If you haven't already heard about it on Oprah or on the news a few years back, I want to introduce you to a great way to get people to give you money.

I have a project posted right now on DonorsChoose. It's a great site started by a teacher specifically to raise money for pet projects that otherwise won't get funded.

It's an easy process, and one I have done successfully a few times. But now I'm working against the clock. I posted this in January, and I have 23 days left to reach my goal. So if you have an extra $5 burning a hole in your pocket, visit this site and send it my direction!

And put your own projects up. OH! And use your social networks--like Facebook--to let other people know about it. Since I've posted on facebook, I've gotten seven new donations!

And happy fundraising!

I am beginning to realize how many things I don't have control over as I move toward the end of the year...

Change is always hard, and we're heading into a big change for my school. I am excited and scared, but mostly, I'm ready to take a breath and realize that I can't control what I can't control.

I'm changing rooms, changing teaching because of the student case load we see ahead, changing educational approaches as we make the transition into the summer. But for now, I breathe,

...and I invite you to do the same. 

So do something fun, like teach yourself about art. And have fun. It's just about summer!

I love reading the blogs. My husband says I'm addicted to the computer, but really, I'm just looking for new resources that will make the rest of my life a little easier.

And this next one just might fit that bill.

VocabGrabber is a site created by Visual Thesaurus, which in itself is a pretty cool tool. VocabGrabber lets you input a text, then gives you a word cloud of the most useful vocabulary. It then gives you a chance to play with the Visual Thesaurus with selected vocabulary words, providing links to photos, definitions and video.

You can look at the vocabulary list by familiarity in the language, subject area or frequence. 

You just have to see it. Give it a shot!

So my school is turning into an arts magnet school, one of the first two magnet schools to open in Vermont. (The other is only three blocks from us...)

In light of this, I forced our librarian to sign up for a grant from Picturing America, an initiative through the National Endowment of the Humanities, which gave us these beautifully laminated pieces of artwork that show historical perspective. 

Fifth-graders now are reading historical fiction to deepen their understanding of the Revolutionary War era. So this week, the librarian and I created an art gallery for the fifth graders so they can look at history through a different light. The idea is that we will have students walk through and try to glean from the pictures clues to historical context.

We're going to ask them to walk through with sticky notes and follow a protocol I learned from WIDA trainers. Put comments on the pictures with these things in mind:  WOW, WONDER and WHAT IF... 

For those of you also looking for another way to use images to help our ELLs understand history, I just learned of a source for historical images called LIFE photo archive hosted by Google. You could print out images and ask students to simply list what they notice as a background-building exercise. As you progress through the unit, you can always return to these photos to back up historical facts you learn along the way.

When I taught in New York, using Primary Source Documents was an essential skill for high schoolers that was tested through the Regents Exams. We needed to be able to show that we used primary sources and how to document them. Photos can be an integral part of this. The Library of Congress has a great lesson plan for building these skills on The Learning Page.

Picture your world in a different way!

Ever have one of those months that seemed to fly by?

April was that for me.

Now that our spring conference has come and gone (check out the photos above and the links on the conference pages), it's time to start focusing on the next one.

Save the date! November 14 at Plymouth State University.

Any burning issues? Things you wish you had seen at one of the conferences but hadn't? Let us know what you'd like to see. We can't hear you if you don't talk to us.

Also, we're looking for a new face on the board. Our Publishers Liaison has decided to step down, so if you'd like to join us, send us your contact information, and we'll tell you what to do from there.

Check out what's new, and look for more things to come.