MabryOnline.org: Technology

2007 Film Festival

"Like the Oscars, but not lame"

--The George Lucas Foundation, Eudtopia Magazine

"This is the first and only Level 6 Technology Implementation I've seen in the country. This is the highest level of educational technology integration in the nation."

--Dr. Moersch, principal investigator and creator of the internationally-recognized LoTi (Level of Technology Implementation) Project, and Director and Co-Founder of the National Business Education Alliance

"A national treasure"

--Leslie Connery, Deputy CEO and Conference Chair for ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education)

"This is as good as anything I've ever seen."

--Patrice Weaver, Operations Manager for GPB (Georgia Public Broadcasting)

"The Pied Piper of Educational Technology"

--Kathy Ishizuka, The School Library Journal

Schools of Distinction Award for Technology Innovation

Scholastic and Intel Corporation

2007 Event Pictures: And the Winners Are...

The 2007 Annual Mabry Film Festival, our 6th such event, was nothing short of a stunning success. In fact, this film festival was the best one yet. The festival was launched by Dr. Tim Tyson, Mabry's principal, six years ago as a means of propelling technology integration into engaging instructional activities for students. Mrs. Janet McCrary, retired Instructional Lead Teacher, and Mr. Chris Swanson, former Instructional Lead Teacher's hard work and dedication to this event has propelled it into an international model for excellence in technology integration.

This year's sold out, black tie event is like the Oscars for education. Student film maker teams arrived, in spectacular attire, to walk the red carpet to their pre-party celebratory events. Spot lights pierced the sky as, at 7:30PM, the enormous audience rose in complete silence to honor the men and women who defend our nation. Then, the celebrations began! The event was hosted from start to finish by our student emcees who introduced the nominees for each movie category and opened the eagerly anticipated envelopes. Each film, a two-minute short, was based on this year's festival theme: "Making Our World a Better Place."

Nothing is more exciting to our students than seeing such a large audience eagerly view their work with critical acclaim, than seeing and hearing the parents' and students' tremendous enthusiasm for each movie team's hard work in bringing big ideas to life on the big screen. And cheer they did! This year, in addition to the winning movie in each category, because of the generosity of the International Society for Technology in Education, commonly referred to as ISTE, an Apple iBook laptop computer and a Digital Video Camera was donated to a deserving student. Because of the generosity of Apple Incorporated, three students were awarded an 80 gigabyte video iPod. While not every student could take home the gold, all of the students who participated in this one-of-a-kind event are winners! Every single movie was a shining testimony to the bright hope of tomorrow: the sincere desire of our children to make the world a better place!

You may watch all of the movies from the film festival online through your browser by simply clicking on any image below. Each image links to the movies in that category. Or you can visit mTV (Mabry TV) to see not only these movies, but many digital media products from previous years.

My heart-felt thanks to the many, many people who helped make this event the most extraordinary educational celebration children can experience!

To view the different movies nominated in each category, click on the category links below. QuickTime 7 must be installed properly on your computer (Windows or Mac). If a movie was nominated in more than one category, the full movie only appears in its entirety in the first category in which it played the night of the Film Festival.

High speed internet access required.
Quicktime 7 required.

posted on: April 25, 2007

The Sixth Annual Mabry Film Festival

The Sixth Annual Mabry Film Festival, April 24, 2007, 7:30pm, promises to be the best festival yet. This year's theme is "From Learning in Our Classroom to Making a Global Contribution." Approximately twenty-five student-made, two-minute movies will be presented to our black-tie audience entering on the red carpet.

Awards will be given for Best Picture, Best Documentary, Best Teaching and Learning, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, and Best Independent Film (6th, 7th, and 8th grade awards in this last category). Pending availability, additional special awards will be given to deserving students. These awards may include: an Apple iBook computer, and a digital video camera.

Tickets for the festival are $3.00 and in limited supply. No tickets will be sold at the door as we expect this to be a sold out event. The festival begins at 7:30. Pre-parties begin at 6:30. We anticipate that the doors to the festival will open at 7:15 for general seating. This year, we are attempting to limit the festival to 90 minutes.

posted on: March 05, 2007

Film Festival Pictures

We would like to post additional pictures from the film festival event. If you have any pictures you would like to share, please send them in on a CD to Dr. Tyson's attention. We can not guarantee we will add them to our site, but we are interested in expanding this photo collection from the evening. Each picture is a thumbnail link to a larger version.

Pre-Party Events

The Trophies Await Their Eager Recipients

The Crowd Eagerly Awaits The World Debut of Student Work

Twelve Student Emcees Host the Evening

And the winner is...

posted on: May 08, 2006

2006 Film Festival News

"Like the Oscars, but not lame"

--The George Lucas Foundation, Eudtopia Magazine

"This is the first and only Level 6 Technology Implementation I've seen in the country. This is the highest level of educational technology integration in the nation."

"A national treasure"

--Leslie Connery, Deputy CEO and Conference Chair for ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education)

"This is as good as anything I've ever seen."

--Patrice Weaver, Operations Manager for GPB (Georgia Public Broadcasting)

"The Pied Piper of Educational Technology"

--Kathy Ishizuka, The School Library Journal

Schools of Distinction Award for Technology Innovation

Scholastic and Intel Corporation

The 2006 Annual Mabry Film Festival was nothing short of a stunning success. The festival was launched by Dr. Tim Tyson, Mabry's principal, five years ago as a means of propelling technology integration into engaging instructional activities for students. Mrs. Janet McCrary, retired Instructional Lead Teacher, and Mr. Chris Swanson, current Instructional Lead Teacher's hard work and dedication to this event has propelled it into a national model for excellence in technology integration.

