Just one those strange happenings or a Halloween visitor!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Just one those strange happenings or a Halloween visitor!
Friday, October 30, 2009
My Week, 10/26
It was a quieter, "let's catch up on some things" week.
On Monday, I attended MS Office 2007 Training, which we are switching to next year. We discussed new features and also plans for training in our buildings. The rest of the day, I spent catching up from my day off, going through emails, and updating our Six Kingdom website, which took more time than I thought it would.
Tuesday, I worked on completing my agenda for our next airliner integration session that occurred on Wednesday, and finished up the lesson for the CTE e-portfolios for Thursday and Friday. I also did some research on DE Streaming Science.
On Wednesday, I did the airliner session during grade level planning periods and a few other odds and ends around my office.
Then on Thursday and today, I am working with the 8th grade CTE students on their home pages for their e-portfolios using iweb and then helped staff with some questions and/or technical difficulties.
Overall, a good week! I am on the hunt for some new units to help plan soon! What do you have coming up in your curriculum that you have ideas for? Or do you need ideas? Share in the comments below. I'd be glad to help out!
On Monday, I attended MS Office 2007 Training, which we are switching to next year. We discussed new features and also plans for training in our buildings. The rest of the day, I spent catching up from my day off, going through emails, and updating our Six Kingdom website, which took more time than I thought it would.
Tuesday, I worked on completing my agenda for our next airliner integration session that occurred on Wednesday, and finished up the lesson for the CTE e-portfolios for Thursday and Friday. I also did some research on DE Streaming Science.
On Wednesday, I did the airliner session during grade level planning periods and a few other odds and ends around my office.
Then on Thursday and today, I am working with the 8th grade CTE students on their home pages for their e-portfolios using iweb and then helped staff with some questions and/or technical difficulties.
Overall, a good week! I am on the hunt for some new units to help plan soon! What do you have coming up in your curriculum that you have ideas for? Or do you need ideas? Share in the comments below. I'd be glad to help out!
Photo "Elements of My Perfect Little Notebook" found on Flickr, uploaded by Patrick Ng.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Trails Optional
I have a new blog addiction. Trails Optional written by blogger and educator Jen Deyenberg is inspirational to me. I found it while searching for some ideas for "Smart" Tips and saw the ones Jen had created. They were very straight forward and to the point, exactly what busy educators need. Then I started reading some of her other posts and realized she just started blogging with her students, as well. That's something we've just started doing at my school too (more on that later). It was great to read and "hear" the challenges and benefits of blogging with students.
I like her candid humor as well, describing in one post, "What have I done? I’ve created a groups of kids that rolls their eyes if I pull out a worksheet. Ok, so I roll my eyes when I pull out a worksheet". It's the typical catch-22 educators who overtly use technology find themselves in. We know there will not always be a time when we can use technology, in fact, when we most certainly should NOT use technology. There are times where it's more beneficial for an activity to be hands on, however, it's also a world where students have technology all around them. Okay, enough of my soapbox.
I'm looking forward to more thought provoking posts from this blogger and can't wait to see where Trails Optional heads to next!
Photo of Rock Garden Trail, in Glacier National Park, found on Flickr, uploaded by kweaver2.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Update Your Lesson Activity Toolkit to 2.0
We're learning more and more about that Smart Notebook software! This week during my airliner training I'll be discussing the Lesson Activity Toolkit within this software. I'll be showing examples and where to find activities. These will come from the Lesson Activity Toolkit. However, most of you (in my building) still have the old version of the toolkit and we need to update it to 2.0. Follow these directions and you will be all set!
