I saw this tweet from @keishawilliams about TweetStats.  Curiousity got the better of me, so taking a break from Empressr and MyStudiyo (blog post to follow), I entered my twitter username.

Considering my family and I have just spent 5 days down in Nelson (blog post in progress over here) with the amazing AllanahK – it’s no wonder she’s top of my Replies To (@) list.  Ms Cofino – well everyone knows I just LOVE working with this highly motivating and intelligent lady (even have the t-shirt to prove it!!) so NO surprises there.  HeyMilly is absolutely gorgeous, witty and funny and I love reading her tweets – I wish I was as full of energy as she is – she’s loving life and taking us along for the ride – Go Girlfriend!!

Here’s the graphic I think is most revealing though – TweetCloud!  My top 5 tweets are a reflection of the last 5 days spent in Nelson on our first ever visit to the South Island – thanks, new, time, nz, great !!

But I like the fact that awesome, learning, students, skype, mac, think, need, time & blog feature heavily too.

Most of all, I’m really, really pleased that thanks features the most in the Tweet Cloud!  Without such a supportive, inspirational, generous and caring bunch of people in my PLN – my learning journey would be a half-empty glass.  Thanks twitter PLN! (And thanks Mum, for teaching me that manners matter!)

It’s summer vacation, my son is enjoying an hour on his PlayStation, and I’m enjoying the time to just browse the internet, catch up on the starred posts in my google reader, read some books (some fiction, some teacher-ish!) and generally relax.  It’s been a while since I last posted …… I thought I might be having writer’s block again, but the more I think about, the more I’m convinced that I really haven’t had anything worthwhile to say for a while.

I do have a few posts brewing, one on Writer’s Workshop (my own personal area for development and improvement for the 2009/10), a reflection post on the whirlwind year moving from New Zealand to Bangkok, Thailand, and a few other little projects gently simmering in the background!

Image attribution:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/mark78/1463574952/

March is SMARCH at school – Using your SMARTBoard smarter! Here’s my top share for this week.

My twitter friend Tom Barrett has this fabulous site called Ideas to Inspire.  It’s jam-packed with googledoc presentations he’s become quite famous for organising.  Using a tweet he calls for ideas from educators all around the world to suggest ideas, tips and tricks for any number of topics.  Together, everyone collaborates on a googledoc presentation with title changing with each additional idea.  See if you can guess my contribution for the Pocket Video Cameras.

For SMARCH check out #38 Interesting Ways to Use Your Interactive Whiteboard *and tips. I say #38 because when you look at it, that number quite possibly will have increased!  These documents grow ……. literally!

But of course, don’t stop there!

Check out all the other amazing topics!

My fabulous colleagues back home in New Zealand have been enjoying the Learning@Schools09 Conference held in Rotorua.  When my good friend AllanahK tweeted that she was organising a “Matt-style” dance at the start of Wes Fryer’s Keynote presentation, I couldn’t resist the urge to tweet back “Can I skype in?”

Sure enough – at 7.15am Bangkok, Thailand time, and 1.15pm, New Zealand time, she did just that- skyped me in so that I could join in the dance too.  It was brilliant – almost like being there.  I was able listen to Wes’s Keynote until Allanah’s battery finally died.  I wish I could have been there in personal to reconnect with old friends, make new friends, and learn new things from incredibly talented people.  Watch the video!

I originally used jing to capture the screen on my laptop (’cos that’s all I had), then discovered that it saves as .swf. Drat – not editable (without the Pro version – funny that?).  So here’s the master genius work around I used:

Step 1:  Grab Jeff Utecht on his way out the door – (’cos he has ScreenFlow)
Step 2:  Replay .swf on his laptop and re-capture using ScreenFlow – saves as a .mov, edit as you go
Step 3:  Import into iMovie – add titles and credits
Step 4:  Play real “Dancing with Matt” video on YouTube to capture the soundtrack using Audio Hijack Pro
Step 5:  Import audio into iMovie – adjust sound levels
Step 6:  Upload to teachingsagittarian’s YouTube channel

Did I mention that I love my mac laptop?

I’ve just finished reading Michelle Martin’s latest post, A Week Without Google, on her Bamboo Project Blog.

My heart darn near skipped a beat at the thought of it.  Could you imagine it?  No gmail, gchat, gtalk,  google calendar, google docs, google maps, google search, google earth, google alerts, no blogger, and alas no iGoogle – no google anything!  And this is an actual assignment for Michelle’s daughter to do for her New Media Research class. And her assignment includes no YouTube either!!

