Thing 20 - albiet order free

OK - so I'm the person who always reads the last page first. As such, I'm doing thing 20 last instead of in order because, well, that's just the way I am. However - I didnt get very far with my experiments. I plan to do more investigating - particularly the "how to transform YouTube so you can use the files" part. Couldn't do it before because the aforementioned VISTA was causing issues with the whole flash download bit. Now I think I've got it figured out so I can start using it. I hope at somepoint we will be able to use YouTube videos - I know that some of them could be very valuable in the classroom. Once more into the breach!

Thing 23

I tried completing the survey - but my vote would not submit. Yay, technology. Anyhoo - here to conclude this marvelous journey is my "Ode to Library2Play"

An email came to me one day,
"Come join us at Library2Play!"
"What's this?" I thought, and with a grin,
I looked it up and jumped right in.
Techno-gadgets are such fun -
Don't I use every single one?
How little I knew - my mind in a fog -
Confounded I was by the simplest blog.
Creating my avatar took hours three,
But then - hey, wow, it looks just like me!
I Flickred and Mashed Up and used Google's tools,
I did try my best to follow the rules.
I learned how to access the RSS feeds,
And the Trading Card generator just suits my needs!
Technorati in general gave me great pain,
But I learned how to tag things again and again!
Web 2.0 led me to Wiki,
And opensource coding was really quite tricky.
Productivity tools made me shout out "Hooray!"
And adding the videos just made my day.
This process was great, in many ways big and small,
Library2 Play is the best thing of all!
So a'podcasting I go, with these wonderful things,
And the best part of all - I discovered the NINGS!

Thing 22

"I think that I shall ever sing,
The valiant praises of the Ning!"
Well - doesn't common sense rule us all! What a great idea! As a music teacher, we are limited in our curricular interaction with others because there are only 1 or 2 of us on campus - I would love to see a Spring Branch Music Teacher Ning! We could post lessons - and upcoming trainings - and link to cool websites - and not fill up our email boxes!!! What a fantastic idea! Now having said that - I'm looking for a brilliant person to nominate to set that up. :) But I think this is an idea whose time has come - its as easy or as complicated as you make it, its accessable, it can be such a great support tool. My joy with Wikis has been overwhelmed by Nings. And that's just the vocabulary! I can see using wikis with my students and Nings with other teachers. Long live the Ning!

Thing 21

OK - so I'm doing this out of order - but I got so excited!!! I use Audacity everyday, so I'm really familiar with it (I taught several Audacity classes to music teachers) but I've wanted to get my hands on Photostory for a while - how cool it is!!! Someone made the comment that this thing was not easy - and its not - it took me several tries to get correctly downloaded - but Photostory is VERY user friendly - and the help buttons actually help! I will be using this for several projects in my classroom - I'm very excited :)

Thing 19

WOWIE WOW WOW! (Thank you Junie B. Jones!) It's perfect! I just discovered pandora.com, which is based off of the music genome project at the Web 2.0 awards. All you do is type in a composer, genre, or song, and it creates playlists for you based on the style of what you typed. Its a music teachers dream! I got Gregorian chant in 5 seconds flat - no fumbling with CDs and trying to find the one tape with that one sample on it...What a fantastic way to show my students what different types of music soundlike in little bits that they can understand! I can't wait to use this in my class tomorrow!

Thing 18

Well - I'm still trying to get everthing organized with OpenOffice - I think the fact that I've got VISTA is messing everything up. Go figure. I've opened some stuff - it looks basic but good. But I've read other people's comments on the website and it seems really effective - just what I'm looking for - particularly the PowerPoint aspect of it. I've used opensource stuff before - I taught a class in Audacity - its fantastic. I hope that this one turns out to be as good! I'm looking forward to playing with it.

Thing 17

Wiki Sandbox - what a great idea! I can see using it with parents to do stuff like - plan the valentine's party - sign up to chaperone a field trip, and sign up to bring stuff that's needed in the classroom. I can also see it as a great way for kids to do a book response - set up a sandbox for the class to share their thoughts in. Youd have to create rules, etc. and establish norms, but I think it would be worth it!

Thing 16

I like the wikis!!! As I move through all of the assignments i'm discovering that there are things that I either respond to or I don't. This is a do! My husband watched the video with me and decided it would be a fantastic way to keep track of his "Honey-Do" list. Check the wiki!
I also think it would be great tool for music teachers to interact with lesson ideas - since we are all spread out at different schools. While I lack the impetus, I could see creating a TEKS based wiki by subject, and those who teach that subject could contribute links of lessons that cover that particular TEK. Like I said - any takers? 1-2-3 not it!

Thing 15

The best thing I read in the discussions on Library 2.0 is that the function/idea is to adapt, not to replace. I can't imagine a library where there are no paperbound books! I enjoy technology, but nothing replaces the written word printed on paper for happiness and enjoyment. Libraries hold great fonts of information, which people can access through the internet, but it can be very overwhelming - people continue to rely on libraries to help us sort it all out. Help the kiddos see beyond YouTube!

Thing 14

This is not my first rodeo with Technorati, but I think my continued visits leave me more confused. Its just so overwhelming! I like things that are straightforward and snappy. Based on others' blogposts, I can tell that it has some cool stuff to it, and that it really works for some people, but i don't think it will be for me. I love the idea of tagging as I go merrily on my way, but Technorati is not my yellow brick road.

Thing 13

I love organizational tools - but they have to work the way I think, which is no easy task. del.icio.us is a fantastic tool - it will let me organize the way that works for me - not the way that gets me lost in the mire of folders. I have so many different types of bookmarks - stuff I use in my music class, grant info, etc. that it is hard to keep track of everything where I can find it again. Now I have a site - set a tag and BOOM! Even if months pass and I don't remember exactly what I'm looking for - I'll still find it. FANTASTIC!

