Happy Thursday, WJHS Staff!  I know technology can be frustrating when it doesn't work, and the past few weeks we've had our share of tech troubles.  This week's T3 is going to focus on fun with technology!  The following are three fun sites I've come across over the past couple of weeks.  Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

1. PhotoWipe - Remove unwanted objects from your photos with this FREE downloadable program.  NOTE: This is for Windows users only!  Sorry, Mac folks...I'll keep my eyes open for a version for us!

2. Waker Upper - Alarm clock broken?  Do you plan on breaking it tomorrow morning when you throw it across the room at 6AM when it goes off?  Get your very own wake-up call!  (This website is blocked in the district, so you'll have to set your wake-up-call at home.)

3. Palin As President - Do you wonder what it will be like if Palin ever becomes president?  Click around this interactive site and check it out!  (This is hilarious...I couldn't resist!)

Welcome to this school year's first weekly Technology Thursday Three (T3)!  For you new teachers, this is simply a list of 3 technology resources we share every Thursday that you may want to use with your students, for your own productivity, or in some cases just for fun!  So, without further ado, here is this week's T3!

1. http://freetech4teachers.blogspot.com
This is a review of free technology resources and how teachers can use them.  It includes lots of ideas for technology integration in education.

2. http://www.curriculumbits.com
Curriculum Bits offers FREE online access to interactive multimedia elearning resources. The online resource library contains games, quizzes, animations and videos in a variety of subject areas.

3.  http://www.studio4learning.tv
Studio 4 Networks provides educational video programming online in all subject areas.

Happy Thursday, everyone, and have a great weekend!

Happy Thursday!  Today I would like to share some blogs with you.  I read several on a daily basis, and was struck by one post that I will share with you below.  I will also share a couple of other blogs I enjoy.  Have a great weekend!
1. Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day - I read his blog daily.  The post that really struck me was his reaction to an article (linked in the post) called Whose Problem is Poverty.  The post can be found here:  http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/04/16/whose-problem-is-poverty.  Reading this article reminded me of just how fortunate our students are, and it puts a lot of things into perspective.
2. Cool Cat Teacher Blog - This blog is put out by a high school teacher named Vicki Davis.  Hers is another blog I read daily...she has some GREAT ideas for technology integration, and always manages to find out about great tools before everyone else!  She is extremely tech savvy; however, her blog is geared for the classroom teacher.  http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com.  Take a look at her latest post called Sites That Caught My Eye Today:  http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2008/04/sites-that-caught-my-eye-today-04172008.html

3. Teach 42 - Steve Dembo has been a Tech Director and Kindergarten teacher in Illinois, and is now working for Discovery Education.  He's done it all!  His blog is excellent.  His latest post, How Can I Cheat on the Test? Let Me Count the Ways... I'm sure will "hit home" for many of you: http://www.teach42.com/2008/04/02/how-can-i-cheat-on-the-test-let-me-count-the-ways.  His main blog can be found at http://www.teach42.com.  

Good afternoon!  I hope everyone is having a great week and enjoying this "almost" spring-like weather.  Below is the T3 for the week.  Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

1. As some of you probably know, April is National Poetry Month!  Thanks to Jodi Macauley for sharing this website describing various traditional, non-traditional, and some "just plain made up" poetry formats.  http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/types.html

2. April is also Autism Awareness Month.  Positively Autism is a great eMagazine with links, lessons and other resources for working with children who have autism. http://www.positivelyautism.com

3. And finally, April is National Mathematics Education Month!  Here is a very cool math game site, and it's not even blocked!  http://www.mathplayground.com

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

In an effort to write more often, I am going to start sharing the "Technology Thursday Three" that my colleague Beth Cummo and I send to my teachers every week.  Some of them pertain specifically to what's happening in our school, but for the most part they are tools, articles, ideas, resources, etc. that can be used across any curriculum in any district.  Special thanks to Lucy Gray whose "Friday Five" gave me the idea!  Unfortunately, I didn't think I would be able to come up with five useful resources every week.  Heck, there are days when I would rather put together the Wednesday One or the Tuesday Two.  Still, there are other weeks when I feel like I could put together the Thursday Thirty!  But, we like to be consistent, so I'm happy to share 3 resources with all of my readers every Thursday.  Enjoy!

Without further ado, let's start with today's T3 (Technology Thursday Three):

We're all exhausted after ISATs this week.  Let's take some time out to play educational games with our students.  This T3 is dedicated to three free resources that help you to create learning/review games for your students.

1. http://classtools.net (no registration required)
2. http://www.teach-ict.com (must register)
3. http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/powerpoint/games.html (Use PowerPoint to create games)

So, ICE conference is off to a very nice start.  Workshops began at 8:30 AM today, and we only had to wait until 9:15 AM until the internet was up!  Whew...that was a long 45 minutes.  But it's been flying all afternoon with no bandwidth problems at all (knock on wood).