Nothing is more exciting to our students than seeing such a large audience eagerly view their work with critical acclaim, than seeing and hearing the parents' and students' tremendous enthusiasm for each movie team's hard work in bringing big ideas to life on the big screen. And cheer they did! This year, in addition to the winning movie in each category, because of the generosity of several anonymous donors, an Apple iBook laptop computer and two 60 gigabyte video iPods were awarded to students. While not every student could take home the gold, all of the students who participated in this one-of-a-kind event are winners! Every single movie was a shining testimony to the bright hope of tomorrow: our children today and the power of their ideas!

In each 2006 Film Festival post in Podcast Central you can read a transcript of the night and download a video podcast of each of the movie categories in its entirety. You may also watch the movies online through your browser by simply clicking on any image below. Each image links to the movies in that category. Or you can visit mTV (Mabry TV).

My heart-felt thanks to the many, many people who helped make this event the most extraordinary educational celebration children can experience!

Each year students who are not participating on an official team to create a movie for the Best Picture competition are still eager to submit a movie in the hopes that it will be featured the night of the Film Festival and perhaps placed on MabryOnline. This year, winners were announced in each grade level for Best Indi--in other words, 3 movies (one in 6th, one in 7th, and one in 8th grade) took home the gold. In addition, one student film-maker from the Independent Film category was awarded a 60 gigabyte video iPod! To see the movies that competed in the Best Independent Category, click on each of the pictures below.


6th and 7th Grade Indis	8th Grade Indis

High speed internet access required.
Quicktime 7 required.

posted on: April 27, 2006

The Fifth Annual Mabry Film Festival

The Fifth Annual Mabry Film Festival, April 25, 2006, 7:30pm, promises to be the best festival yet. This year's theme is "Power of Ideas: Stories from Our Studies." Twenty-five student-made, two-minute movies will be presented to our black-tie audience entering on the red carpet.

Awards will be given for Best Picture, Best Documentary, Best Teaching and Learning, Best Satire, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, and Best Independent Film (6th, 7th, and 8th grade awards in this last category). Additional special awards will be given to deserving students. These awards will include: an Apple iBook computer, and two 60 gigabyte video iPods.

Please note that the movies pictured here are a random sampling of the movies. The fact that they appear on the website is not intended to suggest that they are nominated in any specific category.

posted on: April 12, 2006

The 5th Annual Mabry Film Festival

The 5th Annual Mabry Film Festival will be held on April 25, 2006, at 7:30PM.

This year tickets will be sold for $3.00 each. Any profit made from the film festival will go toward technology at Mabry. Tickets will go on sale on April 10th. Initial ticket sales will be limited per team (details will follow in April). However, tickets not sold by the end of the day on Friday, April 14th, will go on sale on a first come first served basis on Monday, April 17th.

Training will begin on November 4th. Each official school team will send 1 student, 1 sponsoring teacher, and 1 sponsoring parent to the all-day training.

Participation in this nationally acclaimed and highly engaging student activity is completely voluntary. Students interested in participating on an official school movie team must express their interest to one of the sponsoring teachers. This year's list of sponsoring teachers includes: Exploratory: Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Evans; PE: Mrs. Spannagel; 8th Grade: Mrs. Shockley, Mr. Benzin, Mrs. Kirhsner, Mrs. Kaplan, Mrs. Hartnett, Ms. Collins, Mrs. Isreal-Hiles, Mrs. Stephens, Mrs. Jennings; 6th Grade: Mrs. Riddlehoover, Mrs. Armijo, Mrs. Miceli, Mrs. Sneed, Davis; 7th Grade: Mrs. Kulkarni, Ms. Larkin, Mr. Howard; Other teachers include: Mrs. Hendrix, Ms. McCall.

This year's theme will be discussed in detail during the training session on November 4th. The theme has now been announced on MabryOnline's own Podcast Central.

posted on: October 15, 2005

Schools of Distinction Award Celebration

Mabry Middle School was honored in the Grand Ballroom of the Mayflower in Washington, DC, on October 6, 2005, by Scholastic and Intel Corporation as the recipient of the Schools of Distinction Award for Technology Innovation. I was humbled by the spectacular event honoring 20 schools around the United States for exemplary work with the children in their care. Mabry received a check for $10,000 from the Intel Foundation as well as over $250,000.00 worth of donations from the following companies: Agilix, Blackboard, Dell, eInstruction, Future Kids, Microsoft, Pitsco, Primedia, Riverdeep, SAS, Scantron, School Net, and Smart Technologies. These companies, combined with Gateway, Intel, and Scholastic, gave over $5,000,000.00 to the 20 winning schools.

Mabry will be celebrating this incredible honor with a reception and catered dinner on November 15, 2005, in the new Mabry Cafeteria. Purchase your tickets from our bookkeeper, Ms.Osterfeld. Tickets for the evening are $10.00. Tickets will not be sold after November 10th. Guests from Intel, Scholastic, other corporate donors, the State Department of Education, local, state, and federal government will be invited. This will be a wonderful celebration. All of our parents and students received their dinner celebration invitations during Conference Week. This will be a "Sunday best" dress up event. Make your plans now to join us.

posted on: October 15, 2005

Using Bloglines (Windows and Mac) to Manage Your RSS Feeds

Setting up your Bloglines account & Subscribing to MabryOnline’s RSS Feeds

This short tutorial assumes you know how to:

Use your computer’s browser to navigate to places on the web
Copy and Paste

Ok, let’s do it!

