What's in a Picture

In our office today one of my colleagues, @web20classroom, decided that we were going to try something new with our Smartboard. He decided that we were going to live stream video from the beach to give us a new perspective on how to use the board. This has now become our window to the world.

So I began to think a little bit of some ways that images can be used with your Interactive White Board (IWB). It was a great idea to put the live shots of the beach on the board because everyone that has come into our office today has commented on what they were seeing. The comments have ranged from "I wish I were there right now," to physical displays of a diving motion towards the board. What a great idea that immediately sparked conversation, laughter and a lot of smiles. The site that was used to display the live feed was was Earth Cam.

I started to think of other ways that I could use images with an IWB to engage students in the classroom. Ways to incorporate the and merge the technology into the classroom. I thought about using the Reveal/Shade tool to cover up the image(s) at the beginning of class and then have a student come up to the board and raise the shade to show the picture for the day.

What ways can you use the images then, you might be asking? Why not try some of these suggestions.

• As part of your Virtual Field Trip
• Showing images of locations for Social Studies
• Identifying different weather types
• Famous people
• Object identification
• Geometric shapes
• Atomic Structures
• Article Identification for ESL and Foreign Language
  
• Identification of Architecture

Images can be preloaded into the software that comes with your IWB so that you can either click through or reveal the images to the students and discuss them. Displaying the images or live video could also support your Essential Question for the subject you are working on. You could create a game using the images to find a location in the world. Kind of a where in the world is... situation. Being able to reach the students and bring in a visual component to the lessons adds so much more to their learning experience over and above the norm.

You may now be saying how will this affect me in my instructional day? As a teacher using you IWB and displaying images could factor into the new evaluation tool for Standard IV for integrating and utilizing technology in instruction. It can also encompass the new Common Core standards for using technology tools and skills to reinforce classroom concepts and activities. As well as using technology and other resources for the purpose of assessing, organizing, and sharing of information.

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More PD In Your PJs-The Reform Symposium #RSCON3

Starting today is the Reform Symposium. It is 3 days full of free, online professional development. Started by several of my friends, most notably Shelly Terrell the Reform Symposium brings together educators from across the globe to learn from and with each other. There are several keynotes over the 3 days, lots of panel discussions and you could even win an iPad.

You can read more about the Symposium itself here and be sure to check out the list of sessions here.

From the shameless plug department, I will be on a panel on Saturday at 11:30 am talking about the future of technology in education. Should be fun.

Hope to see you there!

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How do you share book info and activities?

Do you ever assign projects and activities to go along with the books your students read in class?

Do you ever share information about the author of those book?

What about projects other students have done related to that book?

I enjoyed sharing that type of information with students when we were working with a book. I think knowing the background information and seeing how the book was interpreted by others adds to the comprehension ability.

I did have trouble deciding how to share all that information. At times, we used journals, posters, powerpoint presentations, and even 3-ring binders. If I had new things to add or needed to make changes to what was there already, then I ran into issues. Then I started just adding links to a webpage or a wiki (but that did not look very nice ... or as nice and colorful as I wanted it to).

I found that with GlogsterEDU, I could pull all of my ideas and links together in a creative and colorful way. There is a free teacher account available. Below is an example of a project page I used with my students. The pink circles that show up on some pieces are links.

I was able to add a video from SchoolTube that I found. I added links to information from the publisher about the story elements. I added instructions and links to activities for the students to choose to complete. I added background information on the author and the setting. I feel like I was able to pull things together using this type of presentation. GlogsterEDU was just the tool that I used for this project. There are many other great ones you could use to pull together the information you want to share.

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Because it's Cute ....

... is not a reason to use a technology tool. 

There should be an educational reason and purpose to use technology.If the teacher wants to use GlogsterEDU, their reason shouldn't be "because it's cute".  What would be some good educational reasons to use GlogsterEDU? Let's look at a couple:

• NC Essential Standards for Information and Technology Skills K-5.TT.1 Use technology tools and skills to reinforce and extend classroom concepts and activities.
• NETS for Teachers: 2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments - Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessments incorporating contemporary tools and resources to
  maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S. Teachers.
• NETS for Students:1. Creativity and Innovation - Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.  

