On September 10th at precisely 7am I will be on my computer! How do I know what I’ll be doing at that precise day and time? Sign up for our district-wide professional development (to be held in November) begins. I was so excited to see on particular selection - Flattening World & Flat Classrooms. The presenter? David Warlick! I am looking forward to this workshop as it definitely applies to my thesis. More to come.

During this summer, I have been working on an easily-accesible listing of resources for teachers and students. I have created Teacher Tech Tools on PB Wiki. I will continue to update as I come across great resources, (which are usually supplied from the many edubloggers that I follow through Bloglines.

There is another blogging meme taking place in the blogosphere and I was tagged by Colleen from Math Playground.First, the rules:
1. Post these rules before you give your facts.
2. List 8 random facts about yourself.
3. At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them.
4. Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged. 

OK So here it goes:

1.       I was born in Wichita, Kansas but moved to Ohio and then Michigan. I have not been back to Kansas since 1969.

2.      I played the guitar and drums as I was growing up. I was the only female drummer in high school.

3.      I used to have a long hair calico cat named Brandi Alexander, which was named after an alcoholic drink. When I named the cat I was VERY underage and had just heard the name of the drink from an adult.

4.      My dog, Bailey, is a cow. (Actually, she is the very large pup -Chocolate Lab, and towers over her mom, Snickers.)

5.      I began teaching in an elementary school later in life. I was still in college while my kids were young.

6.      I raise butterflies, and I actually like creepy crawlies like Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches and Giant Millipedes (which I have in my classroom).

7.      Although I have traveled quite a bit, my dream place of visiting the Monarch Sanctuaries in Mexico, has never occurred…yet.

8.      I am addicted to my coffee drink-6 shots espresso, chocolate, caramel, and hazelnut over ice! (It’s like a liquid Snickers bar!)

So many bloggers have already been tagged, so I will tag only a few.

Jim Dornberg, Jim Wenzloff, Kevin Hodgson, Steve Dembo, Ben Rimes, Kevin Jarrett,

Last week, school was closed for two days due to sub-zero temperatures. This week, we have been closed for two days again due to the blizzard that has hit our area. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love an extra day off just as much as the next teacher. I have to admit, I am going a little stir crazy. I spent most of today trying to figure out a way to do an enhanced podcast using Windows.  The first few people that I approached about this subject had the same answer. “Get a Mac!” I do all of the school’s podcasts on the district-issued laptop (Gateway) so getting a Mac right now is not the solution.I think I may have found a way around this issue but it will be more like a slide show with audio. I’m going to have the kids use Microsoft PhotoStory, (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx).

I won’t be able to insert chapters and it probably won’t be viewable on an iPod but until I find out how to make those changes, this may have to do. If any of you can lend a hand to my problem, I’d appreciate it greatly.

Until then, enjoy a couple of pictures that I took from my deck. Yes, that is a giant frog in my backyard! (Don’t ask!)

Well, my students are definitely keeping me on my toes. I have actually 3 groups/projects that are keeping me busy.

First, my sixth graders are finishing up their digital stories. I have to say the majority of them are so excited that they’ve been practicing on Movie Maker 2 at home and then trying out and teaching their fellow classmates the new things they’ve learned. We will be premiering their stories by the end of the week. I’m thinking of doing it up and having a red carpet and popcorn.

Secondly, my students dance mat vending business has had two weeks of success ~ they’ve sold their alotted tickets for both weeks and they are learning that they must ‘talk up’ their business. They have become very protective over the Playstation 2 consoles, games, and dance mats. They will not tolerate any horse play. It’s nice to see a hard-working group taking this seriously. As one student said, “If we mess this up, we may never get another chance to play video games in school again!”  I wonder if any of them realize that this is more than just playing video games? It’s about the physical activity and exercise and the reading and math skills that are being develop from tracking the arrows and following the pattern of the arrows. Well, I’m sure that will come soon enough.

Lastly, I am going crazy preparing my group of broadcasters to present at out state capitol building in Lansing, Michigan. On November 14th, our broadcast group, (seven students) will be presenting at the AT&T/MACUL Student Technology Showcase. They begun broadcasting a weekly news show and streaming it into the classrooms. They write the scripts, film and edit the video, and then create the final project. What an amazing group. I am excited but nervous.

On a final note, I have made a connection with a fantastic group that has just begun podcasting. YouthRadio

<a href=”http://www.technorati.com/claim/em7gzvqnf” rel=”me”>Technorati Profile</a>

I have been working with a group of sixth graders in producing their own school broadcast. This broadcast will include announcements of school activities, sports that the students are involved in, and other fun things that are happening in school. Today was the premiere of our first broadcast! The kids were so excited. They worked hard to write the scripts and film, edit, and produce this 3 1/2 minute episode. I was impressed at how fast these kids learned some techniques in filming and how to create their show using Windows Movie Maker.(Within one week.) After the streaming of this broadcast into the classrooms, the group began discussing and critiquing the different parts. They began making plans on how to make next week’s episode better. I do believe there was some learning taking place!

The other project that another group of sixth graders is working on is running a vending business using dance mats and Dance Revolution games (Playstation 2). First, the group thinks it’s cool to play a video game at school but the conversation has gone much deeper than that. The group started discussing the fact that kids don’t exercise or play outside very much. What better exercise than 15 minutes on a dance mat. (It definitely wears me out but maybe that’s because I’m old!)  The kids are setting up this business during school hours and plan on using the proceeds towards two service-learning projects at our school.

This has been a fantastic start to the school year with these two projects. The kids are excited about school and about learning. They are learning how to critique themselves and are having true discussions on how to make projects better. It’s times like this I love being a teacher!

You can check out a few of my photos from Alaska at http://www.flickr.com/photos/clykowski/

I know I haven’t been as faithful in blogging as I had hoped to be. Life seems to happen Tomorrow morning I am leaving on a much needed vacation with a tall, dark, and handsome stranger I vaguely recognize as my husband. If you thought I was busy, you apparently haven’t met my husband ~ mechanical engineer by day, volunteer firefighter by night. We will be gone for ten glorious days. We are headed north~to Alaska! During our trip we will be visiting Juneau, Skagway, and the Icy Strait region. We have plans to pan for gold and whale watch, as well as visiting a musher’s camp and do some dogsledding! For years I have taught a unit on the Iditarod to my class. After all these years of following mushers along the trail, having a musher visit our class with sled dogs, and having an Iditarod vet visit our class, I will finally get to actually experience dogsledding myself! I am so psyched! Well, until I return!