School has officially started

We have officially made it one week! Wahoo! Progress is being made on the house. I am still living in total chaos but at least the walls don't look like dog vomit any more. Do not try Bellagio Faux technique on your walls if you have any sanity left at all. After spending $250.00 I decided to basically stick with just the base coat since the treatment was NOT WORKING OUT no matter how hard we followed the directions or what we tried, it just wasn't going to work. The fish on the walls in the kitchen are looking great, only problem is I need about 20 more fish. LOL. 10 foot ceilings and a large kitchen make for a great canvas to work off of. I will be posting pictures soon of work in progress.



May everyone's dreams be filled with happiness!

Thing #23 Summary

Finally, after a whirlwind tour of 23 Things on http://www.library2play.blogspot.com/ I have finished. I loved so many different parts of the journey, but I guess I would have to say exploring with Big Huge Labs , delicious , and Zamzar are in the top 10. I had seen friends who had blogs and was envious their fearlessness to meet the future. I didn't have a clue where to begin until this class! (THANKS! Dr. Bishop)
This activity has heightened my awareness of web 2.0 and the many applications that are available. (many for FREE) I wish I had had more time to explore each of the items on the list, but the deadline was closely approaching! I know I will be sharing the things I learned with my friends and colleagues, as well as, reviewing many of the activities again and again. This is just an awesome activity! I can't wait to begin Library2Play2! Wahoo!!!

Thing #22 Nings

Ning is a social networking tool that allows you to collaborate with people interested in many of the same things you are. Nings are very specific such as Teacher Librarian Ning. They are basically for social networking and exchanging ideas. Videos, photos, as well as, discussion forums. Let the idea sharing begin!

I signed up for Teacher Librarian Ning but I am not sure how often I will frequent the site. Part of it relies on my schedule and what my specific needs are at the moment. I will probably check it out every couple of weeks, but will rely on my tried and true networking right now. I will definitely need to explore more, since I want to feel completely comfortable with the site before I "live" on the site. It will be benificial for bouncing ideas off of others, as well as, finding pictures and videos that relate to the classroom.

Thing #21 Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! -A Podcast

Recently I spent a week with my niece and nephew and had to read Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, The Pigeon Wants a Puppy, and The Pigeon Finds a Hotdog EVERY NIGHT. Since we live so far away from each other and they LOVE Mo Willems' stories, I thought I would create a podcast that they could access whenever they want to hear me reading The Pigeon to them. I hope you enjoy!

This podcast was created with a webcam, microphone, and Windows MovieMaker. There are several productivity tools to create a podcast/videocast: Photostory, Audacity, Windows MovieMaker, Animoto to name just a few.

Animoto of Hershey and Rouxi


Give animoto a try! You can create a video in less than 5 minutes. So many possibilities - Just think! You can use it as an attention getter, story writing prompt, and more.

Thing #20 YouTube, TeacherTube, and Zamzar

Wahoo! I am published online. What do you mean I should already know that since I am writing a blog. No, I am talking about TeacherTube. I have a video that has been accepted and anyone can access it. Now is that not cool? I submitted my Flat Stanley Promo Podcast to TeacherTube and it is up and running. http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=118421&title=Flat_Stanley_Project_Promo

Now, TeacherTube is not blocked in most districts, but have you ever found the most perfect video clip on YouTube that you needed for your lessons and as luck would have it, the blessed website is blocked! Of course you try to embed the video in your PowerPoint presentation and it doesn't really work. Now, what are you going to do? GO DIRECTLY TO http://www.zamzar.com/url/ and convert the video to 3gp and voila! You are ready to share the video when needed in your classroom.

Thing # 19 Web 2.0 Awards

Have you ever wanted to be on the "cutting edge" of things? Do you ever feel like you are "behind the times" and your students are more "hip" than you are? Don't feel bad, there is hope. Web 2.0 Awards at http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0/short is here to help. It is an awesome site with website awards (1st, 2nd, & 3rd place, and honorable mention) for different categories ranging from bookmarking to gaming to social networking. The websites are nominated and voted upon. It is a great launchpad for leaping into the technical savvy world that our students dwell in. If you are looking for specific types of websites for your classroom such as a place to get images for students to use and really don't know anything other than "googling" this is a great place to go. You will find flickr listed under photos and digital imaging and a couple of other websites that are similar in content.

