Google maps

I had mentioned earlier that I had created personal maps for my genealogy and thought they were gone. I just needed to sign in with a different account!!! Why didn't I think of that?

Williams and Morgan Family in Wales

Family in Sharon, PA

Christmas Greetings...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Polar Express

This is my PTA Christmas program. The fourth graders were awesome! Any mistakes made were mostly mine.

First Snowfall by Cayusa

State Capitals

A Listening Map!!!!!

Conducting with Annotations.

Something to think about....

google alerts!

Just letting you know it works. Since I posted my previous blog about CC Elmore, I received a google alert to let me know of its existence. Awesome!

And now to genealogy

I was viewing the post of Jennifer and noticed The Founding Documents link. I listened for a bit to The Farewell Address of George Washington. My ggg grandfather, Christopher Columbus Elmore, was born in 1790 in North Carolina. This is as far back as I can carry my Elmore line. He was 6 years old when that address was made. Did his family talk like that? When did we stop having so many words and so many eloquent words? My husband's line can be traced back to Robert Middleton and Mary Wheeler in Maryland, his 7th g grandparents. Over time they went from Maryland to Georgia to Mississippi to Arkansas to Texas.

My Elmore line goes from North Carolina to Tennessee to Illinois to Missouri to Texas. Where did we lose that love for so many words, or is it too many words? We Texans so seem to shorten words....

Summing Up 23 Things

My favorite things....
google reader, google everything
flickr
embedding videos
random books from librarything gadget (I look at the list sometimes and say, "I have that?")
creative commons
tada lists
delicious

least favorite thing....
Thing #9...I think it took me awhile to understand what to do. Maybe there are too many different types of things to do?

I will definitely keep exploring and learning. I've always been an explorer.

I was surprised at how much there was out there, that I didn't know about. I probably wouldn't have taken the time for most of it on my own, but I'm glad I did.

I thought that now that I'm done, I would go back and explore some things I missed, but then you led us to #68 Things!!! I have plenty to keep me busy!

I plan to keep blogging also, but will anyone be reading? I guess I'll see.

Addicted to Smilebox

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Thanksgiving Wishes

Make a Smilebox greeting

Thing #23

About the MISD23 Things Ning Network, I left a comment for 2 or 3 members, uploaded 9 photos, added the Ning badge to my blog, and added the badge that should have my pictures, but it says I don't have any, although I can see them there, and added the other badge instead.

I explored several things in Classroom 2.0 including some music ones. I didn't see any that pertain to what I do in elementary music, but I'm sure there could be in the future. It's a great resource, but I felt a bit overwhelmed.

While looking at the members profiles I found Nancy Bosch and her blog, A Not So Different Place, which I put in my google reader. From her list of favorite websites I found CSI: Cemetery Scene Investigation. I know you're thinking, "How does she keep getting back to genealogy when her goal for this class is education?" I don't know!!! But this website is full of history, preservation techniques, and even technology!

Some day I may get more involved with social networking either educationally or personally, but now I just prefer to observe.

Thing #22

I already have a Myspace Account and a Facebook account. I'm not sure if you can see those pages if you're not me, but if not, someone will let me know....

I have no clue why I first got the myspace account. Maybe a friend had one. I don't know, but I hardly ever look at it. My daughter had to help me with the background page, but now that I've done it on my own with my blog, I get that. Now that I've gone back to it. it's not very attractive, so when she gets home we're going to work on that. She's been on myspace for awhile now. She's about to be 25. I did notice how much she blogs on it with philosophical ideas, not just checking in on her friends, which is good, too. I've learned a lot about her thoughts by reading her blog. It's sometimes easier to write about it than talk about it. But then I think, she's spent that much time doing that? They must read each other's thoughts, because they comment back.

She finds pictures of friends she had as a child and it's interesting to see how they've changed, and how their parents have changed.

I had a young friend at school say, "You're ruining it for us!" meaning she likes it just being her age group. Another friend said that she had an agreement with her daughter that "they" would not be friends, but then she started noticing that her adult friends were her daughter's friends, so why not her? I guess it's all about personal "space."