Teachers plan using their curriculum goals and objectives. So, if the teacher was going to teach Science Grade 2 Goal 1: The learner will conduct investigations and build an understanding of animal life cycles, they could decide a good tool to use would be GlogsterEDU. The teacher didn't decide to use a tool just "because it's cute". They were meeting goals, objectives, and technology standards. 

I believe these are excellent reasons for using tools to enhance curriculum, don't you?

Update: I was reading through Twitter and came across this blog post by Michael Gorman (@mjgormans) and wanted to post a link here. Ten Steps to Transforming Past Lessons for 21st Century Learners.  I feel that his #2 and #3 steps fit very nicely into this blog post. Please go and read this post for more information.

Image: 'give a hoot' http://www.flickr.com/photos/83156837@N00/5151942206

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Spark Creativity with Kerpoof!

After attending Simple K12's webinar, Spark Creativity and Innovation from @timeoutdad, I became a big fan of Kerpoof. Kerpoof is a free webtool that is kid friendly and allows students to create original works of art in a safe environment. Students can create pictures, animated movies, stories and more! Teachers can showcase student work by downloading their art as a JPEG file and embedding it into their website. Teacher accounts are free and anyone who is interested can sign up here. Teachers who register can arrange their students into classes and create class discussion boards (moderated by the teacher). There is a chat feature available that can be activated/deactivated by the teacher. Also, students can collaborate on a project in real-time from different computers.

Why do teachers love Kerpoof?

• It inspires creativity

• Students are in control of their own learning

• Various activities and creative tools enables students to produce a quality work product

• "A happy child = a happy learner" - @timeoutdad

What can students create?

Spell a Picture (K-3): Students can spell out objects to make them appear in their picture. If they wish to animate their objects/characters, spell out verbs like "jump" and students can watch as their objects come to life!

Make a Picture (K-3): Students choose a background, select images/characters or create their own with the drawing tool.

Make a Drawing (K-8): Students start with a blank slate and use the drawing tools to create their own masterpiece from scratch.

Make a Movie (K-8): Students can select a scene and drag objects/characters into their movie. Characters and objects can be animated or carry on a dialogue with a mouse click.

Not sure where to start? Kerpoof offers teachers a list of ideas for using Kerpoof in the classroom and a variety of downloadable lesson plans .For more information on using Kerpoof in the classroom, check out Kerpoof Scholastics.

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Redefining Virtual Field Trips

I watched an online seminar yesterday on Virtual Field Trips that made me rethink an earlier post that was written on our blog may need a refresher.

So what is a Virtual Field Trip? In my reading I came up with this definition as to how I see it from my standpoint. It is a series of webpages that have been organized and grouped together to show students information, places, things that they may not have been able to experience on their own. Ok, we have a quasi definition of a Virtual Field Trip what is next, how do we get started, what is the first step to create one for my students.

Obviously there are some technology items that you will need to start with. A computer/laptop and an Internet connection. You could also have a digital projector and an Interactive White Board (IWB) but they are not necessary.

What do you do to get started now that you want to create a Virtual Field Trip. You have to figure out and decide what you are looking for first. Once you have that down you are ready to get all your ducks in a row.

• Make sure that you have everything all planned out. You have to do the research prior to the lesson and have all other resources ready to go.
• Make sure that you have reviewed all necessary video materials for questionable content
• Go through the trip first without your students so you know that the web links are still active.
• Have students work together to create their own field trips similar to the one they have just been on.
• Have a purpose and focus the students on that goal during the field trip

One additional thing that you can do to make the Virtual Field Trip more personal to the students is if you have an IWB in your classroom. Students can come up and interact with the screen and direct the flow of the field trip themselves. This can be a really nice for some of the lower grades since the student could almost feel like they are in the field trip walking around and exploring.

Again you may be saying how will this affect me in my instructional day? As a teacher creating a Virtual Field Trip could factor into the new evaluation tool for Standard IV for integrating and utilizing technology in instruction. It can also encompass the new Common Core standards for using technology tools and skills to reinforce classroom concepts and activities. As well as using technology and other resources for the purpose of assessing, organizing, and sharing of information

Give it a try and see what you think, you never know your students may just like the new you are integrating technology into their daily lessons.

