Archive for the ‘Cool Web Items’ Category

Ranging out of control

Friday, June 9th, 2006

The activity going on over at Blog2Learn is amazing! I am having so much fun browsing through the blogs. Assesment plans from O’Reilly’s Blog, how-to directions from the Byrd House, interesting musings on directions to take with blogging from Browder’s Site, and Project Group 3 (Kim, Chris, and Julie) have already created their own pbwiki! This wiki was announced with a glittering sign “We love wikis” on this post from Mrs. Cole’s Oh No! It’s the BLOG.

Also, take note of how cleverly the cat states one of the blog guidelines on “the talking cat” at the top of her blog.

Brainstorming, lots of Web 2.0 tool use, creativity, and planning is going on. What a week!What a group!
Now I have just highlighted a few of many, many “sparks”. They are all over the blogs.

Then this spark of creativity from Sandy Rittenhouse of Language Links. This is one sample of the talent emerging from this group. Sandy wrote this poem on the first day of the workshop:

Two dozen teachers
Crowded in a lab
Searching and surfing
Typing like mad.
Some are beginners
Some are old hats
But everyone listens
While working like rats.

This was my comment to her:

Wow! I hope we get some more of your poetry. Maybe you could write one about the different language arts blogs. That would tickle some of the authors. What do you think?

She emailed me right in the middle of when I was finishing up comments to the others. That was the day Will presented - she was still working away at 9:30 that night (along with me!). Then today I get an email from her and listen to this post entitled Blogophiles:

Language Arts teachers learning something cool,
we’re from Cobb County and Marietta schools.
Instructors far and near, using Skype and other tools,
working hard so we can all turn into blogging fools.

We’ve learned to import files and give our work some style,
and we know how to link to lots of other blogophiles.
The hard part will be leaving our blogs once in a while
to walk the gritty paths of No Left Behind Chile!

One thing I can tell from all this is that for sure “No learner is going to be left behind” by this dedicated group. They get it! I’m ranging out of control but usually when I do that I have to admit it is mostly when I’m working with students. It sure feels good to “range out of control” with a special group of teachers.

Posted in Collaborating, Connections, Cool Web Items, Learning | 3 Comments »

Having a little “Flickr” fun with blogging!

Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006

I’ve been having a little fun with Flickr tools and blogging. Now this was done late one evening when my brain was a little tired but I’m going to get back to this and create some more. I am rested and the creativty genes are alive and buzzing! I’m going to incorporate this into the activities with my students and their blogging. There’s nothing like visuals to get the point across. They will love it! The ways we can use these to reinforce concepts and have fun while learning are limitless! Lots of ideas are swimming in my head! This helps them absorb and internalize their learning- yet another way to give them ownership of their ideas and enjoy the blogging!
Students recreate, in their own words, what they’ve learned. This helps them absorb and internalize new information, giving them ownership of their ideas.

Motivational poster

Perspective320.jpg
Conversation Blurbs
Cartoon320.jpg
So join in on the fun and let’s all start creating some blog “visuals”! It could go a long way in getting other educators to see the possiblilities!

slickr

Wednesday, February 1st, 2006

Last night I installed slickr on my home machine. I found out about this nifty screensaver from e-Clippings.

Mark Oehlert is the author of this fascinating blog. He says……..

This is soooo mesmerizing. slickr is a screensaver that reaches back into flickr

for the photos to display. You start to walk away from your machine and

then the pictures start and you just sit back down, watching and

wondering what the next picture will bring.

He is so right. I just

sat there and was captivated. Just what I need, right? Now I will be

even more scattered, covered and smothered but this learning is sooooo much

fun!

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Posted in Cool Web Items, Imported | Comments Off