Video Question

Hi everyone~
I had this idea to have my students create a found poem from Book Thief and then set it to music, and maybe include images. I was going to try and use Animoto, but it seems complicated. Any great ideas on how I could do this. I'm sure there is a very easy answer. Clearly I'm showing how much I haven't used technology in the classroom!!

Thing 5

On my way home from school today, I stopped at the Chaska Library and got a library card. I spent much of my youth in the Stillwater library, but suprisingly it was a little intimidating to go get a card. Dumb, I know. It was a much bigger deal to me than it was to the librarians.

After getting the card, I walked around a little bit. I had forgotten how cool libraries are. Somehow the college library doesn't quite fit in. Although, I spent a lot of time there too. There seems to be some comfort at a library.

I'm not sure why I was surprised, but I ran into a number of my students. In fact, there were a lot of students working on computers and homework. It was nice to see that students have a place to go after school and access to technology that we all want to use more of in the classroom.

I have a feeling that I will be visiting the library much more frequently, and I'm thankful because I would not have gone if it wasn't an assignment!!

Outbrain

Many of you who have registered for technology for teachers probably read about this, but I decided to try out Outbrain. It is a rating system, so now I have little stars on my blog so you can rate what I am saying (just what an English teacher needs). However, in the future, Outbrain will allow you to link to other blogs with related material to the one you are currently reading. Since I have become a blog addict, I am excited about that feature.

Wordle Fan

I am a huge fan of Wordle. We have been talking about the power of words and powerful words in class with The Book Thief. I designed a lesson for Thursday just so I can use Wordle.

Thanks for the tip!! I love when people create curriculum for me!!

Thing 4

Thanks to Travis and my friendly blogger buddies, I am ahead of the game on this one!!

Travis taught me how to use igoogle in one of our first sessions, and Blazek had already got me going on a google calendar. I'm not really sure how I managed my life before igoogle. I have my calendar, reader, and blog all in one spot. Plus, I get to read my horoscope every day too!! I almost never go to my blog. Instead, I just blog from igoogle and respond to blogs through my reader. It's just so nice that everything is in one place. Plus, I feel like I am finding google tools and gadgets to add every day. It's one stop shopping, weather included:)

Google Educators Newsletter

In my hunting around, I signed up for a google newsletter for educators. I might regret that decision. I keep finding new blogs to read, and now I'm adding newsletters. I think I'm becoming a technology monster. However, my training today with my table PC shows me that I'm still clueless!!

If the newsletter is any good, I'll pass on the tips.

Thing 3

Well, I am procrastinating with all the other things I need to do, like write recommendations and lesson plan. I thought MILI homework would be more fun.

My students are currently completing some research on war. I used a number of handouts from the RPC. I realized that next time I might want to revise them a little for my specific purpose, but the students seemed to find them useful. It also focused them on the process rather than just priniting pages and calling that research. I also required them to use at least two databases from the media center. They complained at first, but many of them found so much great information that they never even went to google. I am willing to bet that they will use the databases next time they have to do research.

I recommended easy bib as one tool they could use for their bibliographies. However, citation machine seems more user friendly. I will definitely suggest it since they can't easily get to citation maker, on the media center page, from home.,