1. Open Smart Notebook.
2. Click on the Gallery.
3. Check to make sure your lesson activity toolkit says "1.0".
4. Select the wrench.
5. Select "Check for Updates"
6. Select Lesson Activity Toolkit 1.0
7. In the new window, make sure Lesson Activity Toolkit 2.0 is checked.
8. Click next.
9. Wait for it to update.
10. Click Finish.
1. Open Smart Notebook.
2. Click on the Gallery.
3. Check to make sure your lesson activity toolkit says "1.0".
4. Select the wrench.
5. Select "Check for Updates"
6. Select Lesson Activity Toolkit 1.0
7. In the new window, make sure Lesson Activity Toolkit 2.0 is checked.
8. Click next.
9. Wait for it to update.
10. Click Finish.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Six Kingdom Posters Finished
Yesterday I finished up the website with the completed Six Kingdoms Posters the 7th grade students made in Comic Life. Last week, I previewed a little bit about this project, which the students had a great time with! They did a little bit of research of some of the kingdoms and used their recall skills from class lectures with others. They then did an image search to find images that best represented each kingdom. I had the students use Safari on our macbooks to send their images straight to iphoto, which then automatically came up in their Comic Life library. After that was completed, students then went into Comic Life, found a template to add to their page, and then dragged their images from the library to each box. They then added speaking bubbles with two facts about each kingdom. They labeled the kingdoms, added a title and their name and then were allowed to do special effects, colors, fonts, background, shadows, etc.
This was one of the best projects I've done and I'm really happy with the results. However, there are a few things I learned from this project.
1) Have students put their name on it first. For some reason, we had a hard time getting student to put their names on their posters.
2) No matter how many times we told the students to put their information on their poster first, then look at the effects, we still had students who didn't finish because they were changing all the effects. I would hate to do this, because I want students to learn time management and be responsible for getting their own work done on time, but maybe next time I should break this up into two parts. In the first part, students have a checklist (which they had) and they must show us everything is checked off before they can move onto the effects. I saw some great posters with lots of variety and they would have been awesome--had they been finished. There were also other students who went beyond what we asked and put in whole paragraphs about each kingdom or had additional "comic" comments after the information had been added. They were fun to read as well as informational.
3) I would do this type of project again. It took the students about a period and a half to create their posters, but they won't be forgetting this assignment anytime soon.
This was one of the best projects I've done and I'm really happy with the results. However, there are a few things I learned from this project.
1) Have students put their name on it first. For some reason, we had a hard time getting student to put their names on their posters.
2) No matter how many times we told the students to put their information on their poster first, then look at the effects, we still had students who didn't finish because they were changing all the effects. I would hate to do this, because I want students to learn time management and be responsible for getting their own work done on time, but maybe next time I should break this up into two parts. In the first part, students have a checklist (which they had) and they must show us everything is checked off before they can move onto the effects. I saw some great posters with lots of variety and they would have been awesome--had they been finished. There were also other students who went beyond what we asked and put in whole paragraphs about each kingdom or had additional "comic" comments after the information had been added. They were fun to read as well as informational.
3) I would do this type of project again. It took the students about a period and a half to create their posters, but they won't be forgetting this assignment anytime soon.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
My Week, 10/19/09
What a busy week! I keep saying that, don't I? This week was full of professional development and some really cool Science posters!
On Monday, I had a staff session on Social Bookmarking, where I explained to teachers in my building that social bookmarking is a way to organize and store your favorite websites and share them with others. We talked about Google bookmarks, Portaportal, Delicious, Diigo, and StumbleUpon. I haven't quite figured out that last one and really stick with Delicious and Diigo. Is there anyone out there that uses StumbleUpon? If so, why do you use it or what is that you like about it? Come convince me!
The teachers who attended thought this was a great way to share resources! Here are some of the comments they had to share:
From our guidance counselor, Amy:
From one of our 8th grade teachers, Deborah:
My presentation from Monday is uploaded here.
Last week, I hinted at using the program Comic Life for this week. So on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I worked with the 7th grade Science classes using Comic Life to create posters of the Six Kingdoms: Archeabacteria, Eubacteria, Fungi, Protista, Plantae, and Animalia. See what I learned this week? The students had a great time and I loved seeing them help one another with the program. Each poster was truly a spirit of themselves and their creativity-there isn't one that looks alike. They discovered fonts I didn't know about. Three or four students found fonts that looked like animal tracks or had borders to go around their letters for the title. I think all of us thought they did a great job and now that they know the program, we are already thinking of what they can use it for next!
Which brings me to Friday! Well...I'm taking a break and I'm headed to Radford, one of my favorite places and my college. Have a great weekend!
