Hi, I wanted to share a great teaching resource that I learned about. It's called Voice Thread, and it's FREE! Students and teachers can create digital storybooks using this online resource. You simply upload pictures, record voice comments, and you are done!
Visit my Voice Thread on Different Types of Communities!
Annette
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Windows Movie Maker in the Classroom
Hi, this is an example of how you can use Windows Movie Maker in the classroom. I simply imported pictures of the students and they recorded their voice as narrations. We set the timings and we had a video. Download.com has a free download for it.
Annette
Document Cameras in the Classroom
One of the new technologies I have been able to use this week is a document camera. A document camera is similar to an overhead projector in that whatever you put under the light displays on the wall or screen.
It's a bit different though. We used the document camera to explore flips, slides, and turns with shapes. The document camera is like a moving picture of what is happening. The kids are able to see the real-life of the object. Document cameras are also great for exploring things you would use a microscope to see. This website had some other good examples that a document camera could be used for http://it.seattleschools.org/blog/wp-content/files/2007/04/doccamera-uses.pdf.
Annette
Some of the Best Websites I've Seen
Hi friends,
I have been enjoying all of the new technology skills I have been learning. I have stumbled across something that I wanted to share. This site has some excellent website examples. http://topoftheclass.top-site-list.com/. I have been working on improving my classroom website to make it more functional for my students, parents, and fellow colleagues. This site gave me some very good examples of what a good website might include. I also enjoyed these particular websites:
http://www.misscampioni.com/
http://www.mrscarosclass.com/
Hope you enjoy and get some GREAT ideas!
Annette
I have been enjoying all of the new technology skills I have been learning. I have stumbled across something that I wanted to share. This site has some excellent website examples. http://topoftheclass.top-site-list.com/. I have been working on improving my classroom website to make it more functional for my students, parents, and fellow colleagues. This site gave me some very good examples of what a good website might include. I also enjoyed these particular websites:
http://www.misscampioni.com/
http://www.mrscarosclass.com/
Hope you enjoy and get some GREAT ideas!
Annette
Monday, February 4, 2008
RSS...What is it?
I'm on a roll today learning so many new things! I have moved from Social Bookmarking to exploring RSS Feeds. Wow, what a neat concept! I hope to be able to set up a bloglines and begin subscribing to all of the sites I enjoy without a hitch! I am that Digital Immigrant trying to get closer to my Digital Natives at school! :)
Here is a great article that gives some basics about RSS Feeds.
Web 2.0 Article (RSS):
Richardson, Will (May 15, 2005). “The ABCs of RSS.” Techlearning, http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=163100414
Richardson’s article about RSS Feeds gave the reader a feeling of what RSS feeds are all about and how they work. He spells out the basics. The article discussed the main purpose of what RSS feeds offer the average teacher and how they can be used to better sort through new information on the web. The biggest thing the article pointed out was that RSS feeds give the Internet user a way to sift through new information from more than 30 websites without visiting all of those sites. Instead of going to those 30 sites for the new information, the new information comes directly to the Internet user through 1 site. The article continued by giving the basics on how to start a bloglines aggregator account and what steps are necessary to begin getting RSS feeds. The article closed by explaining how to find feeds and add them to your bloglines account.
This article would be a beneficial read for a person who is just learning about RSS feeds. I guess that’s why I enjoyed it so much. It gave a simple explanation of RSS feeds as well as broke down how to get started and find feeds to subscribe to.
My Thoughts on RSS:
RSS seems to be a very powerful tool that helps the public acquire information faster. It saves the time of visiting multiple sites for information and only reports the new things directly to the reader. I think this is a very interesting concept, which will save me a lot of time visiting multiple places to see what is new. Although it might take me a while to adapt and get used to using RSS, I think I could become quite comfortable with the idea.
Again, CommonCraft has another great video on RSS Feeds. Check it out!
Annette
Here is a great article that gives some basics about RSS Feeds.
Web 2.0 Article (RSS):
Richardson, Will (May 15, 2005). “The ABCs of RSS.” Techlearning, http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=163100414
Richardson’s article about RSS Feeds gave the reader a feeling of what RSS feeds are all about and how they work. He spells out the basics. The article discussed the main purpose of what RSS feeds offer the average teacher and how they can be used to better sort through new information on the web. The biggest thing the article pointed out was that RSS feeds give the Internet user a way to sift through new information from more than 30 websites without visiting all of those sites. Instead of going to those 30 sites for the new information, the new information comes directly to the Internet user through 1 site. The article continued by giving the basics on how to start a bloglines aggregator account and what steps are necessary to begin getting RSS feeds. The article closed by explaining how to find feeds and add them to your bloglines account.
