i would like to commend the hard (and fast!) work of our Distinguished Ladies of Excellence & the Wise Society, lead by Mrs. Abrams and Mr. Williams respectively, organized our students to start a Red Cross fund drive for Haiti Disaster Relief.... here are some more pictures of good works and good people in action! Our Mrs. Peay says "Help is on the way!" for all the pictures (non posterized) you can see them on our Smugmug Digital Photo Gallery
How can you help? Text your donation!
"Donate to the American Red Cross , phone users can text the word "HAITI" to 90999 to donate $10," and when prompted, hit "YES" to confirm the donation.
The donation is added to the cell user's bill, and receipts are available.
Other text-message codes for donations include:
Text the word "YELE" to 501501 to donate $5 to the Yele Haiti foundation.
Text the word "HAITI" to 20222 to donate $10 to the Clinton Foundation Haiti Relief Fund.
Text "HAITI" to 25383 to donate $5 to the International Rescue Committee.
Text "HAITI" to 85944 to donate $10 to the International Medical Corps."
"Fight the Filter" ISTE Sigms 2nd Webinar! Wednesday, Jan 13, 2010 at 8 pm E.S.T., 7 pm C.S.T., 6 pm M.S.T., 5 pm P.S.T Presenter: Buffy Hamilton
Want to start your new year off by making a positive difference in your library program? Join ISTE SIGMS for our second FREE webinaron January 13 at 8 pm E.S.T. when Buffy Hamilton, The Unquiet Librarian, will share her ideas on "fighting the filter."
Directions to join the SIGMS webinar event 1. Check that your computer is set up for Adobe Connect by visiting Adobe Connect Pro Connection Test 2. Use this URL to enter the webinar room 10 - 15 minutes before starting time: http://Montgomery.na4.acrobat.com/SIGMS 3. Enter as a guest and type your first and last name. 4. Here is a link to a Visual Quick Start guide (pdf) to help you if this is your first webinar event. https://admin.adobe.acrobat.com/_a227210/vqs-participatemeeting/
(click here or above for video - i had it embeded before but it was on auto-play and it drove me bonkers!)
I blogged at the beginning of the school year about ethical social networking habits and I want to share a new resource with you so I'm going to re-post it cause it may have gotten lost in the back to school info....I've been saying it for years but it bears repeating - in regards to the Internet: There is no safe, there is only AWARE
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.... Life is either a daring adventure or nothing"
I've been teaching/preaching Internet safety awareness since 2000...I was first asked to do so by Maryland Public Television and then the Horizon Foundation...and through their patronage i created a website called Internet Safety for Parents & Teens that covered a lot of common sense information about how to be more AWARE of the pitfalls and dangers on the Intarwebs. Again, the subject i think that is foremost now is not Safety but Awareness. We have to encourage our kids to be aware of their own digital footprint. To be mindful of what they post and how they cultivate a good Internet profile so that when they apply to college, or a job, they know how they will be perceived by those people who will be digging for information ...and dig they will.
Kids need to know that embarrassing or inappropriate pictures posted are there online and can be found forever. Social networks are NOT inherently bad and they're not going away...it's more about using ethical & wise choices than being scared of the Bogey man out there - though they exist - it's more likely that teens will be harassed by other teens that they know than some stranger. Sad but true fact, teens who are at-risk in general will most likely be at-risk on the Internet.
Parents: what you can do at home
have the Internet connected computer in a main room of your house...like the kitchen or living, or family room
if you have kids who have laptops and a wireless router, keep the router in your bedroom and disconnect the router (unplug & remove) the power cord at bedtime.
late night texting is also a concern - if this is a problem re-charge family cell phones in YOUR rooms overnight
know what usernames your kids use on facebook, twitter, myspace, etc. ask to see their page...then ask to see their REAL page!
make sure that ANY social network they belong to is set to private
know how to search the history of your kids computer
More things to think about:
"Hemanshu Nigam, the chief security officer at News Corp. provides advice about the compassionate and kind use of social networking:
Post with respect: photos are a great way to share wonderful experiences. If you're posting a photo of you and your friends, put yourself in your friends' shoes and ask would your friends want that photo to be public to everyone. If yes, then you're uploading photos with respect.
Comment with kindness: compliments are like smiles, they're contagious. When you comment on a profile, share a kind word, others will too.