Go to bloglines.com
Sign up for your free account
Enter your email address
Enter your password (which must be at least 6 characters long)
Re-type your password
Select “-0500 Eastern” for our time zone
Be certain that English is selected as the language
If you wish to subscribe to the Bloglines Newsletter, check the box
Click register
When you receive an email to complete the registration process, click on the link in the email, which will take you to your Bloglines account.
Click on the tab “My Feeds” located in the top left hand corner.
Click on the “Add” link just under the “My Feeds” tab.
Keep this window available as we will use it again in just a moment.
Open a new window in your browser.
In the new browser window, navigate to Dr. Tyson’s blog address: http://mabryonline.org/blogs/tyson/
Select and then copy the above address
Paste the blog’s web address into the Bloglines window in the space next to “Blog or Feed URL:”
Click the [Subscribe] button
If, under the title “Available Feeds” multiple versions of the web address appear, you may:
Click on “Preview this feed” for each one to see if one looks better to you than the others
Click on the checkbox next to the feed to which you wish to subscribe.
You can play around with the Options, but, while those are cool and powerful, they are beyond the scope of this tutorial.
Click the [Subscribe] button at the bottom of this window.
Repeat steps 8 through 14 for each blog address to which you wish to subscribe. (You will only use my blog address once. Each time you repeat these steps, you will put in a different teacher’s blog address.)
To read the new posts, click on the title of the blog you wish to appear.

posted on: October 15, 2005

Using Firefox on Windows to Manage RSS Feeds

Windows users can follow these steps to use Firefox.
Presently RSS implementation is not built into Windows Explorer. You have many other software options however. I will present information on using Firefox, which is available for Windows and Macs. I'm using the Mac version and am assuming it is similar if not the same as the Windows version. I'll come back to this post at some time in the future, when I have access to a Windows machine, to confirm exactly the steps for Windows users. Mac users with OS 10.4 will find Safari more feature rich than Firefox, but that's personal preference.

If you need Firefox, you can download it for free from this link.

Install Firefox. (For Mac users you simply drag and drop the download. It's easy, but Safari on 10.4 has better RSS implementation. Use it if you can.)
Launch Firefox
Configure any proxy settings if you need to and know what they should be. Most home computers will not need this. Many work machines will.
Navigate to http://MabryOnline.org
Scroll down to the bottom and click on Dr. Tyson's Desk
Notice the little orange "radar-like" icon at the bottom right hand corner of you browser window. I also put one on the bottom of the right hand grey sidebar on my blog. Don't use it unless you know what you're doing.
Click on the one at the bottom of your browser window
A drop down menu appears
Choose "Subscribe to Atom..."
An Add Bookmark dialog box appears.
Click the down triangle to show all bookmarks.
Click "New Folder"
Name the new folder "MabryOnline"
Click Add
Navigate up to [Bookmarks] in your top menu bar
Click on it
At the bottom of the list you will see "MabryOnline"
Move your mouse over it
From the Desk of Dr. Tyson appears
Mouse over it
The last 15 posts I published appear

You can do the same thing for each of your child's teachers. When you are done, I would suggest putting them all in a folder called "John's Teachers" or "Kimberly's Teachers" and locating that folder on your toolbar for faster access.

In Firefox here's how to move your MabryOnline RSS feeds onto your toolbar in a folder with your child's name:

After selecting the RSS feeds from each of your child's teacher's blogs, click on [Bookmarks] in the Firefox top menu bar
Drag each of the MabryOnline folders created in the section above under the "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder"
Make certain the MabryOnline folder is highlighted and click on the large round blue "Properties" button at the top of this window.
Give the folder any name you wish (Your child's name? You can make a new folder, one for each child, research project, etc.)
Click OK
Click the red button that closes this window (Windows uses click on the "X")
Your RSS feeds appear on your toolbar

As you can see, this is really very straight forward. If you use a news feed aggregator then you certainly know how to already do this and have some additional powerful functionality. I hope this helps you stay informed about all things MabryOnline!

posted on: October 15, 2005

Using Firefox on Macs (Apple) to Manage RSS Feeds

Mac users who do not have OS 10.4 but are running a previous version of OS 10 will use these directions.
The instructions below will be for Firefox, which is available for Windows and Macs. Mac users with OS 10.4 will find Safari more feature rich than Firefox, but that's personal preference.

If you need Firefox, you can download it for free from this link.

Install Firefox. (For Mac users you simply drag and drop the download. It's easy, but Safari on 10.4 has better RSS implementation. Use it if you can.)
Launch Firefox
Configure any proxy settings if you need to and know what they should be. Most home computers will not need this. Many work machines will.
Navigate to http://MabryOnline.org
Scroll down to the bottom and click on Dr. Tyson's Desk
Notice the little orange "radar-like" icon at the bottom right hand corner of you browser window. I also put one on the bottom of the right hand grey sidebar on my blog. Don't use it unless you know what you're doing.
Click on the one at the bottom of your browser window
A drop down menu appears
Choose "Subscribe to Atom..."
An Add Bookmark dialog box appears.
Click the down triangle to show all bookmarks.
Click "New Folder"
Name the new folder "MabryOnline"
Click Add
Navigate up to [Bookmarks] in your top menu bar
Click on it
At the bottom of the list you will see "MabryOnline"
Move your mouse over it
From the Desk of Dr. Tyson appears
Mouse over it
The last 15 posts I published appear

In Firefox here's how to move your MabryOnline RSS feeds onto your toolbar in a folder with your child's name:

After selecting the RSS feeds from each of your child's teacher's blogs, click on [Bookmarks] in the Firefox top menu bar
Drag each of the MabryOnline folders created in the section above under the "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder"
Make certain the MabryOnline folder is highlighted and click on the large round blue "Properties" button at the top of this window.
Give the folder any name you wish (Your child's name? You can make a new folder, one for each child, research project, etc.)
Click OK
Click the red button that closes this window (Windows uses click on the "X")
Your RSS feeds appear on your toolbar

posted on: October 15, 2005

Using Safari on Macs with OS 10.4 to Manage RSS Feeds

If you are a Mac user using OS 10.4 this couldn't be any easier.

