Ad-Libbing

Brain Friendly Trainer

2011-04-05T13:55:00.000-07:00

Brain Friendly Trainer

What a great site for improving the craft of Professional Development!

quietube | Video without the distractions | Youtube, iPlayer, Viddler, Vimeo and more

2011-04-03T19:34:00.000-07:00

quietube | Video without the distractions | Youtube, iPlayer, Viddler, Vimeo and more

What a fantastic way to show YouTube videos in classrooms without the distractions and comments.

Literacy and Societal Stability

2009-10-15T10:32:00.001-07:00

How does literacy impact societal stability?

shwup muvee

2009-10-13T17:06:00.001-07:00

Blog Starters

2009-10-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

I just read an article by ...
Today’s tip is about ...
We've outlined many of these steps ...
There are a lot of ways to ...
What I like about our school is that ...
Most of what I’ve written ...
For those who don't know already ...
I'm thoroughly impressed with ...
Do you really want to make a difference ...
We have an exciting new announcement ...
There are many proven and time-honored strategies ...
Thought it would be fun to share ...
An interesting thing happened recently ...
The older I get the more I realize that ...
Sitting out here by the sea ...
One of the best ways to ...
Ouch. Not really even a fight ...
There's a tremendous swell of interest in ...
More often than not ...
In case you missed it, I finally ...
Have you ever tried to figure out why ...
Here is a different twist on the ...
You've heard me say that ...
It looks like there is ...
Knowing what it means to ...
One of the earliest lessons I learned about ...
Entering the mind of a ...
Are you looking for a change?
Every so often, I talk with students who ...

Feed to Google Sites

2009-09-22T10:49:00.000-07:00

How how how do I feed posts from here to my Google Site? Any help??

Differentiating Instruction

2009-04-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

I'm on a quest to learn and teach about Differentiated Instruction and Technology. There is an overwhelming amount of research, information and opinions through which I've waded and I think I'm coming to a pretty firm stand on DI. The webspiration page linked here is an outline for workshop instruction about DI.

Webquests

2009-03-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

We are going to be using webquests as a platform to help teachers move into integration from tech skill aquistion. There are several components to the design that we are working through including task selection and New Bloom's taxonomy pieces all in attempt to use technology to differentiate instruction and provide engaged learning opportunities. (How's that for cramming a zillion tech buzzwords into one sentence?!) Here are a some websites that we will be referencing:

Tasks: http://webquest.sdsu.edu/taskonomy.html
Webquests already created: http://www.suelebeau.com/webquests.htm
New Bloom's Taxonomy: http://www.apa.org/ed/new_blooms.html

Jing

2009-02-23T12:52:00.000-08:00

The thing called Jing! I don't think I've ever been known as "cutting edge" -- more of a 1-2 generation back kind of person. Soooo...I listen to the hub bub about new "toys" and I ponder about the classroom value.

Here's the thing about Jing. Someone emails or calls me asking how to do a certain techno task. I can't explain it---I need to click and point and comment...ugh! Oh but then there is JING!!

I just flip on the Techsmith company's tool called Jing and shazam---I can record my mouse movement with ease and talk through the process as it uses the laptop's internal mic to pick up my commentary. And....if I hate it....I trash it and do another quick tutorial.

but...but....it gets better..........now I upload it to their "magic place in the clouds" and simply send a LINK to my friend in need! Sure, I could save it to my laptop---and sometimes I do---but I love being able to save it on someone else's server in the "sky" and grab the link whenever I need it.

Jing is the jewel for me to make quick tutorials to share with distant clients, team members, family and friend.

Jing---may your best new thing too!!

Please touch the WetPaint!

2009-02-23T12:38:00.000-08:00

Why the heck didn't anyone ever explain to me what a wiki was? I have been building/hosting/managing websites since forever (well at least since the late 90's) and the world of wikis has just made my life a whole lot simplier! I can NOT imagine building another Sharepoint website for a school or classroom---NEVER!! The average classroom will love the freedom that wikis allow. School IT Directors have to love the fact that it's hosted somewhere else and they don't have to deal with that side of it. And teachers have the privilege/responsibility for the management.

