Classroom III http://blakej.edublogs.org kicking it to the next level Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:21:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 What is a solstice? http://blakej.edublogs.org/2009/06/20/what-is-a-solstice/ http://blakej.edublogs.org/2009/06/20/what-is-a-solstice/#comments Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:21:36 +0000 John Blake http://blakej.edublogs.org/?p=302 Sunrise: 5:59, sunset 8:26 – 14 hours and 27 minutes of daylight

The earliest humans knew that the sun’s path across the sky, the length of daylight, and the location of the sunrise and sunset all shifted in a regular way throughout the year.

They built monuments, such as Stonehenge, to follow the sun’s yearly progress.

Today, we know that the solstice is an astronomical event, caused by Earth’s tilt on its axis, and its motion in orbit around the sun.

Because Earth doesn’t orbit upright, but is instead tilted on its axis by 23-and-a-half degrees, Earth’s northern and southern hemispheres trade places in receiving the sun’s light and warmth most directly.

At the June solstice, Earth is positioned in its orbit so that the North Pole is leaning 23-and-a-half degrees toward the sun. As seen from Earth, the sun is directly overhead at noon 23-and-a-half degrees north of the equator, at an imaginary line encircling the globe known as the Tropic of Cancer. This is as far north as the sun ever gets.

All locations north of the equator have day lengths greater than 12 hours at the June solstice. Meanwhile, all locations south of the equator have day lengths less than 12 hours

]]> http://blakej.edublogs.org/2009/06/20/what-is-a-solstice/feed/ 0 Summer Begins June 21 http://blakej.edublogs.org/2009/06/16/summer-begins-june-21/ http://blakej.edublogs.org/2009/06/16/summer-begins-june-21/#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:08:37 +0000 John Blake http://blakej.edublogs.org/?p=301 Yesterday’s severe weather here in Columbus and Bladen County almost created a tornado. Almost all the needed conditions lined up to scare the tar out of most of us. Damage to some homes, vehicles, out building, trees, and power lines was not as bad as it could have been. No injuries is a good sign.

I spent several hours shooting and editing video and have come to the conclusion that I need to delete some stuff of this hard drive. Also, I discovered that the using the Flip camcorder, model F260, is not exactly what is needed for shooting good video. I am not using the Flip for my next video. It is time to pull out the Panasonic mini DV camcorder and tripod. It takes less time for me to pull video off the DV camcorder into iMovie than downloading clips from the Flip’s flash memory. The next video project will be Father’s Day at the lake

I am experimenting with including movies from Google Earth Pro into my video projects. So far, it is very impressive and easy to use. When this current video project is ready, I will post it online and discuss the procedure.

]]> http://blakej.edublogs.org/2009/06/16/summer-begins-june-21/feed/ 0 Laptops in my Sleep http://blakej.edublogs.org/2009/04/16/laptops-in-my-sleep/ http://blakej.edublogs.org/2009/04/16/laptops-in-my-sleep/#comments Fri, 17 Apr 2009 03:02:55 +0000 John Blake http://blakej.edublogs.org/?p=300 Well, tomorrow is the last day of spring break. I am looking forward to Monday. Not sure what the day will bring, but I have a long list of tasks already.

]]> http://blakej.edublogs.org/2009/04/16/laptops-in-my-sleep/feed/ 0 Saturday before my 54th Birthday http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/10/25/saturday-before-my-54th-birthday/ http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/10/25/saturday-before-my-54th-birthday/#comments Sat, 25 Oct 2008 14:17:31 +0000 John Blake http://blakej.edublogs.org/?p=295 Here I sit- with a mug of hot coffee, a bowl of instant oatmeal, and a MacBook I affectionately call my “plastic pig”. I want one of those new aluminum MacBooks. I have not taken time to post a blog post in so long, that I am considering deleting this blog. I keep looking for a way to integrate my BlackBerry with my blogging, but I have not gotten my head around it. Since buying my BlackBerry, my blogging has basically stopped. I confess- Hello, my name is John and I am a CrackBerry. I am addicted.

Well, it is time to head out to the gym for my “old man” walk on the treadmill and some weight lifting.

Have a nice day!

