Too Busy To Blog

I absolutely love blogging!  In my personal life its something I carve out a lot of time for but my professional blog has gone by the wayside this year.  I have had too many rocks to fit in my jar as a proud Mom of a Varsity Football Player and the mother of a local make up artist and musician and as I have entered into my 40's I am now enjoying our local music scene with my husband of 24 years not leaving a lot of time for me to talk to all of you about the latest technology trends.

However while I am living my life I am using my iPad, my Droid Razr, You Tube, Google Apps etc... so it's always there always going on even when life is too busy to talk about it.

Even in my personal life right now I am converting hundreds of slides to digital images that are easier to manipulate and work with.  I have to tell you after filling all of the slide carousels with slides I am now even more amazed at my Grandfather Jerry Durand who was a professional photographer.  The patience he took and the time to fill up the slide carousels and regale us with stories and show us his slides is just mind boggling.  The pictures he took were just unbelievably up close to wildlife.....in a way my Grandfather was a Marty Stauffer in his own right but I will write more about our process in converting these slides soon!

Technology and talking are both always a part of my life.

So I thought what is new here at Castle Hayne about technology and what I will say is that our students are blogging this year too!  I think we are evolving to that point where we no longer talk so much about the gadgets we are using but we are getting to a point in our school where we are naturally using technology as an extension of our classroom and now we are concentrating on sharing what we learned with others.

So don't wonder where I am I am engaged, discovering, stumbling, surfing, tweeting, come join me on the journey! Follow me on twitter @KarenLynnTech.

Hope to tweet you soon!

Mrs. T.

Your wanna' be Digital Tech Maven :)

My Favorite New Tech Goodie - The Google Research Tool

I know I have not been around for ages!  But I have to share with you all about the cool new Google Research Tool!  You won't believe how easy it is!  I got this information from Tammy Worcester at the NC Ties conference in Raleigh last week and I was so excited to learn about it and instead of me telling you how to do it and then go to her site to see how to do it I thought I would do a fun Google Story for you to watch and then you can just go to her website and see how it's done.

Click Here:  To Watch My Google Story

Click Here:  To go to Tammy Worcester's site

The only sad thing I discovered is that Google is no longer supporting Search Stories and I was finally ready to do one.  Well you know what they say early bird gets the worm....and I am definitely not an early bird..ha ha...

and one last thing....I have lots more to share so stay tuned to my blog this is how I will be sharing some of my favorite new tech trends I learned at the Tech conference!

 Aspiring Digital Maven,

 Karen Lynn Tech

The Google Research Tool

Be Funky

My newest favorite photo editing tool is called "Be Funky".   It is a free photo editing software for students and of course it comes with all the goodies they love.  You can change color saturation, you can add fonts, clip art etc......you can distort features and "Cartoonize" yourself.   You can add custom frames, change border thickness and edit vignettes also!  This would be great to have students create their own story book or fairy tale characters based on themselves.  I could really see this tool being tied into literacy lessons but if you think of another way to use it please comment so other teachers can hear what you are thinking!  Here is an example of some Pop Art I made with Be Funky:

I love also that you can save it to your computer, Flickr, and even mail it and that only names a few of the options available!  Best of all it's FREE and no registration is required.  So try it out and let me know what you think!

Be Funky!

Mrs. T.

"drawz it" - A Clever New Drawing Tool For Your Classroom

This website "drawz it" is very exciting because students can draw, use the stamp tool, and type in a text box but while you still have the option to download to a computer you can now embed into a blog such as I did below or link it to Facebook, Twitter, Igoogle, Type Pad, Page Flakes and much more!  So teachers who blog in blogger or WordPress can now embed their student art work and basically have a digital portfolio. There is also an option to share to a public gallery!


Create your own drawings at http://www.drawzit.com/!

This is a web based program and from what I have seen so far it does not have any advertising on the site that would be an issue at all. You can also have students email the finished product to you which might make it easier since currently at our school when you download from Tux Paint you can't have your students save to the student share folder. I thought our teachers might want to try this and let me know what you think! I know you will all come up with some clever ways on how to use this cool new art tool!

Stay Techie!

Mrs. T.

Smart Response Systems A Powerful Tool In The Classroom

Our school is really getting into using the Smart Response Systems more this school year which is so exciting to me because I think it is a powerful tool for teachers and students a like.  If you don't know what a Smart Response System is its basically just that a response device created by Smart the same company that created the Smart Board.   The reason I think its so powerful is that a teacher can teach a lesson on any subject at all.  And at the end of the lesson simply run a quiz which can even be created in a basic power point and then  imported into the Smart response program and have the students take that quiz.  Once a teacher includes this as part of his or her lesson planning this all happens very quickly and is seamless.  Often the students are more engaged because they know they can very quickly push a few buttons but here comes the powerful part the teacher knows instantly who is getting and who is not getting the lesson which means they know which students may need more help on that particular lesson. 

So what is so exciting?  Well teachers have been individualizing and differentiating their lesson plans for years but what makes it so powerful is that they get the information so much faster which means a student can get help faster then ever before if they need it.  Oh and their are tons of activities and lessons that can be used with the Smart Response Systems too........don't worry I am enamored with them right now so there will be more to come on these tools that can be pulled out of your teacher tool box. 

Stay Techie!

Mrs. Thompson
Digital Maven

Technology Musings

Sometimes I think I would love to have been born in the Digital Age......our students find it so simple to grasp any concept where for me while Technology concepts come easily to me now they did not always.  I was fortunate that my mother got the first Atari computer that came out that went mainstream so since I was 12 or so we always had a computer in our house....prior to that she would always go out and get the latest electric typewriter etc....  I lived in a household where Technology was cutting edge....I guess you could say.  I come from a family of origin that embraced technology and technological advances. 

