For Melise: Bloglines Question

Melise had a question about whether or not she had successfully subscribed to some RSS feeds through Bloglines. Here's a screencast that I created with a very cool, free web tool called Jing. Maybe it answers her question. I also told her about the RSS reader that I use at home--it's called Sage, and it is an add-on to the Firefox browser (which I love).

I couldn't figure out how to resize my Jing capture, and it was huge. I'll have to look at their FAQs, but here's a link to my screencast hopefully answering your questions, Melise! We miss you!

Great Book for Descriptive Language Lesson!

Each year at this time, my 4th grade teachers really start to hit writing skills hard with their students. In TX, 4th graders are tested on writing for the first time, so this is a major priority in the 4th grade curriculum.

Toad, by British author Ruth Brown is really wonderful piece of descriptive writing! It's a very simple and short story, so it's easy to fit into the short time frame that I have to work with as classes visit the library. I use Toad each year with my students--it's accessible to them (nice, "gooey" descriptors that the boys really get into!) and the illustrations allow me to slip in a little art appreciation on the side! The elementary art curriculum in TX is all but nonexistent--in practice, anyway--so this book affords me a great opportunity!
Thanks Ruth Brown, for your wonderful work!!

Photo by our lovely Artist in Residence!

Happy New Year All! This photo was taken by our daughter when we were visiting with my sister and her family at a cabin on the Llano River in central Texas. We celebrated a late Christmas with them, and we had a wonderful, fun, relaxing time!

Here's hoping that we're all rested up and ready for the new year--we go back to school on the 2nd! YIKES! Ready or not...

Cool Kindergarten Blog!

Wow! It's been over a month since I posted! I'm wondering if I'm cut out for this! I have just been swamped and I've gotten out of the habit of posting. Hmmm..

Anyway, today I was listening to EdTechWeekly, which is one of my favorite edtech podcasts, and I went to their website to see host Jennifer Maddrell's graduation picture (just earned her PhD--impressive!).

One of the congrats posts was from Maria Knee, whose kindergarten blog is here. What a fantastic blog! She's used all sorts of web2.0 tools, like Slideshare, VoiceThread, Bubbleshare, YackPack, etc. to share what her kids are doing with the world. It's just an excellent example of what can be done to connect kids to the world and to let parents/grandparents/community members into their children's learning. Very exciting. And kudos to her school district for allowing use of those tools. Most of these are blocked in my district--and many, many other districts, to state it fairly!

Bottom line: this is a fantastic web site to share with teachers to show just what kinds of projects even the youngest of students can don that take advantage of the technology that we have available. I certainly think the students in Ms Knee's classes/school will remember their kindergarten experiences. What fun they seem to be having learning!

Belated Thoughts on K12Online Conference

Wow! Is it ever easy to slide and not post for weeks! I've been swamped, for one thing, and for another, I've been a bit...disconcerted & didn't want to blog before I got my brain around a couple of things. I'll post later about that though...I needed to just get a post up tonight so that I'm over the hump and maybe I'll get back to posting semi-regularly!

I'm still trying to catch up and enjoy the K12Online presentations. So many of them were sooo good. Like many people whom I've heard give an opinion on various edtech podcasts, I thought Sylvia Tolisano's presentation, Travel Through Space and Time was just so inspiring! Her school completed a virtual "trip" to China using a Build-a-Bear to give students a focus in their studies. The entire elementary school studied Chinese customs, history, geography, culture, and then 2 teachers (with the bear) actually traveled to China. They used blogs, digital video & photography and various other web2.0 tools to keep in touch, real time, and bring the trip to the children in their school. What a great idea! And it sounds like they've really squeezed all the learning opportunities and connectivity out of it that they possibly could! I'm sure the students at her school will never forget this vivid learning experience! Wow!
Wheels turning in my brain...