Archives: December 2007

What is RSS?

This past year I’ve noticed that a bunch of educators in our system have started blogging. One of the easiest ways to keep up with all these new blogs (in one place) is to use RSS. Here’s a simple explanation created by commoncraft:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/AwtmOPdrEL8" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

I use Google Reader, but there are other feed readers out there like Pageflakes or Netvibes. If you want one already set up for you, check out this one on Pageflakes–it’s all set up for Salem City Schools, complete with RSS feeds for the blogs I know about (let me know if I’ve missed yours), local weather, and local news. You can bookmark it and use it like it is or create your own account so you can add your own things.

SCS Feeds Page on PageFlakes

Download Video: Posted by tcoffey at TeacherTube.com.

Update (1/7/08)

I’ve noticed that Pageflakes sometimes runs really slow at school. If you are having trouble, you can use Netvibes instead. I’ve set up the same feeds there too. Netvibes does take awhile to load initially, but if you login and save the page, the next time you visit, it will load a lot quicker. Click here to try: Add to Netvibes After you click on this button, make sure to choose “yes” to preview the page and “yes” to add it to your page, even if you do not have a Netvibes account yet.

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Color Coded Maps

I thought this site (which lets you custom create a map of states) is pretty fun. Here are the places I traveled in 2007. I’ve have to do some research back into vacations during my childhood to figure out where I’ve been in my lifetime…we did a lot of driving when I was little.
create your own visited states map

There is also a site that will create a custom map of countries…here’s my very limited map of my lifetime…
create your own visited countries map

I could see uses for these sites in the classroom (beyond where you’ve traveled) like stories the class has read from around the world or correspondence with other classrooms or a Flat Stanley project. Do you have any ideas?

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The Miniature Earth Project

I’ve been hit a lot lately with references and stories about abundance and “stuff.”  I think there must be a lesson for me to learn because of it…and I’m going to try my best to do so in the coming year.  The latest thing that I’ve run across was a video is from the Miniature Earth Project.  It’s a must-see…

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/kIUCTbi_XZs" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

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Flip Videos at East Salem

We have two new pieces of equipment at East Salem thanks to a Food Lion Grant. They are called Flip Videos. These cute little devices will record video with the push of a button…and they attach directly to your computer to remove the videos when they are done. And, if that wasn’t cool enough, they also come with their own video editing software, running right on the camera itself (so nothing to install beforehand). When we bought them, our hope was that they’d be used by kids! So, what better way to tell the teachers about them than to let the kids do a demo? I found a few kids from Mrs. Chittum’s class and handed them the cameras…no instructions on how they worked. In less than 30 sec. they were taping one another…then we were off to do interviews! Here’s the video they made to show the teachers how these little gadgets work:

Download Video: Posted by tcoffey at TeacherTube.com.

If you are interested in having your students use these in class, see Luci to check them out.

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Trip to NYC

Last week I had a chance to go spend time in NYC. This was only my second time ever visiting, and really the first time I had a chance to check out some of the famous places there. Here’s a thirty second overview of what I saw:[kml_flashembed movie="http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/46928cc51133af17/4760bbef51b287d4" width="432" height="250" wmode="transparent" /]

I brought back some pics and short video clips of these places. I’d like to increase our collection of pictures and video clips for kids to use in digital projects without having to worry about copyright. Even though there are sites out there that allow you to download pics for educational uses, there are a number of reasons why doing this is difficult (or not safe) for younger students. Having a folder of pics that match SOLs that students can use freely would help. I’ll add the ones I brought back from NYC. If you have any other digital pics or short digital videos (especially ones that match SOLs) that you don’t mind sharing, please leave a comment here or drop me an email.

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Tracking Santa and Other Fun Holiday Sites

I’ve had a few requests for some fun sites to use with your students during the holiday time. Here’s some I’ve run across lately!

Norad Tracks Santa Want to track Santa as he makes his trip around the world? This site has games to play until Christmas Eve, when you can track Santa’s route on Google Earth.

Place the Penguins (Place Value)

Virtual Snowman (Practice click and drag–great for younger kids on the laptops!)

Christmas Music (Thanks Karen Travitz!)

Northpole.com (This site does promote some items from Amazon.com, but there are a lot of fun, free activities too!)

Make-a-Flake (Make a snow flake by clicking and dragging–another great site to practice laptop skills!)

For SCS teachers, I’ve posted these sites on the main Links for Kids Page. On the first page, they need to click “December Holiday Sites.”

If anyone has anymore great sites they are using with their students, please leave a comment. I’ll do my best to add the sites you suggest to the Links for Kids Page so that you can use them easily in your classrooms!

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What We Learned from Virtual Scuba Diving Project

I’m slowly (but surely) making my way around to the classes that participated in the Scuba Diving project with Meg Swecker. I’ve already made it to a few classes, and the students have had a chance to record what they learned on a collection of Mrs. Swecker’s pictures in Voice Thread. This VoiceThread will evolve as I finish making it around to the other classes.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=27442" width="480" height="360" wmode="transparent" /]

Meg and I also had a chance to sit down and talk about the project from our perspective as ITRT’s, and I also learned some of the other neat ways she extended this project with her students in Roanoke County . We recorded much of the conversation as a Field Report for the GenTech Podcast. If you’d like to listen, here’s the link.

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