Digital Citizenship Prezi

 Mr. Reed's 5th grade classroom at Walled Lake Elementary School recently had a "BYOD Day" (Bring Your Own Device).  As part of their learning for the day, the class had a lively discussion about digital citizenship, which resulted in the creation of a class Prezi presentation.  See it here, and be sure to watch the final video!

While students and teachers are anxious to integrate new learning tools into the classroom, taking the time to empower our students by giving them instruction in digital citizenship is critical.  Students must understand the consequences of being irresponsible using digital tools, as this could affect their futures.

Mr. Reed helped his students understand the importance of using technology responsibly in a perfect way. Instead of providing information by lecturing or presenting digital safety tips, his students were active participants in the process, which makes it more meaningful and relevant.  Way to go Mr. Reed and his class!

 

First and Third Graders Share Poetry in Radio Show

The 3rd grade students of Mrs. Bond at Glengary Elementary teamed up with first grade students of Mrs. Brossard at Commerce Elementary to share poetry in a radio show this afternoon.  Both schools are part of the Walled Lake Consolidated School District in SE Michigan.

The students celebrated the writing of original poetry with oral presentations in their own classrooms.  The radio show allows students to share their poetry with others outside of the classroom walls.  It is apparent that they practiced for the show and were proud to share their outstanding work with others.

Congratulations to the students and teachers for a job well done!  Click the play button below to listen to the 8 min 45 second Poetry Fest Radio Show.




Listen to internet radio with Celebrating Third Grade on BlogTalkRadio

iPads: Observations & Thoughts

 



A couple of Special Services teachers in my district (Jen Shamberger, Speech and Language Pathologist and Katie Weingarden, Social Worker) wrote a proposal to pilot the use of an iPad with the students they work with.  They spent a considerable amount of time researching apps and figuring out specific ways to use an iPad with their students.  They have been using it for a month or so, so I wanted to find out how it was going.  I visited Oakley Park Elementary School this morning and was able to observe Jen work with three students, and then afterwards we were able to spend some time chatting about the pilot.

Jen shared an example of an experience that has stuck in her mind that shows the positive impact of using the iPad with small groups of students.  She recalled a day when she was working with young ASD children using First Phrases, an app that helps young learners develop sentence structure by hearing, seeing, and then saying combinations of nouns and verbs.  One of the situational examples was of eggs breaking and making a big mess, which was very funny to her students.  They giggled and laughed and engaged with the learning activity, and with her, in ways that she had not experienced before.  Jen explained that often ASD children tend to engage with a toy or an activity, and tune everything else out.  She felt that this activity, made possible with images and sound on the iPad, prompted the students to engage in the learning activity as a shared experience. Jen’s eyes lit up as she told this story; it was obvious to me that she connected with her students that day and that it was professionally gratifying.

A few other apps that she feels are effective for the development of speech and language skills include:

• Conversation Builder, an app that helps children learn to have multi-exchange conversations with their peers in a variety of social settings.  Being able to converse with others helps in developing relationships. Students are presented with a situation, and they need to decide if they will introduce themselves, ask a question, make observations, or change the subject.  The app records the conversation for play back.


• Articulation Station, an app to help users learn to pronounce sounds more clearly. Images represent target words to be practiced in fun-filled activities.

Collecting data to record the progress of specific skills for each student is important.  Some of the apps have built-in data collection features, which is convenient; others require coming up with a concrete plan to assess and collect information.  Jen and Katie are collecting a variety of data and are working on figuring out the best way to collect information to show growth and share with others.

Jen recognizes that the iPad may not work for all students at all times.  For example, one of her students is unable to use the iPad without stimming on it (basically, hitting all the buttons repetitively).  Others do better with more traditional materials.  She also recognizes that “it’s all about the app,” that some are high-quality and others are not.  She loves the ease of creating learning activities according to individual needs of students, and was pleasantly surprised that planning and creating lessons is not as time consuming as she thought it would be. Jen is able to take her own pictures and quickly import them into learning activities.

After just a short time, it’s apparent that the iPad pilot is going well, and I look forward to examining the data and the pros/cons in a few more months!

Infographics as a Creative Assessment

I attended one of Kathy Schrock's sessions at FETC and the topic was using infographics as a creative assessment.  I saw the value of using infographics with students before there was a term for it, so I huried to this session.  (I even subscribed to USA Today just so that I could cut out the "snapshots" that were always on page one and incorporate them into lessons with my 6th grade class.)  

