VoiceThread/Kidspiration

I decided to use Kidspiration as a part of my student-created VoiceThread. I'm going to have the students web their ideas from their animal reports. Our technology support person is going to be integral to this project. She is going to have the kids do that portion in the lab during their computer time which will really lighten the load for me.

Questions??

I am interested in knowing from other schools who have daily access to smart boards (or similar technology) how often it is REALLY used? I have a feeling I would use it daily, for everything as I do the document camera and visualizer. But, is it really user friendly? What are some of the difficulties with it?

I find that I am using the document camera, visualizer and digital camera on a daily/weekly basis. I believe I would also use the other technology daily/weekly as well. Just curious!

Clogging and blogging 30 April

This week I have been so stuffly, congestested, headachy, tired, and miserable, I have not been able to fully explore the fine art of playing with anything techology related. Blinding headaches and not being able to even type a complete sentence without making a spelling error have been the joys of my last two weeks. I'd like to thank the trees. I did use the Weather Channel's allergy alert to find out that I'm not out of the woods yet. This has also made life difficult to try to concentrate to plan and work on the STEP stuff. Hopefully, I will unclog all of my congestions (in the brain, nose, and chest) and be back on track.

MICCA Tuesday Posted 26 April

I went to three sessions at MICCA on Tuesday and bought two books (that I'll probably look at once knowing me). I also talked to some vendors. I still want one of the little laptops. They can hold more and do more than my school laptop and have web cameras built in. But I digress...

The first workshop I went to was Pixie 2 for Comic Strips, Tent Folds, and Trading Cards. I was drawn to this one because of the comic book idea. The presenters, a computer teacher from Baltimore County and a rep from Tech4Learning took turns explaining different ways the Pixie software was used from lessons for Kindergarten to Grade 5. Each one had a differnt Pixie application and an assessment of what was learned built into the activity. Pixie appeals to me more than Kidspiration because it seems more user friendly. Plus, it has links to online materials not found on the CD-ROM.

I next went to the Voicethread presentation done by a technology specialist from Cecil County. She's only been using it for a year. I was hoping to get a clearer picture of the capabilities of Voicethread, since I really couldn't pay attention when we were trained (nor could I hear if I recorded anything when we practiced that part at school). There was one activity that she showed us where a teacher found many triangle images and posted them. It was called a triangel scavenger hunt and the students identified the type of triange it was by commenting vocally or using text. She also talked about this being a Widget. One thing I got out of this was that a person only used 3 images with a longer voiceover and it was powerful . I'm thinking that my Abe Lincoln thing doesn't have to be super long. I can do the first four vidoes and a copy of primary source visual material and get the same impact. It will fit better on the site. John had suggested I do it in chunks anyway, so this is a good solution.

The last one I went to was presented by two Virginia teachers. They were comparing 20th century teachers and learners with 21st century teachers and learners. They aslo thought about classroom jobs. Many classrooms have paper passers, board washers, etc. Why not give the students jobs where they are becoming a different kind of learning community? New job one, SCRIBE. This student takes notes for the week for the class. They can be written long hand, put on graphic organizers, photographed, scanned, or put directly on the computer. All students will get access to the information by the end of the week. The notes need to be communicated clearl.
Job 2, RESEARCHER. This person looks up anything intersting that was brought up in class, finds answers to questions posted for the week, and shares it with the class and opens it up for discussion. TUTORIAL DESIGNER is Job 3. This person teaches other students "How To" do something. There could be a video of how to make a bar graph or step by step directions with photos of how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The point is, it is a peer teaching a peer. The benifits to this kind of learning leads to many higher order thinking skills because the person teaching, must create a lesson for a peer to understand. They are analyzing and sythesizing the material. I found this workshop to be a real eye opener.

I think that we a STEP team and Kim and Maddie, should find time over the next two weeks to sit down after school one day and just talk about the sessions we went to and what we liked or didn't like. We are in this to share what we learned.

