Contest Challenge: New Drawing Tool in Google Docs

Here's your challenge for the week:  go to Google Docs, try the brand new drawing feature, then enter my Docs Draw! contest.

Yes, it's true! Now we can create rich and colorful shapes and drawings in a Google document, spreadsheet, or presentation! Just go to the menu bar and pull down from Insert to select Drawing. Play a little (or a lot), create something fun or inspiring, then invite me to share your document. If you have the best new drawing in a Google Doc, you will win a prize!  

From the official Google Docs Blog: 

"It's easy to create drawings using lines, free hand scribbles, text labels and a large choice of shapes that you can move, resize, rotate and adjust. Group, order, align and distribute and other features are available when you select objects you've drawn. You can also customize a range of shape properties, from line widths to fill color, and from arrowheads to font size, and much more. If you change your mind, there is undo and redo. You can collaborate with a friend or colleague on a drawing, or work alone, just as you can in [all] Google Docs..." 

Of course, if you're giving assessments this week (or recovering from last week), you'll be longing for some creative outlets, so "draw" on your creativity and enter this Docs Draw! contest. Simply invite me to share your document or publish it and send me the link. The deadline for contest entries will be midnight Sunday, April 5th. I can't wait to see what you create!

Big Screen, Small Screen - A Modern Paradox

In a recent Pickles comic, Sylvia brags about watching a movie on her iPod, which confuses Grandpa because a big screen television is mounted on the wall behind her. Paradoxically, this is the age of the BIG screen and the small screen, and we can use both in our classrooms.

This year we've been focusing on using our projectors and BIG screens to engage students in learning, but we probably aren't using the small screens on our iPods as well as we should. Tony Vincent's Learning in Hand web page provides amazing ideas for using iPods in the classroom. 

Basically, any slide show can be saved or exported as graphics and synched with an iPod (yours or a student's), and these photos can be used as flash cards, project instructions, and review materials. In addition, audio and video podcasts from iTunes (and iTunes University) can be downloaded and placed on our iPods. Obviously, students can hear music on our iPods, but they also could listen to audio books and recorded class instructions or presentations. Videos from any educational source can be loaded on our iPod Classics, Touches, and iPhones, and applications from the iTunes App Store can be added to the iPod Touches and iPhones for students to explore. BHS science classes recently used the Virus science application with their reading of The Hot Zone, and students responded well to this activity as they utilized real-time physics and blood-flow simulation to defeat stages of an infection on the iPod Touches, as in this image:

If you have an iPod of any type, please consider using it with your students. I would love to share ideas and help you synch learning materials to the small screen. Your students will thank you, and they will learn!

Screencast-o-Matic: Making Movies of Your Computer Screen Activities

Ponder a moment the possibility of making a movie recording of your computer screen, including the audio and all your clicks and other movements. Now consider the possibility of adding your own audio narration while creating this movie. And what if you could do this quickly and easily, without any cost whatsoever? I'm sure that I'm hearing virtual shouts of glee as you think about ways you could use the Screencast-o-Matic web tool to enhance student learning in your classroom. Obviously, you could include the movie in a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation, but it also could be embedded into wikis, blogs, and web pages, as well as synched to teacher or student iPods.

Below is a screencast movie that I created in just a few seconds to explain how to create a screencast movie using Screencast-o-Matic. Yes, the irony abounds. 

Double-click on this movie to begin playing it. Don't worry--your video made with Screencast-o-Matic will not be this small. 

I would love to read your comments and suggestions related to this blog post! And as always, I am "on call" for Buhler educators to assist with this and any other tech tool used to "amp it up" in our classrooms for both student engagement and student learning.

Seven Things You Don't Know About Me

I've been tagged! Mary Frazier recently tagged me for the "Seven Things You Don't Know about Me" meme. Just for fun, I'm going to use the Top Ten (actually, Top Seven) format. Here goes:

Number 7: I won the Hadley Junior High School typing contest in Wichita in 1966. As a result of my famed fast fingers, one of my professional nicknames has been "Machine Gun Miller."

Number 6: When racing my 6th grade boyfriend after church (circa 1963), I somehow didn't stop in time and ran right into the front church door, breaking the glass and almost destroying the fingers on my right hand. Have you ever looked at the fingers on my right hand? I'm lucky to have them so I don't complain, and remember, I was able to win the typing contest 3 years later!