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Using Timelines Across Content Areas

As a former social studies teacher, I had a tendency to primarily use timelines to sequence major events we were studying in class. I've always wanted to use timelines across different subjects areas but, often found myself lacking time and resources to find other uses for them in the classroom.

I've been reading Steve Johnson's, Digital Tools for Teaching, and have been highly impressed with his style and all the great resources he shares with his readers. I turned to Steve's book and other classroom teachers searching for ideas on how timelines can be used across content areas. Here are some ideas that were shared...

Science teachers can have students...
- create a timeline of the deadliest instances of different types of extreme weather (Ex: all Category Five hurricanes, tsunamis, etc. over the last 50 years)
- review the cycle of a butterfly
- chart out a scientific discovery (Ex: development of solar energy, stem cell research, etc.)

Social Studies teachers can have students...
- track current events as they occur overtime (Ex: Arab uprisings)
- map the journey of a major explorer in a timeline
- track and invention and the impact it has/had on society

English/Language Arts teachers can have students...
- sequence the main events of a novel
- identify the emotions of a protagonist
- map out the writing process
- conduct an author study and share their findings in a timeline format

Math teachers can have students...
- compare and order units of length from smallest to largest
- review the order of operations
- explore timelines they are interested in and analyze them mathematically(What are the average number of days between each event? What percent/fraction of events includes a picture? If you were 34 years old when the second timeline event occurred, how old would you be by the last event?)
- create a timeline to solve word problems (see example below)

Timelines & Word Problems

View more documents from Siddharth Nath

What about interactive timelines?
There are several popular timeline creators students can use to create their timelines. One popular timeline creator is Timetoast. In Steve Johnson's Teacher Tech Videos, you'll find great video tutorials on timeline creators and Timetoast. Whether you are a technology newbie or an advanced user, his Teacher Tech Videos provide tips that anyone can use and apply. For more great resources and ideas from Steve, check out his website and blog.

Image from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=905

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The Inspiration of Camp Inspire

Over the past few weeks I have been helping out and working with our Instructional team to put together a great collaborative event with Matt Barfield of Promethean called Camp Inspire.

The morning of the event our department showed up in our camping gear ready to start the day. With a tent at the font door we welcomed our happy campers to Camp Inspire. Day one went very smoothly with many different sessions that teachers were able to choose from to attend. We heard lots and lots of great comments from teachers that were in attendance. Not only did we hear them the host school's Principal heard the teachers talking about how great things were going during the day. Even our Asst. Superintendent who came by the camp heard many wonderful comments from the participants that were completely unsolicited. Even the surprise rain and thunderstorm did not seem to dampen the spirits of the teachers in attendance.

As the second day started we, our Instructional Department members, were running around, getting things set up and making sure that teacher computers were ready for the day of collaboration. Teachers started coming into the camp and we looked around at the participants, at each other and were excited to see that we had the same faces back for day two. As the teachers broke off into grade level groups there were members of our Instructional department available to help guide them along on their journey of collaboration which would take them through the rest of the day.

In looking back and reflecting on everything that was going on I felt really good about the whole event. I can not even think through all of the conversations that I had with people or overheard, any type of negative comments about the camp. One teacher went as far as using Twitter lingo to describe how she felt after attending Camp Inspire. "OMG, this was the best workshop that I have ever attended." I am looking forward to being a part of the next collaboration event with our teachers.

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Things I Found ....

I wanted to share some of the things that I found recently when looking a the netTrekker blog:

• Even though the title of this post mentions netTrekker being a good resource for future teachers, I think many of the ideas presented are great for all teachers regardless of experience level: Five Uses for netTrekker as a Future Teacher. In that post, Rachel shares so many great ideas that I want to just copy them all to share with you, but since that would be a copyright violation, I will just strongly encourage you to go check out her very helpful blog post!
• In this post, Mary shares comments from parents concerning differences in using Google searches and the safe searches done netTrekker: “why would I use Google when this is so much better for our students?”
• In his post, Joe mentions ways netTrekker searches can fit with various learning styles. Could that be something else we could use for differentiated and personal learning to better meet the needs of our students?