On Monday, I had a staff session on Social Bookmarking, where I explained to teachers in my building that social bookmarking is a way to organize and store your favorite websites and share them with others. We talked about Google bookmarks, Portaportal, Delicious, Diigo, and StumbleUpon. I haven't quite figured out that last one and really stick with Delicious and Diigo. Is there anyone out there that uses StumbleUpon? If so, why do you use it or what is that you like about it? Come convince me!
The teachers who attended thought this was a great way to share resources! Here are some of the comments they had to share:
From our guidance counselor, Amy:
"I think it's great! I'm always finding pages and bookmarking them and then I can't find them when I go to a different computer. These will be wonderful!"
From one of our 8th grade teachers, Deborah:
"I think it will be a convenience to me because I will have material readily available to me whether I'm at work or at home".
My presentation from Monday is uploaded here.
Last week, I hinted at using the program Comic Life for this week. So on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I worked with the 7th grade Science classes using Comic Life to create posters of the Six Kingdoms: Archeabacteria, Eubacteria, Fungi, Protista, Plantae, and Animalia. See what I learned this week? The students had a great time and I loved seeing them help one another with the program. Each poster was truly a spirit of themselves and their creativity-there isn't one that looks alike. They discovered fonts I didn't know about. Three or four students found fonts that looked like animal tracks or had borders to go around their letters for the title. I think all of us thought they did a great job and now that they know the program, we are already thinking of what they can use it for next!
Which brings me to Friday! Well...I'm taking a break and I'm headed to Radford, one of my favorite places and my college. Have a great weekend!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
FETC Fall Virtual Conference Tomorrow!
The FETC Virtual Conference is tomorrow! I blogged about this back in August and here's your friendly reminder about it! Visit http://virtual.FETC.org from 10am - 6pm EST tomorrow for some great FREE professional development opportunities. Register here.
I'll be working with students tomorrow most of the day, but I'll catch you up on what sessions I was able to get to.
Here's the schedule:
10:00 - 11:00 Dedicated Exhibit Hall Time
11:00 - 12:00 Keynote Presentation: Unleashing Teacher Creativity and Effective Instruction in the Digital World*
12:00 - 1:15 Unleashing Teacher Creativity and Effective Instruction in the Digital World* A Panel Discussion with "Beyond Textbooks" Advocates
1:30 - 2:45 Three Types of Immersive Interfaces: Implications for Learning and Teaching*
2:45 - 3:15 Live Chat hosted by Pano Logic in the Networking Lounge
3:15 - 4:30 Beyond Drill and Practice: Developing Automatic Recall of Math Facts for All Children*
4:30 - 5:00 & *5:00 - 5:30 Tight Budget? Learn how K-12 Districts are Saving Up to 60% with Parallels and Achieving Their Student Technology Needs
5:00 - 6:00 Building 21st Century Classrooms in the Clouds! - A Desktop Sharing Presentation*
I'll be working with students tomorrow most of the day, but I'll catch you up on what sessions I was able to get to.
Here's the schedule:
10:00 - 11:00 Dedicated Exhibit Hall Time
11:00 - 12:00 Keynote Presentation: Unleashing Teacher Creativity and Effective Instruction in the Digital World*
12:00 - 1:15 Unleashing Teacher Creativity and Effective Instruction in the Digital World* A Panel Discussion with "Beyond Textbooks" Advocates
1:30 - 2:45 Three Types of Immersive Interfaces: Implications for Learning and Teaching*
2:45 - 3:15 Live Chat hosted by Pano Logic in the Networking Lounge
3:15 - 4:30 Beyond Drill and Practice: Developing Automatic Recall of Math Facts for All Children*
4:30 - 5:00 & *5:00 - 5:30 Tight Budget? Learn how K-12 Districts are Saving Up to 60% with Parallels and Achieving Their Student Technology Needs
5:00 - 6:00 Building 21st Century Classrooms in the Clouds! - A Desktop Sharing Presentation*
Monday, October 19, 2009
Today's Kid Reporter...Go Vote!
