I have been looking for a good “bubble” dialog program to use with elementary students during writing exercises. I found Bubblesnaps today.
The picture above is directly from the Flickr account of my good friend John. Bubblesnaps connects to any Flickr account and grabs the photo you select. Then the bubble and text are added. The final creation is saved as a Flash file that can be sent to someone via email or embedded in a blog (as above).
If you like maps and are interested in history, you will like Maps of War. The site shows a multimedia map for most major military operations. In addition, there are religious time lines and other significant events such as the war on crime, global migration and the Darfur tragedy.
The library links to some external resources similar to those on the main site. Most of the maps are Flash movies and some have audio.
Here is a good video on Cyberbullying. Give it a watch if you are not familiar with the term.
http://www.digizen.org/cyberbullying/fullFilm.aspx
With technology becoming more ubiquitous among younger children (I know 4th graders with cell phones), I can see how many of the actions depicted in the short film can happen.
Like most people in Ohio, I was glued to the TV tonight to find out who the Buckeyes would play in the championship game. With Fox dragging out the announcement of each of the four BCS games, we were talking about how important a playoff would be.
It is hilarious to hear the different sports commentators talk about the failing BCS system, but that a playoff will never happen. I heard no less than ten different announcers say, “it is not going to happen for an assortment of reasons.” There is only one reason it will not happen: money.
The individual bowl games make a ton of money for the individual sponsors. We will have these bowls forever because everyone makes a lot of money. I heard that the Big Ten lost $4.5 million after Illinois beat Ohio State and it was assumed that the Big Ten would only send one team to a BCS bowl. That’s one team’s share for playing in the game. Imagine what the sponsors are making.
Here is a way to keep what we have, yet have a playoff for the championship. Take the top four teams and have their bowl games count as the semifinal round of the playoff. These two bowls could be the Rose and Orange or the Fiesta and Sugar… it doesn’t really matter. We only need to make sure that the top four teams play in the these two bowls. The winners play the next week in the championship.
Last year they added the extra game at the site of the championship. Did anyone else notice that Georgia and Hawaii are playing in this year’s Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on January 1. Then, one week later, the BCS Championship is at the same location. They did this last year with the Fiesta Bowl and then the BCS Championship. Two years ago, is was Texas winning the Rose Bowl, not the BCS Championship game.
I think we can pick four teams with a lot less controversy than picking two teams. As an added bonus, the champion would have to win in back to back weeks. That is something a real championship team can do.
A Scientific American article says that a focus on effort will make your kids more successful than a focus on intelligence.
Our society worships talent, and many people assume that possessing superior intelligence or ability—along with confidence in that ability—is a recipe for success. In fact, however, more than 30 years of scientific investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings.
You may think that telling your kids they are smarter than the other kids will boost their self-confidence, but the research shows that this kind of thinking can lead to failure when the work becomes more difficult. Learners that think they are more intelligent are quicker to become disillusioned by problems they cannot easily solve.
So instead of trying to pump your kids up with positive statements about how smart they are, tell them instead that their effort gives them an edge. If they understand that they cannot possibly know everything, they will be ready to learn new things quickly.
