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Our latest article…
Our latest article in School Library Journal just got posted! This month it’s “Get Inside Their Heads with Mind Mapping”–check us out!
Episode 30
Woo-hoo! We’re ba–aa-ck! It’s been a hectic start of school for both of us, but we think we might be ready to get back on track. Here’s our latest episode notes–at the same time as our episode is posted no less!
Episode 30
Resources
EarthCache
http://www.geosociety.org/earthcache/
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=gczp2n (for the definition)
An EarthCache is an educational form of a virtual cache. The reward for these caches is learning more about the planet on which we live – its landscapes, its geology or the minerals and fossils that are found there. Very cool for authentic earth science topics. This would have been great in our supplemental podcast, but we missed it. Also check out our friend Silvia’s blog for more on travel bugs and some great ideas to geocache with elementary students.
Google Sky
http://earth.google.com/sky/skyedu.html
The latest version of Google Earth 4.2 now features Google Sky which shows the celestial bodies that we see in the sky–think constellations, planets, galaxies, etc., including images from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Mahalo
http://www.mahalo.com/
Mahalo is a human-powered search engine that creates organized, comprehensive, and spam free search results for the most popular search terms. Our search results only include great links. Pre-done searches, but you can get Google results. Can do a side-by-side with Google using Mahalo Follow (free download).
Archive.org
http://www.archive.org
The Internet Archive is a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Provide free access to text, audio, video, and more, including university lectures, famous speeches, and public domain books. Probably more of a teacher resource, as there are lots of resources, some of which may not be appropriate for kids.
Preezo
http://preezo.com/
An Ajax web application that gives you the power to create and share professional quality presentations over the web without software or plugins. Simple, but lots of potential.
iLife ‘08
http://www.apple.com/ilife/
http://www.apple.com/ilife/whatsnew.html
All new updates, extended features, and major changes. We’ll be featuring more in the coming months as we play more with the new software.
Integration Ideas:
- Using photos of kids for job charts, pictographs, pre-readers, etc.
- Disposable cameras for students
- Keeping parents updated via podcasts
- Classroom image gallery/wiki/moodle/blog, etc
Discussion
- False sense of security from school filters
- Original post by Steve Dembo and then comment by high school student– http://www.techlearning.com/blog/2007/08/false_sense_of_security_from_s.php
- Internet Safety
- Cyber Smart–http://www.cybersmartcurriculum.org/lesson_plans/
- NetSmartz Kids–http://www.netsmartzkids.org/ (online safety and more)
- Internet Safety Activity Cards–http://www.netsmartz.org/resources/activitycards.htm
- Netiquette–http://www.albion.com/netiquette/index.html
Thanks for listening–please don’t forget that you can register on the forums and post questions, comments, responses, etc. We’d love to hear from you!
My Eight Random Facts…
So here’s my reponses to the 8 random facts that’s we were tagged with by Mathew Needleman…
- Somewhere down (or up) my family tree, I am distantly related to Samuel Langhorne Clemens, aka Mark Twain. I wish I knew the exact relationship, but I think we’re distant cousins, probably twice-removed or something like that. Maybe that explains my dry humor and witty side…hmmm…or the fact that I like to write…who knows…but I love his work, and I think it’s cool that we’re related.
- When I was in college, I was part of the Women’s Chorus, and we performed singing telegrams for birthdays and Valentine’s day. We would go in a group of four and do a four-part harmony telegram that almost always brought a smile to the recipients’ faces! The telegrams were part of our fundraisers for the year, and although it was nerve-wracking, we had a great time doing it–just don’t ask for any encores!
- Here’s my fear that I rarely share…I don’t like escalators. Yes, I’ll use them, but reluctantly. When I was younger, I had this fear that my foot would get caught at the end of the escalator, and I’d get pulled under into the darkness where the steps disappeared. I don’t have any logical proof that this would happen, nor have I ever been told a story about this, so I can’t explain why I thought this, but I really did think it could happen. To this day, I am very cautious as I reach the last part of the escalator. The worst escalator episode ever happened in Washington D.C. I was traveling with a friend, and we had to take an escalator down to the subway. Little did I know that this would be the world’s longest AND steepest escalator ever! OK, maybe a little exaggeration, but really, broke out in a cold sweat and had to grip the sides of the rails and close my eyes to make it down to the subway. Never again would be way too soon for me…whew!
- I shed a tear every time I see “The Wedding Singer” with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. Not only am I sappy about chick flicks, but I just love the way Adam’s character sings “I want to grow old with you” to Drew’s character while they are on the plane. I make no apologies–gets me every time.
- I was in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M during my college freshman year. Anna told me to put this because I’m a “girly” girl (really??!), and she finds it fascinating that I would be in the Corps, complete with uniforms, rough physical activities, and everything else…what can I say–it was a great experience, and I still have friends from my time in the Corps. It was difficult, grueling, and hard, but I learned a great deal and am a stronger person for the experience.
- Speaking of Anna, she and I are friends and have so much in common, but we think it’s totally random that we grew up in the same town, but went to opposing cross-town high schools, graduating a year apart, AND opposing colleges (Go AGGIES!). As long as our conversation doesn’t touch on football, we’re good. And yes, even on game day, we’re civil (although whoever wins does have to call the other and gloat!).
- So I’m usually pretty good about direction and not getting lost, but there was this one time (not at Band Camp, but right before ADE Camp!) when Anna and I were so busy taking pictures in China Town that we lost our tour group! It was quite the harrowing experience when we realized that we had no idea where our group had turned or where to meet the tour bus!! We did remember that one of the sites on our tour was the Transamerica pyramid. So we asked a passing tourist if he knew where the tower was, and he was nice enough to walk with us around the corner and point out the direction. Well, after a frantic run/walk through the streets of downtown San Francisco (I can’t even remember how many blocks it was!), we finally re-joined our tour group. The good thing (or bad thing) was that no one even noticed we had been missing for our 10-20 minutes!
- I once rappelled down the side of 4 story building. I was too scared to actually have fun, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I’m not great with heights, but this was good preparation for throwing egg projects off the top of our high school when I was teaching science (but that’s a whole other story!).
OK–that’s it…took me a while to come up with all of these–it’s actually kinda tough to come up with 8 facts that you can (or want to) share with everyone! I’ll work with Anna to figure out who we’re gonna tag!
Episode 29
So here’s another episode that was already published…without the notes :-)
Episode 29
SLJ Geocaching–this is the companion podcast to supplement our School Library Journal Geocaching feature article!
Episode 28
So this episode was published a while ago, but we couldn’t leave the notes blank…ummm…so here are the episode notes ;-)
Episode 28
Review of ADE Camp–we’re bleary-eyed, brain-dead, and downright exhausted–but so excited about our week at ADE Camp!! The experience was life-changing, and given a time machine, we’d do it all again! We are so blessed to be a part of this group. WOW
