Dream House #2

Okay, so the first dream house went under contract before we could get to it, so we've found dream house #2 and they accepted our offer today (7-22-11)!!! :)

Here's the blurb from the listing: "This 5 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath home is stunning! You will enter the elegant, open foyer with travertine floor. Gleaming hardwoods in the family room, dining room, and master bedroom add to the elegance of the house. The large formal dining room leads to the open kitchen with granit counter tops, stainless appliances, double ovens, and tile floor. The keeping room has a beautiful wood fireplace and hidden tv cabinet. The spacious family room views the private back yard. The master bedroom is large with gorgeous bathroom with jetted tub, separate shower, separate vanities, and walk-in closet. You will love all the natural light in this house! There is also tons of storage and closet space. The basement is plummed and studded for easy room additions. This house has it all AND it is zoned for Hoover schools!"

Here's my addition: the master closet is HUGE, the laundry room is HUGE, the pantry is HUGE (over half the homes have NO walk-in pantry), the basement (though unfinished) is HUGE, the backyard views the top of a tree covered hill, there is an office/library to the left when you walk in, it's on a cul-de-sac, the tub is HUGE - like 7 ft long, there is "chunky" crown molding throughout the main level, and it is completely move-in ready (unless the inspection comes back as saying something different). :o)

front stairway



















library/office




















keeping room off kitchen




















formal dining room




















family room




















eat in kitchen




















shower/bathroom




















super long tub





















kitchen

double ovens

entry way

master

house

backyard

entry way

backyard

kitchen

Thing #20

I love having access to all of these fabulous sites for videos and video sharing, however how frustrating it is to find a great video at home but I'm unable to show it to any students because of our district's firewall. Grrrrrr!

For second grade's weather unit, the following videos would be helpful: http://science.springbranchisd.com/elementary/2nd%20Grade/Science/Weather/Air%20and%20Weather%20Lessons/WindVaneVideos.htm

Here's another one that would be helpful from You Tube:

Thing #19

Ya know, I've found several sites (mostly spam removers) that have this "ribbon" or award and now I know what it's all about!!!

It's a great place to go to see what's new and "approved" out there. I love it!

Thing #18

Now I'm a HUGE fan of Microsoft Office, so free options instead make me a little wary. Well, here goes!

Oh, no. It makes me download something which I will not do on my personal computer, so I'll have to try it when I return to school. :-(

Thing #17

I'm trying and trying to add a comment to the sandbox but I don't know how!!!

Thing #16

I love this video http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=b7a75a3ce09d40b497f6 It's sooo easy to understand.

I'm planning a baby shower for my very best friend and sent an e-mail out to the other 4 people that want to co-host the shower with me just this very morning. In the first few frames of the video above, it shows what a mess it will become with e-mails flying around to all of us. I'm going to set up a wiki to use with the other co-hostesses. Awesome!!!

As far as use in a school, the science SISs can totally set up and use wikis to communicate about upcoming SIS meetings (agendas) and upcoming workshops (again, agendas). I'm so excited! :-)

Thing #15

In Away from the “icebergs”, Rick makes a statement about libraries being "poorly equipped and insufficiently staffed for teaching" though he's talking about a college library, I agree on the elementary level. Not by fault of the librarian, but by the school district. Libraries need to have the latest technology, the latest publications, and the best lighting/environment. School districts just can't keep up.

Thing #14

Technorati's site works very slowly - is anyone else experiencing that?

I've claimed my 2 blogs on Technorati - too cool. I've got one blog for 23 Things and one for my baby-that's-on-the-way. We'll have to see what happens. :-)

Anyway, when I did a keyword search for "school library learning 2.0" I found a posting about school libraries: Building 21st century librarians AND libraries. Neat!

Thing #13

For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at Del.icio.us and a couple of other social bookmarking sites to see how this tool could be used in your school.

I have to be honest about this one. I registered but when it got to the point to add buttons to my toolbar, I stopped, I don't want to install anything onto my personal computer. I'll try this one at school and add my comments later. :-)

Thank you to Maria Cigala that shared her science sites! http://del.icio.us/for/cigalam However, when I try to view them, it says I have to logged in as her to view them. :o(

Thing #12

I'm a big fan of Metacrawler. It's a search engine that searches the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, Ask, and more. After using Rollyo, I see no need to use that instead of Metacrawler. When trying to create a new searchroll, I didn't know what individual sites to enter to search. Isn't that why we use a search engine like Metacrawler instead? The experts enter the sites to search.

