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Showing posts from June, 2014

Vine Video Book Trailers

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(Warning: This blog post may load slowly because of all the embedded videos.  To hear the audio, click on the tiny speaker in the top left of each video) Every year I get excited to share with my kiddos our district & local library Summer Reading List (more about that below!) and to try and generate new ways to catch their interest in reading over the break. This year we decided to create video book trailers using the Vine App! Six second videos that loop with sound. No editing needed, just creativity! You Gotta ASK For It! When I originally had this idea, I got permission from my principal and then I emailed & called my district tech leaders Julie Wray @jwwray and Robert Cole @racolej  to see if I could actually do it. Unfortunately, the Vine App wasn't approved yet -sooooo I asked if it COULD be and then I had to scramble to adapt the idea using a flip camera. Luckily, Bob Cole pushed the Vine App through in about a week, and BAM!  We were back in Vine bu

How to Train Your (New) Principal

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I hope that the click-bait blog title got your attention. It was designed to! But you may ultimately find it misleading. Please keep reading! Before any admins out there start sharpening their pitchforks for me, I gotta say that I really don't think teachers need to train new principals. Principals come to us already accomplished, trained, vetted, and hand-picked. Nor are Principals or Assistant Principals really dragons...but then again, dragons ARE protective! And a new Admin does sorta have to take control of the school which may include a little fire breathing now and then. Are you still with me? The conversation I really want to have is with YOU - or rather, with US!  The classroom teacher, school librarian, and educator of any subject who is NOT in charge of a whole school.   I actually think it's the teachers and staff that needs to be trained to be more tolerant! Cut Me Some Slack! Why do we seem to give all kinds of slack, assistance, mentoring, and