Number 5: I play the piano, but I don't really remember learning how to do so. My mom would hear me play, come to the piano, and give me tips. She may have given me a few real "lessons," but basically this was a skill I learned with true "just in time" instruction.

Number 4: To follow up on the piano theme, I come from a long line of women who learned to play piano from their mothers. My mother taught me, her mother taught her, my grandmother's mother taught her, and on and on into the past for several generations. Of course, I don't have daughters, so this particular legacy has ended with me. Remember, though, I am Bryan Miller's mom, and those of you who know him might agree that he could be considered the final amazing piano achievement resulting from all those generations of fine musicians.

Number 3: Many of you know that I taught English for many years, most of them at Buhler High School, but did you know that I also taught Spanish, speech, debate, and forensics?

Number 2: I count among my former English students (and proudest achievements) these current Buhler educators: Willie Adkins, Kelley (Meyer) Pankratz, Jera (Lane) French, Vicky (Withrow) Richardson, Randy Doerksen, Christine (Gillen) Schletzbaum, Carla (Schultz) Goertzen, and Stephanie (Deatrick) Tucker.

And the Number 1 Thing You Don't Know About Me is: This is my 35th year of teaching, and what a ride it has been! Truly, nothing else could have been more fun and more rewarding for so many years.

Now, Tammy Gilley, tag, you're it! Give us the Seven Things We Don't Know about You!

2008: The Year in Review for Tech Integration

2008 has been a great year for tech-enhanced learning experiences in Buhler USD 313! 

Recently I asked our secondary teachers to share some of the exciting opportunities they have provided for their students, and I am including their responses here.  In fact, these are just a few of the many, many digital learning projects that Buhler teachers have developed in 2008. 

BHS Communication Arts teacher Holly Kimble has modified her American Literature class structure to enhance student engagement this year.  Using a thematic approach rather than the traditional chronological one, Holly has developed a meaningful way for her junior students to interact with the works they are studying.  In the fall they focused on war themes in literature, and students completed podcasts about family members' experiences with war. She provided a script for students to follow, with each student required to ask five open-ended questions, and the resulting podcasts were very meaningful as well as engaging for the students. Now she is developing a thematic unit on the theme of tolerance, and it will include a class wiki as well as Wordle and VoiceThread projects. In addition, Holly's senior students recently created modern videos of The Canterbury Tales, many of which have been posted on YouTube.

Prairie Hills Middle School science teacher Teresa Poulseen also engages her students in learning through technology integration. She has led our district in the use of Gizmos from ExploreLearning for both instruction and assessment (pre and post-instruction). This amazing software allows the students to experience science-related situations that cannot be created in a classroom, including building atoms and viewing the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. To organize student assignments and resources, Teresa has created a class wiki and a PortaPortal, and she recently has added a WebQuest to her webpage for students to use when they study energy this spring. In her Japanese enrichment class Teresa's students listen to music and the language, quiz themselves on kanji recognition, and take virtual lessons on Japanese houses, flower arranging, and sumo wrestling. Google Images and Google Earth provide engaging and real-life information about Japan for these students.

The traditional "report" on an important person in history has become much more engaging in Trish Unruh's World History classes. As part of a competition for "the world's worst dictator," Trish's students research evil leaders from the present and the past, then create movies which include photos, video clips, and music. All classes watch the movies on a DVD created from the projects.  In addition, while learning about important figures in the scientific revolution, students make business cards using slideshow software. 

Communication Arts teacher Carol Johnson has developed unique and interesting ways for students to share what they have learned as part of their final exams. Last year she allowed students to create GarageBand audio projects as their semester final, and recently she had students develop videos to demonstrate their knowledge of the narrative structure they had studied all semester. These movies were much easier to manage this year because of the set of flip video cameras now available for secondary teachers to use. In addition, Carol's students have used Comic Life to develop a short research project, and she has used Google Earth to present information that ties in with the stories read in class.

As Curtis Morgan's biology classes have worked on their projects based on genetic diseases, he has offered them much more choice than he has in the past. In fact, his students have created Comic Life  posters, digital presentations through Keynote or PowerPoint, brochures, movies, and radio informercials to share what they have learned. Curtis explains the results in glowing terms: "I feel that by giving the students the option of choosing what they want to turn in, they get more excited about the topic at hand. I get better quality work out of students, and those students that don't normally engage themselves fully into projects or work are fully devoted to accomplishing the task at hand because I let them choose."

