Comic Fun!

I found Make Beliefs Comix on Sara's blog. When i saw this I knew I had to introduce my students to it. Right now as a writing center I cut out comics from the newspaper and black them out. I then illuminate the comic strips for students to write in their own thought bubbles for the characters. Sometimes these comics can be too long or not kid appropriate scenarios.  With this site, kids can create their own comic digitally! I love it! Thanks Sara :)

Student NETS # 1, 2, 4

Are your students showing their digital citizenship?

As teachers we are responsible for teaching community citizenship. Sometimes we can over look the obvious... in this case we have to teach are students DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP! There is an appropriate way of communicating with peers and adults, but today we have to teach the appropriate way of communicating online. We want our students being safe. We have to model this. The NETS spell out what we should be covering.

NETS


5. Digital Citizenship: Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.

    a. Advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible
    use of information and technology

    b. Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology
    that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity

    c. Demonstrate personal responsibility for
    lifelong learning

    d. Exhibit leadership for digital citizenship

NETS for Teachers #4
NETS for Students #5

Our Masterpiece!

Sara and I spent much time collaborating on content and design. With the help of Google Docs and Photo Story 3 we were able to create something we can use within our classrooms. Our digital story was on the Plant Life Cycle. Through this video we are able to "front load" the unit vocabulary with our students. This video will give our students an idea of what to expect to learn over the next month. This video is also great to wrap up the unit as a recap. What a fun project! We are def planning on using this tool for future projects within our own classrooms! 

What do you guys think of our digital story? :)

Literacy Project DRAFT version

So with the help from Professor Arzt, we were able to recover my project as a movie. We are still working on getting the project into editing mode so I can continue working toward a final version. I only was able to record approx. 8 students along with their work.We were working on RAFT. RAFT is a writing strategy that helps students write from a different perspective. The students enjoy writing these :) They are excited to have a digital class book on writing friendly letters using RAFT! I hope to finish this project so i can share the project with the class along with their parents. Thanks Professor Arzt for helping me try to solve my problem!

  

She's only 1 and loves the iPhone!

What age is appropriate for children to begin exploring digital literacy activities?

As an aunt and a godmother, I am constantly around me niece, Kyla. She always shocks and amazes me with what she is able to do and what she enjoys doing the most. Since the iPhone is small enough for her hands, Kyla always grabs at the phone. My sister downloaded some apps for babies. They are simple apps that have sounds associated with pictures such as animals or instruments. Kyla loves pressing the objects to make a specific sound. Let me remind you that Kyla isn't even 1 yet! As we discussed, technology is motivating.

The love of technology starts at an early age. It would be a disservice to a child not to integrate technology into their everyday routine. As a second grade teacher, I am always trying to get my students into the computer room. The students can't wait til C day for the computer room! They love using Starfall, PBSkids, and Storybird. With this course, I am able to introduce so many new sites and literacy resources such as Storybird and Voki to my students. Students are currently integrating writing with technology by recording their voice to their RAFT friendly letters.  

The Stacks- Scholastics

The Stacks is Scholastic's site about books and reading for kids, where you can create profiles and interact with other kids about books, authors, etc. in a safe environment. This site allows discussions between students and even with book authors!The site includes games and a blog you can follow called The Ink Spot. I can def see my students loving this. Even their favorite series, Captain Underpants, has a link for the students to explore that includes games and additional links. 

Literacy Resources

As a current 2nd grade teacher, I am an active user of both Starfall,  PBS Kids, and Read Write Think. Both sites provide great resources fro early literacy learners. I use Starfall in my centers. I also recommend this site to parents becuase it's free and the students enjoy using it :) 

Wiki Junior is a new site that I explored and I LOVE IT!! What a great wiki for kids! It's simple to use and follow. It even has Wiki Books and Cookbooks! Know that I know this exists I will introduce it as a resource my students can use when exploring topics on the Internet. 

Digital Story Draft

Sara and I have been working on our digital story. Since we are both second grade teachers, we decided we would do our projects on the plant life cycle. This is our current draft. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. POSSIBLY SOME MUSIC SUGGESTION!? :) Unfortunately Photo Story 3 doesn't have fun templates like iMovie, but never the less, we are having fun doing it!

