Andrew

On December 16th, at 1:53 p.m., I received the BEST Christmas present ever. My wife delivered a baby boy named Andrew. At birth he weighed 8 lbs. 13 oz. and was 21 inches long. He is perfect (I know, I'm biased). Anyway, I've been extremely busy getting him acclimated to his new home, parents, and trusty steed (Baci--our lab/boxer). Andrew is my little man, and life with him is wonderful. For those of you that read this blog--I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!

Changes

Wow! There are a lot of changes coming in my life. I have not posted in a long time, because I have been ridiculously busy. This summer will always be known as the summer of change for me. But change is GOOD.
One small change that occurred this summer was a much needed bathroom remodel. My bathroom was outdated, moldy, and not very functional. Over the course of two weeks my bathroom underwent a major transformation--total gut job. The new room is functional, bright, and aesthetically pleasing. Plus the plumbing works now--kind of essential!
Another change, this one is pretty big, is that next year I will be teaching fourth grade instead of fifth. I look forward to being able to teach all subjects and not just language arts and social studies. I can't wait to meet my new group of students. This year is sure to be filled with fun, laughter, and a whole lot of learning!
Perhaps the biggest change of all is ----my wife is PREGNANT!! I can't wait to become a father. This is my first child, and the first grandchild, niece or nephew on my wife's side. We want it to be a surprise; therefore our nursery will be neutral--probably green with a Winnie the Pooh theme. I am extremely nervous and excited for this chapter in my life!
Anyway, this year is sure to be a year of changes--but all REALLY GREAT!

Create a Product

My class just recently finished an assignment where they created a brand new product. Part of the assignment required them to use a form of media in order to make an advertisement for their project. Below is an excellent example of the project.

13 Colonies

Recently my class has been studying the original 13 colonies. Below I have some good links for information on that topic.

13 Colonies narrated

Movies about Ben Franklin

Colonial Trades Video

Social Studies for Kids (13 Colonies)

Tons of links for the 13 Colonies


13 Colonies Notes -

A-TEAM

I can't wait until the A-Team movie comes out. I know the show is extremely cheesy, but it was my favorite growing up. I'm definitely going to see this one in the theater. Check out the preview below.

Wimp Yourself

I read about a really cool website on my Google Reader (thanks David Warlick). It is called wimp yourself and can be found at http://www.wimpyourself.com I think my students (5th graders) will get a kick out of the site, because many of them read the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney. Even though his books are not what I would consider good chapter books; they are very clever and can inspire even hesitant readers to pick up a book. The site was created to promote the upcoming movie. Check out my wimp:

Will Books & Magazines Be Gone Soon?

I was just looking at my paper from last Sunday and saw all of the ads for the latest electronics. As I was searching a thought occurred to me....will technology replace paper products? In today's world most people read the news online, weather online, and books online. They even have specific devices such as the Kindle to read material. Personally, I like the feeling of holding a book when I read, however, I also like to read online. Below I've attached a video of what the future might hold for magazines. It's actually pretty cool!

Sports Illustrated - Tablet Demo 1.5 from The Wonderfactory on Vimeo.

Soundboards

I just stumbled upon a great website called Soundboards.  It is free to register and you can create your own soundboard from an extensive collection of famous celebrities, movies, historical figures, etc... Imagine what you could with it in the classroom!  It would be great to use as an anticipatory set, in a presentation, or for a test review.  I've added a soundboard below just for fun showing my favorite movie.

Very Cool Tool

Paper Rater - Proofreading & Plagiarism Detection

from Free Technology for Teachers by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)

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Paper Rater is a free service designed to help high school and college students improve their writing. Paper Rater does basic spelling and grammar checks, but the real value of Paper Rater is that it tells students if their papers have elements of plagiarism. Paper Rater scans students' papers then gives students an estimate of the likelihood that someone might think that their papers were plagiarized. Some of the other useful features of Paper Rater are style indicators, word choice evaluators, and a vocabulary sophistication indicator.








(click image to view full size)
Registration is not required in order to use Paper Rater. To have a paper rated all you have to do is paste text into the "analyze" field and click "get report." I gave Paper Rater a try this evening and found it to be very quick in processing roughly three pages of text.

Thanks to Make Use Of for the link to Paper Rater.

Applications for EducationPaper Rater could be a valuable tool for high school students to run their papers through before turning them in for a grade. Paper Rater can make students aware of potential acts of plagiarism. Paper Rater can also make students aware of changes in vocabulary that they may want to make before submitting their final papers.

I found this great video (below) for Read Across America. I am going to use it during the week and then have a silent reading period--for fun. Too often reading is assigned in school with an assessment such as a book report or organizer. Whatever happened to reading just for the love of reading? I hope it's not lost, because if it is, reading will eventually turn into another chore.

If the video doesn't play here is the link: http://www.blip.tv/file/3134777/

Time Warp

The other day I was downloading some apps for my ipod touch for the classroom and thought about all of the amazing technology advancements since my childhood. Does the picture below bring back any memories?

Today I use my ipod touch for so many things such as the internet, music, movies, and apps for education. Below I've listed some apps that I find very useful for education.

1. Awesome note (Great for making to-do lists and can synch with Google Docs)
2. History Lite (Free App that tells you what happened on today's date in history)
3. CNN
4. Awesome Facts
5. Quote Book
6. Google Earth
7. Factbook
8. Wordbook

Please note: The list above is in no particular order. It is simply a list of useful apps.