To engage his students in learning world history, Dave Schroeder recently used VoiceThread to create an activity in which students research and create short video "podcasts" to explain various aspects of the French Revolution. Dave's students truly enjoyed these media projects! Our new subscription to the educational version of VoiceThread has made it an easy project to manage, and Dave has created foolproof instructions for both students and teachers that he is willing to share. View some of these student VoiceThread projects on Dave's web page.

BHS Communication Arts department chair John Knapp has developed an innovative way for his AP English students to interact with him, with each other, and with the texts they are studying. Using Facebook, our students' preferred social networking resource, John created a "Group" and invited the students to be his "Friends."  He then set up a "Discussion" and posted a series of questions that students were required to respond to.  As John explains, "Their responses to the questions were often works in process. In other words, they were postulating theories about what they were reading so that their peers could comment on what they were thinking. More than once, I watched as they guided each other's understanding of the social issues addressed in [the text]. They did all of the plot summary, character analysis, English-teacher-stuff that I had traditionally [wanted], only they did it in context and it seemed to have meaning to them. I also watched as they figured many of the important thematic issues and actually placed them into contexts that had meaning to them--imagine that. In fact, the fun part was, I got to join into the conversation over the summer so that when class started I already knew these kids."

Resource Room teacher Denice Thompson uses technology to meet the needs of her special education students. They have created multimedia slide shows about the Holocaust and Wordle collages as get-acquainted activities. As a followup to the Kansas Career Pipeline assessment results for personality, career strengths, and learning modalities, Denice's students have researched careers that fit their interests and aptitudes. In fact, one student is taking an independent biology class on the computer as he takes notes, does the daily work, and takes all tests online. Denice definitely has discovered that technology can "level the playing field" for her students.

Remember, these classroom activities are just a few examples of the many engaging and "out of the ordinary" experiences our teachers have provided for the digital learners in their classrooms this year. This list could go on and on....

Thanks to everyone who helped make 2008 GREAT for our students. Now let's make 2009 SHINE!

Rosemary and Mary's Excellent Adventure in Washington, DC

Co-Starring and Directed by Dayna Richardson

What a whirlwind week we have had in Washington, DC at the National Staff Development Conference!  In fact, it was an "L" of a week as we listened, laughed, and learned, all while attending workshops and sharing ideas with colleagues from around the country. 

We also enjoyed a night bus tour of the major sites, a comedy performance of the Capitol Steps political satire troupe, a performance of A Christmas Carol, trips on the water taxi ferry and the Metro, lots of taxi rides, and many stunningly beautiful Christmas decorations.  Our visits to the historical monuments, the U.S. Capitol, and the White House were especially meaningful. Actually, in the photo above Mary and I are standing at the front gate of the White House, near the place where the Presidential inauguration will occur in just a few weeks. We truly felt that we were at a special place at a special time in history, as we viewed monuments to the past alongside the preparations for the inauguration which gave us a glimpse into the future.

In a sense, our district is at an equally significant moment in its history, a pivotal point that will bridge the past and the future as we endeavor to embed 21st-century skills and tools into our students' learning experiences. As we are inspired by national monuments and inaugurations, we should be equally inspired by the symbols of our own past and future struggles and accomplishments.  

Marilyn Bolton's Digital Classroom

Marilyn Bolton's Spanish III classes truly have moved into the 21st century.

Recently named the 2008 Kansas World Language Association Teacher of the Year, Marilyn proves daily that the teacher is the most crucial element in a meaningful learning environment.  

With her typical self-deprecating humor, Marilyn admits to being "low tech" herself, but she knows that her students are digital learners who thrive when provided with digital learning opportunities.  She also knows that students can be self-directed with technology, so she does not have to "know everything" in order to create content- and technology-rich lessons for her 21st-century learners. Finally, she knows that Mary Frazier and I are available to brainstorm ideas, plan projects, and help in the classroom to ensure that projects go well.

