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!

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?

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!

Wordle of Obama's Speech to School Children

President Obama is speaking to school children on what is the first day of school for many tomorrow. His remarks have been posted and while they seem quite genuine, he will not be speaking to the children in my school district. Not live anyway. Our assistant superintendent sent an e-mail to staff last week insisting that the speech be previewed before it is shared with students. My principal went one step further and said it should not be shared with elementary students in our building. Why is this so controversial? I offered to have the speech on in the library for whoever wanted to watch it but that is not going to happen now. Some high school students in the mid west are quietly protesting their school district’s decision to keep them from watching the president. They are simply taking their laptops outside at noon and will return to class when the speech is over. I am proud of them for exercising their rights. This is America and with Constitution Day coming up next week we should be celebrating Free Speech, not squelching it. Of course this is a militant radical librarian talking and not a classroom teacher. Maybe it would be considered political posturing if a teacher forced his/her class to listen to a speech. But in the library it is free speech for all and all opinions are welcome. Here is a Wordle of the president’s speech that someone in my PLN on Plurk created. Enjoy!

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!

Star Spangled Banner on Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day!

One of my Plurk friends sent this video out to our social network. I was very impressed with this story especially since it is not quite the story that my 4th grade students hear every year. And I am going to change that and show them this video. Thanks MamaShay. I appreciate you always reminding me that there is someone else in charge!

The Star Spangled Banner, like you've never heard it

Check out tinypaste...

I just had to blog about my latest find. Someone either Plurked or Twittered about this website and I had to go and find out more for myself. I am so excited about this new discovery called tinypaste. Tinypaste is like tinyurl which lets you share a large URL in a small format. Except tinypaste is for sharing text, any kind of text. You could type a paper and paste it into tinypaste and send only the URL to someone to help you edit the document. I used tinypaste for the Gettsyburg Address.

When you go to the tinypaste website you get a blank window that says, “Click here to paste your text.” Paste a bunch of text into it and click on the green “Submit” button. When you do, the website turns your text into a URL that you can copy and paste into any document or onto Twitter and Plurk. This especially works well when you have more to share than the micro-blogging sites allow you to. Twitter or Plurk only give you 140 characters or so to share your message and sometimes that is just not enough! Plurk is better at getting more than 140 characters at a time because you can reply to your own message and explain further but I am going to give this tinypaste a try even on Plurk. I am also thinking this is a good way to share information for students working on a joint project when a district will not allow the use of Google Docs.

Oh… check out Wanderlust too if you are a social studies teacher and are teaching those famous explorers. Look out for the route Henry Hudson use and the one Lewis and Clark forged through the wilderness.

Plurk

I have been trying out Plurk again. I signed up when it first came out but I didn't get it. Then I was told that the whole idea is to get a network of people (thanks to Ginger for connecting me with like Plurkers) and it is much more fun and ideas can really be shared. I have now in the past three or four days networked with a bunch of Instructional Technology Specialists and I like it a lot. Plurk is now yet another cog in the wheel that is my Personal Learning Network (PLN). I also like that I was able to sign up on Plurk and post not only to Plurk but to Twitter and Facebook. Look for me on Plurk: http://plurk.com/congerjan/invite.