How cute is this! The Today Show is holding a contest to find a kid reporter. They have videos online of each child's submission and you can vote in their semi-final round.
While I watching one submission, it occurred to me that some of these videos were very similar to students creating digital stories or videos. One child, Vanessa Radke, did a report on how to conserve water. She had all the facts in her report and made it professional, yet entertaining to watch too. It reminded me of an alternative assessment. You have to think that she did research to learn more about this topic and give tips and then report on it.
Another child, Noah Johnson, did a report on trains and why they were important in American History. He interviewed one of the conductors and tour guides and did a great job of putting information into his report.
I guess it's the journalism major in me coming out, but go check this out!
What do you think? Do you get any ideas for videos students could do? Post away in the comments below!
While I watching one submission, it occurred to me that some of these videos were very similar to students creating digital stories or videos. One child, Vanessa Radke, did a report on how to conserve water. She had all the facts in her report and made it professional, yet entertaining to watch too. It reminded me of an alternative assessment. You have to think that she did research to learn more about this topic and give tips and then report on it.
Another child, Noah Johnson, did a report on trains and why they were important in American History. He interviewed one of the conductors and tour guides and did a great job of putting information into his report.
I guess it's the journalism major in me coming out, but go check this out!
What do you think? Do you get any ideas for videos students could do? Post away in the comments below!
Smart Tips on Lesson Activity Toolkit 2.0
Looking for some ideas on how to use the Smart Notebook program more effectively? I found a free webinar today that Smart did back in May. You do have to register, but it's free, and so worth it!
During the webinar, I got great ideas for how to use the Lesson Activity Toolkit 2.0. This has pre-made tools that can work with any lesson. I also found out that if you click on the toolkit, underneath that there is an example folder, full of examples of every tool in the toolkit. There's a wealth of activities here! I recommend watching the webinar soon!
I'm so excited to share these, that I'm going to change my plan around a bit on the smartboard/airliner training and include some of these activities in my next training session on the 28th.
During the webinar, I got great ideas for how to use the Lesson Activity Toolkit 2.0. This has pre-made tools that can work with any lesson. I also found out that if you click on the toolkit, underneath that there is an example folder, full of examples of every tool in the toolkit. There's a wealth of activities here! I recommend watching the webinar soon!
I'm so excited to share these, that I'm going to change my plan around a bit on the smartboard/airliner training and include some of these activities in my next training session on the 28th.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
DEN "Trick or Treat" Virtual Conference
DEN's Fall Virtual Conference takes place on October 24, from 9am - 4pm. I've been participating for two years now and really enjoy the information I receive. In total there are 7 one hour sessions full of information. I encourage you to try this FREE and easy way to grow your professional development network and learn about some FREE ideas to use in your classroom.
One of the ideas I've learned about from past DEN experiences is adding web 2.0 tools to DE Streaming, which I then came up with the idea of using these tools with Schoolfusion. I've also learned how to change closed captioning on DE Streaming videos and how to insert DE Streaming videos into Google Earth. The list could on. Okay...I know it's a Saturday, but take one hour and try one session. Here's a suggestion: Try the 11 a.m. session on "Thinking Outside the Slide". This sounds like a session on PowerPoint and I'm sure will include some tricks on how to better use PowerPoint. It's late enough that you can sleep in and early enough before your day really starts.
I'm intrigued by the session at 1 p.m. entitled "What on Earth is a Gloggle?" Sounds like it could be a mix of Glogster, Blogging, and Google Earth? What do you think it could be?
Click here to register, if you're interested.
And here's the whole schedule:
9 a.m. Can I Help You With That? The Student as Collaborator, Creator and Director with Justin Karkow
10 a.m. Do You Have the Audacity to Podcast?
11 a.m. Thinking Outside the Slide
12 p.m. Putting the Bling in Your Builders with Steve Dembo
1 p.m. What on Earth is a Gloggle?
2 p.m. Be Nice and Share: Publishing Your Media-Infused Projects for the World to See
3 p.m. Can I Help You With That? The Student as Collaborator, Creator and Director, encore presentation with Justin Karkow
Still not convinced? Click here.
