Favorite Poem Project

This site has been around for a long time, but I was reminded about it during a workshop today. It still is very cool, and maybe will be new to some of you. This comes from their site:

"The Favorite Poem Project is dedicated to celebrating, documenting and encouraging poetry’s role in Americans’ lives. Robert Pinsky, the 39th Poet Laureate of the United States, founded the Favorite Poem Project shortly after the Library of Congress appointed him to the post in 1997.

During the one-year open call for submissions, 18,000 Americans wrote to the project volunteering to share their favorite poems — Americans from ages 5 to 97, from every state, of diverse occupations, kinds of education and backgrounds."

So, visit http://www.favoritepoem.org/ and click on The Videos on the left and listen to famous, as well as ordinary Americans reading their favorite poems.

One of my favorite stories of all time is "Casey at the Bat." So, naturally, that was my favorite video on this site!

http://www.favoritepoem.org/FlashVideo/lsamuel.html

Quick and Easy Videos with One True Media

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

If you want to make a quick photo montage, literally with the click of one button, then try out One True Media.  All I had to do was choose the images to upload to my project, then my video was made!  There are options to add titles, captions, or customize the music choice and style.  It was fun and would be a quick project for your students.  You do have to create a login so that the site will keep up with your projects.  You can share your projects online, as I did with this blogpost, or save them.  Try it!

Lexipedia

So, yes, Lexipedia really does exist.  It's not just what they call one of our favorite characters on Grey's Anatomy!

Lexipedia is the ultimate online dictionary and thesaurus.  Type in a word, and it presents you with a word web.

You have to visit the link to understand its coolness.

Lexipedia-where words have meaning

Tammy Worcester

I always enjoy listening to Tammy Worcester.  I've had the opportunity to hear her speak several times.  She has a site where you can follow her, and access any of the presentations she does around the country.  You can even view the presentations she's done at GaETC this week.  It's http://www.tammyworcester.com/.

The session I attended today was Tech TimeSavers for Teachers.  A few highlights:

Vocaroo.com is an online voice recording service.  You can send your recording via email or post to the web with embedded code.  It is really easy.  Listen to the recording I made here:




Well, we're home now.  As always, it's been an education experience at GaETC.  Continue checking this site.  I will be posting tips and ideas often.  Thanks for reading!

Gotta have This!

I saw the Sony Webbie camera today. It is a slightly larger, slightly pricier "flip" style video camera. It still allows for very easy upload of video, through memory "sticks," but is better quality than the regular flip-style camera. From the Sony site:

Webbie HD Camera MHS-CM1 Sony SonyStyle USA: "Only about 1.7' wide and 2.4' tall, this is one ridiculously small camera. Inside, you'll find an integrated 5MP CMOS sensor that lets the Webbie capture razor-sharp stills in addition to great-looking HD MP4 video. The HD MP4 format is highly versatile, making your media files small enough to easily transfer them to your PC or Mac via USB."

50 Cool Things

Jason Williams, from Americus-Sumter High School, and Matthew White, from Webster County High School, presented a session today on 50 cool technology finds to enhance the classroom.  You can view their presentation on Jason's webpage.

Great Interactive Links

The ETC at the National Science Center has a collection of wonderful interactive links. 

A couple of highlights from this list include:

Cyberchase Games from PBS kids

EdHeads, where you can do really cool things, like perform virtual surgeries!

And, finally, Mr. Picassohead, where you can use Picasso-like art elements to create your own person.

More Friendly and Familiar Faces...

Cool Gadgets and Sites

Listened to Leslie Fisher this morning....great presenter!  You can learn all about her at lesliefisher.com. 

A few of my favorites that she mentioned include:

Jott.com

Rememberthemilk.com

(both listmaking type sites that will send you reminders via email, facebook, text messages, etc...)

Another tip I picked up from her, is to never connect your digital camera to your computer.  It drains your camera battery 10 times faster than taking pictures.  She recommends using card readers, which are inexpensive and easy to use.  Another digital photography tidbit she included is her favorite type of SD card for your camera:  SanDisk Extrene III or IV.

Manipulating Digital Images

Tony Vincent presented "Manipulating Digital Images" and showcased several fun, free resources to manipulate digital photos.  Why would we use images in the classroom? Images have a direct route into the long-term memory. Your eyes are giving you so much more information than your ears are!

His presentation references the following blog post, where you can see all of the links he visited during the session:  http://tinyurl/dimages.

Photoshop Disasters is a fun blog just to browse, where digitally manipulated images have gone horribly wrong.

Resizeimage.org allows you to resize your images for displaying on the web.

Speechable.com is a cool site where you can add text or captions to your photos.

Redkid's sign generator allows you to customize their images...very cool!  http://www.redkid.net/generator/sign.php

He mentioned lots more, and all of the links are available in his blog post that I mentioned at the beginning.  I'll show you one more.

Befunky.com allows you to apply really cool photo effects to your images...like this cartoon effect.

The Magic of Mimio

My session on the Magic of Mimio was well attended today, and we received positive response!  If you are not familiar with the mimio product, you can visit their site http://www.mimio.com/.  Participants also received the web address to my porta portal, where I have many resources for interactive white boards and specific Mimio resources. http://guest.portaportal.com/jsmith0404

Special thanks to Taylor County High School and Mr. Robert Cummings for agreeing to be filmed using his mimio bar and pad.  The video was a hit!

Let the Fun Begin...

We are here!  We've seen a few friends from our area already.

This morning, we arrived at the Convention Center and attended the Welcome Session.  At the Welcome Session, Dr. Traci Reddish, Conference Chair, mentioned that there are 1700 attendees at the conference this year.  So, attendance is good, and the selection of workshops and concurrent sessions is great.  If you want to browse the conference program, you can do so by visiting the GaETC website, http://www.gaetc.org/.

Dr. Wayne Robinson, Ga Ed Tech Consortium President, spoke briefly and mentioned the Student Technology Fair.  It will be held in Macon on March 14, 2010.  You can get more information about the fair at their site http://www.gaetf.org/.

Kathy Cox is not in attendance at the conference, but spoke to the group via video.  She mentioned the conference theme "The Challenge of Change," and thanked technology leaders across the state for initiating technological innovation and change.  She also spoke about the online professional development now offered by the DOE, as well as mentioned Verizon Thinkfinity, http://www.thinkfinity.org/, Ga DOE partner.

Keynote Speaker, Michael Horn, has authored a book titled "Disrupting Change."  You can learn more about Michael Horn at http://www.innosightinstitute.org/. 

We will be visiting the Exhibit Hall soon and then preparing for the first concurrent sessions.  More to come (+ Pictures) SOON!

Keep Watching...

Keep checking back for an on the scenes report from the Georgia Educational Technology Conference in Atlanta on November 4-6, 2009.  For those of you that can not attend this year, I will be your eyes and ears, posting and updating often from the conference.  Just check back here during that week!