Open Windows to the World
http://pcstechfest.wikispaces.com/Classroom+Without+Walls+%28Gerakios%29

 

Bloom's Digital Web 2.0

The presenters took the new Bloom's digital taxonomy and found Internet tools that meet each verb.  Go to the site http://bit.ly/digital_blooms.  On the left side click on Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers.  You will see a table with logo pics for all sorts of web 2.0 tools.  When you click on one - it doesn't take you to that site - it takes you to another page where there are links to the site, ideas for how to use the tool in your classroom, and screenshots that show step by step how to do each one.  Also on the left, you can click on World Wide Websites 2.0 to see a whole page of websites to use with students, and a section just for teachers.  Under Bloom's Planning, Activity, and Assessment Tools, you can print or download posters that explain Bloom's Digital Taxonomy and the new verbs.  This might be good to decorate a computer lab or use in trainings.  It was a great session.

 

 

Gwenyth Jones- idea for Technology Tuesdays (15-20 minute sessions after school for your teachers to teach one quick skill or resource)

NCCBA posters for each class to keep track of which students read which of the NCCBA books, so you know who is eligible to vote in the spring.

Adrienne Ehlert Bashista- a former MC, now author, her book Haunted Kids in the Carolinas will be published next year, she does author visits, tells her own ghost stories that take place in the Carolinas.

Holocaust: Martin and Doris Rosen Summer Symposium at App State sounds amazing for those who haven't heard of it and are interested in the holocaust/teach the holocaust, it is free and open to teachers and media specialists, applications aren't accepted until after the first of the year.

Great Holocaust resources: In Memory's Kitchen and the series Primary Sources from the Holocaust.

Great idea for culminating Holocaust project, a museum, some exhibit examples shared were: living quarters (showing size), synagogue, science (diseases, kosher living, cleanliness), Hitler, paper clips meaning and symbolism, train car (showing size and using footprints to demonstrate # of people), suitcases/belongings/artifacts, death marches, liberation (with flags of the countries who helpled and pictures of the victims), original artwork. Integration of all subject areas, the example shown was a "museum" that took up an entire school after hours, they even used lockers for display cases, hallways, classrooms, closets, etc. it was huge.

Presentation Ninja- 1. Have a killer title and opening slide 2. Have a killer color scheme or slick clean one (colourlovers.com) 3. Be brutal, cut your text -ditch the notes 4. Use killer images (upload to slideshare). Suggested resources: Go!Animate, Xtranormal, Secondlife, Comiclife, also look up @JesseDee on slideshare (he is a good-looking, marketing genius and a total presentation ninja).

 

Bringing Books to Life--Staci Bumgarner, River Bend

Staci showed us what she did with some students using Animoto. They created book trailers to show to the school. She introduced the topic by showing some movie trailers to them (movies based on books, like The Lightning Thief, Harry Potter, etc.) and having them analyze the effects used to create the mood and make people want to watch the movie. They talked about the music used, the excerpts (interesting parts), the length (short, no more than two and a half minutes), whether there was talking or just captions, and that there were NO SPOILERS! She then transitioned into showing them trailers created for books, and they looked at a lot of the same elements with those.

After that, she showed them how to use Animoto. If you go to www.animoto.com, you can scroll to the bottom of the page and get a free educator account, which allows you 50 logins with more available features than a regular free account. Students need to decide what pictures they want, search for them and save them in a file before starting their Animoto so that they can upload them more quickly. Animoto is very simple to use, and it teaches students to briefly state their captions, because there are character limits for each text page. There are several backgrounds to choose from, and lots of music they can choose from to create whatever mood they want. The results are a much more polished and slick presentation than you can get with PhotoStory.

Staci was going to upload the documents and other things she used with this class on the NCSLMA conference site.