Keep this window open (so you can read it), and open a new browser window (Go to [File] and down to "New Window") then navigate to http://MabryOnline.org
In Safari, your browser, you see a little blue RSS icon on the right hand side of the MabryOnline.org URL. (If you don't see it, and you are on the main page for MabryOnline.org, then you are not using Safari on OS 10.4 (known as Tiger) and will have to go to the Firefox section of these instructions.)

Blue RSS Feed Indicator

Scroll down to the bottom of the main MabryOnline.org page you just opened, and click on Dr. Tyson's Desk.

Tysonsdesk

Once you arrive at my blog, click on the little blue RSS icon next the the http://mabryonline/blogs/tyson/ url. It looks just like the one pictured above.
A new page appears that looks very different and has the URL: feed://mabryonline.org/blogs/tyson/atom.xml. Drag the icon just to the left of the word "feed" in the URL down to your toolbar.
In the little window that appears, give it a name you will remember, like "Dr. Tyson's blog."
You're done. To read my RSS feed in the future, just click on the name you assigned it in your toolbar. Do you see why I love a Mac?!

To view your RSS feeds, simply click on the name (in the tool bar) you assigned it. You can get fancy and organize them. It's easy. Let's do it.

Organize your Safari RSS Feeds:
Most people don't organize their bookmarks very well. HUGE mistake. Let's take just a couple of minutes now to save you time and frustration later.

Click on the tiny open book icon on your tool bar.
Click on Bookmarks Bar in the left hand column that appears.
At the bottom of the page you see 2 plus signs, "+".
Click on the one on the right. No, the other right.
Name this folder "[your student's name]'s Teachers Blogs."
In the list on the right of the window you see the name you assigned to my blog when you drug it's icon down to the toolbar. Drag the icon next to it (and each feed url that you put on your toolbar) into the folder with your child's name. Look at your toolbar. Nice, isn't it. Notice, it will even give you a total count in the toolbar of the new posts you have yet to read! Do you see why this is outrageously cool!

Let's get outrageous!
If you're a 10.4 Mac user and you're still with me on this, I'm going to introduce you to an as-yet-little-known feature of OS 10.4 that is really nice. Here are the steps for making the MabryOnline.org site RSS feeds appear as a gorgeous screen saver on your machine.

First, make sure you have used the above directions to subscribe to MabryOnline's RSS feed. (The directions above specify my blog, you can use that one if you want. Otherwise, subscribe to MarbyOnline.org's RSS feed. Any RSS feed will work)
Click on the blue apple in the extreme top left hand corner of your screen and select "System Preferences...".
On the top row you will see "Desktop & Screen Saver." Click on it.
Make sure the button labeled "Screen Saver" is blue. Click on it if it is not.
In the list on the left, click on "RSS Visualizer."
Click on the "Options" button
From the drop down sheet that appears, select the RSS feed you wish to use. (MabryOnline.org or Dr. Tyson's Blog...)
Click on the "Done" button.
Click the "Test" button. Amazing, isn't it!!
Move the blue button on the "Start screen saver:" timeline to the length of time you want your computer to be inactive before the screen saver turns on.
Click the red button in the top left hand corner of this window to quit System Preferences. You're done.

posted on: October 15, 2005

National Schools of Distinction Award Winner

I am pleased to announce that Mabry Middle School has been named the winner of Scholastic and Intel Corporations' National Schools of Distinction for Technology Innovation! Over 3,300 schools around the nation applied for this incredible honor, and Mabry won the Technology Innovation category! I believe 20 categories of awards were given nationwide.

As a category winner, Mabry will receive a $10,000 cash grant. In the past, category winners have also received about $250,000 worth of technology which supports the vision of a 21st century school. We have been told to anticipate a similar award this year.

Dr. Tyson, principal, Mr. Swanson, Instructional Lead Teacher, and Mrs. McCrary, retired Instructional Lead Teacher who wrote the application, have been invited to attend a black tie awards gala in Washington, D.C., on October 6th. At this event the details of the award will be announced.

Mabry students and teachers earned this extraordinary national recognition because of the innovative use of instructional technology at Mabry Middle School: the Annual Film Festival and the MabryOnline blogging system for instructional communication. The quality of the student-created digital movies is noteworthy to say the least. And the use of blogs to communicate to parents for instructional review is also exemplary.

I could not be any more pleased with the hard work of Mabry's teachers, who are literally defining best practices and what exemplary work looks like for public schools around the nation. By building capacity in everyone to become ambitious, independent problem solvers and creators, our teachers are empowering students to have a significant voice that matters for good in our world.

Our students have risen to this challenge by creating powerful and compelling digital movies that cause other students, as well as adults, to pause and reflect. Their work has deeply affected us, moving many to see that children can make a substantial contribution to our world, can have a voice in our world that makes it a better place. Our students' insights have caused us to stop and think. They are making a difference!

Mabry students and teachers are working hard to define a whole new way of "doing school." They are leveraging pervasive connectivity with computing tools in ways that empower them to create persuasive, and compelling media that empowers us all. Their exemplary work has been honored by Scholastic and Intel Corporations' National Schools of Distinction for Technology Innovation!

Congratulations students and teachers! I and our school community could not be any more proud of you!

posted on: September 13, 2005

Anatomy of a Blog

If you click on the thumbnail to the left, you will open a very large picture in a new window. This will allow you to see what I am explaining in each paragraph below. Keep in mind though, that, even though it looks like a "real" web page, it's only a picture of a real web page; so, none of the links will work. I have entitled this post, The Anatomy of a Blog, since I will show and describe each piece of a typical blog window on MabryOnline.org.

Top Navigation
Starting at the top left, the MabryOnline.org logo is actually a link. If you click on it on any page on which it appears, it will take you back to the main welcome page of MabryOnline.org. Not pictured (The picture is already too large!) is the bottom logo and the additional links at the bottom of every page. The bottom logo is also a link to the main welcome page.