I think I like Facebook better because it doesn't seem so cluttered and busy. I probably have more friends my age there as well. As soon as I joined, I found a friend from college and have since had lunch with him and his wife (went to college with her also.) A friend from high school who now lives in Arkansas found me as well, along with a teacher that formerly moved from Mesquite. It's delightful finding old friends and seeing how they and their families have changed. I really don't get all the little things people send you like flair, presents, buttons.....

It's good to be aware of what our students are doing and what it means. It's also helpful in teaching them to be smart and safe and to be aware that what they post can be found by the wrong people, or misinterpreted.

I can't think of an educational application for these sites, but I'm sure there probably is one I haven't thought of yet.

Teachers are already great collaborators. How far could they go with social networking?

Musical Savant

Watch CBS Videos Online

Thing #20

Google docs is a great tool. I used a calendar template to create a practice calendar for my upcoming December PTA program to share with the 4th grade teachers whose students are involved. I tried sending it to myself first, and it went to postini. I discovered how to upload it as a web page. I'll check that at school to see if it works.

I uploaded several other Word documents that a friend had given me. I'll try revising them to fit my purposes there. I also shared them with her. She will need a few lessons, but she will find this tool a great way to share the many files that she has.

It seems endless to me the capabilities this has. Not only could you save your files here so that you can access them from anywhere, but it would be so much easier to have others work with you on ideas. For example, instead of my friend, Darla, bringing her files to share with me on cd, she could just post them. This would have saved a cd, and storage space on my computer. Teachers could create lessons, presentations, calendars, anything....to share with others. Teachers are usually such givers anyway when it comes to teaching ideas.

If students had an email address as well, the teacher could post the assignment, the student could complete it, save it under a different name and sharing back. (I guess that's possible.)

I did upload another spreadsheet document that had lines drawn on it, and the lines didn't transfer.

Thing #18 revisited - YouTube

Eva Cassidy was an amazing singer. I found this rendition of her singing "Over the Rainbow". She died tragically at the age of 33 from melanoma cancer.

Thing #7d

There is no 7d, but I had to tell you about this. I found it in Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter. Google has added 110 Years of Life Magazine Online, amazing for educators and family historians.

Thing #7c

I found an interesting article from the Music Teacher's Helper about recording your students so they can listen to themselves. She has piano students, but I have found this is helpful in the elementary classroom as well. You try to point out to your students how to make it more musical, but nothing says it better than hearing it for themselves, when they are not busy performing.

Gotta love this video from Infinite Thinking Machine!

Smilebox

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Thing #21

Google Maps - I use them all the time for traveling from one place to another.

Google Earth - One of my favorites. I have located places where my Welsh ancestors have lived and used pushpins to mark those sights, comparing distance, topography, etc. Those Welsh ancestors migrated to Pennsylvania and I had all the important locations pinpointed before we took our summer trip to PA. Unfortunately, I think all of these things are saved on the computer you are working on and are not web-based and that computer was reimaged, and so I will have to do that all over.

I just read on one of my genealogy blogs that Google Earth has created a 3d version of Ancient Rome. Amazing!


Google Alerts - I use those, too, for genealogy searches. I receive one or more every day, and 99% of the time they are not useful. BUT, I once found a picture of my great uncle in his WWI uniform, which led me to his son, who lives in Irving, TX. From there I went to his house and scanned about 70 pictures. I went to a family reunion where I found more pictures, one of my grandmother as a baby, and an original letter from my gg grandfather who died at Port Hudson, LA, during the civil war at age 20. So I will always read them, and press delete if not needed.

igoogle - I have an igoogle home page with websites or information that I'm particularly interested, the weather, youtube, date & time, google reader. I also have a second tab with genealogy blogs on it. Don't use that as much now that I've discovered the google reader.

Picasa Web Album - I uploaded some photos to this, but I think I like flickr better and don't really see the need to have pictures all over the place.

Carnton Plantation

Thing #19

I found Voicethread to be very interesting to watch. I wasn't sure if I wanted to take the time to create something there though.

I searched for music voicethreads, of course, and found an amazing one comparing Johann Sebastian Bach and Paul McCartney. I will use this in my classroom. I'm amazed at how much work was put into it.

Since genealogy is my passion, I loved this voicethread of Abby describing her family.

And this one from the Shephard Family, Two photos, thirteen years, is also awesome.

