Parents are "Piki About Wikis" 2-27-09

This week, the kids posted their “Wiki Bio” paragraphs on their personal page. They are so excited to begin writing their reviews and sharing. I am pleasantly surprised at what a motivation this has been to encourage their reading and writing! Only two of 21 parents requested that their child’s picture not be posted on the site. The children were very disappointed. I completely understand the reasoning of the parents, but was disappointed as well. I think I will look into the possibility of making the site private with access only to our students with a password. I’ll discuss this with the team at our next session. For now, I am removing the 2 kids’ pics, and will look for cartoon character pics to put in their place. :(

27 Feb 09 Wiki Complete!

Blog 27 Feb 2009

Wiki Complete!

Given the fact that I only had a week to put 25 book covers and 3-4 discussion questions for each book, I am DONE!!!

I worked on it all last Friday during our work session and got about half of the Picture Book images, links, and discussion questions in. Then I slowly over the week added the rest in.

I had to think about how to insert the widgets that I wanted. I found them on Teaching Books. I did video, audio, and two print items. I inserted them the way I thought you were supposed to by clicking on the little icon thingy that said widget. I then identified them as video, audio, or print. On the edit page, I could see a little grey box that held each item. However, when I put it on the wiki, no link was made. I went back and put the URL and it linked in that way. I will ask what I did wrong when we meet again.

After the Picture Book section was done, I tackled the novels. I have read none of the novels and only three of the picture books, so I have some reading to do for sure. I made sure that the home page of the wiki had the teacher standards, my objective, and a short reflection on the what it looked like when I was done. I then submitted it to the STEP review folks. I hope I did well.

Writing

Teaching writing in our county is really an important concept that has been put by the wayside. It is the reciprocal process of reading and sorely lacking in our curriculum. In the past, third graders were capable of writing a good descriptive paragraph as a result of direct instruction. Now, a sixth grader cannot do that well on a consistent basis.

Wiki

Our team has discussed some ideas for the class WIKI. We have discussed having some students use the WIKI for letter recognition assignments. We thought the low group would benefit from these type of lessons. The high group could make alphabet PowerPoint. I am also thinking of using Kidspiration in the process as well. I will keep brainstorming.

Doing Business as Teachers Via Technology

Our meeting last week was SO helpful. I have a much better idea of how I’m going to do my classroom wiki now. Narrowing my focus was a big help. I always seem to bite off more than it is necessary to chew!

I’ve been finding it interesting to see how technology has affected the way that we do business as teachers. A teammate of mine ended up in the hospital on bedrest this week. I wrote plans at home and emailed them to another colleague who got things ready the next day at school. We chatted with her online to check in on how she was doing and find out where certain materials were in her room. It made adjusting to her absence so much easier than it would have been in previous years. It was interesting to see the whole process unfold.

Classroom wikis

Well, the wiki is harder then I was expecting. I am still trying to work with using the wiki with the students...which is a challenge with kindergartners.

I have been successfully using technology that we received last year now! The digital camera and video camera have come in handy. We were able to video tape some of the students playing "restaurant" during indoor recess, and there was a lot of valuable learning and interaction. The document camera is a must-have for all classrooms. I use it everyday!!!

MIDI Boards are my hero!

Today my first graders and I wrote a song with our MIDI boards from last year. It actually was not all that bad. I gave them the outline that with do a dear you have all you need to create any song, you just have to mix up the notes and see what you have. Each child chose a note so long as it was nto the same as the note before …at least this time then I created the chords underneath. It was very good.

Wiki Work Session 2-20-09

Today, we had a work session for our classroom wiki. I enjoyed posting the pics of the kids in the classroom on our main page entitled, “Hive Central”. I was also successful in linking their pic to their own personal Wikipage where they will post a “Wiki Bio” and their required monthly book review. March will be a good time for this to begin as the first required month as it kicks off with Dr. Seuss’s b-day on the 2nd! I hope they will be able to benefit from the site. I am going to do my best to make it as “appealing” as possible and work hard on promoting it to our parents in the classroom. Wish us luck!

