Image Manipulation class

Here's a graffiti poster I created from graffiti generator.

Table 2

Audio Manipulation
Audacity is not my friend but mainly because I have used it without fully understanding HOW so I spend a lot of time being frustrated until I find a way, probably not the BEST WAY, but A way to do what I'm trying to do. I ALWAYS get confused as to what I am about to cut, the highlighted part or the other stuff and I definitely need to be SECLUDED before trying to do anything in audacity. I have edited, imported, recorded, and used limited effects but I am far from proficient.



Incompetech looks useful.

Table 1

Image Manipulation - Flickr Creative Commons - I could use an explanation of the symbols but I think Non-Commercial Licenses makes sense for pics I am free to use. VWB explained how to cite using ppt. or a word document. Probably need to hear this again because I know she was explaining more about linking back to the source but I lost focus. Now I find that I cannot add a ppt to this blog and am not sure whether that is because you CAN'T or my brain just isn't functioning in the August fog.

Tried to use fakemagazinecover. com from Library2Play pages but was BLOCKED by district as it is categorized as GAMES which we all know are harmful to student achievement:(

Tried several online image generators and none of them worked. If I had been sitting with a teacher, I would have lost them for good. If I had been sitting with students, they would have redecorated the library.

I finally, in the privacy and silence of my home, found one that worked for me.

Table 4

Video Assignments - Teacher Tube took a LONG time to use in district today. Of course YOU TUBE is still blocked. My teacher tube practice is 2 posts below.

In trying to combine 2 clips from Discovery Education I ran into 2 problems. 1)I had a brain misfunction and forgot to right click on the correct icon to save the clip. Big DUH moment for me since I did that A MILLION times last year.
2) Movie maker kept popping up a box that wanted me to debug. SO, I was unsuccessful with this project though I know HOW to do it. I DO NOT KNOW how to handle the debug issue.
3) I also had a sound issue though I had sound for Photo Story a few minutes ago and I'm using the same headphones. Go figure. I will attempt it later, probably at home with a different computer, and a different wireless system so that everything works.

Table 3

When using Photo Story, not everyone remembered to
a) BROWSE and choose where to save your project and movie
b) You can ONLY post your movie which is a .wmv not a .wp3
c) When I was adding music, for the first time I was not on my 1st photo and I could not quickly find a way to either remove that music (I could change it or delete the entire photo) or get it to start from the beginning at the first photo. Time was an issue so I chose the easy option that meant the music would just start over at the last photo.

My Photo Story practice is 2 posts below because I did not understand the directions! I did make a powerpoint slide and save it as a jpeg for the 1st 'photo'.

Amelia Earhart

Continuing on my theme of Second grade historical people, here is a video from Teacher Tube of a student reporting on/as Amelia Earhart.

Photo Story Practice

Even librarians get assignments! I'm at a training and we are practicing a few things to do with students this year. Here is a photo story. Remember, this was a quick exercise not a complete project. This took less than 30 minutes. You can do it too!

Summer Things

I am reading some of the current player blogs for 23 Things and I find that I am a little jealous! I hope everyone is enjoying it and if they aren't, they will in retrospect. I can see that several players are from the same school and are commenting to each other. I know that enhances the experience. It makes me look forward to the next journey in the fall - though summer sure leaves more time for it!

An experiment

Apparently I don't have enough to do - I started yet another blog.

It, like this one, has a specific purpose. We are having author Linda Sue Park visit soon and I needed a way to introduce her books to the students but we didn't have time to read them. In these days of testing, I barely get to see the students! Parking it Here has a series of activities that one class is going through at their own pace and writing their posts which only I have the right to publish. The other classes will go through the activities as a whole group and then, hopefully, add comments to the student posts. It's not perfect. Getting the students from the class who is posting to return their permission slips has not been easy. While they are enjoying the experience, I'm not sure if they'll be any better prepared for the author visit. The blog itself is crazy with so many different people posting about different things at different times. You have to use the categories on the side to navigate. Choosing the category Activities will get you the 6 activities that the students read before they post. Anyway, if you're interested in having students blog without them each having their own blog, edublogs has a way to get them all attached to the same one.

If you, like me, don't have enough to do, please consider reading and commenting to some of the students. I also welcome any suggestions as to how to improve upon the idea.

