Spell with Flikr

As I was browsing over other campers' answers to Week 3 homework, a fellow camper (Kelly Brannock) had created a really cool banner for her page using Spell with Flikr. Couldn't be easier: Go to the site, key in the word you want it to create and it pulls images of letters from Flikr. If you don't like a particular letter, you can have it go find another one. Not something I will use daily, but I can see how elementary students might like to use this for a spelling assignment or to jazz up online/print publications. For me personally--I'm using it to make labels for all of the containers of school supplies that I consolidated on Tuesday:)

Warning: Moderately Off Topic at first, but I get around to being relevant:)

I have just finished (started at 9:30 a.m.) clutterbusting our pantry--in the time that I was not untangling animals--today was a let's see how many times I can get wrapped around a tree and turn over my water bucket day, but at least I didn't get peed on today--that was yesterday's ordeal. Anyway... I felt inspired to blog about it. Managed to fill the trash receptacle that was just emptied this morning--sorry Waste Mgmt. And set aside two boxes and a trash bag that will go to Goodwill. Used a banana box to collect trash as I waded in and made seven trips to empty it--hence aforementioned full trash receptacle. Amazing how a change, like your children growing up--they are about 7 inches away from catching me, creates organization opportunites:) They can reach the top shelves in the pantry now, so more of the things they like have been relocated there...They can both lift close to 60 pounds, so I was able to chunk things together into bigger containers that they can move to get to whatever they want. They each still have a box for school things they want to save (oh, alright, things I want to save).

Reminds me that just as our family's use of space changes as we get older, so will my students' use of the media center. I normally do moderate rearranging each year, but feel like the time has come to create some areas designated for particular groups of learners. Historically, I have striven to maintain a "generic" space that can adapt to whomever needs to use it. Beginning to feel that maybe this is most suitable for the adults, but not necessarily the students who outnumber us 25 to one. So, hmmm??? Who should the space be most suitable for? The students.

Google Forms and Spreadsheets

**Anyone who has seen the American Pie movies will get this next line**. So this one time at PBWorks Summer Camp, a presenter during one of our weekly webinars mentioned using a Google form for students to complete vocabulary practice activities. The simplicity of it is beautiful--the form gives the students a template to use, then their answers appear in a google spreadsheet that the teacher can use to check that the students have completed the assignment. Up to this point, I have mainly used google forms for surveys and sign up sheets. I am eager to try this use of google forms when I return to school in August. I will probably use it as a learning checkup to see if students have met the lesson's objectives.

**In the American Pie movies there is one character (a band geek) who attempts to relate everything to band camp. She begins a lot of her lines, "So this one time, at band camp...".