Did you enjoy the Google Search Story during the Super Bowl.  Google has been making these for years, check out some more here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SearchStories

My 4/5 GT students all have their own blogs, which can be found on the sidebar of my classroom blog, and they are all extremely proud of their blogs and get visitors and comments from students all across the country.  Ok, so you get the picture: my students blog and THEY LIKE IT!

Well, we recently completed an interactive simulation on establishing a colony.  This simulation lasted three weeks,  almost everyday for 15-40 minutes, depending on the day.  My kids loved this simulation and were excited to find out which colony had the most wealth units and was to be declared “Mr Atkinson’s Most Successful Colony of 2010.”  Of course I painstakingly deliberated over what I could do to celebrate this, and since my school can’t use food as any type of award I had to think outside the box.  That’s when it came to me…

Badges and Certificates!

I decided to create a badge that the winners had the privilege of displaying on their blog, as well as give them a paper certificate to be able to hang at home.  This, to my surprise was a huge hit!

Here is a picture of the badge I created on Adobe Illustrator:

I like the idea of using badges to promote healthy competition and a sense of pride with certain competitive projects.  I downloaded the vector for the badge here:  Web 2.0 Badge Vectors

Once I created the badge to be what I wanted it to I stored it in the public folder of my Dropbox and used an image embed script to add it to a “text” widget in Edublogs on each of the winning students blog sidebar.

In conclusion I like the idea and plan on expanding on it more in the future!

Official Google Docs Blog: A thumbnail is worth about one hundred words

Well, I finally sat down tonight to catch up on some feed reading, while reading I discovered this morsel from Google!  A Docs help page for students!  So cool!

” Welcome to the Docs for students page! On this page, we’ll be
demonstrating how Google Docs can be used by many students for various
classes and interests. We’ll show you real examples of how useful docs
can be in your personal and academic life.”
 
Docs for students – Google Docs Help

After attending the Google Teacher Academy this past summer I wanted to try to get more teachers in our district discovering the power of using Google Apps for Ed.  Fortunately I have been blessed to work in Carmel with a tech department willing to look openly at all technological opportunities for students, and this past week I received the good news that we would expand our Google Apps pilot. 

Carmel is a district of over 15,000 students, at this point we currently have 475 Google Apps users, and we started the pilot in my 4/5 GT room this past September.  Wow!  Super growth!

 We will be expanding to a few classes in the Jr. Highs and High School.  Our numbers of users will increase, and I am excited to get feedback from the upper grades!  Below is my presentation I used to quickly introduce G’Apps to school tech coordinators and librarians today:

If you are an elementary teacher, and you don’t subscribe to Reading Rockets RSS…Please do!  They have great content that can easily be shared with parents of your students.  I came accross two post tonight that caught my attention:

Use a PEER When You Read Aloud

How to Increase Higher Order Thinking

One of my favorite poems!  Have a great 2010!

If – By Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling “if” Poem Animation

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

I came across this video today and was amazed!  I’m sure McKenzie could stomp Mr. A in a typing contest. 

Whiz Kid Typist

Many of my students are hunt and peck typist and with no formal training until they hit the Middle School I think that it would be appropriate to learn proper technique on their own.  Below are some websites where kids can go to learn and practice typing skills.

http://www.typingweb.com/
http://play.typeracer.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/
http://keypractice.pbworks.com/Keyboarding-Links
http://www.techconnect.glencoe.com/techconnect/keyboarding/start.htm

I will update more later…

http://www.communitywalk.com/united_states_of_america/what_are_the_odds_of_a_white_christmas/map/449720

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, check out the probability of snow on December 25th.  Think MATH!