Thing 3-Connected, Connected, Connected

Do you ever feel like life gets so busy that it is difficult to find time to have coffee with one of your oldest friends, or that there are not enough hours in the day to accomplish anything.  Better yet, we're librarians right, but how often do we actually have time to read for pleasure!  There are so many ways to be connected these days, yet, it seems like I see actual people less and less.  It's funny, if one was ever wondering what it might feel like to have so many social obligations (a la the queen of England), well, sometimes it feels like my digital life is overextended...Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, blogs to read...There is so much to read, update, and keep tabs on sometimes it just feels a little overwhelming!

I had a twitter account before CoolTools, but I never used it.  I have to say, after watching the video clip, and then setting up a Paper.Li account I have a renewed interest.  BTW-Follow me @erinmjankowski.

Paper.li is like a blog reader for twitter.  I like it.  

I found an interesting article on using Google + in schools as a social networking alternative to Facebook. http://blog.simplek12.com/social-media/google-plus-for-educators/ was originally posted on Buffy Hamiliton's Paper.Li.  It's worth checking out.  

I did set up a Paper.li for myself.  Can't say that I will be able to have time to check it often, but I am getting a renewed interest in twitter because of it.  I will say this.  With the growing social networking options out there, and the uses for professional growth, I will never be at a loss for something to read.  

Thing 2.2 Voice Thread

There were so many options in Thing 2 and I want to try out several of them.  I tried voice thread last week to do a short video for my second grade as an intro to a Chinese New Year project they will begin working on.

I had high hopes for voice thread, but after using it, am not as impressed as I thought it would be.  I used a powerpoint I had made previously and then narrated the slides for students.  I tried to use the crayon tools to make points or underline, but it was a little tricky and I had trouble coordinating my words and pointing things out at the same time.

About halfway through I thought maybe it would be nice to have background music.  I cranked up some traditional Chinese tunes on my Pandora App and played it in the background to add another level of interest, and hopefully hide the whirring noise of my computer.  It half worked.

I can see potential for voice thread...It can really help students to learn the art of a good Powerpoint....Not reading from the slide.  They can focus on a visual with the slide, and add the dialogue, as opposed to what they usually do...read from the slide.  We will be using Voicethread with 3rd and 4th grade later in the year.

Here is what I came up with...
voicethread.com/share/2598356/

Thing 2.1-Animoto

As I check out what everyone is doing I am getting motivated to try several of these tools.  For starters I chose Animoto because I have used it quite a bit, and because I promised I would refer at some point to my kitchen adventures.  One of my goals for 2012-and there are many-is to create a holiday cookie cookbook I can gift to family and friends next year.  This years cookie assortment were a mix of time tested favorites, and things I have always wanted to try.

The big cookie hit of the season were the "Red and Green" Velvet balls.  I made Paula Deen's Red Velvet Cake recipe, mixed it with my own cream cheese frosting recipe-1 pkg cream cheese, 1 stick butter, 2 tsp vanilla, and confectioners sugar added gradually until you reach your own desired level of sweetness.

Tried macaroons this year.  I was feeling extra ambitious and perhaps a little too confident, and decided to shape the macaroons into Christmas trees as I had seen in a back issue of Martha Stewart Living.  They were not as "perfect" as Martha's but they tasted great.  In the future I will stick with the classic pyramid shape, and dip them in chocolate for added deliciousness.

Lastly, I tried out some new cookie cutters from King Arthur-a snow globe and a mitten.  Had aspired to do some really intricate decorating, but since most of the decorating took place on Christmas Eve, they did not turn out as I had hoped, but pretty nonetheless.



Back to Animoto:  I have used this tool a lot.  I find that my students love it, and it is so darn easy, every child was successful!  Animoto made learning about the Dewey Decimal System a whole lot more interesting for my Fifth Grade students.  I asked students to create a short Animoto video for a specific Dewey section.  Students worked in groups and first had to peruse our items on their designated section, then in their own words they had to describe each Dewey subsection.  They then found pictures on the internet to correspond with each subsection.  Students gave credit for images in a separate document.  Students then created their videos.

In order for each group to create a video longer than 30 seconds I signed up for an educator trial.  This gives you 50 account codes.  I registered the educator trial with a Gmail account I set up for our school library--this is helpful because I was then able to set up dummy accounts from the gmail account so I could monitor all activity with the Animoto accounts.  To set up a dummy account in gmail add + then a number to the end of the account--Example:  johndoe+1@gmail.com.  This worked out very well.

Below is a link to our completed videos:
Grade 5 Animoto Project