Bunker Library Blog

I love the Extreme Biology Blog!!  What a great site.  One of the most wonderful things about this blog is that it is not of value just to Miss Baker’s classes.  There is a wealth of information that many schools could use.  Miss Baker has certainly spent a great deal of time on this blog.  Most interesting was that I could not determine where this school was located.  It was very well protected.  It made me think about my own blog.  I went back and took out links to our school.

The “A really different place” also has many links to information that is valuable to all school students and teachers.  I was impressed with the student entries.

I like Mrs. Myrmel’s page.  I think parents & children must love all the photos.  She is keeping them informed of events and areas of study.  I am sure the parent’s appreciate the newsletter links.  But upon further review, I wonder how many parents are viewing this sites as there are no parent comments.

I do think blogging is a great way to communicate.  Not to sound like a broken record, but it also means that students and their parents must have access to computers and the internet.  Many of my teachers are very reluctant to post assignments or lessons online because so many parents and students are not able to access the information.

I think that a good way to start is by having students post to a class blog managed by the teacher.  That way they could see each others comments about the current topic.  Typically students submit writing to a teacher who comments and grades the paper.  In a blog format, all students could see the comments of others.  They could comment, agree, disagree, elaborate, or challenge ideas.

I do like the idea of students “finding a voice” through blogging.  Many of my students do not see how “school writing” can be of any value,  interest, or merit.  Personalizing the experience might help.  When I taught fifth grade the many of the MEAP writing papers had a “needs a stronger voice” comment.  I think the exchange of ideas on blogs could help accomplish this.

As I was in the middle of reviewing the article by David Warlick, I lost my internet connection.  That really made me think about an important idea that I hope we come back to at some point….access.

But on to the topic at hand… Having heard of the technologies and using them are definitely not the same.  I know about the most of the technologies described, but I have only experimented with many of them.  I have a blog, but really it seems to be for my own benefit at this time. I had not heard of geocaching, so I got online to find out.  Not only does it sounds like a program kids would love, and there are many caches hidden very close to my school.  This one will surely need a little more investigating.

One of the problems I experience with technology is the sheer number of hours it takes to learn, use, and teach.  There are so many interesting applications, and I seem to want to learn too many of them.  I think I need to concentrate on a couple and do them well. Contrary to popular belief, not all kids are computer savvy.  Many of my students do not have access to computers at home.  I am surprised at the number of students that don’t have an email account.  Many have a networking account such as Facebook or Beebo, though.  One of the areas I focus on is safety.  I was amazed how many of my students had public account listing their school and phone numbers!

The second problem is getting teachers onboard.

Can I implement any of these technologies? Sure.  I am in a support situation as a librarian.  I can use many of the applications for library uses, but I feel that helping classroom teachers incorporate technology is more important.  That is what I concentrate on.

This category has been created to keep a record of ideas and reflections from the online class about 23 “things” related to web 2.0.

I finally got around to reading this book.  It has been on my to read list for a long time.  I loved it.  I am a Shusterman fan.  His books are so varied and unique. In this story Anthony “Antsy” Bonano becomes friends with Calvin Schwa, a classmate.  Calvin is one of those people that just goes unnoticed.  But Calvin is more than unnoticed; he is practically invisible to everyone around him.  Antsy becomes Calvin’s “agent,” scoring big bucks for dares that Calvin accomplishes. When they are caught by an ecentric neighbor, Anthony and Calvin are forced to do “community service” for him.  The “Schwa effect” is legendary in this funny, touching story of friendship and life in middle school years.  M.H.

 How to Resize and edit pictures for the web:

Have you tried to upload a picture to your web page and it takes forever to load.  Maybe your file is too large.  Try using snipshot.com to resize your photo before you upload it.

Snipshot directions can be found on the digital storytelling page of my website.

http://www.muskegon.k12.mi.us/downloads/bunker_middle_school_library/using_snipshot.wmv

(Click on: How to use snipshot.com.)

How to place your photo on your web page.

Watch the video at:

http://www.muskegon.k12.mi.us/downloads/bunker_middle_school_library/inserting_pics_on_web_page.wmv

(click on: STAFF: How to add pictures to your web page.)