]]> http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/10/25/saturday-before-my-54th-birthday/feed/ 0 Science Teaching (weekly) http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/08/09/science-teaching-weekly-12/ http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/08/09/science-teaching-weekly-12/#comments Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:31:46 +0000 John Blake http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/08/09/science-teaching-weekly-12/

  • UVic’s Language Teaching Clipart Library

    tags: clipart, Graphics

  • Photography – National Geographic

    Photography, Pictures, Galleries, Wallpapers, Screensavers, Photo Tips, Biographies – National Geographic

    tags: photography, science, screensavers

  • ASL Browser

    If you have a student that uses sign language, this may be a resource for you.

    tags: ASL, language, sign

  • - Animoto For Education -

    I have been impressed with how easy this tool is to use and how my students liked to use it in our classroom.

    tags: education, web2.0, animoto, slideshow, tools

  • Earth Products & Accessories

    Interesting device to use with Google Earth, and might be a good device to use in the classroom.

    tags: earth, accessories, mapping, CS

  • Top News – New resource helps teach 21st-century skills

    “Social studies teachers now have a new resource to help them integrate 21st-century skills into their lessons: a free online document that maps various social studies projects, tasks, and outcomes to corresponding skills–such as problem solving and critical thinking–that are becoming increasingly important for 21st-century success.”
    By Laura Devaney, Senior Editor, eSchool News

    tags: 21st-century, school

    • ]]>     http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/08/09/science-teaching-weekly-12/feed/ 0     Science Teaching (weekly) http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/08/02/science-teaching-weekly-11/ http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/08/02/science-teaching-weekly-11/#comments Sun, 03 Aug 2008 00:33:23 +0000 John Blake http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/08/02/science-teaching-weekly-11/

  • Clipart ETC Homepage

    Free clipart for students & teachers!
    38,000 pieces of free clipart and growing every month.

    Welcome to quality educational clipart. Every item comes with a choice of image size and format as well as complete source information for proper citations in school projects. No advertisement-filled pages with pop-up windows or inappropriate links here. A friendly license allows teachers and students to use up to 50 items in a single, non-commercial project without further permission.

    tags: clipart

  • Pics4Learning – Tech4Learning

    A categorized list of images found in the Pics4Learning collection. The number in the parentheses indicates the number of sub-categories for that topic.

    tags: education, clipart, photos, resources, Graphics, image, tech4learning

  • How to make a Basic Claymation – Instructables – DIY, How To, photography, tech

    tags: claymation

  • clip art for macs – Google Search

    tags: no_tag

  • newsobserver.com | Reader geeks tackle Office 2007

    tags: no_tag

    • Herb Depke of Cary suggested that to solve compatibility problems from their end, folks with Office 2003 can download the program FileFormatConverters.exe to open, edit and save Excel, Word and PowerPoint 2007 files. To find the download, go to microsoft.com/downloads and search for “FileFormatConverters.exe.”

    • Office 2007 users can download an add-on from Microsoft that allows them to save documents in the PDF format, eliminating the middle step of using Adobe Acrobat or one of the many programs available online.

      The file, called SaveAsPDFandXPS.exe, also can be found at www.microsoft.com/downloads.

  • NEA: Works4Me – Using Technology – Technology in Class

    Works4me
    Practical Classroom Tips from Teachers Like Us
    Using Technology » Technology in Class

    tags: works4me, technology, classroom management

  • Works4Me E-Newsletter Archive

    Ideas and Tips for teachers, by teachers.

    tags: works4me

  • digitalstorytelling » home

    tags: digitalstorytelling, digital_storytelling, digital

  • Beyond the Basics: Super Subs Bring the Arts to Underserved Kids | Edutopia

    The message of the day, that you can achieve what you aspire to achieve, is not news to him, but he says the way it was presented was entirely different. “They did it with music and it was . . . wow,” he states. “This is the first time in three years here I’ve seen anything like this.” Then he smiles widely and adds, as though he invented the idea, “You learn better when you’re having fun.”

    tags: music, underserved

  • From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning: Create your own Cell Phone Radio Show…or just hear your favorite podcast on your cell!

    tags: 1to1

  • MiddleWeb | New MS Teacher Resources

    tags: no_tag

  • DonorsChoose.org Blog: Calling All Math & Science Teachers in North Carolina!

    tags: no_tag

  • Weblogg-ed » Kids Prefer Reading Online…

    tags: no_tag

    • So here’s the crux of the debate:

      As teenagers’ scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading — diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books.

      But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager like Nadia, who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write.

    • ]]>     http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/08/02/science-teaching-weekly-11/feed/ 0     Science Teaching (weekly) http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/07/26/science-teaching-weekly-10/ http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/07/26/science-teaching-weekly-10/#comments Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:33:40 +0000 John Blake http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/07/26/science-teaching-weekly-10/

  • n2teaching: Choices Teachers Make

    tags: PLC, PLN, Professional Learning Community, n2teaching

  • Maximizing Your PLN – 7. 24. 2008. 12:54:45 GMT-0500, n2teaching Ustream.TV: At MACE, July 24. Education,DIY

    Creating a Personal Learning Communities online.

    tags: n2teaching, ustream.tv

  • The Levelator from The Conversations Network

    What is The Levelator™?

