Andy Losik’s Islands of Geektopia

Pic Lits is a wonderful site for building literacy in a very artistic form.

If you are like me, it seems that I constantly struggle to find new and engaging ways to teach voice, ideas, and word choice as necessary writing traits.

Today though, while reading through some of Kevin Jarrett’s archives at NCS-Tech, I found the absolutely stunning PicLits.com.

Users select a picture from a series of thumbnails that scroll across the top of the page. Once one is selected, a box of words pops up that can be dragged and dropped onto the picture. The user may arrange them into sentences or simply place words in a collage around parts of the image. Think those word magnets people have on their refrigerator meet some of the prettiest and most interesting photographs you have ever seen.

I used this with first grade students today in hopes they might be able to simply read words they felt matched their pictures of choice. Like most open ended activities, they blew me away with some of the ideas and concepts they dragged and dropped onto their photos. There were so many different approaches. There were deep thoughts and some fun randomness. Some grew frustrated that some of the words they had in their heads weren’t listed but ultimately learned more expressive ways to make their points with what was in the word bank.

I cannot wait to use Pic Lits with all of my different grade levels. If you ask kids to write, then give them a chance to get started with this site.

This is absolutely amazing. That is all I have to say about that. Amazing!

Got stress?

The Winter Grumpies getting you down?

Hit the ‘Eject’ button.

There you go. Feel better?

When I went to the Chicago Google Teacher Academy in September, my bag of goodies contained a book called “Teach like your hair is on fire”. I had carried it in my laptop bag for months thinking, “I ought to take a look at this.”

The thing that made me pick it up…and hardly put it down since…was the mass of Twitter messages coming from The Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo and Conference (PETE&C) raving about the closing keynote speaker Rafe Esquith. I quick Googled the name and a link to the book I had been hauling around for months was the first hit.

After reading just a few pages, I could see what all of the excitement was about. Below is a story from The Today Show that takes you inside Room 56 and gives a bit of a glimpse into what makes Rafe such an exceptional teacher.

The book is available at Amazon with excerpts available for reading online.

More from Today.

If you already have a whiteboard and an lcd projector, you are only a Nintendo Wii remote and a tricked out pen away from having your very own interactive whiteboard.

Kristen Vandegutche, special education teacher at Blue Star Elementary in Hamilton, Michigan was able to do just that. She first downloaded a free piece of  software called Wiimote Whiteboard that runs on Macs, Windows, or Linux.

With some help from her dad, she transformed an old Expo marker into an infared emitting pen. Kristen said this was the most difficult part of the process and would definitely recommend next time going the commercial route, and purchasing one from the growing number of online outlets. Try a supplier like Infraredpens.com or visit this discussion to find other other places to get the pen. If you are handy and want a little adventure there are plenty of online guides for building your own like this one from Instructables.

Once you have all of the pieces, set-up is pretty simple. One of the trickiest parts is finding a spot for the Wii remote. It must be at a 45 degree angle with nothing between it and the board. Instructables also offers a guide  for the setup.

The final step before use is to calibrate the computer’s display with the whiteboard’s field of projection. The software walks the user through a 4 spot touch calibration.

Like any other project of this nature, it will take some tweaking. Expect a bit of a learning curve as you gain control of the pen and the subtleties of finding the correct range and angle of the Wiimote.

This low cost solution seems to be a growing trend across education. As more and more tech savvy teachers try it, the community of users grows as the does the opportunities to support each other with what is working and what is not. The Wiimote Project looks like the perfect spot to join in the conversation.

Best of luck and if you have any other great Wiimote Whiteboard resources to share, please do so.

One of the best things I have done with my digital camera is making a commitment to use less flash in my photography. That isn’t always the easiest thing to do, especially if your camera doesn’t have a lot of settings. All of those goofy little symbols on the dial can do a bunch of neat things but most people just ignore them.

If you use the “flash-off” icon and you  light your subject enough, the process is pretty simple. The other way to do shots without flash involves greatly slowing down your shutter speed. This is usually done with the big S on your dial. When you slow the speed, you are telling the camera to keep the iris open longer and allow all of the natural light to fill your picture. This is how most night shots are taken. A flash floods the immediate field with ligh, but a slow shutter and long exposure create a much more natural picture…more like the way your eye sees the world.

I took this Christmas picture that way.

The technique is really good for still settings. You run into problems if you have a moving object during a long exposure shot. However, you can get creative and have fun with it too. In the picture below I am moving around in my remodeling project and because I am not in one spot long enough for the camera to imprint me on the image fully I ended up looking kind of ghostly.

This technique is also used by photogs shooting a skyline at night near a highway. The passing cars show up as blurs against the still cityscape.

Quite possibly the biggest factor in whether any low-light, flashless shot is going to be successful is steadiness. It is almost humanly impossible to hold a camera steady enough in hand to take a picture like these. You have to set the camera down. I invested in $15 mini tripod from Best Buy and it has made all of the difference. The trees were taken with the camera setting on the garbage can out by the curb and the washer served as the platform in the basement destruction zone. I have also found that using the self timer takes away any shake my big fat fingers cause when depressing the shutter.

Shoot more pics!