// Langwitches Blog

I am in the process of creating an acceptable user policy for our elementary school students to use blogs at school.
I have found several amazing resources that are helping me put this policy together. Thank you to all who were willing to share their work.
I started out exploring a Wiki from Adavis. That took me [...]

I am having a great time looking through video clips at YouTube and Google Video. The easiness of embedding the video into your own classroom webpage or blog makes it particularly interesting for us elementary school teachers, since we can be assured that no “sex kitten” advertisement will pop up unexpectedly on the side. Just [...]

Just found a great tool thanks to the blog ReadWriteWeb.com.
It is called Tagzania
Users can tag any location on earth, which in turn let’s users also search for any location via tags. It then zooms in via Google Earth to the chosen location. Teachers can easily copy the image for the map and/or embedd the map [...]

My head is swirling at lighting speed with information I am reading via blogs and wikis or listening via podcasts. The idea that we are in the middle of this great change comparable to the invention of the Gutenberg press with all its consequences is simply fascinating to me. What all of this means for [...]

My school is in the process of integrating a more international curriculum. We have received a grant, which will allow us to send a faculty member abroad. China has been chosen to be the first country and culture to be studied.
The goals of the trip abroad are:
increase understanding of Chinese culture and language
nurture understanding and [...]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/bNF_P281Uu4" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
I found a super video, that immediately made me think of ways to do something similar with my students (obviously we would not be able to physically go to all these places), but maybe Photoshop could help us out…
Let the students come up with a silly dance, then record them [...]

Vicki Davis’ post on “How to comment like a queen or king” has prompted me to search for some more resources on some related topic :
I believe that part of the new literacy we need to teach our students how to navigate, read and write in the digital world. Learning appropriate “blogetiquette” should be part [...]

Vicki Davis wrote another inspiring post. “How to comment like a Queen or King“.
She pointed out and blogged about something that others might do, but did not take the time to write and specifically point its importance out to blogging- newbies.
I encourage anybody to read her post… Re-think your stand on commenting… Be encouraged to [...]

Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Diigo is a research tool that rocks
My favorite feature? When you highlight a word on any page a drop down menu automatically appears (see image below) that lets you:
search for the highlighted words on the web with any of four search engines
search for highlighted terms in four social bookmarking systems
do [...]