Across the top are links to the various sections of this web site. Each link, except for the calendar link, is actually taking you to another complete blog--pretty cool design. :o)

Each section of the website has a "You Are Here" indicator. In this example, Parent Info, the Parent Info link appears dark to let you know you are presently in the Parent Info section of the site. If no section title at the top is darkened, you are in the main welcome section.

Sidebar
Calendar
The gray area is the sidebar. It contains some very helpful sections for locating information, starting with the calendar. On each date in the calendar that information was posted, that date is a link. Clicking on the date will take you to everything that was posted on that date. If nothing happens when you click on a date, it means nothing was posted on that day.

Search
You can search each blog individually. (As of this writing, you can not search the entire website...yet! We're working on that.) Simply type in a word or phrase and click on the "Search" button. A window will appear listing all of the posts in this section that contain what you typed. Searching is a powerful way to locate information quickly as the site grows larger and larger.

Tip for searching: Try various words that mean the same thing. For example, try "test," then try "quiz," then try "assessment"... Or, if your search didn't yield the needed results, you may click on advanced search options in the search results window. You're on your own there.

Categories
Below the search section are the blog categories. Each section of the site, and each teacher's blog, has categories that were assigned by the teacher or blog administrator. Hopefully, each post is assigned to at least one category. These categories appear here. If you only are interested in reading the posts that relate to one category, click on the name of that category.

Recent Posts
The 10 most recent post titles are always listed next. You can click on the title of the post to read it.

Sixceed Link
Sixceed, a web page (blog) written by the 8th grade Language Arts students in Mrs. Hartnett and Mrs. Collins' classes last year is conveniently linked here.

Archives
The Archives section contains a link for each month in the past. Clicking on the name of a month will bring up all of the posts added to the site in that month. They will be listed by date.

RSS Feed
The bottom of the sidebar contains a link to one of the xml files that feed readers will use to subscribe to this page. This link is really meant for computers, not really for mere mortals like us. If you click on it, what you see will probably not make a lot of sense to you. However, subscribing to a blog is outrageously powerful. I strongly recommend that you subscribe to each of your children's teachers' blogs, Dr. Tyson's blog, the Media Center Blog, The Nurses, Blog, and the Counselors' Blog.

Why should you go to the trouble (which isn't hard) of learning how to subscribe to a blog? Well, let me tell you! When you subscribe:

New information posted to each blog comes to your browser or news reader automatically when it's posted. This means you don't have to go see if new information is there. It comes to you!
The information comes as a summary, not the full text. This means you can quickly pick and choose what you think is important.
If you think the summary is important, you click on it and up comes the entire post.
You will then know how to subscribe to news readers. You can have just news related to events that are of interest to you come to you as they happen! Do you see the implications of this for student research?!

I have written some information on how to set up an RSS Feed Reader. Please, take the time to try it! You can read that post by clicking here.

General
OK, this post is already much longer than I like. Let's wrap up the remaining anatomy. Notice the date, title, and name of the person who posted the entry for each post. If multiple posts were made for a single date, they all appear under that date heading.

Links and pictures that appear in the main section of the site almost always have additional "hidden" information. Simply move your mouse over a link or a picture without clicking on it, and almost always, after about one second, a little bit of additional information about the link or picture will appear. Try it with the link to Blogger below.

Now you know the basics of a blog. Blogging is really easy. In fact, I would encourage you to set your own up for free! Check out sites like Blogger. They bill themselves as the Amazing Web Site Machine, and this one is free, but you have those ads to deal with. Many excellent blogging systems and services are out there. I can't think of a better way to share with your friends and family all over the world. And it's as easy as sending an email. Seriously, setting it up is simple enough, as long as it's not as complex as the school site! And then posting is a snap.

Thanks for reading this long post. I hope it was helpful. If you would like to read additional overview information about our site, blogging, and syndication, click here.

posted on: July 03, 2005

PE Takes Home the Gold, Fourth Annual Film Festival, 2005

This movie took home an "Oscar" from the Fourth Annual Mabry Film Festival.
The movie was produced by 7th grade PE students and has a very important message.

Click on the picture to play this movie.

High speed internet access required.
Quicktime required.

posted on: June 20, 2005

8th Grade Independent Films, Fourth Annual Film Festival, 2005

Each of these two films took home "Oscars" during the Fourth Annual Mabry Film Festival.
They were submitted by 2 different groups of 8th grade students.

Click on either picture to play that movie.

High speed internet access required.
Quicktime required.

posted on: June 20, 2005

7th Grade Independent Films, Fourth Annual Film Festival, 2005

Both of these films took home "Oscars" during the Fourth Annual Mabry Film Festival.
They were submitted by 2 different groups of 7th grade students.
Each of these movies has a brief introduction by some of the students involved in producing the movie.

Click on either picture to play that movie.

High speed internet access required.
Quicktime required.

posted on: June 20, 2005

Fourth Annual Mabry Film Festival, Best Picture Category, 2005

Mabry's Fourth Annual Film Festival
2005 Theme: Celebrate Achievement
Best Picture Category

High speed internet access required.
Quicktime required.

posted on: June 17, 2005

Power to Learn

Naturally, we have some thoughts about the Power to Learn laptop initiative for Cobb County students.

. Clicking on the picture above will download a PDF document we at Mabry have prepared for you. Please print and distribute it to help inform our community about The Power to Learn.	Click above to play. (Quicktime required Windows/Mac)

posted on: June 17, 2005

How to Subscribe to MabryOnline.org through RSS

If you feel clueless as to what this is all about, you should first read:

and then, come back and read this page.

As with most things in this world, there are many ways to go about setting up RSS feeds. Select from the list below the way you wish to use.