Let's take a quick tour of Marilyn Bolton's Spanish classroom:

Exhibit A:  On her blog entitled Conversacíon Española, Marilyn posts a new topic each week, with students writing their responses in Spanish.

Exhibit B:  BHS Spanish students are creating podcasts on different topics using their cell phones.  For example, these poetry readings are amazing!

Exhibit C:  Marilyn's Spanish students are communicating and collaborating with a class in Argentina.  They "met" this group of students through ePals, which is now available on the KanEd desktop.  In fact, since all of our Buhler students already have KanEd ePals accounts set up by the media specialists, it is easy to find a classroom for communication and collaboration. 

Exhibit D:  After deciding that most of the YouTube videos on Spanish grammar were "boring," BHS Spanish III students created their own videos and posted them to YouTube. Their "Hammer on the Grammar" videos on the present subjunctive tense are included below and also are available here as the first two on the list. (Note:  If you are reading this in one of our school buildings, you will need to authenticate to view these YouTube videos.)

This ends today's inspirational tour of Marilyn Bolton's classroom. In future posts I will be featuring other Buhler teachers who are making a difference. And of course, I would love to help you move forward in creating a digital classroom for our 21st-century learners!  

The Power of Photos

Photographs have the power to stir emotions, pique curiosity, make a statement, or tell a story. Many online photo resources are available for use in our classrooms and provide us with ways to develop visual literacy and create meaning for our students.  Last week I discovered a new photo resource that we can use for all these purposes.

Google's LIFE Photo Archive presents images from the decades when LIFE magazine was publishing amazing photos in each issue.  In fact, the entire collection, with a total of more than 10 million images, is now online, and 97% of the photos never have been seen before by the public.  

The collection includes pictures from photojournalists such as Margaret Bourke-White and Gordon Parks.   In addition, the LIFE Photo Archive includes the Zapruder film of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and Hugo Jaeger's pictures of Nazi-era Germany.

A great feature of this Google image archive is that you can access its photographs directly from Google Images by typing the search term followed by the words source:life.  This indicates that you want to search only for images within the LIFE Photo Archive.  For example, you could enter this search phrase in Google Images:  joe lewis source:life.  Be sure to include the colon between the words source and life.  This will search only the LIFE Photo Archive, directly from the main Google Images page.

These LIFE photographs capture forever the pivotal events and characters in our history, all through the lenses of incredibly talented photographers.  Bring these images into your classroom to make learning "out of the ordinary."

Converting a PDF to Word

A Little PDF PD

On Mary Frazier's blog, A Chat with Mary, she explains how easy it is to create a PDF version of any document we create.  I have always wanted to reverse this process and convert a PDF back to Microsoft Word, but I didn't want to spend money on software designed to do this. The great news is that now we can convert PDF files to Word at the PDFtoWORD web page.  Wow!  It works! And it's free!

To use this tool, go to the PDFtoWORD web page, click on Choose File to upload your PDF, then click on Convert to Word and wait for the magic to happen. The new Word document will be emailed to you shortly!

I converted several PDFs to Word using PDFtoWORD, and, amazingly, the new Word documents maintained the formatting, charts, and photos. It takes a few minutes to convert the PDF to Word when the document includes photos or special formatting, but the results are worth the wait!  

That's the latest PD on PDFs!  Please share PDFtoWORD with someone else who could use this awesome tool.

Headlines Around the World: An Online Newseum

When important events such as a Presidential election occur, we can observe and read about their impact around the world through awesome Internet resources such as the Newseum front page gallery.  On this web page you can view the front pages of newspapers around the world on a given day.  In order to enlarge the front page of a newspaper for ease in reading, just click to load the pdf version.  

Here you see the front page of a European newspaper that foreign language students could read in Spanish.  Of course, social studies students could study global perspectives on a given event as well. When current events relate to any of our content areas or specific units, newspaper front pages from around the world can help our students develop a global perspective for the 21st century.  

Although the Today's Front Pages online exhibit doesn't keep all front pages from past dates, events of historical significance are kept in a front-page archive.  Other historical resources also are available on the main Newseum web page, which is an online version of the actual museum in Washington, D.C.  The Newseum site presents online exhibits and interactive materials related to historical news events and the relationship of journalism and the press to these events.  One of the current online exhibits involves Gmen and Journalists, with special information about the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover.  

