passionately curious

Customized Photos and Images for the Classroom

Back in March, I wrote about fd's Flickr Toys as a great free, web-based resource that lets you customize classroom photos into trading cards, movie posters, comic books, etc.  They keep adding to the collection and now you can also make name badges and calendars.  Thanks to Lucy Gray, I've also discovered GlassGiant.com, where you can put your own message on a chalkboard, make a wanted poster, a hollywood sign or neon sign,  your own brand of cereal with a photo on the box, and more.  These seem great for themes (cowboy, hollywood) or just fun images for your classroom blog or website. 

Little Director

Little Director is an award-winning service that creates animated movies from children's drawings.  They claim that "some of their best works have come from group and class projects" and provide a detailed lesson plan(.doc) for creating and illustrating the story.  Once complete, the movie is easy to share.  It's hosted on the Little Director site or you can also order a DVD, which would be great for a fundraiser or just a lovely keepsake.  There is a $400 minimun per class, but this includes up to 20 drawings and an audio track (voice and/or music).  When I contacted Royi Akavia, the founder and chief animator, to get more details, he replied that for $20/student, each child could receive their own DVD.  The Little Director website has a wonderful gallery of school projects.  It's really quite amazing what they can do with a simple illustration!

Voice Thread

I recently discovered VoiceThread and can't wait to use it with my students! A VoiceThread "is an online media album that allows people to make comments, either audio or text, and share them with anyone they wish. A VoiceThread allows an entire group's story to be told and collected in one place." Look here to read more about how to use a VoiceThread in the classroom - and they will always be free for educators! Be sure to check out the Browse Page  to see how others (including teachers) have used VoiceThread.  Here's my first attempt - a sneak peek at second grade for my new students.  It needs a little work, especially a better microphone to eliminate the background noise.

Visual Search Engine for Kids

  Quintura for Kids is a visual search engine designed with young kids in mind. It offers broad categories to begin with such as holidays, science and nature, around the world.  In addition to displaying the results, related keywords are organized into a tag cloud so kids can refine their search easily.  It's simplicity, colorful kid-friendly graphics (that change with the season) and design make it very appealing.  Yahoo Kids powers this search engine, so the results are safe and there's no advertising. It's worth a look!

Spell with Flickr

Here's another fun tool that takes images of letters from flickr to create the words that you spell.  If you don't like a letter, click on it and you'll get a new one.

            

Flickr Toys for the Classrrom

For the last two days, I have been in St. Charles, Illinois at  The Illinois Technology Conference for Educators. I've learned so much in these two short days and my "idea list" for projects to do with my students has grown with each session.  One resource that I can't wait to use is fd's flickr toys (via Charlene Chausis and her session My Friend Flickr).  Although inspired by flickr, these "toys" can be used with any photo you have on your computer. Classroom photos can be used to create trading cards, movie posters, magazine covers, slide shows, and more.  You can also add comic book style captions and  transform photos into pop art or collage!  This bead art feature may not be as practical to my teaching.  However, since my kids love perler beads, I couldn't resist!

Classroom Blog

I have finally put together a classroom blog for the children and families in my class.  I tried Movable Type, the platform my school supports, but it was too complicated and I didn't have the time to learn all I needed to make my blog unique and creative.  Perhaps I'll take that on this summer.    Instead, I'm trying iWeb.  There are some limitations, such as no categories, but an update for iLife is rumored to be released this spring.  There is so much that I love about Typepad and I hope Apple will follow its example and make some of the same features available in iWeb. 

I am eager to learn more about how I can use a blog with my students, how it can enrich my curriulum and inergrate technology into my teaching.  Right now, my classroom blog is a means to inform families and share photos.  Eventually, I hope to post podcasts, movies, and student work, and to find a way to get the students involved with entries or comments of their own.  I'm exploring the possibilites!  Do you have a classroom blog?  Do your students participate?  How did you introduce blogging to your students?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

   

Google Earth Meme

My colleague, Lucy Gray, has started a teacher meme using Google Earth.  Participants can answer one or both of these questions:

1. What has been your most memorable learning experience?
2. Who is the teacher that has influenced you the most and why?

Here are the details and directions.  Click the view icons at the top to see who's already posted their answers.  Join in and share your experiences!  Here's my entry (download then open in Google Earth):

Download lisa_harrison.kmz

Make-a-Flake

Kids (and adults) can't seem to get enough of this interactive snowflake maker. Watch as the paper is folded before your eyes.  Then, use scissors to cut out your design.  Preview your snowflake and cut some more, undo mistakes, start over or make another one!  Snowflakes are saved in a gallery and can be printed.