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Voki is a free Web 2.0 tool that allows you to create personalized speaking avatars and use them on your blog, profile, and in email messages.

Voki is a combination of the Latin word “vox” meaning voice and “Loki” the mischievous god of Norse mythology. Now, there is an across the curriculum application! With Voki you create a customizable speaking avatar that accepts text, as well as recordings using your built-in computer microphone and/or audio files. Voki provides several HTML code options for your finished avatar that can be embedded into most wikis or blogs.

Here is a YouTube tutorial video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssGHaNX3O4g and a slideshow from slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/markmodra/voki-activities-presentation

 As stated in The Edublogger, “educators use them to add a human element to their sites or to engage students.” They are also great as attention getters and warm-up/bellringers. Here is the link to the February, 2008 Edublogger article, (so I am a little behind; I’ve been enthralled by DWTS.

Suggestions for use in ESL classrooms may be found at this link:
http://instructify.com/2009/09/17/voki-trailfire-mashup-special-needs-education/

 So give Voki a whirl and let me know how it goes.

Hey Memphis teachers~

Let your opinion count! Please answer the following question:

Memphis is my favorite city because…..

The 80/20 Rule is one of the most helpful of all concepts of time and life management. It is also called the “Pareto Principle” after its founder, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who first wrote about it in 1895. Pareto noticed that people in his society seemed to divide naturally into what he called the “vital few”, the top 20 percent in terms of money and influence, and the “trivial many”, the bottom 80 percent.

He later discovered that virtually all economic activity was subject to this principle as well. For example, this principle says that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results, 20 percent of your customers will account for 80 percent of your sales, 20 percent of your products or services will account for 80 percent of your profits, 20 percent of your tasks will account for 80 percent of the value of what you do, and so on. This means that if you have a list of ten items to do, two of those items will turn out to be worth five or ten times or more than the other eight items put together.

I wonder…how would this apply to the classroom?

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It’s no surprise that students supported by parents involved in their education tend to exhibit higher achievement; this study breaks down parental involvement into subtypes to see what actions make the most difference across 50 studies.

The authors of “Parental Involvement in Middle School: A Meta-Analytic Assessment of the Strategies That Promote Achievement” find that involvement described as “academic socialization” has the strongest positive correlation to achievement.

They describe this as involvement that “creates an understanding about the purposes, goals, and meaning of academic performance; communicates expectations about involvement; and provides strategies that students can effectively use.” Other types such as school visits and volunteering were positively correlated with achievement, but less so.

Interestingly, helping with homework was the only type not positively related to achievement.

Read more:

Recently I volunteered at our local hospital. The occasion was a celebration for the 2000 hospital employees. The celebration theme was a carnival and there were games, caricatures, a dunking booth, a rock climbing wall, and plenty of food in the serving line. It was a typically hot, July day with temperatures in the 100’s.

All the favorite grilling foods were there…hamburgers, hot dogs, Texas smoked sausage, snow cones, watermelon, cookies, all the fixin’s.

Well, almost all of the fixin’s.

It is interesting how people react to the work done by others. Some are grateful, peppering their speech with smiles, “Please” and “Thank you.”

Not so for others. Others complain about the heat, (to people working in that heat!). Some complain about the lines. Some complain about having a 30-minute lunch.

And some complain about pickles.

Or the lack of pickles, in this case. Despite all the free food and drinks, and condiments, and extras, one woman noticed a lack of pickles. She was not consoled by pickle relish. She wanted pickles. No free meal or festive atmosphere would deter her determined complaining.

As you prepare your classroom for the approaching school year. As you send out your welcome letters and label books, desks, and supplies, please remember that there will be pickle people.

Pickle people are bitter. They usually give birth to pickle kids. And pickle kids are rarely absent. I guess the pickle doesn’t fall far from the tree! As you encounter pickle people, remember your goal, do not allow the bitterness to infect you. Do not let other people’s caustic comments and attitudes literally put you in a pickle.

You are not bitter. You are better. And your kids and students will be better for being in your class.

 For generations, the academic community has relied on peer review as a way of enhancing the knowledge base and encouraging serious scholarship. Peer review can offer many of the same benefit to students… [and] computers [can] mediate the interaction among peers. Gehringer (2000)

·        Peer Review reflects constructive guidance at its collaborative best.

·        As an application to the classroom, Peer Review helps students and the teacher.

·        Anonymous Peer Review provides a framework for students to learn balanced reasoning at a time when modern discourse often descends into shouting and insults (and that is just on CNN and MSNBC!)

·        When using a thinking schema such as P*M*I, anonymous Peer Review teaches students how to offer points of help, practice proofreading, and strengthen other communication skills.

·        Peer Review introduces and encourages diversity of opinion

·        Peer Review models the importance of checking work before it is turned in. When the audience is the teacher alone, sadly, many students are apathetic. But when the audience is the students’ fellow classmates, an extra attention to detail emerges.

·        Peer Review offers students a practical application in this real-world review.