Recently, I have been working quite extensively on the role of technology in the Common Core Curriculum Standards.  I know that using infographics could be extremely useful as a means to:

• Integrate information using multimedia


• Write with formatting and illustrations


• Collect info from multiple sources


• Create technical information in a visual format


• Understand and use sources in acceptable ways, following copyright laws


• Strategically use multimedia in presentations


• 
  

   Translate quantitative/technical words to a visual form

  
  

What are infographics, you ask? 

 See Kathy's intro video below (2.5 min) and then take a look at all of her examples and how-to's.

Infographics as a Creative Assessment from Kathy Schrock on Vimeo.

 Her extensive list of resources can be found here.

Software, sites, and tools to create infographics:

• Glogster (example)


• Picktochart


• Inkscape


• Aviary Phoenix


• Aviary Raven


• Sumo Paint


• Sketchpad


• Pixlr

I challenge all educators to look around for infographics in their day-to-day lives and to think of ways to help students understand and create them for themselves!

Glogging Along

Here's another example showing a positive impact of educators in my district attending the MACUL Conference.   ONe of our elementary Media Specialists  (Katharine Keeble, Maple Elementary School) attended a Glogster session.  Glogster is an online tool that allows users to create free interactive posters, or glogs.  Since she returned from the conference, she has created three glogs and is going to do a before school workshop for teachers in her building tomorrow!  Katharine says "Glogs are EASY and FUN to make!  They could be used as a classroom activity center, used in the lab, or used with the whole class with your laptop and projector."

• Internet Safety will be used with 4th grade students.  The plan is for students to interact with this glog first.  Then they will create their own as an artifact to demonstrate student learning.   


• Going to the Zoo will be used with 1st grade students, who will soon be going to the Detroit zoo.  The children can interact with the glog before or after they travel to the zoo.  The glog includes two little animal videos (frog and elephant), 2 online animal puzzles (frog and elephant), a labeled diagram of a macaw and an online coloring book parrot page.   


• Setting up Teacher and Student Accounts:  This was made for teachers interested in learning glogster without spending a ton of time figuring it out!  Katharine has figured many things out so no one else needs to spend time doing so.

For those who like having written directions, mmehenderson has created a PDF.

Applying What Was Learned at the MACUL Conference

I received an email from an elementary teacher who attended a session about wikis while at the MACUL Conference last week. 

"Okay, so I've taken a huge jump.  Not only am I jumping in with both feet first, I'm doing it with my kids!   

I've created a wiki for my kids to do some writing.  I figured that if 2nd graders could do this (like I saw at MACUL), I could do this with 4th graders.  So, I wanted to share our class wiki with you. =)

I'm going to add in some pictures they've drawn to go with their myths, and then they'll add those to their myth page as well.  I'll be adding those as soon as they're done with the writing.  One thing at a time... besides, their before and after pictures are on the back of their Story Maps.

There might be something to this!  As a side note, I was able to give ALL of the kids detailed and personal feedback on their myths in about 75 minutes."

Check out the class wiki at http://mrsharmsworth.wikispaces.com/.  It's an excellent example of how technology can “rev up” student writing.  The wiki has individual student pages, a page for parents, a how-to page, and more will be coming soon.

Screencast-o-Matic

I learned of a new screencast tool from Chris Ozias (Pinckney Technology Integration Specialists) while at the "Tech or Treat" MACUL/Discovery Education Event on Saturday.  It's called Screencast-o-Matic.  No download and no account registration required!  I just recorded a quick screencast to introduce an 8th grade inquiry-based science lesson I developed.  Creating the screencast was super easy (no need to read any directions or change computer settings).  There are many saving options:  MPEG-4, avi.  Or share direct to youtube (However, this didn't work when I tried it) or to Screencast-o-Matic.  There is some advertising, but it didn't seem offensive.  I'm thinking that this could be used easily by students!