Kids!! :)

Kids really make you laugh. A group of first graders remember that ONE day last year I told them a story in the lunchroom. So now they ask me everyday if I am going to tell them a story. A photostory may be in order!!

I MICCA-ED…DID U? 4-24-09

This week, our STEP II Team had a wonderful professional development opportunity. We were able to attend two days of the MICCA conference in Baltimore. Overall, I learned a great deal. Just when you think you are up-to-date with the latest in technology, you turn around and are left in its tracks once again. Two sessions that I most enjoyed were presented by Selena Ward, technology integration teacher, at Benjamin Tasker Middle School. She is an official Google Certified Teacher who gave two information-packed sessions on WEB 2.0 and Google Tools. One general understanding I gained the most clarification on was the difference between WEB 1.0 and WEB 2.0. It was fairly simple after all. The main difference was in the amount of interaction a person has with the Internet and how this has evolved. The wealth of valuable info. she shared is vast. I still need much time to further explore it in its entirety. I am hoping to do so a little at a time, and probably in great depth over the summer. I think Mary Beth’s suggestion to get together as a team to share and collaborate is terrific. Our only obstacle is finding a common time.

MICCA

I really enjoyed my MICCA experience this year. It was really cool to see some others' projects using the tools we've been working with (like VoiceThread). One group used it to post videos of kids acting out vocabulary words. Then their peers commented with a sentence using that word. I also learned about Blabberize.com which I can't wait to use with my kids. It is right up the second grade alley!

MICCA Conference

MICCA conference was excellent. I am really interested in web blender and pixie. I want to research the two programs. Presenters made word cards, math cards, sequence cards, student created projects. It was a fun and easy program. I also loved the United Streaming session. The guys helped me fix a United Streaming issue and gave a good presentation on things you can do with United Streaming. I also love the little FLIP camcorders that presenters used with the students. What a great way to document the childrens projects and their growth throughout the year. The conference was great!

MICCA

This week we were fortunate to attend MICCA. Not only were the vendors great, but we were able to view many presentations that helped to clarify and extend things we are doing in STEP. I liked seeing the new forms of technology that are available, and only wish that in the future of STEP, we are able to acquire some of that as well (hint, hint,).

We saw a great presentation by United Streaming. They were able to fix some technological issues on site for us, and we got some great ideas. I enjoyed seeing some other presentations on voicethreads too.

Visualizer

Teachers are working to create checklists that give clear expectations for quality work. I can also hear them using many more advancing as opposed to assessing questions when teaching math. The teac hers are posting these expectations on the visualizer! Awesome!

Presentations

Our math EC does a great job presenting concepts incorporating the IFL strategies. Teaching how to teach procedures rather than leading students to the answer is becoming clearer. Our staff definitely uses technology on a daily basis!

Major Meltdown...4-17-09

This has been a tremendously stressful week. On top of having to miss our STEP work session due to a setback in my mother’s battle with colon cancer, the computer housing the school website virtually melted!!! Ahhhhh!!! Luckily, I have learned from the past mistake of not backing up my documents and such. I do have the most recent copy of the website created with Microsoft FrontPage. The problem is that the program, WS FTP Pro, which allows me to upload the site onto our county server “went down with the ship”. This computer was the only one in the school that had the program on it. This basically means I am unable to make any updates to our site until I find a way to get the program installed on another PC. One option is to convert the entire site using a program that the county is wanting us to switch over to so we are all standardized. It is called Ektron. The training I have had with it did not warm me up to it much more than how I felt about it going in. I suppose I’m acting like a seasoned teacher, resisting change in the curriculum because it is out of her comfort zone. That thing is, Ektron is really not very user-friendly. Also, it doesn’t allow you the creativity that using Microsoft FrontPage does. There is also the time factor. We are nearing the end of the school year and doing a major conversion such as this would be very time-consuming. Luckily, since we are close to the end of the year, our principal was more understanding about our inability to keep parents and the community informed through our site. I am really hoping to find a way to maintain the site as I have been, but am anticipating I will have to give in and conform to the county request in the near future. :(

Yay for a Work Day

Today's work day was very helpful. I really need about a work WEEK to get done with everything, but it was nice to have the chance to sit with the team and John and get some things accomplished. I am all set up now to get my kids more actively involved in the projects that I have been creating and that's really exciting. I am really looking forward to attending MICCA next week and getting some great ideas. I also think that June 10th is going to be a lot of fun.

