Thanksgiving? Nope, moving on.

It seems I have missed November. I can't even sneak in a post and pretend I was doing my monthly post. Oh well...it was a good month though. Passed very quickly. I have a Christmas program coming up that has really taken up most of my energy. It is an annual thing at my school but it always takes more work than I remember each year. I work with first through fifth graders that will sing a variety of songs. I have 8th grade students that will be playing handbells. They have proved to be more challenging than in previous years. Guitar students and a small vocal ensemble have a few things to perform also. So you can see that I am a bit preoccupied.

Biggest news- got a mac book pro! Loving it. Using it now. Beautiful screen. Nice keyboard. Easy to navigate.  I really do like using it. Have much to learn about it and how to utilize everything it is able to do better than a pc.

So on to my things to share- 

I recently assisted our reading specialist at our school to present a parent workshop about emergent readers. It was a very good workshop and the parents really appreciated the information. We worked to get her a wikispace up and running, hopefully to help her parents find resources. MissVercilloReading will be a place where she can keep her parents informed. One of the first links we included was to the site Starfall. A favorite site of all the primary teachers at my school, Starfall offers visitors phonics, ABC's, books to read and be read to plus calendars, games and so many wonderful interactives. It really is time well spent exploring. 

One other thing I would like to share is if you are a fan of twitter, you should follow TCEA (Texas Computer Educator Association).  I was reminded by a colleague who has taken up tweeting, that TCEA makes a tweet each day about free apps. They frequently mention great educational websites also. I have tried to make it a part of my routine to check twitter each day to see what the offerings are for the day. Even if you don't twitter, you can still look them up to see what recommendations they may have. 

December looks to be a flurry. Literally. Busy weeks ahead. Stay warm and make good choices!

Howling Halloween

So I am trying out the iPhone app for Blogger on my iPad. My thinking is maybe I can make more posts and stay current. I'm not sure if this is the best way to do this but it is certainly worth a try. I guess this is my test post.

Halloween Links:
Larry Ferlazzo is an amazing educator and his blog is one of my very favorites. I know I have mentioned him before and will continue to remind people whenever I can. A nice feature of his sites is the collection of the "best of" lists. A very extensive list of the best sites for just about anything you are looking for. I'm going to try and post a link here and not sure what it will look like but here is a link to his Halloween resources. http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/10/05/the-best-websites-for-learning-about-halloween/
Be sure to look for the virtual pumpkin carving sites. They are great to use on a SmartBoard.

Happy Halloween!

October

Yeah, so this blogging isn't working out very well. I made a promise last month that I would do better. Hasn't really come true though. Which troubles me since I feel that blogging is an important part of being an educator. There is the old saying that the best teachers have all used other teachers ideas. And it's true. Teachers don't necessarily "steal" it. They take it, modify it, re-arrange it, re-do it, adjust it, take it apart and reassemble it. It more or less stays the same but not really. That's what you have to love about true teachers. They are marvels at improvising. They know how to spin gold out of straw. So blogging is one way for teachers to share what they do, what they have found, what works, what doesn't and how they did it differently today than yesterday.

So here I am sharing something I found. One of my favorite and best ever blogs to follow is Free Technology for Teachers. Fabulous stuff here. I saw a post he made about alternatives to YouTube in the classroom. So many times you find this great video to use in class and of course YouTube is blocked. Now what? Well this list might be helpful. The only drawback I see is that many alternative sites I have tried have so little material that they really aren't worth my time to dig through the videos. But you never know. I suppose I won't stop trying. Perhaps you will have better luck.

September and bad blogging

It's September. Not the first of the month but pretty much half way through the month. I have been trying so hard to be a good blogger. A friend of mine told me that I needed to keep plugging away even if I only make one post a month. My goal was once a week and we can see that didn't happen. So at the very least I am going for once a month. Have to think positive though that I will make more posts. I'm trying. Okay enough whining....

Two interesting tools today. I was looking at a really wonderful wikispace called Cool Tools for Schools. Very nice collection of web 2.0 tools to use. Among the larger list of links I tried one called Quikmaps. I really liked it. Whenever I talk about musicians or composers in my music class I always like to show where they lived and traveled. It's hard to talk about Germany if the students have no clue where it is in relationship to where they live. Besides the fact that I just love maps! Right now we are listening to college fight songs in my music classes and I created a map showing where our school is and where the two colleges we have listened to are located. This link will take you to the map I created. You can add markers, text and save the map. You can use a variety of maps such as Yahoo, Google or Bing. I chose a Google Map. Very user friendly. You need an account but you do not need an email to get a free account. It is in beta but definitely worth a look.

You have seen this (to your left) before probably. I know I have. In fact I think I remember seeing them before I ever saw the gaining popularity QR code (on your right). This is a Microsoft Tag. You will need a Windows Live ID to create a free account but they are as simple to create as QR Codes. I don't know which will be most popular. You can get QR code readers and Tag readers for your smart phones. It seems I've seen more QR that Tags. But Microsoft has a pretty large footprint so who knows. So scan this with your Tag Reader app and it will take you to my school music wikispace. Download a QR reader app and try this QR code. One the quickest sites to create a QR code is Kaywa. Either way using these in the classroom would be a new way to engage your students.