    Do you believe in magic? You will after using The Levelator to enhance your podcast. And you’ll be amazed that it’s free, now even for commercial use.

    So what is The Levelator? It’s software that runs on Windows, OS X (universal binary), or Linux (Ubuntu) that adjusts the audio levels within your podcast or other audio file for variations from one speaker to the next, for example. It’s not a compressor, normalizer or limiter although it contains all three. It’s much more than those tools, and it’s much simpler to use. The UI is dirt-simple: Drag-and-drop any WAV or AIFF file onto The Leveler’s application window, and a few moments later you’ll find a new version which just sounds better.

    Have you ever recorded an interview in which you and your guest ended up at different volumes? How about a panel discussion where some people were close to microphones and others were not? These are the problems the post-production engineers of Team ITC here at The Conversations Network solve every day, and it used to take them hours of painstaking work with expensive and complex tools like SoundTrack Pro, Audacity, Sound Forge or Audition to solve them. Now it takes mere seconds. Seriously. The Levelator is unlike any other audio tool you’ve ever seen, heard or used. It’s magic. And it’s free.

    When we developed the IT Conversations component-based show-assembly system, we realized all the components had to be of the same loudness or the results would sound awful. We limped along for many months using the RMS normalization functions in various applications, but the results weren’t satisfactory and it required tools and skillsets that some of our post-production audio engineers didn’t have. One of our best engineers, Bruce Sharpe, offered to write a standalone software RMS normalization utility, which we’ve been using as part of our production system CNUploader since 2005.

    The CNUploader’s normalizer acts similar to an intelligent RMS-based compressor/limiter combination, and it therefore affects primarily the short-term (transient) sounds and the long-term overall loudness of the file. It doesn’t make the kind of adjustments that a skilled audio engineer can perform in software or at a mixing console, riding the levels up and down to compensate for medium-term variations.

    There are some hardware devices such as various AGC (automatic-gain control) components that can do moderate leveling, but since they have to operate in real time (i.e., without look-ahead), they can’t do much. And they aren’t cheap, let alone free. Even a skilled human can only react to changes unless s/he is lucky enough to be present during a recording session and can use visual cues to anticipate coming variations. Software can do better by performing multiple passes over the audio, generating a loudness map of where the volume changes. (It’s not actually that simple, but the metaphor is helpful.)

    Bruce, with help from his son, Malcolm, had proven that he knew how to tackle these problems in ways that no one else anywhere in the audio/software industry has done to date. So we asked him, “Bruce, do you you think you can write a leveler that corrects for medium-term variations in loudness instead of the short-term and long-term variatons processed by compressor/limiters and normalizers, respectively?” Bruce and Malcolm took on the challenge, and eight months later we began testing The Levelator.

    You’ll believe in magic.

    tags: audio, software, podcast, podcasting, tools, freeware, tool, mp3

  • Wordle – Beautiful Word Clouds in the classroom

    Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

    tags: visualization, web2.0, cloud

  • » The fallacy of community – Marketing Conversation – New Marketing and Social Media by Abraham Harrison LLC Marketing Conversation – New Marketing and Social Media by Abraham Harrison LLC

    tags: no_tag

    • And often those users or customers have no desire to be “engaged”. They simply want to buy the product, use it, and move on.

  • Video Series

    I like this page. It shows how the classroom looks, not just words!

    tags: no_tag

  • Classroom Management in a One-to-One School District for Laptop Integration … Irving ISD – Irving, Texas

    tags: 1-1, classroom-management, laptop

  • 7 Things You Should Know About… | EDUCAUSE

    This page provides concise information on emerging learning technologies and related practices. Each brief focuses on a single technology or practice and describes:

    tags: emerging learning technologies, 1 to 1 Learning, 1to1, 1:1

  • Real Classroom Ideas – 6 + 1 Traits

    tags: traits

  • Hunt High School – Laptop Project

    tags: hunt

    • ]]>     http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/07/26/science-teaching-weekly-10/feed/ 0     Science Teaching (weekly) http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/07/19/science-teaching-weekly-9/ http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/07/19/science-teaching-weekly-9/#comments Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:32:10 +0000 John Blake http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/07/19/science-teaching-weekly-9/

  • Sharing Places Information – Google Earth User Guide

    tags: earth, googleearth, places, sharing

    • Sharing Data Over a Network

      In addition to saving placemarks or folders to your local computer, you can also save place data to a web server or network server. Other Google Earth users who have access to the server can then use the data. As with other documents, you can create links or references to KMZ files for easy access. Storing a placemark file on the network or on a web server offers the following advantages:

      • Accessibility – If your place data is stored on a network or the Web, you can access it from any computer anywhere, provided the location is either publicly available or you have log in access.
      • Ease in Distribution – You can develop an extensive presentation folder for Google Earth software and make that presentation available to everyone who has access to your network storage location or web server. This is more convenient than sending the data via email when you want to make it persistently available to a large number of people.
      • Automatic Updates/Network Link Access – Any new information or changes you make to network-based KMZ information is automatically available to all users who access the KML data via a network link.
      • Backup – If for some reason the data on your local computer is corrupt or lost, you can open any of the KMZ files that you have saved to a network location, and if so desired, save it as a local file again.
      Note: Before you can create a network link to an item in Google Earth, you must first store that place data on a server.

