NECC 2008 Conference

The National Educational Computing Conference is being held in San Antonio, June 29 to July 2.

I have been reading about this conference from several sources.

http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2008/

http://www.necc2008.org/

http://www.edubloggercon.com/NECC+200

One of the NECC attenders that I want to share on my blog is Scott Merrick. From the ustream, it appears that scott works with elementary education students and has computers that are similar to ours. He creates podcasts and has an Second Life avatar that is featured in the ISTE membership pavilion. I am wondering if Scott works with his students in podcasting and avatars for second life?

To read more about Scott Merrick go to http://scottmerrick.blogspot.com/


TV Show hosted by Ustream



Scott Merrick
NECC
Turbo Tagger

As I was reading my morning Twitter tweets, I clicked on a link posted by Lisa Thumann She referenced the following

http://tinyurl.com/6ykzfx where teachers and students can find many resources.

This all came from a tweet thanking Clif Mims.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/clifmims Lisa Thumann wrote "Thanks for posting the link to Cool Places for Teachers http://tinyurl.com/6ykzfx on your blog at http://tinyurl.com/5e9yr4" on June 26, 2008


As you can see, the Internet is a small world where people are sharing information. It doesn't matter what who you are or what you are doing. The important thing is to share and give others credit when you find something useful.



http://tinyurl.com/6ykzfx where teachers and students can find many resources for reading, lessons, games, storytelling, and more. There are resources for everyone.

Some of the websites you will find are:

Berit's Best Sites for Children
http://beritsbest.com/

Awesome Library
http://awesomelibrary.org/

Storyline Online
http://www.storylineonline.net

Digital Storytelling
http://electronicportfolios.com/digistory/
http://www.scott.k12.ky.us/technology/digitalstorytelling/studentstories.html

Kids and History
http://www.kidsandhistory.net/Welcome.html

Kidz Page
http://gardenofsong.com/kidzpage/

Owl & Mouse Free Software
http://yourchildlearns.com/


Lisa Thumann
Clif Mims
digital storytelling
Turbo Tagger

Booklists!

There are many books that we will be reading for the next school year.

Just to name a few:

Tuck Everlasting
The Giver
The Sign of the Beaver
Bridge to Terabithia
Snow Treasure
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Number the Stars
Twenty and Ten

The above books will be read during Shared Reading and think alouds conducted by the teacher.

What we need to do now is make a list of books that you (as a student) would like to read during silent reading and buddy reading times.

Here are links to suggested books for summer reading!

From http://www.calvertnet.k12.md.us/departments/instruction/srl/default.asp We have the following link http://tinyurl.com/64jnxo

Check out Reading Rockets at http://www.readingrockets.org/calendar/summer


http://www.teachersfirst.com/readlist.html


Also, Check out this book list!Books for fourth and fifth graders

As you go through the booklists, make a list of books to read.

Enjoy your summer!

The Daily 5 and summer reading!

I have many books on my things to do list for this summer. I truly enjoy reading and I look forward to reading outside on a sunny day or inside on any day. :0) Just having time to read is great for me.

Here is one of my summer reading books:
The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser "the sisters".

What are the Daily Five? They are read to self, read to someone, work on writing, listen to reading, and spelling/word work. This is actually a management system for the classroom where teachers engage students into actively reading for a purpose.

As I read this outstanding book, I can see that integrating technology into the daily five will be quite easy. Each area is built for technology use. All five areas, read to self, read to someone, work on writing, listen to reading, and spelling/word work can be accomplished through blogs, wikis, and Internet websites. There are ebooks and books on tape that are wonderful resources for kids.

A blog would be a fantastic way to have students journal their experiences with the Daily 5. Personal blogs would reflect the students' writing and word work to show growth over time. There are numerous places to set up blogs for young students. Remember to edit the settings and keep them private if your child or students are under 14.

Milestones!

While in Israel, we walked many miles a day so when I came upon this milestone I had to take a picture. This was made by the Romans many, many, years ago.

Milestone as defined by wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milestone

"A milestone or kilometre sign is one of a series of numbered markers placed along a road or boundary at regular intervals, typically at the side of the road or in a median. Milestones are constructed both to reassure the traveller that the proper path is being followed and to indicate distance travelled, or the remaining distance to the desired destination".

This is one huge milestone compared to today's mile markers found along the side of the road. It is interesting to see how things have changed. As I looked at the Roman milestone, I think of the other definition for milestone which means something significant that has happened in a person's life. Accomplishments! Some Accomplishments are like the Roman milestone....huge, enormous, super big!



http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?refid=1861630037
"important event: a significant or important event, e.g. in the history of a country or in somebody's life"

Israel Pictures

While in Israel, our bus group was called Asher one of the ten tribes of Israel. There were approximately 45 people on our bus everyday. We were able to take over 2,000 pictures and will share them at the following website.



http://photobucket.com/PaulPam2

Enjoy

Last Days of School!

Hi Class! I really enjoyed my time in Israel but I also missed seeing you and saying goodbye. I have it from good sources that you had a great time with your sub. I am glad that awesome reports were coming back to me about most of you. You were a great class, fun to be with, and enjoyable. I will truly miss you.

It is amazing how time flies; it has already been a week since I returned home.

Many of you have asked if this blog will still be used next year. The answer is Yes! You will be able to post comments to this blog. I would love to hear from you all and keep track of what you are doing. I think you will really like 6th grade; the teachers are awesome.

Good Luck to each and everyone; Have a great, safe, and fun vacation.

See you in August,

Renewal of Vows!

Shalom y'all!

It is great to be back at home. I missed teaching the last days of school so I will be updating you on my trip to Israel.

First of all, it was exciting, awesome, and beautiful.
My husband and I signed up with Moody Bible Institute to tour Israel from May 25 to June 5. We were up by 5:00am, off and running until 9pm most days. We had full days of learning about Israel's history visiting many tels that have been excavated. I will be sharing more about each place later.

While at Tel Dan (Ruth 4: 1; 2 Samuel 15:2-4), Paul and I renewed our wedding vows at the place for judging located at the city gate. The picture above shows us standing on the judging area with Dr. Julius from Moody Bible Institute. We had ten witnesses, to our surprise our friends organized a party with ten squirt guns to anoint our renewal of vows.

It was just one of the great memories we have from our trip to Israel.

Dr. J and our group!

Dr. J baptizing in the Jordan River.