Pilkerriffic!Musings, ideas, and juicy links from a DEN STAR and MD LC member…

These are my links for November 19th through November 20th:

• Amazing Northern Lights Time Lapse - want to see what the Northern Lights look like? check out this National Geographic time lapse video…
• www.mypage.it | extraordinary web for kids. - safe, parent monitored webpages for 5 to 11 year olds
• Track My T - follow the path your tshirt has taken from the cotton field to your back!
• Free Desktop Organizer, Screen Saver, Desktop Background, Wallpaper. - what a cool idea! use one of these (or create your own if you have photoshop skillz…) desktop backgrounds to organize the look of your desktop!

These are my links for November 15th through November 17th:

• Computer Science Teachers Association: Email Netiquette - 20 email etiquette tips
• Culturally-Situated Design Tools - A fascinating collection of computer-related lesson plans that are based on cultural knowledge, such as researching the history of cornrow braids and designing some using an online applet.
• Organic Deals & Coupons - recently we’ve been (trying) to eat healthier at my house. which means I am stuffing my face with snacks when nobody’s looking. but here’s a site with coupons and info on eating organic…ally?

• wheeee! finally got my Google Wave invite! #
• presentation idea: “How To Stop Being a Noob.” A funny and informative take on becoming more comfortable with new tech. Funny or offensive? #

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• getting ready for the keynote at #PUWT #
• from tony vincent keynote at #puwt: 20 hrs of video uploaded to youtube every MINUTE! #
• oooh- if you want to download a youtube video, go to the vid you want and add the word kick before youtube. then you can download! #
• @thetechtiger follow me! lol- I’m starting to post info about MD LC events. we need to let more MD teachers know about our LC! #
• or is that just our row that loves Discovery? hahaha #puwt #
• i need to buy a better microphone so we can do podcasts in my lab! any suggestions? #
• squeeezed into session 2- The Teacher’s Internet #puwt #
• i hate laser pointers…#puwt #
• arrived early for Tony Vincent’s hands-on workshop at #puwt. good thing! it’s crowded and ppl are still pouring in! #

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Today I attended the PUWT conference at Dr. Henry Wise, Jr. High School in Prince George’s County.



What a beautiful school!  I hope the students appreciate it as much as I did!  Every classroom and space I went to was unique and wonderfully conducive to learning in its own way.

Okay, enough about the building and on to the conference!  The best part by far was the keynote, expertly given by Tony Vincent, a former Fifth Grade teacher and Technology Coordinator and now an educational consultant.  I liked it because it was different from other keynotes I’ve recently heard…it was fresh, relevant, fun, inspiring, and educational all at the same time.  Below are my notes from the keynote:

Keynote- Tony Vincent-fmr classroom tchr and sch tech specialist

-website- tonysite.info

-class website- Planet 5th

-willowWeb school site

podcast: radio WillowWeb

-web 2.0- marketing term- interactive web

-Google trends- type in a term and see the incidents of that term appearing on the internet

-youtube- fully based on user content - 20hrs of vid uploaded every minute

-hundreds of vids on youtube about how to cheat

-i.e.cut a notch out of an eraser and glue in a mini cheat sheet, writing on the inside of a water bottle label, increasing the size of periods on a term paper, writing on a stretched rubber band, etc.

-why do they cheat?  lazy? unchallenged? creativity not being funneled appropriately? see no value in the information?

-should we let students create cheat sheets?  gives them a chance to summarize, assess their own knowledge, decide what is most important.

-kickyoutube.com- lets you download youtube vids-

.info domain- only costs 89cents as opposed to $10 for a .com

-wiki- means quick in hawaiian - named after shuttle buses in Hawaii

-teampedia- icebreaker activities

-skype in schools

-mrs abernethy’s techno tigers - class wiki

-teacher wiki leads to student wikis they collaborate on

-can use a wiki to create a choose your own adventure story

-tinyurl.com- shortens URLs.  other options- bit.ly, is.gd, j.mp.  

or you could use hugeurl.com to make it HUGE!

-Authenticity-make work personal for students

-collect student data using a Google Spreadsheet

-delicious- social bookmarking *PREACHING TO THE CHOIR- I LOVE DELICIOUS!*

-delicious.com/tonyvincent

Novelty and Variety - new makes it interesting!

-host a game show in your classroom!

-Tony created a powerpoint template called Who Wants to be a Winner (search for it on google)

-you can search for game show templates-jeopardylabs.com- premade templates- everything happens in the web browser including keeping score

-use lightup discoball when you have a winner!

