should be able to categorize their own work with tags, but I think it's important for users/readers to be able to create their own meaningful tags, too. Now that I've explored tagging, I'll be doing much more of it!

And you may notice, dear reader, that I have added an "Add this to my Technorati favorites" button in the upper righthand corner of this blog. :-)

Thing #13: Exploring Del.icio.us and Tagging

Del.icio.us is awesome! I'm such a dunce. I'd heard so much about it that I actually created an account several weeks ago, but I still didn't really understand how to use it. I've been saving favorite websites just like I used to do with Favorites in IE or bookmarking in Netscape. I couldn't figure out why I'd want to use it over those tools already built in to my web browser. DUH. Double DUH. *slaps forehead*

It's the TAGGING and ability to connect to what other people are also saving. You see, I thought of the tagging as just for me, so I could categorize MY stuff for MY benefit in finding it later. Hello? McFly? Now that I realize it's about searching the tags of other Del.icio.us users, I see the limitless possibilities. The only thing I don't like about tagging is the extra time it takes upfront. I don't always have the "get-up-and-go" to tag the things I'm saving. Or at least that was true up until now. Now that I see what a benefit it can be...well, it seems little effort. I like the way Del.icio.us gives suggestions for tags. I didn't see that at Furl, but I did like Furl's interface. I have both of them and I'm still experimenting with both to see which one I'll eventually start using exclusively.

The tutorial video for Del.icio.us was helpful, for sure, but I really had to concentrate. I felt it was over my head sometimes. I got the gist of it, though. I like the idea of using a tagging tool like Del.icio.us or Furl for shared reading lists. I can see students doing research and tagging good information so that other students researching the same topic can easily find it. Especially if they use a specific unique tag. I'll use the infamous second grade bird unit as an example. All of second grade is researching different kinds of birds. Student A in Mrs. Smith's class has chosen the hummingbird as her topic, and she finds a good article about hummingbirds. If she tags it with the template type of bird-school's name, then other students researching hummingbirds in the other second grade classes can find it. It's collaboration across the classes or even across the district. Not only are the students working to find information for themselves, but they are building a "toolbox" for others. I love it.

As for myself, personally, I found some neat stuff on vintage crochet, which has become my latest interest, especially doilies. I'm amazed by how "small" our world is becoming with our ability to connect with other people and their interests from across the world.

Thing #12: Creating Community Through Commenting

I enjoyed reading the articles about commenting. I've commented on blogs before but never really thought about WHY I was commenting. It just seemed natural, as if it were "conversation." I guess I'm a basically nice person because it's never occurred to me to be less than courteous when commenting on others' posts. Most of my commenting has been to encourage others or to share my similar experiences with the blogger. Doug Johnson at Blue Skunk says, "Don't be a troll." I'd never heard the term before, but I don't know why not. Now that I think about it, I've seen trolls in my travels through the blogosphere.

The two things that stuck out to me as I read about "commenting conventions" is that 1) comments should contribute something to the discourse, and 2) they should be courteous. I panicked a bit when considering the first one because I've left the "You go, girl!" kind of comments that don't add anything new. I think it was Cool Cat Teacher who advised staying away from those. After I reconsidered, I felt a little better, though, because I came to the conclusion that CCT didn't mean that we can't leave simple words of encouragement. She meant that we shouldn't just leave it at that. We should be specific. Just as in teaching when we give students feedback. "Good job!" is not that helpful. It needs to be followed up with "You recognized every pattern correctly on your first try!" or something like that. When I was helping students develop their writing, I would say things like, "You've captured the moment here perfectly with your vivid verbs and the sentence structure you've chosen," (and I'd name that structure). It WAS a good job, and I admired the way they'd crafted their work, but I had to tell them specifically what made it work. It's the same if I leave a "You go, girl!" I need to point out exactly why I agree or feel the encouragement is deserved. As for the second thing that struck me, courtesy...well, even when we disagree, we can do it constructively. I hope that with this group of people, I don't have to explain that one much.

