Introductions

Thanks for writing your introductions in English. I understand that most of your blogs will be in Spanish and I will not be able to read them unless I become Spanish-savvy very very fast. But hopefully exciting dialogue with each other, with your community and with those outside our community will emerge and your skills at speaking a non-native language will grow along with your tech-saviness. Here are links to your Introductions.

Anthony
Amanda
Sean
Liza
Laura
Keenon
Tom
Nick
Cassie
John
Josh

Here is a Tech Tip: Notice that I put hyperlinks in my Blog Entry today. I typed the word I wanted linked (like your name). Then highlighted it; then clicked on the LINK icon in the toolbar; then typed in the URL (or web address) or your blog. It is important to make sure to include the letters http:// as part of the URL when you do this.

Another Tech Tip: When you want to make sure you spell the URL correctly, try highighting it; then pressing CTRL C (for copy). Next, put the cursors where you would like to PASTE the URL and then press CTRL V (for paste). This method helps to avoid Long Typos in your URL.

Try some of the other TOOLS in the Toolbar to JAZZ up your Blog Post (color, fonts, italics), etc.

Try leaving comments for each others blogs. Go read the comments I left on your introductions.

Managing Your Pictures with Picasa.com

There are several programs that can help you edit and manage your pictures. Today I discovered a very very cool program called PICASA. You can find out more about it at
http://www.picasa.com/
It is a free download and makes working with images so much easier. It even includes some limited and fun ways to edit your pictures. And best of all it's a free download and it works well with HELLO and BLOGGER. Of course when you become really Tech Savvy you might want to purchase a program like Fireworks, PhotoShop or Photoshop Elements to do advanced work with digital images. Working with your class helped me discover this program. Thank you for helping to make me MORE tech savvy.

Preparing for a Global Economy

Students from all over the world are becoming Tech Savvy. It's part of preparing to participate in a Global Economy. Learning a foreign language is also key. Here is a picture I took on my recent visit to Taiwan. Their technology skills weren't the only way they were preparing. Many of these students were proud to show me their English skills.

Adding Pictures to Your Blog

We will be using a program called HELLO to add pictures to your Blog.
If you would like to download the HELLO program and learn more about how it works you can go to http://www.hello.com/help.php.
This program allows you to Chat with someone and share pictures while you chat.
It also allows you to work with BLOGGER and automatically add pictures to your blog.
What is so cool about this is that it saves many STEPS. Before this type of programs, there were MANY steps to publishing pictures (including Resizing the pictures to make them smaller and load faster ; finding space on the web that would allow you to host your pictures, and uploading the pictures; and or creating web pages manually to put the pictures on. This process makes it a lot easier and does much of the work for you. Just think how TECHSAVVY you will look in front of your buddies NOW! Try to add a picture of yourself to your Blog. Remember, not to add identifying information in your blog. Be SMART and SAFE about how you use these tools.

Working with Digital Cameras

Ms. deLaBruere will be helping us become more techsavvy. Hopefully we'll help her become more savvy about Spanish. This is an example of how to put a picture in a blog. You should sign out a digital camera and take a picture of yourself in a spot that tells a story about your community. Bonus points for the first person who can figure out where and when this picture was taken and what story it tells about our community.

Ms. deLaBruere

Viewing your blog

Anyone can view your blog by going to the published address. For example, check out Amanda's blog at http://bitacorasdeamanda.blogspot.com/

If you want to go back and Edit your blog you should go to:
www.blogger.com

Then sign in by typing your User Name and Password.

Please PRINT a copy of your Published blog that included the 'web address' and pass this in to your instructor. We will Add all the blogs for this project into a BlogRing.

Create Your Own Blogs

Create your own Blog:

http://www.blogger.com/start

Bonus: Language Tools

http://www.google.com/language_tools?q=define:Blog+--+(weB+LOG)&hl=en&lr=

Grade Cluster Expectations:

http://www.milton.k12.vt.us/GradeExpectations/GEMainPage.htm

Explore some Spanish Blogs

Spanish Blogs

http://juancarloslujan.blogspot.com/

http://www.lacoctelera.com/pepsounds/

http://thebobs.de/bob.php?site=allsuggestions_kat&katid=12

Let's Learn About Blogs

What is a Blog

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&oi=defmore&q=define:Blog+--+(weB+LOG)

Spanish Word a Day Blog

http://www.studyspanish.com/dailyword/index.htm

Oscars Blog:

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=44769

Howard Dean Blogs

http://blog.deanforamerica.com/

What is a blog?

http://www.blogforamerica.com/tips.html

Welcome to Spanish at NCU Blog

Welcome to a an exciting technology adventure brought to you from the Spanish Department at NCUHS and IT ACademy at North Country Career Center. Your coaches during this adventure will be the adventurous Senora Helen Poulin who has been a technology pioneer at NCUHS for several years and the resourcful Ms. Lucie deLaBruere who has been a technology pioneer since BEFORE you were born.

This exciting project will be looked at by others from around the world as a model project for technology integration into the classroom. Let's have fun with it and show the world how technology can make learning come alive.