Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Delicious
At first I wasn't too sure about delicious. Since I started playing around with it I am starting to see the benefits to using it. There are many times when I am bookmarking sites whether it be for teaching or for my grad. classes. Now that I know about delicious I do not have to worrying about emailing myself the links or writing down the exact sites if I am going out of town. Also, my last computer "died" and I lost everything I had bookmarked. Now, if I use delicious I will not run into that problem. There was one educational site that had to do with math facts for elementary students and I loved it. I couldn't wait to show it to my kids but when my computer crashed I haven't been able to find the site again! I am curious to show this to my colleagues, have them join, and share my files with them. One lady I teach with is our building level technology facilitator and she has an abundance of fantastic educational websites. If I can get her join I will have access to all of that which is awesome!
One question to whoever might read this blog. I didn't know how to provide my link to my material without running into some potential problems. I linked my delicious account to my yahoo email. With that said, I was worried that if I posted the link others may have the opportunity to view my yahoo email. I will hold out on posting a link until I learn more about that. Thanks a million for any help.
One question to whoever might read this blog. I didn't know how to provide my link to my material without running into some potential problems. I linked my delicious account to my yahoo email. With that said, I was worried that if I posted the link others may have the opportunity to view my yahoo email. I will hold out on posting a link until I learn more about that. Thanks a million for any help.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Podcast Proposal
Final Project Proposal
Purpose of podcast:
The purpose of my podcast is to describe the elements of different types of poetry learned in class.
Podcast Description:
The intended audience for the podcast are fifth grade students at my school and their families. The podcast would be weekly. Each week, different students would share their poetry. The original podcast should last around three minutes. The format of the show will talk about tips to create five different types of poems. Then, students will read their own poems that they wrote.
Detailed Description:
I will have my students discuss the following elements of poems: personification, onomatopoeia, similes, alliteration, and repetition. After discussing each element, actual student examples will be read that portray the specific element that is being discussed. Our fifth grade team departmentalizes and I teach writing to all three fifth grade classes. With that said, I will utilize students from each class. After creating the poems I will choose a few that I think portray the element the best. If possible, I am hoping to create a video podcast that allows the students to show their final poem to whomever may view the podcast (if a concrete poem is shared I want them to be able to see the design of the poem). I am planning on posting a link to our MyElearning site (a site where parents can get on and view what goes on in fifth grade on a daily basis. Because of rules about showing videos of students, I will need to make sure that there aren’t any scenes that show just one student at a time.
Include any state/local objectives this podcast will address:
5.4-Multiple Literacies: 5.4.1f-Gather and share information and opinions as a result of communication with others (e.g., video/audio chat, interview, podcast, multi-media presentations)
5.3-Speaing and Listening: 5.3.1a-Communicate ideas and information in a manner appropriate for the purpose and setting
5.2.2-Writing Genres: Write considering tone/voice and typical characteristics of a selected genre (e.g., memoir, biography, report, persuasive letter, poem, essay)
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Animoto/Free Play Music/Picnik
I have actually known about Animoto for about four months now. However, I have never used it. I am so glad that I was asked to complete a project using it because it is fantastic. I couldn't believe how easy it was to use. It was also exceptionally fast which is great. Now that I am familiar with it I have already created an Animoto video of my son, and I will be creating some videos for my class as well. I can really use these videos in an educational way that I think will motivate my students to work to the best of their ability. I showed my teaching partners Animoto and told them that I think we should use it for our fifth grade graduation slide show. They were extremely excited when they saw how easy it was. To have something that creates all the transitions for you is excellent. They have both applied for a teacher account and have begun using Animoto for their classroom as well.
As for Free Play Music, I am very excited as well. Since I teach writing to three different classes there are so many times when my students want some soothing music playing while they are writing. Most websites that play music are blocked in my school and I don't really have these types of CD's in my collection. With this site, I have access to thousands of great song choices for my students to listen to as they write. I think they will really enjoy this site. It is so easy to navigate through and I can get exactly what I want but searching for it. I love how easy it is to upload to my iTunes library. I have actually spent some time uploading songs that I can use and am thrilled to do so.
Picnik is also a great site to have access to. I don't know how often I will use it but it is nice knowing that it is a free option for me. I do think that students would enjoy taking pictures with digital cameras and learning how easily they can edit these photos. I know there are many things that I didn't dip into that can be done using Picnik. My thoughts on how often I use it may change the more familiar I become with how it works.
In my Animoto slide show I used Picnik for two different photos. I really played around a lot with the photos to try and navigate the site and learn as much as I could. When I thought I was done playing around with it I noticed I could have done so much more (backgrounds, frames, etc). In the photos I used I played around with cropping them but didn't end up cropping anything out. The thing I changed the most was the exposure and the contrast of the picture. I also played around with the saturation and temperature. I couldn't really figure out why I would need to do those types of things with the pictures but learned you can really change focal points in the pictures. I loved the fact that it has a red eye function. I was able to add some text to one of my slides. I found that to be very valuable for an educational setting. I could easily label diagrams or do whatever I may to with this tool.
Overall, I loved all three things. Two of them were new to me and the one that I knew about is going to actually be utilized now.
As for Free Play Music, I am very excited as well. Since I teach writing to three different classes there are so many times when my students want some soothing music playing while they are writing. Most websites that play music are blocked in my school and I don't really have these types of CD's in my collection. With this site, I have access to thousands of great song choices for my students to listen to as they write. I think they will really enjoy this site. It is so easy to navigate through and I can get exactly what I want but searching for it. I love how easy it is to upload to my iTunes library. I have actually spent some time uploading songs that I can use and am thrilled to do so.
Picnik is also a great site to have access to. I don't know how often I will use it but it is nice knowing that it is a free option for me. I do think that students would enjoy taking pictures with digital cameras and learning how easily they can edit these photos. I know there are many things that I didn't dip into that can be done using Picnik. My thoughts on how often I use it may change the more familiar I become with how it works.
In my Animoto slide show I used Picnik for two different photos. I really played around a lot with the photos to try and navigate the site and learn as much as I could. When I thought I was done playing around with it I noticed I could have done so much more (backgrounds, frames, etc). In the photos I used I played around with cropping them but didn't end up cropping anything out. The thing I changed the most was the exposure and the contrast of the picture. I also played around with the saturation and temperature. I couldn't really figure out why I would need to do those types of things with the pictures but learned you can really change focal points in the pictures. I loved the fact that it has a red eye function. I was able to add some text to one of my slides. I found that to be very valuable for an educational setting. I could easily label diagrams or do whatever I may to with this tool.
Overall, I loved all three things. Two of them were new to me and the one that I knew about is going to actually be utilized now.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
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