An easy, web-based solution (which means you can access it from any computer anywhere in the world!) for both Windows and Macs for managing RSS Feeds: A free Bloglines account! Directions are posted here.
Windows users can download Firefox and use it to manage RSS feeds. Directions are posted here.
Mac users can download Firefox and use it to manage RSS feeds. Directions are posted here.
Mac users with OS 10.4 can use Safari, which is installed on your machine already, to easily manage RSS feeds. Directions are posted here.

If you are a Mac user and are unsure if you have OS 10.4 installed on your machine, simply click on the blue apple in the top left corner of your machine and click on "About This Mac." If, under the bold Mac OS X, you see, "Version 10.4" or higher you can use Safari!

posted on: June 17, 2005

technology@mabry.cool

Hosted by Blake and Katie, these movies talk about the many ways we use technology at mabry.cool. Click on any of the movie icons below to watch that section of the movie. This project is aired from time to time on CobbEdTV.

High speed internet access required.
Quicktime required.

posted on: June 17, 2005

Searching MabryOnline

Hopefully our website, which is really a collection of nearly 100 blogs, will become a huge repository of information about our school. In time, finding information quickly will become complex. Therefore, we are adding search capacity to MabryOnline.org.

Our site contains several areas:

this Main Welcome Page
the Curriculum blog: about curriculum matters
the Parent Info blog: important information for parents
the Student Info blog: important information for students
the Blogs (well over 50 blogs for the staff)
the Staff blog (bios about the Mabry staff)
the Sixceed blog (which is a link embedded in the Main Welcome Page)

To search this Main Welcome Page, you have three options:

Use the search field below
Click on an Archive link below
Read the last 100 posts' titles and summaries below

The above search features only apply to this main welcome section of MabryOnline.org. For example, you would not yield a result from Dr. Tyson's blog using the search options above. These options only search this Main Welcome Page. If you wish to search any other section of our site, Dr. Tyson's blog for example, you must first navigate to that section (blog) and use the search field located on his main page. Each blog contains a search field specific to that blog.

Don't forget to use your browser's Find command (usually located under the [Edit] menu) to do a quick keyword search on a specific page. For example: an archive link will contain a large number of complete posts. Use your browser's Find command on that large page to instantly find a keyword that may be buried deep into the page.

Click here to go to the search page. In the future, you may find the search page on the bottom, right hand corner of the main page.

posted on: June 17, 2005

Overview Information About Our New Website

MabryOnline is our new web presence. The site is really a collection of nearly 100 blogs designed with a front end that appears to be a web page. We have done this in the hope that our staff will more easily be able to keep information on the site current. Posting to a blog is substantially easier than having a web master who knows a lot about html, xhtml, css, asp, js, and blah, blah, blah. We don't. And even if we did, then the webmaster has to track everyone down to get their information to post it.

So, what is a blog? The term is an abbreviation for weblog and can be most easily understood as an online journal. Teachers post journal entries (or posts) to their site (or blog). The teacher assigns each post to a category that s/he has already created. When the post is published on the site, it is automatically linked to the category (listed in the sidebar on the right), to the date it was posted (via a little calendar in the sidebar on the right), and also is placed in a monthly archive (which, you guessed it, is also listed by month in the sidebar on the right).

Finding information in a teachers site could not be any easier. To read everything that has been posted to this blog about the Film Festival, simply click on the name of that category in the sidebar on the right. To read everything related to the Beginning of the Year, click...you have the idea. You could also go to the archive links for July and August to read things that were posted in those months which might relate to the beginning of the year.

Aside from having a powerful organizational structure for content management, a blog also has a very powerful search feature. Each teacher's site (or blog) has a "Search this site:" area in the sidebar on the right side. Simply type in the string for which you wish to search, and the script will bring up everything in the teacher's site that matches your search parameter--powerful, fast access to content.

Every time the site is updated, the blogging system is programed to update the syndication files. You can setup an RSS/Atom feed reader to automatically notify you when new content has been posted to the site. Most feed readers provide you with a quick summary of the new information, which, if you find relevant to your need, can serve as a link to the entire post of new information.

We will find that RSS/Atom feed readers are going to have a huge impact on learning and research. Rather than going out to find current, relevant information, you can set up a RSS/Atom feed reader to have the most current information about a research topic come to you. Software is now coming available that will even automatically annotate in a bibliography the source from the major online libraries . This is cutting edge and very powerful! The digital divide between those who know information literacy skills and those who do not is going to grow exponentially in the next few years. And who thinks students do not need laptops?!

And don't miss the Calendar link that appears at the top of the "front end" pages. We will keep it current with important school-wide or grade-level wide information such as testing dates, picture days, holidays, early dismissal days, etc. You can read more about how to subscribe to this calendar (Mac users only) and how to view the online version of the calendar (Mac and Windows users) by clicking here.

Hopefully you will find our new site helpful. Visit us often.

Articles on the Wikipedia:
Blogs
RSS Feeds
Syndication

Other Excellent Resources
What's RSS and Why Should I Care About It?
Great, Easy-to-Read, General Overview of Blogging & RSS
More Detailed and More Comprehensive Information about RSS
Dr. Tyson's Instructions for Setting Up Mabry RSS Feeds at home and work
And, if you don't know about Wikipedia and Wikis, you need to check this out!
Free Browser (for Windows and Macs) with RSS feed implementation: Firefox

Feeling Tech-Savy? Check Out the RSS Specs on the Harvard Law School Server.

posted on: June 17, 2005

Student Letters About the Fourth Annual Film Festival

When I talk with students about the film festival several themes repeatedly come up:

this technology-based, difficult, demanding project which spans 4 months is extremely meaningful and highly significant to them
students are willing to invest enormous amounts of time in work they feel is compelling
students care more about what our community thinks about the quality of their work than they do getting a grade on that work
students want our community to celebrate their hard work
students value the opportunity to compel and persuade

I frequently receive letters from students. They are excellent writers, expressing themselves very well. I wanted to share with you a small number of the letters I received about the Fourth Annual Mabry Film Festival. When you read these letters, you get a glimpse into how meaningful this activity is for our students and how truly special our students are.
_____

Dear Dr. Tyson,

I believe the Fourth Annual Mabry Oscar Night was a great success. The movies were great, and they really stress the importance of technology at Mabry. Everyone I talked to seemed really impresses with the final products of groups of middle schoolers with some technology and a lot of determination.

