We are well underway with the new school year.  It’s been a busy start, which is a good thing!  Lots of books are getting checked out and classes are coming in to do research.  My two favorite things

You may notice some students with a Playaway.  These are relatively new, but are suddenly much more popular with the freshman this year.  A Playaway is an audiobook that comes pre-packaged in an mp3-like device.  You just plug in your headphone and press play.  Much easier than dealing with mulitple cds.  We have about 55 of these, primarily young adult fiction titles.  We also have several Spanish language learning Playaways for those of you that would like to learn some Spanish.

eBooks are becoming more prevalant and our library has begun a collection of titles; in particular, we have several of the core novels.  Currently, we’re using Follett as our only vendor.  Visit the library page, go to the catalog and search “ebooks”.  You can read the ebooks online or check them out to read on the Follett software.  (Don’t check them out unless you really need to; you have to check them in yourself or it’s out for the full checkout period) A new platform for our ebooks will be coming next semester, so we’re not pushing them as much as we could to avoid confusion.  See me for more information and assistance.

We’ve begun the implementation of Google Apps here on campus. Many students, through CTE classes, have already received some training and have accessed their gmail accounts.  Consider integrating Google Docs and allowing student to email you assignments or “share” them to assist in the paper and toner shortage.  If you would like to see your classes set up with Google Apps, see Mrs. Thomas, Mrs. Hulcher, or myself.  We’d like to get all students set up with this.

TenMarks a free online Math program with video tutorials. Covers Algebra I, II and Geometry.

SPENT an online financial activity for students. explanation here

TopicMarks summarizes text documents

Virtual Field Trips: http://www.simplek12.com/virtualfieldtrips 

Checking for Plagiarism:
Make Use Of has an article with some info on these
Doc Cop http://www.doccop.com
Dupli Checker http://www.duplichecker.com/
Plagiarism Checker http://www.plagiarismchecker.com/
Article Checker http://www.articlechecker.com/
Plagiarism Detect http://www.plagiarismdetect.com/
Turnitin https://turnitin.com

A New Year, New Resources!

from Free Technology for Teachers:
11 Social Studies resources to try in 2011
11 Language Arts resources to try in 2011
11 Science resources to try in 2011
11 Mathematics resources to try in 2011
11 Health & Phys Ed resources to try in 2011
Architect Studio 3D

Webcams.travel webcams from around the world- make foreign locations real to students by letting them see real-time video.

Top 25 financial infographics from Mint.com

America asks what’s next in 2011- “a six minute video that looks back over the history of the United States, the current challenges facing the US, and then has some experts make predictions about the future of the United States.” (pause it, let it buffer, then play it)

ShopWell – personalized nutritional shopping information based on you.

Mapping America! census data in an interactive map

History for Music Lovers- a youtube group, song parody/remix on historical topics

Using Super Bowl Ads in the Classroom

SnagLearning educational videos and films

FreeOCR- web-based scan-to-text converter (convert your pdfs to editable text) that’s a bit rough, but perhaps useable.

Green Home Guide from the U.S. Green Building Council

MixBook- create photo books, cards, calendars online. Mixbooks also allows group collaboration; students could create a photo book together on a particular topic.  Great alternative product.

Council on Foreign Relations- interactive guides to contemporary issues

50+ sites with free stock photography

Book Trailers for All  Book trailers are a great way to get students interested in a book.  They’re also a great option for student products and could be applied to a variety of content areas and topics.

Digital Magazines

Many magazines are creating digital editions, exact copies of the print magazine that you can view online using a one of several different viewers/players, such as  Zinio (you can get a free trial subscription there).

Digital magazines are a great resource in conjunction with the interactive whiteboards.  See if there’s one that might provide supplementary material for your content.

Sign up for 1 free digital subscription at http://goreadgreen.com/ If you’re savvy, you can figure out a way to sign up for more than one subscription.

- Read digital magazines for free AND create your own.  Decatur High School in Georgia has created one titled “Carpe Diem”.  Categories range from Animals & Pets to Film & Animation to Travel & Events.

