Blogamundo!

A Survey About You

2011-05-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

Millennials are people born between about 1980 and 2000. This is your generation.

I want you to take a little survey about how you use media and your outlook on life.

Click on the link below to take the survey:

http://pewresearch.org/millennials/quiz/

When you are finished, go to your blog and tell me what you scored. Use complete sentences!

Sentence Frames for Theme

2011-05-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

In this book, the main point is _______________.

One thing the author is trying to show us with this story is ____________________.

In today's world people need to learn that _________ and this story shows us that by ________________.

If there is one lesson I could learn from this story it would be ____________________.

Final Plot Project for The Witch of Blackbird Pond

2011-04-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

You have a few choices for your final book project.

Write a book review and post it on Amazon.com (you will need to make an account if you don't already have one).
Draw a timeline with 8-12 important events. You will also need to include a couple of sentences describing how you decided which events were important to include.
Write a "back of the book" review, which will get someone interested in the book, but not give away too much of the story (and NO you can't use the one on the back of the book already!!) :).
Choose an event from the book and write a newspaper article as if you were a journalist in that time period. Remember journalists always include who, what, when, where, why, and how!
Pretend you are working on filming a movie of this book. Choose background music to go with an event in the book. Include a paragraph that explains why this music is the best background music for this section of the book.

Fix My Paragraph

2011-03-11T13:51:00.001-08:00

The Witch of blackbird pond is a book. About a girl named kit who moves from Barbados to america in 1687. Her grand father has died and she is gonna go live with her aunt. the town she moves to is full of Puritans who are much more religious than she is she is constantly doing things that make her look strange to the people in America be cause her culture in Barbados is so different.

***Directions***

Copy and paste this paragraph into your blog and then fix the problems you find. There are a total of 10 mistakes to change. Try to find them all.

Salem Witch Trials Video

2011-03-01T16:10:00.000-08:00

We're going to be reading a new book called The Witch of Blackbird Pond. The setting is in New England (the northeast coast of the United States) during the Salem Witch Trials.

Go to the link below to watch a movie about the Salem Witch Trials.

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/salemwitchtrials/story/

After you finish watching the movie, go to your blog and write a summary of the Salem Witch Trials information you learned. Show me that you understand the basics of what happened and why.

Here is another video about what Puritan life in New England was like at this time period.

Book Evaluation

2011-02-15T15:37:00.000-08:00

Here are some things to help you get started on your evaluation of the book we just finished, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

Here are a few questions to think about to get you started with the evaluation. DON'T answer all these questions in your essay. Think about them to get you started and try to incorporate the answers into your writing:

What did you like or dislike about it?
Was it well written?
Were the characters interesting?
Could the story be set in another time or place? Would that change the story?
Why do you think the author wrote this?

And here is a checklist to help with book reviews, but you might find it helpful to get you started with your evaluation.

Name the book and the author
Give a short summary of what happened in the book (don't give it all away though!)
Give your opinion of the book (Examples: exciting, interesting, boring, educational)
Support your opinion with examples from the book
Tell your readers whether you would recommend the book and why or why not

You may also focus on a particular aspect of the book (like the characters, the setting, racial issues, how it made you think differently, or something else you want to focus on).

Please do a good job and take your time with this essay. This should be a full essay, not just a paragraph.

Some Days You Just Don't Feel Like Writing...

2011-02-14T12:16:00.001-08:00

Some days are difficult. You wake up in a bad mood, or something happens in life that just sets you off on the wrong foot for the day (or the week sometimes!). Even on days like that, it doesn't hurt to get a little something down on your blog. It can be cathartic to write it down, like it helps to get it on the page and let it out. You feel better when you're done and you've gotten a little writing practice in for the day.

Another way to write if you're having a bad day is to use the anger or sadness or whatever emotion you're feeling to help you write something really deep and emotional. Poetry is always good for that. Use your feelings to help you write, rather than getting stuck in them and letting them overrun your life.

Fun Websites

2011-01-28T15:09:00.000-08:00

Here are some fun websites that have information and educational stuff on them. Play around with them and enjoy!

Multimedia and Interactive Websites
American Presidency
http://americanhistory.si.edu/presidency/5a_frame.html

Artists’ Toolkit
http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/

Bio Medical Lab – the Walker
http://www.biomotionlab.ca/Demos/BMLwalker.html

Cells Alive!
http://www.cellsalive.com

Coolmath
http://coolmath.com

Create-A-Graph
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/

Discovery Games
http://dsc.discovery.com/games/games.html

Educational Web Adventures
http://www.eduweb.com/portfolio/adventure.php

Smithsonian Education
http://smithsonianeducation.org/students/

DNA from the Beginning
http://www.dnaftb.org/dnaftb/

World Wildlife Fund Fun Stuff
http://www.worldwildlife.org/fun

British History: Battlefield Academy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/launch_gms_bfacademy.shtml

Visualisation
San Francisco Crimespotting
http://sanfrancisco.crimespotting.org/
Worldmapper
http://www.worldmapper.org/

Gesture-based computing
(this one is a little farther on the horizon and the technology is not built into your own computers right now, so you'll have to simply look at some of the possibilities)
Aukland Museum: The Hybridiser
http://vimeo.com/6580702
Mgestyk
http://www.mgestyk.com/videos.html
mt Multitouch Table
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCpzZk0JNOw

From Emerging Technologies class at WOU, Prof. Mary Bucy.

Welcome to Family Reading Night

2010-11-23T16:27:00.000-08:00

Welcome family and friends to our Annual Family Reading Night.

