Collazo Cove

Finally, a chance to blog!  Ahhh.... Thanks to her great sharing abilities, my friend Danita, shared the fantastic alternative to YouTube for those of us in blocked schools.  I immediately put our great 5th grade rappin' math teacher's 6 videos up on TeacherTube!  Well that was a week ago, and already the videos have had over 5,000 views!  And lots of great comments from other educators!  Mrs. Burk, the rappin' math teacher is in the building!  Just as cool is that she had me video her kids performing the math raps in class and their video has had over 2,000 views!  We even had another educator comment that she was glad to see the raps in action with the kids after watching Mrs. Burk's own videos.  Very cool!

Another first for us occurred last week when my son's teacher, Mr. Mize (who is a totally awesome 3rd grade teacher, and also part of my Master's cohort), and I Skyped with our classes.  Mine, of course, was Mrs. Lopez's third grade class whom I had stolen (or she had generously shared) so I could teach 10 science/technology integrated lessons (check out their soil wiki here) I had developed for grad class.  Both Mr. Mize's class (at the opposite end of the county) and my adopted third graders had been studying soil, and were near the end of the unit.  The kids had all written questions for each other and took turns coming up to the microphone.  It was amazing!  They couldn't wait to explain what they had learned and it was interesting to hear the different activities that went on at both schools.  If only I had videotaped it!  We were so proud!  Can't wait to do it again!!



Photo:  Kids At Play

Well, we had a great trip to the Legislative Technology Day event in Raleigh on Tuesday!  One of our fourth grade teachers and three of her students presented their Great Kapok Tree movie.  They had fun telling the legislators about how they used Audacity to manipulate their voices.  We were very proud of them!

Meanwhile back at The River this week several teachers have played with our new Elmo Document Cameras and word is spreading fast!  Teachers will have to start planning early to sign up for them, which is great news!  Our new Qwizdom sets are also in great demand, as more and more of our staff give them a try and realize how easy they are to use!  The kids LOVE THEM!  Here's hoping all our new toys are checked out every day, and that there is a waiting list!

The Great Kapok Tree Readers' Theater Version by Mrs. Shuey's 4th Graders

[youtube]1WUL_pSXQcA[/youtube]

Wow, now I know the rush a pyromaniac must feel when she strikes the match!  Yesterday ten brave souls ventured into the world of wikis with me, and the wildfire has begun!  I am so excited!  One of our third grade teachers was so addicted to working on her new wiki last night, that her husband actually had to ask her if they were having supper!  AND, she actually dreamed about wiki pages!  Wow, an ITF's dream!  (Great story Lauren!)  Then if that wasn't great enough, one of our 5th grade teachers called me into her room where she was showing her kids her "just out of the oven" wiki!  Their homework for the night included adding some information to the Social Studies page where they are beginning a study of the Civil War!  (Way to go Mrs. V!)  I couldn't be more proud of our teachers here!  I will happily post about their developing wikis (with links) after they have some time to populate them.  They'll be worth the wait, I can tell already!

Photo:  Ice Fire

Finally!  Excitement!  It is so nice when you have a day when everything on your to do list gets done, AND WORKS!  It started with converting Mrs. Shuey's class readers' theater Powerpoint (complete with the kids' manipulated voices for the characters - all done by them!) into a movie.  It actually happened quite by accident.  I had her ppt. open, trying to figure out how we would get the voices and slide pictures imported into Movie Maker, when I noticed the Camtasia toolbar in the upper left!  After some manipulation of the settings, and a couple of botched saves, voila!  A wonderful movie (didn't know you could do that with Cam)!  I was thrilled even further when I remembered how to upload it to my YouTube account, and then onto the Deep River wiki from there!  Yes, my day could've ended happily there!  But no, it got even better!  This afternoon, while meeting with the other ITF's from our county, we figured out how to get the kids' "podcasts" (audio book reports and stories) from Audacity to the desktop, to iTunes, to our new shuffles!  Hooray!  And it is SO easy (after four of us put our heads together!)!  Maybe this technology stuff really will work!!  Now, where did I put tomorrow's list?



Photo: Let's Put Our Heads Together