Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Old News!
Friday, March 25, 2005
A Truly Awesome Library
Another terrific website!
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Talk About Comparison Shopping
The Global Grocery List Project invites students to submit prices for a wide range of edibles from the stores in their area. These prices are recorded by city & state. You pick the food item(s) you're interested in comparing, and up pops a list of places and prices.
It's quite fascinating!
Monday, March 21, 2005
EurekAlert --- For Kids
Different aspects of scientific discovery and exploration are spotlighted each week in various scientific realms including Archaeology, Biology, Atmospheric Science, Chemistry & Physics, and Medicine.
A sub-site is called Science Reporting For Kids. One feature of this site is a weekly focus on a new subject. Some examples include:
- How Venus Flytraps Work
- Solar Fireworks Signal New Space Weather Mystery
- Satellites Study Deadly Dust Storms
Friday, March 18, 2005
NCCE 2005 -- Seattle -- Day Three
Friday (Day 3) began with a presentation called: “Digital Photography in the Classroom.” This presenter was Jesse Starr (http://cdaschools.org/dalton/jstarr -- jstarr@sd271.k12.id.us). More focused on giving examples of projects he’s done with his primary grade students (including grade 5), he didn’t talk much about the hardware or software he uses. This was a downside for me because I was quite interested in hearing what he’s discovered by using particular hardware/software in the classroom and in projects using cameras and images.
As she advanced through a series of pictures, she pointed out examples of some fairly obvious techniques and things to work after/avoid. Some examples include:
- Not being close enough to the subject
- Picture not properly in focus
- Camera shake (producing indistinct or garbled image)
- Boring composition
- Things she recommended to try:
- Ignore the background (focus on what you’re actually taking picture of)
- Missing the moment – the “again” mode – “sports” mode which makes it possible to take pictures as fast as possible
- Avoiding too much flash (remember the flash is effective only for 3 feet from camera)
- Avoiding too little flash (remember the flash is effective only for 3 feet from camera)
- Avoid (or at least be aware of the limitations of) digital zoom – digital zoom is really only cropping the highest mag of the optical zoom – use optical zoom
Thursday, March 17, 2005
NCCE 2005 -- Seattle -- Day Two
Today began with a workshop about using Google as a search engine. Titled "Google 201: Advanced Googology", this session was put on by Patrick Crispen from
His was a very effective (and entertaining!) presentation. Some of the search tools and methods are certainly beyond the basics, the fact that he took a few moments to begin with and try and describe (in quite understandable terms) how Google works was very helpful.
Patrick has a web site of his own -- NetSquirrel.com -- where he told us we could download the PowerPoint presentation that he showed us today. I've also discovered at his site a number of other helpful articles and presentations. A great discovery! (He also has, by the way, a presentation there called Google 101 along with a number of other resources for teachers available here.)
The subtitle of Patrick's website, by the way, is --- a free collection of Internet, PC, and classroom resources. I think his is a great resource and well worth regular visits.
The opening keynote speech this morning was given by Cile Chavez. She was a very effective speaker. Her talk was more in the inspirational vein but, again, very well presented and enjoyable.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
NCCE 2005 -- Seattle -- Day One
The site for NCCE 2005 is here.
The convention is set to last through Saturday and I'm looking forward to learning a great deal.
The first workshop today is called "Surveys and Hotlists and Blogs, Oh My!" As suggested by the title, the presenter has walked us through some free online surveys (Zoomerang, SurveyMonkey, and ProfilerPro), free online hotlist creator (Filementality), and blogs (she chose to focus on Blogger.com). The three-hour session flew by pretty quickly! There are probably tons of other resources to do these things online but I hope to try using at least the survey and hotlist tool soon when I get back to school
Another 3-hour workshop I attended today was "Technology in the Classroom: SmartBoards and Classroom Performance Systems (CPS)." The three presenters were: Jeredene Mayfield (Coordinator of Technology Integration, Golden Triangle Cooperative, Montana), Lisa Legare (Middle/High School teacher, Glasgow Public Schools, Montana), and Michelle Harrell (Coordinator of Technology Integration, North East Technology Consortium). I was there mostly interested in learning more about SmartBoards, particularly since we have one now at the Middle School for trial purposes. Theirs was a very effective demo and I learned a great deal about SmartBoards. Watching one in action was, once again, kind of exciting. I hope our experiment at the Middle School turns out well! In any case, a couple resources they included were Jere's professional development site, a geography/map site (Sheppard Software), and the North Central Montana Technology Consortium (NOCENTC) page....all of which have great resources including some for SmartBoard use, tips and tricks.
Friday, March 04, 2005
Ask A Scientist
The answers seem both informative and entertaining. This is a winner!
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Check Out Those Book Reviews
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Flutter Byes
The Florida Museum of Natural History has a nice website dedicated to their exhibits having to do with butterflies and I encourage you to visit Butterfly Rainforest.