Thursday, February 21, 2013
So excited it hurts!
Sharing documents or photos got you down? Wish you could share a folder but don't want people having access to your entire Dropbox account? Well you can!
Just make a new folder, input files, right click and select the share with selection. Once you enter the person's email address (as long as they also have a Dropbox account), you can both access the file and its contents. Brilliant!
Just make a new folder, input files, right click and select the share with selection. Once you enter the person's email address (as long as they also have a Dropbox account), you can both access the file and its contents. Brilliant!
Fictional Stories in all Their Glories!
We've recently transitioned our writing from Personal Narratives to Fictional Stories containing a beginning, middle and end. The transition has proven a bit difficult as the Kinders love to continue to write about what is near and dear...moms, flowers, and butterflies!
This little guy took to the transition well and worked very hard on his story! We've chosen to do the story in three parts as it supports the way we have been visualizing and completing these stories in class. If I can figure out how to put them together into one file, I will!
This little guy took to the transition well and worked very hard on his story! We've chosen to do the story in three parts as it supports the way we have been visualizing and completing these stories in class. If I can figure out how to put them together into one file, I will!
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
My Digital Story--Take 1
Here's a draft of my digital story. I started it in Movie Maker on Windows Live, which had some features I really enjoyed (like the ability to include video clips), but ran into a lot of trouble with the narration. So I redid it on Photostory, which was much more user friendly. This is set to private on YouTube, so I'm sorry if you can't view it. I'll have to look at how to add people to share with!
Friday, February 15, 2013
Web 2.0
I was able to make this tagxedo by linking it to my blog. This tool randomly took words from my blog and I was able to manipulate the layout, shape, and color theme to create this apple. I was thinking that this would be such a fun way for students to make an all about me poem/collage since you can also insert text you desire. With the amount of shapes available, this creative writing possibility could be personalized to represent student's personalities. It could also be used as a culminating character study project!
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Does vimeo count as 2.0?
Our first digital story!
We have recently moved to fictional stories including a beginning, middle and end. Check back to see the progress of our fictional stories. We have a few close to completion!
Will they always be THE Teachers College?
Although I am sometimes nauseated by hearing about THE Teachers College I couldn't pass up this resource that came across my virtual desk. Click here to see videos of teachers launching a text based debate, students assessing the endings of their persuasive endings, and much, much more!
Peer Conferring: Students Teach Each Other to Revise in Order to Orient their Readers (3-5) from TC Reading and Writing Project on Vimeo.
Peer Conferring: Students Teach Each Other to Revise in Order to Orient their Readers (3-5) from TC Reading and Writing Project on Vimeo.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Hangouts
Digital Storytelling Wiki
Since we have our class Digital Storytelling project due in the near future I wanted to share my Wiki page. There are many resources that might be of use to some of you ladies and although I'm still adding, annotating, and organizing it may help. Check it out!
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Little, sweet, Eliot...or a Behavior Problem in the Making?
A couple of weeks ago I took my 2 year old daughter out to dinner because the thought of cooking was just too much on that particular Friday evening. Not to mention my sink was full of dishes and in order to cook I had at least an hours worth of work and preparation ahead of me. Anyway, the waitress sat us down and my back was to a couple that continually spoke of their son, Eliot. The way they were speaking, it seemed as if Eliot wasn't there except that I kept hearing the waitress refer to him.
So our dinner progressed as any does with a two year old, spilled milk, whining, shushing, reminders to sit and not poke the woman sitting behind her, answering the question why? until I might actually go crazy, and clearly, not one bite of my dinner taken while it was hot. However, among all the on-goings I couldn't help being totally distracted about the way the couple behind me spoke of their son, as a third party that wasn't involved in their dinner. To my relief, the bill came and it was time to go home.