Check out Today's Front Pages and the other online exhibits of the Newseum in Washington, D.C., then take your students on an online field trip soon!

Bonus Tip:  Watch this cool video about all the election headlines that poured into the Newseum right after the election.  

The Power of the Projector

Sometimes simple things can be the most powerful, and this is definitely the case with the new Dell projectors that many Buhler secondary teachers received recently. Of course, these projectors cannot engage students and enhance learning until we turn on the power and use them! Here are some simple ways to project learning this week in your classroom:

1. We Project Videos - Search for videos related to your lesson or unit at Discovery Streaming, YouTube, SchoolTube, or TeacherTube. If you need help logging on or downloading videos, let me know!
2. We Project Presentations - Our new versions of PowerPoint and Keynote are awesome tools for developing presentations that are engaging for students. You can easily place videos on slides, add music, and even record your narration. I would LOVE to show you how all this works!
3. We Project Web Resources - All those wonderful Internet pages that you've bookmarked or kept in an email folder can be used on the big screen in your classroom to project learning. Many educational web sites are interactive and engaging. Just ask me for ideas!
4. We Project Student Products - Project models of best student work, use the projected image of a student essay for discussion or evaluation, or show the multimedia projects which students have created. If students can create it, you can project it!
5. We Project Polls and Quizzes - Using web tools such as Poll Everywhere, your students can participate in polls and quizzes using their cell phones, and the results can be projected for everyone to see. It's amazingly simple. Could I show you sometime soon?
6. We Project Our Community and the World - Help your students see beyond the classroom and learn about the community, both local and global. Google Earth and Skype are available on your computer, and ePals is now set up for you on Kan-Ed. Ask me for help with Google Earth and Skype, and see your media specialist for your students' ePals account information. You can project the world to your students!

Take an ordinary projector and make something "out of the ordinary" this week. Just plug it in, turn it on, and project learning with your students! Please share your ideas by commenting here.

A Tiny Tip with Big Benefits

Using TinyURL.com to Create Simpler Web Page Addresses

(Including Bonus: New Projector Manual!)

Some of the strange, long web addresses I see on the Internet almost make me dizzy.  Here's an example that I encountered when researching tips for using our new classroom projectors at Buhler High School and Prairie Hills Middle School: 

  http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/1409X/en/ug/

  pdf/1409X_en.pdf 

Don't you like THIS web page URL better?   http://tinyurl.com/projectormanual

To make the projector manual web address shorter and easier to type and remember, I simply went to http://tinyurl.com, pasted in the looooooong web address, and then chose my own words to follow the beginning part of the web page URL. Now the web URL for the Dell projector user manual is much simpler.  In fact, I might even be able to remember it if I forget to make a bookmark for the web page!

When you use Tinyurl.com, you have the choice of creating your own "ending" of the web address or having a random web address generated. Either way, you have a much simpler web address to use.

(Remember, to post a comment, simply click on comments at the bottom of the blog entry. Type your comment, click to check Name/URL, type in your name, then click on the button to Publish your Comment.)

A Rave Review for iTunes Radio

Playing background music while students work can be an effective way to create a mood and enhance learning. Now you have even more options with the hundreds of stations available through iTunes Radio on your computer. When you open iTunes and click on Radio, you will see several genres listed. As you click on the small triangle to the left of each category, a list of stations will appear. Just double-click on a station and enjoy some wonderful music! You also can bookmark your favorites by creating a playlist, naming it "Radio Playlists" or something similar, and dragging the station(s) into that folder.

These new musical options can make your classroom "out of the ordinary." Of course, you may need to create a fair way to select which radio stations to play because your students will have definite opinions!

(Please share your ideas for using this digital tool in your classroom by commenting below. Remember, to post a comment, simply click on Comments at the bottom of the blog entry. Type your comment, click to check Name/URL, type in your name, then click on the button to Publish your Comment.)

On the Run with GOOG-411

Free 411 Business Connections on Your Cell Phone!

We're always on the go, it seems, and while we're running around, our cell phones connect us immediately to friends and family. Now your cell phone can connect you free of charge to businesses with Google's free GOOG-411 service. Just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 from any phone, state the location and business name or category, and Google will connect you to the business for free. You don't even need the name of a business. You can request a category such as restaurants, and GOOG-411 will present several choices and offer to dial any one you want. Watch this video for more "information" about Google's new 411 "information" service, then create a speed dial link to GOOG-411 on your cell phone!

