If you can type, you can make a movie.

That’s the slogan for Xtranormal.com. This looks like a FANTASTIC tool to help students publish their dialogue, stories and writing. Users choose the setting, the characters, ambient background noise and music and just type in the dialogue and poof! Instant movie! What a great way to motivate my wee writers or writers of any size!

Voicethread: K-12 examples

Voicethread offers wonderful opportunities for students to share, collaborate, write, practice speaking and learn. Colette Cassinelli has created a wonderful wiki packed with examples from each grade level as well as resources for how to get started. I was delighted to see Voicethreads from Kindergarten including student artwork. Directions are provided for a variety of different methods. Watch these. Try one yourself and, if you like, you can upload your example to this wonderful wiki.

Technology Projects for Students preK-12

Kim Cofino offers a variety of ideas on how to integrate technology into classroom lessons and learning in an imaginative (yet very doable) way. I plan to include Voicethreads in my classroom this year but never thought about posting photos of plant growth for student response. Her suggestions (actually they are examples of what real classrooms have done) demonstrate the many ways technology can help motivate student response, assist with pre- and post-assessment, and connect students with each as well as students throughout the world. These are terrific projects worth adapting for any classroom.

Web Quest anyone?

I like web quests to familiarize my 2nd graders with some of the tools and information available on the internet. It’s great to have some to choose from/adapt for the purpose at hand. Here is a nice collection of web-based projects from the University of Richmond to get started with.

And another thing. . .

I need to thank Sue Waters for is the Clustr Map I’ve just added at the bottom of the widgets (I’ll move it up when I get some red dots). I’ve always wanted a Clustr Map but didn’t know how to get one. Now, thanks to Sue Waters, you do too. Ain’t blogging grand?
Update: I’ve got some dots! The Clustr Map is right on top thanks again to Sue from down under!

Mistakes

Sue Waters has a handy-dandy top five list of common blogging mistakes. I wish I’d read this BEFORE I started blogging. Since I’ve been proselytizing about blogging lately, I thought it might be nice to warn my converts. Consider yourself warned. You are are now free to make the same mistakes, learn from them and rest assured that I would NEVER say “I told you so” because well, I can hardly remember what I said 15 minutes ago much less. . . What was I talkin’ about?
Blog! Make mistakes! Blog some more! Forget to blog for a while. Redeem yourself by blogging again!
And by the way, under #4 blogging mistake regarding pingbackNOW I know what a pingback is! Thank you Sue Waters!

Twitter Goes to School?

David Warlick just tweeted about iTweet,a site where you can check your Twitter account from school. Well, I’m at home so I can’t check if it works right now, but I’m clapping my hands and shouting “I do believe in fairies, I do, I do!” as Peter Pan has oft requested. (Love the Pan Man)
I’m not much of a tweeter, but I’ve been following some really smart folks on twitter. One of my frustrations has been not being able to check it at school. While my daughter tweets from her phone, I’m not quite willing to go there. itweet.net does not keep all your tweets, but it does allow you to check on recent tweets from school (I hope).
I’ve been trying to convince the superintendent to start tweeting. If this really works, it should seal the deal! Thanks David (said with familiarity even though you’re a complete stranger).

Google Earth Lessons

I love Google Earth! It’s such a cool toy. Here’s a great site that not only helps you get started, with some how-to help, but it also includes lessons to turn this great toy into a fantastic educational tool! I’ll be incorporating Google Earth in an even more productive way thanks to Google Earth Lessons. Don’t forget to check out the blog and other pages at this site. It’s chock full of resources!

Alleviating Zoo Guilt – Zoo Borns

ZooBorns contains photos of all different types of baby animals from zoos and aquariums all over the world. The pictures are priceless and the captions are very informative, e.g., an adorable baby owl is described as being very capable of attacking humans. How preciously dangerous! What a great way to prepare for a trip to the zoo, research life cycles and share a respect for captive animals.

DoGo News

Oh yeah! All the news that’s fit to be read by children! The editors of this site include children and adults. One of the editors is a 14-year-old whose claim to fame is his great duct tape ties! This would be a nice safe homepage for your classroom desk top. I’ll be asking my student of the day to choose their favorite “news” story to report on. This could be a great idea generator for writing and research. These may not be the current headlines, but they are definitely news.