Please feel free to look around, talk to teachers, and eat pizza. In addition, please have your student and any children under 18 pick a book to take home off the table in the back.

We also have some reading and writing info on the front table next to the sign in sheet.

Thank you for being here! You are the best!

Downtown Learning Center Staff

What is the Message of This Poem?

2010-11-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

Read over this poem and use the poetry plan to figure out what the author's message is. What is the author trying to say? Think especially about the last couple of lines.

Halloween

Mac Hammond

The butcher knife goes in, first, at the top
And carves out the round stemmed lid,
The hole of which allows the hand to go
In to pull the gooey mess inside, out -
The walls scooped clean with a spoon.
A grim design decided on, that afternoon,
The eyes are the first to go,
Isosceles or trapezoid, the square nose,
The down-turned mouth with three
Hideous teeth and, sometimes,
Round ears. At dusk it's
Lighted, the room behind it dark.
Outside, looking in, it looks like a
Pumpkin, it looks like ripeness
Is all. Kids come, beckoned by
Fingers of shadows on leaf-strewn lawns
To trick or treat. Standing at the open
Door, the sculptor, a warlock, drops
Penny candies into their bags, knowing
The message of winter: only the children,
Pretending to be ghosts, are real.

The poem is from this site: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/108.html

Here is a link to the poetry plan

Fun Stuff to do Around Town

2010-10-22T08:10:00.000-07:00

Just in case you haven't heard about some of the fun stuff going on around town, here is a link to a bunch of Halloween events. Click on a day on the calendar to see what the events on that day are all about.

Culture Shock's "13 Nights of Halloween" Calendar

2010-2011 School Year

2010-09-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

We're back at it again this year, blogging our way to better writing. Students are doing a great job of logging into their blogs every day, coming up with things to write about, and practicing their editing skills. I'm so impressed with how well they do at this, even if they've never blogged before in their life. What great students I have! How did I get so lucky??

One of the things that I've noticed about student blogs is that each one is very different. Everyone has their own idea of how to create their daily paragraph. Each student has their own voice that comes through in their writing and makes it their own. Writers talk about it all the time: finding your voice. On their blogs, students are able to find their own voice, while still learning basic writing and editing skills.

I think learning how to express yourself in writing is one of the things that makes education so crucial. By writing down our experiences and thoughts on things, we not only leave our mark in the world, but we learn to think through our own experiences and elaborate on our opinions. Writing makes us better thinkers, and the world can always use better thinkers!

Some Books You Just Might LOVE!

2010-04-07T11:12:00.001-07:00

It's important to find books that you will enjoy reading. If you don't enjoy it, you probably won't do it, so read something interesting! Something that makes you want to keep turning pages.

Here are a few selections of authors, books, and links that might lead you to books you will love.

Fantasy

Authors:

Joe Abercrombie

Brandon Sanderson

J.R.R. Tolkein (Lord of the Rings)

Robert Jordan

Lists:

Here is one person's top ten list of fantasy authors.

And here is a top 25 fantasy list

Vampire

Yes, I'm making this it's own section because it has gotten so big lately

Authors:

Stephanie Meyer (Twilight)

Kristin Cast

Mari Mancusi (Blood Coven Series)

Anne Rice (not new, but classic vampire stuff)

Here is a list of Vampire books and series for young adults. It's on the Monster Librarian site which also has a lot of other good lists.

Romance

Young Adult:

Meg Cabot

Rachel Hawthorne

Catherine Clark

Loiuse Rennison

Jodie Lynn Anderson

Sarah Dessen

Adult:

Nora Roberts

Jayne Anne Krentz

Catherine Anderson

Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Susan Anderson

Karen Robards

Elizabeth Lowell

Historical Romance:

Amanda Quick

Diana Gabaldon (time travel/historical)

Julie Garwood

Christina Dodd

Teresa Medeiros

Here is a site with a good list of favorites for all styles of adult romance.

Chick Lit

I know this sounds a lot like romance, but it really focuses on women's issues in general. Its fun stuff to read. A lot of the heroines enjoy fashion or shopping or other girly stuff!

Here is a link that will give you more info on chick literature than I ever could.

And here are some of my favorite chick lit authors:

Jane Green

Jennifer Weiner

Sophie Kinsella

Mystery

Sue Grafton

Mary Higgins Clark

Agatha Christie (old, but classic mystery)

Patricia Cornwall

Carl Hiaasen (humor/mystery)

John Grisham

Janet Evanovich (humor, not scary, but a great read!)

Tom Clancy (military thriller/mystery)

And here is a list of some other types and styles of mysteries.

Enjoy your reading!!

More Anne Frank/Holocaust Resources

2010-03-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

This is the link I showed you in class yesterday:

http://www.annefrankguide.net/en-GB/bronnenbank.asp

Here are a few more places to find good information:

The 8 Stages of Genocide

Info about Concentration Camps

Holocaust Survivor Stories

Interview with Anne's Father:

Field Trip to the Capitol

2010-02-19T08:49:00.000-08:00

Shandi did a great job of getting right up close and taking some great pictures for us!

Love is...

2010-02-12T10:15:00.001-08:00

...when your sister sends over a care package of soup and salad when you're sick.

...your parents bringing you medicine when you aren't feeling well

...friends calling up just to say hi

...a little niece's eyes lighting up and yelling your name when you come in a room.

New Literature Unit: Diary of Anne Frank

2010-01-19T10:25:00.000-08:00

We will be starting a new literature book this week. We are going to be reading The Diary of a Young Girl about Anne Frank. During this unit we will be studying some background information about the Holocaust as well.

