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Dan Meyer doesn’t like Animoto. That’s ok, because I do, although I agree with the reasons why he doesn’t like it. First of all, let’s take it for what it is: You upload pictures, pick a soundtrack (or upload one), and wait for it to put together a nice video montage for you. It really is that simple. Dan’s objection:

Animoto is a staggeringly cool tool which almost everyone…appreciates for the wrong reason.

Specifically, Animoto creates photo montages better and faster than any other Internet utility but, over the long run, the fact that the montages jitter and bob with the music — its most celebrated and distinctive feature — does nothing for me as a media consumer and less than nothing for me as a educator.

And maybe those are the wrong reasons to like this service.  I just like it because I can preserve some memories in a web-friendly format without a lot of investment on my part.  I don’t think I would ever recommend teaching with this service, or that it can take the place of a well-crafted, professional video job.  It is what it is.  Here are our photos from last summer, Animoto-ed:

What’s your take?

Technorati Tags: Animoto, video, YouTube, Dan Meyer, teaching, education

Cool Cat Teacher proclaimed this “Funday Monday”, so I’m just passing along this little tidbit from an Australian guy named Peter Denahy.  Warning though, you will never get this 2:11 in your life back.   Kind of grows on you after a while.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

A little more than a tweet, but not quite a full blog post.  Just some stuff going through my head in between meeting with students and parents today:

• Busy week, both at home and school, which makes things go pretty fast. 
• Moving stuff out of my apartment this weekend–should give you a clue how things are progressing on the matrimonial front.
• My weigh-in at Weight Watchers this week didn’t happen.  That kind of gave me permission to not eat healthy for a while.  Time to get back on the stick.
• Outdoor recess today, for the first time this week.  Yay!!  That’s from the kids and the teachers.
• I’m using Google Docs more and more lately.  I think everybody should.  I wish formatting was a little more intuitive, though.  I have also installed a Wiki on here.  When to use Google Docs, and when to use a wiki?  Or are they interchangeable?
• Our music teacher has been having the kids listen to Copland today.  My office is right across the hall from the music room, so I get to hear a lot of what’s going on in there.  Sometimes I miss being a music teacher.
• I’d really like to start playing piano/keys at church again.  I’m working on that at my new church.  Hopefully within the next month or two that will be a reality.  Gots to use my skillz, man.
• U-Haul has some of the most customer-unfriendly policies I have ever seen.  Rented from Budget instead, we’ll see how it goes.
• Only 3 kids out of 9 showed up for leadership meeting at lunch today.  The rest were at a Perfect Attendance lunch.  You can do the math to find the correlation there.
• I’d like to change the little list-style graphics that show up in the sidebar here.  These are a little intrusive for my tastes.  Gonna have to play around with the Gimp some time this weekend.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Technorati Tags: education, counseling, random, music

Four questions isn’t bad, I guess.  Well, three questions if you don’t count Stephen’s hilarious hijinks.  Here goes:

Crystal asks: 

Have you picked a date yet?

No.  Well, yes, but it’s not set in stone yet, and I’m not sure we’re going to tell anybody once it is.  I’ll keep you posted on here though.

Stephen asks:

Why do birds sing so gay?

Always a wiseacre in the bunch.  Ummm…I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer that one, so here are the search results from Ask.com.

Matt asks:

Who do you think will win the Presidential race this year?

Good question.  If I had to put money on it right now, I’d say Hillary, just because I think she’s going to be the Democratic nominee, and the Republicans are having a tough time with a clear winner right now.  Let’s hope it doesn’t come down to that.  Lotsa time between now and November, though, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Dale asks:

Have you ever had to deal with anything life-threatening working with teenagers and all?

Hmmm, interesting question.  I was jumped from behind once by a teenager, but that wasn’t at school.  Amazing but true:  Statistically speaking, you’re much safer walking the hallways of your local high school than you are in your own home. 

Thanks for asking, everybody.  We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

First of all, welcome readers from Another Storm!  I am discontinuing that blog, and will be posting everything here from now on.  This started out as my professional blog a year or so ago, but I will be adding personal information as well.  I’m also in the process of updating my blogroll, and I will be migrating those from my other blog as well. 

I will continue to use this blog for professional purposes, but I will also include some of the more mundane and/or personal posts on here.  Specifically, I will include posts about my (continuing) weight loss, boys, and upcoming marriage.  Yes, in case you hadn’t heard, Susan and I got engaged over Christmas break and we will soon make that a permanent situation.  I honestly don’t have any more details than that at this point. 

So in many ways, this blog will expand to the intersection of my:

• Career (education, counseling, and administration)
• Family (big plans coming up!)
• Musical interests (both listening and performing)
• Christian faith (with some decidedly unorthodox beliefs)

And whatever else I find blogworthy.  Enjoy the ride–I look forward to seeing where this thing takes us.  Feel free to stop by and say hey any time.