Thing #18

I love YouTube. You can find anything there! I searched for videos for songs that I'm currently working on with my students, and some songs that I wanted them to see different interpretations of. Siyahamba is a South African folk song that we are performing at the Mesquite Fine Arts Festival. McKenzie students will be performing the Orff Instrumentation written by David Talaguit at Motley Elementary School. I wanted my students to realize there were different styles of presenting the same song.

Siyahamba #1
Siyahamba #2
Siyahamba #3

My very favorite folk song is Shady Grove. Who can do that better than The Darlings from the Andy Griffith Show?

Thing #17

I have known about and subscribed to podcasts for some time now. I like the Genealogy Guys podcast and sometimes I find a podcast on itunes relating to some time in history that interests me. Podcasts on Classics for Kids was one of the first things I put in my google reader when I was looking for things to check daily. I've decided to create a promethean flip chart with graphics and pictures of different composers and play one of the 5 minute podcasts as an opening lesson for my 6th grade classes. I've always felt that I should expose students more to the different periods and works of different composers, and this would be an effective way to do that.

My favorite podcast on the list was the Jamestown Elementary Podcast Project I liked listening to the children's projects, and I'm sure they enjoyed creating them. The WillowWeb had interesting and well done podcasts as well.

I just finished recording in garageband my fourth grade students performing the songs that they are responsible for the instrumental part in the upcoming "The Polar Express" so that the other classes can practice singing them as well. Maybe I will publish that.

Thing #16

Aha! I had already heard about LibraryThing and started a list of my books. If you have many books, which elementary teachers always do, it's a great way of knowing just what you have. Sometimes you think you don't have a book, and you buy another one. Sometimes you think you do, you're just not sure.

I suppose you could also create a list just for your students to access for books that you want them to read, or books that you suggest depending on various subjects.

I did join a couple of groups that I thought would be beneficial to me, both professionally and personally.

Thing #15

Oh, delicious is so cool! I love the tagging idea. My 5th graders are singing "Follow the Drinking Gourd" so my first search for tagging was that. I can't wait to see how it works at school.... I can't wait to categorize all my own bookmarks from all my different computers!

I searched for other's bookmarks that might be helpful to me in many ways. I only barely skimmed the surface. This can take a while.....

http://delicious.com/CarlaSue

Thing #14

Our Ancestors

I chose Wordle for another time for play. I found an idea in the Nov./Dec edition of Ancestry magazine that says to put many family names and states of birth in a list. The size of each word grows bigger the more time it's used. This is my family and my husband's family. That article said to put a ~ between 2 words that you want to stay together like Mary~Ann. I also discovered that I could manually change the colors and fonts without having to randomize every time.

I think both the Writeboard and Ta-Da lists for planning ahead for whatever you need done whether at home or school. I'm going to use the ta-da lists for those things I think of first thing in the morning that need to be done, but can't remember later when I have time. I plan to check back with Mnemograph later for making timelines. These are very important when studying your family history.

Thing #7b

I found from the Music Matters Blog that the Radio 4 website is offering 10 symphonies that you can download for free. Who can't use free music?

I saw an alarming story on the Techlearning Blog about Dell's website asking for creative ideas, a Idea Storm it's called, but in order to submit your ideas, you have to agree that you have no rights to them, and that Dell has all the rights! I think I'll start reading the little paragraphs before I click "I agree" from now on.

Thing #13

1. Thanksgiving Feast, 2. sequoia eating his thanksgiving apple (granny smith) - _MG_6513, 3. Scooby and Pumpkin - Thanksgiving Balloon Inflation, 4. Thanksgiving pecan pie, 5. thanksgiving leftovers, 6. Vintage Thanksgiving Day Postcard, 7. Un-Thanksgiving Day 2006, 8. 2006 11-22 thanksgiving 11, 9. thanksgiving, 10. Happy Thanksgiving, 11. Thanksgiving Centerpiece, 12. thanksgiving goodies, 13. Thanksgiving Day, 14. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!, 15. thanksgiving dinner!, 16. HDR Thanksgiving in Glen Williams, Ontario

In searching for photos for Mosaic Maker using Flickr, I looked for pictures of Hershey, Pennsylvania since we are going there in March. I found the easiest way was to include them in my favorites. After I had done that for several photos, I realized that none of them had the Creative Commons License. I couldn’t figure how to control my favorites either except to delete and make new ones. I then changed my subject to Thanksgiving and selected only CC photos. I added photos to the mosaic by selecting them from my favorites. It sure is nice having the credits done for you!