This article would be a beneficial read for a person who is just learning about RSS feeds. I guess that’s why I enjoyed it so much. It gave a simple explanation of RSS feeds as well as broke down how to get started and find feeds to subscribe to.
My Thoughts on RSS:
RSS seems to be a very powerful tool that helps the public acquire information faster. It saves the time of visiting multiple sites for information and only reports the new things directly to the reader. I think this is a very interesting concept, which will save me a lot of time visiting multiple places to see what is new. Although it might take me a while to adapt and get used to using RSS, I think I could become quite comfortable with the idea.
Again, CommonCraft has another great video on RSS Feeds. Check it out!
Annette
The World of Social Bookmarking
I have been learning a lot of new things this week. First, I learned about blogs. Now I am beging introduced to Social Bookmarking. I am excited about the wealth of new technologies there are out there for educators to grab ahold of. I learned a bit about bookmarking through the following article.
Web 2.0 Article (Bookmarking):
Jackson, Lorrie (April 18, 2006). “Bookmarking Without Borders.” Education World, http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/techtorial/techtorial101.shtml
Bookmarking without Borders is a Techtorial article about the benefits and uses of social bookmarking. The article gives an introduction about what social bookmarking is and why it is an important tool for educators. The article also briefly covers how to register and add a bookmark to your account. Lastly, the article discusses what a tag cloud is and how it is used to interact with others in the Internet.
The article would be a good quick-read for someone who doesn’t have knowledge of what social bookmarking is. It gives a good introduction to assist the beginner to get started.
My Thoughts on Social Bookmarking:
I almost feel like I’ve been in the dark ages! I am only 28 years old, but I have never heard of or used social bookmarking. I think it is an amazing tool if used properly. I think I have an over exhausted list of favorites on my desktop, and I hate creating those folders in my favorites. I end up putting things somewhere I didn’t mean to, which ends up leaving me frustrated and getting back on google.com to try to remember some of the key words to find the site again. I do admit that I am a very ‘gold’ teacher (very organized and detailed), so I am excited about the bookmarking so that I can organize all of my favorite sites! I am also even more tickled that I can now collaborate better with colleagues and share sites through bookmarking.
For another great resource, one of my UFL colleagues sent us a link for a video on Social Bookmarking. It's a good way to spell out what bookmarking is, and it's also very entertaining!
http://www.commoncraft.com/bookmarking-plain-english
Until next time,
Annette
Web 2.0 Article (Bookmarking):
Jackson, Lorrie (April 18, 2006). “Bookmarking Without Borders.” Education World, http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/techtorial/techtorial101.shtml
Bookmarking without Borders is a Techtorial article about the benefits and uses of social bookmarking. The article gives an introduction about what social bookmarking is and why it is an important tool for educators. The article also briefly covers how to register and add a bookmark to your account. Lastly, the article discusses what a tag cloud is and how it is used to interact with others in the Internet.
The article would be a good quick-read for someone who doesn’t have knowledge of what social bookmarking is. It gives a good introduction to assist the beginner to get started.
My Thoughts on Social Bookmarking:
I almost feel like I’ve been in the dark ages! I am only 28 years old, but I have never heard of or used social bookmarking. I think it is an amazing tool if used properly. I think I have an over exhausted list of favorites on my desktop, and I hate creating those folders in my favorites. I end up putting things somewhere I didn’t mean to, which ends up leaving me frustrated and getting back on google.com to try to remember some of the key words to find the site again. I do admit that I am a very ‘gold’ teacher (very organized and detailed), so I am excited about the bookmarking so that I can organize all of my favorite sites! I am also even more tickled that I can now collaborate better with colleagues and share sites through bookmarking.
For another great resource, one of my UFL colleagues sent us a link for a video on Social Bookmarking. It's a good way to spell out what bookmarking is, and it's also very entertaining!
http://www.commoncraft.com/bookmarking-plain-english
Until next time,
Annette
Saturday, February 2, 2008
A Model of Effective Classroom Management
I am a teacher of almost 4 years now, and I can always use good ideas for classroom management. I found this video on YouTube that is an excellent example of things that a teacher can do in the classroom to be effective and help kids focus and learn.
Learning about Blogs 101
I have had the opportunity to begin my very first blog! I've never had a blog before, so please forgive my extreme excitement! For my very first post, I have decided to give you an article about web blogs and also a couple of teacher resource blogs that you might want to RSS to. So, until next time...happy blogging!
