Margaret & Deb's miscellaneous musings...

Items of importance or just Friday Fun!

Kudos to all of our presenters from last Friday's Institute Day: Gail Curran, Lee Harwig, Brian Hoffmeister, Michelle Kedzierski, Deb Labriola, Kelly Miller, Cori Molinets, Kim Phelan, Tim Pritchard, Judy Schramm, Gina Shem, Tabitha Swain and Angela Turner.

Kudos to Deb McDonald for organizing the continental breakfast.

Kudos to all of our tech managers for helping with the set up: Ann Cayer, Tammie DeGrado, Peggy Hannion, and Judy McClanahan

• Kelly Miller provided answers to many of your questions regarding Notebook 10 software.  You can download his Notebook file.

• Tim Pritchard was very busy on Friday.  His morning presentation was on Excel.  He provided an overview of Excel and how to use it in the classroom.  It included a list of Excel activities.  His afternoon session focused on using the "clickers" in the classroom. He provided a template and links for teachers to use with their class.

• Gina Shem provided two sessions on Friday.  During her morning presentation, she demonstrated how to use the various SMART tools that were not covered during the summer training.  You can download her presentation. The afternoon focused on lesson design.  You may download her Notebook file.

• Michelle Kedzierski's presentation on podcasting and creating videos provided teachers with easy to use directions and ideas for their classroom.  The following documents are available to download: Flip ideas, Creating a podcast, and Using Movie Maker.

• Tabitha Swain gave practical ideas for incorporating podcasting and video into daily lessons.  You may download Tabitha's Notebook presentation. 

April has been designated national poetry month.  People participate through reading, book displays and a variety of events.  Here are a few sites to help you support poetry month in your classroom.

• Poets.org contains daily activities for teachers to use with their students.  Also, they have an area of resources for teachers.

• Scholastic's site provides teachers with webcasts of authors talking about poetry.  Students are able to publish their own poetry online.  Also, they have a variety of resources for teachers to use in the classroom. 

• Read, Write, Think contains a calendar of events, classroom activities, podcasts and websites. 

• Teacher Vision has a well organized page devoted to poetry.  There are slideshow activities, lesson plans, podcast ideas, art and music ideas on this site.  Most of the activities are listed by grade level. 

Camp Invention

Camp Invention is a one week enrichment program for students entering grades 1 through 6.  The program's emphasis is on science, math, history, and art while incorporating problem solving skills.  This is our fourth year of hosting this camp.  Any district staff member can register their child/children for camp at a reduced rate.  Palos East will be hosting the camp from June 14th-18th.  Please contact Angela Turner for more information. 

Staying Home for Spring Break...

The following links provide various activities you can do with your family during break.

• About.com has different activities you can do with children of all ages.

• Family Education has "staying home" activities and last minute vacation ideas geared toward families. 

• Disney's Family Travel has ideas for things to do and places to eat in Chicago.  The suggestions are based on the age of your children. 

• Illinois Bureau of Tourism has several suggestions you can do in Chicago.

Step Up to the Plate at your library is a contest developed by the American Library Association and the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  This program is designed to build information literacy skills.  The contest starts April 5, 2010 at your local library.

Useful Online Resources

• Web 20.10, the free online support center from Discovery Education, designed to tune-up your teaching techniques. Get the latest on Internet Safety, Media Literacy, Web 2.0 Tools and Tech Tips. Check out how-to videos for excellent free Web 2.0 tools that will take your teaching a step further.

• C-Span has placed 23 years of videos on their website.  You are able to search their archive for a particular video.  Thanks Gina Shem for sharing this site.

• Tripwire magazine has a great article on the 20 Most Popular Open Source Software.  For example, on piece of software allows you to convert a DVD so you are able to view it on an iPod.  Another site provided by Gina.

Click on the Lady Bug to see our smiles.

Check the ARCHIVES for links from previous Friday FYI pages!

Quotations of the week...

Cluster map of our visitors: