Thing #8

I created a Google Reader account and already have so much to read! I really like that the reader will help me save time since all of the information I want to explore is in one place. I am hoping this will encourage me to stay more up to date with my personal interests. I am excited about how I can use the reader for school. This will be a wonderful resource as a new librarian because I can read what is working at other schools. As a librarian, it would be great to share this with teachers so that they can get regular updates from blogs/websites they have found useful in the past without having to go to each individual site. It is so convenient that it is all in one place and can be organized by topic.

Thing #7

I explored all of the Google Tools. I created a calendar to share with my family and friends. It will help us to coordinate events. I also made a homepage using iGoogle. I really like that you get to choose your interests. I also explored the gadgets and added a few. The ladybugs that run around my home page are my favorite, although they have no educational purpose! I could see how these tools would be very useful for school. You could create a calendar for your class to post due dates. You could set up google alerts for the topics you are learning about at the time. Google Scholar and Google Advanced Search would be a good places for students to do research on the web. And Google Earth would be a fantastic resource for teaching Science. Here is a link to the iGoogle homepage I created.
http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en

Thing #6

There were many interesting things you can do with mashups. I created this "warholizer" with a mashup. I also created a trading card. The students could create trading cards of their favorite characters from different books they read. I'm sure they would enjoy it!