I have a question about time. What time frame is considered "still okay" when commenting on a blog post? For example, let's say I happen upon Blog XYZ and see a post that was made two weeks ago that I'd like to respond to. Is it too late? What's the "expiration date" on these things? Or maybe it doesn't have to do with time but how many posts have been made since then. What if there are 2 or 3 newer posts? Does it mean I shouldn't comment on the older post because it's lost currency? Help!

Thing #11: LibraryThing

My favorite Thing so far! How awesome to be able to keep track of your books at home, but most of all, share them with others. That little YouTube video hit the nail on the head. It's a way for me to share the books I've read and how I felt about them with others as they do the same with me. I catalogued some of my books at home...couldn't do all of them, of course...that's a BIG project, and it was SO easy (especially what "cataloging" usually means to us librarians!) I loved to instantly be able to see how many other people have the same book I do, especially if it was a more obscure book than, let's say, Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer.

LibraryThing is a great way to network about books...like one big book club or book party. I'll use it to find suggestions for my next book, for sure. And here is the avenue for getting kids to share and talk about what they're reading. I used to have kids keep a list of the books they'd read over the course of the school year in the back of their journals. The reluctant readers were usually shocked and proud of themselves as they saw their lists grow. Wouldn't it be cool to have them keep track of that at LibraryThings? And the way it prompts them to dialogue about what they've read. Wow! I used to give students "talk time" after silent, sustained reading so that they could share their books with partners. This is even better.

So here are my questions:

1. What's involved in getting kids into this? I mean, what are the legalities of it? How would it ACTUALLY work? (I'm a big-picture person, so sometimes the details elude me.) What about parent permission to use it, and things like that?

2. Anybody out there worried that this is a government conspiracy to keep track of what people are reading? (Just kidding!)

Thing #10: Image Generators

First, let us celebrate...
My first double-digit Thing! WOO HOO!

I had to explore it in several sittings because this Thing overstimulated me like an espresso nightcap! So many options as far as what TYPE of image generator and then even more options within each one. Whew! I turned my son into Indiana Jones and created a National Geographic magazine cover with owls using the comic strip generator tool, and I put this mosaic together at Big Huge Labs simply by using Flickr tags.

Oh! And I created an irreverent little cartoon with Abe Lincoln asking for the location of the nearest Starbucks (comic strip generator). I won't share it, though. :-) I did notice that with the comic strip tool, many of the options weren't "kid-friendly."

These image generators are a great way for students to express themselves creatively on a variety of topics. It also requires them to sort/categorize, etc.

Thing #9: Useful Library-Related Blogs and News Feeds

Hahaha! You can tell I hadn't looked at Thing 9 when I posted about Thing 8, but what a great lead-in!

Well! I certainly found some "odd" blogs out there as I tried out the different blog and feed "finders." It makes the post at Cool Cat Teacher about choosing your circle of wise ones highly pertinent. Be sure to know what it is you're lookikng for in a blog, too!

I found bloglines and google blogs to be the most useful for me, perhaps because they both shot me directly to an uncluttered search page, whereas Topix and Technorati's home pages were filled with busy text and images. I felt as though I had to wade through all of that to find what I needed/wanted: the search function. It was a bit intimidating. Also, I think I have a form of ADD or something similiar (plain ole lack of focus, hmmm?)because if I end up at a page that showcases blogs or news sites, I'll get super side-tracked and forget what I was there for in the first place. I'm a marketer's dream. Hehe...

I also discovered that bloglines and google seemed better for finding blogs while Topix (I think...I'm a bit addlepated at this point) was better for finding individual blog entries that are relevant to your search.

I couldn't help but search for feeds related to my personal interests as well as my professonial ones, so I checked out some crochet blogs and even discovered The Crochet Dude! I don't mean to be sexist at all, but it IS unusual to find a man so dedicated to crochet and crafts that he'd have a blog.

I also searched my own name at these sites, and eek! Amazing what they brought up in the search results. I created several blogs as part of grad school classes, and posts from each of them, as well as this one, popped up. As you can tell from this blog, I'm not shy about putting my real name out there, especially since all my blogs have been a part of my professional realm, but bloggers who're more secretive, beware!

