The next long weekend is nearly upon us, and that means it's time to take a look at how the topic can be approached in class.  If you're looking for some of theose end-of-the-day/fill-in activities to use this week, fear no more.  I've found a short list for both the Canadian and American version of the holiday. For those of us here in Canada, check out the following resources (albeit scarce resources) regarding Victoria Day:

SMART Exchange -- a few SMART Notebook activities that are applicable.

Victoria Day website -- not super interactive, but a quick overview of what the holiday is all about.

And for our southern neighbours, here's a list of some activities for Memorial Day:

SMART Exchange -- a list of applicable Notebook and Response activities.

Interactive Timeline that has been embedded in the Orange County Register

History Channel -- you can always rely on these guys for bringing you a variety of excellent content: videos, info, etc.

Happy Victoria Day/Memorial Day/Whatever other day other continents observe this week! In short: happy May long weekend!

Vanessa

A long, long time ago, in a school division far, far away, I was a member of a class whom took Calculus with a teacher and 10 students in the room, but 5 other students in 2 other towns.  The precursor to videoconferencing, it was a PictureTel unit that allowed us to interact with the other students, see their work and have them see what was being demonstrated on the board.  We chuckle about it now, as it seems a bit prehistoric -- we had a 20 inch TV (tube, of course) to see the students on, the entire unit was probably on the fritz just as often as it was working and the camera would zoom into the loudest noise in the room...so any outburst of laughter, and you were the embarrassed star of the show!

Fast forward approximately 6 years, and as a teacher, I was a member of a group piloting the use of a full videoconferencing suite at the school I was teaching at.  Boy, was it ever slick in comparision to what we'd used less than a decade earlier!  The focus of it's use had also changed: we were not primarily using it to deliver or receive curriculum, but rather to broaden our interaction and collaboration with peers and experts.

But where to find said experts and peers? There are a couple of sites that list videoconferencing opportunities, or just contacts that you can make to set up a VC on your own.

VC Alberta -- the original site set up to facilitate connections, it still houses a list of VC suites in K-12 around Alberta

2Learn2Gether -- branched out from the original VC Alberta, this is a current place to find upcoming VC opportunities, pd seminars, forums and events.

iCCAN -- connects nearly 60 communities in Alberta, with a searchable list of current sites.

These are just some available specifically in Alberta.  Of course, there are numerous other ones out there with links to areas beyond Alberta's borders.  Some are free, some cost money.  Personally, I'd highly recommend Social Studies teachers checking out Global Nomads Group (GNG) for some great VCs with a global focus.  Enjoy connecting, talking and brainstorming with people outside of your classroom!

Vanessa

Add this to the "things I didn't know existed, but are so simple I should have" list.

Google Scholar is exactly what it sounds like - a search engine for super scholastic smarty pants articles.  Search journals, theses, books, court documents, and other items that Google deems to be scholarly, and pull up results that are both digital in nature found online as well as paper copies found in various libraries.  Use the advanced features for even more fun, such as sorting by date, showing citations (that can be imported into biblography creation software such as RefWorks) or differentiate between articles and legal documents.  Turn on the library links to show results for up to 5 libraries in your area.

If nothing else, I feel that this feature weeds out results containing misinformation when a frustrated student is looking for reliable online sources.  

Vanessa

Mother's Day is fast approaching and once again, millions of children in elementary classrooms will be busy preparing some cute gift to give to their Moms.  And while I adore these handmade treasures, I thought that maybe I could offer some tech-based alternatives to the traditional "handprint with a poem" art project.  Because, you know, you're 21st century teachers, or maybe you're just looking to cover some ICT outcomes before the end of the school year!

Here are my top 5 classroom activites utilizing technology that still produce a wonderful keepsake!

1. A Wordle All About Mom

  - Check out the Wordle website to create an interesting and fun visual representation of Mom's best characteristics.  The more you type in a word, the larger it will appear in the finished product.  Bonus tip: check out my blog post on Word Mosaic to make your wordle even more interesting.

2. Why I Love You Video

  - Ok, admittedly this one will take a little bit of blood, sweat and tears, and a whole lot of adult guidance depending on the age of your students.  But really, in this day and age of free or easily accessible video editors combined with a generation of kids who knew how to turn on the computer before they were potty trained, it shouldn't be too onerous.  All you'll need is a video recording device -- I recommend a flip camera or even just your iPhone 4 -- and some creative questioning.  Set up an interview station with some class-generated questions/prompts ("my favourite thing about my mom is..."), and capture their cuteness on video.  Use iMovie, Quicktime or even an online editor to edit the video...or leave the raw footage, bloopers and all! To share with Mom, choose a private setting on YouTube and email the link.

3. Photo Collage

  - This one can be as complex or as easy as is appropriate for the age group you work with.  Have students take pictures of things that remind them of Mom, items that they think she'll like, or bring digital copies of them with Mom from home.  Maybe you want to bypass the issue of working with actual pictures, and instead have them find images online.  Whatever the case, once the pictures are in hand, have the students put them together either in one page collage using an online program such as Photovisi or set the images to music, perhaps using Animoto.

4. Design your own card

  - Not keen to have your students roaming about the internet? Stick to an age-old goodie: hand made cards.  Utilize templates in Microsoft Word to have students design their own Mother's Day card.  Take advantage of easy to use clipart galleries or have them create a basic template on the computer, then colour in their creations once they've gone to the presses.

5. Create a story about Mom

  - For your slightly older students, check out some great online story creators to let them author a story all about Mom! Check out Storybird or Little Write Brain for a free online versions, or Tikatok for one that you can purchase a hard copy of their final creation.

Enjoy the creative process, and most importantly, don't forget to wish your Mom a very Happy Mother's Day this Sunday!!

Vanessa

It's the start of May which means a few things in education: 1. The end of the school year is in sight 2. The end of the school year is in sight so students start to get a bit antsy.

Rather than pump out a long winded blog post today (especially considering the novel I wrote in Tuesday's column), I thought I'd keep it light and give you all a little bit of a chuckle.

You're welcome.

School Cartoon by Andertoons

School Cartoon by Andertoons

Meeting Cartoon by Andertoons