      This section covers the following topics:

    • ]]>     http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/07/19/science-teaching-weekly-9/feed/ 1     Science Teaching (weekly) http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/07/12/science-teaching-weekly-8/ http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/07/12/science-teaching-weekly-8/#comments Sun, 13 Jul 2008 00:33:09 +0000 John Blake http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/07/12/science-teaching-weekly-8/

  • SmarterMail Help

    tags: no_tag

    • s for any group on your account. A

  • TLC = Tech + Library + Classroom

    tags: no_tag

    • TLC = Tech + Library + Classroom

      finding ways to bring the three together…

    • Tara
      Shanghai, China
      A library lady having fun with technology and wanting to spread the news that it’s not as tricky as it looks!

  • Getting Started Guide : Lively’s Getting Started Guide – Lively Help Center

    a chat experience in which you can communicate and express yourself using avatars in your very own space.

    tags: lively, virtual

  • YAKiToMe! Free Text To Speech Audio Book Podcast

    tags: yakitome

  • Edtags.org: Bookmarks for the field of education

    tags: no_tag

  • Chatzy – Podcasting for the Absolute Beginner

    Chatzy is a free private chat service which you can use to communicate with people you already know or people who visits your blog or website. With Chatzy you can create a chatroom and send out email invitations very quickly and easily. No registration is required.

    tags: chatzy

  • podcastingforbeginners » home

    tags: no_tag

  • Add to Google

    tags: no_tag

  • Cool School is presented by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service

    tags: no_tag

    • ]]>     http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/07/12/science-teaching-weekly-8/feed/ 0     NECC 2008 Through Distance Learning http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/07/08/necc-2008-through-distance-learning/ http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/07/08/necc-2008-through-distance-learning/#comments Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:10:08 +0000 John Blake http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/07/08/necc-2008-through-distance-learning/ And yet another summer passes sans attending the mega ed tech conference NECC.

    No, I will not be bummed out by not have the seeming unlimited funds of districts around the our nation. Districts that sent hordes of eager participants to this years bash at San Antonio. I will not get any cheese with my whine. On the positive side, I have been lapping up the scraps and crumbs of leftovers from NECC. I have found streaming video http://www.kzowebcasting.com/necc/ and the best part is that I could fast forward through the presenters crowd warm-ups, self-promos, shout-outs, and even parts without audio. Would I pay for this? No. Would I recommend it to others. Absolutely! The chat feature is wonderful. Send you fellow teachers a link to the site on Twitter or IM or Plurk, or Pownce and have them comment and give feedback while viewing a particular presentation. Now, I have been a fan of David Warlick for many years and always love to listen to his presentations. Here is how I see sharing these videos with my fellow teachers in my school.

    Set up a Professional Development schedule. Maybe call it NECC via Distance Learning, or Converge, Connect, and Transform Learning. Then, using our email server, set up a group of teachers interested in earning credits in technology. From this group of names, have them create a Pownce account. The reason for using Pownce, is that users can setup Events. When the time for the training comes, send the group a link to one of the NECC webcasts and ask the participants to post their comments and questions in the chat room. I have been impressed with backdoor chat. Our teachers would be using MacBooks, so we could launch iChat with Bonjour to connect the laptops. Now, will our wifi handle the streaming or will we encounter buffering issues? That may be the “$24,000 Question”.

    Other cool “take-aways” that I have picked up include Edtags.org. Edtags.org is a social bookmarking site for educators. Diigo and Del.icio.us are great bookmarking site that I use all the time, but they are blocked by our content filter at school. Edtags.org is unblocked and is now high on my personal list of sites to use. I lacks lots of the numbers of users that the other great social bookmarking sites have, and that is fine. I have been busy adding my bookmarks in Edtags.org and marking them for use by my friends only. This way, I can add teachers in my school as users and add them as my friend so they can access my educational bookmarks and add another tool to our learning community.

    Mogulus.com is really exciting. However, it does not make the cut of the content filter in our district. It is also flagged for inappropriate content.

    I will not be so bold as to consider this to be a master list of tools for the classroom. Hopefully, I will be able to find time to post additional resources.

    ]]>     http://blakej.edublogs.org/2008/07/08/necc-2008-through-distance-learning/feed/ 0