In case you have not heard, Hueytown High now has an online Literary Magazine.  Muse is produced and managed by students in Mrs. Renfroe’s journalism class.  

The magazine features poetry, short stories, artwork, photography and other literary works by Hueytown students.   So teachers, please help support the magazine by encouraging  your students to showcase their talent.  Students can  submit their work to the journalism class for publication by e-mail  submit_muse@hotmail.com or to Mrs. Renfroe in Ivy.

This magazine will not only provide writing and leadership experience for our journalism students but also enjoyment to readers and positive recognition to those students submitting work.  Check-out the site here and leave a positive comment on a student blog.

What is Animoto?

Animoto was launched last year and recently has been made FREE to Educators. Animoto provides a creative alternative way to view and listen to slideshows. Created by film and music producers, you upload your photos, choose some music you like from their huge range of styles and artists, or use your own music or voice, and you get an impressive slideshow.

Just to show what can be done with some photos and a dash of jazz, I created this one using photos from our back-to-school teacher workday.

Click on the word comments and share ideas you might have about using this Web 2.0 tool with your students. Click here to learn more about Animoto and how it is being used in the classroom.

Fifteen hours of free technology training in just 5 minutes a day!

It is true. I stumbled upon the site, 180 Technology Tips, the other day and it really is simple and helpful. You can sign up to have a technology tip delivered to your e-mail each day or you can select relevant tips as you browse through the different categories.

The categories are:

• Microsoft Windows Operating System Tips
• Internet Tips
• Computer Hardware Tips
• MS Outlook Email Tips
• MS PowerPoint Tip
  
• MS Excel Tips
  
• MS Word Tips
  

Check it out and let me know what you think.

O.K. summer is here, you have some free time and you would like to spend some of that leisurely time reading a good book. Question is, “What book would you enjoy reading?” Here are several websites to assist you in the selection of a good read.

My favorite is What Should I Read Next. This website helps you find out what book would be best for your tastes. Simply enter in a book or author that you really like and What Should I Read Next will use its sizable database to figure out what author and/or books are most likely going to be compatible with your reading preferences. For instance, I input “Here Lies the Librarian”, a book I am reading now, and got some great recommendations for the next book to read.

At the website This One Next enter a book, CD or DVD that you enjoyed and the site will analyze their database of real users’ preferences to suggest other books, CDs or DVDs that you might like.

Want to find a book based on your mood? Then try this site.

Here is a book browsing recommendation by Marshall McLuhan. When looking for a book to read turn to page 69 and read it. If you like that page, buy the book or check it out. It works.

Enjoy your book. Click on comments and share what you are reading.

Most of us enter a keyword or two into Google’s search box, click the Search button, and a ton of (mostly unwanted) results pops up. 

There is a better way to search!  By using search operators you can generate a smaller, more targeted list of results.

Two of these operators will narrow your search to words in the page’s title.

1. For example, if you want to look for pages with the word “Technology” in the title, use the intitle: operator and enter this query: intitle:technology.  Make sure not to leave a space between the intitle: operator and the keyword.  
2. If you want to look for pages with both the words “Technology” and “Classroom” in the title, use the allintitle: operator and enter this query: allintitle:technology classroom.  Notice that when you use the allintitle: operator, all the keywords after the operator are seached for; you separate the keywords with spaces. 

I would like to make you aware of and promote one of our magazine subscriptions, Technology & Learning, whose mission is to provide K-12 educators with essential resources for managing, teaching, and training with technology.     There is also an online version of Technology & Learning.  The site contains considerably more than the print version does, including readers’ reports of Web tours and weekly news updates.  The site offers plenty of information, links, and resources.  One of my favorite features of the online version is the Daily Features section that includes the following: 

Site of the Day
New places to visit each day.

School Site of the Week
A new school site is selected each week.

How To: QuickFlicks
Video tech tutorials every Monday.

The IT Guy
Helpful new tech tips twice a week.

PDQ
Professional Development Quicktip twice a week.

Leaders’ Edge
Great ideas for administrators and tech leaders.

palmOne Pavilion
Handhelds and learning. 

On the sidebar I have provided links for several of these “Daily Features”  so that you can  access these web pages directly from the library blog each time you visit.

Now that you have started reading blogs you probably have favorites that you want to follow. This can be time consuming if you check these blogs each day to see if new posts have been added. Good news is there is an easier way to stay current on your blog reading without having to hopscotch from one blog site to the next.

Several of you have asked me what the little orange RSS icon is that appears on web pages. RSS is an acronym for Real Simple Syndication and makes keeping up with new information on blogs and web sites quick and simple without actually visiting the sites. All you have to do is subscribe to an RSS on a web site and notification of new information is sent to you in one location, your Feed Reader also known as a news aggregator. Here are two video tutorials provided by Teacher Tube that explain how to use RSS and how to use Google Reader as your Feed Reader.

RSS In Plain English

How to use Google Reader

I have recently become a Blog reader and I love it!   I have found so much helpful and insightful information through reading blogs.  You can pick up a tip from this person’s blog and an idea is born from reading that person’s blog and then you can gather instructions on “how-to” from another blogger.   You can also make comments, contribute what you know, and ask questions while visiting a blog.  After reading many different blogs you can bookmark or subscribe to your favorites and revisit them often.   Blogs are  a valuable source for professional development.

So, how do you get started being a blog reader?   As a librarian I wanted to find blogs written by other librarians so I entered a Google search “Library blogs”.   I also found some very helpful blogs on one of my other interest, photography.    

Here are some sites that will help you get started being a blog reader.  Click on the subject and you will be linked to a site with relevant blogs.  Math,  Science,  History,  English,  Art,  Music

Two more sites I recommend are Support Blogging and  The Top 100 Education Blogs.

When you find a blog that you are interested in and enjoy reading  you need to take a look at  the blogroll to see what that paticular blogger reads.  In doing this you will be building a learning and sharing network that reaches all over the world.

So tell us “What blogs are you reading?”   Click on comments and share.

When Lisa Boyd spoke to us this month about the importance of using Technology to enhance classroom instruction she also listed tools used to accomplish this enhancement.   I am going to use this blog site each week to expand on these technology tools also referred to as Web 2.0 tools.  This week we will look at using blogs.

Definition:     One of the most powerful Internet tools is the Weblog, or blog, an online journal that is continuously updated by its author or authors.  Blogs facilitate instantaneous publication and allow for feedback from readers. 

Examples of classroom blogs:

1. Math class at Restoration Academy, Fairfield, Alabama,     2.  Mrs. Caldwell’s Senior English classes at Mountain Brook High School,     3.  Miller’s English 10 Classroom Blog,      4.  A math class

How to blog:  Vicki Davis, a teacher and fellow blogger from Camilla, Georgia has provided an excellent informative post on her blog site, The Cool Cat Teacher Blog, about how to be an incredible blogger.  Here she provides a helpful reading list for bloggers.

Recommended site to host your educational blog:    Edublogs

Let me know if you would be interested in participating in an in-service to help you setup your classroom blog.

Here is an interesting video about technology and the lack of it in schools.  It is thought-provoking and all too true.  Let us try and change this situation. 

Download Video: Posted by videointheclassroom at TeacherTube.com.

Our library aides were taught how to use Photo Story 3 for Windows and then asked to collaborate on creating a story. They came up with the idea of a library tour with a “twist”.