I am working as a tech support volunteer this year, and since things have been running so smoothly, I was able to sit in on several workshops.  I am truly amazed, not with the technology out there, but how people are using it.  To get a preview of the rest of the week (and a postview of some of today's sessions), visit the conference ning.  You don't have to attend the conference to sign up...the more the merrier!

I was able to pop in to several presenters' workshops today.  Meg Ormiston did a great session on social networking.  Take a look at her handout for some awesome ideas.

It was also fun to sit in on Charlene Chausis' session, Focus on Educational Moments In Your Classroom.  I walked in just as she was doing her patented "jump in the air" shot.  What energy she has.  One of the best presenters I have ever seen!

I walked in on many other workshops, all of which were excellent.  I can't wait to see what is in store for tomorrow!

Hello all you bloggers out there!  I wanted to share an interesting independent film that some friends have just completed.  It's called Dear Me - A Blogger's Tale.  It has already aired in L.A. and will hopefully be coming to the midwest sometime soon.  Here is a brief synopsis of the film:

A witty young woman, Samantha Bellows, is clearly the sharpest tool in the box except for one minor detail, she has a foot-in-mouth syndrome. Clinically, she has a bizarre social anxiety disorder. How she will ever put her unique whipper-snapper, slogan creating skills to good use in the advertising world is beyond her wildest dreams. No therapist seems to help her move beyond her plant maintenance job. But then a miracle happens, she discovers the extraordinarily addictive power of blogging! By typing away hours of anxiety, she begins to gain control of her life and her brilliance breaks through. Her new found courage helps her obtain the job of her dreams as a Junior Copywriter on a temporary basis. Just when life couldn’t get better, she falls hard for a client, French VP of PR, Desmond. Although opposites, the two become closer as strange secrets seem to spill from Desmond’s lips. And as long as Samantha keeps blogging, her career and love life blossom…until her blog is discovered by an evil co-worker. Unbeknownst to her, the blog becomes an underground smash hit with her entire office! They perform stupid, lewd and crazy acts to get Samantha to enter them into her blog so they can have their 15 minutes of internet fame. As her private blog becomes fodder for others' amusement, Samantha finally learns the awful truth about the blog’s ridiculous popularity. Will she be able to stop her blog before her new found love finds out? Or will it destroy her and everyone around her...


And, check out the trailer below.  I expect calls from all of you inviting me to join you for the premier at a theater near us!  :-)  Happy blogging!

I have been waiting with bated breath to be able to download my Animoto videos.  As a "band-aid" fix I am using Snapz Pro X (for OSX only) to capture the video into a Quicktime video.  However, the flake that I am, I just realized the videos can be embedded into any place that has "embeddable" capabilities.  Here is a video my husband created of my daughter getting her first library card.  It was the most exciting part of her 5th birthday for her.  As a parent, I can't be anything but proud of that!

This past Thursday and Friday I attended IETC in Springfield, IL.  As usual, it was an excellent conference.  I even presented for the first time in years!  I was shocked to see a full room for my session "F.R.E.E. - Fantastic Resources for the Enthusiastic Educator."  Thanks to all of you who atually sat through it!

I especially enjoyed David Jakes' Web 2.0 Workshop.  Now, it was sort of a Web 2.0 for Beginners workshop, but I don't really think of myself as a beginner.  However, even though I use web 2.0 tools, love them, see the unbelievable value in them in education, I still have trouble explaining some of the concepts to the teachers I work with.  Dave makes these understandable and unintimidating (is this a real word?). 

Dave talked about the "big 5" tools of web 2.0: blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, podcasting, and flickr.  When explaining about RSS and aggregators, he called that the RSS feeds the "mail," and the aggregator the "mailbox."  Such a simple analogy that I think all teachers can understand.  I definitely plan to use this with my teachers.  He also shared the video "RSS in Plain English" with me (below) which I found very helpful as well.  Thanks, Dave, and thanks to the committee for putting together an excellent conference!

Have any of you used Kaltura yet?  It's a cool new tool (I think...I'm always the "last to know" about the cool new sites) that allows people to collaborate on various types of media products, such as videos, slideshows, podcasts, etc.  At the end of this post you'll see a the list of what you can create.  I have only had a few minutes to play around with it, but here is my first creation.  It's in the "sandbox" stage right now, so my creation was just made up of a few files I had on my desktop.  However, I can see the power in this.  I am picturing groups of students from across the globe collaborating on a DST project or producing a podcast together.  Don't expect the features you are used to in iMovie or FinalCut.  However, do we really need those features if we are trying to focus more on the content anyway?

One other cool thing about this tool is that you do not need to join to collaborate on a media product.  If the creator sets it up so that anyone can view AND edit the product, all the collaborators would need is the URL.  So, with that said, please come play in the sandbox with me.  Add to, delete from or change this Kaltura video with the password wjhs.  Have fun!  And, let me know what you think...I'd love to hear your ideas on how you might use this with students.  (Oh, and let me know if you can't edit the video from this link using the password wjhs.)

Okay, so you can't edit the video without creating an account, but you can view it with the password.  Just click "Cancel" when it asks you to create an account, then enter the password: wjhs.