Voice Threading

I took pictures of the book I wanted to read on Voice thread. I was able to download the pictures on the voice thread site. I actually made comments on voice thread. It was amazing! It was a GREAT accomplishment!! I loved the headset microphone! It worked wonderfully!!! I would use this again. I think the children will love using this tool!!

success

I was having trouble with my podcasting. I couldn't upload anything at all. I emailed for help and was in the process of receiving that help when suddenly I had someone else come in and see what I was doing wrong. (Thanks, Rena!) It magically started working!!! I was relieved and happy! When it all starts coming together, I feel so much better! I am looking forward to the work session so I can be a bit more complete!!!

Blog Worries April 3

I have tried to post my blog, (that okay, I just wrote.) I put it in editing mode to change the date of the post and I can't figure out how to publish it. When I looked at the list of all of the posts, how come mine all have an edit box and delete at the side? WHAT AM I DOING WRONGGGGG???
I thought I had how to blog correctly, but obviously, I am missing information when I take these trainings. Could it be when I have duty and am outside when all is explained? I don't want to lose the blogs after I have spent time thinking about them and working on them.
Technology takes time for me to understand and to figure out how to work it successfully. Luckily, I am in the STEP program. Perhaps I can get the HELLLP I need to feel better about this and wikis.

Spring Break Learning April 13

Over Spring Break, I had the priveledge to attend a two and a half day workshop at the Library of Congress where we use Abraham Lincoln's artifacts and things from his lifetime to learn how to utilize using primary sources. We began with a tour of the exhibit about Lincoln. As I walked, I saw some ways that I could use some of the source documents, maps, and photographs for my podcast/voicethread thing about Lincoln. We partnered up and had to do a "box activity." You answered questions about the exhibit using a box with questions on all sides and two inside. You wrote and drew on the box. This idea was hatched because the clipboards and notepads LOC workers were seeing were cumbersome. The box we used fit easily in our hands as we did our work.

We did found poetry using documents by and about Lincoln. Here we looked at http://www.wordle.net/. A document, the Gettysburg Address was copied into Wordle. The words used over and over were larger than the other. You could also make it color or arrange it in other ways. Very cool for teaching main idea.

We also looked at maps in a different way and sheet music from the day also. Very interesting and I wish I had time to share it with the staff. Our last task was to go to the comuter lab and work on a power point slide that linked primary sources found in LOC. Then we were to post it on http://www.drop.io/ . This site can hold up to 100MB of stuff. It is free and lasts a year from its last viewing. This is excellent information for us at STEP in my opinion. Last year, I could not post all of my stuff for my final evaluation for STEP because of not enough room. Drop.io seems like a good solution for that.

strategies that work

Another teaching strategy that sounds so easy but really is not is, not giving any indication in your response that a student’s response is wrong or right. Otherwise, the thinking gets cut off.

Happy Vacation!

Hope everyone is enjoying their time off from school. I've had a really restful, if not super productive break so far. Today is my day to try to get more of a move on with some of my STEP projects. I'm looking forward to experimenting with my new headsets and updating my wiki.

kindergarten

It seems that most educators really want to do a lot of talking. That is at all levels. Today I observed in kindergarten, 5 year olds taking control of their own learning. They could explain and ask away. We need to stop talking so much. The kidspiration tool they use is incredible...and they are able to use it successfully!!

