Archives: April 2007

CarverCast Featured in Karen’s Educational Mashups Podcast

The CarverCast Podcast was featured this month in a “mash-up” podcast called Karen’s Educational Mashups…a medley of podcasts based on a theme. Here’s the description of the show:

This podcast features mashups (compilations) of short excerpts from podcasts and other digital content of potential interest to the educational community. It is intended to give you a taste of a various podcasts that you might want to explore further. Most shows will have a theme, such as math, science, student productions, professional development, museum productions, or technology news. Some shows will be focused on podcasts for administrators and teachers, while other shows will highlight podcasts for students or parents. The show is produced and hosted by Karen Fasimpaur of K12 Handhelds.

We were featured on a episode entitled Elementary Student Productions. Check out the episode–you’ll hear our students in the middle!

Listen to the episode

While you’re at it, you might also listen to some of the other cool podcast excerpts on her blog. Maybe they will give you an idea or two that you can try with your students!

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Title I Laptop Cart Pictures on Bubble Share


I’m hoping to accomplish two things with this blog entry…

First of all, I wanted to remind you that both G.W. Carver and East Salem have Title I laptop carts with 16 BRAND NEW laptops on them. For smaller classes, these carts could be used for whole group instruction, but they could also be used for small groups. Consider using them to do a center or differentiated activity or pairing your students up on them for group work!

Second of all , I wanted to show you this neat website, BubbleShare, that will allow you to make and share slide shows with just a few clicks! I’ve used the site to post these pictures of Mrs. Maxwell’s first grade students using the Title I cart to sort words in Kidspiration!

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Get Published

Want to improve your students’ writing? Well, getting them published might do the trick! That’s what George Mayo did with his 7th grade students in Silver Springs, Maryland. Their book, Stories from the Past, is now available online and will be available at Amazon,display_thumbnailphp.jpg Borders, and Barnes and Noble in just a few weeks. The E-book version is free; the paperback version is $12.12. The book contains narrative essays that students have written to tell the stories of their families.

Mr. Mayo used a FREE service called Lulu. It allows ANYONE to publish a book without initial set up costs. Digital copies of the book are provided for free…hardback and paperback versions can be ordered for just a tad over the amount it takes to actually print the book (you can add more to the price if you want to make money). Books are printed as they are ordered, so there is no minimum order requirements. Here’s what Lulu says about it’s service:

“Publish and sell easily within minutes.
No set-up fees. No minimum order.
Keep control of the rights.
Set your own price.
Each product is printed as it is ordered.
No excess inventory.”

Just think of the possibilities for this service in your classroom! Here’s a couple of ideas I can think of off the top of my head:

  • Poetry anthology
  • Memories of school (5th grade)
  • Class collaborative story
  • Response to a writing prompt
  • Fairy Tales
  • School Fundrasier
  • Write about a non-fiction topic
  • Place copies of student/ class books in the school library for checkout

I’m sure you could think of more. Feel free to post some of your ideas. Getting published, holding a hard copy of your work, checking your book out of the library, and knowing that your friends, family, classmates, and people around the world will be reading what you wrote–that might be just the motivation your students need to really work on their writing!

I have been looking at and thinking about Lulu for awhile now, but when Will Richardson posted a blog entry and link to Mr. Mayo’s project, I had to jump on the bandwagon. Thanks Will!

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Sad

This has nothing to do with technology, but I can’t help but post. I earned my Masters from Virginia Tech, have spent tons of time on campus, and know of many people affected by the tragedy there today…students, teachers, friends. Virginia Tech is an extended part of my community…and we will not be the same. I am so sad. My heart goes out to everyone involved.

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Teacher Tube

You might have heard of You Tube or Google Video. If you have been reading this blog, you’ve seen some examples of videos from those sites. There is another video source for teachers out there: TeacherTube.  The good news is that Teacher Tube is directed at teachers, which means that most of the content there should be appropriate for teachers. The one drawback is that Teacher Tube has yet to find a way to interface neatly with edublogs (like You Tube and Google Video) but some other sites will allow you to embed the video directly in your page.  Click here to see a list of some of my favorites.

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Explore Planet Earth

Have you heard about Discovery Channel’s new 11 part mini-series event called Planet Earth? It airs on Sundays at 8PM e/p.  You can check out information on the show here.  Those of you who know me well know that I rarely watch television. I don’t have anything against it, but I just can’t sit still long enough to actually watch a show (unless I’m doing something else at the same time). Now, interact with video? I love to do that…and Planet Earth’s web page allows just that. And the added bonus? They even provide a tour of some of the places on the show with their Video Tour of Planet Earth using Google Earth. Watch video, explore scenes, view pictures….it’s awesome. I could see kids really getting into these features too, especially if you are doing a project or report on animals or habitats.

(Big thanks to Steve Dembo at Discovery Education for tipping me off to this awesome resource. )

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Resources from TTI

Pam Palmer and I had the chance to attend the Teacher Training Institute (Put on by the Blue Ridge PBS and Blue Ridge East Technology Consortium) in March. One of the requirements for attendance is that we share what we learned. We’ll be glad to talk to you one-on-one (and have already shared some info individually), but thought it might be nice if we posted some of the info for future references. Pam helped me write this post…

Digital Storytelling:

One of my favorite sessions was done by Meg Collins, an ITRT from Roanoke County. I probably should write an entry JUST on digital storytelling…it’s such a great way to get kids thinking and writing and using 21st Century Learning Skills. Here are some quick links to give you an idea of what it’s all about:

Advanced Smart Board:

Check out all the great Smart Board Resources on Elizabeth Cox’s Smart Board Portaportal!

United Streaming:

Did you know that the teacher section of United Streaming has a bunch of really cool resources? You can build quizzes, writing prompts, and assignments, search by themes, find lesson plans and more. It’s a great resource!

Lessons:

We had the chance to sit in on some demo lessons by Master Teachers…you can find a bunch of ready-to-go lessons on the NTTI site.

Miscellaneous Notes:

  • Copyright–Tom Landon, from Blue Ridge PBS, has a portaportal with great resources about copyright. You can read detailed information about copyright here.
  • Internet Safety–Joe Showker, an ITRT in Rockingham County, has a portaportal with Internet Safety Resources.
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Why blog? (An incredible classroom blog example)

I’ve been watching Kathy Cassidy’s Classroom blog a lot lately. I am so impressed! She is a grade one and two teacher in Canada…and she has used her classroom blog to really open the world for her students. I ran across this interview with her on You Tube…and just had to share.

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In her video, Kathy talks about blogmeister, a blogging site created for teachers by David Warlick. You can create a site for your class there or with another blogging engine (like 21 classes or edublogs). Start small, as Kathy said, and then as you feel comfortable, you can add more features later.

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