Connections

OK, so this is not as good as Book Nook Girl's story of Barbara O'Connor but I was perusing the new resources sent to me by Teaching Books.net and came across the name of an elementary school friend. I had stumbled upon a memoir she had written a few years back so I knew she was an author but I hadn't realized she was now writing for young adults. Anyway, I read the interview, looked at her blog and then chose to post a comment just saying hi and congratulate her on her success. I didn't know if she would even remember me since we were very young when she moved away. I was a little surprised and extremely happy to find a comment waiting to be moderated in my inbox this morning from her! She found this blog and responded. VWB has continually reminded us how the world is shrinking and connections or reconnections are being made in this 2.0 world. OK, I get it.

Just playing

Thing #23 - I see the Light

That's the light at the end of the 23 Things tunnel (which was pitch black a few times) as well as the light shining on all things Library 2.0.

OK, my favorites...Google Reader came in handy, especially for keeping up with the other players. It is also overwhelming as some of the professional blog keepers are certainly have much to say and say it often.
Lifelong Learning...I'm glad to know a little more about a few things. This program absolutely made it easier for me to tackle the first layer of Libray 2.0.
Take-aways/unexpected outcomes...Google alerts has let me keep up with my brother a bit. He's in the music biz so whenever he puts a new song on his MySpace page or another person writes about him, I get an alert! That's been fun. I'm in the middle of doing trading cards with the 2nd graders with the dreaded bird research and we're starting with 3rd grade states. I didn't realize how l o n g it would take 2nd graders to type in 3 facts that they already had written on their research sheets. Won't do it again. It was nice to realize that I already had a little experience with some of the tools (blogs, wikis, podcasts)
Improve this program...Well, it really was TOO much. There were way more than 23 things. Thing #7 had 8 things all by itself! SO, pare it down a bit. Maybe split it up so someone can be successful even if they can only get through half of the program. If you have smaller bites, someone could then move through the different levels?
Another one?????? I'm not sure if I would sign up to fully participate but I would certainly look at what was there that I needed/wanted to learn. Let me get over this one first.
One word or one sentence... Self-paced introduction to a variety of web 2.0 tools that can be used in our schools for, by, and with our students. How's that?
Thank you to our kickball captains. I know that setting this up wasn't easy and keeping up with all the players had to be more than time consuming. Once again, I've been pushed to go places I didn't think I could go. And I survived. Now let me go see if my daughter did.

Thing #22 - Ning

OK, I wasn't really getting it. I mean I sort of understand but, being over 40, and not a joiner, I don't get it. Maybe if you worked somewhere rural and didn't have a built in network the way we do, I could see joining the teacher or librarian nings as a place to start. So, since I wasn't convinced yet, I searched ning for the popular ones and found SXSW 08 which is an Austin music conference/party that my brother has dropped in on a few times. OK, I get that this could be useful to him on the East Coast before he hits town. Maybe if TLA had a ning, those who couldn't attend could pick up some conference remotely...but there are other ways to do that. So I kept searching. Lots of Moms groups, schools groups, tv fan groups, yadda yadda yadda. Nothing in my life that I searched for had a ning. Somehow, that didn't upset me. I did see that it could (and does) serve as a closed network for student groups, school faculty, far flung friends and relatives. I'll have to think about whether this is the best place to start for a few of my teachers who are ready to have their own space but aren't sure how.

Thing #21 - Podcasting

Yeah! One thing that I've already done before. Now, I'm not expert but podcasting was something I decided to play with this year (before I signed on for 22 other things!) I started with a session by one of our own and then a session at Region IV's Technology Applications Conference which is well worth the day and the $25.00 (they even feed you!) Anyway, I learned about Jodix converter to get the photostory into mp4 from wmv and about Media Max to host the podcasts. (This is where you get the url to link the podcast to your blog, etc.) All free, just another user name and password! Anyway, my students started in the fall and then I received a grant from the ed tech department so I was committed to doing more. I've been doing them myself but hope to get back to using the students once all the testing hooha settles down. They can be found at My Pod or Yours. But for the sake of the 23 things, here's a little sample.

Thing #20 - You tube, we tube...

These are two videos I saw at TCEA that struck a chord, for different reasons of course.



I'm trying the Zamzar thing but, while they keep saying they'll send me an email in 24 hours, I've yet to receieve one. I searched Blinkx but came up emptyhanded in my specific search but I want to remember it exists. I've seen some interesting curriculum videos on Teacher Tube though they are usually geared a little higher than elementary. There was a cute claymation that had the 3 pigs and Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White's dwarves in each other stories. I do wonder what kind of schools have the time to do these projects. Seems that all we have time to do is test, retest and test again. I use the streaming video in the library but I do suffer from flashback to junior high when they turned off the lights and put you in front of a movie. I hope I do a better job of relating it for the kids and doing something with it after we've viewed it. There is still that question in the back of my mind that I'm bringing kids to the library and putting them in front of TV? Now if we could make the video... (that's going to take another 23 things!)

