A LOOK BACK

Well, I think its time for me to take a look back and see where this blog has been and what its future might be.

When I first started blogging here I had no real goal in mind. I was looking for a place to share videos and sites I can't share on my classroom blog because they are blocked out. Sometimes I understood why they were blocked and sometimes I had no clue. But there is a lot of cool stuff out there and I wanted a place to put it until I could use it. I think thats why I started blogging here.

And I pretty much have been using it for that. I've shared all kinds of ideas and tools to try in the classroom. Most of them I have used myself. I also added a few fun sites and videos of things I have found.

I stayed away from turning this blog into a discussion type site. There are lots of others who do it far better than me. You can check them out in one of my sidebars.

I am somewhat disappointed in the lack of comments from people reading my blog. I have had only three comments since I started. One from someone not happy with the blog, one from my wife defending me, and one from me to me.

So after mulling it over a bit I have decided not only to keep writing but to try to get something up at least twice a week. We will see how it goes.

:)

Picture Trail

Here is the latest new tool you can put in your learning tool bag. It's just one of about 35 effects you can do with you classroom photo's. I have just started using this on my class bog and already the kids want more.

It's from Picture Trail. Picture Trail is one of the many online picture album places you can join nowadays to store, view, and print your pictures. It's the only one I found so far that has a bunch of different ways to share your pictures. You can put them on a rotating cube, a fancy sideshow, or any one of a dozen or two different presentation models.

I am going to start putting up some pictures of my class on my blog every couple days using Picture Trail. I am already thinking of all the different ways to integrate it with reading, writing, and social studies.

EXTREME DINOSAURS

This month's National Geographic is all about extreme dinosaurs. It's a great article and you and your students will enjoy it. They also feature a great photo gallery, most bizarre dinos, wallpapers, and dino puzzles.

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JC PENNY

Enjoy. This is from JC Penny.

The Tech Savvy Educator

I found another great blog you show take a look at. Its called THE TECH SAVVY EDUCATOR. It is written by a guy named Ben Rimes. Ben has a neat perspective on intergrating teaching and technology. I think what I like the best is his Friday posts. On most Fridays he posts a question for us to ponder and discuss. He also finds some pretty good sites to share which brings us around to today topic.

He found a great site that talks about copyright, teachers, and the classroom. It's an easy read. I learned a lot from it and I think you will too. It's called COPYRIGHT AND YOU.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

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DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?

I thought this was pretty clever and funny. Enjoy.

China not fighting off e-waste nightmare

When I saw this headline in the Yahoo Story Box it kinda caught my eye. When I clicked on it and read the whole article it definately had my attention. This is an amazing story about what happens to all those computers, moniters, cellphones, washers, and dryers we throw away every year. They don't all disappear into some deep hole or tall mountain or garage... they end up in China.

Here are a couple of intertesting quotes from the article itself.

GUIYU, China - The air smells acrid from the squat gas burners that sit outside homes, melting wires to recover copper and cooking computer motherboards to release gold. Migrant workers in filthy clothes smash picture tubes by hand to recover glass and electronic parts, releasing as much as 6.5 pounds of lead dust.

and then there's this...

"China now produces more than 1 million tons of e-waste each year", said Jamie Choi, a toxics campaigner with Greenpeace China in Beijing. "That adds up to roughly 5 million television sets, 4 million fridges, 5 million washing machines, 10 million mobile phones and 5 million personal computers..."

The article goes on to explain the problem and what little is being done to stop it or to help the workers involved. It is a fascinating look at an hidden problem.

If you read the article please hit the comment button and tell me what you think.

jim