Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!! 31 Ways to Celebrate Read Across America Day

[ Had he been alive today, Dr. Seuss would have turned 109 on March 2nd.]

READ ACROSS AMERICA DAY
(Dr. Seuss' Birthday-March 2nd)
A to Z Teacher Stuff
The Art of Dr. Seuss

Batholemew and Oobleck

Cat in the Hat Jigsaw Puzzle-online game in English and Spanish

Coloring Page of Dr. Seuss Characters- from LucyLearns.com

Crafts to Make- nice list from Family Crafts

Dr. Seuss Activities- for 15 Dr. Seuss books

Dr. Seuss Cloze Activity- from Enchanted Learning

Dr. Seuss Crafts and Activities

Dr. Seuss Lesson Plans and Other Teaching Materials
Dr. Seuss Literacy Night is the Cat's Meow
The Dr. Seuss Memorial Sculpture Garden

Dr. Seuss Printables- from ABC Teach

Dr. Seuss Soundwords- playing with phonics and spelling
Dr. Seuss' Biography

Education World

Factmonster's Biography of Dr. Seuss

"Horton Hatches the Egg" Activities
Index to Dr. Seuss: Characters and Unusual Creatures

Infoplease Biography of Dr. Seuss

Just for KindergartenersMeeting and Reading Dr. Seuss- lesson plans for Dr. Seuss week

Mrs. Jones' Dr. Seuss Activities and Printables

Read Across America

Scavenger Hunt

Seuss Dude- board games, Dr. Seuss book club, lesson plans

Teacher Planet- lessons and printablesTeaching Phonograms Through "The Sneeches" by Dr. Seuss- for first grade

Theodor Seuss Geisel Printables

The Virtual Vine- activities, websites, games related to Dr. Seuss' books

Who's Who and What's What in the Books of Dr. Seuss- downloadable glossary in pdf format

You've Got a Wocket Where?- lesson plan

4 Good Image Conversion Programs

I recently was informed about an image conversion program called IMVERTER. This wonderful program allows you to convert your image to one of 14 different image formats, including TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PSD, PDF, EPS, PNG, BMP, FAX, PCX, PGM, PICT, PPM and TGA. Thanks to Diane for the suggestion. Here are  more programs to add to the list. (You can also find this listing under Web 2.0 Tools I-P)

Convert My Image- supports the following:

• PNG - Portable Network Graphic
• JPG or JPEG
• GIF - Graphics Interchange Format
• TIF or TIFF - Tagged Image File Format
• BMP - Bitmap
• RPG
• XPM - X Pixmap
• PIC - PICtor
• PDF - Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format)
• EPS - Encapsulated PostScript
• PS - Adobe Photoshop

YouConvertIt- the list is too long to put here, but this site offers file conversions of all types; web-based program allows up to 300MB file.

Zamzar- another very long list of file conversions available (files up to 100MB)

It's All About the Book: When Controversy Gets in the Way

I am currently involved in book inventory, with weeding taking place simultaneously. Currently in the biography section, I came across Lance Armstrong's book entitled "It's Not About the Bike", which details his battle with cancer. Thinking about Mr. Armstrong's recent fall from grace involving steroid use, (and his decision not to cooperate with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's investigation of performance-enhancing drug use in cycling) I am trying to decide whether or not to pull his book from the shelf.  I found these opinions on the web:

Australian Library Puts Lance Armstrong Books in the Fiction Section

Lance, Lies, and the Library

Manly Public Library's Solution

What are you going to do in your school library? I am interested in your opinion!

Sending Really Large Files? Here are a Dozen Free Sites to Choose From

Last week I received an email from someone who was looking to send a really large video file to another educator. I have personally used Google Drive to share really large photos and it has worked really well. But what if you have one file which is 5G? The free Google Drive account houses a max of 5G, which is usually enough for most people, but could create a problem for those with many huge files. The list below specifies the max file size you can send.

1fichier.com- up to 10G; view in 7 different languages

Bay Files- new features allows up to 5G in size

Box- up to 1G

DropSend- up to 2G

File Dropper- up to 5G file

GE.TT- 2G

Google Drive- your free account can store up to 5G

JustBeamIt- up to 2G file size

LargeFilesASAP- up to 2G

Send6- free and $$ plans; 250MB

WeTransfer- up to 2G

Zeta Uploader

Spanish Teachers: 32 Resources for Your Classroom

I am continuing to add subject areas to my resources. The next page will be for World Language teachers, and today's entry will assist Spanish teachers. As usual, please add any suggestions at the end of this post.