Technology is Special! To Special Education that is…4-3-09

Over Spring Break, I came to a realization or two concerning the wonders of technology. They were on both a personal and professional level.
Last week, I had lunch with my best friend from Elementary School who I had not seen in about 10 years. In that time, she has had two children, the eldest of which was born weighing a little over a pound. They were told not to expect Taylor to walk, nor talk if she made it at all. Miraculously, 9 years later, after numerous surgeries and therapy, she is an active third grade student in a regular education classroom in Anne Arundel County. Taylor does receive special education services and a number of accommodations and modifications that make it possible for her to be included in a class with regular education students. What really made me start thinking about how this all relates to technology was when she told me that Taylor qualifies for the use of a personal laptop that she carries between home and school. She said that without this, Taylor would be lost. She explained how Taylor is able to access programs she uses at school when at home allowing her to have extra practice and exposure to the material in order to help her keep up with her peers. She also went on to share how motivated Taylor is to get her assignments done. I began thinking about how wondrous it is that through technology, so many students with disabilities are able to speak and be heard just as their classmates are, and how they are able to reach their highest potential which may have never even been known without the use of laptops, headsets, and hearing aids in addition to so many other technological marvels. My question lies in the difference the access to these types of technologies such as laptops would make in the lives of every student. I know there are school out there that offer this – maybe not on a take home basis, but at least in the daily classroom. In terms of motivation, if this became the norm, would students soon become less enamored with their use and just as lackluster in completing assignments with technology as they are with a pencil? Something to think about…
Another realization I came to this week concerning the wonder of technologies is also on a personal and professional level. I know that social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have been on the front burner for many reasons lately. First, as everyone praised them for their ability to connect people and reconnect people with their past in a way like never before. I cannot tell you how many people who have been tremendous influences, dear friends, and valued colleagues that I had let slip away as the daily grind of life took over that I have found or who have found me through these types of sites. People who I thought to be miles and miles away who turned out to be just around the corner; including my very best friend from elementary school. Now, these sites are on the burner for a very different reason. This time, it's for taking over people’s lives, at times destroying them, and many times, becoming an addiction. While I do reward myself with time on Facebook as I complete less desirable tasks, and I was not one who chose to give it up for the 40 days of Lent, I certainly do not think of myself as a social networking addict. Still, I went ahead and read up on an article a fellow Facebooker shared just to be sure. I’d like to share it with you as well:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/23/ep.facebook.addict/
There’s also:
http://blog.guruofnew.com/featured-home/seven-signs-you-may-be-ready-for-a-social-media-detox
And let’s not forget to read about this: http://www.imagolady.com/Paula_Pile/A_Temptress_in_the_Computer.html
If these catch your interest, be sure to take the Facebook Compulsion Inventory:
http://www.imagolady.com/Paula_Pile/A_Temptress_in_the_Computer/Facebook%20Inventory%20Test.pdf
I scored a 44…Yikes! A little closer to being excessive than I would like…How about you???

YEAH TIME TO WORK..

Now that spring break is upon us I think we can all have a uniform sigh of relief as we hae some unstructured work time to get some things done. I know that I will. I hope we all have wonderfully restful time together with our families. See you all in a week or so!

Wiki Wonders 2 April

I have a small core of students who are coming to the Wiki regularly to post comments about Black Eyed Susan books that they have read. I still can't seem to get them signed in correctly. They are all in under my name, even though I have added some to the Wiki with their own sign ins. I am looking over their shoulders as they write the comments. I have helped more than one student write a complete sentence, spell words correctly, and use capitals where needed. I read the comment right then with the child. I have only commented on one comment myself in agreement with the writer. I don't want to influence students with my opinions about the books that they vote on. The Black Eyed Susan award is voted on by the students, not by me. So, for now, I guess I must walk a fine line. I also wonder about the poor book that has no comment. Should I try and get some folks to comment on those also?

April Fools!

Is this day as fun for everyone else as it is for elementary school teachers? :)

I've been thinking a lot about what projects I want to do with VoiceThread. I'm thinking I might want to pull in Social Studies in some way since I'm feeling as though it's getting really short-changed recently. I'm really looking forward to next week when I can carve out a bit of uninterrupted time to do some thinking and working on these projects. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!