5 Techy things

Welcome to the 2010-2011 School Year!


If you have set a goal of trying something new in your classroom this year- Here are 5 Techy Things that you might want to think about.

1. Create a Blog-Everyone has something to say-Blogs can serve many purposes. You can use a blog to communicate information to parents and students, create a running journal of classroom activities and lessons throughout the year, or share information with colleagues-Writing is cathartic-Right?! My favorite sites for blogging are: Blogger and Edublogs. Both are very easy to start as they don't require any technical knowledge on your part.

2. Build a web page/site-For those of you @ PSHS- We have several tools available via our network of programs. Additionally, there are many free website creation and hosting services available on the web-take a look at Weebly and Yola.

3. Create Videos-Video is a powerful form of communication. Not too long ago classroom video projects required expensive editing software and video equipment. This is no longer the case. The flip video camera(we have a classroom set @ PSHS) allows for quick and easy videotaping. Web based programs allow for simple creation and editing. My favorite web-based video creation service is Animoto - It is simple, a lot of fun to use and the results are great.

4. Get Your Students Searching More Than Just Google-this one is included for my comrade Lil. Data bases and online tools are available here @PSHS(sorry to our readers in other places)-find out what is available and USE LIL (this is the last year to do so-She's retiring-LUCKY DOG)-the references she is able to find are amazing.


5. Get interactive-Try the interactivity of a SMARTboard or an AirSlate. Having students engaged in learning is every teacher's goal-Putting the learning in students' hands is possible with either of these pieces of hardware. Ask about them and get engaged.

There you have it- Your goals for the year- Never stop learning.

Visual Representation of the News- NEWSMAP

The internet generally presents a disorganized collage of information. We are working in an information-soaked world -There is too much of everything. Along comes NEWSMAP

Newsmap is a web application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the news - Specifically GOOGLE's news aggregator.

Known as a treemap visualization, the site displays the enormous amount of information gathered by the aggregator in block form. In Newsmap, the size of each cell is determined by the amount of related articles that exist inside each news cluster that the Google News Aggregator presents. In that way users can quickly identify which news stories have been given the most coverage, viewing the map by region, topic or time. Clicking on the headline takes you to a complete story.

Newsmap also allows you to compare the news landscape by country, or content area by checking the boxes at top and bottom of the map.

Very cool representation of news!

Thanks to PSHS Media Center Director Lil Mazur for this find!

Daylight Savings Time

My favorite comment from the week-end regarding Daylight Savings Time was: Why can't DST start at 2:00 pm Friday?--We can "spring forward" and start the week-end early!"

If you are talking about Daylight Savings Time- Here are some resources:

The guys at CBS Fast Draw always have an interesting take on things.

An ABC Station in Texas has nice information

As does an ABC Station in NewYork

A CBS Evening News video

An ABC News "Reasoning Behind Daylight Savings" video

Dry out your stuff!

I'm not entirely sure that this has ANY relevance to school or classroom use-but admit it- It has happened to you!

"It's bound to happen at some point. You bend over a body of water (be it a lake, a pond, the tub or the toilet), forgetting that your valuable gadget was sitting in your pocket. We say "was sitting" because it's since slipped out and is now taking a swim with the fishes (or worse, in the case of the toilet example).

First things first, fish the offending gadget out of the water, cry for a little while then go to the store and drop few hundred on a replacement. Or, you could just drop it into a
Bheestie Bag to dry outand hope for the best."

I can't say that I have personally tested this--but will admit that I wish I had know about this when I was caught in a driving rain storm at Great America and every kid on the field trip was calling to try to find our bus-Safe kids--dead phone

Winter Olympics

I admit it- I am an Olympics Geek. I will plan the next two weeks of my life around the Winter Games schedule. If you are interested in any of what will be taking place in Vancouver, following are ways to bring the Games into the classroom

• NBC Learn, the educational arm of NBC News, has teamed up with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to produce a 16-part video series focusing on the science behind the games. Scientific principles are explored in the new video series, called "The Science of the Olympic Winter Games." The videos illustrate how scientific principles apply to competitive sports. In each video segment, an NSF-supported scientist explains a particular scientific principle, while Olympic athletes describe how these principles apply to their respective sports. The science is explained by capturing the athletes’ movements with a state-of-the-art, high-speed camera which has the ability to capture movement at rates of up to 1,500 frames per second. This allows frame-by-frame illustrations of Newton’s Three Laws of Motion, the Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum, friction, drag, speed, velocity, and other scientific concepts
  
  
• Canadian Olympic School Program has been providing teachers with free classroom resources since 1988.



