I just discovered a very cool site ... wanna play? It's called animoto, and it's a site that allows you to go beyond what a slide show does. 

I was hoping you'll be able to see my teeny tiny tot on here. But my web builder won't let me post it. :( There are example videos on the site, though, that should give you a good idea of what you could expect with your own pictures.

Just to try it out, I put in pictures of my daughter. I found music for my presentation on a site called jamendo, which has free music to download. The site takes what you give it, analyzes the music and photos, and spits out an amazing little show at the end.

This could be a very nice way to display photos from a field trip or a unit. What do you think?

So I have been working on a grant recently with a local college, and my specific grant was to work on background knowledge for ELLs.

Do you have this situation too? I have so many students who don't have enough language to wrap their heads around the text they are able to decode. And sometimes--as in the case of one third-grader last year--it's just a matter of letting the student get  a glimpse of video showing context. 

I had one student who decoded a pretty tough text on the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens almost flawlessly. But as soon as I started asking questions, we ran into all sorts of shoulder shrugs.

I used this scenario to win a grant to get United Streaming into our school. You can sign up for a 30-day trial period to see if it's right for you. Really cool stuff, but also, very expensive. And my grant was to not only help change teacher training at the college but to get teachers at my school to use it.

Talk about herding cats! Most teachers from the baby boom generation, not that my fellow gen-Xers are much better, would rather that the librarian do all that "tech stuff" for them.

 But here's the upshot: There are some really great resources out there if you just have the ingenuity to find a way to use them. YouTube is a great place to start. 

So you don't have access to YouTube at school? Yeah, I don't either. It would be nice if the IT guys would be able to differentiate teacher/student logons, but it hasn't happened yet. So you can use CatchYouTube or Media Converter--and I'm sure there are others out there--to grab those videos and put them on a flash drive so you can use them later.

Another really cool thing I've found is pocket projectors. They run in the $300-$500 range, but they look so cool! And you would need speakers, but they would make it oh so much easier to carry technology into technology-lacking classrooms. Here's what I found on Amazon...

My next hurdle: How to get ELLs to understand science models. I can't believe testmakers are looking for such metaphorical thought! Any suggestions?

I was checking out the Department of Education blog and found out that the Bush administration has just launched a new site to help people learn English. 

Straight from the blog's mouth: "America's limited-English adults will now have readily available materials to improve their literacy and help them become more productive workers, better parents, engaged community members and active citizens," said Troy Justesen, assistant secretary for the Office of Vocational and Adult Education.

Launch of the site completes one of the goals in President Bush's Aug. 10, 2007, announcement of 26 immigration reforms that his Administration would pursue within existing law -- including the assimilation of new citizens and helping immigrants learn English to expand their opportunities in America. Recognizing that "[k]nowledge of English is the most important component of assimilation" and "an investment in tools to help new Americans learn English will be repaid many times over," the Administration pledged to launch a free, Web-based portal to help immigrants learn English.

So I went to the site, http://www.USALearns.org, and I'm sort of wondering who their target audience is. The site uses dual Spanish and English, so if you are a literate Spanish speaker, you're all set to learn English. But for those people who don't speak Spanish, are not literate, and don't know their way around a computer, I wonder how those people will access this site. I mean, if immigrants could read enough to access the site, they wouldn't need much help in learning either.

So here it is. Pass it on if you think it will help. I kind of think that despite the developers' attempts to cover myriad topics, it misses the mark. 

Does Bush hope this will build his legacy???

During parent teacher conferences yesterday, I met a woman who spoke only French and Kirundi. She had been waiting for hours for a translator to take her home. And, unfortunately, I've not studied French since 1994. One of the few things I remember how to say is Je ne parle pas le langue--I don't speak the language.

I knew she was waiting for a ride home, so in the hopes of giving her a ride, I asked in my broken French for her address. She could not write it down, and I could not understand what she was saying. She didn't understand me either.

So I went back to one of my old favorite sites: babelfish altavista. I can read French. I just don't have the words in my head. I was able to type my simple sentences in using English, tell the site what language I was translating from and to, and got back simple sentences in French. And Voila! We were able to communicate. 

For those of you with parent-teacher conferences coming up, this could be a handy site to bookmark if you don't have access to a translator. 

Happy communicating!

I told myself that I would post weekly, but stepping into the president slot of this organization did take a bit of my time. 

I hope that those of you who went to the conference saw the results of our work. We've been trying to make the whole process go a bit more smoothly... Those presenters at the conference who had links or materials they wanted to pass on have their things posted here. And some of the board members who got a chance to go to some sessions wrote up wrap-ups here. See what you missed.

The biggest news to come out of what we've been working on is that we will not be having a tri-state spring conference. Instead, the state reps in each state will be in charge of setting up a meeting that addresses the needs of their area. 

New Hampshire has a jump on all of us... They are looking at having an event the first weekend of May, focusing on low-incidence schools. 

If you have a preference on dates or topics, you should get in touch with your state reps as soon as possible. Their contact information is here. I know that Maine is planning on meeting during the first couple of weeks of December, so plans are in the making. Be part of it!

Probably during winter break, I'll get a chance to post photos and more information about our previous conference, as well as our local conferences coming up, as the information rolls in.

Thanks so much for stopping by. We'd love to have your voices more a part of our group. Drop us a line and let us help serve you better!