Yahoo recently released a tool called Mapmixer. It allows you to overlay a map of your own on top of Yahoo Maps. You can make your maps puplic or private. For example I overlaid our evacuation map on top of Yahoo Maps and have made it privately available to our staff via our staff bulletin page. Below is an example of an embedded map, the USC campus...
Via Ogle Earth...
Technorati Tags: maps, USC, Yahoo Maps
Again this school year 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students at Lewis will benefit from the Reed College Biology Outreach Program. This continuing partnership between Reed and our school helps to enhance our science program by offering an inquiry-based science curriculum with Reed College biology faculty and Reed students who work with our students and teachers in our classroom. This years' focus is Watersheds and Fresh-water Ecology. As part of this unit students will be raising Chinook eggs provided by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in our classrooms for release as fry into Reed College Canyon. (map) An overview of the Reed Biology Outreach program was recently published in the Reed Magazine: Teaching About the Birds and the Bees (and the Flowers and the Frogs).
Technorati Tags: Reed College, Lewis Elementary
On Sunday, Lewis hosted a performance art event that is part of the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art's Time Base Art Festival. Gary Wiseman, a local artist, and former Lewis student, held a Recess Tea Party on the playground at Lewis.
Tea Project, a series of interactive performances, will inspire, instruct, and reinvigorate as it revisits sites and themes from the artist’s Portland childhood and creates temporary refuges in our social landscape. Part community ritual, part spontaneous improvisation, and part consensual transformation, Tea Project redefines active participation and blurs the boundaries between viewer and performer.
The Lewis event involved a memory Gary has of recess at Lewis. Specifically it involved recess and a rule instituted by the principal at the time that children could not engage in chase games. The performance involved dancers acting as school girls chasing Gary during recess while under the guise of "just jumping roping". Many Lewis students took part and the event was a great way to start the year. As I said to the kids involved, sometimes you paint a picture and put it on a wall and we call it art. Sometimes you go to a concert and the symphony plays, and we call it art. And sometimes we come together and share a memory, and we call it art...
On Wednesday we had our first day of school. Our enrollment is up 15 students from last year and our single 5th grade class is bulging with 36 students. I'm hoping we can get some additional support to handle the size, but will not know about that for a week or so.
On Thursday we had a visit from Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski. He spent time visiting classrooms and talking to students. His is an interesting life story, and one that demonstrates the power of education to change lives. He grew up in an orphanage in St. Louis and after high school joined the Marines. He credits the GI Bill for allowing him to pursue higher education and achieve the accomplishments that he has in his life.
On Sunday at 3:15 pm local artist, and former Lewis Elementary student, Gary Wiseman will be staging "A Recess Tea Party" on the Lewis playground. This is part of the (PICA) Portland Institute for Contemporary Art Time-Based Art Festival.
The Time-Based Art Festival is a contemporary art festival of regional, national, and international artists presenting theatre, dance, music, film, visual exhibition and installation. PICA presents moments of movement and imagery under bridges, over rivers, on stages and throughout the city—all in Portland, Oregon USA. The TBA Festival examines and celebrates every form of contemporary art and is the only festival of its kind in North America.
Several Lewis students will take part in a choreographed remembrance of a playground encounter (something about girls chasing boys during recess, a timeless theme... :-) ) when Gary was a student at Lewis. Tea and cupcakes will be served and the event is open to the public. So if you happen to be in Portland on Sunday, come on out and take part...
Jim Gates recently related a story about a teacher who made a difference in his life. A great post to start the new school year. Thanks Jim...
Twitter Adds GMail Contacts Import Via Mashable
Am heading over this morning to school to coordinate our annual school yard clean up day, Community Care Day. Volunteers will work from 9:00 to Noon to prune, pull weeds, spread bark mulch and generally clean up the school year for the opening of school on September 5. If you are in Portland and would like to help, please stop by the school and give a hand.
Technorati Tags: community care day, lewiselementary
I haven't been adding much to my weblog lately. Mainly I've been busy at work getting ready for the new school year. One project I've been working on is a redesign of our staff bulletin weblog. I'm moving it to Wordpress from Drupal mainly because it really is more of a weblog site than a school wide CMS, and because of the wide variety of plugins and 3rd party tools available for Wordpress. Our public web site remains a Drupal site.
I've also been using Zoho Creator to make several web based databases that I plan to use with my staff and community this year. These will be databases to track staff requests (custodial, technology, supplies...) and also databases to keep track student data. Zoho has a very intuative form creation tool that makes it easy to create these databases and share them with staff.
We are also using Netvibes to create student and staff resource pages that will serve as home pages when students and staff log into the web. I'm also using Netvibes to create a dashboard page for myself where I will be able to easily track much of the information that is generated by the Zoho forms.
Teachers officially report next week and students begin school on September 5. Lots to do before then. In the meantime, see ya on Twitter.
Technorati Tags: lewiselementary
Google has enhanced Google My Maps with a feature that allows you to embed your map in a web page or blog. Just click on the "link to this map" link and you are presented with code to paste into your web page. You can use the default settings or follow the customize link to add you own size settings.
View Larger Map
Technorati Tags: maps, google maps
I've been spending some time becoming more familiar with Zoho Creator. Zoho Creator is a web based data tool that allows you to create web forms to capture data. I am in the process of editing our staff bulletin web intranet and as part of the redesign, am using Zoho Creator to create several online forms for staff to use to make requests. These requests will range from things like a custodial work request form, all the way to a student support form. Zoho Creator has several features that I am finding very interesting. For example when a form is submitted you have the option of designating automatic email notification. For example when a staff member submits a custodial request, Zoho will generate an email alerting the custodian of the request, in addition to logging the request in the Zoho database. An RSS file is also created which I plan to use with NetVibes to create a dashboard that will help me track and keep up with the various types of requests being submitted.
In the case of the student support form, teachers will use this form to request support and suggestions from fellow staff members as they work to differentiate instruction and support their students. For example a student may be having some difficulty in a curricular area. A classroom teacher can use this form to generate request ideas and suggestions for instructional interventions. The workflow for these types of requests will generate email that will be routed to support staff to alert them of the request. To keep everyone in the loop, the RSS feed for these types of student support requests will be published in a sidebar on our private staff bulletin page. The idea is that the more staff are aware of student needs, they more they can contribute and support each other as they work to support all of our students.
Technorati Tags: zoho, zoho creator
TokBox provides free web browser based video chat. To initiate a session, you need to register, but a nice feature is that registration is not required for anyone else to video chat with you. It works through your web browser, so you don't need to download anything to your computer. It can also be embedded on a page. Via TechCrunch
TwitDir is a searchable directory of Twitter users. TwitDir lets you search by keyword and user name.
3D Warehouse Model Viewer Displays the latest additions to the Google 3D Warehouse. You can display most recent, most popular, and highest rated. Similar to TwitterVision and FlickrVision...