Spellr is really cool! It makes your word POP!

I liked Flickr Color Pickr too, but I couldn't figure what to do with it.

These are all interesting ways to make your blog attractive or draw your readers into something you want to emphasize. Students need this to get their attention. It’s what they use everyday.

COULD SOMEONE TELL ME HOW TO KEEP MY POST FROM UNDERLINING?????

Thing #11

Poplar Hill Pumpkin Patch by Zizzybaloobah

If you can avoid running off a very narrow road, a household off Poplar Hill Road in Baltimore decorate their hillside with their home-grown pumpkins, meticulously carved and glowing nightly for a few evenings before Halloween.

I chose black cats and pumpkins as my theme for flickr photos. I also explored photos of pictures from certain geographical areas like Wales. My cousin, who also researches our Welsh line, found pictures on a United Kingdom website that show our ancestors homeland. It also pinpoints the location on a map.


















Talybont, Wales by Eddie Webster

I enjoyed looking for the photos, but there are so many! I find crediting the photography a bit cumbersome, but it needs to be done, and then later, when I wonder where I got that photo, or want more photos by the same photographer, I will be glad I did.

Thing #12

My slideshow is obviously black cats. My first graders sing a song entitled "Big Black Cats" so I thought they would enjoy it.

I enjoyed looking at the different ways of showing off pictures. I really like Smilebox as well.

I tried to embed the video on my wiki, and I do not know what I did, but I did something..... Whatever I did, it would not let me edit the page after that. I finally just created a whole new page, so if you "discussed" anything with me, it's gone from the new page.

Black Cats

Face of Count Catula by Sean Dreilinger
Black Cat Pumpkin by Cobalt123
Black Cat by fernando
Dobson turning into a pumpkin by jennconspiracy

Thing #10

I understand the need for copyright. One wants ones ideas to be respected and honored, and sometimes paid for, but it sure is frustrating when you want to use something.

Creative Commons sounds like a great idea. I had never heard of it before, nor have I noticed it anywhere. It was neat to find free music that I might use in my classroom.

As an educator, I have always freely shared with other educators my ideas, resources, and time. I think since others have done the same for me, it's what I should also do.

Poultrygeist (in the spirit of Halloween)

Click on the eyes to view a larger version!

Thing #9

I did not enjoy this thing very much. When I first read it, I thought I could do it quickly, especially since I had done a wiki at this site before. Ha! I kept reading and rereading, looked at Kelly's again, ☺ Looked for videos on the wiki site.

Finally, I was successful. It was very frustrating though.

I also wanted to add more smaller pictures. I tried changing them in iphoto and photoshop elements, but was unable to do so. If there is a way to adjust your image in the wiki itself, please let me know. AND,,,, I couldn't get that big space from under my picture?!?@?!?@??!

OKAY! Now I got the dachshund picture in smaller, but it doesn't work when I try the same thing with the picture of the cows. Those are cows in case you didn't recognize it, and a fence... We are telling the story of Sixteen Cows by Lisa Wheeler and Kurt Cyrus.

Well, now it's smaller, because I'm at a different computer????

Thing #8

I don't know if there will be a wiki in my future educationally speaking. I've tried or been a part of 3 different wikis before, and I guess the people I'm trying to get to participate, just don't get why that is better than email.

I did notice that if when I first saw the opening page of a wiki, and it didn't seem to be well-organized or attractive, I went on to something else. Presentation is very important.

I loved the wiki that 3rd grade students made about going west. I loved history when I taught in the regular classroom, and it's a big part of studying your family history. I'm sure these 3rd graders could tell me all about what it was like to travel west in a covered wagon.

Mr. Lindsay's wiki was very cute and attractive. It's all about cute at the elementary level. Students definitely experienced a good writing experience posting to that wiki. I'm sure they couldn't wait to write.

I also searched for a wiki from an elementary music classroom, and I only found one. It needs a little more substance, but it is a beginning.

Thing #7

Of all the posts I follow, I have rarely commented on them, if at all. I think this is because I like to keep my reflections to myself, or I just don't take the time to contribute to the conversation.

This is true of actual conversation as well, unless I just feel that it's really important to offer a difference of opinion or to come to the defense of an idea or opinion.

