Fundraisng Find

Earlier this school year, I was informed of a fundraising option through J & R School Supplies.
It is a vending machine that offers pens, pencils (regular and mechanical) and erasers for either 25 or 50 cents. I have located it just oustide our computer lab and use the profit to supplement the IMC budget as well as fund our IMC Club. We keep half of the profit and may use the machine for months, quarters, or even years. The club members have even taken the designer pencils to the lunch room and offered a five pencils for a dollar sale. The students were able to pick out the pencils they would purchase rather than letting the machine "decide" what they will receive. The link to J&R is found here. Happy Vending!

Dim Dim to the Rescue

I had talked to my colleagues regarding some author visits about a month ago. The cost was approximately $3000 to be split between three elementary schools in our district. After taking this course, I look at DimDim and other such sites as a hopeful alternative. If cost is an issue (answer...of course), then see if having an online chat with your author is more realistic. More students will be able to ask questions and hearing answers will be less of a difficulty. One could display their work in progress to share with the guest author as well. You could even have a conference among several authors without leaving your computer lab. Until the comfort level and potential of blogs is realized, conference software is another powerful option to work with other schools whether 3, 300, or 3000 miles away.

Tales, Trickery, and Podcasting

I was recently sharing the story of the Hungry Hyena by Mwenye Hadithi. This animal folk tale showed how trickery may come to backfire on someone who wishes to use it to get what they want. The children heard in the excerpts were able to listen to their own words, the emotion they used for certain lines, how the audience was able to hear them and how sound effects may liven the retelling of a story. I am hoping to use this more with the older students (grades 3-5) next year when sharing new books. We will record the reading of any pages used for an introduction and store them online for students to hear at home or school.