Flickr!!!!!

Now we're talking! From an art teacher's perspective how can any of the other 23Thinks compare to online photo storage and libraries? Need I digress? From the stand point of teaching visual arts and visual literacy-what better tools for understanding technique such as composition, balance, high and low key value scales...to enduring understandings such as pain, comfort, home, self....I mean, paintings, drawings, stitchery...Flickr has images of so many media-not just photos! Wow! Now from the point of view of someone moving from the 20th century, how do our students (and own children), ever get homework done? I am beginning to understand how they fill their lives with hour after hour perusing MySpace, FaceBook, PhotoBucket and Flickr. To all you Language Arts teachers out there, I feel your pain. Do students actually read novels and textbooks anymore? And as for my personal family photos, collecting dust in worn albums-perhaps on days too sweltering to exist outside this summer, I can start scanning in loved images for safe keeping! Just coming up for air--

Thing 5-RSS

So much information, so little time! As a novice in all of this, I fear that I am getting more that a little muddled about how to use this "know-how". I am feeling the twinges of addiction to the blog, and now that a plethora of blogs will be sorted and saved, and waiting for my perusal, my-how will I get anything else done? I am confused enough to not feel comfortable with all of this new knowledge, but I am enthused enough to continue to sludge ahead. Once I can adequately maneuver through multiple windows, blogs, technological tools...I envision 21c. teaching going on!

Reflecting on RSS

so much for "real simple syndication". I'm still getting lost creating new posts! I am hopeful and optimistic that this will start to come easier to me, but presently, I have 5 window screens open so that I can juggle directions, blogs, bloglines, passwords....I know I am doing things seriously backward-any advise?

Thing 3!

My mind is whirling with ideas, and wonder. When will I have the time to set this up, and how do I organize this from student's perspective? As for using blogging with art students I can see how importing video, power-point presentations, connecting web addresses...and asking students to respond to surveys, questions and share their comments about art and artists would be a great way to generate real conversation. (Isn't it ironic that in person, in the class-room students can be too intimidated to share thoughts, yet when they can open-up to a computer screen they have little qualms in baring their souls). If I could get a fraction of the interactive sharing on an art blog that I am sure takes place on their myspace and facebook pages, I would be ecstatic! I am also a new member of Art Education 2.0- an amazing web site that hosts art teachers, art -ed students, university faculty...all whose lives revolve around teaching art. Every time I check into that site I loss hours of my life. How does one explore such vast, extensive connective libraries of blogs, web addresses, lessons...without getting hopelessly sidetracked? If anyone has the answer to staying the path when blogging, please let me know! If I could see the path in a more Zen-like way, I would also be able to see how to plan great blog experiences for my kids.

Reflection on "Thing 2"

AHHH!What have I gotten myself into? I am still super excited about what I am going to learn and how I can approach teaching after I know all of this too cool stuff, but now that I know blogs exist and know that there are sites strictly dedicated to blogs, bloggers and the like...(like the very cool one that popped up on Google, when I registered this site) how will I possibly be a participate in the real world when my focus is being narrowed down to the computer desktop? (Do I see an "addiction" in the making?) I already get so sucked into the design of new curriculum, building units, creating visuals, power point presentations, writing handouts, creating web libraries...I now discover what I know will be a wonderful teaching tool, if only I can get past what seems to be the enticing, dare I say, decadent barrage of the literary and visual panacea of information found in the world of blogs? Tonight I am saved by the clock-bedtime for those of us who rise at 5 a.m. What ever became of the very credible evidence that found high schools should start later, elementary schools earlier, due to the natural body rhythms and internal clock of the adolescent child?

Oh My Gosh! This is Too Cool!

Hello to everyone out there! This is the first time I have ever used a blog and I am very excited about becoming an active participant of 21c technology. I may be a bit behind-heck my kids do blogging, podcasting, media sharing...on a daily basis. But I am a mom, a teacher, a wife, sister, daughter, and friend--and--a child of the 20th century, so I am just beginning to learn my way in this amazing new to me world! I hope to share thoughts, ideas and learning with you! Excitedly! Art Room Goddess