Here are some good online resources for finding out more about the Holocaust and Anne Frank:

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Anne Frank Educational Trust

Holocausthistory.net

List of other resources from Anne Frank Educational Trust

There are lots of other online resources out there, but these are a few good ones from trustworthy sources.

Rebekah's Books for Break

2009-12-17T10:41:00.000-08:00

One of the things I look forward to most on vacations is staying up late reading. I love that I don't have to worry about getting up in the morning, so I can stay up really late reading a good book that has grabbed my attention. A couple of the books I plan to read this break are:

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner
Finger Lickin' Fifteen by Janet Evanovich

Other than that, I'll just see what books catch my eye at the Book Bin or the library and I'll read what I feel like at the moment.

Think About Books for Break

2009-12-15T15:17:00.000-08:00

Okay, we are coming up on a 2 week vacation and I don't think any of you want to lose the progress you have made in class so far. I know it's busy and it's easy to forget about reading and school, but I would like to help you make a plan for the break.

In your blog today:

1. Read other student's blogs about books they have read and make at least one comment.

2. Write down which books you think you might like to try reading over break. It can be one that you are currently reading, one that you borrow from me, or anything else you have at home or can borrow.

3. Also, tell me when you plan to do your reading. You should try to read 15 minutes to 1 hour per day.

Fix My Paragraph

2009-12-10T14:21:00.000-08:00

The following paragraph has 10 mistakes. Copy the paragraph, paste it into your blog, and fix all 10 mistakes.

Indian reservations are areas of land given to Native American tribes by the united states government. In the 1850-60s the government decided to move indians to land that were unwanted by settlers many of the tribes did not want to move to new lands and refused. Soon the government sent in the U.s. Army force them to move to the new reservation lands. this caused many bloody wars between the Indians and the U.S. Army. Eventually, most Indians did move to the reservations. Today, reservations are run by their own tribal council, and less than half of Indians live on the reservations. Many of the Indians who live off the reservations live in large western cities. Like Phoenix and Los angeles.

Welcome to Our Open House!

2009-11-23T17:03:00.001-08:00

Thanks so much for coming and making education a priority. Please feel free to look around the site, have some pizza, and ask any questions you might have. If you want to know about your student's progress or have questions about the program, just ask any of the staff members here tonight.

New Book

2009-11-19T11:11:00.001-08:00

We started a new book recently called The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian. It is a really fun book. The students love it and are asking to borrow it so they can take it home to read it.

This book is definitely for more mature young adults. I find that my late high-school age students from 16-20 are just the right age to be able to absorb it and also enjoy it.

Poetry

2009-10-21T13:09:00.000-07:00

We've started our poetry unit for this term and it is going very well. We work off something I like to call "The Poetry Plan".

The Poetry Plan

Most people are scared of poetry, but you don’t need to be. Poetry can be hard to understand unless you know HOW to read it.

You will need to read the poem all the way through about 5 times. Yes, I said 5 times. The more you read it the easier it will be to understand.

The 1st time: Read for SOUND
Just read the poem to hear how it sounds the first time.
Listen to the rhythm
What's your first impression?

The 2nd time: Read for WORDS
Look for any words you don’t understand.
Try to figure out what the word means by looking at the words around it, breaking the word into pieces, or saying it different ways to see if it sounds familiar.

The 3rd time: Read LINE BY LINE
Stop at the end of every line and figure out what the line means.
Try to relate it to the lines before or after it.
Decide what you think the author is trying to say in each line.

The 4th time: Read for THEME (the author’s message)
Try to figure out what the author is trying to tell the reader through this poem.
Why did the author take the time to write this down?
What important thing did he/she want you to understand after reading it?

The 5th time: Put it all TOGETHER
How do you feel about the poem now compared to the first time you read it? Do you understand it better?
You should be so familiar with the poem now that it will be easy to answer questions about it.

2009-09-15T08:28:00.000-07:00

Look over this chart.
Find at least 3 things you can learn from this chart.
Make a list of the three things you learned about obesity.

Back to School Speech

2009-09-08T16:11:00.000-07:00

This Back-To-School speech by President Obama has been very controversial. What do you think about it?

Books I Want to Read This Summer

2009-06-08T08:52:00.000-07:00

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
The Lovely Bones By Alice Sebold?
Cold Rock River By J. L. Miles
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Twenty Years in the Future

2009-04-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

It's almost time for my dinner party. Why don't you come on in and see my home. It's a small place, but I like it. I have a nice dining room where my friends always like to gather and eat. I have a great patio with a barbecue and places to sit and eat and chat with friends. I am also really proud of my yard and garden area. I spend a lot of time taking care of my garden and I love to use the produce from it when I cook for my friends and family. I also have a lovely kitchen area with a big countertop for cooking and chopping and making foods. My friends love to hang out in my kitchen as well, eating and drinking the delicious foods I cook up. My bedrooms and bathroom are at the back of the house and are cozy as well. I like to spend time at home reading, hanging out with family and friends, cooking, and working in the yard. I have lots of time in the summers when I'm not teaching to do all the things I love. Oh, here come my friends now. Why don't you come on in and eat dinner with us?

Blog Night Info

2009-04-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Families and Students:

Thank you for coming to Spring Blog Night 2009!

There are lots of other things you could be doing tonight. You are making education a priority in your life by coming here tonight. That is a great statement to make to your family, yourself, and your community!