Extra! Extra! Hear All About It!

Buhler Teachers Podcast Thoughts About Digital Learners

Last week several teachers from Tech Cadres 1 and 2 attended an "upgrade workshop" in which they learned about new ideas for technology integration to engage students in learning. One activity we shared was using a cell phone (or any phone, for that matter) to record audio files which can be heard via the Internet or downloaded for use in class projects. These teachers selected songs from their iTunes playlists and compared the song titles to the characteristics of today's digital learners. To listen to these short audio podcasts here, click on the name of the first audio file. It will begin playing, and the other audio files will follow automatically. To view the entire list of podcasts and select a specific one to play, click on Posts.


Subscribe Free for future posts  Add this player to my Page

Just think of all the possible uses for cellphone podcasts in the classroom! Students in social studies classrooms could interview people about their experiences in selected periods of history, or they could solicit people's opinions and reactions to current events. Foreign language students could podcast via cellphone to record their voices using the second language outside the classroom. In science class students could record data at various stages of a lab experiment.

If you are interested in learning how to create audio podcasts with your students, let me know so that we can set up a time to get you started. You will be excited to see how easy it is, and your digital students will be excited that you are helping them learn with 21st century tools.

Please share your ideas for using this digital tool in your classroom by commenting below.

Remember, to post a comment, simply click on Comments at the bottom of the blog entry. Type your comment, click to check Name/URL, type in your name, then click on the button to Publish your Comment.

Making YouTube Work for YOU

YouTube is a great resource for classroom videos, as this example shows. Isn't it cool how each President "morphs" right into his successor?



Here is a way to download YouTube videos as .mp4 files directly from the YouTube page! You may have found other ways to download these videos, but usually they are in the .flv movie format that doesn't work well on a Mac computer or iPod. The following method converts the video at the same time it is downloading. Try following the steps below, but I would be happy to help any Buhler staff member set this up. Our own Dayna Richardson is happily downloading YouTube videos on a regular basis with this technique!

First, drag this to your toolbar: GetYouTube

Here you see the Get YouTube video link on the toolbar after it was dragged there using the link above.

When you want to download a YouTube video, stay on the YouTube video page and just click on the Get YouTube video bookmark as in the picture above. Now you should see a new option below the embeddable code on the YouTube page in the right column. This option is Download as MP4, and you can see it here:


Try clicking on the Download as MP4 link to see if the download begins. If it doesn't, CTRL-click or right-click and select Save link as or Save target as and enter a proper name for the video. Be sure to use the .mp4 extension when you enter the filename.


YouTube's MP4 files have a higher resolution with stereo sound, and they can be played with applications like iTunes and QuickTime. Not all YouTube videos can be downloaded as MP4 files yet, and if that is the case the option will change to download as FLV. If that happens, I have some other methods for downloading and converting the YouTube video. Just give me a holler!

File Size Matters

When we add photos, audio, and video to a document or presentation, the file size increases dramatically. In other words, the more engaging we make our materials, the larger they become!

Of course, this can create serious problems when we want to share these documents and presentations with others. Most email servers do not allow us to attach large files, and even smaller email attachments can bog down an email server and slow mail speed.

One great way to share large files is mailbigfile.com. This service is free and easy to use, with no registration required. Just type in the email address of the recipient, browse to attach the file from your computer, and click Send File.

It will take a few seconds to upload your file, and you should not leave the web page until that process is completed. When the upload is finished, your recipient will receive an email with a link to download the file you have sent. File size problem solved!

If you have trouble uploading a document, you may need to compress ("zip") the file first. Just CTRL-click or right-click the file on your computer and select Compress. Upload the new file that has .zip on the end, and now mailbigfile.com will recognize the file type and send it on its way! Amazingly, you can even send an entire folder at once if you compress ("zip") it first.


Try using mailbigfile.com to share documents and presentations! I'm sure you'll love it!

(Be sure to check Mary Frazier's awesome blog at http://achatwithmary.blogspot.com for more great ideas!)

Karaoke in the Classroom?