One of the ideas I've learned about from past DEN experiences is adding web 2.0 tools to DE Streaming, which I then came up with the idea of using these tools with Schoolfusion. I've also learned how to change closed captioning on DE Streaming videos and how to insert DE Streaming videos into Google Earth. The list could on. Okay...I know it's a Saturday, but take one hour and try one session. Here's a suggestion: Try the 11 a.m. session on "Thinking Outside the Slide". This sounds like a session on PowerPoint and I'm sure will include some tricks on how to better use PowerPoint. It's late enough that you can sleep in and early enough before your day really starts.
I'm intrigued by the session at 1 p.m. entitled "What on Earth is a Gloggle?" Sounds like it could be a mix of Glogster, Blogging, and Google Earth? What do you think it could be?
Click here to register, if you're interested.
And here's the whole schedule:
9 a.m. Can I Help You With That? The Student as Collaborator, Creator and Director with Justin Karkow
10 a.m. Do You Have the Audacity to Podcast?
11 a.m. Thinking Outside the Slide
12 p.m. Putting the Bling in Your Builders with Steve Dembo
1 p.m. What on Earth is a Gloggle?
2 p.m. Be Nice and Share: Publishing Your Media-Infused Projects for the World to See
3 p.m. Can I Help You With That? The Student as Collaborator, Creator and Director, encore presentation with Justin Karkow
Still not convinced? Click here.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Busy Week!
It's been a busy week! It started with our Differentiation Day on Monday, where our librarian and myself helped teachers learn how to use Schoolfusion more effectively. We even had time to talk about some web 2.0 tools that could be embedded, such as Blabberize, Voki's, My Studyio, and Glogster (if it's not blocked). Everyone seemed impressed with Blabberize especially. I've received great feedback! Some discussions from the day however, led me to realize that I may need to provide some workshop time on basic tools with Office products, especially Word and PowerPoint. Our librarian was willing to help me with those sessions and I would love the chance to collaborate more with her.
On Tuesday, I worked with our art teacher to start documenting samples of student work for an e-portfolio project our CTE and art classes will be piloting this year. I worked with both the eighth grade classes and soon we will be using PhotoShop Elements to crop pictures and do another project where the students will add filters and manipulate digital photos.
Wednesday was quieter as I was in a TRT meeting in the morning and finished up preparing for the Study Island training session for Thursday afternoon.
On Thursday, I worked with the Science teachers to prepare for the Comic Life project and prepared for the Airliner Training on practice writing for Friday.
Which leads me to today, where I worked on the Study Island Training Video and stopped by some classrooms to see what everyone was up to. I saw a great lesson on discounts in a 7th grade classroom. They reviewed percentages and discounts in their warm-up activity and then "went" to the Ice Cream Parlor and had $25 each to buy as much ice cream as they wanted. BUT, they had to remember that the $25 included a 5% tax and 15% tip. Then they had to calculate how much money they had left over. It was very interesting to see the students helping each other and then get frustrated when they figured up their order and had to take something off because they didn't have enough money left over for the tip! I thought this would be a great smart activity, as well. 8th grade was also doing discounts and I saw one 8th grade teacher using the Smartboard and had a graph with Sales price, discount price, and total price and the students had to figure out the total price and write it on the Smartboard.
Like I said, busy week! How was yours?
On Tuesday, I worked with our art teacher to start documenting samples of student work for an e-portfolio project our CTE and art classes will be piloting this year. I worked with both the eighth grade classes and soon we will be using PhotoShop Elements to crop pictures and do another project where the students will add filters and manipulate digital photos.
Wednesday was quieter as I was in a TRT meeting in the morning and finished up preparing for the Study Island training session for Thursday afternoon.
On Thursday, I worked with the Science teachers to prepare for the Comic Life project and prepared for the Airliner Training on practice writing for Friday.