Empowering Students- Chapters 4&5

In Chapter 4, Alan November discussed how using primary sources is an effective way of enhancing critical thinking skills. NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) puts out a website (http://www.archives.gov/education) to allow public access to valuable records. (November pg. 66) Students are more inclined to use these primary sources now that NARA has posted them on the Net. On the website they created called The Digital Classroom, they focus on U.S. history, but state that the documents can be integrated into other subject areas. (November pg. 67) ARC (Archival Research Catalog)  is another NARA initiative that involves a searchable  online catalog of many Washington, DC holdings, regional records, and presidential libraries (November pg. 68) As teachers we can lead students to further research through primary materials. We have to teach our students how to thinking critically. Textbooks don't cut it anymore in today's world. As teachers we need to teach our students to become archivists. E-VENTURE was developed by NARA to help students learn how to become archivists. Some E-Ventures even have students being archivists for their own school! Some important skills students will learn is perspective, generating questions, and identifying information sources. Once students have completed their analysis of the primary sources, students need to have an authentic audience to review their work. (November pg. 77) NARA also developed a number of analysis worksheets to help researchers evaluate primary sources. 


In Chapter 5, November discusses how online learning is thriving today. What a great way to share resources and ideas! Online learning has become an essential 21st century skill. (November pg. 85) Students need to learn how to teach themselves when there's no one in front of them teaching them. Online learning was said to make students feel safer when expressing themselves online. They can be anonymous and have more time to respond with more thoughtful answers (November pg. 88) There is an increased interaction between student and parent as well as student to teacher. Online learning isn't for everyone, but for the students who like it, they are very successful. They can do their work when they feel best prepared mentally because the material is there 24/7 (much like this course!) Online teaching isn't a walk in the park. Just because you make a great classroom doesn't mean you will be a great online teacher. It requires more time and thinking outside of the box. 


If you like Alan November and his work...you can follow him on his blog. http://novemberlearning.com/blog/

Go Animate!

I stumbled upon a website  Go Animate!  through Taini's Blog . I saw the movie she created and thought I could use these videos and characters to help students role play "I feel" sentences to help solve their own problems. In second grade there is a lot of tattling and gossiping. I had the school psychologist  come into the classroom and help explain what the "I feel" sentence is and how to use it. Go Animate would be a great tool for educator to use to help model these types of sentences. This site is also very simple to use that students can even pick their own scene, characters, and "I feel" sentences to create a small story on how they can resolve problems peacefully. I like the tool!!

Student NETs: 1 and 2

Teacher NETs: 1, 2 and 3

Tagxedo

While reading Taini's Blog, I stumbled across a website called Tagxedo. This site allows you to use words to create a word cloud picture. What an interesting way of using words to create art. They have many examples of what people have already created using this site. you can even use your creation and turn it into a special keepsake. I can think of many ways students and teachers can use this to recap a unit studied or use it as a class project. Like the Emperor Penguin below, I would use this template after reading our story from our reading anthology based on the Emperor Penguins in Antarctica.  Check it out! How would you use this is your classroom?

Student NETs: 1 and 2

Teacher NETs: 1, 2 and 3

Google Reader

With all the blog updates, it can become tough to follow your favorite blogs. By signing into Google Reader, it really helps you organize all your blogs. Everything is listed by blog title. Then you can see how many posts each blog has. There are different tips and tricks on the right hand side of the page. You also have tools to help explore all of the blog posts. This is a great tool to help simply the overwhelming amounts of blog post you receive on a daily basis. 

My Diigo Usage

Diigo was been a life saver! What a great tool to help me store all of the new information I'm learning in this class. I can refer back to my saved links from anywhere! This works for me because I find myself on everyone else's computers but my own. I'm the type of person who saves SEVERAL links in their favorites, but can't access them when I need them. I would like to learn more about grouping my links within Diigo so I can organize all my new tools and information on these new resources I can use within my class. Feel free to browse my Diigo and see if they are any good links that you would like to save in your Diigo account :) 

Animoto take 3!

Revised for sharing purposes :)

Animoto, Take Two

So after signing up for a new Animoto account, downloading a new browser (google chrome) because I kept getting an error code for 3 days straight, I was finally able to upload my Science-Plant Unit Animoto. This is def a great tool to help my students learn new vocabulary for upcoming units. I was sure to use real pictures that displayed each vocabulary word. I've seen the other Animotos that students created in this class and I know I will def be using them in my classroom because they came out so great. Vocabulary is what many students struggle with. Animoto is just one tool that will motivate and help students connect new words to something they have already seen/known before. Enjoy! I will be using this video as soon as I am back in school with my students for our current plant unit!