Oh my!  Could I do it? Um … NOPE.  Not a chance!  And then it dawned on me just how reliant I’ve become on one company’s products.  I hadn’t meant to, I didn’t do it deliberately and I certainly didn’t realise it – til now.  I can’t think of any other aspect of my life (even financially) where I’ve literally put all my “eggs in one basket.”

How many Google products do you rely on?  All the ones I use religiously (that’s on a day to day basis) are listed in the first paragraph.  I am so dependent on Google. I really need to think seriously about how to manage if Google “went down”  (as she’s frantically touching wood so that doesn’t happen)!  Over the past week our school server has been hit with a virus that no one has the fix for.  Work with the internet in the classroom has all but ground to a halt.  Today my students alternated between reading their books and writing with a pencil while we waited patiently for pages on our blog to load.  At least we had the books and pencils as an alternative.  But that’s my point really.  What alternative do I have for all the google apps I use?

What about you?  Could you go a week without google?  Are all your eggs in one basket too?

This is a must-watch video.  Watch it from beginning to end.  It’s powerful.

In my favourite colour too. Love it!

Are you a smartboard user or any other IWB user for that matter? Looking for a challenge?  Do you feel like you’re getting the most out of your Interactive Whiteboard?   Want to breathe some pizzaz into using an IWB with students in the classroom?  Or do you just want to use your IWB better? Smarter?

Then look no further!

The amazing Jess McCulloch has created the Whiteboard Challenge. She’s also got a stunning line up of Task Masters, (Check out who),  just waiting to bring us our next challenges.

It’s only just started with Challenge #1 – making mp3 recordings and adding them to the gallery.

Not only has Jess created a wikispace, there’s a diigo group, and she’s even provided participants with astep-by-step video on how to complete Challenge #1

I’ve been an Interwrite IWB user for several years now (I miss my Interwrite Board back in NZ). Now I am finding my way around the smartboard and notebook application. This challenge is perfect way to get me up to speed!

Way to go Jess! Fabulous challenge, fabulous resource that will definitely help a lot of IWB users out there!

So what are you waiting for? Let’s begin!

A few weeks ago, Emily, the co-ordinator “Inquiry Guru-ess” for TIS introduced me to Blabberize. This is such a cool tool!  I could imagine using Blabberize to demonstrate learning and understanding before, during and after an Inquiry Learning Unit or any other curriculum area for that matter.  When you take a look at it, please, please click on the llama on the home page – he’s hilarious!

It was fairly easy to use.  The hardest part for students would be getting the mouth setting right, and as I discovered, Blabberize’s advice on using a frontal image is a definite must for ease of creation.
I had a bit of trouble embedding the flash file.  I’m not sure if it’s Edublogs or the Blabberize code.
Check out my first attempt below or if that’s not working,  click on this link

Here’s how it’s done in 7 easy steps:

Step 1:  Sign up for a free account

Step 2: Make a Blabber, upload a picture

Step 3:  Allow permission for your microphone

Step 4: Select the mouth with control points (this is the hardest part)

Step 5: Click on the Microphone button to begin recording your message

Step 6: Preview and Save

Step 7: Share your blabber

Blabberize is full of examples (some great, some not some great – discretion advised) and full of tips to get a good result.

Why not give it a try?

I’d love to watch your creations so don’t forget to let me know what you come up with!

I love my NikonD40. It was extremely valuable piece of equipment to record my travels on the way home from Argentina recently. I’m am convinced that when you know you have a good camera in your hands, you tend to take better pictures. Well, subconsciously I think you do anyway.

I was kinda “chuffed” then, when I got this email from Schmap Guides

Hi teachingsagittarian,

I am writing to let you know that one of your photos with a Creative Commons license has been short-listed for inclusion in the fifth edition of our Schmap Auckland Guide, to be published at the end of this month.

www.schmap.com/shortlist/p=10747684N00/c=SH51013676

Clicking this link will take you to a page where you can:
i) See which of your photos has been short-listed.
ii) Submit or withdraw your photo from our final selection phase.
iii) Learn how we credit photos in our Schmap Guides.
iv) Browse online or download the fourth edition of our Schmap Auckland Guide.

Our submission deadline is Sunday, July 13. If you happen to be reading this message after this date, please still click on the link above (our Schmap Guides are updated frequently – photos submitted after this deadline will be considered for later releases).

Best regards,

Emma Williams,
Managing Editor, Schmap Guides

After thinking about it for a couple of days I did eventually click on the submit the day of the deadline.

Today, when uploading some new photos to flickr I saw an email from Emma Williams congratulating me on the selection of my photo and details of how it looks in the Schmap Auckland Guide. It also gives me credit for the photo.

And it’s even got an iPhone view!

If you’re interested in taking a closer look at the actual photo you can find it here.

I’m off to learn how to use the Manual mode a bit more!