My partner Mary Frazier and I are always looking for innovative ways to engage students and teachers in learning. When we were planning for a teacher workshop a few days ago, Mary noticed her stack of karaoke CDs and had an aha moment! We could have teachers perform karaoke as part of a Keynote (or PowerPoint) slideshow. Mary created a fabulous version of DoWahDiddy for use in the iPod workshop. Of course, she told me that I would be the one to lead the karaoke activity, which means that she was delegating the job of looking silly to me! Oh, well. It was fun and we knew we wanted to try it again in other situations and for other purposes.

Last week, then, when I was preparing to present Google Docs to the Buhler High School staff on our PD day, I knew that I could liven things up by creating a song for us to share. I decided that Joan Jett's "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" could be adapted easily into "I Love Google Docs," and I enlisted a few wild and crazy BHS gals to help me lead the singing. They got the staff going, too, clapping and sharing a few laughs.

Couldn't we do this easily in the classroom? Students could create new lyrics for any content, from explaining a scientific principle to encapsulating the storyline or characterizations of a story/novel. Why not have them develop songs for learning and remembering math concepts? Or they could present information about historical figures in social science classes. Foreign language students could translate the original lyrics or abandon those completely and create any second-language content they choose.

I think this would be an awesome (and EASY!) way to engage students in learning, and we know that music is a powerful learning and memory tool. What ideas can you add to my list of possibilities? Please share by posting comments on the blog page Remember, Aerosmith tells us to "Dream On," John Lennon urges us to "Imagine," and Extreme reminds us that it's ALL "More Than Words." I have lots of songs to share! Have fun with karaoke in your classroom...

(Note: To post a comment, click on Comments at the bottom of the blog entry. Type your comment, click to check Name/URL, type in your name, then click on the button to Publish your Comment. Thanks!)

Magic Audio on Your Laptop

You may already listen to books, articles, or podcasts on your computer or iPod. Now, by using the free site, Read the Words, you can create an audio file out of any words you choose. The Read the Words web page provides many options for entering words to convert to audio: you can type text directly (up to 80,000 characters), upload a Microsoft Word document or a PDF, or even enter a Web site address or an RSS feed. In addition, you can choose from several reader voices and three languages--English, Spanish, and French.  Finally, you can change the speed of the reading as well. 

Once you have entered the text and created the file, the audio can be played on the site, embedded in a blog post or web page, downloaded and played right on the computer, or loaded onto your iPod.

Of course, this could help students in your classroom in many ways. Struggling readers could listen to content and even load it on their iPods or mp3 players to take home. Read the Words also could be an easy way to create podcast audio files to share with others.  

What ideas can you think of to use with YOUR students? Please add your comments and ideas here.

Out of the Ordinary?

I have always believed that one person can make a difference, but sometimes we become cynical about our power to make changes in our lives and in our world. For example, people often shrug off their responsibility to vote or recycle, believing that one vote or one bag of recyclables won't be enough to make a difference. Teachers can become cynical, too, clinging to the habits of the past out of discouragement with current situations. Sometimes we forget our higher calling, the reason we became educators in the first place - to make a difference in the life of a child or young adult.

Perhaps we are using the wrong metaphor to think about our lives and our influence on others. If we think about our individual efforts as placing one small stone on the foundation of a building, we can become discouraged, much like Sisyphus, whose task throughout eternity was to roll a boulder up a hill, only to see it roll back down. In contrast, if we remember that tossing that same stone into a pond produces ripples, we see that even one small action can make a big difference. I prefer to think of our lives as creating ripples in the lives of others, especially our students. For teachers, the extent of our influence often isn't realized for years, but those ripples, like the sunrise and sunset, do occur without fail and give us a constant, visual reminder that we have indeed made a difference.

Of course, literature and movies reveal this truth all the time. I recently attended the Music Theatre of Wichita performance of Les Miserables and once again was reminded of the eternal truth that one life of self-sacrifice can transform the life of another. And the movie Pay It Forward, though not a classic work of literature, is equally profound in its message about the power of the individual action. Indeed, as William James reminds us, we must "Act as if what [we] do makes a difference. It does."

This blog, then, is dedicated to the idea that we can make a difference in our classrooms by making small changes that have a ripple effect upon our students, in their learning and in their lives. Through simple ideas about integrating technology into daily classroom learning experiences, we will transform ordinary into "out of the ordinary."