Static flight practice at the Eagle Nest

One of the eaglets is doing some vigorous wing practice. These are big "baby" eagles that are still in the nest but ready to fledge (or take flight). This is the eagle nest that we can see from our yard. The eaglet stands on the edge of the huge nest and just moves its wings vigorously. It looks like it is ready to go....It would be fun to see them fledge but once they take off from the nest, are they going to move away or stick around?

An Eagle Nest down the Street

We can literally stand on the edge of our property here and see this bald eagle nest. I just checked with my binoculars and I could see the two large nestlings standing up in the nest. The nest is probably 100 feet high in this tree. Kirstin took these photos today.

Some more photos on Camano Island

Here are some photos that Kirstin took today. The mammals are alpacas and the birds on the log are white-crowned sparrows. The bright yellow birds are American Goldfinches which are pretty common on the fields out here.

Dead Gopher on Driveway

We had never seen this animal before here. I photographed it and we figured out it was a gopher. Evidently Kirstin has seen them around here before. It is pretty big! I put it here for your viewing pleasure.

Birds on Camano Island

My family and I are spending the week on Camano Island. We have a cabin here and love to look at the wildlife. Here are three pictures of an Eagle scavenging and a Barred Owl in a tree.
The picture of the Eagle was taken yesterday at low tide on the beach. My daughter walked out as far as the ocean receded to get the picture. She paid the price by sinking in the soft sand to her ankle. In the one with Eagle flying, there is a crab at the bottom because it had dropped it while flying.

Warhol ducks

school is almost out

KIN 710 on librarything

A fun site! It is really easy to set up and to manage. I am always writing about the books that I read in a diary and then setting it aside and then cannnot find it. More than keeping track of books read, it allows me to share with others and to get ideas from what others are reading. I could see using this. It is satisfying to see the books I've read listed so easily in one place.

Jump roping video from YouTube

Totem pole ceremony

After a months of work, the 12 foot tall totem pole is standing tall in our school library. It was a rush of activity to get the pole done in time. But with the help of several volunteers, the final coat of paint was applied a couple of hours before the ceremony. After Native American dancers put on a performance, the children lined up between the buildings to watch the pole carried to its final place in the gym. The carver has been a part of our school since September working with the students in the carving process...and sharing his stories about Native Americans.

KIN 710 on youtube

The quality of the videos varies. Some are informative while some are visually grainy. I don't like the way that the feed is slow and often the video needs to pause while the feed catches up. I guess you can go to another tab and wait until the video is all cued up, before you go back to watch it. This site is such a great resource for the P.E. classes that I teach. For short videos of sportstacking (cupstacking) championships, this is a great resource to inspire students. For instructing too, there are unlimited choices. For short videos on bike safety, there are some worthy choices. I am not limited anymore to the choices that our district video lending library carries. I chose a video entitled "Top 6 Stretching exercises" as one that I would mention in my blog. It is an advanced lesson in stretching done in a professional way. It may be more for middle school or high school. There are several others which give good information on stretching from various viewpoints and for specific sports.

KIN 710 on Technorati

Technorati is a nice resourse for blog information. When using the work "kinesiology," there are several videos that are titled "applied kinesiolgy" which have little to do with the kinesiology that we are familiar with. Probably, I would go to different sites to search for specific videos (youtube)or for photos (flckr) instead of using Technorati. For blogs though, it works well.

KIN 710 on del.icio.us

There is a lot to like with this site. Just having a website of favorite bookmarks is nice since bookmarking on every computer I use gets old. Taking the next step of creating categories using tags produces an amazing tool for organizing sites. Teachers will be able to go from topic to topic and be able to find sites for that subject immediately. I get tired of scrolling my long list of favorites. You can create categories as broad or as narrow as is useful. Students can add sites that they are using to create a resourse of sites that a whole class can use in research and discussion for more information. In planning my curriculum, I can use del.icio.us as a way of finding specific sites quickly for a particular activity. For instance, there are many websites of teachers who have written about specific games, or certain lesson plans, or some other specific pieces of information. These would be easily found when researched under the specific tag of interest. This site has lots of potential for me to grow into.

KIN 710 on Web 2.0

Gee what a great resource. There are several categories that I use regularly like the photos and real estate (Zillow is great to see house values), google maps. The categories that I don't and the areas that I know nothing about.....this is where the value of this site comes in. What is striking is how many sites that are listed here that we have used already just in this class.