RESOURCES 
Casa Notes- teachers can create typical notes which are given to students or sent home to parents; templates allow for customization

EspañOlé!- "THE On-line Resource for Students and Teachers of Spanish!"

Internet Activities for Foreign Language Classes

Royalty-Free Clip Art Collection for Foreign Language Instruction
 
Spanish Artists- from Artcyclopedia

Spanish Flash Cards

Yahoo! Espana

Yahoo! Mexico

GAMES
17 Fun Games to Play in Spanish Class

Free Printables and Games for the Spanish Classroom-  for grades 2-6
 
Free Spanish Language Games- from Don Quixote

Games and Activities for Spanish Class- Pinterest board

Games to Learn Spanish- hangman, word search, memory

Spanish Class Games- nice Pinterest board

Word Play- Spanish vocabulary game

Yamada Language Guides- this site covers 140 languages and 112 fonts for 40 languages; this is one of the very best guides to language teaching resources on the Web!

LESSON PLANS 
Grades 6-12- from Bright Hub Education

Hello-World- lessons, activities, games

iMendi- language flash cards

The Internet Picture Dictionary

More Spanish- lesson plans and technology for the Spanish classroom

Spanish4Teachers-includes worksheets and fifteen categories, including alphabet, vocabulary, grammar

Spanish Irregular Verbs Quiz 

Spanish is Your Amigo- beginner video lessons

Spanish Lesson Plans- Pinterest board filled with resources

Spanish Regular Verbs Quiz

The Spanish Teachers- covers Spanish I,II,III,IV

Spanish Templates- games, quizzes

Spanish Verb Drills

Spanish Vocabulary Quizzes

TeAchnology- many lessons and activities here

Verbs Online- Spanish verb conjugation trainer

15 Great Places to Find Free Webinars

Free is always good, and what better way to receive PD credits than to attend a webinar!  You can sit in the comfort of your own home and communicate with teachers all over the world. NOTE: This listing has been added the the "FREE" tab at the top.

ASCD

Atomic Learning- webinar archive

BrainPOP Webinars- How Do You Feel? Exploring Social Emotional Learning, From Alaska and the Iditarod Trail … To You!; there is also a webinar archive

Discovery Education- in addition to current calendar listing, you can view the archived webinars here.

 
edtechteacher- Explain Everything: iPad Screencasting and More

Emerging Tech- sponsored by Follett Software; for librarians and media specialists

Free Friday Webinars by Shelly Terrell and American TESOL

The Future of Education- track what's available on your Google calendar

Green Teacher Webinar Series- Using Insects to Motivate Students, Food Systems and Sustainability

Math Solutions- Supporting English Language Learners, Professional Learning Communities

PBS Teachers LIVE!

Scientific Learning- sample webinars include Guided Reading for Every Student Every Day, The Hidden Reason Your Child Struggles to Read

SimpleK12- many are free; some require full access $$

Webinars for the New Animoto Video Creation Process

Webinars for Teacher-Librarians- from the TLCafe; Student Collaboration, Research Skills and Tech Integration, Be the Change You Want to See in your Library Media Center.

Wolfram Alpha- nice list of courses by subject area

What My Father Taught Me

This past Friday night, my father passed away after a long illness. Although he had lived with Alzheimer's for the last 12 years, it wasn't until the last five when it really reared its ugly head. Throughout it all, my father's kind, gentle, loving personality never faltered; the aides, nurses, social workers etc. at the home where he resided found him a pleasure and loads of fun.

Dad always saw the good in people and was so honest that when a waitress gave him an incorrect check in his favor, he brought it to her attention because he didn't want her to have to pay out of her own pocket for the mistake. It is this type of behavior that I have tried to follow; this kindness and unconditional love I will always remember about him.

This disease needs to be stopped. There is currently no cure and the number of Alzheimer's patients is rising.  I have posted a brief video about the statistics. Thanks for letting me veer off topic today to grieve.