Holding the Oscars in the gym was a great idea. At first, I was a little skeptical, but in the end, I liked the gym better than the theater. With everyone in the gym, more people were able to see the great movies coming from Mabry’s talented, well-rounded students.

Sincerely,
Cassaundra
_____

Dear Dr. Tyson,

I think having an Oscars each year is a really good idea. It is fun to go to a big thing like this, when you get to see productions made by other students. The best thing about it, though, is that so many people get to see what you created. After all the hours working on this, people get to see how long and how hard you worked on it.

I worked on the Antarctica I-movie with Will, Anna, and Katie. We were nominated for two categories, and we won an Oscar for the seventh grade independent film. I was very excited when we won, because of all I had learned, and everything people have seen that I did.

Sincerely,
Matthew

_____

Dear Dr. Tyson,

Last night was such an exciting night, and my friends and I winning an Oscar definitely made the evening a memorable night. Some movies made us laugh, and others made us cry, but overall, all of the nominated movies made us think. What is achievement?

All the movies were amazing, but one movie really touched me, 7A’s film. It was sort of a reality check for me. Everyday we go through life and take the gifts we have been given for granted. People don’t realize what adversity we all have to overcome. Casey is such a kind person, and I know that I will always have a friend in her. She has inspired many, including me, to love life and to always do your best.

Sincerely,
Lauren

_____

Dear Dr. Tyson,

Last night, half of the school dressed formally to attend the Fourth Annual Mabry Oscars. Some had come just to view the movies, while others, including myself, wanted to bring the golden statue home. Awards were given to groups, independents, and grade level teams. Every Oscar decision was well made.

None of the movies were humorous; they focused more on making a point. Many were touching while some received standing ovations. I believe that every deserving team won an award last night, especially 7A’s I-movie. My team immediately congratulated them.

The best part of the night was when my team won. The wait for the winners seemed to last forever. But then Antarctica was announced. Our team went through quite a bit together, and winning made everything the better. We were all excited, though the announcements of retirees dampened the mood. Otherwise, it was a wonderful evening.

Sincerely,
Anna

_____

Dear Dr. Tyson,

This year’s Film Festival was an important opportunity for me to experience. I loved each movie for different reasons. Some made me laugh, others made me cry, others made me think, and still others truly touched my heart. The emcees were amazing. I loved the humor and acting. Each one was great.

I loved dressing up and receiving “Oscars.” The only thing I did not like was how long it was, and how late into the night it was. I think there was an excellent script, but I think the show should have been started earlier.

I loved your dedications to our retiring teachers! This was so sad, because I loved each one of them. I also enjoyed the Jekyll re-cap video. I appreciate everything you have done for technology, the Film Festival, and everything you do. This was the best night of my life!

Thank you so much Dr. Tyson for every single thing you do for Mabry Middle School and for me.

Sincerely,
Samantha

posted on: June 17, 2005

Technology Partnerships

The Annual Mabry Film Festival is the highlight of the school year, a time when students are bursting with the excitement of showing off their work and hoping to win an Apple iBook computer. About 1,000 people attend this formal-attire event replete with the spot lights in the sky and the red carpet entrance. Oscar-like trophies are awarded in categories like Best Picture, Best Cinematography, etc. Pre-event parties are held in the covered play area by each movie-making team.

We have been successful in keeping tickets for this event at a minimal charge so as many students as possible can attend this huge celebration. Help Mabry promote and support the Annual Mabry Film Festival event while also increasing student access to technology at school. Join one of the groups below. While membership has its privileges, your tax deductible contribution will benefit our students!

Actor’s Guild – Donations from $25

Name printed as an Actor's Guild Contributor in this year's Film Festival program

Director's Chair -Donations from $100

Name printed as a Director's Chair Contributor in this year's Film Festival program
Complimentary DVD of last year's Film Festival (while supplies last)
Certificate of Appreciation suitable for framing

Producer's Portfolio -Donations from $250

Name in the ending credits of this year's Mabry Film Festival
Name printed as a Producer's Portfolio Contributor in this year's Film Festival program
Complimentary DVD of this year's Film Festival
Invitation to attend next year's parent/student/teacher training for the Film Festival
Producer's Portfolio Plaque

Critic's Choice -Donations from $500

Name in the ending credits of this year's Mabry Film Festival
Name included on this year's Mabry Film Festival DVD
Name printed as a Critic's Choice Contributor in this year's Film Festival program
Complimentary DVD of this year's Mabry Film Festival
Invitation to attend next year's parent/student/teacher training for the Film Festival
Critic's Choice Plaque
Receive an invitation to this year's VIP Pre-Oscar Party

Mabry iMovie Academy -Donations from $1000

Name in the ending credits of this year's Mabry Film Festival
Name included on this year's Mabry Film Festival DVD
Name printed as an iMovie Academy Contributor in this year's Film Festival program
Complimentary DVD of this year's Mabry Film Festival
Invitation to attend next year's parent/student/teacher training for the Film Festival
Mabry iMovie Academy Plaque
Receive an invitation to this year's VIP Pre-Oscar Party
Receive your own personalized “Oscar” trophy*

*The same trophy facsimile awarded each category.