– Looks like you can preview digital editions of magazines and subscribe to them.  There are some free magazines in there, and subscribers to the print editions seem to be able to subscribe to the digital for free. (Maybe here’s where the promethean board comes in if theres a curriculum-related magazine you use)

Here are some magazines with digital editions available for free to read online:

digital preview of the April 2010 edition; digital subscription available)

not a digital edition, but I thought it worthwhile- you can view pages (in pdf) of issues from January 1945- to 1969.  The covers are totally mod cool! You can buy a tshirt with selected cover designs.

not really a ”digital magazine’ but kinda cool. Let me know when you figure out what it is.

outdoorsy stuff.

Popsci makes its archives searchable via Google Books.

Which leads us to Google Books, offering some magazines in their entirety.  I’m not sure what exactly you call this format that google is using; it is “digital” in a sense, but they’re also scanned in, not produced to be digital(?)
Go to http://books.google.com/. To search only magazines with full view, click on advanced search. In advanced search, click on Full view only and Magazines (highlighted below) and put in your search terms. For a short intro from Google, click here.

Have an online or digital magazine you like? Add it to the comments!

If you’re wondering, the title of this post is a shout-out to all you Olivia Newton-John fans

FASTEST SLIDE RULE SLINGER IN THE WEST
Known to out-calculate the entire math department

people kept asking me why I didn’t dress up for nerd day?!
okay, just because I felt comfortable in that clothing…

Books are being checked out!  It’s awesome! Ask your students what they’re reading; whether they are reading or not, it provides encouragement either by way of appreciating that they are reading OR by reinforcing the idea that reading for pleasure is a normal, and somewhat expected, part of personal growth. (IMHO)

Join the SHHS Library Group on Facebook!

Student lists have been consolidated into a google spreadsheet.  Check your email for the link.

Bing $100,000 contest: Our School Needs… “How would you finish the sentence ‘Our school needs…?’ Write an essay. Snap some pictures. Film a video. Rally your class and get creative and get ready!” Science Lab, computer lab,… what could we use?  If anyone wants to send in an entry, let me know if I can help!

SHHS Electronic resources- I’ve placed a pink sheet listing the databases we subscribe to and username & passwords.  If you need any help understanding what they are for and/or how to use them, I’d be ecstatic to talk about it! (We librarians have a thing for databases)

The Week in Rap (you’ll have to watch at home)
The Week in Rap

LINKS:
Sweet Search 2Day “a daily curated assortment of the best content on the Web for history, language arts, science, news, culture and other topics.”
Fun and Games with Google Books
5 Tools for keeping track of your passwords having difficulty keeping track of all your passwords? Check out these tools to stay organized.  Or you could, like me, use pretty much the same password for everything… but then, I’m in big trouble when that one password gets out!
Nine elements of digital citizenship “digital citizenship can be defined as the norms of appropriate, responsible behavior with regard to technology use.”  This is what students need to know to effectively live in a digital world, yet it’s not a part of what we teach them in school.  In particular, what is said about Digital Literacy:

“Digital Literacy: process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology.

While schools have made great progress in the area of technology infusion, much remains to be done. A renewed focus must be made on what technologies must be taught as well as how it should be used. New technologies are finding their way into the work place that are not being used in schools (e.g., videoconferencing, online sharing spaces such as wikis). In addition, workers in many different occupations need immediate information (just-in-time information). This process requires sophisticated searching and processing skills (i.e., information literacy). Learners must be taught how to learn in a digital society. In other words, learners must be taught to learn anything, anytime, anywhere. Business, military, and medicine are excellent examples of how technology is being used differently in the 21st century. As new technologies emerge, learners need to learn how to use that technology quickly and appropriately. Digital Citizenship involves educating people in a new way— these individuals need a high degree of information literacy skills.”