• The New York Times has two sites that are pretty cool:
  

One takes a look at the Olympic torch over time
The other takes a look at venues of the Games

• The Associated Press has/will have a great highlight/recap site
  
  
• Winter Olympics: Sport By Sport” is a feature from ESPN. It provides a short, accessible slideshow and description for each sport played at the Olympic games.
  
  

(Thanks to Linda Casey and Larry Ferlazzo)

Fake facebook profiles

The web site READ WRITE THINK states that their mission is to "provide educators, parents, and afterschool professionals with access to the highest quality practices in reading and language arts instruction by offering the very best in free materials." The site is a wealth of resources-for Classroom Activities, Professional Development, Afterschool activities.

What I discovered while sorting through all of the resources is a free program called the Profile Publisher. Profile Publisher allows students to create and print mock-ups of social network profiles. Students can create profiles for themselves or for fictional characters. Profile Publisher includes fields for "about me," "blog posts," "interests," and all of the other profile fields typically found on a social network. Completed profiles can be printed-but not saved.

The Profile Publisher could also be used by history teachers to have students create profiles of historical characters, by English teachers to create profiles of book characters, by PE teachers to create profiles of athletes-past and present, by science teachers to create profiles of scientists... get the picture?

I created a profile for Harry Potter-You can find it here

Let's talk FACEBOOK

"Facebook.com exploded out of a Harvard dorm room and hit the mainstream stage. It has grown exponentially since its launch and the number of people using the service has consistently doubled every six months.Chances are the majority of your real-world friends have a Facebook account." Here are two options for getting to know the internet phenomenon :

"Facebook for grownups" is a practical guide to getting started with Facebook and unlocking some of its more powerful features for those who are just getting started.

For those of you who are already users, the Finer Points of Facebook demonstrates everything from untagging yourself from unflattering photos, super charging your privacy settings, creating your own Facebook family page, adding a Facebook badge to your site or blog and even hiding parts of your profile from certain people, like your boss, your co-workers... or your Mom

Martin Luther King Resources

Enclosed are resources the might be useful as we approach Martin Luther King day.

* Here is the I Have a Dream Speech from a resource other than YouTube.

* A short King biography, this time from the Library of Congress.
* The Seattle Times has an exceptional special report on King.
* There’s a good CNN Special Report on King.
* A short video of King from the Biography Channel.
* Scholastic has information and a slideshow at The Legacy Of A Leader.
* Time Magazine has a slideshow on King’s life.
* The Atlanta Journal Constitution has online videos, a timeline and other good resources.
* National Geographic has an online video about King.
* EL Civics has a online lesson on King.
* The Associated Press has a number of multimedia resources on King.
* The Atlanta Constitution has an interactive reviewing King’s life.
* Enchanted Learning has some very simple resources on King.
* The Orange County Register has an interactive graphic about King.
* The King Center has a site that provides audio of King’s famous “The Drum Major Instinct” speech. In addition to the audio, it shows the text (in an artistic sort of way) on the screen.
* Here’s a nice color slideshow of King’s life.
* The Do’s And Don’ts of Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr’s Legacy from Teaching Tolerance. It has some excellent guidelines for teachers.
* CBS has an interactive of famous quotes from King and other information.
* MSNBC has a slideshow on King’s life.
* The New York Times has another slideshow.
* Here’s another good interactive timeline of his life.
* Honoring Dr. King is a slideshow from CBS showing celebrations of his birthday throughout the country in 2009

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo a teacher @Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California.

Great clip art site

We all know about google images and/or other sites that allow searches for images or clip art. We also know about the pit falls of this kind of search and some of the inappropriate photos or images that may find their way into a search. If you are into clip art, here is a really nice alternative.

Free Clip Art by Phillip Martin is a pretty impressive site for clip art that’s free for non-profit use. The art seems a cut above many other clip art sites I’ve seen, and is categorized by content area- there are some very interesting representations of concepts- Ever wanted to demonstrate "humidity" - there's clip for that on this site!