Mabry's Technology Wish List Items

Canon GL2 Camera -for student use
3 Apple 15” iBooks - for student awards
3 Mini DV Cameras -for student awards
DV tapes -for student use
DVD printer
2 Fresnel lights and stands -for the stage
Training from an actual producer
Spotlight (Klieg Light) rental
2 Wireless Mics -for student use

posted on: June 17, 2005

Subscribe to Mabry's School Calendar

If you are a Mac user using OS 10.x, you can subscribe to the Mabry School Calendar. Simply click on the link below and the Mabry School Calendar will automatically appear on your iCal program. Each time the school updates the calendar, those updates will automatically appear on your iCal calendar! It's easy. Try it! Simply click on the link below.

Mac Users Click Here To Subscribe

If you are a Windows user, you can view the school calendar on the internet. Simply click on the link below. Mac users can also visit this link.

Click Here To View the Calendar on the Internet

P.S. We've had our first parent subscribe to the calendar on his new Mac. He's new to using the Mac and said, "It couldn't be any easier!"

posted on: June 17, 2005

Under the Hood

We are in the process of rebuilding our entire web presence from the ground up. The basic setup of the site is now complete, but the website is really more of an always-growing content management system. Once the school year begins, we will be adding content and links rather quickly as we make our website as helpful and informative as possible. We hope that navigating the site is relatively intuitive and simple. Clicking on the visual outline to the left will bring up an enlarged copy. Clicking here will download an 8.5 x 11 printable pdf of the visual map.

One of the key features of the website is that the overwhelming majority of it is built from blogs. Additionally, each of the teachers at Mabry has his/her own blog which links from our site through the top navigation bar. We strongly encourage you to syndicate each of your student's teachers' blogs as well as Dr. Tyson's, the counselors, and the Media Center's blogs. Syndication is really very simple and brings the most currently posted information directly to your computer rather than your having to go to each blog to see if new information has been posted.

We regret that we are unable to provide individual technical assistance in setting up this syndication for you. Everyone has different hardware, software, and levels of expertise. However, setup is really fairly simple--hence, it's name: RSS (Really Simple Syndication). In an evening meeting at the beginning of the year, Dr. Tyson will provide parents with an overview of how to set up your RSS feeds. He has also posted a link on the main web page (which you can also access by clicking here) which gives some guidance on how to do this.

And if all of this is completely new and a bit overwhelming to you, can can start by clicking here to read an easy-to-understand overview of a typical window on our site. This post explains what each section of the window is and how it works.

We hope you find our new site and your student's teachers' blogs an easy and effective way to know what is going on at Mabry Middle School. If you wish to continue reading more information about the site, click here.

posted on: June 17, 2005

Third Annual Mabry Film Festival, Best Picture Category, 2004

Mabry's Fourth Annual Film Festival
2004 Theme: Imagine...
Best Picture Category
(Because of its sensitive nature, some of this content is unsuitable for young children or victims of child abuse.)

High speed internet access required.
Quicktime required.

posted on: June 16, 2005

Third Annual Mabry Film Festival, 2004

Watch three of the movies from our third Film Festival. The movie on the left was created by two 8th grade students as the opening movie to introduce the envelopes which contained the evening's winners. Ivor joined our bookkeeper, who present the envelopes, on the stage.

The movie on the right was produced by a group of 8th grade girls. The movie on the bottom was produced by a group of 8th grade students. We were unable to have our Mabry Symphony perform, so they created this.

Click on a movie to watch it.

High speed internet access required.
Quicktime required.

posted on: June 16, 2005

Congratulations, Brandon!

Again this year we had an anonymous donor give a 12" Apple iBook to the school for the Fourth Annual Film Festival. The judges* for the festival event select one movie, out of all of the movies that qualified for the Film Festival, as the movie to be awarded the computer. Each team then decides who on their movie-making team will win the computer if their movie is selected by the judges.

Celebrate the Human Spirit, the movie submitted by the 7A team, was selected by the judges. The 7A team chose Brandon to be the recipient of the computer. I was very excited and pleased today to present Brandon with his computer, a carrying case, and a backpack for the computer. The 7A movie was deeply moving and completely professional in every respect. In fact, I have been approached by 2 organizations who wish to use these student's work in presentations around the world.

I can't wait to see the incredible work Brandon will produce with this amazing tool! You can hear Brandon speak about his movie and then watch the movie, Celebrate the Human Spirit, by clicking here.

(Click to enlarge)

The Annual Mabry Film Festival is one of the many highly engaging instructional activities here at Mabry Middle School. Our students create compelling, significant, meaningful work in which they take great pride. We then share their work initially at our annual Oscars-like Film Festival awards ceremony. Professional DVDs are made available of our students' work. And finally, we share their work with everyone in the world through the internet. We just couldn't be any more proud of our students!

*We had about 20 judges this year, including technology integration specialists, members from the Georgia Film Commissioner's office, members of the Georgia Department of Education, University Technology Specialists, Teacher Technology Trainers, executives from Apple Corporate Offices, a technology support specialist from a metro school district, and an attorney. Each judge found the quality of our students' work exemplary.

posted by: Dr. Tyson

posted on: June 15, 2005

Second Annual Mabry Film Festival, 2003

Watch three of the movies from our second Film Festival. The movie on the left was created by 6th grade students and won Best Picture for 2003. The movie on the right won numerous other categories. The movie on the bottom was produced by our Physical Education department by 8th grade students. All are excellent and extremely compelling. Click on a movie to watch it.

High speed internet access required.
Quicktime required.

posted on: June 03, 2005

Support Our Students

This movie, produced in 2003, gives an excellent overview of the Mabry Annual Film Festival and how you can help support technology at Mabry Middle School.

High speed internet access required.
Quicktime required.

posted on: June 02, 2005