I know that my teachers have appreciated the science clips I been able to share and work together with kidspiration or other activities to help reinforce the science instruction in the classroom. It's been great using digital stories in various forms with first grade's Around the World unit, for changing up holiday presentations such as Valentines Day or President's Day, and of course, just for fun!

more things

OK, my Google reader has sent me far afield tonight. I can't even remember where I started but it led me to Will Richardson, and then in his blog responses to Mrs. V, a third grade teacher, then through her tech conference experiences to some Top Ten web sites and I think, honestly, I'm writing this just so I can keep track of where I've been in case I wish to return. And who says a full time working, single Mom never gets to go anywhere!

OK, back to the real things.

In honor of Education - Go get it week

Thing #19 - Web 2.0 Award Winners

Now I expected this would be fun as well as time consuming! I looked at One Sentence which challenges you to tell a story in one sentence. This could be used for story starters, writing prompts, leads, etc. EXCEPT we need a kid friendly version :) An enterprising teacher could cull through and find some to use.

Just for fun - Guess which keyword search yielded these pictures.

Then I spent a lot of time looking at useless things. Or maybe they just weren't good for elementary education, or maybe I'd already seen stuff that was similar, or maybe I'd just seen too much. I'm with Froggy and I'm going to go play with image generators.

I am awed by the creativity (and time) that many people apparently have.

Thing #18 - Open Office, Google Docs

Obviously, the main thing about Microsoft Office is that we're already comfortable with it. But I switched from Mac in the late 90's I guess I could switch again. As Grendel experienced, it did take a LONG time to download so I don't think it was a computer issue.

OK, the writer (word processor) functioned much like Microsoft but I loved that inserting a picture did not bring up the drawing canvas which I hate! It was much more flexible. I found the presentation module, Impress, a little less intuitive and I wasn't impressed. Granted, I have access to Powerpoint. If I didn't, maybe I would be raving about Impress. Since I don't love Excel to begin with, I wasn't expecting much from calc. It seemed to work the same in as far as I use it. I don't calculate or run formulas so someone else will have to test that.

Now Google docs seems to have an interesting twist. I guess wikis would achieve the same thing but I'm going to pass it on to my father who does newsletters for various groups and does end up waiting for the work of others.

Thing #17 - Sandbox

Ok, I added an entry to the sandbox. Is that really all there is to this Thing? I didn't spend my usual three hours so I'm thinking I missed something....

Thing #16 - Wiki

I was once asked to teach others about wikis. I try not to let people down but I didn't know what a wiki was. As mentioned before, I love the Common Craft Show but I noticed that their wonderful explanation wasn't created until May 2007. I was struggling to understand it earlier that year. The light finally dawned between a TLA PreConference given by Michelle Boule and Gary Wan and another TLA session by Michael Stephens and Jenny Levine in April 2007.


So I have played with wikis. I find the hardest part is getting others to play with you. This summer I began 2. Just today I got my most techy teacher to come (finally) and be shown how to add to one of them. She has participated in that she sends me stuff to add to it but now she has the power. (She's had the power all along but now may know how to use it).


I liked the idea of the Summer Reading Club wiki. It would be fun to have librarians and teachers participate in this so we can all catch the good books! I'll have to go back and investigate the must have graphic novels from the teacher-librarian wiki but I didn't like that every "post" was a new page. At TCEA, there was a presentation on Google Maps where they used a wiki for their 3 classes so that there was enough info to use even if a student missed a day(just go to the other class' page) AND the wiki provided a web location for the pictures that were saved to it which is necessary in order to use them in Google maps.

Enjoyed the Hong Kong school (Library Zone) that had podcasts and movies to go with their wiki work! I noticed many used wikispaces but I have found wetpaint to be fairly user friendly. I created a table and was able to paste it in but it is limiting. It's still easier than DotNetNuke which the district wants us to work with.

So, my goal is now to get others to wiki with me!

Thing #15 - Perspective

Reading these thoughts on Library 2.0 first made me wonder if I needed to find a new career. If all the information is at the users fingertips and all barriers removed, yada yada yada - why do we need libraries or librarians. As I read further, I caught a few thoughts that made me feel a little better.

