Bilingual Kids Books

A huge percent of us are bilingual. Or we want to be. I've always thought it would be fun to read books that were written in the two languages that we know. So I was pleased when I read about Zooprise Party Fiesta.

Written by Joy Delgado of Puerto Rico, it combines English and Spanish. She is an exciting new author/illustrator who is intereviewed on Kathy Semke's blog.

Sadly, I speak English and French so I can't read it. But for my kids who speak English and French and are learning Spanish, it should be great. Thanks Kathy.

Sites that Work Together

I like it when different sites figure out how to work together. Check out this clever connection. The Learning Vocabulary Fun website has some science songs. They are a great way to learn science.

They do use some vocabulary which can be challenging. So underneath the songs, there is a vocabulary list. And then, they have built links directly to the vocabulary and spelling games on SpellingCity.

It's cool. You should do the same from your classroom. Put together a vocabulary list and link it directly to that list on SpellingCity.

Have you ever lied to your kids?

Have you ever lied to your kids?
This got me to thinking. I can't wait to see this discussion develop.....

OK. Lets hear it. “Have you ever lied to your kids? If so, how did it work out”. I’m going to start a discussion here and then send it around as a meme.

I’ll start off. Two lies. One was when we had a rat problem. I was baiting a mouse trap with peanut butter and cheese and my four year old daughter asked: “Is that so the rat can eat when he’s caught in the trap?”

Teaching technology to today's tweens and teens

Teachers in schools are coming up with great ways to teach technology to today's kids, and, as one would expect, the kids are eating it up!

One great example is a teacher at the Randazzo School in South Florida.
She teaches a computer class to middle through high school kids. This class was impressive from the very start. Within weeks the kids were taking apart CPUs and installing hardware.

They soon moved on to learning Microsoft Word. Homework was done in Word and emailed to the teacher through the student's Gmail accounts.

Currently, this teacher who also works on the city of Coral Spring's website as well as the school's website, has started teaching her students to use Joomla. Joomla is a content management system used currently by forward-thinking web developers.
Her students are now researching and writing articles for the city web site's teen section CS-Teens and adding them to the website using this content management technology, a skill that is currently in high-demand in the web world.

Half way through their school year, I can't wait to see what they move onto next!

I want to join this class!

Homeschool blog with give-a-aways

A friend just pointed me towards a blog that's doing a clever promotional effort: 7 reviews with 7 giveaways.

What I really liked about Shanna's blog was the December 3rd post: This counts as school, right?
Somehow, it captured the spirit of homeschooling at it's most simple and charming. And I quote:

All on their own, the kids decided to create a script, build a set, and act out their own lego film. They asked me to film it and put it on my blog. Well, how could I resist?

The give-away idea is good. It's effectiveness depends on how well promoted it is and whether the giveaways are significant enough to endear the visitors to the site. That's my $.02. (In any case, that's what I learned when I took my Intro to Blogging and Blog Promotion course).

Check out her site.