Thing #7

Google is more than a search engine, it has some really cool features that are just waiting for you to play with. All you have to do is click on the more tab and voila! amazing aps are at your fingertips. One of the newest ones on the site is Google Health where you can organize all of your medical records in one place. How wonderful is that?!!! I created an igoogle page with oodles of items that "fit me to a T". I decided to broaden my horizons and learn about different art with the Daily Art gadget. There is even a gadget for learning Spanish! I spent several hours going over all the different gadgets to choose from and finally had to stop when I realized it was after 1 o'clock in the morning. There are so many different gadgets and widgets that would be great in the classroom. One of my favorites so far is Hangman. You try to decipher the word and once you have guess what it is, you can click on a link to find out what the word means- great way to build vocabulary! There are some that are not appropriate for the classroom so be sure to double check what they are about before you click on them.

Now I didn't spend all my time at igoogle (yes, I wanted to, but I just couldn't.... maybe later). I also had to check out Google Calender. It has some features similar to the calendar in Outlook but has the ability to share with nonmembers. This would be great to set up library schedules or special events and send out to teachers and parents. If you give "rights or permission" to the individuals they can add to the calendar as well. It is a great tool to use when collaborating with others and trying to schedule key events.