I am so so so excited about epals.com. Not only can I get a pal for myself, I can get my whole class their own pals. The site also offers blogging and other projects. I looked at the human rights project to see art and poems that kids have created to share. There seems to be mini-lessons but I need some more time to explore. We could create stories and poems and read them and share them using Voice Thread (see below).
Slide.com offered me the chance to make a slide show and it was easy!!! Students would love this. The only disadvantage is that the captions are limited to very few words. I played around at Tarheel Reader and wish I had known about the site last school year. I had a student who could not read in any language and he was already 14. He had many issues, but I think the books there would have been valuable for him.
VoiceThread was a bit more involved, as you can add your own voice to the pages along with captions. I loved the book the ASU students made. I made a shoddy one just to see if I could. This would be excellent for sharing books with ELL kids at the elementary school!! (and anywhere else in the world!!)
I played with CaptionTube but was not able to successfully save/export the captions. I can see more uses with VoiceThread, like reading a poem or a short story. It appears that I need the tutorial videos at CaptionTube. :-)
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Power of Community
Yesterday Dr. D. talked about the power of community when using social bookmarks. I started thinking about this. At first I hated face book and thought all those people were so petty and dumb for announcing their every trip to the restroom and what they were watching on tv. Then I hijacked my husband's account and had fun looking at people I had not seen in years. When Miles kicked me off his account I had to set up my own. Now I am on there twice a day. The benefit for me has been the social networking that could not have taken place otherwise.
I now am part of a community of adoptive parents in NC and one in the Triad. I can connect with these people so easily via the Internet. I can touch base with people when I want with no pressure to make a phone call. I have 6-8 blogs that I follow of people who have already adopted African children. I only know 2 of them personally but I can learn from all of them by reading about their experience.
I really don't know how we lived before the internet. We pay our bills online, email instead of call, look up forms we need from USCIS and connect with our new and old friends. I am really excited about all the possibilities!!
I now am part of a community of adoptive parents in NC and one in the Triad. I can connect with these people so easily via the Internet. I can touch base with people when I want with no pressure to make a phone call. I have 6-8 blogs that I follow of people who have already adopted African children. I only know 2 of them personally but I can learn from all of them by reading about their experience.
I really don't know how we lived before the internet. We pay our bills online, email instead of call, look up forms we need from USCIS and connect with our new and old friends. I am really excited about all the possibilities!!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Social Butterfly
We have been reading and talking about social bookmarking all morning...and I mean ALL morning. I now have a delicious site and know how to use it. I can see how this would be useful for my class. I can preview sites ahead of time that I want kids to use. Then I can tag them in one group so the kids can easily access them without having to waste time and keystrokes. Previously I had to ask the media specialist to post websites on our school site so the kids could get to them. Now I am able to do this on my own!
Diigo seems a little more user friendly, but now I have already immersed myself in delicious.
As I use and explore web quests, I can see that the social bookmarking would be very helpful in creating a web quest. That would save me time in searching for websites that someone else has already found. Students are more engaged with activities like web quests and they learn a lot about how to apply their knowledge to a problem.
I would love to do epals with my students and set up a video conference using Skype and my school's new videoconferencing hardware. I think the kids would love this and it would get them writing for a real purpose. We have tried Skype to talk with my sister-in-law in MS. The delay with the video is a little annoying but the hardest thing is getting all our kids to be still at the same time so we can all talk and see one another. I didn't realize until today that you can IM in Skype. I talked to my friend who does Virtual Public Schools for DPI using the IM feature of Skype. She told me how she has to convince principals that Skype can be useful in the classroom. :-)
Wow, I have a lot of ideas to explore and implement!
Diigo seems a little more user friendly, but now I have already immersed myself in delicious.
As I use and explore web quests, I can see that the social bookmarking would be very helpful in creating a web quest. That would save me time in searching for websites that someone else has already found. Students are more engaged with activities like web quests and they learn a lot about how to apply their knowledge to a problem.
I would love to do epals with my students and set up a video conference using Skype and my school's new videoconferencing hardware. I think the kids would love this and it would get them writing for a real purpose. We have tried Skype to talk with my sister-in-law in MS. The delay with the video is a little annoying but the hardest thing is getting all our kids to be still at the same time so we can all talk and see one another. I didn't realize until today that you can IM in Skype. I talked to my friend who does Virtual Public Schools for DPI using the IM feature of Skype. She told me how she has to convince principals that Skype can be useful in the classroom. :-)
Wow, I have a lot of ideas to explore and implement!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Threaded Discussion
My eyes hurt from discussing threaded discussions!!!! Yes, you read that correctly. We are discussing the articles we read. I really like the format and can think of a couple of applications for my ELL class:
1-post a question of the week/day
2-use a thread to discuss a short story
3-literature circles
I like the idea of having a discussion going that all grades (6-8) could participate in throughout the day or week. We could even open it up to kids at the high school or kids in other content classes at our school. There are free sites that will host our discussions!
More ideas to come!
1-post a question of the week/day
2-use a thread to discuss a short story
3-literature circles
I like the idea of having a discussion going that all grades (6-8) could participate in throughout the day or week. We could even open it up to kids at the high school or kids in other content classes at our school. There are free sites that will host our discussions!
