Subscribe to RSSArchive for December, 2007:
Take our Poll!
It’s in our podcast, and blogged before this entry, but I wanted to give it it’s own entry so it’s not missed. Helen and I are playing with Poll Anywhere to see how it works and how we can use it in teaching and learning. Please cast your vote in our poll about new year’s resolutions!
How soon will you break your new year’s resolutions? Use your cell phone to send a text message to 41411 with your choice below! Be sure to enter the word, “CAST” before your entry!
- CAST 1191 — I’m in it for the long haul
- CAST 1190 — By the end of the first month
- CAST 1189 — 14 days or less (maybe even the first week!)
- CAST 1214 — After the first month, but before 2009 [this was added later to see how easy it would be to add an option- it was]
- CAST 1188 — Resolution? Resolution-Schmezosolution!
Try clicking here to see the results.
Episode 36–another podcast produced in the cold…
Episode 36
Shout-Outs
Happy Holidays to all of our listeners! We can’t tell you how blessed we’ve been by the many extended friends that we have met through this podcast and our online networks. We hope that each of you had a warm, restful, and magical Christmas, and we hope that you have a new year that brings you and your loved ones much happiness and many, many blessings!
Resources
SpellingCity
http://spellingcity.com/
SpellingCity makes practicing for spelling tests fun. Print out spelling games – unscramble, wordsearch. save spelling lists. practice – listen to words, hear it in a sentence.
Scrapblog
http://scrapblog.com/
Free online tool to create multimedia scrapblogs (think scrapbook with multimedia!). Scrapblogs can be published online as well as made into books and DVDs (books and DVD option coming soon).
xml online games (have to play the demos)
http://www.xmleducation.co.uk/
- Word Magnets — http://www.xmleducation.co.uk/magnets.html
- Word Finder — http://www.xmleducation.co.uk/wordFinder.html
Zoho Suite of Online Tools
http://www.zoho.com/
- http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/07/zoho-vs-google-docs.html (for notes on comparing the two)
- http://lifehacker.com/software/lifehacker-faceoff/zoho-suite-vs-google-docs-315256.php (another comparison)
Online Stopwatch
http://online-stopwatch.com/
Pretty self-explanatory…free online stopwatch…can act as a stopwatch or count down.
Poll Everywhere
http://polleverywhere.com/
Create polls that can be used just about anywhere–participants can vote online, via SMS, and via PowerPoint. Only problem is you only get 100 free votes. So email and ask for them to offer free educator accounts or plan on using all 38 of your email accounts if you like the service! *Standard text messaging rates apply.
Vote in our online poll about how soon you will break your New Year’s resolutions. You can vote online or send a text message to 41411 with “CAST 11##” for one of the following choices:
- CAST 1191 — I’m in it for the long haul
- CAST 1190 — By the end of the first month
- CAST 1189 — 14 days or less (maybe even the first week!)
- CAST 1188 — Resolution? Resolution-Schmezosolution!
Try clicking here to see the results.
Royalty Free Podcast Promo Soundpack 1.0
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/audio/royaltyfreepodcastpromosoundpack.html
Free sound pack from BeatSuite provides podcasters with essential audio files for use in their podcasts with loops and stings.
*BeatSuite has other packs available for purchase that you might want to look into!
Merry Christmas!
It was our wish to put out another podcast before Christmas, but the hustle and bustle of the season just hasn’t allowed our schedules to match up. So we will try again, with the hopes of publishing once more before the year ends! But we wanted to wish each of you a very, very merry Christmas and to send you holiday greetings from our families to yours. May you and your loved ones have a restful, joyful, and wonderful holiday. Thank you for your continued “listenership”–we’ve learned so much from so many of you! In the words of Tiny Tim, “God bless us, every one.”
Quick! I need some help!
I think some of the teachers at our school need to understand the reality of technology in the world of their students better than they understand it now. I don’t think some of our teachers understand their students, or see the need to know their students more than they do. I’m not sure I can express this properly in a blog but bear with me.
We’re having a professional development on January 2nd. I want to say different things and have the teachers stand up… like, “do you remember when you got your first CORDLESS (not cell) phone?” and “do you remember when a cashier had to key in the actual prices of each item because there were no scanners?” If that applies to them, they stand up. This is going to be one of the first things in the morning and kind of the get yourself moving and thinking.
Then, I want to play a video that I’m going to put together of some of our students – OUR students, not just some students – saying different things like, “I own my own cellphone.” “I have a MySpace page.” “When I don’t know the answer to a question, I just Google it.” Interspersed I would like things like, “I love soccer” and “my favorite music is [insert popular music that I, being lame, can't actually name]” because, like I said, some teachers don’t seem to KNOW their kids.
SOoOoO… I need some help. I need help deciding what I should ask the teachers, and what I should have the kids say. On the kids’ side, I’d like to provide a template that they fill out and then basically read for the camera. This is what I have started. If you have any ideas what to add to my list, please either comment here, tweet me in twitter (@digimom), or email me (digimom atsymbol techchicktips dot net) and I’ll add you to the Google doc.
Oh, and yes, my teachers have seen Shift Happens. Some of them still don’t get it. They don’t see the need for change. They think all this emphasis on technology and engaged learning (and yes, I know that you can have one without the other), is a passing fad, and just the new focus for the district. I need to shake them a little. I want them to see THEIR VERY OWN STUDENTS say this is important.
I need the kids’ template by Monday so that I can have my Tech Club video beginning after school and during the two and a half days left in the week before break.
Thank you THANK YOU for any assistance!
Episode 35 is alive and well!
I should have posted when I uploaded, but it is done – the corrected podcast is up.