We invite you to do three things tonight:

1. Eat! Help yourself to pizza and drinks.

2. Check out your student's blog on the laptops around the room. (Make sure they show you what they did at the beginning of their blog and what they are doing now. You'll be impressed!)

3. Ask Beka any questions you have about your student's progress.

Bienvenidos a todas las familias y los padres. Los invitamos a cenar esta noche. Por favor hablen Uds. con las maestras y miren los "Blogs" de sus hijos/as. Esperamos que les disfruten este momento que pasamos hoy aqui. Gracias por su atencion.

I Believe Brainstorming

2009-04-17T08:49:00.000-07:00

Today we are brainstorming things we believe in so that we can choose one for our This I Believe essay.

I believe that reading is the key to knowledge.
I believe being nice is more important than being smart, rich, or successful.
I believe love is more of an action than a feeling.
I believe people need each other.
I believe in singing loudly to myself in the car.
I believe in using only what I absolutely need.
I believe in making up your own mind about what you believe.
I believe in ghosts.
I believe that every situation in life is a chance to learn something we need to learn.
I believe coming home is a gift.
I believe happiness is a choice.

Root Word Poem

2009-04-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

We used poetry, rap, or creative stories to study root words this week. Here is my attempt at a poem using as many of our root vocabulary words as possible. Check out the student's work on this on the Blogamundo Homepage. They did very well!

I see pedestrians in cars,
psychologists going psycho,
cardiologists losing heart.

I see corporations running wild,
manufacterers running the world,
CEO's making a spectacle.

I see a suicidal population,
homicidal corporations,
pharmaceuticals deforming the nation.

I see the populace conform
to the patron saint Consume,
rupturing morals and home.

A prescription for disaster.
I predict a nation of conformity,
deformity, cardiac arrest.

Unless...unless
The spectator becomes captain,
the populace becomes the patriarch,
the videographer becomes the actor,
the audience becomes the speaker.

With complete transformation,
Hope.

Progress Report

2009-04-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

Things are going along really well on the Blogamundo Project. I have been amazed at the gains I've seen in student writing. I think the main thing I have noticed is that the organization of their writing has increased amazingly. Just getting them to write something is often difficult at first, but as time goes on they start to write quite a bit. Then the work is in making sentences flow and organization of ideas. Amazingly, the organization of the ideas seems to come quite naturally with practice of writing in general. I have focused mainly on editing sentence structure (as well as the age-old capitalization, spelling, and punctuation) and after time, the organization of the rest of the writing seems to come quite easily.

Instructions for Adding a Header to Your Blog

2009-02-27T15:47:00.000-08:00

Go to Blogamundo and click on the link to Blogamundo Project Blog (this page)
Choose a header from the post below this
Click on the header you choose to see a full size version
Right click on the full sized picture and choose Save Picture As
Save the pic to My Pictures
Go back to your own blog
Go to Customize (in the upper right hand corner when viewing your blog) or Layout (from the dashboard)
Make sure you are in the tab called Page Elements (it should go directly there)
Click on Edit in the box that says Header (it is across the top)
Click on Browse and look for the pic on your computer
Double click on the picture header to add it in
Choose the option that says "Behind title and description"
Click SAVE in the pop up box. Click SAVE again in the Page Elements page.
Tada! You should have a new header.

If you have problems with your old header showing up behind the new header, let me know. That is a more complicated process.

Headers

2009-02-27T09:45:00.000-08:00

These free headers were found on this site: http://www.themeheaders.com/gallery/search.php

Technology Lesson

2009-02-26T15:43:00.000-08:00

I've finally learned how to fancy up my blog a little bit. I added a header with an apple on it and I think it looks pretty good. What I haven't figured out how to do is replace the other header with the new one. All I can do right now is add the new header on top. Fortunately my new header matches the one under it, so it actually adds to the picture. I will probably have to change the html in order to fix it.

I've been trying to do a technology lesson every once in awhile. Mostly they just learn as they fool around with stuff, but I like to do a formal lesson once in awhile to add to their knowledge base. I think it just makes them more comfortable with this stuff and that can never hurt as they go out to start college or jobs.

I might have to work through this a little more before I actually make this a lesson though. I want to know what the problem spots are going to be before we hit them.

What I know so far is:

Get a header from a website with free header pictures
Right click on the full sized picture and choose Save Picture As
Save the pic to My Pics
Go to Customize (from viewing the blog) or Layout (from the dashboard)
Choose Change Layout
Edit the Header
Browse for the pic from your computer and add it in
Save it
Tada!

Book Reports

2009-02-24T15:58:00.001-08:00

The students are writing their book reports on Touching Spirit Bear. I have allowed them to write them in either essay format or business document format (meaning block paragraphs with headings).

They have mostly turned out quite well. The interesting thing is that in this assignment, I noticed a marked difference in the writing quality of those students who have been blogging every day and those that just entered the class. It is absolutely wonderful to see how far those who have been in my class have come since they started. I know, too, that those who are just starting out are going to see great improvement in their writing skills, and that is going to make school, GED tests, and workplace writing so much easier for them in the future.

Sometimes it just strikes me how important this work is and how much good it is doing, even if the students don't really realize it yet.

Yes! It Worked.

2009-02-10T14:11:00.000-08:00

The anger skits went really well. The students did a really good job on coming up with skits and acting them out. Some of them were definitely not excited about be filmed, but even so they did a pretty good job!

The one problem that we came up with was the fact that the laptops we use for blogging do not accept new programs and the Flip Camcorders need to upload a little program that comes in the camera in order to upload the video. It worked fine on my computer, but that meant that the students weren't really able to learn that part of the technology. It worked out okay in the end, but it's definitely something I need to work out before I use them again.