Dr. Wendy Schultz made the point that we are/will be needed because we know/understand the relationships between documents. So, if we (I) can see the relationships between the info, the web 2.0 (or 3.0 or 4.0!) and the users, maybe I won't have to switch careers. She also said that libraries have to offer a compelling experience, others referred to the library as a conversation and Michael Stephens challenges us to meet the user's needs in a new or improved way. I guess you have to find whatever it is that makes people go to Starbucks rather than use the coffee maker in their kitchens. Not sure I have the answer there but I do think it will be easier as an elementary school librarian to bring something extra to the experience. Perhaps I'm naive.

Things 24 and beyond

Just returned from TCEA and I'm still digesting what I heard and saw. A lot of attention to blogs and wikis but I wanted to list here a few of the other things that caught my attention. I haven't had a lot of time to play with them yet so a listing is not an endorsement, just an note to take a look. Of course, you'll probably need to sign up for a free account or two!

Mixbook - make a digital book. Look at the World War I book by a high school class.

Kerpoof - digital storytelling in cartoon format. You pick a background, pick characters, tell them what to do. I played a little bit, it would take more but the kids would would probably be faster! There's a section for Fairytales.

Gcast - Haven't has a chance to look at this myself. The presenter said it was podcasting over the telephone so the kids were able to podcast straight from their field trip in real time-ish. They called, spoke and the podcast was up for others.

Flickr-storm - This allows you to search Flickr, select photos to put in your tray and then it gives a URL so that the students can be focused only on the photos you selected for the project. You can filter the flickr photos first by non-profit so you have the creative commons permissions.

Scrapblog - Another way to present info using your photos, text and voice if you choose. Haven' t had achance to play with it yet but the presenter said it was easy enough to use with his young daughter. You can embed your project but not download. Meet the teachers? Welcome to 3rd grade?

I'm sure I haven't done these programs justice in my quick explanations. There were many, many more of course and many of the more are listed on presenter Randy Rodgers website.

Thing #14 - Technorati

This particular thing has taken a long time. Technorati updated their site so our directions had to be changed but then I found that it still didn't function the way they said it would. Oh well. I get that it is a gateway to find blogs, blogs, blogs. They seem to be doing many other things as well now (photos, videos, popular books, etc) and maybe this made it hard for me to see past it all to the point. OK, I get the point, I guess. It's just all overwhelming.

I did find the thought about tagging your own stuff interesting. Tags are more meaningful for the consumer when made by the consumer. I rarely pay attention to movie ratings and don't get me started on Children's Book Awards but without something to guide us through the masses of stuff, well then, it's just masses of stuff. At this point, I don't see using Technorati personally unless a pressing needs arises to find a blog or blog post on a specific topic, or I find tons of idle time on my hands. The tag cloud widget didn't work for me! Now, raise your hand if you're surprised. Perhaps I can't see the forest for the trees. As with other things, I'll mull it over but I'm moving forward.

Thing #13 - del.icio.us

First, I just have to say that I LOVE The Common Craft Show! It is my favorite thing and it doesn't even have a number!

Now, this one was tough for me. All of the bookmarks worth tagging in del.icio.us are bookmarked on my school computer, not at home. So...dilemma...do this at school...export the bookmarks and take them home...find sites and create a new list to play with this tool so I can move to the next thing...I won't divulge my methods but I have a small collection now.

I definitely had a hard time NOT typing a comma between tags.

If our favorite puppet afficianado had used del.icio.us way back when she started keeping bookmarks she could have saved us all a lot of time and effort. Alas, we're on our own.

I think I will use it to finally take care of the links from my old library page. I may even dump the wiki where we've been putting our links since I can't get the teachers to add to it. No need for a wiki if I'm the only one adding to it. Hmm, have to think about that. No pages, just tags. Hmm.

THWARTED AGAIN

Imagine that! All my work from last night is not visible in the district.

Thing #10 - Image Generators

I couldn't open the comic strip generator but a google search found this Photo Cube that is interesting. I plugged in the 2nd grade heroes. And below I made myself a reminder using Image Chef. I could see you could spend a lot of time PLAYing!
Myspace Photo Cube

Reminder

Thing #11 - Library Thing

Hey! Something that actually worked for me! I could sit and add my books all day but my 'to do' list is too long. I don't know if I will actually use this but I did like tagging my books with prediction, problem solving, etc. If every teacher/librarian did this with their picture books then instead of our marc subject headings you could search for inference, for example. There is a list for inference but imagine what it could be....