Thing #8: RSS Feeds and Readers

I've had a Google Reader account for a while now. I admit, it's nice to have all my "stuff" I want to keep up with in one place. However, sometimes I feel overwhelmed when I log in and there are 50+ new things. I feel obligated to read each and every one of them, yet I know I probably won't have the time to do it. If I could only bring myself to hit the "mark as read" button every once in a while, but...if it's there in front of me, I feel I have to read it. I could spend hours just reading blogs and news feeds. I know that some of you feel that Reader helps you LIMIT what you end up reading, but for me, it seems the opposite.

Personally, I can use it to keep up with crochet sites, history sites, my friends' blogs, and what's up-and-coming with all my favorite authors. Professionally, it helps me stay current in my field. I can see my students using it, too. Imagine they are studying a particular topic or skill for a long-term project. They could each find sites pertinent to their topic and create Google reader folders for it...keep track of what's new over time. I'd like to teach my students to use it for their own personal interests, too.

I have a question: Is there a blog directory out there? If I'm interested in American Civil War re-enacting, for instance...is there a place I can go and see all the blogs out there that pertain to that interest? It would be nice if there were, but if not, could a library set up readers for the areas that interest their patrons?

Thing #7: Cool Google Tools

Cool Google Tools....have any of you tried SAYING that out loud? If you're successful, try saying it three times in a row without ending up with your tongue in a knot. Now on to the serious stuff:

Wow! Who knew there was more to "googling" than just simple searching? I have to admit that this is something I played around with the last time I tried 23 Things, but I only got as far as Google Documents and Google Calendar. I could spend another week checking out all the other great things Google has to offer.

First, in terms of the "simple" search, are all the little shortcuts and tricks. For example, type "define: beauty" to get a list of definitions for the word beauty from different websites. Searching has become so complicated, I think all students should have a class in just SEARCHING. It's the basis of about everything we do on the Internet, and yet so few REALLY know how to do it. Not many even understand how search terms work.

Google Documents: What's great about Google Documents is that your work is web-based so it can be accessed from anywhere. Recently, my fifth grade son was working on a big project at school that involved a text document. He needed to work on it at home, but barring my buying him his own flash drive (which I'm sure he'd promptly lose), he had no way to get his file from school to his home computer. The school district (not SBISD) wouldn't let him use his yahoo email to email the file to himself. If only his work had been done in Google Docs....(I suggested to the teacher that he could copy and paste his work into Google Docs, but she told me in no uncertain terms that she knew nothing of it and that was the end of the matter. I ended up buying him a flashdrive, but what about those who can't afford to go out and buy things like that spur of the moment?)

And don't forget Google Earth. It's another way for students to gain map skills, but more interesting. It's more concrete, and can really show them the relationship between continents, countries, states, cities, neighborhoods, streets, and so on. Our SIS has even used it to illustrate writing concepts, such as narrowing a topic or even the idea of details and exploding the moment.

And that's just a few things Google has to offer!

Back on the Playground

I ended up taking a time-out last time because I was so bogged down with other committments...such as work, family, and 6 semester hours of grad school. But I'm back and ready to play!

Here's a summary of what I did the last time I played:

Thing 5: Flickr

Flickr is a photo-sharing site where people can upload, store, and share (if they want) their digital photos. I got a little peeved that I couldn't transfer MY personal photos from another photo-sharing site, but the personal uses are not really important here. The important thing is that Flickr gives people a library of photos to choose from for various purposes and projects. I'm still a little confused about what I can use and what I can't, though, despite the explanations in Flickr Creative Commons. I created a Memorial Day Tribute Animoto using Flickr photos, but I'm hesitant to post it anywhere for fear I've misunderstood the copyright rules on the photos.

Thing 6: Mashups, etc.

Mashups take two applications and "mash" them together to create a new application. For example, combine Flickr with Googe Maps and get an application that track photos by where they were taken.

Now on to Thing Seven.

