AKA Riptide Furse

Custom pot of gold animation for Saint Patrick’s day

Here is a neat little generator you can use to make something for your blog or web page for St. Patrick’s Day.

generator, St. Patrick’s Day, blog, animation

Image via Wikipedia

Library of Congress Open House Feb. 16 - The Library Today (Library of Congress)

Main Reading Room Open for Washington’s Birthday

In honor of the federal Washington’s Birthday Holiday, the magnificent Main Reading Room in the Thomas Jefferson Building welcomes visitors for a special public open house on Monday, Feb. 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Main Reading Room is located on the first floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street, S.E. Washington, DC.

The Great Hall, the Library of Congress Experience and other Library exhibitions will also be open to visitors, including “With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition,” which opens with special evening hours on Feb. 12 from 5 to 9 p.m.

The Library of Congress has a set of Lincoln pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/sets/72157613324367705/

What you can do with some of the pics on Flickr…

Dumpr.net

You are there. Imagine you were there at a point in Lincoln’s life. Write a blog entry describing what you saw.

Created with dumpr.net - photo fun

Big Huge Labs

Make a picture using quotes from Lincoln

My aunt Argagatha made this sweater that I thought I would share with you.
You can see it bigger here http://www.thisisgrow.com/archive/officemax/myholidaysweater/ee704c5c.73040 You can also create your own!

Happy Holidays!

National Day of Listening

Jennifer Dorman is such a great resource for websites. I just got this from one of her recent bookmarks.

StoryCorps is declaring November 28 National Day of Listening.

In a nutshell it’s all about listening to other people tell their stories. No matter who you spend the holiday with everyone has a story. Take some time to capture their story before it is lost forever.

I remember growing up that I would spend most of the time in the kitchen with my mom and her sisters. They would tell the best stories about the time they had growing up. I wish they had made recording as easy as it is today. I would have our personal family stories to listen to over and over again. Family members would be able to listen to our own “Running with Scissors” story or “Down the Clothes Chute” story and even “The Never-Ending Stuffing the Turkey” story.

So don’t let those stories get away from you. It is too easy when you think about it. Use your computer or your phone or your mp3 device to get those stories this Thanksgiving and each one annually from now on.

They have Do It Yourself guides along with question generators. There is also a teachers’ toolkit and a library toolkit.

Some tools to use might include:

VoiceThread
Gabcast
Gcast

On my iPhone I have at least 3 different voicerecording apps that were free.

Do you know of any other ways that will make it easy to capture these stories? Let us know in the comments.

Technorati Tags: NPR, learn, participate, listen, share, storycorps, storytelling, recording, podcast

Elfster

Steve Dembo went and did it again. If you missed it last year, you really need to check this out. Using a site called Elfster, everyone signs up to participate. On the given date everyone is assigned a person to buy a gift for. It’s a great way to meet new educators.

http://www.elfster.com/apps/exchange/Join.aspx?euid=803A526C-7575-4E2F-BE36-37DCA2671A0F

We’re now using Elfster at our school for different gift exchanges during the year.

I had a blast at the Costume Party. Thanks everyone for coming.

Thought I would share this costume idea that I have used a couple of times at my schools. It is super easy and inexpensive. It’s a rollercoaster. Well just one seat from the rollercoaster. We had great fun miming the ride going up hills, around corners and screaming all the way. Some of the kids just thought it was the best time to try it out. You should be able to figure it out by looking at these pictures. let me know if you have any questions.

PYZAM - Tic Tac Scare Code

Thanks to Heather Hurley for sharing this with me.

Just in time for International Talk Like A Prate Day - http://www.piratequiz.com/

  My pirate name is:

  Dirty William Bonney

  You’re the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean — not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate’s life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Here is a fun web site for those of us older people. It’s a collection of vintage Valentines.

Hearts Atwirl - Vintage Valentine Cards from the early to mid 20th Century via kwout

Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More - NPM Poster Request Form via kwout

Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More - NPM Poster Request Form

Get your free copy of this year’s National Poetry Month Poster.

Clinique | Clinique Happy™ wishes for Valentine’s Day.

Hey just saw this. Click the link above and you can send a free sample of Clinique to your sweetie for Valentines Day!

Welcome to OfficeMax

Most people have seen the Make an Elf of yourself by now. OfficeMax also has some other fun stuff on their web site for you this holiday season. There are 10 in all to distract you. Give Yes, I’m working! a try. It’s like the old Breakout game.

I really like Jennifer’s Blog. I have sent a few of her posts out to my staff. Still trying to get them to subscribe to feeds but have had very little luck so far.

Thanksgiving Web Sites
Thanksgiving Web Sites

If you want your students to understand and use primary source documents, then you must check out…