Which leads me to today, where I worked on the Study Island Training Video and stopped by some classrooms to see what everyone was up to. I saw a great lesson on discounts in a 7th grade classroom. They reviewed percentages and discounts in their warm-up activity and then "went" to the Ice Cream Parlor and had $25 each to buy as much ice cream as they wanted. BUT, they had to remember that the $25 included a 5% tax and 15% tip. Then they had to calculate how much money they had left over. It was very interesting to see the students helping each other and then get frustrated when they figured up their order and had to take something off because they didn't have enough money left over for the tip! I thought this would be a great smart activity, as well. 8th grade was also doing discounts and I saw one 8th grade teacher using the Smartboard and had a graph with Sales price, discount price, and total price and the students had to figure out the total price and write it on the Smartboard.
Like I said, busy week! How was yours?
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Six Kingdoms to Comic Life!
I'm working with the 7th grade Science classes next week using the software program Comic Life to create posters on The 6 Kingdoms. I went over the details of our project with one of the Science teachers today and did a refresher with her on Comic Life. We took a class last year together on the program and I learned how to not only make comics, but also change the boxes around to use it as a way to present information. The plan is for students to do research on the kingdoms and find 2 facts per kingdom, plus pictures to show examples of each.
I've started to suggest Comic Life to teachers as a substitute for Glogster, which seems to be blocked at my school right now. Here's the example we did today to show students next week what we're looking for:
I'll give you an update on how it goes next week!
I've started to suggest Comic Life to teachers as a substitute for Glogster, which seems to be blocked at my school right now. Here's the example we did today to show students next week what we're looking for:
I'll give you an update on how it goes next week!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Invention Commercials
Last week I had the chance to work with our sixth grade history students on creating commercial recordings. They were doing research on 20th century inventions such as airplanes, washer machines, bubble gum and even kool aid! Their teacher had already designed a lesson where the students research their invention and create a poster with the research information included. She mentioned to me that she wanted to "jazz up" the lesson a bit and the first thing I thought of was a podcast. We decided to have the students work in pairs instead and then in addition to the poster, have them record a commercial persuading others to buy the invention and which would showcase their poster.
While completing research the students filled out a worksheet with the following elements:
- Name of the invention
- Name of the inventor
- Date invention was created
- Impact invention had on society
- Any other important information
The teacher and I quickly created a sample commercial for the kids on the Transcontinental Railroad. We had to substitute a train's horn for a ship's fog horn, but we explained to the students that they may also have to think creatively with their sounds effects. You could see them start to think about they could supercharge their recordings.
After two days in the library and using computers for research and to print out pictures of their inventions, the students started on their commercial scripts, which also had to include the above information. Once the script was approved, students were allowed to begin recording their commercials. We used the program Garageband on our macbooks and set up an enhanced audio podcast and the students learned how to record voices, which tracks to record on, and how to add music and sound effects. We allowed the students about 20-30 minutes for this process. Luckily, we had the additional help of another TRT to help us. As students were recording, others were working on their posters. After the students finished recording, we added pictures of their posters to the podcast track as featured album art. By creating the enhanced podcast, this allowed us to show their posters and hear their commercial at the same time. On the afternoon of their second day of recording, we took the commercials, turned them into m4a files and then created a website on iweb for all three classes commercials.
Did I mention this was my first time using Garageband? I'm thrilled with the results and the sound quality of the recordings. I will be using Garageband again soon!
What do think of our commercials? Have any ideas for how you could use Garageband in your classroom?
While completing research the students filled out a worksheet with the following elements:
- Name of the invention
- Name of the inventor
- Date invention was created
- Impact invention had on society
- Any other important information
The teacher and I quickly created a sample commercial for the kids on the Transcontinental Railroad. We had to substitute a train's horn for a ship's fog horn, but we explained to the students that they may also have to think creatively with their sounds effects. You could see them start to think about they could supercharge their recordings.
After two days in the library and using computers for research and to print out pictures of their inventions, the students started on their commercial scripts, which also had to include the above information. Once the script was approved, students were allowed to begin recording their commercials. We used the program Garageband on our macbooks and set up an enhanced audio podcast and the students learned how to record voices, which tracks to record on, and how to add music and sound effects. We allowed the students about 20-30 minutes for this process. Luckily, we had the additional help of another TRT to help us. As students were recording, others were working on their posters. After the students finished recording, we added pictures of their posters to the podcast track as featured album art. By creating the enhanced podcast, this allowed us to show their posters and hear their commercial at the same time. On the afternoon of their second day of recording, we took the commercials, turned them into m4a files and then created a website on iweb for all three classes commercials.