Yes, I know I skipped #10. You can catch it later...

Thing # 12 - Rollyo (sounds like a candy)

It took me forever to come up with a topic to use for this activity. I really have become one-dimensional but that’s a topic for another blog. So, being in the thick of 4th grade Texas History research, I finally used the Texas sites that were on our favorite page and made my searchroll. It took me a little while to figure out how I could use it since I had to personalize my search page first. Maybe that was in the directions but I’m on direction overload. Anyway, I searched only it for Alamo (the search the web choice was not selected). Then I had to pick myself up off the floor from laughing for a few minutes since the 2 hits I saw were from Alamo Rental Car. After I got back into the chair, I scrolled down and below the “paid for” results were valid results for my search. Check out the search engine for yourself! It is called Texas History.

By the way, it is now 7:57pm on Jan. 24 and I have just written this and my last 2 posts. It's dangerous to just try to jot down a thought or two and save it for editing later. Write one word and save it and that's the written time regardless of how many days it may take you to write another word.

New Leaf

I was reading in the January 2008 children’s magazine Odyssey, about Second Life, mashups, etc. It mentioned that while multitasking, which we all do out of necessity, our brains are not retaining information in the section that lets us hold on to the information. I knew this of course but I did a quick search and found a few blogs, studies and information. Even a discussion on Flickr!

This is so obviously my problem. I am constantly multitasking. There is probably not a minute of my day (or night) that I am not doing more than one thing that requires complete and unrelated attention (Watching a Web 2.0 training video and listening to my 4 year old and cooking dinner.) Learning this Web 2.0 info or even playing with it really requires doing nothing else simultaneously. You’re doing enough multitasking just playing with mashups and photo albums.

I realized that I was getting very frustrated by the technology and was not enjoying the journey so I made a resolution (it's still January!) to slow down, try to find the enjoyment factor, and just obtain the knowledge that these things are out there even if I can't make it work for me. On the plus side, I'm trying to keep up with my Google Reader though it seems to work differently each time I open it on a different computer. I am using the Google Notebook to keep info from the Google Reader that I might want to revisit when I have the time. No guarantee that the time will appear but we all have "To Read" piles. And I am eager to look at the Comic Book Creator, etc. that others have already posted about. I said my hardest habit was play!

But I will carry on, I will just allow myself not to GET IT all the time.

Thing #9

I'm feeling the limitation of online professional development. I want to TALK TO SOMEONE. I want someone to EXPLAIN things to me when I DON'T GET IT. I didn't get the shared thing. I tried but I'm not much of a sharer so the computer must sense that. I tried to share a video, it told me how to share the video from the Common Craft Show but it didn't work the way they told me to do it. Then, I couldn't get the blogger page elements to share it the way I thought I could do it. So once again, I have to come in through the backdoor or down the chimney or something. I think I am destined to be a dabbler, no proficiency. I think I am ok with that.

And then, once I've vented publicly, it seems to work! Anyway, it seemed that some of us weren't feeling the Flickr thing as much as others and I thought this presented a new reason or two. I'll try to find something different ot share and see if I can keep it working. I may need a nap first.

Things #8 and #9

I think it was 2 years ago that our fearless leader suggested Google Reader to keep up with his and other blogs. I remember dutifully getting an account and then getting stuck not understanding what to do next. Apparently I don't remember actually going forward but when I logged into it today I had several blogs in several folders with over 100 new posts waiting for me! Needless to say, I read a few and marked the rest as read and will start over. That is definitely the problem with all of the technology, there is too much to keep up with! I have to go back and deal with the shared stuff but I have a four-year old who didn't go to daycare today so I'm lucky to have gotten this far! I am excited to have gotten this far because I knew I would be able to put our 2PLay blogs in the reader and not have to click through the list like I have been doing. So now I have a folder called 23 Things. I also will make my husband set up a Google Reader. He actually has sites that he visits daily unlike me. I also have not explored the searching for blogs quickly opportunity - ah, so much technology, so little time.

Problem = Challenge

My last post ended in frustration (and a fair bit of blue language but my kid was in bed.) After taking time out to read through several 2play blogs, I returned to the scene of my frustration. I did manage to embed the slideshow as a page element but without the captions. Not what I wanted. I followed the directions for adding the link, didn't work (again). So, I eventually ignored the directions and took what looked like a perfectly good address even though it was for email and IM not for adding to your webpage. Ha, it worked. Definitely don't think it was worth the time invested. I'm going to bed.

