Category: Fun

Posted in Fun

Traveling Educators

Posted on by Tina Coffey

If you haven’t guessed from reading my blog before, I love to travel. I know I’m not the only one. So, let’s see where we are all going this summer. Add a comment and tell me where…and if you can, add your location to the Google Map below. If you have trouble, I’ll add it for you once I see your comment. Let’s see how many different states (and countries) we will be visiting! And if you’ve been to the same location as someone else, maybe even leave a travel tip!

I’ll start…I’m going to Key West, Flordia. I hope to scuba dive, but I will at least snorkel while I’m there and enjoy the incredible (so I’ve heard) sunsets. Okay, your turn…


View Larger Map

Click here to add your vacation location (or leave a comment and I’ll add it for you!)

  • Choose Save To My Maps
  • Login if you need to (you must have a Google account to do this)
  • Type in your vacation location in the search box and click search.
  • When the Placemark appears on the map, click Save to My Maps, and choose Trips 2008.

Or just list it below in the comments, and I’ll add it. 🙂

Posted in Fun, Salem City Schools

Stress Relief with Virtual Bubble Wrap

Posted on by Tina Coffey

Okay, I’m not sure about everyone else, but I can use anything to relieve stress right about now. NOT that I’m stressed about SOL testing, because it will all go fine, but just because it’s that time of year. So here’s something silly that’s helping me….Virtual Bubble Wrap (be sure to check out the manic mode). If that link doesn’t work, you can try this version.  Thanks to Teachers Love Smartboards blog for this one.

Oh yeah…educational value….counting? maybe?

Do you have a neat stress relief site? Leave a comment to tell what it is!

Posted in Fun

We are Multicolored

Posted on by Tina Coffey

Celebrate your uniqueness! Create you own flag at We Are multicolored, a digital art project put on by the Lower East Side Tenement Art Museum. You can email it, save it, print it, or download it. I could see this as a writing prompt to celebrate diversity and global awareness…plus it’s a way to practice clicking and dragging with precision.

Here’s mine…a mix between the USA, Mexico, and the UK. I live in the United States. The country that has most affected me is Mexico because I spent a summer there learning to scuba dive. The country I would love to visit is the United Kingdom (though there are at least four others close to the top of the list). I most value the blue in the US flag that represents justice, loyalty, and perseverance. What would your flag look like? What do the colors and symbols mean?

multicolored flag

Need directions? Here’s Langwitches quick and easy “How To.” It was through her blog that I found this site (though she credits twitter). Got to love having a network!

Posted in Fun, Ideas, Projects

Trip to NYC

Posted on by Tina Coffey

Last week I had a chance to go spend time in NYC. This was only my second time ever visiting, and really the first time I had a chance to check out some of the famous places there. Here’s a thirty second overview of what I saw:[kml_flashembed movie="http://widgets.clearspring.com/o/46928cc51133af17/4760bbef51b287d4" width="432" height="250" wmode="transparent" /]

I brought back some pics and short video clips of these places. I’d like to increase our collection of pictures and video clips for kids to use in digital projects without having to worry about copyright. Even though there are sites out there that allow you to download pics for educational uses, there are a number of reasons why doing this is difficult (or not safe) for younger students. Having a folder of pics that match SOLs that students can use freely would help. I’ll add the ones I brought back from NYC. If you have any other digital pics or short digital videos (especially ones that match SOLs) that you don’t mind sharing, please leave a comment here or drop me an email.