Update with empathy: sharing updates lets us tell people what we think. When you give an opinion on your status updates, show empathy towards your friends and help them see the world with understanding eyes.
Play the Friend Finder Game! Interactive fun game testing your social networking skillz!
Talk to your kids about the risks.
Explain that online information and images can live forever. It can be very hard and sometimes impossible to take down information that is posted, and photos and information may already have been copied and posted elsewhere.
Tell your children not to post any identifying information online. This includes their cell phone number, address, hometown, school name, and anything else that a stranger could use to locate them.
Explain that anyone in the world can access what they post online. Tell your children that some college admissions boards and employers are checking social networking sites before they admit students or hire people.
Remind your children never to give out their passwords to anyone but you – not even their friends. Explain that if someone has their password, they could post embarrassing and unsafe information about them on their personal pages and even pose as your children to talk to other people.
Make sure that children understand that some people they meet online may not be who they say they are. Explain that on the Internet many people are not truthful about their identity and may even pretend to be someone else. It’s important to stress that young people should never meet people face-to-face that they met online.
The Guidance dept. and i will be holding a parent information night about cyberbullying and Internet awareness later this year....stay tuned!
Other Resources: NetCetera - In Net Cetera: Chatting With Kids About Being Online, OnGuard Online gives adults practical tips to help kids navigate the online world. - created by the FTC - For Parents, Teacher Librarians, & Technology Educators: AWESOME FREE Bulk Brochures & Bookmarks for home, schools & libraries!
The talented 7th grade students of Mrs. Lewis' Reading classes really out did themselves with their creative book covers this year! Here are the pics of their fine work! Be sure to stop by the Library Media Center before break and pick up a couple of books! You never know with this snow coming when you'll be wanting to curl up with a good book over the holiday break! Mrs. Lewis gives the poster one last final adjustment before stepping back and admiring the work of her amazing students! With 3-D special effects and creative construction these kids really took book covers to a new dimension of AWEsome!
Miss Jones is so proud to have such an amazing display outside the Library Media Center!
Marketing is not a dirty word. Sometimes we do great things in our school, classroom, or media center but we forget that people just might not know about it. The community loves to hear what schools are doing and it’s great that we can reach out with a cool message to the community and to our kids in an appealing way. Animation does that!
Promoting your school or library media center has never been easier. Using quick, free, and easy animation studios technology educators and teacher librarians can create engaging videos to market their classrooms, media center, databases, research resources, special programs, and their love of learning to students, teachers, and the community. Combining easy animation with a wiki, website, or a blog your message will captivate your audience and reach beyond the brick and mortar walls of your school.
Focusing on three easy to use products this post will give you a quick introduction and hopefully inspire you to try your hand at easy animation. The slant of this posting is to create animations for kids but not with kids. Some of the content on these sites are user created and therefore a bit questionable, inappropriate, (like Beavis & Butthead fart & scatalogical type jokes) and just a bit immature.
Back in the day (1996) I used Theatrix Interactive’s Hollywood High to create animations and it was a whole lot of awesome! The company went bust a few years ago and it’s now out of print but it was fun and easy to use. Fast forward about 10 or so years and I stumble across Go!Animate.com and WOW! It was like a souped-up, super-charged online and FREE version! I was in animation heaven!
Using just drag, drop, click, and type technology the learning curve for this product is sweet and comforting. The best part is that you can bring in your own graphics and pics in to use as backdrops, heads, and hand props!
The design dashboard is super friendly and you can easily see all parts to your video. If you've ever worked with iMovie this is going to look very familiar! I quickly created a short 28 second video promoting my library media center for my blog, wiki and website…after that, I was hooked! GoAnimate.com: MHMS Media Center Adventures! by gwyneth
Do you have your own avatar? You can also make a comic version or avatar of yourself to use in your animations with Character Creator and the first one is FREE. If you've ever made a Nintendo Mii character it's a lot like that. Hint: you can’t edit your character later so make your choices carefully! (which explains why i have tacky gold shoes and a bad lipstick color!) Here's a helpful blog posting, the official blog, and some video tutorials to help! I got so jazzed about this site I made an Animation Studios & Sites Introduction wikipage for this and the other products mentioned in this posting...using LOTS of screenshots!
