A Tale of 2 Animotos

I recently worked with Ms. S, a music teacher at the Early Childhood Center in Palisades Park, New Jersey. Ms. S is the music teacher for grades Pre K - 1st grade. I arrived a bit early and sat in on a kindergarten music class. I had so much fun playing with lummi sticks!
Following that class, Ms. S created an Animoto using Vivaldi's Spring and images from Google Images.
Click here to view Ms. S's animoto: Spring
Before watching the Animoto, the students sang a song, "Spring is Coming." Then we discussed signs of Spring. I took half the class and showed the Spring Animoto Ms. S had created on the Smartboard. We watched a few times and tried to recall the images. What images were missing? What was your favorite picture? What picture was missing?
The students loved the Animoto and were excited when I told them they were going to create one.
I gave each student a piece of paper and told them to draw an image that reminded them of Spring as we listened to the song once more. As they drew, I took pictures of their progress with my camera. Then I uploaded the images to Animoto using the same Vivaldi song.
I can't wait to hear their reaction! They were so excited to have their pictures "in a movie." I wish I could have bottled their enthusiasm!


I still think Animoto is one of the best and easiest web 2.0 tools out there. It makes anyone look like an Oscar Award winning producer!

Infusing Current Events in All Content Areas

A few teachers I have been working with have asked me for easy ways to infuse current events in all content areas. I have been working on a few ideas and lists. Here is the link to my current events site: https://sites.google.com/site/currenteventstmnj11/home
If you would like to collaborate, please let me know. I was supposed to present this at TMNJ, but due to a lost phone incident I had to leave. If anyone finds a purple blackberry, I am the owner.

TMNJ Web 2.0 Smackdown

Here are the resources from the Teach Meet NJ Web 2.0 Smackdown. A great group of people and ideas:

Hungry? A Great Use for Google Forms

Free iPad Apps for Elementary Students

This is still a work in progress, but here is my list so far. Please feel free to add to it:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ai5deysPpXejdFNuemJURDdoa3VWbUNDYVliOGw5T2c&hl=en&authkey=CIersPQH

Talking Avatars in the Classroom

Get a Voki now!





While I like Voki and Virsona,
I also reccomend Vocaroo to record students and Blabberize

Other examples:
http://technology4kids.pbworks.com/w/page/24535850/Voki-Talking-Avatars

http://www.squidoo.com/voki

http://eighthgradewiki.wikispaces.com/Quarterly+Book+Reviews

http://www.teachers.tv/videos/online-communities-in-the-classroom

http://eighthgradewiki.wikispaces.com/Q1++Book+Review
http://cooltech4teachers.pbworks.com/w/page/16479047/Vokis-and-Avatars

Beyond Search

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to review Google search with some NJ educators from Wood Ridge and West Morris school districts. We had a blast using some of the more abstract Google search options and search labs such as Google Sets, Google Trends, and Google Squared. We also played around with making our own search stories, created summer reading libraries using Google Books, and created Customized Search Engines.
In my opinion, Google Squared and Google Sets are 2 highly underused tools in the classroom. I love sets for brainstorming and I love the fact that you can create your own Google Square and print it as a hand out. For more info about Google Squared and Sets click here.
Click here to access the special site I made for all things Google Search.

https://sites.google.com/site/hartmangsearch/home

Photo credit:http://www.psfk.com/2009/06/google-squared.html