I don't know about the school(s) that you work with, but several with which I'm involved still do NOT allow students to use email during school hours---and some don't allow teachers either. My mission this spring is to sit with the administrators of each and every one of those districts, review the state Technology Media standards and put together a proposal for their school boards that explains that students/teachers are expected to be able to able to communicate electronically. I suspect there will need to be a discussion about Gaggle email for kids too.

All that to say---that wikis are not intended to be internet bulletin boards of pretty sayings and cute crafts. They are designed to be POWERFUL collaboration, research and dissemination tools for students and teachers. If admins and boards have been reluctant to allow email---hopefully I can show them the power of e-communication through wikis. So go ahead---touch the WetPaint!

Green Screens with Windows Movie Maker

2009-02-04T13:54:00.000-08:00

I had a teacher recently ask me about using the "green screen" feature in MovieMaker. Hmmmmmm.....haven't done that before...in fact I don't use MovieMaker too much...BUT... of course Google and I are pretty decent friends so off I went. There were plenty of sites that had written directions, but my learning style tends to push me toward YouTube!

The video has written directions on it---turn the music off and just follow the tutorial!

As soon as my Flip cam gets back from Honduras I think I'll try some crazy green screen video action....watch out Superman!

Stellarium

2009-02-04T13:50:00.000-08:00

Do you remember this FREE program? It is wildly amazing. We recently watched the "Star of Bethlehem" movie and the man uses a high-powered piece of software to look at the stars and to roll back star time to the birth of Christ---good stuff. It inspired me to go look at Stellarium again. You can set a date like 7BC and take a look at the skies...go try it out. It may not be as powerful as other programs--but it makes me pretty happy.

Wordle

2009-01-31T18:45:00.000-08:00

Go ahead---overuse it! Let your students use it----be imaginative.

Using Excel To Set Priorities

2008-08-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

How to Manage Priorities With Excel

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

What's your next move?

2008-05-13T10:18:00.001-07:00

Wink

2007-09-28T18:31:00.000-07:00

I have discovered another great free tool! Yippee!! Wink!

Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for MS-Word/Excel etc). Using Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles etc and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users.

Here's a HotPotatoes tutorial done in Wink. Click here to view the HotPot tutorial

toondoo

2007-09-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

This is a cool place to make cartoons. The URL is toondoo.com

Master Teacher Value Survey (9-07)

2007-09-19T12:51:00.000-07:00

Spider Fingers

2007-08-30T11:40:00.000-07:00

Look at the lower right side of the blog. Click once on the YouTube video and it will appear at the top of this blog. Then you will be able to check out Bruce Hornsby playing Spider Fingers!

(And yup---you can now "embed" youtube videos into Blogger's page elements.) Cool---so cool.

By the way Kt---I found Spider Fingers piano sheet music available for download at Music Notes for about $6.50. I don't think I could ever drink enough Mt Dew and coffee to get my fingers to move that fast though----guess it's up to someone else!

Don't forget to leave a comment!

Online Stories for Kids

2007-06-27T11:22:00.000-07:00

Don't ask me how or why I stumble onto this things!! Here's a great site that has a new story to listen to every week. The narrator has a grand english accent and is wonderful. The site also has a great page of directions about how to download and save the stories onto the computer, onto an iPod or to burn onto a CD. I'm going to download some and burn them onto a CD for Devon when we travel. If I was clever, I'd break out the mp3 player and figure out how to make it work (it's not an iPod!)

Online, shareable Mind mapping with bubbl.us

2007-06-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

You heard about it at Cadre and now I'm telling you about it again. It resembles Inspiration--it resembles what you can do in Microsoft, but it's web 2.0---shareable and online! Log in, build away and don't forget to invite me to your share group so we can practice together.

http://www.bubbl.us/index

SmartBoard Video Recorder

2007-06-24T06:07:00.001-07:00

You probably realize that I don't have ready-access to a SmartBoard everyday, but I do know that the toys and tools available with the Board are powerful. I re-visited them this morning as I was thinking about www.zamzar.com . SmartBoard Video Recorder. It records your movement on the computer and your voice (I skipped the voice part today.) Of course the file is enormous---but it has potential for use in a v-cast or for classroom instruction. Go try to use it once today---just for practice and to inspire you to be creative. Tell me how it goes.

