Model Educator and Teacher Blogs

The following are examples of blogs that I found that were interested. They are great ways to have students communicate with each other, learn how to blog and be connected with the teacher when they are home. Some of the teachers had impressive videos they had created with the students. Check out Mr. Avery's Classroom blog, in which he has a video title Mr. Avery's bunch which talks about fractions. Great idea to use!

Mrs. Buller's Fourth Grade Blog

Mr. Avery's Classroom Blog

The following blog is more for teachers, even though she also has resources for students. I thought it was creative and a great resource for teachers. Great ideas again!

Welcome to the Computer Lab

Does anyone have a classroom blog or know of a teacher who does? How long does it take to maintain during the week? How often are you on it? 

Vocabulary Animoto

Each week we have a main story from our anthology book. This week the story is The Alvin Ailey Kids...Dance as a Team. With each story comes 5 to 6 vocabulary words. Usually I introduce them in our word splash, we define them, go over how to use them in a sentence, and use them during our guided reading centers. So I always thought how can vocabulary be fun? Well on Monday morning I went to work and thought, let me try an animoto, just like the other student in Prof. Judy's on campus class did. The hard part was to find realia pictures to go with the words but I think I picked out some good ones. I shared it with my colleague as well so she can use it. After I introduced them vocabulary as always, I showed them the animoto. The students loved it. Some students were dancing to the music while looking at the vocabulary word. I felt that the students were able to make a connection with the word, picture, and definition. Some students read it aloud. I was impressed with their reaction. In the animoto I had the words repeat twice so that they can see it more than once. After watching it, they wanted to see it again. Therefore, I got an idea that I would show them the two minute animoto each day, so that they can use the vocabulary more. Today when they saw it more students started to read the definitions out loud. I am going to try to do an animoto each week for the vocabulary. I hope this motivates them and helps them incorporate their vocabulary more.

For example we wrote a squiggle story today (thank you Maggie), and one of my students said "Mrs. Lopez, I included two vocabulary words in my story. They were proud and perform." I was so impressed and happy that she used them. I hope that more of my students will do the same.

Here is the animoto I used. I didn't notice but it is one of the most famous songs they have on the website. My students loved it though!

This is a great tool to use! 

Webquests

In my undergrad, we talked about web quests and I actually created one for math. Unfortunately, I do not know where I saved it to. In the classroom now as a teacher, unfortunately I cannot say I have used them a lot or created any. WebQuests are inquiry based activities. All the information the students learn come from internet resources. Usually the web quests take longer than one class period. Teachers include worksheets in the web quests to be completed as their working ("the tasks"). WebQuests can be done individually or as partners. This can be an extension to something students have learned or it can be the introduction to something they will learn. You can use web quests in my different ways. Here is a website where you can find example of WebQuests. Unfortunately, not all the WebQuests work but they are good examples for levels K-12. I hope to be able to do a WebQuest with my class. I would just have to make sure the computer lab is available since I do not have computers in my classroom.

Have you used WebQuests in your classrooms? Did the students enjoy it? What subject did you do it on?

Exploring Diigo

When looking through the Diigo Wiki list, I found a Wiki Space that sparked my interested. The Wiki Space was about Digital Storytelling. When I started to explore the Wiki I found great websites that give examples of how to use the digital storytelling in the classroom and websites of what tools we can use. Then I looked at it's side bar and saw the reading promotion page. This was another great part of the Wiki. I found this Wiki to be a great resource for Digital Storytelling and how to use technology to help promote reading. If you have time I recommend you explore the WikiSpace. It had more resources than what I just mentioned. It is definitely helpful to me.

Exploring Animotos

After exploring the Animoto's from the other class, I was amazed at how you can use them in the classroom. They had some great ideas. I was thinking of creating a memory book with Animoto or iMovie, but there is so much more I can do. I really liked how one of the teachers used it to introduce vocabulary.  I think I may try that for our next main story. I also loved how one of the teachers recreated the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar as well. They did a great job! I can't wait to create another Animoto.

Here is an example of an ABC animoto from youtube.

Voki for Math

In math class we were talking about rounding to the nearest tens for two days. So as a review on the second day I thought it would be nice if I created a voki to remind them of the rules. It was a great hook. Here is the voki I used:

NETS

What is NETS? NETS stands for The National Educational Technology Standards. These are the standards we as teachers should use to teach in the digital age. The NETS were created because technology has become such a big part of education. Just like in reading, math, writing, science, social studies, etc. we expect our students to be be using high order thinking, we should also expect that when they are using technology. The students should be accounted for their work, and making sure their work is appropriate. Not everything on the internet is correct and can be used. This is where the standards come in to help us. The Standards for Students are: creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, research and information fluency, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making, digital citizenship, and technology operations and concepts. When using technology we should incorporate these standards.

