Thing #9 Searching . . . and searching . . . and searching . . .

I tend to forget why I first started searching. I have learned that the ease of the search engine has to do more with the searcher than the engine. I am becoming more familiar with how to use the tools and that has made them seem less difficult. I enjoyed several rabbit chases today. I followed Bloglines and subscribed to an enewsletter from Library Journal. I hope I do not regret this subscription; I fear that my inbox will pile up with newsletters until it is overflowing like the piles on my floor. I read a few articles on Atomic Learning, and I found the YouTube video that I posted to my blog: "My teacher needs to learn 3.0."
The Huffinton Post was my next discovery, and I posted a link to Toby Greenwalt's article, "To know the library is to love the library . . . " I subscibed to the RSS feed for The Huffinton Post because I like the sense of humor evident in its articles.
As I search and read and search and read, I find that I immediately want to share my discoveries. As I am subscribing to RSS feeds and reading blogs, I am experimenting more with ways to share with others. I posted links to my blog but am wondering what other ways I can share. My searches have focused on libraries, and that is helping me to transition my thinking from teacher to librarian. And the search continues . . . .

"To Know the Library is to Love the Library"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/toby-greenwalt/to-know-the-library-is-to_b_421775.html

"Prepare us for the future, not your past," say the students

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CIh7FWv4UA

Thing #8 RSS Route

Subscribing to RSS feeds is like subscribing to magazines, but much cheaper and they don't pile up around the house. I subscribed to recommendations such as 2 Cents Worth, Goddess of YA Literature, Blue Skunk, etc. I also subscribed to Quotes of the Day. I shared some of the quotes on my blog that I found thought-provoking. Quotes are quick ways to expose students to a variety of voices in literature and media. Almost daily, my students write quick-writes in response to a topic related to our current unit. Quotes of the Day can provide food for thought for students before they write. Another application I believe will be helpful to me is accessing feeds that relate to topics in my graduate classes, especially those that ask us to research other sources. I will need to focus my reading or else I will be following the RSS route down too many lanes until I end up miles from my original destination.

Thing #7 Google Greats

Google has some of the most useful tools. My favorite Google applications are Google Docs, Calendar, and Scholar Search. I have used Google Docs before and encouraged my students to use it. It is great for when you are working on a document at home and then want to access that document at school from another computer. Flash drives are amazing, but they can get misplaced (ask my son). Google Docs does not have to be attached to a lanyard; it is available at the touch of a computer keyboard.
Today, I put my graduate classes into my Google Calendar. With so many different activities happening with my three jobs and three teenagers, and now with two graduate classes, a calendar just might keep me sane. Or at least let me know where I will be when I go insane.
I was able to search on Google scholar for G. Hartzell, and I can see that I will be able to use this application to search for other important authors related to my library science classes.

Thing #6 Bashful Bookr

I was so thrilled to find Bookr. I immediately set out creating my own book with beautiful pictures. Just as I was about to put my finishing touches on the last pages, my book disappeared! So, I decided to try again. After recreating the first book, I was about to publish, and then, my book disappeared again! This was a hard lesson to learn. I assumed I had as much time as I needed to create my masterpiece, but there must be a timeout built in. I felt so disappointed that I was not able to finish and publish my bookr.
I played around with some other toys and found the color pickr to be just amazing. Not sure what to do with it as far as using it, but it was fun to look at on the webpage. My experiences with mashups and third party sites taught me that I have so much more to learn!