Thing 12

Rollyo - not a fan. Maybe I just need some visual assistance - what is the effectiveness of this tool? I mean - I figured out the specifics - what it does and how to use it - but this is not a tool that I see myself using. This would be something I would love to see someone do a mini-training on this Thing. Why is this important? Maybe its just out of my comfort zone.

Thing 11 - is anybody out there?

I really like LibraryThing - as a book-o-phile with a penchant for the odd, it is really nice to know that there are other people out there with a fascination for fantasy and historical fiction that doesn't lean to the gory...but I digress. I wish there was (or maybe I've yet to discover) a way to create more than one library for the same user. I'd love to have one for my music classroom by age groups (primary/intermediate)as well as my personal library at home...I'm going to play with it and see what I can come up with. Because if I have to create more passwords, I'm going to lose my marbles!

Thing 10 - Something New

I had seen this while lurking in our school library - but hadn't had the chance to play with it yet. Trading Cards! My absolute favorite. The happy faces were not my thing, and I went to one and was so overwhelmed with instructions that I gave up before I got started. But the trading cards were fun - I could see using that in a classroom the first week of school, or with the boys choir since the kids are from so many different schools! What a great way to learn about stuff. I could even make trading cards for composers! I loved this one.

Thing 9 - yet again on time delay

This is really more of the same as my previous blog - since I answered a little of everything. Its not surprising really. More of the same is - it is very difficult for me to find blogs that relate specifically to what i'm looking for. I used several differentblog locators - "Music teacher" yields primarily independent lesson bloggers - many have blurbs on Music education but do not specifically focus on the classroom. I'm pleased with the ones I have and will keep looking for more. Sidenote - I think that blogs are a form of writing that would be an excellent example for kids on facts vs. opinions.

Thing 8 on Time Delay

So...I did this Thing a while ago - and yet forgot to blog. So in reviewing this Thing, I realized what a lil' gem it is. I went for quality instead of quantity for my RSS feeds - making them music oriented to my particular taste...I have 3 really good ones that are interesting and fun - and very handy for research. I think that RSS feeds are a great way for teachers and librarians to keep kids focused on research - so much time is lost when kids are searching sites for current information and get lost in the blah...give them a few well-constructed sites and they get the benefit of the online experience without all of the frustration!

Thing 7 - a Sidebar

As a music teacher I am very blessed to be on a campus and in a district that considers what I do with students everyday to be essential to their education. This is not the case everywhere, however, and music teachers are constantly searching for new ways to validate what we do to teachers, principals, board members, the government and so on.
What does this have to do with the Things? In the course of my exploration, I discovered Google Scholar. I typed in "music education" and in 30 seconds had an article explaining the physiology of how music affects childrens emotions and is an effective tool in sustaining memory.
And I smile and say...I told you so.

Thing 7

(To the tune of Beethoven's 5th...) FIREWALLS STINK!!! FIREWALLS STINK!!! When you really need a website they don't work...and when you fuss about it you feel like a jerk...Because they stink! Firewalls stink! Block the wrong stuff...they...sti-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-nk!
Ahem...
At this point you probably noticed my issue with firewalls. In my quest through Googledom I was able to play happily with iGoogle - I got the space theme its SO cool - and I have an Art tab and a Music tab and I love all the customizey movey-aroundy bits - way to go for the visual learner! What's the weather like? Allow me to pull up my home page... :)
Now - my intention was to get excited about another nifty Google tool - the Notebook. Unfortunately, I am unable to download this handy thing to my toolbar because of...wait for it...the FIREWALL!!! Sigh...such is life.
Best laid plans and all that...allow me to share my delight with Google advanced search instead! This was one of those tools (like Google Earth) that I looked at and went "Oh, yeah, that..." But how cool is it to be able to search by file type??? Especially for a music teacher - we need such odd things that take forever to put together... I anticipate that this will cut WAY down on my research... At least that's the prevailing theory...
Once more into the breach!

Thing 6

Ok - I am a "learn by doing" kinda girl - very visual. Flickr is a ton of fun to play with - I love the tools and mushers even more. Mushers...that's not right...MASHUPS! got it...My favorite one from a purely aesthetic and theraputic sense is Flickriver - gorgeous pictures one right after the other scrolling through. Not all of the pics were particularly appropriate for the elementary age - but I found it very calming!!! I like the idea of the trading cards - that would be a great beginning of the year activity for kids to share information about themselves... Teachers to introduce themselves to parents...its kinda fun. Its sort of like all technology - you have to find a way that works for you and focus on that. I love the visual aspects... I have to say, though, for a photo resource in the classroom I feel safer using the AP archive...

Thing 5

Somehow, for me, remembering all of my login info is more difficult than completing assignments and activities. But I will save my pontificating on that particular subject. The Flickr website, which I have been peeking at hither and thither, intrigues me. It speaks to that creative piece of me that can't leave well enough alone...wouldn't it be fun to mosaic these photos...and these photos...and these photos...and of course the performing diva in me loves the idea of posting anything for all to see. Gotcha!

Thing 4

So... Thing 4 is supposed to be the easy one. "Register the blog" which sounds great, unless you can't think straight and remember the correct name of your blog (which you created a month ago), and what you wrote down keeps getting spat back at you as not good enough, and you spend an hour and a half back tracking through your accounts and histories, knowing full well that somewhere out there is a really cute avatar and the beginnings of a fun blog that you may never see again! Then you look up and see that the login name you were searching everywhere for is sitting next to the Google address bar and has been for the whole hour and a half that you were using said search engine. Sigh...