And zamzar-----that'll be next time as well as ImTOOFLV (an avi to flv converter). You'll soon see why you need that free tool too.

EasyBib

2007-06-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

Here's the teenager-tested, mother-approved online citation/bibliography maker. Here's what a toy that I learned about from a Digital Native. So.........http://www.easybib.com/ . Don't forget to comment.

RSS in plain english

2007-06-20T09:39:00.000-07:00

At commoncraft you can watch the video that really explains RSS. http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english

It's great!

Google Reader

2007-06-19T19:57:00.000-07:00

A Google RSS Aggregator! Yup--- I found it. This is how you design a personal "newspaper" of just the Feeds you want.

I made the Google Reader another Home tab on IE7 and now all the freshest stuff on the topics I want is in one spot!

Now Char and I are working on starring and sharing and folders!!

http://www.google.com/reader/

Using Google's Picasa!

2007-06-03T18:33:00.000-07:00

Today I tried out Picasa2 to see just what it would do. I'm trying to see just what it is capable of doing. It isn't too powerful, but it's good for quick fixes. The part I think is so interesting is that it is connected seamlessly with Blogger! Duh---that's why you have to use a Blogger says "use your Google account" to sign in!! But somehow I keep forgetting that Blogger and Google are.....family! :)

Now have you tried Google notebook yet? I'm telling you---it's fantastic. You can just clip notes from this website and that and ...presto....notes in a notebook! Cool!!

Yesterday I was struggling to get a Word document to upload or connect is some way to the blog....then I imported it into Google Documents and clicked "Publish" and guess what.....presto----into the blog.

You know I'm a webmaster----I build webpages and websites and I encourage you to do that all the time---but I'm beginning to see that blogging is really no different than your baisc webpage---putting stuff on the internet as information for others. Tonight I'm going to take a look at Google webpage builder.

Conclusion: Go look at Picasa2 and upload to your blog; try the Google Notebook; take a look at Google Documents (note the collaboration option---it even includes a chat piece.....wonder if that will bypass the block some places have on email and IM during school hours).

Super Easy Image Resizing

2007-05-30T07:27:00.000-07:00

Back in the days of dial-up, I would grumble loudly when someone emailed me a HUGE photo. I have sent my "How to re-size and compress" directions to countless folks and that has been mildly successful. This week I discovered Image Resizer in Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP. Yup---it's been around for 2-3 years and I just discovered it....what a sleuth I am! :(

It downloads almost instantly and installs that quickly too. The odd part is that there is NO icon for this little gadget----you just right mouse click on a photo and in the menu there is now a choice for "resize image." Presto! You can then select any size, from a list of pre-selected ones like 640x480 or any custom size, plus other options too. It will automatically create files with the same name but with a (Small) or (Custom) part in the file name before the file extension, like MSC004 (Custom).jpg. You can select a group of photos and resize them all at one time.

There are other "toys" that may be helpful--I downloaded a couple others---but this Image Resizer is fantastic. I wonder if it is a built in feature in Vista?

Google Toy: Notebook

2007-05-28T10:46:00.000-07:00

My goodness it's just unbelievable the number of GREAT things that Google has to offer. Today I refreshed my memory about using their Notebook product that allows you to clip pieces of the internet into a notebook. You can add your own notes to what is clipped. I have a number of different notebooks about different areas of interest and I can keep adding stuff to them along the way. A great add-in allows you to have access to the notebook ANY time you are browsing the web. It is a little notebook icon that you can click on that opens as a "widget" or "baby window" within IE so you can just view, clip, and keep rolling.

http://www.google.com/options/

Stellarium

2007-05-24T07:46:00.001-07:00

http://www.stellarium.org Make sure to go to the .org site. I downloaded the free OpenSource software quickly and installed it easily. It was soooooooo cool that I woke my sleeping husband up (it was 1am) to come look at it!

I used to make inflatable plantetariums with my K-8 rural classrooms and then use a little star projector. Stellarium is the way-pro version of that project! I then jumped on Yahoo groups to the plantaterium folks and got great new ideas for building plantetariums with kids, tying it all into the curriculum, etc.

It makes me want to get back to a classroom to it out---------or at least inspire YOU do use it with your students!!