Did I mention this was my first time using Garageband? I'm thrilled with the results and the sound quality of the recordings. I will be using Garageband again soon!
What do think of our commercials? Have any ideas for how you could use Garageband in your classroom?
Monday, October 12, 2009
How Many Ways Can You Blog?
Today, I worked with our Librarian to present information to teachers about our website program, Schoolfusion. This past summer, the site was updated with some new tools (blog, wiki, podcast/video/photo slide show upload) and we discussed how these tools could be implemented effectively into their class pages and lessons.
Let's talk about blogs first. We went over how to add posts or entries to the blogs in Schoolfusion. There were lots of great ideas discussed. Two of our PE teachers talked about using the blog as a way to discuss important health topics with students. One of them asked me to look over her first entry and see if it was a good start. She started with an entry on her fitness routine and asked what students do to get in shape. For a first timer, I think she's on a roll!
The other PE teacher asked about including pictures in entries. Last year, she and I did a trackstar "WebQuest" on different health topics and one of these was anorexia. One of the sites student's visited showed pictures of people suffering from the disease. She asked if she could find a copyright free image and use this in an entry and have a discussion online about it. Another great idea!
Another teacher at our school created a parent blog as a way to communicate with parents especially when they have questions about homework or classwork their students are doing.
We also showed the teachers our blogs outside of Schoolfusion. I showed off My Technication and how I use this as a way to spread information about Instructional Technology ideas and tools. I also talked about added features that Blogger has such as adding widgets (my voki avatar), the blog roll, and my STAR DEN badge. Our librarian showed her blog, http://ashbyreads.blogspot.com, and how she uses this as a online card catalog of books and a discussion forum for students. She pointed out the tag feature that Schoolfusion doesn't have and how students can use this to look up other books in a specific genre.
If you have a blog, how do you use it? Have any great ideas to share for those just starting? Add a comment for this post and I'll compile the best ideas and put them back in another post. Have an idea, but not sure if it will work? Try it out on us first!
Let's talk about blogs first. We went over how to add posts or entries to the blogs in Schoolfusion. There were lots of great ideas discussed. Two of our PE teachers talked about using the blog as a way to discuss important health topics with students. One of them asked me to look over her first entry and see if it was a good start. She started with an entry on her fitness routine and asked what students do to get in shape. For a first timer, I think she's on a roll!
The other PE teacher asked about including pictures in entries. Last year, she and I did a trackstar "WebQuest" on different health topics and one of these was anorexia. One of the sites student's visited showed pictures of people suffering from the disease. She asked if she could find a copyright free image and use this in an entry and have a discussion online about it. Another great idea!
Another teacher at our school created a parent blog as a way to communicate with parents especially when they have questions about homework or classwork their students are doing.
We also showed the teachers our blogs outside of Schoolfusion. I showed off My Technication and how I use this as a way to spread information about Instructional Technology ideas and tools. I also talked about added features that Blogger has such as adding widgets (my voki avatar), the blog roll, and my STAR DEN badge. Our librarian showed her blog, http://ashbyreads.blogspot.com, and how she uses this as a online card catalog of books and a discussion forum for students. She pointed out the tag feature that Schoolfusion doesn't have and how students can use this to look up other books in a specific genre.
If you have a blog, how do you use it? Have any great ideas to share for those just starting? Add a comment for this post and I'll compile the best ideas and put them back in another post. Have an idea, but not sure if it will work? Try it out on us first!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
It's My 100th Post!
Holy cow, I can't believe I finally have 100 posts! Funny, as it would be, I sat down a few nights ago and just for kicks counted up how many blog posts I have. The number on the calculator = 99! So here I am blogging about it!
For those curious, here are some stats over the last 100 posts:
- I started My Technication on January 24, 2008 as part of my graduate program.
- I received a comment from Will Richardson (the father of blogging) on January 31, 2008.