NETS also has Standards for Teachers: facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity, design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments, model digital age work and learning, promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility, and engage in professional growth and leading. These standards will help us teachers evaluate the skills and knowledge we need to teach in the new digital age. We as teachers also need to make sure we are critical thinkers when using technology.

Here is the NETS wiki space that they had created and is part of the website. It is very useful. If you click on your grade levels it gives websites that work well for that grade level.

New Literacies

New Literacies is what I would love to be teaching more in my classroom. At this point in time it is anything to do with the internet/media. Students are able to create using the computer (media, photographs, video, audio, etc.) when learning. "New Literacies" is changing all the time therefore, it might not be the same tomorrow as it is today because something new can be invented. The new literacies now is a way we can motivate students to learn. We still need to teach in the "old" ways but also incorporating the new literacies. I know the students would enjoy it even more. The students use these at home why not incorporate it in school. Unfortunately, we are not all fortunate to be technology advanced in our schools and this is where I feel we do an injustice to our students. I feel that some students would be learning more and like school more if we were able to incorporate the new literacies more. In my classroom I try to incorporate new literacies as much as I can with my mimo board, but I don't to have computers for all my students. When the students go to their "computer" class, I am not sure what they do. I would love to be able to work with the teacher and create an integrated lesson together but the time does not allow us to. I feel that other aspects in our teaching come first and in some schools are more important because of the pressure teachers and administrators have. I wish that all the politicians who want to change education look and see how we are lacking in technology and how important it is to include it in our everyday teaching.In New Literacies it is also very important to teach the students to analyze and decipher what information is appropriate and not appropriate. That is part of having the students be critical thinkers.

In a class prior to this, a friend and I made a project of different Technology that could be used in the classroom. When looking for information we found two great videos about the vision of 21st century learners and teachers. I have posted them here. They truly are inspiring. I just hope that one day ALL schools will be able to have the access to all the new technology.

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a way to tell stories through media/technology. It is a way to communicate your stories with others using photographs, animation, video, sound, text and narrative. You can share your aspect of your life through digital story telling. In a video that I watched through the University of Houston, a man had said that a digital story is like creating your own time machine. When he said that it made sense to me. I can definitely see myself using this in the classroom. The students would be able to create such great stories and it would be motivating because they can share with their family members (even ones that live far away). Students would be able to tell a story about themselves or create new stories. As I was reading about digital storytelling I found a youtube video which shows how digital storytelling is being used in the elementary classroom. The students talk about what they have been doing and what digital story is to them. I thought it was a great video to see how other schools have incorporated it into the classroom. I hope you like it as well.

 

Website

Here is a website a teacher shared with me. I haven't played with it much but Darcie's post reminded me of it. Hope you can try it in your classroom or at home. Here is the website Kerpoof

Wikis

Wikis are new to me because I haven't really seen one in action. In the link example of Educational Wikis I found a great example of a second grade class using a wiki. I really like it but how much time does it take to maintain it? Also, do the students help insert their work? This Wiki hasn't been updated in 11 months but it is a good example of what we can do with a Wiki. Here is the Wiki I was talking about:

http://mrsanderson10.pbworks.com/w/page/33263525/FrontPage

Story Bird

Another great site we had to explore was Story Bird. This is a great site to create stories. I would love to use this in my classroom. This would help my students create a story and inspire them. It is such a fun way to do create a story as well. I can see my students having fun and enjoying creative their story/digital book. This would be a great project to share with parents.

As on the other sites, I tried to play with it. Unfortunately, it is late and I wanted to create a quick story. I hope it makes sense. :) Enjoy!


The Beautiful Day! on Storybird

Animoto

We were supposed to explore animoto. Once I entered I fell in love with the site and decided I needed to try it. I love using all these fun technologies. I have a great idea of using animoto to create the students memory book through videos and then maybe burn them onto a cd or something. What do you think? 

Anyways....here is my example. The song doesn't fit perfectly but it was my first try and just playing around with it. Hope you enjoy it! :) 

Voki

Please enjoy this simple voki! :)

First Blog



Our Wedding July17, 2010

 This is our first night of our sixth class. We are half way there. We are also learning how to blog! I can't wait to be able to integrate this in my classroom.