I do express my opinion more often than I used to. As one gets older, one tends to not worry so much about what others think, or I've become my mother, I'm not sure which.

I didn't find an educational post that I felt would benefit from my comments, but I commented on the flickr picture below.

If you click on the picture you can then click on "best viewed large on black."

Beautiful!

Graveyard
Originally uploaded by (Erik)

Thing #6

Yes, the number of things in your reader are voluminous. It is a even worse if you have more than one interest. I am trying to skim and scan, but then I also feel that I'm never comprehending everything. I guess the key is to just find something you are really interested in, and then take your time. I also wonder, who has the time to write this much every day?

I found a blog that talks about the students wanting to be active and involved. I taught 3rd and 4th grade for 21 years before I began to teach music. No classroom is more active and involved than my classroom. There's singing, dancing/movement, playing orff instruments, recorders, percussion, making noise, being quiet, listening, creating... It's more fun for me, as the teacher, to also be in a classroom that is active and involved. Not worrying near as much about testing can also help.

There's an interesting article music article about the pentatonic scale. There are 7 notes in the diatonic scale. The pentatonic scale uses only 5 notes of the scale omitting fa and ti. This is a staple in the elementary classroom. Almost all of our early work in the elementary classroom is using the pentatonic scale.

See video below about the association of the pentatonic scale and african american spirituals.

Well, I thought I would be able to put video below, but, alas, no. Here's the link.

Amazing Grace History...

But I really wanted to embed the video!!!!!!!



Woohoo! Thanks, Kelly!

I did subscribe to Flickr's Most Interesting Photos. That is interesting and enlightening.

Thing #5

I added to my google reader several blogs that I was already reading. I didn't really get the point of the reader at first because there is email, and then I've also added them to my igoogle home page, but after I tried it, I really like it. You could scan through all of the posts, and nothing was cluttering up your email box. I particularly liked starring something of importance as a type of filter.

I also found a music education blog that pertains to what I do. It talked about SQUILT, Super Quiet Uninterrupted Listening Time. I've decided to try SQUILT in my music classroom as well.

I already had a listening worksheet, but I really like hers better.

I also found an idea for a reward system that I would like to try at another blog, Music Money!

Thing #4

Blog writing seems almost like writing a diary. You're sharing your thoughts and wonder if anyone else will really read it. Or, it could be like writing an editorial, you just want to voice your ideas.

In Mark's edtechblog, he mentions how his own reading habits have changed over the years, and I feel the same way. I seem to want quick little blurbs to read rather than a lengthy novel, and if I am interested in a lengthy novel, I buy the audio version.

Commenting on the blog let's the writer know someone read it. It also helps to expand the originally blogger concepts or offer differences of opinion as the case may be. This leads to more diverse thinking and a broadening of discussion. This can facilitate learning.

Thing #2 Thoughts about Web 2.0

The biggest obstacle is just keeping up with the new technology. It advances so quickly.

I love the capability technology offers us that we can look up "anything" on the Internet. It can be important or not important, educational or not, entertaining or not, and unfortunately, appropriate or not.

The world is at our fingertips while still in our pajamas.

More words, it seems I need more words....I'm truly not a wordy person, but I'll try.

Web 2.0 is people interacting, creating, collaborating together much more quickly than ever before. Emails, podcasts, blogs, posting pictures and videos have created even greater avenues of learning, sharing, and researching.

These are tools that I embrace and just like the cell phone, microwave, etc. we can't remember what life was like before we had them. I have never been afraid of technology and always wanted the newest "toy" whether this was a type of computer or ipod or the "toy" was a software program or web tool that I thought would improve my work or play.

Thing #1 Reflections on Lifelong Learning

As I listened to the lifelong learning video, I thought I do all those things! And I thought I was just ADD! I do have trouble keeping the end in mind. I know the end, but I have so many things or projects that I get off task. I haven't always been this way.

I do think technology has made our attention span just a little bit shorter. We want to click here, and click there. I have found things on the internet that I love, and I really have no idea how I got there. I don't know how I got so involved in my 2 favorite hobbies, genealogy and digital scrapbooking, but things evolved.

My husband always says that I jump into things with both feet. Well, why bother if you're not enthusiastic and at least try to be good at it.