You can go to the Blogamundo link on the sidebar of this page and from there you can click on the different students blogs to see their videos. They are pretty fun. :)

Anger Skit by Ron

2009-02-04T14:49:00.000-08:00

Awesome! I figured out how to upload video directly from the Flip camcorders and it is super-de-duper easy. I'm really excited about this. I hope the students have fun with their anger skit. At least they won't be totally frustrated by uploading them when they are done. I hope. :S

Correct The Teacher

2009-01-28T15:36:00.000-08:00

Below is a paragraph I wrote that I left mistakes in. Copy it and paste it into a new post on your blog and then edit it. Make sure you correct ALL my mistakes!

if there were one thing that i would keep if i had to give away everthing i own it would be my books i would keep my books because they help me disaper into another world. Ilove to read and forget about all my roblems for awile and i like to curl up wit a blanket and i like to turn on some music and i like to read for hours but if i cant have all the other stuff as least i would liek to have some books to read.

Things to check for:
capitalization
spelling
run-on sentences
spacing issues

Journaling

2009-01-28T12:38:00.000-08:00

It seems like journaling on blogs is coming easier to students. It's not easier for all of them, but it seems like for the most part they are having less trouble thinking up what to write about and also they are doing a great job on their self editing. I'm still checking their work before they publish, but I am catching less mistakes and when I do see something, they usually see it as soon as I mention it. I guess it just comes from having gone through it so many times. They are really starting to catch on to writing and that is exciting!

Oregon Essay Writing

2009-01-26T08:45:00.000-08:00

We are working on essay writing and I thought it would be fun to go out and take pictures of what represents Oregon to each individual and then have them write about it. We walked around downtown and ended up at the capitol. The students came up with some really good pictures and ideas for how that represented Oregon to them. It was nice to get out and do something a little different, and I was really happy to see how well the essays turned out.

We did short essays of 1-2 paragraphs and I had them write a rough draft in their notebook first. It really seemed to help some of them get their ideas flowing, but for others, it seemed to be difficult. I think next time, I might give them the option of typing or writing the rough draft since everyone does the writing process a little differently.

AM class at the capitol building trying not to shiver too much in the frosty morning. With the sun at the morning angle it was difficult to get the gold man to show up. He's really there, but he's just hiding.

Mid class hanging out in the gazebo in Wilson Park beside the capitol. They were good sports about posing for me while I tried to get a good picture with the capitol in the background.

PM class at the capitol. The sun finally came out and we were actually able to get good pictures of the gold man because of the lighting.

How to Upload a Picture from the Kodak Easyshare Cameras to Your Blog

2009-01-21T08:41:00.000-08:00

Make sure your camera is on.
Plug the camera cord into the camera and into the USB port on the back of the computer.
Go to the Start menu (on the left hand bottom corner of the screen)
Go to My Computer
Go to Zoom Digital Camera

Go into your Blogger account.

Go to new post
Click on the little picture image in the upper right hand corner of the toolbar.
Click Browse (if you want to add more than one picture click on Add Another Image first)
Make sure you are in the Camera Folder (you should see thumbnails pics)
Look for your picture and double click your picture to upload.
After you've chosen the pictures you want, make sure you have checked the Terms of Service box and click Upload.
Click the Done button when it pops up.
Your picture should be on your blog.

Thanksgiving List of Thankfulness

2008-11-25T10:20:00.000-08:00

I am thankful for:

My family who always encourages me and thinks I'm a neat person

Pumpkin pie because it is vegetable, milk, crust, and sugar so I can pretend it's a full meal

Trees

Having a good job with fun students

Books that keep me company when I'm lonely and bored

Airplanes so I can travel quickly to see my family and friends around the world.

Thoughts on How the Project is Going

2008-11-20T14:36:00.000-08:00

We have been up and running with the Blogamundo Project for about a month and a half.

Wow!

It seems like I've been doing this forever and it seems like we've come so far. This is quite a revelation for me. I was feeling like I wasn't getting very far, and that I really wanted to be more organized. Now that I've realized I've really only been doing this for less than two months, I don't feel so bad. I think we've actually made some good progress.

Things to feel good about:

The students come in and log into Blogger without me telling them.
We have a routine set up for getting people onto the blog system which works well (as long as Blogger is cooperating).
I have a weekly schedule set up that helps me with planning M:Technology, T:Writing/Grammar Lesson, W:Journal, Th:Writ/Gram Lesson, F:Editing/Free Journal.
We have streamlined the blog time so that we rarely run into our reading time.
We have hosted an Open Blog Night to introduce parents to the project and show off our blogs.
Students are getting excited about different types of writing. Some students enjoy one aspect and some students enjoy another, but almost everyone has gotten excited about at least one writing assignment.
With the focus on editing, student's writing has improved a lot. They know what I'm talking about if I say, "Capitalize your title."
I see less and less use of text messaging slang, such as "u" instead of "you."
The students are able to self edit and even ask each other for help sometimes instead of me.

Things to work on:

Getting students to edit as they go instead of going back and fixing their mistakes.
Practice reading their work aloud so that they can hear what is wrong with it.
Better incorporate other types of media into their blogs.
Figure out how to catch up new students with certain blog assignments that they really need to do.
Make a checklist of assignments that are critical to the project for each student to have.

The Village of Degerby

2008-11-19T10:28:00.000-08:00

(We did a blog on a favorite place and it was a little hard for some to get started, so I did it with them. This is my example.)

