An attempt

Well, I'm trying to figure out how to add video, and it's just not working! Ugh! I want to post a fun youtube that I show in my classroom about verb conjugation. I can't seem to figure out how to place the video here directly, but I think I remember how to make an easy link for you to get there. Let's see if this works.

Conjugation Back

Will someone help me through the steps of adding video to my blog without the link? Thanks! I'm sure I'm missing something quite obvious, but alas...I just can't figure it out!

UPDATE! I learned how to post this as a video today and so, if you haven't clicked on the link mentioned above, no worries! Just watch now! Enjoy!

Finding the Joy!

While I cannot tell you where Waldo is located, I can tell where I am at this very moment. I am sitting on my screened porch (built by good old Charlie!) typing this quick little post from my laptop. That's right -- I am wireless! Woo hoo! I am one happy camper here! I'll post more later, but I just had to share the joy with someone out there. Thanks for all who helped me problem solve -- it worked!

Taking It Easy

Today I am going to try to relax, slow down, and just be kind to little old me. I realize that I've been expecting myself to not only understand these technology tools, but to immediately know how to apply them to my classroom. Guess what I learned? That is not possible for this girl! I need time to practice (thank you for giving us that!) and time to process. I definitely do have some ideas, but they're big and I'm thinking I should start small.

I hope to add more to my Delicious account today now that I have renewed energy to try it again thanks to Cristin. I also hope to go back to PortaPortal to do some more searching there, too. I know that I will find more and more information out there today and that I will be tempted to kick into information overload, but I will simply enjoy the search today and think about it more over the next few days. Breathe in, breathe out. Here I go...

Delicious and Cookies

I am unsure why I am having difficulty today, but I am. Perhaps it's because I thought that delicious would be an easy tool and that I would have 100 bookmarks by now. I am quite accustomed to using the "favorites" button on my home computer and then moving on. I do see the value in delicious, but I am finding that it takes quite a bit of time to combine tag words to find what I really want to find. I, too, am getting a bit overwhelmed when I do find a good site because then I click on those tags and well...it's an endless source of information that I feel I'll never be able to sift through. Does that make any sense?

Again, I am appreciative of this practice time and am sure that I will get the hang of this eventually. It's nice to have Henry here to send Spanish links my way, or to just check sites on his delicious account. Perhaps I should simply focus on French to make me feel less overwhelmed? Perhaps I should eat another one of Sandy's birthday cookies to turn it all around?

Connection Issues

Well, my hopes for today are to be one with my new laptop! After several connection issues, I think I'm finally on the web with the rest of you (now that it's 8:30!). Thanks, Steve and Connie, for helping me through this frustration. It is a big goal of mine to NOT use a desktop and to force myself to use a laptop...very uncomfortable territory for me! This may sound silly, but it's the truth. (It must be if I'm actually stating this in all of cyberspace!)

I also have another goal that may seem silly to most of you, but it is still a huge goal for me -- connect to the wireless at home. I tried last night, and unlike Debbie, I did not have success. I spent a good half hour fiddling around on this new laptop and tried to encourage myself to problem solve, but I couldn't connect. Today is a new day, so perhaps the planets will be aligned correctly and it will all come together nicely as I sit on my screened porch, listen to the birds, feel the breeze, and using my technology. Cross your fingers!

I ended up creating an igoogle page last night and cannot believe the hundreds of options that are out there! Did you create one yet? It's fun!

Progress

Three hours have passed? Wow! I began with the resources Connie and Steve made available on the home page, but then quickly went to the RSS Compendium referenced in Richardson's text. After seeing what this had to offer, I decided to search for Foreign Language RSS Feeds and found a great site called multilingual books . This site has a wealth of information in French, German, and Spanish and it will take me some time to go through it because it is not only organized by categories such as magazines, newspapers, video, etc., but also by country! While most of the sites are beyond beginning level language students, I do believe that I will be able to find many authentic sources here for them to view...it will just take time. (As an aside, I tried to gmail this site to Henry and well, let's just say it took me a bit of time to do that. Guess I have to get used to using gmail!)

I have set up a few folders on Google Reader -- education, technology, our blogs, French magazines and newspapers -- but still have more to do. I will also want to check the folders to see if I have too much to keep up with already. Right now the goal is to see what is out there, check the updates, and to see if I'm actually reading them.

Setting up my initial RSS Feeds is time consuming, but I appreciate the opportunity to search and apply what I'm learning immediately. Thank you!

Day Two Hopes (Without the Fears!)

After reading last night's chapters, I am hoping that we begin to set up an RSS Feed today. I am interested in learning how to organize it by categories and have been thinking about what types of information I would like to receive with continual updates. I am going to try to adhere to the advice that Will Richardson gave in his text which is to start with only ten that I would be able to read regularly, get used to how it all works, and then go from there. Good advice, especially for a person who is new to all of this!

I tried to check out the language blogs last night at home and found that I need to narrow my search because they were not classroom blogs, but rather language learning blogs, professional language blogs, etc. This is of interest to me, but not what I was originally seeking when thinking of blogging. So, if there is some extra time in class today, I may go back to my search.

I am also very intrigued in the power and potential of the world of wiki and how we are all able to create this together. The classroom references that Richardson mentioned were extremely interesting to me and I can't wait to hear more about it all today!

Fog in the Blogosphere

Maybe I took the blog entry on brevity too seriously, but I really do feel like the title of this post says it all. I also read posts on homework, ducks, and plastic bags. Homework, and ducks, and plastic -- oh my! Where are the language references? How do I apply what I'm reading to my French and Spanish classroom? I don't want to make a blog that simply asks students to answer writing prompts in the target language. Perhaps a culture blog? Perhaps a blog with video? Perhaps a blog with speaking practice? Is this even possible?

Right before being asked to post our first blog entry, Connie made a wonderful suggestion for me to Google search "foreign language:blogs" and voila, an amazing list of options appeared before me! I am very eager to start reading some of these in hopes that the "blog fog" will clear! Don't get me wrong--I am fond of ducks and don't use plastic bags, but I'm looking forward to finding blogs that are more content specific so that I can get these creative juices flowing!