I'm done with report cards, CANTALOUPE!!!, the Levelator and Amblypigid Love

Do report cards take as long for other teachers as they do me? I've now survived 29 grading periods. Multiply that by 25, the average number of students I have in each class. times two for my two classes of students, LA/social studies and math/science. That makes 1,450 report cards. Oh my ****ing *@#%. And here's the thing I didn't mention, it still takes me an hour to do each one. I haven't gotten any faster. I have this unhealthy, obsessive compulsive tendency to read EVERYTHING my students have done. Do other teachers do that? If anyone is reading this, please tell me I have to stop that.

I got my first comment on my blog! I'm still so excited. Thanks, Jason! I went to Jason's blog, who also went to NCCE and made a comment on his site - my first ever comment! He runs a blog called the Tech-Savvy Teacher... news, reviews and how-tos from a teacher-neard in the field. (It's much cooler than this site.) See, I can't even figure out how to make these links live. Maybe I'll try the help button, later. Anyway, if want to check out Jason's blog, here's the url: http://techsavvyteacher.com/ You'll just have to cut and paste until I work this out.

I have to report my most recent very cool tech discovery. Another teacher and I run a tech club at our school. We've been working on making podcasts where students are reading short picture books to help younger students learn to read. They follow along as they listen to the story read aloud. So, Natalie reads Repunzel. She spends weeks and weeks editing, and it sounds pretty good. But she's horrified at how when she says the word, "cantaloupe," it doesn't come out soft, sweet and melony, instead it's CANTALOUPE!!!! She thinks she leaned forward and got too close to the mic. Also, after the alarming CANTALOUPE!!!!, the entire rest of the podcast is lots louder.

So, I remember hearing something about a free software that levels out loud sounds and soft sounds. I find the notes I took while at NCCE and find the name of this software - the Levelator! Isn't that a great name? So, I find it, download it in a flash, drag her podcast in and it literally spits it out with a normal reading of her entire story. The whole thing took 5 minutes, tops. It was amazing. Here's the link if you run into similar troubles. http://www.gigavox.com/levelator

The last thing I have to mention is this highly disturbing video I saw of amblypigids showing affection for other amblypigids. Do you know what amlypigids are? I didn't either. They're also called whip spiders, although, they're not spiders. They're arachnids, but not spiders. They're creepier than spiders. So creepy, I can't bear to put a picture on this blog. You'll just have to copy and paste to see what they look like. They are apparently the only social "spiders" known. Watch the video. http://www.sciencefriday.com/news/0316072/news0316072.html Listen to the podcast and learn that if they are separated, and don't get to caress each other, they soon get depressed.

NCCE sessions -Karen Schmitten and Kelly Hinderer - PNW Journeys of Discovery

This was very cool. NCESD got a grant to develop an amazing site that tells the story of exploring and settling the West using primary sources. The site is packed with resources. Make time to look through this. I can't wait to use this with my students.
www.pacificnorthwestjourneys.org

NCCE sessions - Patricia Fitzgerald - Connecting Kids to Community through Technology

In this session Patricia shared some projects she had done as a tech teacher who meets with kids for short periods of time once or twice a week. She did a very cool intergenerational project to celebrate Valentine's Day with people in a retirement home. The kids made a slide show with old and current pictures of the residents, played old music, made comparisons with today and the 1920s, sang songs and recited poetry. They even had a dance. There were other projects, such as learning what your grandparent did at the age of 9. Students made PowerPoint presentations comparing their lives. The grandparents came in for a lunch and to see their projects. There were some good ideas. The one that occurred to me, which I'm embarrassed never to have thought of before, is to meet with old people in a retirement home and learn about a speicific time in history they've lived through. Interview them, do outside research, write about it, and ask for their input. Doesn't sound as good now that it's in text, but wouldn't that be cool? Studying the Depression? Do some research, take it some old folks, ask what they think about what you've got written. I bet that might get them talking. And it would teach students about using multiple resources, the value of primary resources vs. secondary resources. I'll have to try it.

NCCE sessions - Hall Davidson - Staggeringly Good Things Mixing Google Earth and Media

This was very cool. Davidson taught us how to interlay photographs, video files and audio files on Google Earth. Apparently you can save pmz files of your own Goolgle Earth with unique quilities. Yes, your own Google Earth. He showed an example of someone who had created one of all the places mentioned by William Shakespeare. This guy wrote commenst and linked castles, photos, etc to places mentioned in Shakespeare's writing. It's a great idea, and I'd demo it with maybe some pictures over Spokane, but I know it would eat up another couple of hours and I have to start report cards. Here's a link to Hall Davidson's handout. Then you can figure it out and tell me about it.
http://discoveryeducation.typepad.com/media_matters/