Eric Strommer’ Blog

I have been able to get our weather station back uploading data to the internet. There are 2 sites that we have our data going to. Weather Underground and PWS Weather.

Over to the right is a widget that I may add to my blog.
The one that is down below now is just general weather data from Flint.
Which one do you all prefer? I like the one I have now even though the data is not from our station.

Since I have some days to catch up with the whole 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger I have done days 3- 5 yesterday and today.

I like how I have been kind of doing what has been suggested for the tasks;

3- Write a thank you note. 4 - Creative Commons license and 5- Add ClusterMaps and Google Translate to the blog.

I found it funny that just as I was thinking who I should thank I had a comment to moderate on one of my posts. I went ahead and sent that person a thank you for finding my post useful.

Day 1 (and 2).

I have been mulling over whether to try this out or not. Allowing myself time being the main hindrance. Well, I started it. http://30d2bbb.pbwiki.com/

I went ahead and did day 1: About Me page. I did’t even know I had one. Kind of embarrassed about that. I have one now.

Day 2 was being able to monitor your site traffic. I have had the Cluster Map widget for a while now. I added SiteMeter now as well. For me it will be just for interest sake and a to goose my ego a bit.

Anyhow, I am looking forward to seeing what I can do to make this blog better for me and you, my faithful readers.

Well, I guess you could use this for digital storytelling even though it is geared for families and more of a scrap-booking crowd.

It is very user-friendly but the downside is that the free version is a bit limited with how many photos you can use, has ads, and you get only a few choices of music. But, this was way neat to make. This slide-show is from our last summer hurrah spent in St. Ignace, Mackinaw Island, and walking the bridge over Labor Day weekend.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

A couple of weeks ago out principal had to spend the day on the roof of our school. She challenged the students to earn 250 AR (Accelerated Reading) points. They quickly earned the points and with the help of the Flint Fire Department she was lofted on the roof. While up there she answered questions from the students that was sent up with a pulley system.

Found the following while reading den member blogs and such.

Snowman Cam from Gaylord, Michigan. While watching it for the first time at 11 pm along comes 2 deer and one camps out right in front of the cam.

Winzy found while reading up on free stuff at Heyitsfree!. Winzy is a search site (powered by Google) that lets you win stuff for just searching the web. So far I have won points for a chance to win something big like an Ipod.

Smilebox  a blend of Photostory 3 and Animoto. More like scrapbooking. Geared towards family. I’ll give a try.

Found a site that lists links to free stuff. http://www.heyitsfree.net/

So far I have sent for free loose leaf tea, glue, posters, and bumper-stickers.

From that site I discovered http://www.winzy.com/ . You search the web they may reward you with free stuff. If you create an account then you earn 1 point for every search and the get entered into monthly drawings for bigger prizes. You can add a search bar to your browser and get 2 points per search. Up to 50 a day. So far it’s legit and that’s goo for me. I am always up for free stuff.

Thanks to Bernie and Steve for an informative session at this evening;s EdTechConnect webinar. I can see the next steps that I can take with WebQuests.

Some interesting finds from the web:

Bow Street Runner ( from Bernie Dodge’s blog)

Stellarium, free astronomy program

Cogito, Connecting Young Thinkers from Around the World

Celestia , free space simulator, view space from out there.

NASA eClips, nasa now has free video clips for students at all levels.

Just puttering around the web and such. Found a few sites that my be interesting.

lookybooks, MapSkip,  YackPack.

I have been using the uTIPu program to record short videos of me using the on-line grade-book program WebGrader for teachers at my school. It is so easy to use. After I record what I do on my computer I can save it and upload it to the website. I can share it by giving them a link http://www.utipu.com/app/invited/id/4822db26fe8841f294c9748e01a76fbf (this one is a sample clip of one that I did) or send them an email invintation to watch the video at the website.