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...