Peer Review provides a review committee for the teacher who often has, to butcher Robert Frost, “miles to grade before she sleeps.”

If you would like more information on methods for Student Use, please refer to this link:

http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/peerreview/studentintro.html

For forms to use with students, see this link: http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/peerreview/forms.html  and http://www.scribd.com/doc/2205303/English-122-paper-one-peer-review

Quote Source: Gehringer, E.F., 2000. Strategies and Mechanisms for Electronic Peer Review

It is the end of the school year and you may feel like   

This

Hello! You have reached the automated answering service of your school. In order to assist you in connecting to the right staff member, please listen to all
the options before making a selection:

To lie about why your child is absent…. Press 1

To make excuses for why your child did not do his work….Press 2

To complain about what we do – Press 3
Read the rest of this entry »

“An understanding heart is everything in a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough. One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feeling. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.”

—Carl Jung, 1875-1961

We are the proud parents of a new dog.
Our beloved family member, Aspen went to dog heaven on March 5th, after 15 years of choosing us as her pets.

We vowed to change that dynamic this time around.

Enter    Ruby.

Ruby is a “goodle” a greyhound/poodle mix (Don’t ask me how–I defer to the biology teachers among us)

Here is how Thematic Curriculum applies to this:

Read the rest of this entry »

Before I was a Mom
I made and ate hot meals.
I had unstained clothing.
I had quiet conversations on the phone.Before I was a Mom,
I slept as late as I wanted
I never tripped over toys
I never forgot words of lullabies. Read the rest of this entry »

“I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music”
–Joan Miró

Well, you have seen them too—the back-to-school commercials. It is almost that time of year. 

One of the initial activities in the back-to-school task list is the Student Information Sheet.

Why not add a small section to your Student Information Sheet to reflect your students’ technology skills. If you have a hardcopy handout, add a small section at the end. Or, consider adding a section on your blog or wiki for students to fill out that asks:

Students, Do you have…

~A computer

~A webpage

~A cell phone

~Internet access

~Accounts on Music sites

~A Blog

~Favorite websites (that can be shared with you, the teacher)

~Special tech skills  (such as keyboarding, spreadsheet skills, programming skills, hardware skills, graphic design skills, etc…)

Try it and see!

{Add any other ideas here!}

Please post your Learning COBs here.

or another option

Click on the Health A-Z link (link is on the Blogroll)

Please choose one Lesson Cycle Step and add a technology integration component as a Comment.

Thank you!

 Google Earth delivers great resources for your science curriculum Click this link to learn how scientists visualize and communicate the phenomena they study. Google Earth displays the migration patterns of endangered and other threatened animals, based on data collected by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation.

Google Earth offers anyone the opportunity to take geographical data and turn it into a “layer.” Scientists are doing this in real-world lab scenarios. You can track what scientists see in storms, the paths of solar eclipses , volcano activity, arctic ice melting, bird flu mutations and biomaps of emotional stress levels in different cities (see this Popular Science article for more info).

Since these are all KML files, they could be downloaded with less space needed than United Streaming and also made into layers on the regular Google Maps as well.

Google Earth: http://earth.google.com/

While You Were Teaching…4OOPSs EduTech News Feed

The kids need you and the web keeps marching on…not to worry, 4OOPS’ EduTech news Feed has these top stories of interest to educators: 

From Tech Crunch: July 1. You can no longer use a handheld mobile device in California and Washington. The first time fine in California is just $20, but the real deterrent is public opinion.

But, some studies have shown that talking on hands-free devices are just as dangerous as talking on cell phones regularly.

Will people who talk on their cell phones while driving now have to keep a lookout for the police, too, distracting them even more?

From Read/Write/Web: Adobe.  Adobe is has just launched their version of an online office suite available at Acrobat.com, complete with word processor (Buzzword), web conferencing/whiteboard app (ConnectNow), online file sharing (Share), file storage, (My Files), and PDF converter. Adobe has also announced a brand-new version of Adobe Acrobat, Acrobat 9. 

From TechCrunch: Ultralight laptops. The MSI Wind – is a $499,  2.6-pound, 10-inch laptop.  

From Read Write Web: June 5, 2008. About half of all Internet users aged 12 and up have streamed a video file online in the past 30 days.

Meetings that stay on task, on target, and on time are not the stuff of legend or fantasy.

30-minute meetings can be a reality. Click here for more information

Also, Jan O’Neill has a great article on the 30-minute meeting. Google and read all about it.

Watching the Weather Channel tonight, I saw a sea of red across the U.S. indicating hot, hot, HOT temps. Definitely not sweater-weather! The only layers I want to see are in my curriculum, specifically in a layered-approach curriculum.

Layered Curriculum Unit Example: (scroll to page 10) Click here.  

For a link to one teacher’s practical implementation of a layered curriculum. Click here.

For a blank document form for you to use to create your own layered curriculum units. Click here

The layered curriculum concept is the original work of Kathy Nunley. For her website click here.