Give Web 2.0 Awards a try and you will soon be understanding some of the "cutting edge" websites that many of your students and colleagues are utilizing.

last minute thought:
Need to slow down all those twitters for a few days while on vacation? Just hit the snooze button. http://twittersnooze.com/

Thing #18 OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice.org provides open source software such as word processing spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. Since it is open source it doesn't cost anything. :) It has many of the same features seen in Microsoft Office but is free and you can download it on as many computers as you would like. In the Writer program, the software using many of the texting capability such as predicting what word you are writing at times. Many years of development have gone in to creating this open source product and anyone is able to report bugs and it is taken care of.

There are several different applications to use. Writer is for word processing, Calc is for creating spreadsheets, Impress is for creating presentations such as slide shows, Draw is for creating graphics and diagrams, Base allows you to "manipulate database data seamlessly."

Check out open source software for yourself: http://www.OpenOffice.org

Thing #17- Rollyo

Have you ever wanted to limit the searches of your students to a few key sites without having to create a hotlinks document? You can now control the quality of the "hits" a student gets when they use your created search engine. You determine what credible sites you want them to utilize for information acquisition. All you need to do is create an account and begin adding the sites you want students to utilize for their research. For example: You are studying Pirates (still) and want the students to create PowerPoint of Pirate Biographies. You already have a list of excellent pirate sites you have utilized for your lesson development, just add them to a searchroll that you created. Check out Rollyo for a rolling good time. :)
http://rollyo.com/

Thing #16 The Wonderful World of Wikis

There are so many wonderful things about wikis, where do I begin? Oh, let's start with where you can create one for FREE and if you are in education K-12 you can update your account so that you don't have to deal with advertisements on the side! Wahoo for teacher discounts! All you need to do is go to http://www.wikispaces.com/ and begin. It is very simple, you do not have to know html or any programming at all. You choose if you want it to be by invitation only (I would use that in my classroom setting- more manageable) or public, where anyone can add to it. Now you can always go back and change anything as the MASTER OF YOUR DOMAIN, incase someone accidently erases someone else's comments. Editing is tracked so you can see who did what if you have to play Sherlock Holmes solve a problem. Then you just edit and go on. All members of the Wiki have editing priviledges to a degree. If someone makes a typo and another member catches it, he/she can fix it.

Now the question comes in: HOW DO I USE THIS IN MY CLASSROOM?
Some possibilities include:

• A cross curricular thematic lesson with each page dealing with a specific subject (ex: Pirates- Social Studies focuses on history of piracy and even biographies, Language Arts focuses on literature with pirates as a theme such as Treasure Island or How I Became a Pirate, Math focuses on story problems that deal with "treasure seeking" or voyages, Science focuses on bouyancy, projectile accuracy (cannon balls away!), oceans
• How-to pages to solve math problems, complete assignments, etc.
• General discussion for whatever topics you are discussing in class. Many students will mull over the discussion in class and then a few hours later a thought hits them that relates to dicussion and it is not always at an opportune time to go back to the discussion.

Thing #15 Library 2.0

Many experts argue that we, as librarians, are already at web 2.0. We thrive on collaboration and sharing of data. Dr. Wendy Schultz details the vision of library 1.0 through library 4.0 in such an eloquent manner. She compares the visionary process from raising coffee beans to canning the coffee all the way to the jazzy cafe setting of Starbucks. At library 2.0 you are focusing on how to "package the product"-- similar to Amazon's recommendations and tagging, we as librarians are moving in that direction, especially with FRBR.

OCLC Next Space Newsletter – Web 2.0: Where will the next generation of the web it take libraries?
Five Perspectives:
Away from Icebergs
Into a new world of librarianship
To more powerful ways to cooperate
To better bibliographic services
To a temporary place in time (Dr. Wendy Schultz's article)