Google Tools

Wow! The Google tools are amazing. I just didn't know these things existed before. I have a lot to learn. I started looking at them and boom! 2 hours were gone! I want to understand Google Earth more. I thought the Google Lit trips were neat. I guess I am starting to understand just how much I really do not know by looking at all of this stuff! I will say that I have a lot to look at and explore further. BTW-I changed my mind. I don't totally hate GoogleDocs after all.

I want to look at Google sketch more too. My daughter is working on a diorama for a book project. It is the traditional shoebox with a scene from the book Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry. It would be interesting to have students use Google sketch to do their dioramas. I'm not saying it is a better way, just a different way. I think there is still something to be said about cutting and gluing and pasting things together to create something. My daughter seems to be enjoying it. I was just looking at Google Sketch when she was working on her project so I thought about it.

Another thing about my daughter is that we got into a discussion about this web site. I had just read somewhere on the web that a large percentage of 5th graders in Holland did not question the authenticity of web sites. That made me curious since my daughter is in 5th grade. (My mother's family was from the Netherlands...so maybe that means something too. Are we more gullible than most? lol) So I showed her the site and sure enough, she totally believed it all! So here was a teachable moment. I told her that it wasn't real and that she should not believe everything she sees and reads on the web. I talked to her about checking sources and what we know or do not know about who puts together a site. She was totally disgusted that someone would put up such a site and exclaimed, "That's just mean!" Then I had to explain to her that most likely this person intended for it to be a joke and not to be taken seriously. I showed her some of the photos people had taken of "sightings" of this endangered creature. Some of them were of stuffed animals up in trees. So I think she understood that it was a joke and meant to be laughed at.

I have been working on my staff development project. I will say that I am glad that I started it in a timely manner. Even with starting it at a fairly early date, I will still be working hard to finish it this week so that I can enjoy Easter weekend with my relatives who will be visiting us. I just do not know the best way to put this all together. I am trying, that is all I can say. Every bit of it is new to me. Even the topic is fairly new to me. I guess it is coming along fairly well, in spite of it.

I am feeling better about my overall workload for school. I have accomplished quite a number of things this week. I am still behind on my reading, but I'll catch up eventually.