Discovery Education Science Fair Central: includes an idea finder, project timeline, virtual lab, parent resources, videos on the different aspects of creating a project, and more

On Display Now:

Street Lit / Hip-Hop Fiction

Comedy

Sports

Tayshas List

From the comments I’ve received, the library is bigger (due to the rearrangement) and more attractive.  I, on the other hand, … Thank you for the positive response on the new look.! A big shout-out to our fearless leader for her support and trust in my interior design skills!  More is yet to come.  Part of my goal for the library is, in fact, to make it attractive and welcoming.  That is one of the ways we get students in; hopefully they’ll pick up some reading material while they’re here.  These days the library is much more than books- we’re a multi-media / multi-tasking center of activity - and the librarian does more than just shelve books and shush loud talkers.   I hope you will join me as we seek to transform in ways that will enrich the 21st century learning experience.
As part of our facelift, we’ve started a group on Facebook for the library.  Just search for SHHS Library and “Like” it! On the group page we can share news about reading and resources, create discussions, and post photos and videos.  I’ve already started a discussion about summer reading so feel free to join in. I’ll be seeking student participation so feel free to let them know about it.

The library is open for business, even though we are still putting things back together.  I look forward to working with you to coordinate research activities for our students.  I’m here to support you, so let me know how I can do that. There’s an online form to request library or computer lab time; instructions are below.

Accessing Library Services Online: go to http://schools.fwisd.org/southhills (www.fwisd.org -Schools – High Schools – South Hills) Click on the Staff Only link

On the left, you will see Documents, where there will be a Library- Staff Reference Material folder (Notice, also, the other times available to you)

Here you will find important information, some regarding frequently asked questions.

On the right of the main page, you will see Calendars and other things

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month download a letter size poster with Dwayne Wade from the American Library Association page

Interested in citation styles? I know you are! Desk copies of MLA books are available for teachers with a class size of ten or more students. There are two ways to submit a request. By mail, please use school letterhead, stating the name of the course, the approximate enrollment, and your name, complete address, and telephone number; address your request to Marcia Henry at the Modern Language Association, 26 Broadway, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10004-1789. You may also submit your request online using the desk copy request form.
**Apple iPad Drawing for MLA Handbook Adoptions (have to order a class set)

Happy Earth Day! What a marvelous creation it is!
Some resources:
Earth Day TV
-    Check out “The Biodaversity Code”

Videos from Discovery Streaming:

• Planet Earth: The Future: Living Together

• Planet Earth:  The Future: Into the Wilderness

• Planet Earth: The Future: Saving Species

Earth Day videos on SchoolTube

Celebrate Earth Day with NASA
-    Has some beautiful images and multimedia activities

National Geographic: Earth Day at 40

Library Overdues- an email was sent out this week. Please support the conservation of our resources by helping remind students of their overdue material.  Thanks!

Facts on File World Atlas is now World Geography and Culture Online
-here’s a search box (not showing up properly, though)

-more info here

Misc. Links

Learning Tools- various tools for creating multimedia products

Sheppard Software- free online learning activities in all content areas- I see some pretty good activities!

Create-A-Scape create a mediascape, aligning pictures, video, and audio with mapping

Kosmix “Kosmix is a guide to the Web. The site lets users explore the Web by topic, presenting a dashboard of relevent videos, photos, news, commentary, opinion, communities and links to related topics. Kosmix’s categorization engine organizes the Internet into magazine-style topic pages, enabling people to navigate the Web…”

The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth NASA collection of astronaut photographs of Earth from 1961 to present.

Universal Newsreels – “In the pre-TV era, people saw the news every week in their neighborhood movie theaters. Newsreels were shown before every feature film and in dedicated newsreel theaters located in large cities. Universal Newsreel, produced from 1929 to 1967, was released twice a week. Each issue contained six or seven short stories, usually one to two minutes in length, covering world events, politics, sports, fashion, and whatever else might entertain the movie audience. These newsreels offer a fascinating and unique view of an era when motion pictures defined our culture and were a primary source of visual news reporting.”

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press – interesting info on the Millenials- today’s teens and twenty-somethings.

RepairPal - “independent and unbiased repair estimates, user ratings and reviews”

Library Overdues: please check your email and remind students of his/her overdue materials. Thanks!!