-Oriental Trading for prizes

Protection from Adverse consequences for Initial Failures - give students time to practice

-online quizzes (see tonysite.info)

-flashcards (flashcardDB.com)- no login necessary

Recording podcasts- you could record a “studycast” to tell students what to study for the next test

-mathtrain.tv- videos made by students about math

-voicethread- combine visuals and text and get comments on your video

-comics-comiqs.com, pixton.com,

-zooming presentations-prezi.com- new way to give visual presentations

Summary- Technology engages students and makes it so they don’t WANT to cheat!

There are a couple of really cool new tricks in there that I will be exploring, and then going into more detail on in another post.  So stay tuned for more from the PUWT conference!

These are my links for November 13th:

• YouTube- Evaluating Websites - short and sweet video explaining some of the things to think about when looking up info on the web
• Evaluating Internet Resources - lots of good information about how to evaluate websites for accuracy
• Thanksgiving Crafts: Turkey Table Topper | Thanksgiving Turkey Crafts | Family Fun - Family Fun always has great craft and activity ideas. I like this turkey basket because each child in your class could decorate a feather however they want, and when added all together they will look great.
• Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids: Printables, Clip Art, Coloring Pages & Decorations - Kaboose.com - some great thanksgiving craft ideas

These are my links for November 11th through November 12th:

• ArtisanCam - Activities - Picture Book Maker - make your own children’s books
• Jim Dachos’s Public Library | Diigo - nice list of educational uses for Glogster
• ZuiTube - The largest collection of online videos for kids - kidsafe you tube portal… if you haven’t seen it, check out the AutoTune version of Charlie Bit Me…ROFL!
• wetmount - an interesting way to sort data found on the Web

These are my links for November 10th:

• Coeur d’Alene School District: Grade 2 Resources - Just one page of many tech resources from Coeur d’Alene School District
• Only2Clicks - keyboarding resources
• BBC - Primary History - World War 2 - amazing resource to explain WW2 to children
• Math Nook - Math and puzzle games, worksheets, teaching tools and more! - lots of fun math games!
• Triptico | e-Learning Design and Training - cool blog with lots of ed-tech ideas and resources
• Creating an Online Personal Learning Network - Wonderful presentation by Bethany Smith on how a PLN works and how to create one.
• SIGilt Newsletter Fall 2009 - innovative learning newsletter
• Scratch Lesson Plan Published - great lesson plan setup by Liz Davis on how to teach Scratch to your class

For the past few years, our school has been using SchoolNotes to post our homework assignments online.  Recently, however, we have been having problems with SchoolNotes not updating properly, and this summer I had a terrible time signing up for new teacher accounts.  So I have begun to investigate other options, and I thought my research might benefit other teachers looking for an online homework site.First up: Homework Station.This is a snappy, simple little site with no ads and a very easy interface.  Teacher signup is quick and easy, and homework entry is quick and easy as well- great for those with minimal web skills.  The only complaints I have are that you can’t direct-link to a teacher’s site, from our school website for example.  Also, teachers can post grades from only three different subjects.  This works for some, but what about teachers like me who teach every grade in the school.  I have 19 classes!  3 boxes just isn’t going to cut it.Next: Homework Hero.Oh, no.  I’ve already hit a “con” - this site is not free.  However, the yearly fee starts at $24.95 for a whole school for a year, so it’s really not that bad.  But if you are an individual teacher, that’s a lot to spend when there are plenty of free options available.It looks like there are a lot of good things about this site.  Here’s their list of “Basic Features”:

Sounds Great!  But in order to try it, we have to pay…YourHomework.com- This site just looks spammy. I moved on to the next one.ClassNotesOnline.com- this looks ok- I would like to see a sample school site, but there are not many to be found.  The sample site they have available is very minimalist.  I do like the fact that you can create several pages, with a set of navigation links at the top.Final analysis- after looking at the options, I would probably go with Homework Hero.  That is just my opinion.  However, in the time since I started writing this draft, our school has actually decided to stop the use of a homework website (I did all this research for nothing! lol)  Even being the techie that I am, I applaud this decision.  Our students have planner booklets that were not getting used, because they would just look it up online.  But what happens when the network is down, or the website crashes?  We felt the need to instill a sense of responsibility in our students, for them to keep track of the work themselves.  In the end, these homework sites should be a back-up, not the only way to keep track of schoolwork.What do you think?  Are we coddling students by not holding them responsible for writing down their own work?

• just sent in my GTA application! w00t! #

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