More ideas to come!
Evidently Twitter is very busy and needs some new employees. Their site does say they are hiring! Only about a fourth of us can get on. Now I am so behind with the instructions from Dr. D.
I don't think I will use Twitter, as it seems even more invasive and purposeless than FaceBook. When I finally sign on, I will update this blog!
OK I am on!! I still don't think it would be helpful for my personal life but I read about the ways you could use it with students. Send review questions, mention a website, allow students to privately ask for money for a field trip, etc.
Tweet tweet tweet
Been thinking about uses of Twitter. My brother-in-law is a campus minister and he uses it to put deep thoughts out there about texts he is reading or preaching on. Another friend is a youth minister who uses Twitter to let his youth and parents know where he is and for what event. Somehow he attaches a map! Teachers could use it in similar ways. I really see this working in an AP class or higher level English class. The teacher could Twitter thoughts and discussion points to get students thinking.
My students are low socioeconomic class and middle school level. I am not sure enough of them have a cell phone or Internet for this concept to work, but it is something to think about.
Tweet tweet tweet.
I don't think I will use Twitter, as it seems even more invasive and purposeless than FaceBook. When I finally sign on, I will update this blog!
OK I am on!! I still don't think it would be helpful for my personal life but I read about the ways you could use it with students. Send review questions, mention a website, allow students to privately ask for money for a field trip, etc.
Tweet tweet tweet
Been thinking about uses of Twitter. My brother-in-law is a campus minister and he uses it to put deep thoughts out there about texts he is reading or preaching on. Another friend is a youth minister who uses Twitter to let his youth and parents know where he is and for what event. Somehow he attaches a map! Teachers could use it in similar ways. I really see this working in an AP class or higher level English class. The teacher could Twitter thoughts and discussion points to get students thinking.
My students are low socioeconomic class and middle school level. I am not sure enough of them have a cell phone or Internet for this concept to work, but it is something to think about.
Tweet tweet tweet.
Blogging
I have tried blogs with my 8th graders through gaggle.net. After today's discussion, I think I will do more! I know that the students would like to write to each other and feel like real published authors. A former colleague used blogging as a center for her 5th graders. I could use a class blog as a reward for students who have finished their other work. Students could also have their own blogs to use as journals, which I could grade from time to time.
We suggested this morning using blogs as a form of parent communication. Instead of papers that don't make it home and emails that might get spammed, parents could access the blog on their own time. Access to a computer with Internet access would be possible challenge with my ELL population. I think about half of them have Internet at home.
I think I will set up a blog and see if there are any readers after a few months. If my students and their parents are not reading, I will know it is a waste of time. On a personal note, I think I will need a blog for those who want to follow our adoption. Another project for the fall!!
We suggested this morning using blogs as a form of parent communication. Instead of papers that don't make it home and emails that might get spammed, parents could access the blog on their own time. Access to a computer with Internet access would be possible challenge with my ELL population. I think about half of them have Internet at home.
I think I will set up a blog and see if there are any readers after a few months. If my students and their parents are not reading, I will know it is a waste of time. On a personal note, I think I will need a blog for those who want to follow our adoption. Another project for the fall!!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
New Literacies
Today we have been reading and discussing literacy, new literacy and technology. To me, technology consists of the tools available to make learning and life easier. Students can learn the old-fashioned way or they can learn using the tools that are now available - cameras, wikis, blogs, slide show software, and more!
A literate person can read and write, according to basic definitions. In an article by Smolin and Lawless (2003), four new literacies are explained. I consider these skills or competencies and not really literacies or genres. The four are: technological literacy, visual literacy, information literacy and intertextuality.
As a teacher, I want to make learning more student centered and more interactive. I feel that I have a responsibility to share new technological tools with my students. I hope this course helps me do that!
Already in my classroom, I teach listening, speaking, reading and writing. I focused on writing last year and plan to do that this year. In the past I have used digital photography, power point, word processing, web quests and gaggle.net blogs as tools for learning. I also tried recording chapters of novels onto CDs for my students to listen to at home, and it was a hit! I think my students' literacy in English will improve as I integrate more technological tools into my lessons. One of my major goals this year is to teach the kids how to do more efficient research using the Internet.
A literate person can read and write, according to basic definitions. In an article by Smolin and Lawless (2003), four new literacies are explained. I consider these skills or competencies and not really literacies or genres. The four are: technological literacy, visual literacy, information literacy and intertextuality.
As a teacher, I want to make learning more student centered and more interactive. I feel that I have a responsibility to share new technological tools with my students. I hope this course helps me do that!
Already in my classroom, I teach listening, speaking, reading and writing. I focused on writing last year and plan to do that this year. In the past I have used digital photography, power point, word processing, web quests and gaggle.net blogs as tools for learning. I also tried recording chapters of novels onto CDs for my students to listen to at home, and it was a hit! I think my students' literacy in English will improve as I integrate more technological tools into my lessons. One of my major goals this year is to teach the kids how to do more efficient research using the Internet.
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