Scavenger Hunt Ideas

Are your kids bored and looking for something to do? Watch this video for a few ideas:



Then, go to http://teachingwithcameras.com or http://technologylessonsforteachers and download the free activity packet.

Veteran's Day Planning

I would presume to think that planning for Veteran's Day (Nov 11, 2009) wasn't on your list of things to do today, but I wanted to make sure you had a chance to sign up for this event and contemplate how your students could benefit from having a real live veteran come to visit their classroom.

Learn more about Take a Vet to school here:

http://www.history.com/content/veterans

Also, while you are thinking about Veteran's Day, I still have that whole packet of activities posted and you might want to check that out too along with all of the other packets still posted there!Be sure to click in the circle by the red arrow to get to the page with the other activity packets.

http://technologylessonsforteachers.com

Playing with Cameras

Here is a fun way to experiment with your digital camera.

I don't know about you, but I am pretty much just a point and shoot kind of girl. I set my camera on Auto and take tons of photos and then sort out the good ones later.

The professionals use special lenses and all kinds of equipment and I have learned that I can use some of those too, even with my point and shoot camera!

Ready for the tip: try shooting some photos through your sunglasses!

Yep, that's right. The pros use polarized lenses, and you can too with your sunglasses! Polarized lenses can deepen the contrast andenhance the colors.

Now, a couple of things to play around with:

1. The color tint of your polarized sunglasses will have an effect on your photos. Some colors cool a photo while others warm up a photo. Try both!

2. Play around with the angle of your sunglasses. Rotate them around until you see something you like in your LCD viewer. Fiddle with it until the image looks right!

3. Keep an eye on the sun's position in the sky. Polarizing filters work best when the sun is to your left or right, and they have no effect if you've got your camera pointed directly toward or away from the sun.

4. Try all kinds of adjustments and combinations.

The hardest part I've found with playing around with these options is that when I bring my photos into the computer I can see all kinds of variations yet I can never remember what I did to each of the photos in case I'd like to try it again! But, I guess that's the power of digital photography and we can just delete the ones we don't like.

Put the camera and some sunglasses into the hands of your children and see what creative enhancements they can make.

Be on the lookout for another tip soon.....

Enjoy the day!

Kathy Cothran

"The Original Gadget Girl"

Stairway to Jail? Do You Have a Guide?

In this short video I am highlighting an important reason why we all need a guide to help us when we get into areas where we aren't real sure of what we are doing. Take a look and leave a comment!

Survival

For many teachers the beginning of June signals "Survival Mode" as we see the end of the school year quickly approaching.

As I work to shut down our library by collecting, shelving, and inventorying all of the books, I am also looking for meaningful projects that the children can do on the computers. What I've been working on last week and this are "Thank You" books for their teachers. Each child makes a page and then we bind them all together into a book for the classroom teacher. These have been such a big hit!

I spend a bit of time getting the kids to focus on specific ways that their teacher has helped them this year so they don't all write how "nice" their teacher is to them. I also try not to help with spelling during this activity so it is an authentic piece of writing. Hence, we get things like, "You are the beast!" or "Thanks for teaching me regroping" or "You are the best tether." And really, the child who thanks her teacher for teaching her how to spell, and mispelling every word in the sentence! These are priceless.

If you'd like to see some examples of this project, click here.

So, as we survive during the next week or so, know that I'll be back soon with lots of ideas to keep you thinking over the summer as we plan for another successful school year together!

Take care,

Kathy Cothran

"The Original Gadget Girl"

I'll Leave the Door Open!

You've probably heard that old commercial for a hotel, "We'll leave the light on for you."

I've been wanting to write to you all weekend and have finally gotten a chance in the calm and quiet of Sunday night.

On Friday morning as we were getting ready to go to school and packing up everything the girls would need for a weekend with their dad, I left the back car door open.....only for a few minutes....

Then I went inside and told Kate to put her guitar in the backseat....while I ran upstairs to the bathroom. I'm taking care of business when I hear a blood-curdling scream from the driveway.

Next I hear Hannah run out to see about the commotion.....

At the top of her lungs (and I'm sure my 85 year old neighbors loved that) she's screaming (and crying, I might add) because when she leaned in to put her guitar in the backseat, there was a squirrel sitting on top of her suitcase staring back at her! Her scream scared the poor squirrel right into the front seat where he couldn't get out from, until Kate ran away from the car and the squirrel made his escape!

Now, you might be wondering how I am going to tie this into technology, or the Mastermind Group, and I've had so much fun trying to figure that out.

First, retelling this story while recording as a podcast or movie would make a spectacular short digital story. Mix in some random photos of squirrels.....add some titles....pose some photos.....Perfect digital story!

Next, in light on having to "leave the door open" I'll also disclose the special, secret link again, for the exclusive way into the Mastermind Group of Educators..... click here.....

So, beware of squirrels that can become the perfect story for writing with voice.

Enjoy the day...

Kathy Cothran

"The Original Gadget Girl"

Book Commercials & More!

I know I told you yesterday that I probably wouldn't write again until I made it to Hawaii due to the stress of preparing for our trip to Hawaii and all of the other events in our life this week, but I had such a good lesson today with my fifth graders that I just had to share it with you tonight.

Kids inspired to do book reports? Have you ever heard of such a thing?

You see, just a couple weeks ago we had an entire new computer lab installed filled with new desktop iMacs. It was like Christmas morning that day....we left school on a Tuesday with a lab filled with ancient old flavored iMacs and returned in the morning to the brand new machines. The energy and excitement from staff and students has been amazing.

Anyway, back to the totally cool lesson from today. I gathered a collection of my favorite picture books and had fifth graders spontaneously make "Book Commercials." Each movie needed to have an introduction, a summary, a lesson or message learned, and reasons people might want to read the book. Some students asked to use the book they've just finished and others chose a picture book. We used iMovie and the built-in cameras and almost all students were done within the 45 minutes of work time. Our only issue was that by using the built-in microphones and all students working at once, there is a lot of background noise in the recordings.

The technical aspects included adding titles, text, video of their book commercial, adding music during the intro and outro when the titles and credits are rolling and transitions.... Great success and enthusiasm for book reports! Better yet, this has inspired their teachers to try a book report in this manner next month!

I plan to gather a couple tomorrow so I can work to post them on the Mastermind site while I am in Hawaii! I'll let you know when I have some posted.

Hopefully the rest of your week is great.....even with the full moon.

Some of you wanted more information about how the Easter date is calculated (which does rely upon the full moon, which means the week before Easter will always be influenced by the moon), so click here for the article I wrote on the topic.

Another funny thing I can report about this Gadget Girl is how I managed to find babysitters for our dwarf hamsters by using Facebook tonight! I was really stumped about how I was going to leave them for over a week when I decided to try Facebook....and found multiple babysitters within minutes! Buddy & Snickers probably won't know what to do with all of the attention they'll get this next week!

And, finally, just another example of how kids integrate what they learn at school with their

playing.....Hannah had all of her Webkinz pets out and she's slowly moving them from one room to the next. Then she explains to me how they all live on a farm that makes them work, so one of the animals is acting like Harriet Tubman and moving the animals to safety....just like on the Underground Railroad! Never would I have expected that explanation of her play tonight.

Made me realize I should ask her more often about what she is playing and why.

Something to think about....

Happy Easter.....

Kathy Cothran

"The Original Gadget Girl"