KIN 710 on Google Doc

Gosh, what a great setup! It can be really convienient to travel and save documents on-line instead of carrying around the thumb drive. Since it is all google-based it works seemlessly within that system and all that it offers.... lots more than e-mail and a data search resource. The spreadsheet could be used as tool for planning and organizing when tranfered with the url to another site.

some funny stuff from my elementary school

Seen on the wall in the boy's restroom: "k-c-u-f." I told the reading specialist that he let one of the dyslexic students fall through the cracks.

I saw the elderly custodian one morning and lamented that I had forgotten my coffee thermos. He mumbled back showing all gum "that's nothing...I forgot to put in my teeth this morning.

Kelsey, a fourth grader, finally rode the unicycle across the gym floor after months of practice. She happened to be wearing a dress that day. She considered that it was her lucky dress. After that day, she would always wear that same dress when she knew it was unicycle riding day.

Boy to teacher during a "sex health class:" Does a boy have to have a resurection to have sex? (He comes from a Catholic family)

KIN 710 post on RSS feeds

This is what I need ...one place that I can go to get informed. I like the idea of having the information come to one site instead having to head to all those sites myself. Setting up the bloglines site was easy initially but it will take some time to figure out how I want to tailor the site and exactly how I want to use it. Of course it needs to be a daily habit to use the site if it really to do what it is designed to do. I still love reading the daily newspaper but as of early June, we are dropping the subscription. I will start getting my info totally online and this site will be the place to start.

KIN 710 on Flickr

I have used Picasa as our site for downloading photos onto the computer and sorting/editing. It does not seem to be as versatile as the Flickr website since it also has a compatable website which is incredibly friendly to share. I like it for photo sharing and has enhanced abilities to categorize and sort photos for the user and to find sites with a common subject of interest.

KIN 710 post on microblogging

My daughter has done it for a few years on her My Space account although I never really knew that it had an official name (or purpose). Any one microblog entry seems sort of a waste of time. But if you look at them over time, you get an idea of what a person does with his/her free time. It is a snapshop of what makes up your time.

Kin710 Post on Readings

Based on readings:
Bolan, K., Canada, M., & Cullin, R. (2007). Web, Library, and Teen Services 2.0. Young Adult Library Services, 5(2), 40-43.

Ferdig, R. E. (2007). Editorial: Examining Social Software in Teacher Education. Journal of Technology & Teacher Education, pp. 5-10.

Weaver, A.C., Morrison, B. B., Social Networking.Computer (February, 2008)

One of the key themes in social networking is that the individuals involved are choosing to be part of the on-line community. Things go wrong when purposes crossconnect. Such as the teacher checking into his student's facebook. The challenge is to understand appropriate use and set safeguards.

An online learning community works best when all have a common purpose and common connection. This community then becomes the "scaffold" for learning. A good teacher in a physcial classroom allows open respectful dialogue. It seems to be no different in a learning online community. As in the case with librarians having to let go of some control as they move into a Web 2.0 environment, so also teachers need to release some control as the networking community functions.

Facebook is trying to be a platform for 3rd parties to "seemlessly embed" into a site. Google is trying to set up a common language so all these social networks can work more united. Maybe if I take this Kin710 class in a few years from now, I would just pop on my facebook account and I would be able to "go to school" and also socialize, and share photos, all at one site. What a nice thought!

These articles emphasize to me how much technology has changed over such a short period of time and how quickly it is driving how we communicate and learn. As far as generational differences go, it is astounding how many of the technologies mentioned in the articles are routinely used by teens. There really is a generational divide at this point! We get a wake-up call when an event like the VA Tech shootings show that students have a system of communicating that is in place and beyond the establishmented systems.

My First School Recess Fun Run

My First School Recess Fun Run
Originally uploaded by louis.craig83

Yes ....this week and all next week, I am giving up my lunch break to enable a bunch elementary kids to go around and around and around the recess field. They love it. With three other adults helping, we had over 350 participates each day and we are tracking their laps too.

A Totem pole - work in progress

A Totem pole - work in progress
Originally uploaded by louis.craig83

It has been great to have a totem pole being created right next to where I work in the gym at an elementary school. The cedar tree was cut in September and the 10 foot tall pole will be ready for the pole raising in the library in a couple of weeks. The native American carver has come in everyday lately to finish in time. Students have been helping him in small groups throughout the year. At the top is an eagle and also there's a bear and frog.

On the Run

Tell me about skateboards... I invited a 6th grader to show me his Ripstick which is a two wheeled skateboard. He brought it to my PE class and we all tried it. I finally got the hang of it. The student navigated all the way up a nice long inclined sidewalk by wiggling on it back and forth. We gave him some applause. How does a "long board" with four wheels act differently than a two wheeled Ripstick?