And the Survey Says...  Kelly Brannock, NCDPI

Kelly talked about a pilot with teachers last year, working to get them to implement the new Information and Technology standards in with their classes, and it appears that we have our work cut out for us! Some teachers (math) felt that the standards did not apply to their subject areas. Out of the 300 teachers set up to participate in the beginning of the year, only 54 filled out surveys at the end of the year. NCDPI has set up wikispaces for the various subject areas, but some are not operational yet. http://www.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/.

Hello, my name is...Alan Gratz

The author of The Brooklyn Nine (from Battle of the Books) lives in Mitchell County, North Carolina, and is available for school visits for a fee. His website is www.alangratz.com. His new book, Fantasy Baseball, has a lot of literature ties, as it is about a baseball tournament made up of teams with characters from literature. (The Spunky Girls team has Pippi Longstocking, Ramona, Anne of Green Gables (who won't shut up), etc.) He also has two high school murder mysteries, Something Rotten, based on Hamlet, and Something Wicked, based on Macbeth. They are written in 50s detective style, but with modern-day language. He is also writing an upcoming Star Trek novel (YA) entitled Star Fleet Academy: The Assassination Game.

Desperate Librarians

Lots of websites and tips for librarians in this workshop! Some sites include:

www.netgalley.com --Librarians can join and can download book galleys for free.

http://schoollibrarydisplays.blogspot.com

http://theunquietlibrary.wordpress.com

www.edmodo.com

www.weebly.com

www.ikeepbookmarks.com (password: mtpleasantela)

www.diigo.com

www.readability.com (a button you can put on your toolbar that will, for the most part, take an article on a website and get rid of all the ads surrounding it, making it easier for students to read the text and know what pictures go with the article)

Other tips:

Suggested www.animoto.com for students to present haikus.

Make speech bubbles for books (as if they are talking to the students to get them to take them off the shelves) and put them inside books on display or on the shelves to get students' attention.

Make color coded Hold slips--one color for each day of the week (you can laminate them) for books that students want held for a day or two.

An idea for a gift for BOB team members--an autographed copy of a book.

End of year poster/banner--put up over the cafeteria door: "Number of books missing: ____  Value of books missing _(dollar amount--just use an average amount per book)__". Update every few days. She says it really helps get the books in, and the teachers really try to help get them in once they see the dollar figure.

You can also follow listserves like lm_net or sites like Free Tech for Teachers (Richard Byrne)

Hello, My Name Is GLOGGER!

Do your students enjoy creating posters?  If so, try glogging.  A glog is a digital, interactive poster which can contain text, audio, video, images, graphics, drawings and data. Wordle is also a great tool to use in glogs.  Its source is Glogster EDU which can be accessed at http://edu.glogster.com/.  Glogs are great for book reports, short research projects, collaborative class projects, etc. Check to see if your school has a Glogster EDU account.  Teacher Light licenses 50 students and Teacher Premium licenses 200.  Both versions are very reasonably priced.  There is a 30 day trial to Teacher Premium. 

Book Backdrops

We have long touted the need for secondary resources in our students' research projects.  Now there are primary sources in great supply from the Library of Congress in photo and document form.  Pair these sources with such literature as Lawrence Yep's The Earth Dragon Awakes, Gloria Houston's My Great Aunt Arizona, and Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust to name just a few.  Your students will capture the time periods and the cultures of the books' settings. The presenters suggested that the books be read and primary photographs of the time period be viewed during the reading.  Use of glogs, animoto, timelines, photostories, etc. add to the experience of delving into the book and primary sources.  Voki is a free resource that can be used for book reports and character studies.  Students can use images and voices that represent them and thus keep their own images off the screen. 

 

Keynote

Don't be afraid to share what you do, it's not bragging.  Be different.  Love your little monsters - make them feel special, like they belong to an exclusive club.  Don't be afraid to stir the pot.  You can't please everyone - trying will only make you boring, dry, and stressed out all the time.  Don't forget to treat your media assistants well.  Spoil the front office and custodian.  Produce killer stuff.  Have a purpose.

Media Mashup

Two great web 2.0 tools:

http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp

http://photopeach.com/