Another very cool thing about Go!Animate is the easy ability to embed and share the vids on your social networks and websites AND when you go back to edit the videos later (this is great for me because I'm constantly tweaking & changing things later or if I find a typo!) is that your embedded video is your latest cut… no need to re-embed it! That. Is. Sweet.
For elementary techie teachers & media specialists there's a more kid friendly version of GoAnimate called Domo Animate where there are preset backgrounds and the characters are super cute.
A few things I’ve learned about GoAnimate:
• Upload the largest resolution background pics for best performance. Go!Animate works with Flickr to import photos for use as backdrops but it seems to only take the large size and not the original. What can I say? I'm a resolution snob.
• Extend the scene length for better reading...the default is 2 seconds, you can override it to 4 seconds...but I find that with two speech bubbles per scene having it be 5-7 seconds is more comfortable.
• Add special effects sparingly: They’re cool but they sort of overwhelm a scene.
Some of the options at Go!Animate cost points: "You can use your GoPoints to acquire special premium characters and props on the platform." You can get points by sharing your videos or referring friends.
Join Go!Animate then Cut & Paste the following “Pssst! Gwyneth told me about the FREE 10 character credit offer on ISTE Connects! Thank you! – Your member name” email that to support@goanimate.comand in a few days you’ll be credited! Sweet!
Blabberize is a really cool site where you can upload a picture, select a mouth on that picture, and record some sound to make that picture talk. It’s an easy and fast way to podcast!
Xtranormal is a free animated movie generator featuring drag and drop animations, automatic lip synching and international voices. It allows you to make movies in minutes by simply typing in your scripts. They’re tagline is, “If you can type, you can make movies.” This online movie making tool allows users to create animations complete with backdrops, simulated voices, and camera angels to perform scripts you write and edit online. To quote the website Lifehacker, it’s “a seriously addictive sandbox for crafting miniature dramas, comedies, or whatever you can tell your little actors to do.” It takes a few minutes to render between previews but when you’re ready to save it the finished product looks sleek and slick. You can even publish it directly to YouTube with the click of one button.
A few things I learned about Xtranormal:
• Spelling words phonetically or in an odd way sometimes sounds better: such as anim ate vs. animate and wick kee vs. wiki • To shorten unnatural pauses between words, hyphenate (teacher-librarian) • Capitalizing after any punctuation mark increases the pause between words • Capitalizing the first letter after a hyphen slightly increases the pause between words (teacher-Librarian) • Capitalizing intra-sentence letters allows you to emphasize certain syllables (comPlexity is sometimes overRated! ) • Capitalize ANY words you wish emphasized (use Restraint, capitalizing Every word would be the same or Worse than leaving them as they Were!) GoAnimate.com: Beam Me Up Databases! by gwyneth Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!
Ideas for use in the school or media centerse animations to promote: • Virtual tour of the school - then dub voice over in several languages! Example • Back to school night • Science fair • History Day • Summer Reading List/Program • Public library card drives • TV studio or TV production • Public service announcements • Banned books week • Research databases • Recycling or green projects • Book Fair
Classroom ideas: • Science! Create a zoo where animals talk about their habitats • Social Studies: Represent important historical figure and have that person summarize his/her accomplishments or point of view • Art: An introduction to a famous artist using original paintings with cartoon docent. • English & Reading: Book talk from a characters point of view • Math: Have a famous mathematician explain a solution to a math problem • World Languages: Use it to create a dual language presentation for a foreign language or ESOL class • English & Reading: Vocabulary building • English & Reading: Poetry or creative writing presentations
Now that you’ve gotten a little amuse-bouche of animation why not give it a whirl? Come up with a purpose, write a script, sketch a storyboard, and dive right in! I’ve even designated a Go!Animate video School News for Teens! TV Show Opening that's FREE to SNAG! I've given permission to copy so that you can copy and play with it! Also, all the Xtranormal vids you can just click REMIX and like an open source video make changes, save, and rename it as your own! Live long an Animate!
