More project ideas...

There are so many FREE resources out there that make publishing so easy.

• www.weebly.com - You can create free, ad-free, Web sites. The possibilities of this site I think are endless. This is one of the easiest sites I have seen in a long time. Also, the site allows you to pick a sub-domain that is friendly and easy to remember, like: http://ianbelanger.weebly.com/

• www.blogger.com - Another free site that is now owned by Google. This is likely the most popular blogging site away from MySpace. It is not as customizable as Weebly, but is very stable!

Finally, all of these sites make it very easy to embed video. Most digital cameras take quite good video, and you could upload it and include it as part of the written requirement! :)

Have a great week. Did you carry a poem in your pocket last Thursday? I did.

Digital Poetry Mashups!

Hey-

There are so many examples of digital poetry mashups online. I am trying to create a list of *some* of them here. Did you know how much spoken word is available online, for free? So I guess not only is a resource for the contest, for modeling oral fluency, too!!

• http://www.k12handhelds.com/mashups/?p=49 - a nine minue audio sample of at least 5 poems and info on digital copyright!
• http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19703 - Afternoon Memory, by Gary Soto
• http://www.poetry4kids.com/podcast - Petry 4 Kids is an awesome site! There are several poems here, and you can subscribe to the podcast with iTunes or RSS feed reader.
• www.youtube.com or www.teachertube.com - each of these filesharing sites have several videos that may be worth your time. I used key-words like "poetry" "elementary poetry" and "elementary poetry slam" all yielded some fine results!

Digital projects 101

I will create a series of tutorials, but first I wanted to make a short screen cast regarding the different options to make the digital project. It is a short tutorial on where the software is on-line!

http://highmail.highlands.k12.fl.us/~belangei/ipoem.html

School-wide iPoem Contest

In celebration of National Poetry Month, CTE and the PTO (Parent Teacher Association) are holding an iPoem contest. To participate, you must compose an original poem and create a digital project that – at a minimum – includes audio of your poetry (more on that below). You will need to submit your project by 3:00 pm on Monday, April 28th (details below). Entries will be judged anonymously, by grade-level, by a semi‐distinguished panel of teachers. The winner for each grade (K-1, 2, 3, 4, 5) will receive an iPod Shuffle!

The winners and all finalist’s projects will also be featured online (so please don’t submit anything you don’t want the world to see).

Submission Criteria

1. Compose and submit a typed, original work of poetry (in Microsoft Word or compatible format, or accessible online).
2. In addition to the text submission, submit a digital audio version (mp3 file or accessible online) of your poem.
3. The audio version cannot exceed 3 minutes. For anything published on the web, please only include your first name and last initial.
4. Your digital project could include images or video or something else we haven’t thought of. It could be created using something like Photo Story, VoiceThread, Movie Maker, iMovie, etc., but it must include audio of your poem. Be creative in communicating the meaning of your poem. Have fun. You can record audio for free with only a telephone, as a podcast at http://www.gcast.com/.
5. Once you have completed the written and audio versions of your poem, submit them to Mr. Belanger, room 320—or digitally via email: belangei@highlands.k12.fl.us

• WRITTEN PORTION:
  If the text of your poem is in Microsoft Word or compatible format, title the document with your name before you submit it. If the text of your poem is online (in a blog, a wiki, a Google Doc, etc.), type the URL (make sure it’s accessible to everyone) in a Word document, title the Word document with your name, and submit that. In either case, at the bottom of the text document indicate what form your digital project is in and how you are submitting it (e.g., mp3 that you’re burning to CD; video on YouTube; GCast url, etc.)

• Audio/Digital Project of Your Poem:
  If the audio/digital project of your poem is an mp3 or other digital file that is not online, title the file with your name. If the audio/digital project of your poem is online, type the URL in the text document as described in part “a” above.