United Streaming

I would really like to start using United Streaming in my classroom on a more regular basis. It would be great to use some clips to supplement lessons. I know that the K team has been integrating US successfully. I'll have to check in with them to get some tips on making it work.

Critiquing work

Students should be responsible for their learning and have a number of opportunities to judge their own work. Being able to display their work on the visualizer and edit with their peers provides this!

Alphabet Project

We started creating the alphabet power point. It will be great once we put it all together. Right now the process seems to long and tedious. The children have brainstormed, taken pictures, and now we are moving slowly but surely. I think when they record their powerpoint for podcasting that it will be wonderful. I think this project is a lot o=for Kindergartener's but it is nice to know there is support and love ffrom my team members Ms. Carino and Ms. Valeo. Without them this would be a task overwhelming for me~!

Kidspiration

Today I used Kidspiration as a whole group to sort the T,K, and N intial sounds. I made a chart of the letters and took pictures from Kidspiration to sort. The class loves that Kidspiration will talk and say the words. The children love to see the pictures sorted! It was a great activity!

Student work

Today we sent the kids around to take pictures of alphabet things. We had them brainstorm a list of things that started with the various letters, and then set them off taking pictures through the building. Their ideas changed as they walked around. We will be videotaping the next session…battery was dead. We will also use the document camera to add the brainstorm to the wiki.

Authentic Applicaiton..maybe?

So far the kids and I are so very good on ideas…NONE of us can seem to figure out how to do this naturalistically but we are getting there. We have a list of characters we are fleshing out some, but no real storyline yet.

Sites to See! 2-13-09

February 13, 2009

This week, I thought I’d share a few links that the team may find useful. One of the first is a fabulous resource site that I came upon while looking for ideas to expand on a current unit for regions and landforms. While the site requires you to pay for the material shared, it is very reasonably priced and extremely well-developed. I’ve always thought about how terrific it is that teachers are such generous people who share ideas and resources so others don’t have to “reinvent the wheel”. I suppose if teachers have found a way to earn a little for their hard work and efforts, more power to them! The site is:
http://www.teachersclubhouse.com/index.htm
For those interested in “spicing up” their Wikipage or Blog, these two sites are compatible with both, though I haven’t quite figured out how to use them.
http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/
http://www.glogster.com/edit/glog/?action=glogs_create
Finally, for those who want a “kid-friendly” tutorial on html, check out:
http://www.lissaexplains.com/
This is a pretty basic and easy to understand site to start your experimentation or refresh your skills.

duty

Each morning, as I stand on duty, I can tell by the look on a child’s face if they are had a good morning so far and/or are going to have a great day. So many issues are dealt with right a way as a result of my morning check in.

Alphabet Project

02-13-09
We set up the WIKI accounts for the students. The four students have usernames and passwords. I set up a Kindergarten Reading WIKI, and we downloaded an example of an alphabet power point.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine’s Day! (In elementary school, we don’t always celebrate on the 14th!) I have gotten both traditional paper valentines (at school) and electronic valentines (from friends and family). I’m wondering if we will ever switch over to complete electronic communication even for things like valentines. Will the students in my class send evites for their weddings? If so, are we properly preparing them for this?

Wiki

Well, we set up the wiki accounts. We have added 2 widgets but are having difficulty understanding the way in which the students will be interacting with the site. I am wondering the best ways to use the wiki with them. Still, I would love a sample of a kindergarten wiki! I added the 4 student users…we had some question about their use and permissions. I look forward to the next work session to incorporate what we will be doing into the wiki.

11 Feb 09

11 February 2009

Blog Envy

I have just been looking at other blogger’s blogs that are posted on School Library Journal’s Extra Helpings newsletters. There are regular ones on non-fiction) by Marc Aaronson), comics, children’s literature, etc. Anyway, they all have links to other people’s blogs that they like as well. These linked blogs look like web pages. They are all fancily designed. Some have photos. All have the list of previous blogs. Geez!

I look at what I have done…and the stuff apparently lost to cyberspace with the old blog address and say, ‘At this point in time, this is what I can do. This was my skill level. Hey four years ago, I was: unable to successfully make a Power Point presentation; had not regularly operated a video camera; did not own a digital camera; and had watched others make digital videos. Now I can. So I wonder what will happen with my blogs and wikis in the future.