Annette
Web 2.0 Article:
Catalano, Frank (December 2005). “Why Blog?” T.H.E. Journal, http://www.thejournal.com/articles/17616
This article would be interesting to an educator because it offered some excellent reasons why blogging is such a powerful classroom tool. It discussed how blogging could benefit student-teacher interactions and academic interests. The article had excerpts from classroom blog topics where students wanted more interaction outside of the classroom. The teacher extended the blogs so they could use them at home and even over the summer. The article could also be of interest to educators because it offers suggestions to improve parent-teacher communication. It gave ideas for the blog to become a school to home link with frequent updates and calendar items. Lastly, the article also gave some blog rules that educators need to consider before beginning a blog. Overall, this article offered some valuable ideas to consider when deciding whether or not to blog as an educator.
3 Blogs:
Always Learning Blog: http://mscofino.edublogs.org/
This blog is by a girl named Kim. She is the Literacy Specialist in Bangkok, Thailand. She is such an innovative technology guru! Her blog discusses many topics that interest the elementary technology-geared teacher. She offers up many ideas about how she helps plan non-intimidating technology activities with teachers to make sure the curriculum is the focus and the technology compliments it. Her blog offers lots of ideas and tools that an ordinary teacher could read and put into action immediately. Her passion for technology is infectious!
Teacher’s Bag of Tricks (Tips for the Classroom): http://teachersbag.edublogs.org/
This blog is useful to an educator because it offers a lot of good website suggestions for students as well as tools that the teacher can utilize in the classroom. She gives resources for hands-on activities, interventions for lower learners, and even other things such as subject-based ideas, classroom management tools, and technology plans. This site has a lot to offer to an educator with its many resources.
...Totally off the teacher tech tips record:
Scrappy World: http://judithmara.wordpress.com/
Since I already had 2 professional blogs, I chose one of my favorite hobbies for a blog. This blog is all about scrapbooking! Judith’s site attracted my attention because it gave a lot of neat ideas for scrapbooking for the different holidays, seasons, and monthly events. She offered neat phrases you could use to design a scrapbook page. She also listed many holidays for each month to get ideas. One of the last things I enjoyed about her page was her picture ideas for creating pages.
Thanks for reading,
Annette
Annette
Web 2.0 Article:
Catalano, Frank (December 2005). “Why Blog?” T.H.E. Journal, http://www.thejournal.com/articles/17616
This article would be interesting to an educator because it offered some excellent reasons why blogging is such a powerful classroom tool. It discussed how blogging could benefit student-teacher interactions and academic interests. The article had excerpts from classroom blog topics where students wanted more interaction outside of the classroom. The teacher extended the blogs so they could use them at home and even over the summer. The article could also be of interest to educators because it offers suggestions to improve parent-teacher communication. It gave ideas for the blog to become a school to home link with frequent updates and calendar items. Lastly, the article also gave some blog rules that educators need to consider before beginning a blog. Overall, this article offered some valuable ideas to consider when deciding whether or not to blog as an educator.
3 Blogs:
Always Learning Blog: http://mscofino.edublogs.org/
This blog is by a girl named Kim. She is the Literacy Specialist in Bangkok, Thailand. She is such an innovative technology guru! Her blog discusses many topics that interest the elementary technology-geared teacher. She offers up many ideas about how she helps plan non-intimidating technology activities with teachers to make sure the curriculum is the focus and the technology compliments it. Her blog offers lots of ideas and tools that an ordinary teacher could read and put into action immediately. Her passion for technology is infectious!
Teacher’s Bag of Tricks (Tips for the Classroom): http://teachersbag.edublogs.org/
This blog is useful to an educator because it offers a lot of good website suggestions for students as well as tools that the teacher can utilize in the classroom. She gives resources for hands-on activities, interventions for lower learners, and even other things such as subject-based ideas, classroom management tools, and technology plans. This site has a lot to offer to an educator with its many resources.
...Totally off the teacher tech tips record:
Scrappy World: http://judithmara.wordpress.com/
Since I already had 2 professional blogs, I chose one of my favorite hobbies for a blog. This blog is all about scrapbooking! Judith’s site attracted my attention because it gave a lot of neat ideas for scrapbooking for the different holidays, seasons, and monthly events. She offered neat phrases you could use to design a scrapbook page. She also listed many holidays for each month to get ideas. One of the last things I enjoyed about her page was her picture ideas for creating pages.
Thanks for reading,
Annette
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