TwitterMosaic

So I was on twitter today and someone posted a link for twitterMosaic. I of course had to check it out. My twitterMosaic is below. You can get your own and can get a snapshot of your friends and followers on twitter!

Get your twitter mosaic here.

3-D Hamlet targets teens

I am not sure how I feel about this but I guess if it gets more kids and teens to see, hear, read, and/or watch a Shakespeare play than it can't be bad. And if some adults that have never read the classics are drawn in, all the better! The link to this article was first shared with me on Plurk through Skip Z, a member of my Personal Learning Network (PLN), an idea teachers have borrowed from the business sector. I learn a lot on Plurk and Twitter. I think all teachers need a PLN. That is why I do social networking and why I blog. Take a look at this. The 3-D 'Hamlet' targets teens.

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F.I.N.E.

Someone in my Personal Learning Network (PLN) was complaining the other day because in response to a perfectly reasonable request his or her teenager got angry, slammed bedroom door and said, “Fine.” If you have ever heard a teenager use that word in that tone, you know that they are not using the word fine the same way you do when someone asks you how are things going and you say, “fine.” Totally different! And, leave it to the British component of my PLN to explain it the way her mother would! Not even sure which British friend it was but she said her mother defines fine as: “F.I.N.E.: fed up, insecure, “k” nackered, and emotional. And that my friend totally explains the attitude and tone of the word when it is spit in your direction! I now admit that I had no idea what “k” nackered meant, so I had to look it up myself and learned from Wiktionary that it means extremely tired or exhausted. So, now you know too. When your teen, student, child, or spouse says they are “fine.” They could mean something totally different than the word implies!

25 Must-Have Firefox Extensions for e-Learners

Check out these Firefox Extensions for educators and e-learning.
25 Must-Have Firefox Extensions for e-Learners

Apple Tablet

I love my MacBook Pro and my iPhone but if Apple really does come out with a table in 2010 how could I resist? How could anyone? Just the idea of a tablet with the interface of an iPhone has me drooling. I read an article that says it should be ready by next year sometime and for me it could not come soon enough. I already try to scroll on my laptop screen; you should see the fingerprints, not pretty! And, it doesn’t work. Go figure. So, if Steve Jobs comes out with a tablet and it has a 10-inch (more or less would be fine too) screen as reports indicate, it would be purse worthy! Depending on the cost, it could change the face of education; one device to read and page through text is a lot smaller than carrying all those textbooks around. Not to mention having the Internet in the palm of your hand. With built in 3G wireless it looks better and better all the time! I don’t want to wait! The picture at the right comes from AppleInsider and looks like a stretched out iPhone. Not sure if it will really look like that but I hope I don’t have to wait too long for it to be a reality. I can see school tech directors going for these rather than full priced computers and laptops. Can you see these taking the place of all those laptop carts in schools? This may be a bigger innovation for schools than the Apple II. A cart full would be a heck of a lot lighter to push around too!

RIP Walter Cronkite

What I liked most about Walter Cronkite was that he was a human being. He showed real emotion when President Kennedy was killed in Texas.



It is hard to believe this was 40 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. Walter Cronkite will be missed.

Transformers...

If you think education stops at the classroom door, you have not seen this short youtube video from Glad Tidings Church in Reading, PA. My nephews have been practicing for this for weeks and telling me how cool it was. I hope you think it is cool too.

If the joy of education has turned into the job of education maybe we should try to incorporate giant robots that transform into our classrooms and libraries. Just kidding. Hope you like the video.

Presenting with text

I have been teaching 4th grade students how to use PowerPoint correctly during the last few years. I was wondering how I could show them that text and layout were important to the esthetics of their presentations and then I came across this presentation by Tudor Girba from the University of Bern in Switzerland. Check out his SlideShare Presentation:

Presenting with text

View more documents from Tudor Girba.

Educational Origami

Want to start a new technology integration project in your classroom? Want to use a cool new web application tool to do the project but don’t know how? Well, does Andrew Churches have the answer for you! Andrew is from Auckland, New Zealand. He is a computer curriculum manager and the organizer of a wiki called educational origami. Educational Origami is one of the best wikis I have seen for incorporating Blooms Taxonomy into lessons using technology. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License, Educational Origami allows teachers to use all the information in the wiki and remix it to fit their curriculums simply by giving Andrew credit.

But not only that, Andrew wants to make it easy for teachers to learn how to use Technology so he has created PDF files that he calls “Starter Sheets” that are just that, sheets that will help you get started with any product you choose. He also has a blog on which he posts videos similar to the “Starter Sheets” that instruct on the use of the most common Web2.0 Applications. This blog post is an instructional video on how to use Voicethread. The blog post even allows you to download the video so that you can share it during staff development time. It downloads as a QuickTime Movie and already has Andrew's name on the opening screen, so it already gives him credit. You also hear his incredible accent.

All in all I am very happy to have come across Andrew Churches wiki. It will be quite helpful to me when I freeze up and decide not to use something with my students because I am afraid I don’t know how. It will give me that little boost of confidence I need to use technology tools when I know it will be a boost to my curriculum. I am also following Andrew on twitter, his twiter name is achurches.

Librarians Are Vital to Education

I have been following this link to Kelly's Curriculum Corner and I am getting angry at administrators who think they can get away with an aide in the library 3 days a week and sharing librarians among several schools. Kelly's Curriculum Corner: Libraries as the Hub of School Improvement.
Librarians are vital to education. I agree that librarians share unique perspectives about the curriculum. Why won't anyone listen? It is getting frustrating too that some librarians refuse to change. Refuse to acknowledge that our jobs are changing. If librarians are not into technology then they may loose their jobs. But, our students need us to help them wade through the jungle that is the Internet. If librarians are willing to use technology tools they are vital to the development of the 21st Century learners they teach. Information and Media literacy are important things for students to learn and if they are not learning them in the library where are they learning them?

Happy Father's Day

Just needed to share this today on Father's Day. I wrote this a while ago and it still makes me cry. Sometimes we all just miss our daddies.

Brava Papa

One day you used those
Words to another but they
Should have been to you.
Brava Papa

You taught us all
Right from wrong
And to do no harm
Brava Papa

You were there when
tears stained my face
and I needed
Your warm embrace
Brava Papa

Why is it that we
Always wait
Until the time is just too late to say
Brava Papa

You were there when my knuckles
Were white on my very first flight
I was leaving you for the first time
I know it was hard
Brava Papa

You stood proud and tall
As I was all dressed in white
I was leaving again
And again you wiped my tears
Brava Papa

This time it was you that left
Who could blame you?
You are with the
Father of All
Where skies are blue
And peace abounds
Brava Papa

Now

Ok so I find this site a little weird but I still can't seem to take my eyes off it. I am adding part of it to this blog post but for the full effect of Now you have to go to the Sprint Now website. To get a taste of what you can see on the site click the shuffle button on the bottom left. Strange but compelling. Not sure how I feel about this page.