Another interesting thing that I found on the netTrekker Blog was a Featured Site of the Day. There you can find links and descriptions of sites that can be used with students to engage and encourage learning. There is even an archive available so if you miss any of them, you can go back and search. The archive would also be a good place to look for ideas for various sites to use for certain topics.

You can also find links to blogs written by educators and links to blogs of netTrekker's partner sites.

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Learn the Basics of Learn360 in 30 Minutes!

Interested in learning more about how to use Learn360 videos, resources and customized playlists? Looking to gain access to a community of online learning tools? Learn 360 is offering informative 30-minute webinars where participants will learn how to create a 21st Century Multi-Media Classroom using Learn360.

Participants will be introduced to the essential basics of Learn360 from searching for media to creating customized playlists and slideshows. Participants will explore the different options of searching for media by keyword as well as performing advanced searches by specific state standards The session will end with a Q&A session that will allow participants' specific questions to be addressed. Below is a list of the upcoming webinars (click on the link to register).
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 12:00 pm

Tuesday, August 9, 2011 4:00 pm

Tuesday, August 23, 2011 12:00 pm

Tuesday, September 13, 2011 4:00 pm

Tuesday, September 27, 2011 12:00 pm

Tuesday, October 11, 2011 4:30 pm

*Please note all times are in Eastern Daylight Time

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Recording your Lessons in ActivInspire

I have to admit that I had been overlooking a tool in ActivInspire for a long time until just recently and now it is something that I use almost daily. That tool is the Screen Recorder.


What the tool allows for is two different modes of capturing what you are doing on the computer at a time. You can choose the Fullscreen or Area screen Recorder. Fullscreen is obvious but the Area screen recorder allows you to pick a location on the screen by dragging a box around the area you want to record. Once you select the area or tell Inspire that you want to record it puts a small control box on the screen.


To start recording just click the Red Circle on the controller. A pop up box will ask you were you want to save and what you want to name the video. The file format is .avi which is easily editable on either a PC or Mac. Then all you have to do is use the Inspire software like you normally would in class and the system records all of the actions. Now the system will also record whether or not you are in Inspire or not so if you need to go out to a website it will still record what you are doing. If you have a microphone attached to your computer it will record you speaking as well.

Well now you might be saying to yourself, so what? How can I use this in my classroom with students. One of the easiest things I have found to do with the recorder is to make short "How To" videos within the Inspire software. So how do you access the Screen Recorder Tool in ActivInspire? It is very easy and there are a number of ways to get there. The easiest is to select from the Menu bar at the top of the page View then More Tools and Screen Recorder. From your floating toolbox click on the Menu Button then Tools, More Tools and Screen Recorder. The Screen Recorder can also be accessed from the Desktop Tools "floating gadget"



You can have your students come up to the ActivBoard to complete lessons, work out math problems, identify/label objects, chart maps and graphs, and a myriad of other things that allow your lessons to be both interactive and have a multimedia component to them. Again you may be saying how will this affect me in my instructional day? Creating the multimedia products and the interaction with the interactive white boards can fulfill the new evaluation tool for Standard IV for integrating and utilizing technology in instruction. It could also cover part of the new Common Core standards for using technology tools and skills to reinforce classroom concepts and activities. As well as using technology and other resources for the purpose of assessing, organizing, and sharing of information.

images created from: ActivInspire software

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Spooky Lesson Plans

On Thursday nights this summer, Wonderopolis created Camp What-A-Wonder on Twitter from 8:00 - 9:00 ET (follow #WonderChat). Each week is on a different topic. The first night was about camp memories, the second Thursday about bugs, the third Thursday favorite or worst camp recipes, and last night we talked about spooky stories. Wonderopolis shared a couple of lesson ideas from their partner site Thinkfinity, and that got me to thinking. So, I created a glog on Spooky Stories with links to lesson plans from Wonderopolis, EDSITEment, ReadWriteThink, and ARTSEDGE. All are partners with Thinkfinity. 

These look like very interesting lesson plans to help promote literacy, comprehension, and reading. I don't quite understand it, because spooky was never my favorite genre, but young people love reading scary stories. Why not give these lessons a try?

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How Google Works

Recently, Google created a video for the general public on exactly (well at least as much as they want us to know) how their search engine works. At only 3.30 minutes it is cram packed full of information.