Thing #7 (for real) - Google

I google therefore I am. I do believe that you could spend a week doing nothing but exploring Google and still not see it all. I have been to other trainings, conference sessions and looked at things that were not part of this exercise. I've been using the advanced search for a few years to pull up powerpoints on lessons that I'm working on to see what others have done or to get some background info. I'm pretty sure I learned that at the TCEA Conference which everyone should have a chance to go to someday. I set up some Google Alerts but I realize I have no life anymore because there wasn't anything I was interested in enough to really care about being alerted to it! However the emails have come in and I see what it is about. I showed my UT student husband the Google Scholar about 2 months too late but there's always this semester. I set up a public Picasa Album which I can't seem to embed even though I can read and follow directions just fine. After fighting with it for 40 minutes, I'm done. It's public, see if you can find it. It's called Evolution of a Reader.

Thing 7 -2 = 5

As I was exploring Picasa as part of Thing 7 I came across a photo of Flat Stanley in Vancouver. This made me wonder if I could search Flickr for the same. Did you know there are over 7,000 photos with Flat Stanley on Flickr? Now, if the kids can't send Flat Stanley around the world maybe they could map him using the Flickr photos (or Picasa). Ok, back to Google.

Thing #6 - MashUps and Trading Cards

It is interesting to see how much the 2.0 webbers seem to be willing to share. If you can think it (and write the program), apparently someone will let you do it. Hard to comprehend for those of us who are used to dealing with the copyright rules that limit everything. I wasn't quite as enamored of the trading cards as other players but I do see the student use and I may partake. I did create 2 which I have included here. Maybe it was a case of the hype coming first so there was no way to live up to it. Moving forward!

Thing #5

I'm not sure I understand all the rules of Flickr (or how to spell it). I get that you can upload your personal photos, and your family can see them without trying to send them through email. I read about Creative Commons and saw the different levels but still am not clear about being able to use the photos. (Maybe it just feels too much like stealing) I did enjoy looking up my hometown on the map and seeing photos taken there and I even put in an old camp name and saw a few faces from 15-20 years ago. Maybe part of my problem is that most of my photos these days are of people -my daughter, teachers and students. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with posting any of these on the web and some I don't have the right to post. Trying to look at it from an educational view - if students can take and use the photos for projects (weather, animals, etc) then there are plenty of possibilities. I think I have to look around it some more and perhaps at an earlier hour. I'm definitely a nine pm pumpkin turner these days. More to come I'm sure.

Thing #4

Ok, I've sent my email and I'm beginning to look at the other PLAY blogs. I have to admit, I like knowing who wrote them. It helps me hear their voice. I'm already jealous of those who found ways to already include a link. I must have a void in my sharing toolbox at the moment. Can't wait to PLAY with everyone. If I'm falling behind, i.e. it's Valentine's Day and this was my last post, send me an email or comment and kick me into gear (or offer to babysit!).

Thing #3

Great, now I have more logins and passwords! And they(web hosts, etc) keep thinking for me which, I must admit, makes it a little trickier to outthink them but I did manage it. Definitely viewed the registration problems I was having with yahoo for the avatar as a challenge ( I did not want to use my name) that I did overcome. The avatar thing, I must admit, escapes me as to WHY?? Ok, it's fun, but....maybe the light will dawn at a later Thing. I'm not completely new to blogging so I guess I don't have much to say there except that I do feel that I am rambling on this one! And there are no links or pictures to view. Maybe later. Guess I'll go read everyone's blogs now and see my deficiencies.

Thing #2

ME, bad habits? Nah. OK, I see a few habits that I slide on periodically but if I have to pick one that's the hardest, these days, it's play. I'm a mother of a toddler and work as a school librarian so everything is 5 minutes behind, day late, undone, unwashed, unread to, unrested. Am I seeing these problems as a challenge, NO, right now, they are problems. But, I guess I am fairly good at keeping the end in mind. I want the paycheck, my child is healthy, there are good days where things run smoothly if you ignore the rest, and tomorrow or next month will be different. The goal is to improve and not leave too much of a wake. My daughter will have to write a tell all book later to gauge the wake.

Thing #1

Life long learning. I'm tired just thinking about it. But yes, I do like and need to continue to learn. The hard part right now is learning new ways to learn. If I could just do it the way I've always done it (reading, watching others, being directly taught) maybe I wouldn't be feeling so worn out. But here it goes, online learning and beyond!