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Announcements,
Conferences
It’s almost conference time! Join us on December 9 & 10 at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, TN for a wonderful time exploring technology integration topics and rubbing elbows with like-minded teachers! Keynote speakers include Hall Davidson, John Seely Brown, Bill Rust, and Alan November. There are 84 break-out sessions over the two days and it promises to be an exciting time. If you haven’t registered, click here. See you soon!
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Language Arts
I always enjoyed creative writing assignments in school, so it was a pleasure to run across this site called Paragraph a Week, A Yearly Writing Program. I like the way students are led through the whole process of brainstorming a topic, planning their writing, formulating a topic sentence, adding details, concluding the paragraph, proofing the draft, and producing a final piece. There are both single-paragraph and multi-paragraph topics here, each with stimulating questions to get your students thinking. Teachers may also submit writing topics of their own. See what you think.
Image credit: Pete’s PowerPoint Station
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Art
I remember several years ago when I first played with KidPix. I liked it then, I like it now. However, there are a number of totally free web-based programs that will do many of the same things. Your students will enjoy checking out the interesting art sites listed below. For each one I have taken a screen shot of a creation that I found on the site.
ArtPad (admittedly this example is very advanced):
Repper (upload any picture and turn it into a pattern):
Brushster:
Thisissand (sand painting – click on the small grey square in the upper left corner once you get to the site):
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Project-Based Learning
As Instructional Technology Specialists, our work group stresses technology-infused, project-based learning. Teachers, however, are often stumped when they first encounter that term. What does it mean exactly? Well, a great place to start is Digital Wish, a library of lesson plans that incorporate various technology tools. Even if you don’t have exactly the same equipment or software called for in the lesson plan, you can often easily adapt it to fit your situation.
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General
Elementary teachers: Need some great sites, many of which work well with a SMART Board? I have compiled a list here that you may be interested in checking out.
Image Source: Pete’s PowerPoint Station
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PowerPoint
I’ve blogged about Pete’s PowerPoint Station in the past, but wanted to remind readers about this great resource. The easiest way to see all of the available presentations is to go straight to the Themes page. If you don’t see exactly what you want, remember – you can download and modify presentations, tailoring them to your classroom needs. Also, you want to pay a visit to the Home page to see what other resources are available at this wonderful site.
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General
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Photography
Smilebox is a fun, free, easy, creative way to show photos, allowing the user to create scrapbooks, photo albums, postcards, eCards, and slideshows. Lots of templates are available. You may also choose to add music to your creation – your own or a selection from the site. Try it out 
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General
I’ve been using PDF to Word for a while now and have to say it is an extremely handy little tool. The name pretty much says it all. Once a document has been converted to Word, you can edit it of course – something I need to do from time to time. You can convert up to 20 files per day, which is plenty adequate for me. The paid version (downloadable software for Windows) has some nice features for those who need a more robust file conversion product.
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Announcements,
Video
Although this blog is devoted to sharing ideas for integrating technology into classroom instruction, I’m taking a break from that today to tell you about an extraordinary documentary film, a brave (and funny!) young man, and a group of college friends who embark with him on the adventure of a lifetime and make a movie about it. The young man’s name is Darius Weems, and the title of the award-winning film is Darius Goes West. Darius lives with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a disease that claimed his older brother at the age of 19. Although confined to a wheelchair, Darius does not shrink from life, but instead embraces it with love and irrepressible joy. His spirit and courage make this story one you will not want to miss. The film can be viewed free on the Darius Goes West website. You can also order the DVD there and / or make a donation to help fund Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy research. Spread the word – let’s find a cure!
