Writing and more

My original goal for writing was once a week. And then I realized that was not realistic so I went for once a month and often I was able to manage more than that but....yeah here we are...June..and I haven't posted since March. Needless to say I think I fell off the earth for a while. It has been a very busy spring but I'm back and I once again make my blogging promise to post a minimum of once a month. I will try to make up for my lack of attention to my writing.

So I guess this post is my apology and whining for being such a slacker. I could go on and on about the reasons I have not written and there are plenty of mostly legitimate excuses. But truth be told I suppose it's just life and living that gets in the way sometimes! It's all good though.

Enough of my noise. Moving on!

And BTW- is that not a cool dragon? Phillip Martin Clip Art one of the best collections of free clip art. Beautifully done and so many choices.

Marching In and Ocean Tracks

You know the saying about March coming in like a lamb and out like a lion or vice versa? Well how about March coming in like a whirlwind? That is how it has been since I returned from TCEA and TMEA. Quite a flurry of activity. I spent considerable amount of time when I came back preparing a video for our school's auction. Many, many hours were spent but it turned out great. Although, last minute, I get a phone call asking if I can change the size of the video because the projector resolution was not what I set the video up in. I knew that was going to happen! Should have done 2. Live and Learn.

Really cool site here for science teachers or anyone interested in tracking sharks. A fellow teacher shared this site and I spent far too much time looking at it. Ocean Tracks displays the tracks of selected marine animals tagged by CSIRO and their partners. Using interactive maps you are able to "follow" the path of one of many tagged animals. You can follow Tazzi the Tiger Shark or meet the scientists who are behind the tagging. I especially enjoyed the interactive "dive with this fish" that takes you into the water to "see" and follow it. Very cool! There are also postcards and tips for teachers to download and print for their classes. It is sites like this that make me wish I taught science.

Third Grade Common Core

It seems there is much discussion over the Common Core Standards. Lately I have seen postings surfacing about it and I've been in more than one conversation in the last 3 days concerning Common Core Standards. Well now, from CoreCommonStandards.com comes a workbook to help guide teachers in implementing the standards. This book is filled with so many resources for teachers. Worksheets, activities and listings of the standards arranged in an orderly manner with colorful and easy to read pages. The workbooks available here are a must have for teachers who are trying to navigate into the adoption of the Common Core Standards for their state.

Currently on their site, workbooks, such as the Third Grade Common Core Workbook, are available. The workbooks are downloadable so the resources are easy to access right from your computer while you are planning your lessons. The site also offers links to the standards for all states who have adopted the Common Core, plus you can look at standards by grade level or by subject (English or Math).

Be sure to take a look at the Core Common Standards and all that is offered here.

TCEA 2013 , 360 Cities and iBooks Author

I am back from a great week spent in Austin for the TCEA conference. So many wonderful sessions. My brain is still jumbled and I will need to sort through my notes of links and things. I also had the pleasure of presenting three sessions with my partner in crime, Carol Mayo, the director of professional development for the diocese. On Monday, we presented Websites with Weebly. Full session and lots of great comments afterwards. Likewise for our Tuesday session of Award Winning Websites with Animoto. And finally, a small but very enthusiastic crowd for our Paper Slide and Mime Videos. All of our session material can be found on Carol's website, Hold the Mayo (cute name isn't it? A nice play on words with her name!). If you are interested, please take a look. There are even some of the completed projects from the attendees. Among the links posted is a link to our STARCamp wikispace. This is a teacher tech camp that we have taught for a few years. Carol also does lots of other trainings and her resources can be found within the site.

I think one of the things I most benefited from this year at TCEA were the sessions on working with iBooks Author with Alexis Carroll Cline, the publications specialist at TCEA. (You can follow her twitter feed here) I had played with iBooks Author before but I feel I have a much better grasp of how to work with it now.

Another favorite session was Digital Field Trips with Naomi Thompson from the Fort Worth ISD. She shared some links I don't remember seeing before. I was really intriguied by 360cities.net. There are so many places from around the world to visit. Perhaps you would like to show your students the Colosseum in Rome up close (be sure to follow the arrows to look inside), or the magnificent Machu Picchu, or maybe a peek inside the Louvre in Paris? I could spend many hours just perusing all of the listings in this site. 360cities.net can be used in any subject, visiting a battlefield, home of an author, or the interior of a cathedral. 360 can take your students on that field trip some may never take.

Many of the presenters had handouts for their presentations which can be found here. Check out the list, there may be something here that interests you.

All in all, it was a very good week. I will try to post more of what I learned in the coming weeks. So much to digest. This coming week is a trip to San Antonio for the TMEA/TI:ME conference. More learning!