Boys' Stories

Ryan: Ryan the Brave Saves Everyone from the Dragon

Josiah: The Enchanted Prince Tries to Save the Princess

Quinlan: Space Story

Reflection #7: Students Reading Books for Podcasts

Josiah:

Ryan:

Quinlan:

To encourage the boys that I nanny to read, I told them that I would record them and put them on my blog. It was great incentive! I told them that I've had people from different countries and different states look at the blog and that got them really excited. It made for a good geography lesson in the midst of reading. Someone from California looked at the blog. My boys have family in CA, so they really connected to that--got them really excited.

I would like to be able to do this more--maybe next time they'll have to practice a little more to be more confident in their reading skills. I would really like to help Quinn know that he knows the words--almost all of them!--he just need to be confident, and patient, enough to read them.

I am excited for what this can mean for future students! (And my boys!)

Assignment #4: Technology Project Plan

I have set up a webpage (www.MissSmith.webs.com) to keep parents and students up to date with the happenings of the class. The site has a plethora of tabs including a calendar, a gradebook, an assignments list, news, resources, and photos among others. I will post weekly learning objectives, assignments, large projects and materials needed, special class events, school events, and other important information on the webpage. I will create a few mock assignments to demonstrate how it works and I will do the same with the online gradebook that I have created that is linked to the webpage.

I chose to do this because I need organization and these two sites are a simple way to keep me organized and all of my information in one locale. I think that students will also benefit from this because they are from the technologically rich world. It's what they know, how they think, what they play with, and how they communicate. by having something online that they can access for a calendar or grades, I believe that students will be able to stay on track more easily. Because of the world that my students come, one that can download or upload anything, anytime, anywhere, I think that this is the best way to keep in touch on a regular basis outside of the classroom.

Follow Up

www.MissSmith.webs.com

I added a million tabs to my site that involve all the stuff that I could think up at the moment. I am 100% certain that I will think of more when I actually get into the classroom, but the site is so easy to manage, that that will not be a problem.

I think that it will be very useful to me. It keeps all my ducks in, at the very least, the same pond if not the same row. I think that it will be helpful in communicating with parents.

My project promotes NETs 3 and 4 for teachers because through this I am demonstrating how to use technology and I am encourage my students to become users of the technology as well as helping them use it properly. Also, it promotes student NETs 5 and 6 because it encourages students to be familiar with the technology world as well as learning more about how it works.

Week Nine: Panel Questions

1) Do you students have a computer lab time where they are taught about Word or Excel or Powerpoint or other programs? Or does that fall on you?

2) How does your library blog work? Are you the only one who posts things or do the teachers post things as well? Or the students? How does all of that work?

3) How do you do you stay sane?

Week Eight: Caught on Video

Read Bob Sprankle's Blog post titled Caught of Video

I really like Mr. Sprankle's ideas for using a Flip video camera in the classroom. I think my favourite was #5: film students asking questions at the beginning of the unit and the same students answering the questions at the end of the unit. This really shows to both the students and the teacher that the students are learning.

I also liked the comment about how it can be really powerful to show what a student has done without adding an interpretation to it. It's so easy to put your own spin on a situation that having concrete, this-is-what-actually-happened evidence is really valuable.

I'm a little bit scared of his comment that the more teachers use this kind of technology, them more students and parents are going to expect them to be used regularly. It's so cool, yet so daunting! If sounds like a lot of work, but if we could use this tangible grading as evidence we might be able to eliminate other pointless forms and it would become easier and ever more valuable.

There was a little bit about how a student could use a clip of herself doing well as encouragement in the future. I have often heard people encourage a visit to the past via a project or a letter or a card or whatever to encourage in the moment of discouragement. This could be really powerful. (But think of all the space that would be needed to save it all!) It also makes me think of how timeless it could be. A video has so much more weight than an A+. Who cares about that? What does it really mean anyway? It doesn't demonstrate learning; it demonstrates settling. I have even come to the point where the grade doesn't matter--if I'm passing that's good enough for me. I know that there is more to me than any test or paper and there is more to the teacher than that one moment in grading. If I could see how I have grown and learned over the years, now that would be something. And I might care a little bit more--I'd have something to show for my efforts.

PS If I am remembering correctly, I believe a friend told me that NU has Flip cams that we could test out...

Comments on Classmates' Blogs

Comment on Ariel McNamara's Cool Education Blogs post.

Comment on Alison Langstraat's Reflection Entries 1-6 post.

Comment on Yajaira Garza's Technology Reflection 1 and 2 post.

Comments on Ashley Buhler's Reflection #3 and Reflection #2 posts.

Reflection #6: BookSneeze

"Great books are contagious." BookSneeze's tag ling.

BookSneeze gets books into the hands of people who love to read, and who love to blog--and the books are free!! I found this really cool program that gives books away to people who will review and post the review on their blog. You get to choose from the books on their website, and they ship the book to you for free and you get to keep it.

I think that this is a really cool way to get people books that they want to read, at a good price--I always liked free--and get the word out about the book. It also makes people think about how the book might affect other people.

I don't know how it would work, I still working on it, but I think that using this in a classroom would be a really good idea. The majority of the books are geared for adults, so it might work better for HS than elementary.