I do think this helps....we still all help each other with technology issues.  Many people I run into say to me "I do not like Technology".....I do not like computers" etc....Interesting very few of these people are children.  Our students at Castle Hayne love working with the netbooks, the Smart Responders, and even our AIG students love working with the ipads.  I think its because children know they can do anything!  I always tell people if you have gone out and bought the lastest cell phone, Xbox, Kindle, Nook, Wii, or even stream movies through Netflix that they are already using Technology every single day.  The more you use it the easier it becomes.

Recently I was driving home from out of town and decided to organize my books on my Kindle.  I then decided to read the "Kindle Cookbook" which tells you all the things I can do with my plain 2nd generation Kindle and I realized I had been way under-utilizing it. 

So take a chance......start a new blog, or even find a new one to follow.  Spend some time on some of our educational sites linked to our school website.  Another great place to start is using Google's apps they have created which are FREE.  Everybody has to start somewhere and as I was taught when I was growing up..."Practice Makes Perfect"...;)

Until next time!  Thanks for stopping by!

Are You Using PBS Learning Media In Your Classroom?

If your not....you should really think about adding it as another "go to " resource!  This is what PBS has to say about their new Learning Media program:

 PBS LearningMedia offers thousands of curriculum and professional development resources from the best of public media and its partners...for free! The service offers educators a wide variety of resource types - videos, interactives, audio and more - all curriculum-targeted for classroom use.

I signed up for an account today took me about 3 seconds it helps if you already have a gmail account set up for work anyway.  Here is the link for PBS Learning Media to sign up!

I was amazed at the variety of FREE resources available so I peeked and this is what I found just this morning:

For K-2 - A video about Curious George and 100's day! 
To Celebration Hispanic Heritage Month - We are The Music - For Grades 3-4
Fabulous resources for Literacy.http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/content/ea5f56db-1f09-47c3-a659-2414c3212ad1/

There is a huge amount of information that ties in global information, diversity, art, and culture.

I hope you take a look and see what PBS Learning Media has to offer just one of the many resources PBS Offers. 
Thanks for stopping by Trackin' Tech Trends!

Your Digital Maven -
Karen Thompson

Check out this great new resource! Museum Box

Remember when you were a student and you were told you had to do a report but it was just a lot of writing and you didn't think it was very interesting well we know of course writing can be interesting and so can research actually the better you get at it the more interesting it is!

Well here is a website where student's can put together their own museum box!  Click here to visit the site!

Let me know what you think!

Google Teacher Resources

This is a fantastic link!  All about Google Teacher Resources - it  is so interesting and broken down into steps that can easily be understood!  This gets 4 Stars from me for sure!   I was particularly interested in creating a Virtual Bookshelf in Google and the fact that I can embed books into my blog.  I will be working on that soon!  Check it out and let me know what you think!

Free Power Point Activities to use in your classroom!

     There are free power point activities at this site already created for you!   Our AIG teacher Ms. Cartwright shared with me this wonderful resource and they are power point activities that are very easy to use with a Smart Board if you have one or just projecting on a screen if you don't have one in your classroom. 

Go to Pete's Power Point Station Free Materials

There is also free clip art and free tutorials as well!

Have Students Create Reports With "Real Newspaper Clippings"

     Don't you think your students would have more fun writing a book report or doing a special class project if they could see it show up in a "real newspaper clipping" as shown below.  The only request this site has is that students' do not use a real newspaper name or the names of real reporter/news people.  You can understand why since this newspaper looks just like the real deal!  Let me know what your students think!

Click here to go to the site:

"This looks like a real newspaper!"

Have I got a new website for you! - Tagxedo

Check out Tagxedo!  turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even school projects-- into a visually stunning tag cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text.

http://www.tagxedo.com/



This will be a fun way for you and your students to incorporate any topic you are studying by using Technology to enhance it!

You have to check out Sumdog!

A new math game to improve numeracy skills!  Your students can play in a world championship or participate in a talent show or even have a penalty shoot out!

There is also a game called "Canal Clean Out" so they can be thinking about the environment as well!



http://www.sumdog.com/

Certificate Street

This is a new site a lot of the tech blogs are buzzing about.....its great and its free!  What could be better?  It is a free service that has 80 education award templates that you can fill out and print....

Check it out!  Certificate Street

Kidzui is for lil' kids too!

Kidzui is a new search engine for ages 3 to 12.  They have a pay version and free version.  This is so exciting that we have a search engine that is User friendly for Pre-K students and Kindergarteners finally!

Check it out!  This site looks like so much fun and the visuals are great!

Newseum - Teachers You are gonna' love this!

Newseum, the world’s most interactive museum, released a cool new web app several months ago that displays the front pages of daily newspapers throughout the world in their original, unedited form.

I have never heard of this site but it advertises an easy to use interface, which allows users to be able to browse through a gallery of available papers or scroll over an interactive map to view snapshots of current front pages for each paper. Though the count varies daily, Newseum records on average more than 700 different newspapers from nearly 70 different countries.

In the classroom: you can use Newseum to track current events around the country for a U.S. History class or get an up-to-date look at the issues affecting different countries for World History or Geography.  I think it would be really neat if we could find a way to use bothe Newseum with Clustr Maps.  I do not know whether this is blocked or not by Websense at our school.