Let's Scratch!

OK I don't know yet how to Scratch but I plan to.
I was reading the latest edition of Learning and Leading in Technology (ISTE's mag) and there was an article on what students are using in their classroom (which is the whole world I believe). The article features a site called Scratch. It allows students (of all ages) to create their own multimedia and post it onto the web. I am going to give it a try and see what I can get to do with it. Then I'll unleash my students and let them run with it.
Here is the address for it.
http://scratch.mit.edu
If any of you have used it before let me know how it worked for you.

The DEN

There is a great community of educators out there called the Discovery Educator Network. It is open to any interested educator that uses technology at any level of intergration. There are a load of resourses for teachers in the DEN. Mainly, each member is a resource for each other. Check out the blogs for each state that has a leadership team, the national blog, and many others, even SecondLife.
Here is the link for the main DEN page.
http://community.discoveryeducation.com/
I am on the Michigan DEN leadership council and here is the link for our blog.
http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/michigan/

If you are interested in joining the DEN click on the link "About the DEN" at the top of the page.

ROV Workshop

Wow! What fun the ROV workshop was this past weekend! Two teachers and I attended a workshop up in Traverse City to learn about the ROV program that one of the highschools has put togther. We took the place of the students and had to build a working underwater ROV with the supplies given. We spent Friday evening and Saturday morning building our very own working underwater ROV. Wee even got to take it back to school where we can use it with our students and maybe even start a team of students to build a ROV for compatition. I can't wait to show it off to the students Monday morning as they com into the school. Check out the pictures.

ROV workshop

This weekend a couple of teachers and I will be particitpating in a workshop in Traverse City. This workshop is modeled after a highschool program where the students design, build, and test an underwater ROV. We are excited to be able to participate in the workshop. We had to apply to get accepeted and promise to put the ROV to use in our classrooms. One plan is to take it on our field trip on the Tall Ship Manitou in May and try it out when we go out onto the bay.
I'll take pictures and upload them when we get back.

What I Want to Christmas

Santa, here is my wish list. I have tried to be a good boy this year :)

1. Lego Star Wars, The Complete Saga (need the PS3 to play it)
2. Dell Laptop. Mid range performance.
3. Epson Multimedia projector (for me and all our teachers)
4. CPS (radio) set from eInstruction
5. Smartboard (again for all the teachers at our school)
6. LEGO NXT brick, software, and base set
7. LEGO Alien Encounter Mindstorms set
8. Sony professional mini DV Camcorder
9.Toshiba DVD recorder
10. Sensa mp3 player

Not too much is it?

LEGO Star Wars Complete Saga, my Avatar

Lego Star Wars - The Complete Saga

• Take The Quiz
• Visit The Site

How about those Lions!?

Wow! The lions are 6-2. What a pounding by Detroit on Denver. The best moment has to be that interception for a touchdown by that one big lineman. What was real nice was that the scoring was spread around. The Lion's D was in the zone today. I hope the rest of their season goes just as well. They have worked hard this year and they look like they have the right mentality to be a decent team. Good for them!

a sad day.....

Today our loving Yorkie Cara died. She was only 5 years old.

Her death was a tragic accident. When we came home this afternoon after running a few errands she was not in the house. We figured that she ran out the door when we where in and out getting ready to leave. We did not notice her outside. She must have gone walking around the house.

After calling on neighbors and checking out the area one of the neighbors found her just around the corner on the side of the road. I went and got her. She was hit by a car and died right away. It looks like it happened not long after we left. (We were gone for 4 hours.)

Needless to say we are all very upset.

Here are a couple of pictures of Cara.

1 down 3 to go

Man alive what a whippin'!
As die-hard a Sox fan I am I did not imagine that last night's game would go the way it did. How about the patience and the number of hit=runs with 2 outs.
I really don't see anything else than a Sox win tonight. When the series heads out to Colorado the Rocks should take 2.
The fans deserve a series win in Boston this year.
Let's play BALL!