When I stood up, I was speaking to my daughter about going home and going to bed, who at this point was becoming tired and a bit unruly and Eliot's mother said endearingly, "You speak to your daughter the way I speak to little Eliot." I smiled and nodded not really making eye contact because I was trying to wrangle a bull, I mean put her coat and hat on. However, when I did finally stand up straight to continue the conversation I was stopped dead in my tracks noticing "little" Eliot. A very big boy, at least three in a high chair with an Ipad propped in front of him, movie playing, head phones on and candy cane in hand. I tried not to look shocked and disgusted, which is difficult since my facial expressions always give away my thoughts. I quickly composed myself and managed a friendly giggle and smile. My little one also noticed the movie and tried to look at what little Eliot was watching when he let out a scream and covered his Ipad with both hands, and shot my little one a dirty look. I had no words as my daughter looked at me for an answer for this behavior.
The Ipad, an acceptable pacifier for toddlers and school aged kids?? I mean when is enough, enough? How much is Eliot missing from engaging in dialogue with his parents and his surroundings? How much do parents use technology to entertain their kids so they don't have to put up with them? Technology needs to be used with ground rules and responsibility on the parts of parents and teachers alike.
Good thing the Common Core has so much focused on speaking and listening!
So our dinner progressed as any does with a two year old, spilled milk, whining, shushing, reminders to sit and not poke the woman sitting behind her, answering the question why? until I might actually go crazy, and clearly, not one bite of my dinner taken while it was hot. However, among all the on-goings I couldn't help being totally distracted about the way the couple behind me spoke of their son, as a third party that wasn't involved in their dinner. To my relief, the bill came and it was time to go home.
When I stood up, I was speaking to my daughter about going home and going to bed, who at this point was becoming tired and a bit unruly and Eliot's mother said endearingly, "You speak to your daughter the way I speak to little Eliot." I smiled and nodded not really making eye contact because I was trying to wrangle a bull, I mean put her coat and hat on. However, when I did finally stand up straight to continue the conversation I was stopped dead in my tracks noticing "little" Eliot. A very big boy, at least three in a high chair with an Ipad propped in front of him, movie playing, head phones on and candy cane in hand. I tried not to look shocked and disgusted, which is difficult since my facial expressions always give away my thoughts. I quickly composed myself and managed a friendly giggle and smile. My little one also noticed the movie and tried to look at what little Eliot was watching when he let out a scream and covered his Ipad with both hands, and shot my little one a dirty look. I had no words as my daughter looked at me for an answer for this behavior.
The Ipad, an acceptable pacifier for toddlers and school aged kids?? I mean when is enough, enough? How much is Eliot missing from engaging in dialogue with his parents and his surroundings? How much do parents use technology to entertain their kids so they don't have to put up with them? Technology needs to be used with ground rules and responsibility on the parts of parents and teachers alike.
Good thing the Common Core has so much focused on speaking and listening!
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Students Using Digital Storytelling
While the uses of Digital Storytelling in the Kindergarten classroom came quickly to mind, it was another tool that seemed to stay in the theory part of my brain and not into the practice. This tool could be invaluable to Kindergarten students as so many of them have so much more to say than they are able to write at this point in their learning. To be able to give a five year old a microphone and allow them to dictate their stories instead of struggle with writing, it would open a world creativity and ease for them!
But I am/was still struggling with the down and dirty: how it worked, how students could make it work in the computer lab, etc. However, while I was researching more about it, I found this site that brought this pretty close to practice for me with links to teacher resources, graphic sources, music sources, sound effect sources, as well as examples of completed storyboards. Once I saw the completed storyboards it all became more clear. Now I am hunting for the right programs that Kindergarten students would be able to use to create their own stories.
Here's the site. Keep scrolling down, it gets better and better!
But I am/was still struggling with the down and dirty: how it worked, how students could make it work in the computer lab, etc. However, while I was researching more about it, I found this site that brought this pretty close to practice for me with links to teacher resources, graphic sources, music sources, sound effect sources, as well as examples of completed storyboards. Once I saw the completed storyboards it all became more clear. Now I am hunting for the right programs that Kindergarten students would be able to use to create their own stories.
Here's the site. Keep scrolling down, it gets better and better!
Diigo
I like the idea behind Diigo in that all of my bookmarked sites are web based instead of computer based; however, beyond that I feel like I'm missing the potential since I'm not networking or sharing with other educators. It does seem like if I were able to employ this feature that it would be more useful and efficient. Especially if it would help search similar topics of interest based on key words or tags. That would thrill me! Anyway, here's my library if anyone is interested!
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