Blabberize is a really cool site where you can "upload a picture, select a mouth on that picture, and record some sound to make that picture talk." It’s an easy and fast way to podcast! And though it's super easy there ARE a few tricks....Here's how it works:
Find a picture...i recommend an animal, cartoon, historic painting, etc. using real people or kids for some reason looks creepy to me...except for those Twihard peeps (OK, those mary sues were creepy to start with!) Browse to upload the picture. You have to have the pic on your machine, you can't supply a url to a jpeg. Crop the pic to be used by moving the sliding dots so that the portion of the pic you want to work with is selected. Add a mouth to your picture...it starts as a big blob...but move the dots to reduce or enlarge to fit the mouth at the seam. Making it bigger than it needs to be makes it better...it's funny when the whole chin goes up and down. Once you have your mouth re-sized to fit click the right arrow to go on to the next step. Record the sound for your video by using either your built in microphone, uploading sound you've already recorded or record using your phone. Click Allow to allow access for the Adobe flash player settings. I've only ever used my microphone and it works great! I've also used a USB microphone for better (louder) sound quality. Click the red record button to start (you'll see the green volume line going up and down) Each scene only has 30 seconds of record time, so I suggest writing out a script and practicing first. I also use a boom box or a laptop with iTunes to play background music..cause this isn't high tech here...this is easy, quick and dirty. Play what you just recorded and click OK when you're satisfied that. Now you can either make another scene, or go back and edit and re-record what you just did. Choose carefully because after the final save, you can't edit and change it later, you gotta start from the beginning. Describe your Blabber! Give it a catchy name, write a short description, and add related tags so that people searching can find it. You have a choice for making this a private blabber or mature then click save. Again, because this site is very user intensive there are inappropriate and immature products to be found...direct supervision or using this to promote your program is recommended. Click Share it and you'll get your embed code! Grab that code by copying it all and pasting it wherever you want your vid to show up! It's that easy! Enjoy Blabberize for the fun that it is...but don't expect it to be more than it is - there are premium features that they say are on the way....stay tuned for those!
Whether you are Team Jacob (YAY!) or Team Edward (Boo!) --OK, ok - i'll stay out of it...But Vote on the PollDaddy Poll below! Twihard fans must have read ALL the books by now....or you should have! And with New Moon to open tomorrow you may be hungry for more bloodthristy reads...and that's where i come in! Muuwaaa! The following suggestions are available in our Library Media Center.... unless your GF or BF has checked them out! Not sure? Double check using our online PAC System!
Blood & Chocolate ~ Annette Curtis Klause Ms. Jones says: Maryland author and visitor to MHMS a few years ago...... writes a dark story that is exciting and a sure page turner! Not for 6th graders or little brothers or sisters, this scary story has all the angst of high school with places mentioned that you'll recognize as a Marylander!
from Amazon: "Blood and Chocolate chronicles the longings and passions of one Vivian Gandillon, teenage werewolf. Her pack family, recently burned out of their West Virginia home by suspicious neighbors, has resettled in a sleepy Maryland suburb. At her new school, Viv quickly falls for sensitive heartthrob Aiden, a human--or "meat-boy," as her pack calls him. Soon she is trying to tame her undomesticated desires to match his more civilized sensibilities. "He was gentle. She hadn't expected that. Kisses to her were a tight clutch, teeth, and tongue... His eyes were shy beneath his dark lashes, and his lips curved with delight and desire--desire he wouldn't force on her... he was different." But Vivian's animal ardor cannot be stilled, and she must decide if she should keep Aiden in the dark about her true nature or invite him to take a walk on her wild side."
Blue Bloods by ~ Melissa De La Cruz Ms. Jones says: I so Heart this series! I've read both and can't wait for the third AND fourth! If you like NYC, private schools, snotty rich people (getting put in their place!) and fashion mixed with vampire horror and history...this series is for you!
"De la Cruz has revamped traditional vampire lore in this story featuring a group of attractive, privileged Manhattan teens who attend a prestigious private school. Schuyler Van Alen, 15, the last of the line in a distinguished family, is being raised by her distant and forbidding grandmother. Schuyler, her friend Oliver, and their new friend Dylan are treated like outsiders by the clique of popular, athletic, and beautiful teens made up of Mimi Force, her twin brother, and her best friend. What they have in common is the fact that they are all Blue Bloods, or vampires. They don't realize that they aren't normal until they reach age 15. Then the symptoms manifest themselves and they begin to crave raw meat, have nightmares about events in history, and get prominent blue veins in their arms. Their immortality and way of life are threatened after Blue Blood teens start getting murdered by a splinter group called the Silver Bloods. This novel constantly name-drops and is full of product placements, drinking, drugs, nonexplicit sex, and superficial characterizations, but the intriguing plot will keep teens reading. De la Cruz's explanation for the disappearance of the Colony of Roanoke is unique and the idea that models don't gain weight because they are Blue Bloods rather than anorexic is unusual."–Sharon Rawlins, SLJ
Ms. Jones says: haven't read this one myself but i heard it's really good...read it and tell me what you think!