Thing #6: Mashups and 3rd Party Sites

Wow! I stalled on this project some way back, but I think I'm in drive and moving forward again. I've learned that the term "mashup" was coined originally in the music business to refer to a remix of a song mashed up with another song. It's exactly what it sounds like: two or more applications mashed up together, like placing photos from Flickr on maps from Google.

I found one mashup that plots the hometowns of American Idol contestants using Google Maps and Yahoo Geocoding. There's also Podbop, which is an application that combines band event data from Eventful with mp3 tracks. You can type in a city, get mp3s, and if you like the music you hear, find out when and where that band will be appearing in that city. ParkingCarma combines event data from Upcoming.org and local parking facilities. Useful for finding parking for the events you plan to attend. Visit www.programmableweb.com/mashup/ for an "index" of mashups.

What I find amazing is that there are hundreds of mashups and third-party sites out there and people are creating more each and every day. So many possibilities.

I made a trading card. Neat. This one is about my golden retrievers, and I used a photo of my own. I can see kids using this as a product--a way to present information--and also as a way to collect information as they find it. It can be used as a writing tool to help students prewrite characterization for a character or as a reading tool in collecting the text clues to characters' traits.

Thing #5: Flickr

Neat. A photo sharing COMMUNITY where people actually network about their photos. This site is a bit like YouTube for me. I can "waste" hours at a time just looking, reading comments, and jumping from one thing to another. It's a sickness.

I'd like to upload some photos. Actually, I'd like to transfer photos from another photo sharing site, but I don't seem to have that option. Grrr.... I uploaded some photos I had saved on my hard drive, but I still can't figure out how to import photos from another site. I already have all my photos in one spot, and it would be nice to just transfer them over. Otherwise, my photos are all over the place, saved here and there. What a hassle it would be to to upload from different hard drives and discs!



It IS very cool that you can take a photo with your cell and email it to Flickr to have it instantly published in your photos. I didn't know that! I can't wait to use THAT feature.

On to Thing 6...

Things 1-4: Violating the Rules Already

I think somewhere in the directions for the 23 Things, I'm reminded not to combine Things...to make a separate post for each one. Perhaps the Kickball Captains will forgive me for combining these first four...

Things 1-3: The creation of this blog and my previous entry completes Things 1-3. So far, so good! No complaints, except I can't seem to make my av any bigger. I want it as big as possible so I can admire it (since I don't really look like that!). What other avatar tools are out there--besides using a REAL photo (Eeek!) of me?

Oh, and it seems that the hardest part of starting a blog is coming up with a clever name for it. I've encountered this before when having to create usernames. As soon as I finally pick something, I see other people's great monikers and think, "D'oh! Why didn't *I* think of that??? Or something just as clever???"

Thing 4: Registering my blog with VWB was easy. The only thought it took was creating a suitable email title and keeping the blog name vs the blog URL straight. *gives self thumbs up*

Now on to Thing 5: Flickr...

23 Things: Just short of two dozen...

23 Things. I love it. Not 24. Not a round 20. That would be way too "formal," "structured," "ordered." It's a high enough number to feel a sense of accomplishment, but not so high as to seem unattainable.

What IS (or should it be ARE) 23 Things? Simply and in my words, it's a way for me and other people to explore and play with 23 different Web tools/applications that the average 10 year-old to twenty-something probably uses daily but that I've been cluelessly in the "duh" mode about. Okay, yeah...I've used some of them, but by no means have I attained "goddess" status in any of them.

23 Things, specifically, was created by Spring Branch ISD Library Information Services (A.K.A. the trio of "Head Honchos" of the SBISD libraries, led by Texas Librarian of the Year (TLA), the fabulous Dr. B.) for librarians and other SBISD employees, and even non-district folks, to get out of the larval "duh" stage when it comes to Web 2.0 and Library 2.0. They modified and adapted it from other sources like Stephen Abram's article, "43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year" (Information Outlook - February 2006) and the website 43 Things. You can find out lots more about it at Library2Play and this blog entry.