2011 Storytubes results are in!

Wow, I got the results of our Storytube videos entered into this year's competition. All of my kids used animation in the style we invented. This year we did very well! Paige won a Judge's Choice honor in the 11-13 year old category for her Justin Bieber video. I'm so glad we changed from her original idea of a Michael Jackson biography. We also won a Judges Choice in the 5-7 year olds for one of those Magic Tree House non fiction guides. My wife had two videos entered and both received honorable mentions! We also have a few that will go on to the voting round. I'll keep you informed on those. Here is the video that won in the 5-7's:


We are so proud that our kids from this little school in Melissa Texas continues to shine on the national stage! Remember, our entire PK-12 population is 1400!

2011 Storytubes contest

Last year several of our kids entered the national Storytubes contest. Though we failed to impress the judges, we still won a couple of the online voting audience awards. We're back this year with more of our animated book reviews. My wife also had her kids participate this year with a live action/animation mix. Here is one of the videos I made with a fifth grader. I am very please with the way it turned out. She came up with the concept and wrote it herself. * WARNING* Justin Bieber content :)

Latest Dallas Morning News Article: Class Size

Texas is deciding what to do about our massive budget deficit. Among the proposed cuts in education is removing the cap of 22 students per classroom. In my latest article for the Dallas Morning News I discuss why this is a bad idea. Dallas Morning News

TCEA Wrap up

As usual, I enjoyed my trip to TCEA a great deal. It is always nice to mix and mingle with people who understand what it is you do. Karen and I spent one evening with the Glogster people at a dinner for the Glogster ambassadors. These are really nice people who are receptive to what we have to say about their product. I am always impressed when I get the chance to talk with them. You should try Glogster if you haven't already! Karen had two presentations and her classroom integration talk drew at least 150 people! I had about 60-75 at mine which I considered quite good considering part of my time was up against the first keynote. Presenting gives you a very unique perspective on your work and I love having that opportunity. Thanks to all those who came out to hear me.
On Wednesday afternoon I attended our Library Special Interest Group meeting and was both surprised and delighted to recieve the annual award for "Amazing Librarian." It has indeed been a great year and I am always honored when my work is recongnized among such great librarians here in Texas.




There have been several snow days in Texas over the last couple of weeks so there is much to do here. Time to wrap my head around testing. First, I want to show you a video I produced for the upcoming Texas Library Association contest. It needed to be based on the theme "Crossing Boundaries." I think it turned out rather well! Thanks to Paige for all her help! Wish us luck.

Breaking down Boundaries. TXLA contest entry from Doug Valentine on Vimeo.

TCEA Conference

Next week I'll be attending the TCEA conference in Austin. What a wonderful conference this is! It is as large as many national conferences and includes teachers, librarian, administrators and students as well as so many technology experts. I am going to be presenting this year on Wednesday February 9th at 8:00 a.m. Not being a morning person, this may be difficult! Click here for a link containing information on what I'll be discussing. If you are in Texas I highly recommend you drop by and see me and enjoy this great conference.

Great Expectations...

I was fortunate enough to be selected as an opinion columnist this year for the Dallas Morning News. It has been a great exercise in writing and editing. My first column was on the fallacies in the movie "Waiting for Superman." This time i wrote about something near and dear to me, expectations of ourselves and students. I really believe that having high expectations is vital to student achievement. I have seen any number of examples where setting high goals led to unimaginable student achievements. Too often we sell students (and sell ourselves!) short on what is possible. We put up our own roadblocks to success. We say the kids are too young, not experienced enough or we've just never tried to do it that way before. Kids will believe they can do anything if we let them. The way they perceive accomplishment depends on how we value what they do. We need to promote excellence and lead the there. Great adults are not necessarily the ones who scored well on state tests; they are the ones that found out early on that they were capable of accomplishment in all that they do. They were given the tools and guidance to believe in themselves and what they were doing no matter what facet of life they were engaged in. We are not in the test passing business, we are creating people. That is the higher calling.
Here is the link to my editorial. Feel free to add stories or comment! DALLAS MORNING NEWS

I Love my Librarian Award

I just returned from New York where I was presented with one of only ten "I Love my Librarian" awards. This honor is sponsored by the ALA, The New York Times, and Carnegie Corporation. It was a $5,000 prize. What a great evening it was! It was so nice to meet librarians from different parts of the country. We all have different jobs but ultimately the same goals. New York at Christmastime was beautiful and my wife and I turned it into a mini vacation as well. Thanks to all the sponsors for recognizing the work my teachers, students and I are doing. What a great life when you recieve an award like this doing something you love!

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown

Right before Thanksgiving we performed the musical "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" with our 5th and 6th graders. You have to understand, despite this show's cartoon title it can be a difficult show to do. It was originally on Broadway in the 1960's and young voices sometimes have a difficult time with the music. Our kids don't have a performing arts program in our school district so my wife and I are providing that opportunity. Most of the kids we have do not have performing experience but they do have great desire and drive to try something new. I love the look on their faces when we spark some new idea in their head and open their eyes to an opportunity they had never seen before. Despite a shorter rehearsal schedule than we would have liked and logistic porblems involving scheduling 25 kids, 3 schools and administrators, we did a pretty god job getting it together. I thought the kids were amazing and we were rewarded by an audience of nearly 300 in a two day run. This is in a town of 4,000 and a district of 1300. Not to shabby for good ol' Charlie Brown!

Another Winning video

I recently found out that a video I produced with some of my students won the National Middle School Association Innovate. Create. Inspire. student video contest. The students were extremely happy to win because we have tweaked and entered this video into several contests. We got a flip vid and an I-Station license for our efforts along with awards for the major performers. There is more award news coming but I can't talk about it right now!

Sweet Dreams (of Technology) revised from Doug Valentine on Vimeo.

And we have a winnah!

Wow. I am so happy that one of our videos was voted to win in the 1st annual School Library Journal "Trailee" awards. As you may know, I believe in using video as a learning tool and it's alwys nice to see this process recognized by others. Our kids work hard when they get their "moment in the sun" and our student that won for her "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" video is very deserving of the recognition. I love that so many of our kids are succeeding. It's not just the same ones or the most talented all the time. We give as many kids as possible the chance to shine and you know what? The great majority of the time they do! SLJ WINNERS