(The video is on You Tube so if you reading this in an RSS reader or some place where it is blocked you might not see anything.)

They also created a couple other videos on how Google Apps works (great for understanding Cloud Computing) and a video completely dedicated to their AdSense product. You can find those on their How Google Works Page.

Did you know that Google also has tons of lessons, resources and free stuff for the classroom? On the main Google Search for Educators page there are lessons educators can use to teach kids what search is and how to use it effectively. (While they hope you use Google Search the strategies presented work for any search engine.)

All throughout the site you will find information on how to integrate Google Apps into the classroom, lesson plans using one or more Google Products like Docs or Books, and some really cool posters you can hang in your room reminding students about how to use Search effectively. There is lots of information like the Doodle4Google Contest, webinars, web safety information and information on upcoming Google Teacher Academy application dates.

One of the coolest resources they have is the Educator Community. There you can connect with other teachers using Google Products, post your own lessons, and ask questions about how to better use their products with kids.

So be sure to check out the How Google Works video series and take time to explore what they have created for educators.

Google For Educators

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Working With Word Clouds

Being a fan of word clouds, I'm always interested in new ways to use them in the classroom. I recently watched a webinar on SimpleK12 by Kim Munoz, a middle school technology teacher in Texas. Kim shared some great resources on her blog to show teachers how they can use word clouds and where they can go to create them.

So why should you have students create word clouds? Word clouds are powerful tools for analyzing and thinking critically about text. They provide students a great visual analysis of passages, speeches, articles, websites and more (hint: the clouds are created based on how frequently words are used).


Steve Johnson's book, Digital Tools for Teaching, provides great examples on how teachers can tie in word clouds across the curriculum. Regardless if you are teaching Language Arts or Math, your students can still analyze messages while turning text into art! Steve provides multiple suggestions for each content area...

Math teachers have your students create a word cloud out of word problems so they can look for clues to solve the problems...

Language Arts and Social Studies teachers have your student compare and contrast speeches of historical figures or different genres...

Science teachers have your students log which foods they eat for a week and see what they are eating most often...

There are many other great resources for integrating word clouds into the curriculum. For more resources check out these LiveBinders and our previous blog posts:

Wordle – educational uses

Word Clouds: Wordle and Beyond

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It is all in the way you look at things ....

I was having a conversation with someone the other day when I mentioned that I have been on a creativity kick recently.

I have discovered articles and resources that seem to share the creativity them (I have also shared a lot of those on twitter and on my blog). In the conversation, I mentioned that in my mind, creativity skills and critical thinking skills are very much alike and could even be considered the same thing in many ways.

The other person in the conversation said that she was not sure that she agree that those skills are very similar. She said that she considers herself to have many critical thinking skills, but does not feel she has creative thinking skills.

My response was, "It is all in the way you look at things."

Now this is just my opinion based on the things I have read and experienced:

• When you think critically about something, you have to step outside the box and look at the situation from many perspectives while realizing the impact those perspectives could have on your interpretation.
• When you thinking creatively about something, you have to step outside the box and look at the situation from many perspectives to try to identify all the possibilities ... even the ones that may not be apparent to everyone.

Now I know my two definitions above are not exactly the same (I tend to be a bit wordy when trying to describe something) but they do share the same basic ideas.

Here are a few of the resources I have found that I think are related to creativity/critical thinking skills:

• Assessing and Analyzing Thinking
• Is Creativity the Number 1 Skill for the 21st Century?
• Kelly Tenkely and Creatively Thinking Podcast

I will end with something I saw on twitter the other day:

from @picklennium: Creativity is experimenting, playing, innovating, thinking, connecting, looking at different perspectives, problem solving, etc

image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/71221880@N00/149885028/ by doozle who said about his artwork: I'm fond of M. Escher work.
This is based upon one of his most famous lithographs.

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What is your Favorite ActivInspire Tool?

Recently I Tweeted out that I was looking for people to respond to the question What is your favorite ActivInspire Tool? I thought it would be fun to see what other people would say was their favorite.

I had a lot of responses back and weeded out the duplicates and came up with a top 5 list of the users who answered. These are in no particular order they are just listed as I came across them in my twitter feed.

