School Spirit week usually brings out the best in most of us. Especially Comfy Cozy day. That day can't be beat. This year, there was a new "Spirit" day introduced into the mix - Duct Tape Day. The kiddos in my math class were excited at the possibility of putting their math skills to the test. So they found some projects online, followed directions, measured the lengths of pieces and produced some AMAZING projects. Kudos to them! This is quite the creative bunch!
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We just completed our FIRST baking project of the school year - Pumpkin Muffins! The kids did an awesome job of following directions, measuring, mixing and baking. They sold the muffins to the faculty/staff at school the next day and profited $10.50. This is one of many baking projects they'll do to sell to the faculty/staff at school. We're thinking of calling our little bi-weekly cafe - The Centaur Cafe. Delicious!! I've committed myself to reading a few books before I head back to school. After I finished my EdTech program through UCONN, I was eager to pick up some books I've been wanting to read. The first that I read in a day, was the first book in the Witch and Wizard series by James Patterson. It was fanciful and enjoyable. I headed back to the library to borrow the other two in the series. Before I read these, I need to finish Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. This certainly does not read as quickly as the other novels in my stack will. It's chocked full of information that takes awhile to digest. I'm 300 pages in on this 571 page book. Very interesting, very enlightening. I've also piled on The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom and Summerland by Elin Hilderbrand. The 4 books stacked to be read total 1,504 pages. This doesn't include the remaining 271 pages in the Steve Jobs book. I've got 17 days before I head back to school. If I want to finish all of these, I'll need to read on avg 104 pgs a day. Not likely, but I'm going to try! Head on over to my Today's Featured page to see my Shelfari which lists other books I'm hoping to read, and have already finished.
So I'm pretty familiar with blogging. This is a blog - I'm intrigued about blogging and how I can incorporate it into my classroom. I don't teach traditional academics, but rather I support students in their academic journeys. So... my goal for this upcoming school year is to institute a classroom blog called "PAPERLESSons" Paperless lessons, get it?! So, come visit us occasionally or often @ www.mrsvdespres.edublogs.org.
Word Clouds. A really neat visual representation of what you want to say. I've used Wordle in the past, but Tagxedo adds a bit more personality to the word clouds. You can choose your color scheme and shape - whereas Wordle chooses that for you. These three I made using the handprint shape - but there are tons more! Try it out! The long awaited week has arrived! I'm wrapping up my 6th year program at UCONN!! We were faced with a few tasks to complete in the time we were together: Complete our Taskstream e-portfolio, write a PD plan that wasn't a workshop, create a Pecha Kucha presentation, and create a legacy video. Lofty goals, but totally doable. Now, I'm officially a UCONN alumni! Wow! It's been almost a month since I've posted something to my Blog! Time flies when you're wrapping up the school year, plus a graduate program! I've been working diligently on a new project called a 'Google Trek' - a term coined by Dr. Alice Christie of Arizona. Using Google Maps, a Google Trek is an interactive traveling experience. My Google Trek is titled "From Bean to Bar: The Geography of Chocolate." Surprised? I love chocolate. What I love about the Treks are they are evolutionary - they can be revised and update as often as I want and there's no lapse in publication time since it's online and live 24/7. Try it out..... Here's the link to my Google Trek. From Bean to Bar: The Geography of Chocolate View From Bean to Bar: Geography of Chocolate in a larger map I have the pleasure of co-teaching a freshman science class this semester - the class is full of inquisitive and amazing students! This week, we conducted a lab investigation on synthetic polymers. I was able to capture video clips and use iMovie to create a visual representation of their 84 minute class in just over 4 minutes! Enjoy! I don't normally have time to surf through the headlines on Yahoo. com, but I found myself with a few extra minutes this morning and was immediately drawn to a story about a baby beluga whale being born to a first time mother, in an aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia. Here's the link to the article... http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/33671/aquariums+prized+beluga+whale+baby+in+a+struggle+for+survival/ Beluga whales born to first time mothers, have a small chance of survival, whether or not they're born in captivity or wild. Why?! In my quest for an answer, I visited the Blog of the Aquarium, and was saddened to find out, the baby calf had passed away 5 days after its birth... the Senior VP and Chief Zoologist has published a touching video & story about this experience. You can see it by visiting YouTube. This story reminds me of an opportunity I had on my 21st birthday. My parents paid for me and my friend Jon (he's in the white hat) to participate in the "Beluga Whale" experience at Mystic Aquarium. Belugas are such a gentle, peaceful creature.
The Wide World of Apps. Where in the world do we start when we look for apps? iTunes is a great resource, but there are so many apps that go untAPPed, where's the best direction to go? Here are a few suggestions! AppStart for iPad http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/appstart-for-ipad-2012-edition/id408984648?mt=8 "AppStart takes a fresh and fun approach to teach the average Joe (or insert your name here) how to become more familiar with his/her iPad and apps. NO THIS IS NOT A BORING MANUAL. We’ll fill you on the basic things that everyone should know, and then get you started with the best apps for you. Throughout the app you’ll find special sections that tell you apps you'll need to turn your iPad into a specific kind of tool. You'll also be given a list of the essentials apps for certain types of user (lawyers, teachers, musicians, moms, dads, etc). If you see something that sounds interesting to you, click it! We’ll give you the exact set of apps to download and you’ll be on your way, no need to scour the top charts in the App Store. " (iTunes description, free) Apps Gone Free http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/appsgonefree/id470693788?mt=8 "Every day hundreds of apps reduce their price to free for a limited time to try to stimulate excitement. Wouldn't it be great to get a hand picked, human curated list of ONLY the ones that are good? You shouldn't waste your time finding these deals, then scouring through them all to find something worth downloading. Let AppsGoneFree do all the work for you. Every day we'll give you custom advice written by a professional AppAdvice app enthusiast. We handpick only the best apps that are temporarily free each day, and tell you all about them so you can choose if they are for you. You'll get a list of these apps, along with a couple of sentences about why the app should be installed!" (iTunes description, free) App Advice
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/appadvice/id364906378?mt=8 "AppAdvice tells you everything there is to know about apps and your iPhone or iPad. What's the latest app news? Which apps came out and need to be downloaded right now? Want to see a detailed review of any app in the top 25? Need to know what the best Twitter client is? AppAdvice shows you which apps you can't live without and uncovers tips and tricks to get your iDevice rocking to its full potential." (iTunes description, ) |