St. Patrick's Day History with Animoto...

Today I will be modeling how to use www.animoto.com to tell a story, in this case the history of St. Patrick's Day. This activity encourages creativity, research, expression and computer skills. Students research to gather facts and images then must choose their words wisely because text characters are limited! Using Animoto to complete this project achieves the highest level of Bloom's as students create a project to share with classmates, friends and family.

Here is the sample I showed the students before they launched into their activity:

Educational Resources...

Click the picture to visit some of my favorite sites:



Enjoy!

Create your own Webmix at Symbaloo.

Seeing red...

Recently our school district watched the video Seeing Red Cars and some administrators have implemented the theory a little better than most. I have not had the formal training but through some research have come to understand the message behind the video: You get more of what you focus on. To relate that to the education environment, if a particular student begins to display behaviors that are not conducive to the learning environment each new day the teacher expects the same no matter the effort displayed by the child. Once the mindset of the teacher has been established, the student lives and acts accordingly.

My son is a red car. He always has been in the eyes of his teachers because he isn't a conformist and doesn't "play" school well. He spends too much time outside of the box searching for unique solutions to problems. Because of this I propose Andrew is a yellow car. Yellow cars are unique, appealing and stand out. You don't come across yellow cars as often and they are easy to spot.

I try to objectively analyze Andrew's behavior and academic performance from the perspective of a parent and educator. I see something in Andrew I don't ever want to lose: creativity, spirit, love of learning, inquisitiveness, courage, bravery, problem solving skills, caring, strong character and much more. He wants to learn, he wants to excel; he wants to be that butterfly escaping from the cacoon free to fly and discover the world. How can we accomplish this task as parents and educators? I think Andrew said it best during our morning run when we were about 3/4 of the way finished our route he said, "Mom, would it be okay if I go at my own pace now?" Sure I said as I watched him take off...

Ana & Mia: Did you know?

When your tween or teen daughter starts talking about Ana and Mia she isn't talking about her friends or the cool girls at school. She is talking about anorexia and bulimia. Google Ana and Mia and you will be surprised the number of results you get and the images of "thinspiration." Thinspiration provides pictures of thin girls to inspire and motivate your tween or teen to get super skinny. So, the first step of being a parent of a young girl is knowing the terminology.

Check out Common Sense Media's tips, articles and video by clicking here.