The technology thing this week was my work with 5th graders from all three classes. I had identified some of Lincoln’s words to do as a video project. Students were talent and camera operator pairs. I selected students who I thought were either fluent readers or readers with personality. Some were easy to direct. Others… not so much… I learned that I should have written the words larger. I kept running to blow up each set to hold over the camera operator’s head. What was fun was having them switch off jobs and give ideas as to how each little piece was to go, either by prop use of a top hat or the way the camera moved. I am going to take it home tonight and start editing it. I think it should look fine.11 February 2009

Authentic Application

After some contemplation, I think I have the idea to make this authentic. It am not quite sure that I can do this in a way that will not look contrived, but the idea is to have the work done somewhat traditionally and then transfer to the wiki. Many of my kids can not type so the onus for getting the information in there is on me. The creation is on them.

Technology to the Rescue! 2-6-09

This week, we have found that having the science and math textbooks available online has been a blessing. With multiple tests approaching in both subjects, parents are complaining that the books are too heavy for the children to bring home night after night to prepare. It has been wonderful to be able to refer them once again to the online link to access. This has also saved the day when homework has been forgotten in math, we can easily assign a few problems from the day’s lesson to work on. It has also been terrific to have the books online so that we can project the image of the page we are on when reading in science or working out problems in math. Planning at home has been much easier as well since teachers can access the Teacher’s Guide and accompanying workbooks from home without having to carry everything! What a load off our backs – literally!!!

6 Feb 09 It's Gone!!!!

6 February 2009
IT’S GONE!!!!

Last week, I was one of the lucky ones to be able to blog using the IP address http://172.18.22.43/Default. aspx. Now, that address is some international corporation called Ektron with an EIntrenat Starter site in its place. What happened? I was aware that there was trouble in blog land and know that addresses and IP codes change, but wow, that was fast. In the survey of other blog sites, that STEP put out, I thought the edublog one would best meet our needs for this exercise.

Besides blogging, I have been ALL OVER the primary source internet sites of Library of Congress, National Archives, and Smithsonian’s American History Museum. I was looking for information and documents about Abraham Lincoln for his 200th birthday. I got some nice stuff to share with the students.

Tech wise, I finally got Safari Montage reconnected at our school. I am at the moment downloading and making CDs of John Fishback and Marcie Wolf-Hubbard’s art residencies here at Rockledge. I spent the morning teaching 5th graders how to use the digital video camera. I had them in pairs. They did little bits of Lincoln’s words and life. One student worked as the videographer, while the other performed. They were very creative in how they wanted to be done. I am not done yet, but I have other things to do today, like…write this blog and clean this dusty, dusty library.

teacher planning

A conscientious effort has to be made in a teacher’s planning to keep rote lessons from dominating delivery.

Wiki Project Ideas

02-06-09
The classroom WIKI space will incorporate the high reading group. There will be four students who complete these assignments. The students will brain storm ideas for making the alphabet book. Then we will have the children take some pictures. Then we will finalize the pictures for the book, and create a power point with the students.

What to Wiki?

I have my wiki set up (well, at least started). I am starting to have some second thoughts about my topic. I think I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew. The idea of planning a camping trip from “Wikis in Plain English” got me thinking about getting my kids who need more enrichment to plan an end-of-the-year reading celebration. That would involve reading, math and writing. It could get a little complicated. I’m wondering now if I should narrow my scope a little. I guess it’s something to talk about with my team and at training.

focus-wikis

I think I have narrowed down my selection to the higher reading group…4 students. I’m thinking that we will have the students take pictures with the digital camera. I will upload the pictures and eventually those will be used as a part of our project for PowerPoint. As for the wiki, the students can type in ideas of what to take pictures of, and decide who will be taking which pictures. Then, they can be set free!

TIME TIME TIME ...part 2!

I NEED MORE TIME…I am so far behind on this that I am not sure what to do next. Ideas are good...carry through…that is the issue!