Pick Me, Pick Me....

Jennifer over at Rowdy in First Grade posted a really great idea for managing Popsicle sticks to pick students.  It is really so simple, yet brilliant.  Check it out here!  I don't know about you, but I use Popsicle sticks to determine who is going share their writing, lead our Fundations (phonics) drill or lead our daily math routines. Each task requires two cups, picked and not-picked, and it is inevitable that I end up playing "pick-up sticks" at some point in the day.  Jennifer's posted idea would have gone a long way to cut down on that fiasco!!

Last year I discovered an App for the iPhone called Teacher's Pick  or virtual Popsicle sticks. I think it is a bargain at $0.99 and it helped me cut down a bit on the "cups o' sticks" that were floating around. 

Teacher's Pick allows you to set up a class with the names of all your students and you can easily copy that list for multiple classes.  Here are some screenshots to give you an idea of the interface:

I set up my class and then made several copies for all of my different purposes.  We even set up a game that the kids use during Morning Meeting. It is called Earth, Air, Water and Fire.  I set up a class called "Game" and instead of student names I made a stick that said "Earth", "Air", "Water", and "Fire."  The student who is the leader will go around a circle and press the selection button.  If it says  Earth, Air, or Water the child in the circle has to name an animals that is on land, flies or swims.  If "Fire" comes up, the leader sits down and the child from the circle becomes the new leader. The game ends when we have gone around the circle at least once, or we run out of time. Quick and fun!

If you have an iPhone, iTouch or iPad, give it a try!

What systems do you have in place for selecting students for different activities?

Are You...Fond of a Favorite Font?

First, let me announce that it is clearly time for me to go back to school.  Why?  Keep reading.

I've been thinking about fonts lately and when I say the word font, it also makes me think of fondant.  Font, of course, is the style of letters that one chooses to give their writing the perfect look.  Fondant is that dreamy, sugary coating that Buddy Valastro (Cake Boss) puts on his cakes to give them the perfect look. Do you see the similarities?  You do?  It is time for you to go back to school, also!

The reason I have been thinking about fonts is because I have been writing in several different forms.  I have been working on this blog, writing emails and creating tables and charts in Word and Excel.  They all default to a different font which is even further complicated when I convert some of my documents to Google Docs.  I decided that this week I would change the default of all my modes of writing to...THE ONE PERFECT FONT.  However, before making that monumental, life-changing decision I need to do some research.  Here is what I discovered:

• Research suggests that serif fonts (those with little tails like this Times New Roman font) are easier on the eye when reading print.  The tails help you to track better.
 
• Research also suggests that serif fonts (those without the little tails like this Arial font) are not as helpful when reading from a screen and sans serif fonts are better for electronic media.
 
• Size really does matter.  Particularly when you are over the age of 45, and bigger is better.  However, you don't want a size so big that the reader has to keep scrolling down to read. Most people agree that anything over 10 pts is preferred.  I often pick 11 although 12 pts can be read without my glasses.
 
• Not all browsers support all fonts, so it is better to keep to the well-known, standard fonts. 

So, help a girl out.  What is your favorite font?  What are your font pet peeves? 
Want to do a little research on your own?  Click here for Crabby Office Lady article.  Hey, I didn't say it was quality research!!

Stay tuned for Mentor Text Madness--Day 2.

My Head is in The Clouds!

Last week I wrote about Wordle a favorite word cloud generator of mine.  Jen over at Runde's Room left me a comment about her favorite word cloud generator--Tagxedo pronounced [tag-SEE-doh] similar to "Tuxedo." I am in word cloud heaven.  Tagxedo allows you to make word clouds into shapes.  You can copy text, type in your own, or just enter the URL of a web page.  For example, here is a coffee-cup shaped word cloud of my blog:

The really neat thing about Tagxedo is that you have the option to include punctuation or numbers.  Here is my About blog post without numbers or punctuation!

The possibilities for Tagxedo are endless, but I know that my number one use will be to take the rather wordy emails that my principal loves to send and turn them into a fun word cloud.  I can't wait!  Of course, there are boundless educational uses for Tagxedo, but for now I keep thinking of the shapes and the people who would love them.

 How about a Tagxedo for the bus driver?

Or the music teacher?

In addition to the standard shapes there is an entire gallery of shapes preloaded with words.  Why is this exciting?  When you click it opens up in the creation window and you can paste in your own text and choose your own colors!

I need a monkey, ladybug and smiley face shape for a few of our staff members with those themes for their rooms.  Oh, and wouldn't a book be great? 

Tagxedo is the brain-child of Hardy Leung. The current beta version allows you to create your own shapes. (Warning:  It appears, to this elementary teacher, to be way more math and computer coding than I am willing to know/learn...I'm thrilled to leave it to the experts.  Thanks, Hardy!) Want to know more?  Check out this FAQ from Tagxedo.

Hardy has several fantastic blogs spotlighting, you guessed it, amazing word clouds. 

I encourage you to take a peek and start exploring.  I apologize to your family in advance for the delay in breakfast, lunch or dinner.   

All Things Tagxedo--The Official Blog of Tagxedo, Tag Cloud with Styles

 Daily Tagxedo--Current Events, Trending Topics, or Whimsical Idea of the Day

Celebrity Tagxedo--Celebrities+Words+Images=Celebrity Tagxedo

What Tagxedo will you create today?

Wordle Tutorial

 I promised you more about Wordle in this post.   I love Wordle and the possibilities are endless.  Here are two samples:



This shows all the different genres I like to write!

 




Here is a partial list of the My Weird Series





Tamara over at Teaching with TLC has posted a great article about Wordle. 

  

Check out my quick tutorial on using Wordle.