"Raven, 16, doesn't fit in at school or home. This goth-girl is obsessed with vampires and when a new family moves into the old town mansion, she is convinced that the son, Alexander, is a vampire. The story swirls around and through sibling rivalry, peer relationships, friendships, and love. Raven is a feisty protagonist with a quick wit and a real sense of self. She defends herself and her friends, often besting her peers with humor and a quick tongue. As her connection with Alexander deepens, she comes to understand her family better. It is through his shadowy character that readers are kept off balance. Schreiber weaves a tale that is more about acceptance and friendship than about vampire behavior and culture, and sustains a tone that draws readers to the characters rather than to horrific plot developments that would keep them reading. There is far less intensity than in Annette Curtis Klause's Silver Kiss (Laurel-Leaf, 1992) and less moodiness than that found in Amelia Atwater-Rhodes's Midnight Predator (2002) and Shattered Mirror (2001, both Delacorte). While the ending isn't tied up in a neat and pretty bow, it fits the style and tone. All in all, a good read for those who want a vampire love story without the gore." SLJ
Demon in My View (Den of Shadows) ~Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Ms. Jones says: OMword i love ALL her books! and we have nearly every one! she started writing these when she was just in high school but she has really gotten the tone right for a well crafted, engaging story...i say read 'em ALL!
"he teen queen of horror fiction Amelia Atwater-Rhodes is on the prowl again! Continuing in much the same vampire vein that established her reputation, the young writer's sophomore novel also includes a touch of autobiography. Jessica Allodola is a high school senior who pens vampire tales under the pseudonym Ash Night. (Hmmm, sound familiar?) Because of her funereal clothing and cynical demeanor, Jessica is shunned by her sunnier classmates. No matter, she prefers the company of the undead she creates on her laptop, anyway. But Jessica is shaken when a creature from her novel, the suave vampire Aubrey (who fans will remember from In the Forests of the Night) shows up as a new student at her school. Not knowing whether he plans to seduce or harm her, Jessica plays a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Aubrey as she tries to discover the secret of his existence. As she delves deeper into the midnight world of her own novels, she encounters other supernatural beings, like Fala, an evil Egyptian vampire, and Caryn Smoke, a teenaged good witch. When she finally unearths the shocking truth that explains the tangibility of her imaginary world, Jessica must decide if she loves that dark world enough to leave the light forever. Atwater-Rhode's writing, while still showing strong traces of Anne Rice and Stephen King, is maturing nicely as she cleverly constructs this story within a story. Her vampires, while thousands of years old, have adolescent mood swings and tempers, which will sit well with the under-16 crowd. Demon in My View will undoubtedly find its way into many backpacks and Trapper Keepers. (Ages 12 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert"
and for both Guys and Gals might i suggest the Cirque du Freak Series! Ms. Jones says: Amazingly scary from the first couple chapters! I met the author and he was delightful and a bit macabre! ....Try these books but you GOTTA read 'em in order...really!
"A boy sneaks out to an illicit freak show, and his life becomes entangled with a vampire spider-wrangler. "The author mines the exploitative history of early 20th-century sideshows to create an artfully macabre 'Cirque du Freak,' " wrote PW.
Okay okay.....Still want to read Twilight series? But don't have the hard copy on hand?
Gwyneth is a blogger, a Tweeter, a Future Ready International Keynote EdTech & Librarian speaker, a trope and meme archivist, creator of content, a citizen of advocacy, and a resident of social media. Ms. Jones is a Google Certified Innovator & Ambassador, a PBS / MPT American Graduate Champion,of Change, PBS, NTTI, & MPT Teacher of the Year (2001), and the author of the award winning The Daring Librarian blog.
Vampire Kisses 
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