Halfway around the world, and almost as far north as Santa's home in the north pole, there lies a tiny little village called Degerby in the land of Finland. I lived there for almost a year.

The village had about 15 houses, one school, a bank, a Lutheran church, and a recycling center. And that was about it. Other than a small hill and a lot of trees. Oh, and of course, people. Children ran around the town from house to house, playing with their friends, walking back and forth to school, and generally having free reign. Everyone knew each other and spoke to each other regularly.

The hill was in the middle of the town and all the houses were situated either around the bottom, or nestled on the hillside. We walked over the hill to visit friends, or around the hill to reach the school.

The village was quiet, especially at the house I lived in because it was the last house on the road into the village, so if a car came by, we knew it was coming to our house. On one side of the house was a garden, with a chicken house, and then miles and miles of fields. On the other side was the wooded hill with a line of birch trees marching up the road. It was a peaceful place.

Practice Formatting

2008-11-17T12:53:00.000-08:00

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

Salem Keizer School District http://www.salkeiz.k12.or.us/

My name is Rebekah. My name is Rebekah. My name is Rebekah.

This is a list.
I like lists.
Lists are fun.

Now I'm going to do bullets:

Here is my first bullet
Here is my second bullet
Here is my third bullet

Practice Formatting

2008-11-17T10:25:00.000-08:00

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

Blogamundo Homepage http://sites.google.com/site/blogamundoproject/Home

My name is Rebekah.
My name is Rebekah. My name is Rebekah. My name is Rebekah.

One
Two
Three
Four

I love lists.

I love lists.
Lists are fun.
I make lots of list.

Practice Formatting

2008-11-17T08:46:00.000-08:00

The quick brown fox jumped over the
lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumped
over the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox
jumped over the lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy
dog.
My name is Rebekah. My name is
Rebekah

http://sites.google.com/site/blogamundoproject/Home

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
But the dog jumped up and chased him.
Hello

So that's my list.

Here is another list
I like to make lists
Lists are fun

Poetry Blogs

2008-11-14T13:41:00.000-08:00

We have been studying poetry in class lately. Mostly we've been working on how to analyze poetry, but I've noticed that there was some interest in writing their own poetry as well. So today I thought I'd give them a chance to do that on their blogs.

It takes a little longer than I thought it would.

But here is some of the incredible stuff that they turned out:

Misty's Poem
Troy's Poem There's quite a bit more poetry on his site if you look around.
Fabian's Poem
Kenzie's Poem

There a lot of others too, but these are just some I picked out. Some of the student's used newspaper articles to make "found" poetry. We were particularly working on the rhythm and sound of poetry.

A Weird Week

2008-11-12T11:20:00.000-08:00

We have a weird schedule this week because of Veteran's Day on Tuesday. So we came to school on Monday and I decided to do some testing instead of blogging. Then we had Tuesday off and now we're back for three days. I'm having trouble deciding what to do with these three days.

Since I want the students to have a chance to experience authentic writing, I am really trying to give them a lot of say in what we are working on in the project. This morning, one class really wanted to take pictures to put on their blogs, and so we went out and did that. Then another class really wanted to stay in, so I had them finish old blogs and then asked for a subject matter. Someone facetiously said, "Falling asleep in class" so I told them they could write about techniques for that, and then gave them a couple of other ideas to write about sleep. Most students chose the topic of researching teenagers and sleep.

So far, I like the results of having the students a little more involved in their own choices on the blogs. I think they are at a place where they know a little more about blogs now, so they feel better doing this. It is easier for them to think of things to write, now that they sort of have a feel for it.

Working on Editing

2008-11-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

I am pretty much setting aside Fridays for editing our blogs. That way students can edit everything from the week and practice using the writing process. They usually have 3-4 blogs posted per week, so they almost always have something that they can edit.If they have fixed all their mistakes I usually have them read it again to see if there is anything they can do to make it sound or look better.

Those students who have finished their editing, or have edited as they wrote throughout the week, get a free day to post whatever they want to on their blog. Friday is a good day for that because often they want to write about their weekend plans.

My new worry is how to use the blogs to be the best writing tool. So far it is really helpful in getting the writing process going because editing and publishing is sort of built into the blog. The pre-writing process is a little trickier. I think I might try using Scribblar.com to see if I can get them going on the pre-writing.

Election Coverage

2008-11-05T13:25:00.000-08:00

I gave a blog assignment today about the election.

Assignment:
Today on your blog write about your opinion and views of the election
OR
Write a letter to President Elect Obama telling him what you think he needs to work on or change now that he is going to be president.

It was interesting to see the reactions of the students. It is really difficult for a lot of them to express opinions about major national events. They know what happened, but it is hard for them to make any meaning out of it. There were some insightful comments and some strong opinions, but for the most part it seems that politics is a very distant idea to them. They don't really see how it relates to their lives at all. I wish that these students could have been out at one of the big rallies just to get a feeling for what is really going on here.

It's incredible how distant we can become from our own democracy. We live in a country that has one of the most open democratic voting processes and we don't even realize it most of the time. I watched a little show on some Chinese journalism students who were following the American election and they were astounded at how the people, just normal citizens, had access to information about the government and had a say in how things would go. I was reminded of how much we take for granted. They have no voice in their government and now choice as to how it is run or what happens.

Even though sometimes it doesn't really feel like I have a lot of say in government, it's good to remember that I have a lot more than most of the world and for that I am thankful.

