Anyone who has ever arranged an author visit knows how costly it can be.  Even lesser known local authors can charge as much as $500/day.  Out-of-town authors, for most of us, are completely out of the question.  Our budgets are barely enough to replace lost books and purchase the award-winners, and in this economy, fund-raising may not be an option.  Then a few days ago, I found an interesting article in School Library Journal that is definitely worth sharing.  From the article:

At 7:25 am on the last day of school, five avid fifth-grade readers hustle into the library of Chamberlin School in South Burlington, VT. They shrug off backpacks and pull out advance copies of The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z, my middle-grade novel about a Vermont girl who’s convinced her school leaf collection project is ruining her life. They crowd around a PC webcam, ready to talk books.

On the opposite shore of Lake Champlain, I fire up my MacBook in my own classroom. In half an hour, my seventh graders will arrive for homeroom, but, first, I’m going to visit with these fifth graders from across the lake. I launch Skype, and when the computerized ring tone sounds at exactly 7:30, I click on the phone icon to answer.

“Good morning, Kate!” says Chamberlin’s librarian, Cally Flickinger. She introduces the students, who start off quietly, a little wary of this newfangled sort of author visit. But soon they’re taking turns sharing their favorite characters and we forget the computers that connect us. It feels like we’re all in the same room, and the questions fly across the miles.

What an innovative idea!  At the end of the article is a list of authors that will Skype with your class for free and if there’s an author not on the list, it wouldn’t hurt to ask for a short Skype session.  The worst they could do is tell you no or maybe ask for a small fee, one that would be compatible with your budget.

The first week of school has come to an end. It has been a week of new beginnings for all of the students as well as the teachers. We’ve taken time to get to know our students and given our students time to get to know us and our expectations.

One way I’ve gotten to know my students is through the use of Photo Story 3, a free application from Microsoft. Photo Story 3 is a program that allows you to import photos in order to create a slideshow which can be narrated, set to music, include special effects, and much more. From Microsoft

Create slideshows using your digital photos. With a single click, you can touch-up, crop, or rotate pictures. Add stunning special effects, soundtracks, and your own voice narration to your photo stories. Then, personalize them with titles and captions. Small file sizes make it easy to send your photo stories in an e-mail. Watch them on your TV, a computer, or a Windows Mobile–based portable device.

The activity I have been using with each of my classes in grades 3-6 involve taking a photo of each student and importing it into Photo Story 3. The students are given a few minutes to formulate what they would like to share about themselves and then are invited to the computer to record their names and the information they would like to share with the class. Finally, the class chooses the music they would like to set as a background to their introductions. In all, the entire activity consumes about 20-25 minutes for a class of up to 26 students. Many of the classroom teachers have asked for copies to run during the school Open House.

Being a librarian in a school with 46 grade sections, it gets a bit tiresome when I have to repeat myself for every class. I also used Photo Story 3 to relieve some of that repetition. I used photos of my library and my own voice recordings to instruct the students on some of my expectations and some of the most basic concepts of the library. The voice recordings are not professional by any means, but the students loved the way I was able to interact with them by use of the slideshow and questioning on-the-fly during the slideshow.   I will eventually go back and rerecord some of my voice-overs, but my example below will give you an idea of how I made my life just a little bit easier.

There appears to be a dispute over the core technology of Skype that is brewing in London. 

Skype Could be Cut Off

EBay admitted in a regulatory filing that it might have to close down the company. It said it was trying to develop alternative software but if that did not work, or if eBay lost the right to the original software: “Skype would be severely and adversely affected and the continued operation of Skype’s business as currently conducted would likely not be possible.”
 

Fans of Skype should keep their eyes on this developing controversy.

After spending most of last week in Teacher Tech Camp, I’ve been pondering how I’ll be using many of the Web 2.0 technologies I learned last week.  I also need to consider how I’m going to incorporate the “We the People Bookshelf” that my library was awarded in the Spring from the ALA as well as the prints that accompany the bookshelf which were awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.  The theme this year is “Picturing America”.

Just random ideas that are running through my head:

• Podcasting booktalks and reviews of the books
• A student blog for reflection on the books and how they connect with the art
• A wiki for linking American History with the literature

It’s going to be challenging beccause of the A/B schedule I have to maintain as well as the age of my computers, but I’m determined to make this a memorable year.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

Another neat little tool is Wordle.  I created this Wordle from the text on this blog.  The larger the word, the more times it is used.  Smaller words indicate terms that are used, but more infrequently.  This would be a great tool for analyzing speeches and other text.