It’s been such a great, BUSY week!

Wednesday’s workshop on using Google Reader went GREAT! Here’s a shout out to any of my coworkers who are now following my blog — you guys ROCK! I’m going to try to follow up with everyone who attended within the next week or so and help them with any post-workshop issues/anxiety they may have.

Yesterday was Book Club meeting number two. As you know, we were reading Harriet the Spy. I saw a few of my kids kind of struggling with the book. For 2nd/3rd graders who are just a little above their reading level, it’s a pretty tough read. I started thinking about the better choices I could have made and stressed myself out about it. I didn’t know what to do and was talking to a fellow Book Club teacher who suggested I let the students cast a secret vote and make the decision. So that’s what we did. 7 to 1 they voted to make the switch to shorter books so we could read more. I told them they could keep Harriet until the end of the school year if they still wanted to read it without having to rush, and a few wanted to do that. Next year, we will cast our vote at the first meeting of each session – I like giving them the choice in the matter.

So now we’re reading A Good Night for Ghosts by Mary Pope Osborne.

My kids are absolutely bonkers for Magic Tree House books. This is by far my favorite because it takes place in New Orleans! I did this one with my last group as well, so I knew exactly what to do for the book’s intro. We read the picture book If I Only Had a Horn by Roxane Orgill and illustrated by Leonard Jenkins.

It’s a story about the childhood of Louis Armstrong and is the perfect introduction to this MTH book. Then we watched a few videos of Louis playing music and singing. Giving the students that background before reading the book makes for a much richer reading experience.

I’m off to school – day 5 of writing our William Blake style poetry. Pray that my hopes and dreams for next weeks recording process go as planned!

Yesterday, we kicked off round 2 of our after school Book Club. We have a whole new group of students who are just as excited as the first group! This will be a 4 week session (still meeting twice a week)  since the school year is quickly coming to an end.

This session, my group is reading Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh.

For our first meeting, my crew made Spy Journals so they can observe the world around them just like Harriet.

Their journals looked so cute. I had one student come back this morning and show me what she’d written in her journal. I love the enthusiasm of 7-9 year olds…it’s infectious! I’m planning to have the students create a comic based on Harriet, and maybe a song or poem too. Whatever we do, we will have loads of fun.

A coworker just got an iPhone and was asking for my recommendations on apps. Here’s my list of my favorite 15 free apps.

1. MobileRSS – for your Google Reader

2. Facebook – Addictive, so beware!

3. ShopShop – for your grocery shopping list

4. CheckPleaseLite – tallies tips, divides checks

5. Echofon – for twitter

6. Goodreads – keep up with books that you’ve read, good source of book reviews

7. Pandora – free radio

8. YellowPages – phone book/location finder

9. Yelp – similar to YellowPages but has good customer reviews

10. Urbanspoon – for when you don’t know where to eat

11. AllRecipes – kind of like urban spoon but with recipes

12. Now Playing – movie times

13. Shazam – can figure out the name/artist of a song that’s on the radio

14. KAYAK – flight info/last minute travel deals

15. ISTE – quick links to their resources

Now it’s your turn to share…what are your favorite apps?

When I was in college, I had to do an independent study course because of scheduling issues. The professor and I sort of made up our own class, and it was really great. One of the books she had me read was Rose, Where Did You Get That Red? by Kenneth Koch. When I taught middle school, I did my entire poetry unit using this book. My favorite poem and activity from it was “The Tyger” by William Blake. I thought I’d give it a shot with my 2nd/3rd graders. It’s a pretty intimidating poem, but I approached it in a simple way so it could make sense to the students. First, we viewed this reading on YouTube:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTMPJVDOoag]

Then, I used the picture book of “The Tyger” illustrated by Neil Waldman and we broke it down line by line. We talked about how Blake is actually talking to the tiger and asking him questions about how he was created. We talked about the language and the meanings of a lot of the difficult words. They really got into the discussion, especially after I told them when they interpret poetry, there is no wrong answer.

Then, they have a chance to write their own poem, with the following instructions:

“Write a poem in which you are talking to a mysterious and beautiful creature. You can ask or tell that animal anything, because you are able to speak its language.”

Nearly all of the students got really excited and dove right into writing. Some were hesitant and needed coaxing. They really came up with some great stuff! In one class, some students wanted to share. When they read their poems, it gave me chills! Their innocent minds can come up with some incredible things. Next week, I plan to use Photostory and have each student record their poem. I plan to use Creative Commons to have pictures of their animals, which will be quite an undertaking with 500 students. I’m really looking forward to next week and creating some finished products! Watch for it, I plan to share some of their work.

Here’s another video I’d like to use:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4rbk8L_UFw]

Sharing the link between music and poetry really brings it home to many students, and I think using this video would do that so well.

I am pumped about next week., here’ s why:

1.  Testing is over, so we’ll be back to a normal schedule.

2. Round two of Book Club gets cranked up.

3. We’re going to write some poetry in honor of National Poetry Month!

4. I’m doing a workshop for my coworkers on using Google Reader.

5. There’s a webinar on Monday Night, and there are always some of my library idols that host or attend them

I’m really looking forward to putting on this Google Reader workshop. I’m hoping for a good turn out and some enthusiastic teachers! Surely some of my excitement will rub of on them. Watch for some posts throughout this very exciting week!

Here’s the PowerPoint that I’ll be using for my workshop, for anyone that’s interested…

[slideshare id=3760866&doc=googlereader-100417164755-phpapp01]

I’m so frustrated with my laptop situation! For Christmas (I think 2007, but maybe 2008? Sad that I can’t remember…) my darling husband got me this laptop as a surprise.

I loved it! It was PINK! My old laptop was starting to flake out, so I was excited about this gift. Then I turned it on and started using it. It had Windows Vista and I HATED it. It would freeze up and act like it had a mind of its own (with sub-par intelligence, of course). After about a month I reverted back to my old laptop. About a year later, old faithful kicked the bucket so I was forced to start using the Vista infested computer again. It works well about 70% of the time…when the mouse isn’t freezing up, etc. So I should buy Windows 7, right? Well I haven’t done that because I’m still bitter about Windows Vista. Just because I got a new laptop in this particular window of time means I get the short end of the stick.

So here I am with ISTE coming up this summer, as well as my launch into my Masters program. I need a piece of reliable equipment. What should I do? What I (think I) really want is a MacBook. Mostly because I can get the extremely cool Book Book cover to go on it. Yes, I’m that much of a dork.

Part of me is afraid of getting a Mac because its so different from what I’m used to. Another part of me wants to just go for it since I’ve heard so many people who love their Mac.

So what should I do??

1 – Keep this Dell, suck it up, and buy Windows 7

2 – Buy a netbook because they’re cool

3 – Try to buy another PC brand laptop that will fit in the Book Book case

4 – Go for the MacBook

You must watch this video:

[ted id=815]

Adora Svitak has some really strong ideas in this TED talk and they are definitely things that educators need to hear. I especially liked the part about internet filtering, but that should come as no surprise

Did you notice, though, that she used a Prezi?! I love it!

I got this from the Free Technology for Teachers blog, which is in my opinion the most awesome blog out there for educators.