Open Blog Night

2008-10-29T13:44:00.000-07:00

We are getting ready for Open Blog Night, which is like an open house where we get to show off our blogs. The last couple of days have been spent editing, adding the Blogamundo (our class website) link, and making sure everything on our blogs looks presentable.

I expect to have about 50-75 people show up. We'll order pizza for a few more than that, just to be sure. That is quite a crowd for this location.

The editing is going extremely well and I am so proud of all the progress the students have made. It's amazing to see how their writing has changed since their first posts. It is especially noticeable with the students who have been here and have been blogging for a few weeks now. I am so impressed. They are having to do less and less editing after the fact because they just aren't making the mistakes anymore. They are making good writing a habit and that is what I like to see!

UPDATE: The Open Blog Night was a great success! About 50 people came (including staff) and I was able to connect with a lot of parents and show off some great blogs the students have done.

Beyond Blogging

2008-10-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

Here is some of the other stuff we do in our class. We spend at least 20 minutes a day reading, at least 20 minutes on Read 180 on the computers, and we also have group work where we learn reading and writing skills.

These students are very ready to learn and are trying to build their own skills in reading so that they can move on to their G.E.D. or to finishing their high school diploma.

Although attendance is usually the main obstacle between students and success, there are also other missing pieces that have to be filled in. Sometimes it is the speed of their reading, phonics, vocabulary, or some other missing link. We try to fill in the missing parts and usually their reading skills shoot up pretty quickly once we figure out exactly what they need.

What great students, though! They come to school, they work hard, and they make great progress. It's not every day that you get to work with students who are so dedicated to their own education.

Adding Pics from a Camera

2008-10-27T14:38:00.000-07:00

We got our new cameras last week, so I let the students take them out around the block and take pictures to upload to their blog. Most of them where just snapping pictures of anything that looked interesting and then they edited by only uploading the pics they wanted to keep. I think the SD cards are 1 gig so it shouldn't matter if there are a bunch of pics on there for the time being. The only problem I can see with that is that as they take more pics and then go to upload them, they will have to scroll down through all the old photos on the card to get to theirs at the bottom. It really probably doesn't matter very much, but I may have to erase the cards every so often to keep it from bogging them down. Here are some pics that I took when we were out photographing today:

I really like this one. I just snapped it on the fly, but it turned out really neat.

A view of one of the unique bike racks from up on top of the parkade.

Fall Colors!

Two brave students who agreed to pose for a pic. :)

Budding photographers in the back alley.

Adding Pictures to the Blogs

2008-10-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

As you can see, I did a little practice adding maps to my blog. Actually, I had my blog up on the projector and I went through the steps with the student's as they learned to add a picture from Google Images to their blogs.

We added maps of Colombia, the country we have been reading about in our class literature recently. Then I had the students write a little about Colombia and what they had learned about the situation there.

The picture adding went surprisingly smoothly. I had them save the picture to My Pictures on their laptops and then browse for the picture on their computer. I chose that option because I did not want to add the picture from the web and then have it move or be removed later.

Info on the Country of Colombia

2008-10-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

After reading the book Out of War, I realized I had learned a lot about the country of Colombia. They have been having a war there for almost fifty years now. The people of Colombia have to deal with violence, kidnappings, massacres, and mass poverty on a daily basis. The country is very unstable, but even with all of these problems many children and young people in Colombia are working for peace for their country.

What I Know About Colombia

2008-10-20T10:15:00.000-07:00

Colombia is a country in South America that has been at war for almost fifty years. There is a lot of violence. They have many kidnappings, massacres, and gang fights happening all across the country. There are also many people living in poverty. Many of the problems in Columbia started because of problems with the drug traffic from their country.

Information about Colombia

2008-10-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

Before I read the book, Out of War, I didn't know a lot about the situation in Colombia. Colombia is a very complicated place. They have been having a civil war for almost fifty years now. I learned a lot about the fighting, the violence that they live with every day, and the instability of the whole country.

Peer Editing Blog Entries

2008-10-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I did a tutorial with the students on peer editing, which can be found here. It was a little bit elementary for them, but I explained that it was already online so we would just overlook the middle school style format. It was actually fine, but I didn't want them to feel like it was talking down to them. I skipped parts of it to make it more streamlined. If I was going to do one myself, I would pare it down a bit. Partly that's because I do mini-lessons that need to be pretty quick and partly because they don't usually stay with the lesson for more than 20 minutes. I had them take notes on the peer editing format and enter it in a blog post so that they can go back and review it whenever we do peer editing.

Today, I had them go into other students blogs and do some peer editing. They left the editing comments in the comments section of the other person's blog post. They seemed to do a pretty good job although some of them probably have a little trouble actually figuring out what is wrong with another post. The good thing is that most of them are able to find someone either on their level or below their level of writing so that they can actually see the mistakes. Those who are at a higher writing level are quite a bit harder for some of the students to edit because their mistakes are less obvious and sometimes they don't really have mistakes, although they might be able to edit for content or add to it to make it better.

I was impressed with their ability to be kind and remember not to make others feel bad. I was afraid they might forget that in their effort to find corrections. Sometimes it is easier to focus on the mistakes than on the good things in someone's writing, but they did an excellent job of balancing both sides.

Technology

2008-10-16T11:24:00.001-07:00

I think I have decided to teach the students a new technology tool every Monday. It is important that they learn how to use the technology, not only so they have the information for later in life, but so that we can do what we need to do to keep the blogging fun and interesting.

