WebPage Assignment

Hello All
This was definitely challenging for me but I did learn as I went along.  I'm still not thrilled with my results but I guess I need a bit more schooling on the ins and outs of building a website.  I am intrigued and inspired to look into other webpage building sites that may be a bit more useful.  I found the "googlesites" one that I used okay but a little frustrating especially when it came to formatting.  I'm sure that much of that is due to my infamiliarity with the process.  Anyway my link is https://sites.google.com/site/mrsminettismusic/home
Let me know what you think. 

after thoughts on Web 2.0

The other day one of my schools presented The Stations of The Cross in church.  It was 2nd and 3rd grade's turn to present and they did a beautiful job.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with exactly what that is; it's walking through the 13 "stations" from Jesus being condemned to death up to His crucifixion.  Each station is related to something in our own lives.  An example would be when Jesus, carrying the cross, falls for the first time and gets back up. It is related to a time when we've been down at some point in our lives and gotten back up, perhaps with someone's help and with much struggling, but we got back up just the same.  As I said, the children did a beautiful job and they used an old overhead projector to show hand drawn pictures that they themselves had made depicting each station as each took turns stepping up to the pulpit and narrating the station.  What does this have to do with Web 2.0??? Well, on one of the sites that I found, Little Bird Tales, there were similar projects but they were all done with the computer and the children literally created a digital storybook drawn and narrated by them but done in a power point type of presentation.  There was no bulky projector and no need to manually move papers on and off the projector for each station.  Had I found "Little Bird Tales" earlier on in the year I could have shared it with those teachers and maybe they would have chosen to use it for their presentation.  On the other hand, I guess that sometimes old fashion simplicity is a choice.  Still, I plan to share it with them and I think it will come in handy at some point, if not for Stations of The Cross then for something else.  The possibilities are endless.

Web 2.0 blog

I know it's later than 8:00 but it's been a very busy day.  Just got home from school around 8 as we are rehearsing for a Murder Mystery that our 8th graders are performing for the next two nights.  I have no voice but I do love my job:)  Anyway...Web 2.0.  I will admit, like many of you have as well, that I was using Web 2.0 sites without knowing that that's what they were.  In trying to find out exactly what it meant to be a Web 2.0 site, I did discover some new cool sites.  One is called Little Bird Tales.  It's a site where children can share stories they've written, pictures they've drawn and other creative accomplishments.  You can log on as a teacher, parent or child and submit work or view work by other children.  Much of the work posted is posted by teachers of some of their students' projects.  One project I saw was a digital book narrated by the students.  It presented itself like a slide show but the pictures were original drawings.  You can post your work for public viewing or share it with select people who are also members of the site.  I'm excited to look further into it.  For now, I have opened an account.  Another cool site that I've already used quite a bit (including in my recent lesson plan assignment) is Wordle.  I love Wordle.  It's a web site where you can enter any text and it makes that text into word clouds or collages arranging the words in a bunch of different designs, layouts and colors.  The most common ideas in the text are the biggest words in the collage.  It's a great tool for teaching in so many ways.  It's great for reviews, book reports, poems, song writing, reaction pieces and so much more.  I hope that I've shined a little light for someone today.  I'm still digging through the "gold" of the top 100 Web 2.0 sites.  There are a lot of neat music sites that I can't wait to check out...but not tonight.  Good night everyone ;)

Spring Fever

Hello All

Could it be? Is Spring really here?!  I don't know about you but just seeing the trees bud and the colors popping out here and there makes me very happy inside.  It might have something to do with being a Spring baby or maybe it's because my mother is visiting or maybe it's just...."Spring Fever".  I know that my students have it.  It's especially obvious in the 8th graders.  It manifests itself differently in the little ones but it is still there.  It can make classroom management a little challenging, no doubt.  The flip side for me is that it translates to their singing and stage work in  a positive way with energy and inspiration so...I'll take the challenging with the reward (until I lose my voice) .   Anyway, hope all are well and Happy Spring!