The Beach Boys - TV Show Medley - April 1965

A favorite early "rock" group of the class is The Beach Boys.

All My Lovin'- The Beatles- Ed Sullivan

I remember The Beatles like this. I remember watching them on the Ed Sullivan show. I was even part of their fan club and received magazines about them. Is this how you remember The Beatles?

Buddy Holly - That ll Be the Day

Another music legend...How does this music compare to today's "rock" music?

Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock (Music Video)

This summer, 7th graders in first period "music" as their non-fiction study. You know...legends like Billie Holiday, Buddy Holly, Elvis, and the Beatles.

Voice Threads

I came across a new technology today called Voice Threads. It has lots of possibilities in the classroom and is free to educators.I found the set-up to be extremely easy and the html code for embedding the thread into a blog is given in a large and small viewing size.Look below for an example, Moments with Maniac Magee.

You can click on my photo to the left to hear my voice. You can zoom in on the book cover by clicking on it.

Armstrong Retreat

Dear Fellow Armstrong Educators,
Welcome to the Blogosphere - a part of the Web 2.0 known as the read/write web. The use of Weblogs is now exploding; blogs are being used in corporations, government, the media and among private citizens. Educators need to understand their importance as information sources and how to safely become and have students become part of this culture. Technorati.com, a search engine that monitors blogs, tracked more than 15.9 million Weblogs last August, and found that the number had doubled in six months. (Now there are more than 50 million blogs!) Approximately 80,000 blogs are created worldwide each day, which translates to a new blog every second. The Pew Internet & American Life Project found further that blog readership now exceeds 27 percent of all Internet users, and 12 percent of users have posted comments. So how do we use blogs in an educational setting?

One way is for us to first become bloggers. I invite you to PBS.org's Media Infusion. This month I am their guest moderator. Read through the blog, check out the resource links, and add a comment. Be sure to hit the refresh button so you can watch your comment and those of others as they are added.

If you have any remaining time, check out the "Read what you need" section for past Media Infusion blogs.

Happy Blogging...

Manning Family PSA

This is an example of a video added to a blog. This is one of my favorite Public Service Announcements for reading.

Adding Video to a Blog

In answer to a question about adding video...
I assume that if you are using blogger, then you have a google account. This account will allow you to upload video from GoogleVideo or YouTube. You can also upload your own video to YouTube and then to your account. Adding your video to your blog is as simple as 1-2-3, so they say. I have not tried this yet.
1. Upload the video to YouTube.
2. Find the embed code for the uploaded video, and copy it.
3. Paste the copied code into your blog.
I was able to upload a video by searching google video, finding an appropriate video, and then clicking on the post video button under the video. There will be several questions that guide you to selecting the blog. Then the video is uploaded very quickly. Good luck!

Not quite a blog, but another technology to try...

My class is currently part of an Egg Roll project with Technospud. To be part of this project, you must register to be part of a Google group. I encourage you to to get your students involved in yet another technology. Let me know if you join.

Welcome, New Blogger!

Wow, we have our first new blogger from the session. Bridget has created her third grade blog at spcsthirdgrade.blogspot.com
Is anyone else planning to try it? Nancy, are you joining us?

Welcome to "The Power of Blog."

You just attended the session on using blogs in education. Now you are considering setting up your own blogging experience. Before you do that, you may want to try blogging with others who are also considering blogging or who have used blogs in their classroom.

This blog will serve as a forum for:

• questions,
  
• discussions,
  
• sharing ideas,
• and for posting your blog's URL and purpose, so others may join you.

Also note the resources and links listed in the sidebar.

My First Blog

About a year ago, I decided to create a blog as a way for my first grade students to communicate with author, Ron Hirschi, who had begun sending us sea creature mysteries. You can see this blog at http://authorvisit.blogspot.com.

What began as a simple communication tool soon developed into so much more.The blog served as documentation of our adventures and eventually became a basis of a book the students wrote. Students were eager to research by reading expository texts and then writing drafts for their blogging times at the computer, even during their recess time. The blog had participation from students, teachers, parents, and grandparents in our own town and in other parts of the world as close as Ohio and as far away as Australia. A highlight for us was when David Sharos, a reporter, from the Chicago Tribune called because he had heard about our blog. He interviewed me about our blogging efforts and a photographer came to take photos of the students in action. But the capstone was the school visit made by Ron Hirschi!