Final Project Description

August 3rd, 2007 by · 3 Comments · Project

I went with idea #1 on my previous blog for my final project. However, I have been dabbling with idea #2 and can share my thoughts if time and interest allow.

Idea#1: As a final project for students’ research project I am planning to use VoiceThread for me to evaluate and for them to present their research on two essential questions.

1. Why are animals endangered?

2. What can we do to help them?

This will allow an oral presentation that parents can either come to school if we have a “celebration” event and invite parents to school. The best thing I like, however, is that we can also “invite” anyone to view this by emailing it or I can put it on my classroom page. On our last slide we invited viewers to visit the classroom and get more information by reading their hard copy reports proudly displayed in plastic report covers and have a hand drawn cover, the computer typed report, pictures, habitat map, bibliography, etc.

I have made a dummy slide show of what a whole class project might look like. I can also demonstrate on how each child in the class can make their own person slide show. They can put their picture on their site and wen a viewer clicks on it they will either hear the voice of the child, read a bubble with type or both.

Slide shows are not the only way to use this sight. You can put a VoiceThead out to the public and they can make comments and ad their picture if they wish. Your VoiceThread can also go to the public but be blocked for comments. For the presentation sample that I am showing today I have made it “private” and would invite only my parent group to view it.

There are so many possibilities that It is difficult to explain in this format. I strongly urge everyone to “play around” with this site!

Idea #2: I did do a sample of another idea that has been rolling around in my head after I viewed the CommunityWalk site. This site is very similar to Mapquest but allows you to create the maps with markers and descriptions of locations. It is like the hotel.com site where you can pull up a map of Boston view a map of the city that has markers for the different hotels. By clicking on the markers you get more information about that particular hotel.

There are a lot of possibilities with this site but I still need to muck around in it to make the best use of it for students.

The sample I made has three instructional objectives:

1. Students know how to construct and interpret maps and use globes and other geographic tools to locate and derive information about people, places,regions and environments. (MLR Social Studies/Geography).

2. To introduce students to a wide variety of maps.

3. Help students acquire a frame of reference as to where they are in the universe.

Project Update

August 1st, 2007 by · No Comments · Project

I am torn between two ideas for my project:

1st Idea: One of my favorite classroom activities is a research project my students do in the spring on endangered species. I require they have a cover page, a computer written report, a power point picture page with captions, a habitat map with key, bibliography, etc. But I would like to include a form of presentation to a parent audience other than just reading the report.

When I discovered VoiceThread I began thinking of so many ways to use it. Narrowing my BIG ideas down I have decided the simple format of just having each student display a drawing or photo of their endangered species and voicing why this animal is endangered and what we can do to help would be a good start for me. This is the essential question of their research, therefore it would also be used as an evalutation.

2nd Idea: When I discovered Community Walk I immediately thought of all the map skills that I teach at my level. In my head I can visualize using this tool to have students create a project demonstrating they “know how to construct and interpret maps and use globes and other geographic tools to locate and derive information about people, places,regions and environments” (MLR Social Studies/Georgraphy).

Right now I see it as a slide show or printed in booklet form. Each page would progress to a more specific location. It might start with a page “I live on the planet Earth” and end with “I live at 44 Thompson Street”. Each page would show a map of that location. It is difficult to explain right now because it is not completely clear in my head. But there is a seed, and there is something growing!

Reflections – Tuesday

July 31st, 2007 by · 1 Comment · Reflections

Today I am feeling much more under control!  Yesterday there was so much new information coming at me that I knew my best strategy was to take good notes, go home and sort it out. I am not afraid to hit keys so I spent the evening navigating around in several  of the new sites a my own pace. Today I appreciated the in class time you gave us to look through different blog sites.

Please know, Cathy, that all this new information  does work for me. I love all the “aha”‘s and discoveries of what can be done.

My new seat works. It is much easier to follow your screen directions and use the computer when I do not have turn around constantly.  Also, sitting with Theresa and Nancy has been a delight. They are such fun ladies! This also also provides me with an opportunity to have dialogs with peers.

What I need next is probably not surprising….clear directions on our project and possibly some models of what you expect.

Reflection on ClassroomBlog

July 31st, 2007 by · 1 Comment · Class Work, Reflections

Once again I had a specific goal to find something on the internet, and off I went in a multitude of directions clicking every link that sounded interesting to me. I do appreciate the class time to do this searching.

Mostly what I found for Blogs was at the upper level and not that useful for me. However, I did read a lot about support for having students blog that made sense to me. One site that I saved was a blog site for math teachers (http://futureofmath.misterteacher.com/classroom_blogs.html) . Since teaching math is my favorite area I was thrilled to find a site that can be used with students other than games. I liked it because the ideas given blend math/literature skills. Even if an assignment was given to play a certain math game the student would have to write about a strategy that he used and include data.

The other site I found was Mrs. Lee’s Blog. She is a third grade teacher, and her posts were about learning to blog. Her site was not finished, and I recognized her heading from the Edublogs templates. So I sent a comment to her to see if she was spending her summer sitting in a computer lab also. Now I feel very worldly…………I am out there!

Classroom 2.0 Wiki

July 31st, 2007 by · 1 Comment · Class Work

After cruising around through the Tools of Classroom 2.0 I found  several tools that I could use in my teaching and/or parent communication. But one in particular appeared very simple to use and has the potential to be used in a variety of ways.

Using VoiceThread ( http://voicethread.com/) you can put up a photo/picture and record voices to go with it. You are able to record a group and have a smaller photo of each speaker. Clicking on to a photo will allow you to hear that speaker. With several  pictures a slide show can be developed .

One example that was very interesting was a world map image with several smaller photos of people from all parts of the world. Each person gave a greeting and  description of where they lived, etc and they were able to point out their location on the map.  Anyone could add to this VoiceTread. Imagine the possibilities in the classroom of exploring areas of the world, meeting pen pals, makin new friends, etc.

Other possibilities are making a class yearbook, a scrapbook and student presentations. My school parent population is almost 100%  communicating with me by computer. Using VoiceTread would also be a greatway to produce a quick slide show with kid voices for parents to see the day’s activities such a field trip. I know my parents would love it!

Monday Assignment

July 30th, 2007 by · 1 Comment · Class Work

Wow….at first glance I thought I might fall snuggly into the “Doing Old Things in a New Way” category. But after reading “Adopt and Adapt” by Marc Prensky I discovered that I
probably am in that category but “just over the welcoming edge” of it.

This article describes all the ways that most of us use technology as doing old things in old ways. We may pass documents around in electronic forms but the result is still not that different from what we have done in the past. We may be maintaining assessments and records online but for the most part what we are doing has not changed. Prensky categorizes writing, creating, submitting, and sharing work on computer or instant messaging as doing old things. He describes it as “communicating and exchanging” in old ways “passing stuff around”. I am not sure I agree…just given the vast amount of communicating we can do and how small it has made the world seems all new to me.

To move to “Doing Old Things in an Old Way” we must understand and accept that virtual relationship are just as real and important as face-to-face relationships. We must not ban cell phones and Wikipedia in our schools. Most of all we must not let pressure from from parents and high stakes testing prevent us from experimenting and trusting our kids.

We can all move forward by consulting our students. I loved Preskky’s statement, “…..combine what they know about technology with what we know and require about education.”

Hello world! Hello Class

July 30th, 2007 by · 1 Comment · Uncategorized

This is a very informative class…already learning so much.