Cool Cat Teacher Blog is at coolcatteacher.com

It was exciting to see my friend Darren's post today about the announcing of the 2007 Edublog Awards . He had the honor of telling me that Cool Cat Teacher is a finalist for best teacher blog this year and that the Horizon Project is a finalist for best wiki ! (I'm not sure why I didn't get an e-mail from Josie, but I sent a quick message thanking her and included a description of my blog.) It is also exciting that TechLearning has been nominated for best group blog . Congratulations to all of the finalists! It is great company that I'm allowed to keep! I hope you'll review the nominations and vote! You'll also find some great reading in there for your RSS reader! Why it means so much to me! This nomination means a lot because it means that there are some of you out there who like my blog! (I have a personal policy to NEVER nominate myself for an award.) Blogging in the Trenches of Life As I'm sitting here watching a JV basketball game (we're ...

I want to know how this student on Flat Classroom made this video. It has links within it and an interactive survey at the end. These students often make me say, hmmm How did they do that? I particularly like the puppetcast at the beginning, how they cite their sources of information (look for the little boxes that pop up), and the discussion between a person playing Google and Yahoo and the Google Pink video at the end. I feel that this is future of HOW we will do video. After "hacking" their code, I see this was done in Asterpix . (Kudos to Elizabeth in St. Louis for encouraging this innovation. So so cool!) Hyperlinked video citing sources. This is so far past what I've understood or even thought about but it is WHAT I'll be doing! See the video . (I had some trouble w/ Asterpix making my blog not load in Internet Explorer but you can go to the link.) We will be creating a standard for how student online video should be done, in fact it is happening now. An...

I've been shopping today and yesterday and have found some things I think would be good for teachers. I'm using the link on my amazon associate account below (so if you buy any of the linked items I get a little money to afford Christmas! Thanks! I hope this helps!. ;-) 1 - I Love You Toast Stamper $2.99 at Amazon This is great for the teacher with kids. You press this onto the toast and magically the words "I Love You" appear on the toast. 2 - All Out Of- Grocery Shopping List $ 7.74 This handy list is great for teachers on the run! I couldn't get enough of these. 3 - USB Gadgets These cool things are powered by the USB port on the teacher's computer (just make sure they know what one is.) I particularly like the USB Refrigerator ($34.99) which holds a single drink, although it is a little pricey for what most want to do. The USB Fan ($16.99) is also great for those in warmer climates, and USB Heating Gloves for colder. ($22) 4- Totes Fashion Micro ...

I came across this neat video on Viddler by Goldie . I do like the viddler format in that it allows others to comment on the video and add remarks and clarifications (you'll see them pop up as you watch the tutorial.)

I've had on my list for some to explore facebook and am spending my R&D time this vacation on Facebook. (And time is almost up.) (By the way, I think that all people committed to innovation should take some time for R&D- research and development, each week and preferably each day. My R&D time is when I get my light bulb moments. But, set the timer, it could suck you in!) I'm coolcatteacher over there. But I must say, except for adding a twitter app (to post my twitter updates), and adding a delicious app, I'm sorely deficient on how to effectively use facebook. So, facebook fans, tell me, what are the groups I should join? How should I connect on facebook? What are your tips? I'm all ears and will post more later about what "I think." I don't know anything and need to see what you think. I am spurred forward because articles like the recent 14 year old girl's suicide caused by the creation of a fictious person on myspace has me great...

The following video is from a student assigned to explain Thomas Friedman 's first trend " Connecting the World Online " using the concept of "Play" (we called it the Fun Factor ) from Dan Pink's book A Whole New Mind . (I'm going to use this video to introduce the terminology of Web 2.0 with my younger students!) It is amazing how well this video DOES teach, but the kids had so much fun (as you can tell.) This video was created in a little over a week and uses the green screen techniques taught by Dean Shareski as a by product of his amazing keynote . (Actually, we used a $25 green sheet of chromakey plastic from ebay! Not perfect, but hey, it worked!) Again, this project has accelerated my students far past what any of us seven teachers could do alone. It is not something any one of us teachers can get our arms around or really take credit for. We are facilitators, the kids grow and learn like a moving, evolving organism of thought, excitement, and...

On November 1st, I blogged about Moray in South Africa who needed to connect with some people who could help her! Well, my good friend Karyn Romeis (from the UK) had some contacts and this is the message I received today from Moray. (With names taken out.) Dear Vicki Thank you so much for helping me out. I have been put in touch with **name removed** who lives in Pietermaritzburg, about an hour’s drive from Durban, where I live. [She] was so accommodating and had material that I have been able to use and adapt to our special circumstances. We are getting along like a house on fire and should have everything completed by the end of this week. Something that initially looked like an insurmountable obstacle has suddenly become achievable. [She] also runs a marvelous phonics programme which I have discussed with our remedial teacher. We shall probably introduce something similar in the New Year. We have been given so many wonderful ideas and plenty of inspiration. Thank you once again fo...