Check it out-it's worth a look

Acer and Intel K-12 School Library Makeover Contest

In a completely self service promotion, Acer and Intel are currently accepting nominations for a K-12 school library "makeover." The winning school will receive ten Acer Timeline laptops and two desktops. I'm not sure if twelve computers constitutes a full "makeover," but it's certainly better than no computers. To enter you must submit an essay describing what makes your school great and why your school should be chosen. You can also submit videos and images to supplement your entry. The entry deadline is January 17th. You can read all of the contest details and enter here.

How 'bout a little love for your "not so ordinary media center"

Sounds of the Season

I'm not really one for ratings or making recommendations but thought I would share some of my favorite sounds of the season. As you can probably imagine, my musical taste is all over the place--So here are a few tidbits that I am willing to share:

 First, my new favorite-an internet sensation in the late 90's - A group from Indiana U - Straight No Chaser does a great version of the 12 days of Christmas. 
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Second, Handel's Young Messiah- released in 1991: This is one of several 're-workings' of Handel's immortal 'Messiah'. It is likely not for "purists"-but if you have an open mind and enjoy the beauty of music in all  forms it is an enjoyable album even if many of the tracks sound like they're stuck in the 80s.

Finally- what I think is a new classic: Barenaked for the Holidays from the Barenaked Ladies. This is one of the few holiday albums that is pretty evenly divided between Christmas and Hanukkah songs. This isn't just nicely PC, but gives the album both musical and topical variety, making it a little more interesting and distinctive than the average holiday record. With that patented blend of jokiness and sentiment that's been the group's stock-in-trade, it has become a standard in our house.

 That's it as we close 2009. It has been a year filled with surprises, good and bad. Here's hoping that the joy of the season finds you and yours safe and loved. Hug those you hold dear. Dance. Sing. Laugh. Enjoy.

 Smiles and Grins,


The Queen

WORD GEEKS

Let's take a look at WORDs again.

Today's post comes from the Florida Department of Education. The page, entitled simply "VOCABULARY" is largely a series of resources dealing with words and vocabulary-running the gambit from elementary to high school resources. There is lots here for those who are interested in looking at a variety of ideas.

The coolest idea is from "Surfing the Net with kids- 100 most common SAT words - It is a quick game that you could add to the beginning or end of a class period. The game is to match words and definitions-Drag one over the other and they disappear--until you have completed the challenge. The game is timed. I could see "class records", period records, classes challenging classes. We have embedded the game into the PSHS WORDPLAY blog-It is at the bottom of the page.

Thanks to Anastasia Allen-PSHS Reading Specialist

GOOGLE does it again!!

Once again, I am convinced that GOOGLE will some day rule the world!
The search giant has quietly rolled out Google Dictionary, which presents definitions and synonyms. Exactly what you'd expect from a dictionary.
In addition to Google's own database of definitions, looking up a word on the Dictionary website provides a list of definitions pulled from a variety of academically authoritative sources as well as Wikipedia.
It has a few cool features. You can mark words with the star button and come back to them later, see a list of recent searches and switch to translator resources or dictionaries for other languages.
We have added this to today's WORD of the DAY post @ http://pshswordplay.blogspot.com/ and will make it a regular feature.

Talk to the WORLD!!

ipadio allows you to broadcast from any phone to the Internet-LIVE!  IPadio is created in by a British commuication company and works globally! It allows anyone to use their phone to record "phlogs"-Which are really just audio files posted to the Internet and given an RSS feed. Too technical??- Bottom line- you can created an audio file via phone that is automatically posted on the web-- your web page, your blog, your facebook page, etc.    This means that you can call in to the iPadio number (any phone will work), record an audio post, and have it immediately show up on your blog, wiki, or website -- Very cool and very simple!  I taught Anastasia how to do this in 5 minutes- and you will see/hear her efforts as now, the WORD of the day will be spoken on the Literacy blog(pshswordplay.blogspot.com) as well as the rest of the usual postings--The beauty of this is that she is able to update that posting via her phone here at school or her cell phone.  This is podcasting at it's simplest and easiest!  Join the fun!

TEACH & LEARN GENETICS

It seems to me that at the very least, biology and anatomy would benefit from the University of Utah's Science site. There are a great deal of interactive options, as well as a what they label "PRINT AND GO LESSON PLANS" Check it out!

The Genetic Science Learning Center is a science and health education program at the University of Utah. Their mission is making science easy for everyone to understand.
To achieve their mission, their web site provides educational materials and programs

These include two websites, available free of charge to Internet users worldwide:

• 
  Learn.Genetics delivers educational materials on genetics, bio science and health topics. They are designed to be used by students, teachers and members of the public. The materials meet selected US education standards for science and health.
  
