Tuesday Teacher Tips: Thinglink

First of all congratulations to both the Elkton-LB Football and Volleyball teams.

Both had great regular seasons, and enjoyed a post season victory before their seasons ended.  Each team should be proud of the way they played, and the way that they represented our community.

With the end of the fall season sports:  CC, VB, FB...that means we will begin the winter sports season...which means BB.

I have been working with the 5th graders for a few weeks now.  Coach Erickson started some of his open gyms yesterday, and the Girls BB team will have their first open gyms of the year tonight.  Let's hope the determination and success of the fall sports rub off on our basketball teams!

On to today's subject:  Thinglink

What is Thinglink.com?  Well, for the answer to that...let's see what the actual website says about that.

"ThingLink helps you create and discover rich images.

Be creative! Make your images come alive with music, video, text, images, shops and more!

Every image contains a story and ThingLink helps you tell your stories. Follow image channels from your favorite bands, bloggers and friends. Your ThingLink interactive images form a channel that other users can follow.

Share your channel with friends on Facebook and Twitter, and follow your friends. Touch and discover."

So basically, it is a way to make pictures and graphics interactive!

Could be a very interesting way to make assignments/projects "come to life".

For example...here is a photo of the Wright Brothers that was posted on the Thinglink website.

As you can see (if the embed code worked in the blog), this picture has an audio clip attached to it, a video clip, and 3 text information boxes as well.

Much like previous subjects we covered like:  Instagrok, Simple Booklet, and Screenr... Thinglink is a web based application that you can use to "spice up" your assignments/projects and get your students creativity flowing!

As always... Thinglink, as well as the other sites mentioned here, are saved on my "Delicious" Social Bookmark.  You don't need to bookmark all of them (unless you really want to)...just bookmark my Delicious page.  

(An aside...a great way for you to keep all the links handy for all your classes in to create your own "Delicious" page...and then make your students save the link to your page in their favorites...that way they can always find the site you are pointing them to)

ONE LAST ANNOUNCEMENT:

I will be out of the office Thursday and Friday this week.  My wife is attending a training in Rapid City and I will be taking some vacation time (before basketball starts).  So, for Elkton Staff, I will be gone Wednesday to Lake Benton like usual, but will be out of the office for the rest of the week.

Thanks for your attention, and I hope some of you decide to give "Thinglink" a shot!

Weekend Update for September 6th, 2013

Well, it's been another busy week in the Technology Office.

The new machines for Roland Colony are almost completed (I am working on the last one, right now).

The Smarter Balance Technology Readiness Tool is completed.  This is something all schools in SD have to complete as the testing moves to online this year.  It was actually quite a lengthy process and complicated...took me a long time to get it figured out.

We've had a few staff computers with some issues, I've been able to solve most of them so far, although there are a few still giving me some trouble.

The images for all the student machines have been updated for duplication.  There are a few students who had trouble with their machines in the first couple days who were issued loaners...Their machines are being imaged as I type this.

Chromebooks are off and running with grades 5-8.  All students 5-8 have learned how to log in to the network, and into their chromebooks with their state e-mail credentials.  This is really going to benefit them down the road, especially judging by the number of Freshmen who are struggling with their logins and passwords already... they were used to just logging in with the general "student" credentials...the younger students are developing skills at an earlier age.

Completed the 2nd School Podcast yesterday... that link is available HERE.  These have been pretty fun to do, and really...now that I have the program set up, and the intro and outtro music done...they don't take very long to put together.  I have also been in talks with Mr. Farnham about his communications class doing their own podcast... a student version, I guess you would call it.  Still working out the details, but that could be a really cool opportunity for our students

The WEEKEND:

Good Luck to the Elk Football Team tonight as they take on the O-R-R Raiders in Rutland.

Go Elks!

First Cross Country Meet of the season tomorrow at White.  I'm excited to see what the Elks and Lady Elks can do.  Could be the start of a special season.

Saturday afternoon the SDSU Jackrabbits Football team will take the field against the University of North Dakota.  The game will be broadcast on Midco Sports Net and Fox College Sports Pacific.

Go Big, Go Blue, Go Jacks!

Sunday, the NFL season kicks off for most of the teams.  Hope it is a fun and exciting season for all the fans.

Today's Friday Video is from 3 Doors Down... Enjoy "Kryptonite"!

Friday, Oct. 12: Weekend Update

Congratulations to Justin and Heidi, as they qualified for the State CC meet yesterday.  It was windy and cold conditions in Flandreau yesterday.... proud of all the CC runners.

Good Luck to the Elk football team tonight as they host the Estelline Redmen.

I have the library's computers loaded, and should be putting them in today.  Will be able to start loading the computers for Roland colony soon.

I am planning on installing the projectors next week in Grades K-3.  Hopefully this goes smoothly.

Boys BB Coach Steve Erickson and I have been in discussions about 3rd and 4th grade boys basketball.  Keep your eyes peeled.

This weekend the South Dakota State Jackrabbits host the Western Illinois Leathernecks.  I am hoping to be in attendance.  Go Big.  Go Blue.  Go Jacks.

The Chargers actually play on Monday Night this week, so they won't be active until Monday.

The Harmings will be hanging around Elkton this weekend... doing some more stuff, getting the house in order.  Things are coming together pretty nicely.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

For the Friday Video, I thought I'd play a little Spoon.

Enjoy, "The Underdog"

October 5th: Weekend Update

I like this one... might use it every Friday.

Spent a great deal of time in Lake Benton the last few days, doing updates on the AVG antivirus program.  Ran into a little difficulty, as there were 4 different versions of AVG installed on the computers, so it really depended on which version was installed... one type would take about 2 minutes, another would take about 15.

Just recently discovered that the image on the Sophomore's computers is missing the "GeoGebra" program.  So, any Sophomore who needs to have Geogebra installed, can come and see me, and I will get it installed.

Next week, I should begin installing the projectors in grades K-3.  (applause!)  I will need to probably do it after school, since I'll be working in the ceiling tile area... we'll see how quickly it goes.

Still working on the "projector problem" for Mr. Gebhart and Mrs. Harming.  This has been driving me crazy, and I'm determined to get it figured out next week.

I am currently finishing up the installation on the new library computers, and then I have 3 computers to load up for the Roland Colony.  These are going pretty smoothly, and they should be done by the end of next week.

Weekend:

The SDSU Jackrabbits have a bye this weekend, so no Jacks game this weekend.

Congratulations to SDSU Women's BB Coach Aaron Johnston and his wife, Laurie, for the birth of their baby girl.

The San Diego Chargers play at the winless New Orleans Saints this weekend.  Despite the Saints poor record (0-4), I am expecting a tough game.  They are playing at home, and their banned Coach and GM (Sean Payton and Mickey Loomis) will be watching the game from the stands.  They'll be fired up.

For the Harming family this weekend, we'll just be doing a bit more unpacking, and making our house a home.  Building a dog kennel, getting things where we want them to be, that kind of thing.

Enjoy your extra Vacation day on Monday!

Good Luck to the Elks FB team tonight as they host the Colman-Egan CE-Hawks tonight.

For your weekend video this week, let's go with a little Florence and the Machine.

Enjoy "No Light, No Light"