Thing4- Trying to keep my Things organized

Okay, as I work through my things I realize I need a way to organize them. I need a place to put all my User Names and passwords because it is annoying that some sites have a six digit password and some have an eight digit one. I haven't really looked ahead, but it seems that might be a good idea for one of our things.
I know I am supposed to be reflecting on Bloglines, but I am being annoyed with trying to manage all these different things because new windows don't open when you click on the links. So I am finding I need to open my email, the 23Things page, Blogger, and now Bloglines to work through all of the assignments by opening new windows myself. And so I am marking everything in favorites. Am I missing an easier way to do this?

I also feel like I am cheating a little since most of this has been addressed at REMC Council meetings. So for my blogline account, I already had one set up. I tweaked it to have the folders asked for in the assignment but then I only see the one old folder, so that is confussing me. (I obviously never went back to the bloglines after it was introduced last year. That's one of the reasons I am taking the class, in hopes I will start using these tools more.)

And then, the last thing I think I am confused about is the reflections and comments. When I do my reflections, I am supposed to come here and do them, yes? I notice a lot of comments at the end of each things direction and am unsure if I need to post there or if people are just posting comments there so all will see them (and then I wasn't sure how to post to those comments.)

Enough reflection? Oh, no, I didn't really comment on the Bloglines. I was confussed, since I had already had an account set up, that all the posts to what I had on there seemed really old. Do the feeds stop after a period of inactivity? Is that why they were all old. And then I was also unsure of how to monitor my account. Mark Bloglines in favorites? Or was their some type of email update link thingy? Okay, so I guess my overall reflection is that I am just a bit confused when returning to things covered in the eariler things.

Thing 3 - My thoughts

I am trying to use Blackboard with my students in a book club right now. It is not working as well as I hoped even though half of them come in and jump right on the computers. Using a blog might be simpler for them to do and might help them participate more. The fact that the blog allows me to monitor posts before everyone sees it is a plus. If I were using the blog in that way, I also like that I can set an email to notify me when posts occur, since I am in my email checking that. I would also like to see the students use a blog for things like the daily announcements. Students are always telling me that they cannot hear the announcements because their teachers don't require them to be quiet. I think it would also help improve their writing skills.

Thing 2 - What I hope to learn.

I am participating in 23 Things because 23 is my favorite number. And because I want to earn the 2.0 SB-CEUs. But mostly to motivate myself to practice using these tools I have been introduced to and not just be aware that they are out there. I want to learn to become as proficient in using these tools as I do using email (which I love). I want to feel confident in teaching my teachers how to use these tools because more than ever, educators really need to make an effort to engage our students.

That is probably the insight I had while doing Thing 1, that I have to be motivated myself in order to motivate my students (and their teachers). If I can't learn to use all the fun tools available to us, then I can't expect others to.

I am very self concious of my spelling, which I know I do not do well. However, I notice I have spell check so I am happy about that. I have always dreamed of publishing something someday, so perhaps this will give me a start. Oh, great, I did a spell check but it only told me it was spelled wrong, and I knew that, but it did not give me a choice. So I am going to post this with it misspelled because the husband just came home with the food. (See the first post.)

This is my setting up blog

I am trying to set up my blog while my family is pulling me in four different directions. The daughter is at the library and needs to go to drivers ed, the husband is on his way home and may be able to pick her up, the son is begging for Chinese food that I need to order, and the dog just wants someone to pay attention to her. And I thought I would have time to do this.