• 
  Teach.Genetics provides resources for K-12 teachers, higher education faculty, and public educators. These include PDF-based Print-and-Go™ activities, unit plans and other supporting resources. The materials are designed to support and extend the materials on Learn.Genetics.

Glogster - Poster YourSelf

Glogster is a great platform for moving stale, 20th Century, poster projects into the 21st Century. Students can use content from the web or their own content to create informative collages about a wide range of topics. They can also use Glogster to create a dynamic digital portfolio.

Admittedly, my "GLOG" is not very creative or inspiring-But this is a cool web based program that can tranform the way we have students create posters or collages.

Using Glogster students can create multimedia collages about anything. One of Glogster's employees, Jim Dachos (a former Maine teacher) has compiled a great list of examples of Glogster being used in academic settings. Jim has examples covering the whole spectrum of educational applications for Glogster from elementary school through high school.

This is a creative, dynamic, and innovative digital outlet that captures learner's excitement for online creations, keeps learners engaged in course content, and makes teaching and learning more fun.

Once you register, you can create up to 200 accounts for your students. It is a private and safe platform, monitored directly by YOU. The teacher controls all the activities of their learners.
This is a valuable teaching tool that provides the opportunity for unique alternative assessments, and differentiated instructional activities.
For Students, GLOGSTER is a fun, imaginative, and powerful learning experience which fosters independent creative self expression, positive learner-teacher relationships, and teamwork on collaborative class projects.
As well, it is a vibrant, multi-sensory learning experience which integrates learner's knowledge and skills into traditionally text-oriented subjects and motivates learners' desire to explore topics in which they may previously have been less interested.
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Here is the process to get started:

Register at http://edu.glogster.com/
Create student accounts.
Become familiar with the site and build your own glog.

Using Contests in Teaching

Teaching With Contests is a site designed to help you find contests in academic or content areas that you and/or your students can participate in. A review of the site will lead you to contests covering all content areas. The creators of Teaching with Contests state that their goal is to assist educators in finding contests that can be used in the classroom to motivate students: "We are here for the student and the teacher not the promotion of products or company public relations. Our goal is to select contests and programs whose primary goal is education and secondarily business/product promotion."

Academic contests can be a fun way to get students excited about writing an essay, creating a video, writing a poem, or completing any number of learning activities.--who knew that there is a national contest in sculpturing tape(sponsored by 3M)?? At any rate, there are varied contests listed and updated-Just a page that you might want to bookmark and check periodically!

LEXIPEDIA - More Word play!

Look what I found !!! I'm pretty sure that I am Anastasia's new best friend!!!

Lexipedia is a really cool visual dictionary, thesaurus, vocabulary website that gives results as a web/mind-map. Users can click to find different parts of speech, synonyms, antonyms and more.

The site also adds "Fuzzynyms (my new favorite word)"- which are words that have a strong relationship but do not have the same meaning as synonyms do. The site can also change languages- French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Italian. Beginning next week, this will be an addition to the Word of the Day email that goes out as well as an addition to the PSHS Word Play blog.

Happy Week-end!

Hajj

Celebrate Diversity! - This has been a cornerstone of PSHS's school improvement plan since we opened. We recognize that the differences in all of us make us a better school-- and that recognizing and celebrating those differences is important. We have had our struggles, but we continue to believe as a school community that diversity and respect are important values.
It is that time of year when various religious groups have their own special celebrations-Muslims are nearing the Hajj- Following is information that might be of interest:

Millions of Muslims make an annual pilgrimage, called the Hajj. It is a journey that every Muslim, with the means to, must make before they die. Because the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar based on the motion of the moon, the time of the Hajj is different time each year in terms of the Gregorian calendar. This year it begins on November 25th.

The UK newspaper The Guardian has an excellent interactive about the Hajj. Unfortunately it doesn't go full screen- but it has good information.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/flash/0,5860,875224,00.html

Daylight Saving time

So- We "fell back" this week-end- Always sad as far as I am concerned- as it means that winter is coming. Here's a quick "starter" or end of class snippet about Daylight Savings Time and why we change clocks- Do you know???





Click the sun for the movie-Select "Play in CBS Video Viewer-There is an ad first- sorry no way around it!