Sunday, January 29, 2012

I'm on an Animoto Roll!

Last year, I saw a piece of art that one of Betty Ahearn's students at Westmere Elementary School had done in connection with a Knuffle Bunny lesson. In the fall of 2011, I did a Mo Willems unit with my second graders.  We read all the Knuffles, watched the video narrated by Mo and Trixie, and made our own illustrations.  The students glued crayon cartoon characters -- self portraits, Spongebob and other friends -- on a black and white photo of the library.  Here are a few of the creations.  Thanks for a great idea, Betty!
Knuffle Bunny Illustration Project

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Thing 3 and Digital ADD

I've avoided Twitter for a long time, preferring to keep up with people and news through my iGoogle pages and Facebook. I've done it, though. I've signed up for Twitter and am following some of the same people whose blogs I read.  One of my colleagues has been tweeting enthusiastically for quite a while so I'm following him, too.  I'm one of those old-fashioned critters who doesn't have a smart phone so I do my social media reading on my home computer-- even though the requisite brevity of tweets seems best suited for phones..  Now I'm overloaded with tweets.

As you read blogs and tweets and those old-fashioned email messages, do you feel the weight of information overload?  Today I read an email message that Dee sent with a link to this Common Core post:  http://www.schoollibrarymonthly.com/articles/Kramer2011-v28n1p8.html   That led to the ALA crosswalk of Common Core and information literacy standards.  That led to the ZooBurst 3D pop-up books site. I haven't done my Thing 2 assignment so I started playing with ZooBurst.  Then I checked Facebook (because it was open) and  a friend's posts about ALA Midwinter. I looked at Twitter and saw some of the suggestions my first grade colleague recommended.  I moved on to some blogs...aarrghhh!  I think I'm suffering from digital ADD!

Why don't I just read my most recent Horn Book -- in print?      

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Stalling on Things

I'm procrastinating on Thing 2 -- indecision, technical issues with recording for Photo Story, and vigilant filter issues with some of the tools. (Sigh)  Yes, I'll get it done -- and Thing 3, too.  In the meantime, enjoy this etsy link that shows an extremely cool Christmas gift from my cousin:   http://www.etsy.com/listing/59409227/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows