I've Got Spirit! Yes I Do!

Today was Spirit Day. It's funny. When I first started here, I never really took part. I'm not really a school spirited type of person. I mean, I'm a Banana Slug for one thing... But the last couple of years, I started dressing up a little bit. I'm still much more reserved than some of my coworkers.
But this year, I thought, let me do something fun. I love dancing so when the opportunity came where I could be part of the pep rally with some of my favorite people at work, I said "Yes!" So, today, was the day. I totally messed up. I lost count at times but it was so fun!
We did a flash mob and danced our butts off first and then slowly the kids started joining. We had teachers and students planted in the audience and before you knew it..everyone was up and dancing. It was so great to see everyone having so much fun. One of the great things about working at a middle school is that you can dress up like a clown for spirit day, help lead a dance and then just have fun because it is all part of the job. I think, that is one of the reasons I really like this job. I can actually be as silly as I want to be and it's all okay. The bosses laugh, the kids laugh and of course, I laugh.

Happy Friday! and GO WOLVERINES!!!

Checking Out: Universal Subtitles

One of the projects our amazing foreign language teachers created involves having students create subtitled videos. We have them use MS MovieMaker and at times, it can be quirky when dealing with characters or accents so I have been wondering if there was an easier tool to use that would allow them to subtitle their video projects and as I was reading through PBS NewsHours site, I saw a call to subtitle President Obama's speech from last night using a tool called Universal Subtitles. I decided to give it a shot. It look me about 20 minutes with their helpful tutorial to subtitle the President's introduction at the Correspondents Dinner.

You can view the subtitled video here.

Now, I just used a YouTube video and right now, it looks like you can use Vimeo and blip.tv.  So, I will have to try to see if a TeacherTube or SchoolTube video works. But it was one of the easiest things I've ever used. Just follow along and presto!! Subtitles!!!

So here are the challenges:

• where do you host your school's videos? 
• it is open to the public, so what if someone interferes with your students' videos (though, I wouldn't worry to much about this)
• it is an extra step for students' projects
• not sure how you would download the video if you did use it for class

Some pluses:

• it is free and open
• collaborate with people all over the world
• multiple languages so this might prevent all the weird character/accent challenges that students deal with now
• video is hosted online so you don't have to worry too much about storage space

I'm sure many more questions will come up but it was pretty easy and fun to use.

Nonfiction Mondays: Extreme Scientists by Donna M. Jackson

Sorry this is a late. We were so busy yesterday that I did not have a chance to write a post for Nonfiction Monday on Monday. Tons of 9th grade history students running around the library, kids finishing up pamphlets, lots of questions to answer about bibliography citations, and of course, controlling and preventing our students from taking over the labs with March Madness mayhem!!!

Today's selection is Extreme Scientists: Exploring Nature's Mysteries from Perilous Places by Donna M. Jackson

What Caught My Eye: I have really enjoyed the last book I read, The Frog Scientist, from the Scientists in the Field series published by Houghton Mifflin, and saw that we had this at the public library's New Books shelf and picked it up. Plus I am part of Generation X so you know, if it says "extreme" I have to read it. Just kidding!

Why I Didn't Put It Down: This book was a great introduction to some really dangerous and exciting careers in science. There are 3 types of scientists Jackson covers (1) a hurricane hunter (pilot) (2) a cave (land and sea) exploring microbiologist and (3) a tree canopy exploring, tree scaling botanist. It is filled with color photographs of the scientists, the environments they study and their equipment. It also contains a great glossary of words for the 3 disciplines and some helpful links and bibliography in the end.

Who Would I Recommend This To: Anyone interested in reading about science. Kids, adults, teens...if you just want to gain a little insight into what these people do this book is definitely worth picking up.