I'm hoping that we get our cameras soon. We are just waiting for the money to be accessible. We had some trouble getting it into the appropriate account and now we are just waiting to see how hard and long the process is going to be when we need to request the money. I do hope that we can get them soon and get some pics uploaded before the Open Blog Night.

Ah yes, Open Blog Night, an open house for family and friends of the students is happening on October 30th, which is two weeks from today. We'll see how much we can get done before that happens.

Getting Things Under Control

2008-10-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

I finally feel like I'm getting this project under control. We are getting less of the locked blogs and it seems like things are settling into a pattern.

I think we are getting less locked blogs because we are only starting up blogs with new students as they come in so there aren't as many being created from the same IP address on the same day. Because we have a wireless lab, the IP address was showing up the same for all the laptops and that made Blogger suspicious. Apparently, only spammers can create that many blogs, that quickly, all from the same address. Until us, that is. :)

Also, I have written up instructions for getting started and although they need to be modified and made more explicit, it really helps when I can just hand it to a student and let them follow the instructions. It seems to work really well. I still have to check in to make sure that they are putting in the correct username and password, but overall it works pretty well.

I chose to have them all use a specific formula for their username and password. It is based on their names, initials and birthdates and is information that they should know off the top of their head, but that everyone else would have to really look to find out about them. It is a good thing that I did because I can't tell you how often they forget this information!

Blogs, blogs, blogs

2008-10-07T16:14:00.001-07:00

I feel a little overloaded today, with trying to keep up with the new blogs, adding them to our Google Site and trying to figure out how to keep the blogs from getting locked by Blogger. Apparently, we seem like spammers and they just keep locking people's blogs. I hope that it doesn't keep doing it to the same students. So far I think that each student has only been locked once, but I haven't been keeping close tabs. I've just been having them request blog unlocks as soon as I notice it so that their blogs don't get deleted. I sent off an e-mail to Megan who is going to forward it to her friends from the Google Teacher Academy she attended. Perhaps one of them will have an answer for me. In the meantime, I just keep trying to make sure the blogs aren't lost for good.

The Second Week

2008-10-06T10:50:00.000-07:00

I started today with sentence combining work. I gave the students three simple sentences and asked them to combine them in as many ways as possible. They did a pretty good job. As usual, there are some students who work more quickly than others, so I was able to differentiate quite a bit by just asking them to use different forms of the verbs (ie: wearing instead of wore) and then told them they could add extra information in order to add descriptions that would help me see the picture they imagined.

They are picking up the technology part of this project very quickly. I think I only had to help one student log in today and they are able to navigate their way around Blogger pretty well now without explicit directions from me.

One problem I still have is that it takes a long time for the initial setup and it is a bit tricky to incorporate that into the 20 minutes I have alotted for this writing every day. I only have 90 minutes to work with, so if I go longer, they lose time with reading skills time. I have to work on this and see what I can figure out. I have my assistant working with them to get started right now and I think I'll wait to see if it speeds up as she learns the process better or if it just takes that long no matter what. That will help me see what else I can do to fit it in better. Unfortunately, new students is a recurring theme in an alternative setting like this.

Getting Up and Running

2008-10-03T13:18:00.001-07:00

I think things are pretty much up and running at this point. Most of the students have one or two blog posts and I got on this afternoon and left a comment on everyone who had at least one post up. I only left a comment on one post, but I think it will help give them the feeling that this is interactive. My next step is to try to get them linked up together so they can read and comment on other students work.

One problem I am having is adding links to a sidebar. I have never had a problem with this in my own blogs in the past, but it looks like Google is changing the process for adding things and it is much less user friendly as far as I am concerned. You have to be more knowledgeable about HTML and that is something that I am not. I can sorta figure it out a little bit, but it takes quite a bit of time and energy and I can't imagine trying to get my less tech saavy students to do it.

I need to look into this a bit before I do that assignment and in the meantime I'm not sure if I should just use the Reader tool on the dashboard or wait until I have it figured out.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

2008-10-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

The First Day of the Project
Well, we started our blogs today. Most of the students seemed to be really excited about starting their own blogs. One student said he felt like he was in college! Although most of them had heard of blogs or at least knew about them from Myspace, none of them actually had a blog, so it was new territory. They did an excellent job creating their gmail and blogger accounts. The part that took the longest was figuring out what to name their blog. I asked them to use their name or something specific to them in the name of their blog so that I could tell them apart. It was difficult for them to come up with ideas that they were happy with, but eventually they did and actually they all came up with really good names. I also asked that they keep their URL the same as their blog name. That didn't always work because some of the names were already in use, so we just added an 08 to the end of their blog title in the URL and that seemed to work.The other main problem we had was that we were creating multiple blogs from the same IP address since we are on wireless computers and blogger tried to keep us from doing it thinking we were spammers. I can see that this might continue to be a problem. I see that now blogger has blocked most of our blogs thinking they are spam blogs and we have to request a review to get them to unblock the blog. I hope that it goes smoothly and we don't have a bunch of blogs deleted.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

2008-10-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

Blogamundo Project
The Blogamundo Project is a blog writing project being funded by a Salem Keizer Education Foundation grant at Roberts High School, Downtown Learning Center. It is focused on multi-media literacy. Our goal is to teach reading, writing, and technology by having students blog their writing assignments. Writing assignments will use photographs, short videos, and Web 2.0 technology to enhance the writing experience. Students will be able to keep track of their own writing on their blog as well as reading and commenting on the blog work of other students in the class and across the school. Part of the project focuses on community building within the school as well as with other students in the internet community. We also hope to ease the transition of students from program to program by keeping the blogs going as they transition to writing in other program areas.