 
Teacher NETs: 1, 2 and 3 

Glogster Practice

Ta-Da! Took me a while with all the nifty gagets, but I created my very own Glogster! It was fun making a collage of all my interests. This feature would be great for students to post facts about a unit or story. Students can create an artist expression of the highlighted points. The tools are easy and the possibilities are endless. I had fun creating it, so I'm sure the students will to! Just another exciting feature to introduce to the children :)

Student NETs: 1, 2, 3, and 5

Teacher NETs: 1, 2, 3, and 5

Storybird Fun

We had a blast today in class! I tried Storybird with some of my students. What a great tools to have students think about story elements. I also liked how we had to go back and edit our work whenever we found mistakes. My students were super motivated and couldn't wait to go home and try the stie our for themselves! I noticed students already has skills that made the project easy to discuss. They truely do have a wide background on using technology. Once their books were published, the students had some of their friends come over to view their book :) Here are two of the books we made.


Goldie's 5 Crazy Wishes by littlem613 on Storybird Kloe's Night of Magical Dreams by littlem613 on Storybird

Empowering Students- Chapters 1-3

Alan November's book, Empowering Students with Technology, is very insightful. We teach students the components of print such as title, author, author purpose, sentences, etc. Very rarely do we teach students how to be Internet literate. When I have my students do research on a topic in the computer room, I go around and check their sources for them, but I never take the time to go through my thought process with the students on how to evaluate a website and it's purpose for being created on the World Wide Web. November recommended using the strategy of MAPping with our students to teach them how to access information and how to make meaning of what they are accessing. (November, pg 14)

Meta-web information- understanding the

structure of the URLs, links, and search engines

Authors- credentials of authors

Purpose- authors purpose

November also goes into stating how technology is a great tool to motivate and deepen our students understanding of complex issues by allowing our students to use services like Skype to connect with audiences around the world. November explained their are several resources that are free that could be used in the classroom to allow teachers to create authentic lessons for our students. I enjoyed reading about the different ways how social networking and sites like Skype could be used. It makes me think, "What can I start doing within my own classroom?" I would like to experiment using some of these sites to get my students motivated to learn on a topic.

November also explained how technology can be used to help involve parents more. Many parents had negative experiences in schools, so going back into the schools for teacher/parent meetings is stressful for them. By allowing the parents to meet online instead of coming into the school might serve as a better way for the parents to get involved within the classroom and their child's progress. I would like to create a wikispace for my parents to visit and blog about questions, comments, or advice that they are using currently that they can share. This is my summer project! I think a classroom website would be a great tool for me, the students, and parents! I would like to assign students to take charge of the website so they are active using tools that are at their finger tips such as voki, animoto, and blogging. The skies the limits with technology!!

Digital Storytelling Resources

It was cool seeing what other people have created on Digital Storytelling 4 Kids. I saw some tools that we are using in class, but also some additional tools that are similar to the ones we are using such as Animoto and Voki. Some projects are simple and others are more in depth. Both types can be used to be effective within the classroom. Many tools can be used by the students themselves.

EDU Eblogs has GREAT resources for digital story telling. I stumbled across this website What's My Story- Using Drama and Technology for Storytelling. It really walked me through the steps needed to create a great digital story. It explained all of the components as well as objectives teachers and students should adhere to in order for the story to be effective.

50 Ways is a great wikispace that includes a video using 34 of the tools to prove it can be done. (see youtube below) It's amazing to see a story come to life! The author of the site explains that creating a story is "As easy as 1-2-3!" There are three basic steps in the process. First to outline the story, Next, find some media. And lastly, pick a tool and build your story. Breaking down the steps is great for us teachers, but also our students. When we simplify things for our students they better understand the task in hand. We as teachers need to explore and use these tools before requiring our students to complete projects using them. I'm excited to try out some tools so I can use some with the students! This is a great thing to help integrate technology into the classroom and for teachers and students to use some of the standards outlined in the NETS!

Animoto

I explored a site called Animoto. What a great tool to use your photographs and videos! Currently my students are studying life cycles of plants in science. I created this animoto for my students. They just started planting their Zinnia flower seeds in the classroom. I thought this would be a great video for the students to get an overview of what's to come while their seeds grow into a plant. Then I was thinking that I would like them to create their own animotos of their flowering plant . Animotos are fun and simple. I can definitely see the students being interested in the project! Animotos can be used to introduce a topic or use it as a wrap up to a lesson. Students can create their own to show their own learnings instead of a traditional pencil and paper assessment. I've seen animotos that can be used in small groups to help reteach students letter sounds and vowel sounds. We have digital learners. We have to create learning experiences around their learning styles.



Make your own slideshow at Animoto.