The 2010 Winter Olympics:
Athlete Profiles
Team USA
Become a Virtual Sportscaster!
Coverage & possible live streaming(?)
http://watchvancouverolympics.com/
http://www.ctvolympics.ca/index.html
http://www.nbcolympics.com/

Zinn Education Project “The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the use of Howard Zinn’s best-selling book A People’s History of the United States and other materials for teaching a people’s history in middle and high school classrooms across the country. … Its goal is to introduce students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of United States history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula.”

Rethinking Schools

Six Resources for Learning about Fair Use

A website that lets you practice interviewing

Federal News Service

The Best Time to Buy Anything, All Year Round

2010 Trends – A Roadmap for the Future

Tools for America’s Job Seekers Challenge

Links to 2009 Best of and decade in review lists

American Presidents: Life Potraits

U.S. Department of Defense

Famous Quotes for All Occasions

State of the Union Archive

Railroads and the Making of America

Library Overdues
Books checked out in the past need to be returned in the present so that others can check them out in the future :^)  Check your email for the list and please assist me in reminding students.

Computer Lab Schedule

The computer lab schedule is now online in the 003 folder. Check your email for more info.

The News: Do you think that at some point newspapers will all be digital? Here’s a few examples of how we might view news in the future:

Mapped Up

newsmap

OurSignal

DoodleBuzz

Spectra

10×10

NowPublic

Google Fast Flip

Google News Timeline

Newser

EveryBlock

Times Skimmer

Silobreaker

MemeTracker- news phrases

An article about this

LINKS
Astronomy Picture of the Day

Library of Congress: Everyday Mysteries

Library of Congress: Thomas: Legislative Information

100 Milestone Documents- chronicling US History from 1776-1965

92 Historical Interviews you can watch on YouTube

Privacy Revolution dot org- work to maintain personal privacy now before it’s lost in the future

Step-by-Step Math at Wolfram Alpha

FlowingData data visualizations

FlowingPrints- education series

The Week in Rap- weekly news summary video in rap (won’t show at school, but you can download the Quicktime version (big file size))

Staff- a new overdue list is coming in your email.  Please assist me in reminding students to return or renew (with book in hand) overdue books.  I appreciate your support!

Learning 2.0
Looking for something new to do with your students? Here’s some options for learning 2.0; the emphasis here on alternative products our students can be creating.

Pre-reading material:
Learning 2.0 for Associations v1

iGoogle: Have your students set up their own Personal Learning Network using iGoogle.  Have no idea what I’m talking about? Come see me and let’s talk!
Google Docs http://docs.google.com
Documents: provides an opportunity for students to work collaboratively on a document or create a document and share it with your students for editing.
Presentations: plan on having your students create a powerpoint? Create a template, then share it with students for editing in their information; it provides you one file with all students’ work. So much easier than dealing with 10, 15 or 20 separate powerpoints!
Spreadsheets: okay, I’m still thinking on this one… there’s some math application here…
Forms: Enhance classroom discussion with your students; have them utilize our databases to do some quick research or find a specific article for them to read. Use a google form for students to respond to a set of questions you create. All their answers will automatically be added to a spreadsheet. You’ll have all their answers in one place and some sorting within the spreadsheet can make for quick grading.
Interested in using Google Docs with your students? We’d love to show you how! Let me know and we’ll set up some training. Start by going to google.com and setting up your account.
New Google Docs features http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/back-to-school-with-google-docs.html

Blogging
Edublogs is a blogging service focused on educational use. This what I use for this blog. Here‘s a short article on using blogs.

Wikis
pbworks
wikispaces
Articles and resources on using wikis in education here

Animoto http://animoto.com
Create short, animated movies using images and text with music. Here’s an example:

xtranormal http://www.xtranormal.com Create short, animated movies of dialogue between 2 characters. A variety of characters and characters are available. My example:
Pixton http://pixton.com Online comic strip creator. My example

Voicethread http://voicethread.com
Here’s a great alternative to making a powerpoint presentation. Check out their library of ideas and examples @ http://voicethread.com/library

Additional Links:

Mathway http://www.mathway.com
“Mathway solves and graphs problems from the following subjects: Basic Math | Pre-Algebra | Algebra | Trigonometry | Precalculus | Calculus”

CDC 2009 H1N1 Flu Info http://www.cdc.gov/H1N1FLU