• Drag and Drop Actions
• Extract Text
• Camera Tool
• Dual User
• Hidden Action

There were many other tools that people sent in that I would like to mention as well that did not get a lot of notoriety with just a single mention.

• Desktop Annotate
• Express Poll
• Magic Ink
• Screen Recorder
• Handwriting Recognition
  

For myself I like the Import From Scanner/Camera Tool because I like being able to integrate Document Camera usage into flipchart lessons that I create. I want to thank all of the people that responded to my Tweet, without you I would not have been able to compile the information and post it in this blog entry.

If you do not see your favorite ActivInspire Tool listed, or did not get an opportunity to reply to my original Tweet please share it with us by leaving a Comment.

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First Year ...

... A Reflection

created from Wordle.net

Next Tuesday, July 12, marks my first year as a District Instructional Technologist with the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System. I have very much enjoyed my first year. I have learned a lot during this year. There have been some highs and lows, but overall a great first year.

Blogging:  I have been blogging more this year. I am still not great at it, but by continuing to write, I have gotten better and will continue to get better. My biggest challenges with writing a blog is figuring out what to write about and coming up with a catchy title. As you can see from this title, I still haven't conquered that. I will continue to work on this. We write on a weekly basis (sometimes more than that) for our departmental blog. I have enjoyed this, and I think our department writes about a lot of interesting tools, web sites, ideas, etc.

Twitter: I was pretty much a "lurker"on Twitter for a long time. I kept thinking that I really had nothing to share with people and would re-tweet people who I knew had something more important to say than I did. As I got used to Twitter, I started adding to who I was following. I follow some very amazing people. Through them, I have learned so much. I have learned that by talking with each other virtually, you still get to know a person. When you are lucky enough to meet them in person, it is like meeting a good friend. I hope to meet more of my Twitter friends in the future. Someone from my PLN said this and it has always stuck with me: I am fairly bright on my own, but with my PLN behind me I am brilliant! 

Web 2.0 Tools: Because of my friends in our Skype group, my Twitter friends, and the people in my department, I have started using more Web 2.0 tools. My top 5 favorites (I will exclude Blogger and Twitter since I have talked about them previously) are:Glogster EDU; Edmodo; Symbaloo; Livebinders; and Wonderopolis/Thinkfinity. I have written about most of these in previuos blog posts.

ActivInspire: A big part of my time the last several months have been learning about ActivInspire and the Promethean ActivBoards. I have enjoyed learning the software and the educational activities that can be created with it.

Some of my highs this year was presenting for the first time at the state technology conference (NCTies), presenting for the first time at a national conference (National Center for Family Literacy), and working with teachers to help them integrate technology into their lesson plans. A low point was realizing that sometimes you can't please everyone. Let me just say that my high points far outweighed the few low points I had.

I am eagerly looking forward to year 2 and all the learning it will bring.

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Understanding Copyright, Fair Use And Creative Commons

Earlier this month I did a workshop for teachers from across the district on understanding copyright, fair use and Creative Commons. There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding copyright; what it is and what it isn't; what we can use in the classroom and more importantly, what we can not. There is a lot of information out there, much of confusing so what I hoped to do was show how to avoid copyright rules all together and use Creative Commons resources instead.

First, watch this video about Copyright and Fair Use. Notice how it was made and the questions it asks.



Here is the presentation that I created with some definitions and some interpretation of what can be used and what can't in the classroom.



You can also check out all the resources in this Livebinder I created for the presentation. In it you will find information about what Creative Commons is and how we can use it in the classroom. I also compiled websites to find copyright free audio, video and images for use in student and teacher projects.

All About Creative Commons And Copyright

So take some time and learn about copyright, fair use and creative commons for use both in and out of the classroom. 

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Is a Tall Tale really tall?

Recently a Wonder-of-the-Day from Wonderopolis really got me thinking (but I guess that is what it is supposed to do): Why do they call it a "Tall Tale"?

