History for Music Lovers

Found this wonderful Youtube channel that even taught me something new about history using music... kids will love it.



Check out Napoleon and Cleopatra and so many more!

Twitter Lessons Today

Today was a snow day. It could have been a day to sleep and forget about school but we have this wonderful technology integrator in our district that gets us all excited about things. Today she held an Elluminate session for the teachers about Twitter. I have been on Twitter for a very long time but I went to the session so I could be moral support. It turns out that Kathy Schrock also held a Twitter session today at FETC. I was hoping that her session was going to be streamed and sent her a message on Twitter to post the link to the stream. It was not streamed but Kathy sent me a message with links to her resources. A teacher/librarian's dream! Now I can spend the rest of the week clicking and learning! Oh, and on Kathy's page she has a Youtube video from one of my mentors, Jim Gates... here is Twitter in 60 Seconds. Oh, I also follow Jim on Twitter!


Join Twitter and start your own Personal Learning Network (PLN). Oh, and it is very cool that someone as famous as Kathy Schrock, who I learned about in library school, took the time to send me a message on Twitter with her links. Librarians are just like that, we share, share, share! Here is a link to Kathy Schrock's blog! Enjoy! :-)

More Groundhog Day Fun!

Here is more information on the Groundhog Inner Circle from Accuweather!



Learn more about Groundhog Day here.

Happy Groundhog Day

Every year on Groundhog day I wake up early to record the events on PCN for my students and every year they eagerly await their library class so they can see Punxsutawney Phil's latest prediction. However, on this 125th year of Phil predicting the weather my students will not be able to see Phil calling for an early spring because we have a snow day. So, I am telling them through my blog that Phil did NOT see his shadow today, February 2, 2011. Yeah for an early spring, since this is our 5th snow day this year we all can use an early Spring! Now watch this short video about Phil and his two handlers and remember Phil is the smartest groundhog in the world because he lives at the Punxsautawney Library! What better place to live?

Happy Groundhog Day!

Glogster

Hope this Candle Burns Bright

I have been looking for some animated gifs for my students to use on some wikis we want to begin in January. Someone on Plurk posted this link with holiday gifs and I am trying it out here to make sure it works... and it does. I am getting excited about showing these to my students.

Wes Fryer's Blog Caught My Eye Today, December 5, 2010

I have been checking out Wes Fryer's pictures on Flickr the last few days. He has been in Maine checking out some very inquiry driven classrooms. He has been posting the pictures and telling us all about his trip on Plurk. Actually, he has not been on Plurk much lately but has been feeding Plurk through his Twitter stream and with TwitPics of his visit. He wrote about one elementary classroom in the blog post: Be Kind, Do your Best and be a Voracious Reader. He also wrote about Alice Barr's classroom and her 21st Century Tool Kit. Alice is someone we both follow on Twitter.

Plurk Powwow - Text2Speech Software Solutions

For so many years I was in awe of Miguel Guhlin and his education blog. Don't get me wrong, I am still in awe but now that Miguel has embraced Plurk I get to enjoy his thought process as well as his expertise. Yesterday he was wondering on Plurk what kind of assistive technology was available for reading text to students. Miguel got so many answers to his text-to-speech question that his Plurk discussion gave him the fodder for this blog piece, check it out: Plurk Powwow - Text2Speech Software Solutions!

Audacity Tutorials

It has been a long time since I used Audacity in the classroom with my students but I wanted to use it again this year with a new group of students. I came across these Audacity step-by-step tutorials that will help me and my students understand how to use Audacity to the fullest!

I also created a Wallwisher for my students to use as we start the new year. Our building theme is "Fill a Bucket" and the students will write a sticky to say how they will fill buckets this year.

Walk Across America

SkipZ, a member of my Plurk Personal Learning Network, shared a link to this video. It is wonderful. After you view the Walk Across America click on the link to see how they did it. It is very inspiring. How many places can you identify in the video? How many places have you seen in the video?

My 2 Cents on Library Standards.

In my opinion the State of Pennsylvania is not doing school librarians any favors with its new Standards Aligned System (SAS). If the truth be told there is not much that can be done to make sure Pennsylvania students get a good information literacy education and it is not because school librarians are not doing their jobs. It is because the state does not have library standards. Back in 2005 Commonwealth Libraries put forth Pennsylvania Guidelines for School Library Programs and the document is awesome. However these are guidelines and not state standards so they do not get enforced and therefore do not appear in the SAS. I want to use SAS. I believe in it but I want the state to realize that we need to get our students ready for this century and not the last. I want the state to adopt authorized, clear library standards that can be measured with benchmarks and fair assessments and can be part of SAS. Only then will materials and resources be allocated to school libraries (yes, the state has cut library funding again this year). Anything less will mean Pennsylvania students will fall behind the states that are teaching media and information literacy with concrete measurable goals and prescribed instruction and interventions.

Google For Teachers 2

This new book is so cool. I enjoy my PLN, there are so many very talented people who share everything they learn. Check out Google for Teacher II below.


Google for Teachers II

Plurk This, Twitter!

I was very happy and surprised this week when I saw that Miguel Guhlin had become a fan of mine on Plurk. We follow each other on Twitter but I just recently pulled my Plurk friend request from Miguel thinking he had given up completely on Plurk. But enter Kevin Honeycutt and his presentation at TEC-SIG (Texas Computer Education Association’s conference). KevinH is my friend on Plurk. He is everyone’s friend (everyone in my PLN is a teacher or in the education field). I have never met KevinH in real life but he has met many of the people I personally know on Plurk. KevinH is a Plurk Evangelist. He speaks at many conferences and always promotes the Professional Learning Network that I am part of on Plurk. He is one of the people I ask when I need technology help. Check out Miguel’s recent blog post:

Plurk This, Twitter!

I agree with Miguel, my network on Twitter was bigger too but I was missing the personal threaded type discussions. For me it was always hit or miss on Twitter. I was on Twitter almost from the beginning and I was following so many non-educators that I was getting bogged down, then the marketers started spamming, and celebrities started racing to get the most followers. The more popular Twitter became the more I lost interest. I started to Plurk in 2008 but was not real active until a couple of educators introduced me around in their PLNs, and that was all I needed. The number of people I follow on Plurk is still not as large as those I follow on Twitter and Twitter is still my network of choice during conferences (gotta love the backchanneling that goes on at conferences) but my contacts seem more like relationships on Plurk and my Plurk PLN rocks!

Happy Mother's Day

I created this on kizoa for my daughter. Happy Mother's Day! It was a joy to create this video message!

Happy Mother's Day - Slideshow

PSLA with kizoa

I have been playing with kizoa the online slide show creator. It is pretty easy to use. Check out some pictures I took at PSLA 2010 done kizo style.

PSLA - Slideshow