Dirty Jobs, what a show

If you have not seen the Discovery channel show, Dirty Jobs, you need to.
The show is an eye opener of what jobs people do for a living that are .....dirty.
The show is funny, intelligent, scientific, and educational.
One comment I have about the show is that I have noticed how happy the people are as they show off their job. They really seem to enjoy what they do for a living.
Here's the web address for the show.
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/dirtyjobs/dirtyjobs.html

By the way...GO BOSOX!!!!!

My scholastci homepage

I have put together a homepage at Scholastic. Scholastic has a free webpage builder for teachers that their students and parents can access. It is very user-friendly and has a nice step-by-step process when you first get started.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/homepagebuilder/index.htm
Here is the address for the log in screen for students/parents/others.
http://homepage.scholastic.com/CHBuilderWeb/jsp/StudentParentLogin.jsp
The class name is strommer and the password is math.

GO SOX ! Bases loaded and up one run.

2 things for tonight.

Well, it is now or never for the Sox tonight. Everyone needs to be focused on on the ball tonight.
GO SOX!

I found a cool math website the other and my students are hooked.
It is www.coolmath.com
There is a bit much to look through visually but the games are fun and push the limits on problem solving and higher end thinking skills.
The puzzles and strategy games are what they like the most. I was able to reach level 8 on the Rush game. One of my 4th graders made it too.
Take a look and see what you think.

Game 2 ALCS

Manny will do what at this at bat? Bases loaded.....and..TBA
How about that! Another walk for Manny. Talk about patience.
What's that ... 3 walks for him with the bases loaded these two games.

ALRIGHT LOWELL! They need to keep him. Sign him!

I will temp fate and say there will be a third series sweep. The Sox are just playing too well as a team and Schilling is in the zone today. Not over powering but placing his pitches well.
Pats won convincingly from what I can tell. Didn't watch much of as I was doing yard work.
What is with the heat. 3rd day with 90's for our high today. There might be something to this global warming thing. By the way, I do think we humans have royally have messed up our planet. And, it will only get worse before it gets better. The US is, overall, I believe on the right track for environmental issues. Current Presidential administration excepted. The developing countries will be the main problem in years to come with pollution generated and environmental abuses.

Just discovered fun sites

I found a few sites today that I see potential use with my students.
The first is Kerpoof. A fellow teacher described it as a bit like KidPix.
I see it as a way for kids (of all ages) to make their own comic.
You can make just a picture with the backgrounds and images supplied.
You can even make a story and short animated movie. I have not tried those yet. This weekend.
The second is Voki. I have not gone into much depth with the site but I see that it may be used with my 6th graders.
The last is one that I have known about for some time but have only watched my students use the site. Millsberry is the name. The students have created a virtual persona that they interact with. It seems like a kids version of The Sims or Second Life. I see where this could be a way to use concepts learned in the classroom in a "real" world setting. We'll have to see about that.

the end is so near

It is hard to believe that the school year is almost upon us. Teachers (that's me) report back the 20th. The days following include time to work in our rooms and district PD's. I will be using that time to get the technology back to the rooms and planning the 1st few weeks of tech, if I am still doing that. I'll find out come the 20th.
This summer has been a blast with the family. Disney World being the big event.
I'll post some picture here soon.

ATA III podcast container site.

Here is the site that we uplaoded our podcasts for the ATA III workshop.
http://ataiii.podomatic.com/
Mine is on there.

Diving into podcasts

Good day all.
Today at our ATA III workshop we are learing about podcasts (not new to me) and it looks like we will be making our own podcasts. If we do and I get mine done I'll post it here.

I just listened to a bit of the "Beyond Reality" podcast by the crew from TAPS/GhostHunters. Good stuff there. Here is the link to it. http://beyondrealityradio.com/

That's it for now. Later.

first one

First off, I hope to keep this one going for a while. This blog will be about just my "Whatever comes to mind." Sports, education, technology integration in education, reading, scifi, science, space, nature, etc.
Just found a cool website for listening to music; Pandora Music.
http://pandora.com
I have usually used Yahoo Music when I wanted to listen to music when on-line.
This uses a formula (unknown to me) that finds music that is alike to a song or artist that you enter. You can set up as many stations you want. Each station is of a similar style.
Check it out.