Focusing on reading genres, like Tall Tales, was something I really enjoyed when I was in the classroom. We would do genre studies where we would explore many examples of a certain genre type and then talk about the similarities and characteristics we found. I also liked to introduce a variety of vocabulary words that could be associated with the genre. Wonderopolis has done a great job of pulling all those thing together! I could have used their help several years ago when I was trying to do all that. :)

I did a search on ReadWriteThink to find resources on Tall Tales:

• A lesson plan: Thundering Tall Tales: Using Read-Aloud as a Springboard to Writing
• A tall tales booklist
• A writing rubric for students to provide evidence that the stories they have written contain elements important in a tall tale
• A sequencing activity: Did Paul Bunyan gouge out the Grand Canyon before or after he dug the Great Lakes? Students create a life-sized timeline showing the sequence of events in this tall tale.
• A podcast: Gifts come in all shapes and sizes, and the characters in these four tall tales have plenty of unusual gifts to keep you reading all winter. Listen in to hear about them and to meet Ingrid Law, the author of Savvy and Scumble.

I also searched for Tall Tales resources on ArtsEdge:

• Tall Tales Today: Where have all the heroes gone?
• Exploring American Tall Tales: What can our tall tales tell us about the American spirit?

*Wonderopolis, ReadWriteThink, and ArtsEdge are all Thinkfinity Content Partners!!

image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/65172294@N00/4285640113

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Explore Books in 60 Seconds!

Instead of "boring" text-based book reviews, 60second Recap offers teens engaging book summaries in 60 second video segments. Why 60 seconds? If you only have 60 seconds to get your point across, you have to think about whats essential and relevant for the reader to know. The Recaps provide a great way to generate class discussions about books and various literary concepts. What makes 60second Recap valuable?

• The videos are relevant, engaging, and to the point! (60 seconds or less)
  

• The Recaps deepen the meaning of a story in a way the reader can understand

• Videos segments are broken down into categories making it easier to find what you are looking for (an overview, plot, theme, motif, symbols, etc.)

• Their library offers a lengthy collection (including some of my favorites like Night and Animal Farm) to teachers and students
  

• There is a video gallery to help students understand complex literary terms like allegory, satire, motif, and many others
  

• Their "Recap Resource" provides writing resources like "How to write a paper that won't put your teacher to sleep..."

While you are enjoying your summer, take 60 seconds to explore a new book or refresh yourself on a classic. 60second Recap is worth a look!

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Reading Classic Literature Via Email

I enjoy to read, although I don't make enough time for it. And there are any number of excuses I could give but I will spare you. So when I hear about DailyLit, I was intrigued and decided to give it a go.

Here is how it works. You sign up using any number of accounts you already have (Twitter, Facebook, Google, OpenID). Fill out as much of the profile as you want, upload a photo, bio, etc and connect your Twitter and/or Facebook if you want to send updates there and you are done. Takes just a few moments.

So, you are armed with your account. What do you do now? Browse. There are almost 1000 titles to choose from, all free. It's been a while since I had to read any classics (high school to be exact) so I headed over to that section to check out the offering. Don Quixote sounds good. I remember reading it but it seemed like a good choice to start out with.

This is where things get interesting. It's not an eBook in the traditional sense that you read on your reader. Instead the thing that makes DailyLit appealing is the fact that you get the book in chunks, delivered to you via email or, even better, RSS. You decide the frequency of the chunks. I am getting mine daily around 9am via email. But maybe you want to get your just through the week or on the weekends. Or maybe a different time of day. Or maybe you want longer chunks or shorter ones. It is so easy to customize or even suspend and pick it up later if you want. Don Quixote is 454 installments if that gives you an idea. Takes about five minutes to read but remember you can make those chunks longer and even get them more often, say a a few at at time to save up for a trip through the airport or traveling in the car.

You can subscribe to more than one book at a time, but keep in mind, if you are like me, you might not want to try to keep up with several books at once. Oh and did I mention you can read these on any device. So anywhere you can access your email or RSS feeds you can read the chunks.

So checking this all out got me thinking about the classroom. Some kids get really intintimidated by just the size of some texts and are turned off. This is a very easy and non-threatening way to get kids engaged in reading some really great books. And from a lesson standpoint. If you know what chunks kids are reading because of the frequency, it can make things a little easier.

While you are at the beach or on vacation this summer check out DailyLit, and their wide offering of texts and think about how you could use it in or out of the classroom.

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