Digiliciuos Apptivities Quick Topic

Discuss Digilicious Apptivities

Native Americans in Early Texas Missions

In Social Studies, 4th grade students discussed the exploration, settlement, and Texas leadership. A podcast was created for this project using Photo Story 3 describing Naive American life in early Texas Missions.

Creating Your Own Green Screen

Is your district short on cash? Don't let that stop you and your students from creating some great digital videos using a green screen. We created our own green screen and you can too for under $30.

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October is National Bullying Prevention Month

According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, cyberbullying can be defined as "willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices." Cyberbullying has become a real problem since our students spend most of their time online. This would be a great opportunity to talk to your students about cyberbullying. Let them research and create a presentation to share with others. For Calallen secondary teachers, contact Rey or Rebecca for some online safety pamphlets to hand out to your students.

Read below for some very useful links mentioned in TCEA's TechNotes by Glenn English.

October is National Bullying Prevention Month. Here are some resources for you to use during this important time:

• Kids Against Bullying

• Teens Against Bullying

• Stop Bullying

Take a look at how this school handles reports of bullying.
Sample Online Form for Students to Report Bullying

SURVEY FOR GRADES 5-10

PLEASE CLICK HERE Project Share Survey TO BEGIN SURVEY. THANKS!

Fodey

Use Fodey for creative writing, or to explain a process. The newspaper is a pretty cool way to practice those writing skills. Students can use the plants or animals to explain a process. Teachers can use Fodey to liven up their websites, wikis or blogs. Visit Fodey to create your own message.

Project Share and Power On Texas

Project Share - What is it?
Project Share provides professional development in an interactive and engaging learning environment. Although many professional development trainings take place in a face-to-face environment, research is showing that educators are wanting more online PD opportunities. It provides educators the opportunity to communicate, collaborate, and share resources across the state, and not just within the district. This will create stronger PLC's where all educators can collaborate and participate in online learning opportunities.
Aside from the professional development opportunities, Project Share is a place where Texas teachers can create and/or join groups with similar interests.
Educators can view the Project Share Course Catalog and access that course in Epsilen. Logging into Project Share or Epsilen is the same thing. Epsilen is the platform used to house Project Share resources. Calallen teachers were emailed their Project Share/Epsilen account last year. If you do not know your account information, please contact Bryan Brown.

Power On Texas - What is it?

It is a collaboration between TEA and AMS Pictures highlighting Texas teachers effectively using technology to transform student achievement across the state. They did a fantastic job putting this together. The movie, Power On Texas shows how districts overcame variuos barriers associated with technology transformation. View the video above or click here to see how a few Texas schools are POWERING ON. You also have the option of ordering a free DVD.

I left Austin with a revitalized passion on the impact and benefit of technology integration. Calallen ISD has joined the digital learning revolution and continues to move forward. Teachers and students here are creating some pretty amazing things with technology!

My Fotobabble

My Fotobabble

No More Excuses...Tech Integration Appropriate for K-2

Yes, our little ones are capable of creating tech integrated projects with their little hands. I attended a workshop that had some really great examples of K-2 students using technology. Kinder students were shooting video, taking digital pictures, and more.

TCEA....You Are The Bomb

Just a few great things about TCEA.
1. TCEA gathers the best presenters who are experienced and knowledgable.
2. Tech integration...best practices....galore.
3. Great variety and selection of PD workshops.
4.TCEA presenters will go to you wherever you are...for pd.
5. Members recieve a discount for Pd.
6. Free webinars...lunch and learn.
TCEA Rocks!!!

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Day 1 @ TCEA 2011

Image via CrunchBase

Below are 2 presentations from the Google Academy we attended today at TCEA. There is so much educators can do with Google Apps. We can't wait to get back to share these great integration ideas with classroom teachers. Many thanks to the presenters who have shared their work with the rest of us!

Leslie Fisher's Presentation
Julia Stiglitz's

DoInk

This was my first try with DoInk. What a great tool for students. Have them create their own animations. Publish to share with everyone or keep them private. It's free!


Water Cycle by rsendejo, made at DoInk.com

Great Valentine's Day Sites

Read the following blog post by Larry Ferlazzo: The Best Sites To Learn About Valentine's Day. These sites are great for your ELL students as well.
http://bit.ly/a27Du4

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Flash Review Game for IWB's

Check out the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Flash review game generator: http://www.superteachertools.com/millionaire/

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Project Giddy Up

ESC 2 is inviting school districts to follow one of their very own, Janet Dickerson, on the 2011 South Texas Trail Riders journey through region 2 and beyond. Janet will create a virtual classroom experience linking 21^st century technology and media rich tools to share a world of cowboys, horses, buggies, and general frontier life with your students.

Take a look at the Project Giddy Up blog to find out how your students can submitt a written or video challenge.

Possible Snow in South Texas...Again!

After watching the weather report tonight, I am excited to find out that we MAY have snow again in South Texas. This would be a wonderful experience for our students who have never seen snow. Teachers, have your digital cameras and Flips fully charged and on stand-by. This will be a wonderful opportunity for students to go outdoors and take some pictures and create a  digital story. Students can also use the Flip to videotape a weather forecast.

See you in the snow...hopefully!

Tagxedo

                                                                

Many teachers have found Wordle to be an amazing tool. Students really enjoy using Wordle. Well, if you like Wordle, you are going to LOVE Tagxedo. Tagxedo  has a gallery of ready made images that you can view or just jump in and create your own. Take a minute to explore this site, but chances are you will be there awhile.

What is it?

Tagxedo is a tag cloud creator. It turns words, famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, or letters into an artful tag cloud such as the image above. Can you guess who it is?

Integration Ideas:

Book Review

Include Tag Cloud with Biopoem

Self Portrait

Add Pizzazz to Presentations 

Check out 101 Ways to Use Tagxedo to explore many more ideas.

Lucy Prochazka at Magee Elementary is the winner. She was the first to answer the questions on Tuesday's post. You will be recieving a 2GB Flash Drive. The tool that was highlighted in the 3rd Six Weeks CSCOPE newsletter was Live Binders. Good Job Lucy!

Keep checking the blog. I'm thinking I should start a Freebie Friday.

CSCOPE Newsletters

Take a look at the newsletters below. These CSCOPE newsletters contain some beneficial tips and tools for teachers and administrators. One article in the 3rd Six Weeks newsletter talks about how binders can be inefficient. If you print CSCOPE and keep it in a huge binder stacked on a shelf, this article is for you.

To replace those clunky binders, the article suggests a certain tool to be used instead. The first Calallen teacher to tell me what tool is highlighted in this article, and how it can be more efficient will win a prize. You can post your comment here or email me. Good luck!

1st Six Weeks
2nd Six Weeks
3rd Six Weeks

Many Thanks to Calallen Teachers

You are awesome! Technology integration is taking place everywhere. Teachers are working very hard to seamlessly integrate technology into their lessons. You are doing a great job!