I don't know, but maybe I just don't get the gist of this activity. Here's the link to the one I attempted to create: http://rollyo.com/editroll.html?sid=352990

Thing #11

LibraryThing is super duper easy to add books to my personal "catalog" however I don't really know how this will be helpful to me at school. Maybe I could create a group about Science books for students and share that way. I looked through a couple of the groups and didn't find a science nonfiction group.

Thing #10

Happy Face Generator - http://www.happyfacegenerator.com/sign-generators/. I'm addicted to using smiley faces in all of my e-mail correspondence. Professional - maybe not, but smiles are a part of who I am and how I do "business." I can't wait to use some of the ones I created!!!

Comic strip generator - http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/ is fun because I can make fun "do not touch" signs to post on my experiments I set out in the library for students to observe. Most of what I put out is for students to touch and do, however every once in a while I put out something fragile or that can't be moved or touched so it will work.

Thing #9

Which Search tool was the easiest for you? I like Google's blog search. I found several intersting blogs about SBISD there - even one from Mary Grace Landrum. I like Topix too.

Which was more confusing? Finding blogs online in genereal. I'm so overwhelmed with the millions of blogs out there! I couldn't get Feedster to open.

What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels? Or what kind of unusual ones did you find? science fair information

What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds? ???

Thing #8

I love the super simple video we had to watch!!!

I've created a Reader with GoogleReader and have added 5 blog sites plus 2 news sites.

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders? It's cool to have all of my favorite sites and blogs "notify me" when there is something new. I don't have to go to 100 different places to see if anything new is posted. Cool!

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your school or personal life? This will save me lots and lots of time!!! Time is a very precious thing!

How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology? Libraries can be kept up to date with what other librarians are doing in their schools without having to go out daily/weekly to different blogs to find out what's going on out there. :-)

Thing #7

I'm going to use Picasa to share baby photos with family and friends when Baby Allison is born in April! I've set up one tonight at http://picasaweb.google.com/amyt95. Again, this can be used to highlight states in the country and "icons" from each state. Students can research each state and find photos for each one, then posting them onto the map.

I made a iGoogle Gadget that can be seen here: http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en

Thing #6

Mappr is very cool! It would be a great beginning-of-the-year project for students to share where they've been (if they took a road trip over the summer) or the teacher. It would be a great review of states (that SBISD has assigned to each grade level). Students can research "icons" from each state and post them onto a map.

On FD Toys' site, you can create personalized name badges. How cool would it be for each of your library helpers to have their own name badge to wear to come into the library to help. Family Library Night name badges would be fun to make too. I'm going to use the name badge maker for my best friend's baby shower.

The Trading Card Maker is AWESOME to create science trading cards! I'm going to make some next week!!!!! I'm including a card I made tonight to practice.

Thing #5

Flickr

Tags are words you can "attach" to your photo so that it is easier to find. You can assign up to 75 tages to each photo you upload to Flickr.

I'm not too sure what groups are, so I'm going to explore them a bit more and add comments later. :-)

One group is set up to network across 6 continents! Wow! Another group challenges you to upload a photo-a-day from your library. Cool!

Thing #4

I've registered my blog with SBISD and signed up on PDLC. :-)

Thing #3

This is my first blog!

From The 4 Cs of Blogging, Content, Consistency, Community, and Clarity are necessary to create a great blog. I need to share my knowledge, be true to myself, listen and facilitate as well as ask opinions of my readers, and have a definite vision.

It was soooo easy setting up this blog and creating an avatar. My husband was giving his input on what my avatar should look like. I wanted it to look as much like me as possible...I guess I should've had a little fun and made it a bit more unlike me.

I'm a little bothered by several misspellings I've found on library2play tasks for each thing. Who should I contact?

Thing #2

Habit among the 7 & 1/2 that is easiest for me: Habit 2 - accept responsibility for my learning. I LOVE learning and relearning. I'm constantly taking classes, researching on the internet, and reading professional books.

Habit among the 7 & 1/2 that is hardest for me: Habit 1 - Begin with the end in mind. I find it difficult to put the goal into words by writing it down. I know what I want to learn and what I need to do to achieve the learning, but writing it down is difficult for me.

7 & 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners
Habit 1: Begin with the end in mind
Habit 2: Accept responsibility for your own learning
Habit 3: View problems as challenges
Habit 4: Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
Habit 5: Create your own learning toolbox
Habit 6: Use technology to your advantage
Habit 7: Teach/mentor others
Habit 7 & 1/2: Play!