Taking a deep breath

Because sometimes you have to do that.

Instead of yelling and screaming about Google Team Edition and how it has corrupted some of my users’ accounts, I’ll share some links to projects happening around school:

8th
grade history students researched Union and Confederate soldiers’ lives
during the Civil War and wrote a poem as if a
soldier or a family member affected by the war. They used
JamStudio to actually create the music (having to use as authentic
instruments and beat as possible), then used Audacity to record their
own lyrics.Here are two examples:
http://tinyurl.com/2ys798
http://tinyurl.com/2fbhfr

Upper School history students rap!
http://tinyurl.com/ywam9d

Math screencasts for students to use in class and at home:
http://tinyurl.com/2p3mv4
 

And sixth-grade French and Spanish students are working on public service announcements using Audacity:
http://tinyurl.com/2cb4m4

Today we are spending the day uploading comments to the Many Voices Darfur blog, a student blog created my Mr. Mayo and Wendy Drexler. Though one teacher asked students to do this as a class assignment, other students are spontaneously joining in today.

My eyes are burning from burying my head in My Google Reader this week. I am definitely going to try this and then this.

Finally, I am so looking forward to having Dr. Gardner Campbell come speak to us (inspire us) next month. A brilliant English professor at the University of Mary Washington, he is a
leading advocate of using web 2.0 (why do I hate that word and love the concept?) to change the face of
teaching and learning. If you haven’t heard any of his podcasts, you should visit his page.

I’ll bet he wouldn’t
mind if I Ustreamed it to you all. And maybe I could talk one of my newest Twittering colleagues to manage the back channel chat.

Breathe…………….