- I had a total of 44 blog posts in 2008
- So far this year, I've had a total of 82! What a difference a year makes! :)
Now, you may be looking at these last two numbers and think I don't know how to work a calculator. I do! A few months ago, I discovered Diigo, a social bookmarking site, when Furl folded. I also discovered that any websites I bookmarked on Diigo could be sent straight to My Technication. Because these are just a listing of sites, I have chosen not to include these posts in my 100th post count. If I did, then I would have a total of 126 posts. That's a lot of blogging!
Hooray for 100 posts! How do you think I've been doing so far? Any ideas for future blog posts?
For those curious, here are some stats over the last 100 posts:
- I started My Technication on January 24, 2008 as part of my graduate program.
- I received a comment from Will Richardson (the father of blogging) on January 31, 2008.
- I had a total of 44 blog posts in 2008
- So far this year, I've had a total of 82! What a difference a year makes! :)
Now, you may be looking at these last two numbers and think I don't know how to work a calculator. I do! A few months ago, I discovered Diigo, a social bookmarking site, when Furl folded. I also discovered that any websites I bookmarked on Diigo could be sent straight to My Technication. Because these are just a listing of sites, I have chosen not to include these posts in my 100th post count. If I did, then I would have a total of 126 posts. That's a lot of blogging!
Hooray for 100 posts! How do you think I've been doing so far? Any ideas for future blog posts?
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
It's Raining Books!
One of the things I love as much as (maybe more so) than technology is books! I can't get enough of them and I've been addicted since second grade when my teacher Miss Lister got me hooked on Charlotte's Web. I think I've read it about six times.
My friend Becky over at her blog, Love Everyday Life, joined the 2009 Busy Bookworm Challenge, which got me thinking I could do it too. Hey, I'm already in two book clubs!!
Right now, my life has been crazy insane, so I'm not putting a bunch of books on my list.
So here's goes:
Challenge List (to be read by December 31, 2009)
1. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
2. The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt
3. Belong to Me by Marisa De Los Santos
4. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
5. Magyk by Septimus Heap
6. Garageband for Dummies
7. The Giver by Lois Lowry
Books Read in 2009 (to the best of my recollection)
1. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
2. New Moon by Stephanie Meyer
3. Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer
4. Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer
5. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (twice)
6. Rattled by Christine Coppa
7. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
8. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
9. Specials by Scott Westerfeld
10. Extras by Scott Westerfeld
11. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collilns
12. Schooled by Gordon Korman
13. Unwind by Neal Shusterman
14. The Girls from Ames by Jeffery Zaslow
15. To Kill a Mockingbird by
16. The Black Book of Secrets by F.E. Higgins
17. Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor
18. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
My friend Becky over at her blog, Love Everyday Life, joined the 2009 Busy Bookworm Challenge, which got me thinking I could do it too. Hey, I'm already in two book clubs!!
Right now, my life has been crazy insane, so I'm not putting a bunch of books on my list.
So here's goes:
Challenge List (to be read by December 31, 2009)
1. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
2. The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt
3. Belong to Me by Marisa De Los Santos
4. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
5. Magyk by Septimus Heap
6. Garageband for Dummies
7. The Giver by Lois Lowry
Books Read in 2009 (to the best of my recollection)
1. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
2. New Moon by Stephanie Meyer
3. Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer
4. Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer
5. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (twice)
6. Rattled by Christine Coppa
7. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
8. Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
9. Specials by Scott Westerfeld
10. Extras by Scott Westerfeld
11. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collilns
12. Schooled by Gordon Korman
13. Unwind by Neal Shusterman
14. The Girls from Ames by Jeffery Zaslow
15. To Kill a Mockingbird by
16. The Black Book of Secrets by F.E. Higgins
17. Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor
18. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
It Was One of THOSE Days...
The thought of the computer and the sledgehammer together actually crossed my mind today. Luckily, I had a colleague talk me out of it. Here's hoping tomorrow is a better technology day. :)
Friday, October 2, 2009
Gotta See This...
Go visit Tekkieteacher's blog for a great laugh! Hilarity at it's best!
http://tekkieteacher.edublogs.org/
http://tekkieteacher.edublogs.org/
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