McU media

I would like to nominate Bookends for the Best New Blog in the 2008 Edublog Awards .

Cindy Dobrez and Lynn Rutan have long been stars in the Michigan school media scene. Many of us have been following Bookends since it’s begining early this year. Their tagteam approach to book reviews has both amused and enlightened us. I think the MAME community and school media specialists in general should show our support to this excellent resource in the 2008 Edublog Awards . Long may they rule the book blogosphere!

My building always has such a tough time deciding how to work out a reading month theme that will engage grades k-8. The media department is talking about using poetry as the theme this year, and there are a couple minor electrical storms in my brain around this issue at the moment. First, I am thinking about someplace in Ilearn (our local incarnation of Moodle) where kids could post their poetry for other kids at other schools to see. Also, I was thinking of putting up some poems that I thought were cool or unusual and asking students to give comments and opinions. I am also wondering if there are existing places on the web for this type of activity that might allow for a broader dialogue, with a more diverse group. I’m open to suggestions , if anyone has any, about how to approach this poetry thing so that kids participate and get some fun out of it, please send your ideas along either in comments or by email.

I found a fabulous video in my Google Reader today talking about blogging as a writing genre. When it comes down to blogging, it is really about having something interesting to say and writing it well.

Merlin Mann at Izeafest

I just wrote a bit of the Neverending Story. This online group-written story on TalkTalk raises money for autism research. To read what I wrote, follow this link.

Raccoon Tune 

Two great learning events are going on in the media center this month. All the lower elementary classes are participating in Michigan Reads! This activity, sponsered by Taget and The State Library of Michigan, asks all kids in Michigan to read the book Racoon Tune by Nancy Shaw, during the month of September. Over 100 McCollough elementary students have participated. Come see our awsome signup poster in the media center.

The second learning event is something I (Mrs. Alvarado) am do9ing for my own learning. I am participating with 1800 other people in an online open course calle Connectivism and Connected Learning. I hope to learn more about new developments in learning theory and how that might affect 21st century learners.

I just watched this very interesting video by James Paul Gee, the technology/education expert from University of Arizona. He talks about how today anyone can do things that are “taught” by traditional education, usually much cheaper than in the U.S. He discussed the need to incubate innovation, which is the U.S.A’s traditional strength, in our schools. In his opinion, we need to examine video games as a model to foster such skills.
To view the video click the link below.
James Paul Gee-Grading with Games

Today I took the Middlebooks Blog to an audio podcast format. I used Audacity to record and edit the video files and Podbean as the hosting site. It was quite easy and had the added benefit of getting an eighth grader to talk enthusiastically about something he read. My editing skills are still a bit rough, but here’s the link to subscribe. I hope practice with the editing software makes perfect, or at least better.

Middlebooks podcast

I have recently been introduced to a new tool called MyStudiyo.com that makes online quizzes very easily. Here is one that I made to go with the “Pain in the Brain” video that I presented at staff meeting a few weeks ago. I will also post a link to the video, in case you didn’t get to see it.

quiz

video

1. Delicious - A great place to collect and catagorize websites that is available anywhere you can log in to the Internet. No more “Oh,no! I bookmarked it on my other computer” woes. Here is mine. http://del.icio.us/calvamom
2. Pageflakes - an easy way to put a bunch of things together on one webpage. Here’s mine. http://www.pageflakes.com/calvamom/17283521
3. Blogtalkradio - podcasts on many different topics. Here is one of my favorites. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/I-Love-Librarians  It is called “I Love Librarians” so of course, I love it back.

Kristin Fontichairo , a school media specialist in Birmingham, has developed a short learning module called Exploring Elementary 2.0. It is an overview of Web 2.0 applications that canbe used in the elementary classroom. If you are interested, please take a look at http://exploringelementary2.edublogs.org/ .  I will be glad to help you with this, if you would like.