August 6, 2008

My daughter's wedding

The newly weds are my daughter Jennifer and her husband Julian with my other children Jessica, Melissa and son Christopher. I am in the back somewhere crying. I couldn't stop crying.

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My Daughter Jennifer

This is a photo of my daughter Jennifer. Her photo shoot was at the Houston Butterfly Museum. She loves butterflies and hoped she could capture real butterflies landing on her or her dress. Unfortunately, they all landed on her sister and me instead.
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August 4, 2008

Thing#23- Summarizing

Hallelujah!!! Hallelujah!!! Hallelujah!!!! Hallelujah!!!!Hallelujah!!!

After starting late because of my daughter's wedding, experiencing computer technical malfunctions and diffficulties, getting interrupted to play TAXI driver for my 3 working teenagers,taking my mother to the doctor,driving to Galveston to pick up the newly weds from their Honeymoon, only having eight days to finish this project and having to prepare for a possible hurricane, I CAN'T BELIEVE I FINISHED THE 23THINGS!!!!!


1.What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey!


My favorite thing had to be this blog. It was so nice to be able to keep track of what I was learning. I was not very confident or comfortable about leaving comments on a strangers blog. But after scrolling up and down the scroll roll for 5 to 10 minutes(by this time I was tired, worried I would not complete this project, and feeling more and more dejected) my mouse stopped at the "Angels Among Us" blog. The mention of Angels caught my attention so I opened this blog and found myself awestruck and amazed at how much in common I had with this person's taste in videos and music. The spiritual messages themselves were enough to convince me that a divine power had directed me to this blog. I then began to feel motivation and inspiration from these messages. As I continued on this journey I found comments from hebrews13.2 and vwb. . Thank you for taking the time to post your heartfelt words of advice and encouragemnt on my blog, they were the force that inspired me to continue on this journey and not give up.

2. How has this program assisted or affected you life long learning goals?

As far as life long learning goals , I would have to say this project has filled me with so much confidence with my computer skills and more importantly I found a new way of making friends through blogging.

3.Were there any take a ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you.

You bet, I am so amazed and surprised as to what I am now capable of doing on this computer. I went to pick up my newly wed daughter from her honeymoon cruise and couldn't stop talking to her about what all I had learned. She turned to her husband and said" can you believe this, we were only gone for a week and we come home to find that my mom has a blog with an avatar and embedded videos from You Tube" I never thought I would see the day". "This is the same woman that did good to check her emails".
A week ago I didn't know what a podcast was, but now I know how to make one up. I have learned so much about things I may not use now but eventually will later down the road.

4.What could we do different to improve upon this program's format or concept?

As far as I am concerned everything was perfect. There were a lot of times when I had to read and re-read things over and over again or burn the midnight oil trying this or that until I finally got it figured out. But it was this "Old Dog" learning new tricks and not the fault of the program.

5.If we offered another discovery program like this in the future would you chose to participate?

Yes, I would most certainly do this type of course/program again and again!

6.How would you describe your learning experience in one word or in one sentence, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things.

Library 2 Play is an easy and refreshing way to learn how to "TRANSFORM TEACHING THROUGH TECHNOLOGY'.

Thing #22- Explore Nings

I almost joined www.teacherlingo.com but opted not to at this time.I don't feel comfortable about joining until I become a certified teacher. Instead I will share this information with the teacher I work with. I found these to be great social networking sites where teachers can go and discuss ideas with other teachers of the same grade level. I even found a site for pre-school teachers. I also searched Google for "nings" and found a site that lets you create your own social networking site. It is nice to know that some day when I become a teacher I will have a place to go and get feedback, vent, share ideas, discussions with someone other than my spouse and someone who can relate to me.

August 3, 2008

Thing #21- Find, Create, and Use Podcasts and Audio books


I found this video and believe it expresses exactly how I feel about what I have learned from this project so far. That, Transforming Teaching Through Technology is what teachers need to embrace and implement in their classrooms in the 21st century. I think podcasts and vidcasts could be great tools for students. Students would love to be able to create podcasts about things they know or would like to know more about. This is a wonderful interesting way to extend learning in the classrooms.
While working in a bilingual Pre-k classroom I have worked with a veteran teacher who believed that our Pre-K students were still babies and didn't need to be taught or disciplined and just needed to stay in centers all day. Needless to say she has now retired. I am fortunate enough to now work with a wonderful teacher who does believe that Pre-K students can learn about social skills, reading, writing, computers and in two languages. Our little angels are like little sponges waiting to absorb anything they are taught. We just need to know how to teach them. I hope to someday be a bilingual teacher who will be open to embrace new and better ways, ideas, methods,concepts of teaching young children.

August 2, 2008

Thing #20-Explore You Tube and Teacher Tube

It is great to have so many resources available and there are so many interesting and creative videos to capture the students attention and in the case of Teacher Tube opportunities to inspire them by other student performances and creatures. The drawback would be that you still have to go through quite a bit to find what you want tags only get so far and the quality of some of these videos is no so great.

I found things at both the video links that would be neat to have access to. You Tube was easier to embed than Teacher Tube.I chose this video since it is relative to the Pr-K classroom I work in.