Kindergarten Bloggers

I was invited to be a "celebrity" reader in Barb Ozminkowski's Kindergarten classroom at Mary Helen Guest Elementary School.  What a fun morning!  I read the Book Click Clack Moo, a fun story about cows using a typewriter to leave notes for a farmer.  Of course, we had a discussion about typewriters and the class decided that the cows should use a laptop instead.  :-)

After the story, we all headed to the computer lab.  These kindergarteners are bloggers!  Mrs. O reviewed the process for getting to their page on the class blog.  I watched as she went through several steps:  Go to school website, click on Classroms, then Ozminkowski, then Blogminkowski, scroll down to click on the final link to get to the blog.  BUT THERE'S MORE.  They need to scroll the page to the right, click on 2008-2009, click on their name from the list, then find the login button in the upper left, enter their username and password, and click on the Enter button.  They click "Articles" and then are finally ready to write a blog entry.  Gulp.  I didn't think these five year olds could possibly remember all of those steps.  But guess what?  They did; most with very little assistance.  I'll be suggesting that a direct link to the class blog be added to Mrs. Ozminkowski's website to make the process quicker, but I think the students do learn about web navigation as they find their way to their blog page. 

The students were excited to begin writing.  They could write about anything.  They wrote about their pets, their family, a recent "pajama day" at school, and favorite video games.  They one-figured the keys, but using the keyboard was natural for them.  The students sounded out words by speaking slowly and identifying the sounds, then the letters that they thought worked best.  The students were completely engaged in the process and were proud of their efforts.  Some are now blogging from home!

None of this could happen without a teacher who understands the importance of children using technology.  Barb is a teacher who is not afraid to try new things, is one who spends time as a learner herself,  and never lets obstacles get in the way.  

I sometimes hear teachers say that their students can't do special projects because their students do not have the technology skills.  I say hogwash. 

If you'd like to see Mrs. O's class blog, click here.  The platform is Classblogmeister, a free tool that works great for elementary classrooms.  Her students would love a few comments if you have the time.  Scroll down to the section "Student Entries."

Earthcast08 Has Begun!

Flixn

[kml_flashembed movie="http://flixn.com/flash/players/camdefault.swf?videoid=tm3kjr" width="328" height="320" wmode="transparent" /]

A first grade teacher in my district just got a new webcam and is anxious to post some video on her classroom blog.  She asked me if I knew how to use Flixn.  I've never heard of it, so I figured I'd give it a try.  The program is very easy to use!  And it does not even require a log-in.  I look really tired and am having a bad hair day, so I apologize.  However, if you are a blogger and have a webcam, this program is worth taking a look.

Kudos to Barb, who has her first graders writing more than ever before... due to her blog.  The students love getting comments and sharing their writing with others. If you have a moment, they would love for you to make a comment.  Thanks!

6th Graders Write Science Song and Perform Dance

Jean Buller, a sixth grade teacher at Clifford Smart Middle School, assigned her students to write songs to go along with the astronomy unit they were studying.  When I heard of this, I encouraged Jean to podcast.  With some brief training, Jean was using Audacity to record the students, converting to mp3s and posting the files to her website.  I had the pleasure of assisting her for a portion of the day while the students were performing.  The students really enjoyed watching their classmates sing their songs.   They were also very excited to be able to share their creative works with their family and friends!  Jean reported that her students did remarkably well on the unit test and she attributes their success to this activity.  

I happened to have my Flip videocamera in my purse (I don't go anywhere without it... I never know when I might need it!)  One group of students had choreographed a dance to go with their song.  I grabbed them and took them into the hall to record their performance on video.  Enjoy!

[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-4720322722953385681" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]

Team 401 Blog

A 4th grade classroom in my district is blogging - teacher and students!  Their blog is called Team 401 and is hosted by Blogmeister.  A 4th grade teacher in California saw it and invited the class to become pen pals with her class.  The students left comments about the idea and want to do it.  I will enjoy seeing the effects of their blogging experience this year.  Check it out!

Geome-Tree House Podcasts

A high school geometry teacher in my district is now podcasting (actually his students are).  The students have published three episodes and have done a fantastic job explaining what they have learned.  Please visit and add an encouraging comment.   http://gtreehouse.podbean.com/

Outlawing the Words "I Don't Know" in the Classroom

This entry will be unique for me; no mention of technology.  I just stumbled upon the blog of CaliforniaTeacherGuy and want to spead his idea, because I think it is brilliant.   In an effort to encourage his students to think and to voice their opinion, he has banned the words "I don't know" from being verbalized in his classroom.  Instead, his students can substitute the phrase, "I’m not sure, but I think…" 

I wish I had a classroom to try out his theory, because I think this simple rule would make a tremendous impact in creating a culture of learning and risk-taking (they go hand-in-hand).  This idea is just as good as substituting "What questions do you have?" for "Do you have any questions?"

I urge any classroom teachers who read this blog to try these two strategies for a week or so and see what happens.  I'd love to hear how it goes.

FTL Showcase Site

Sarah Banks Middle School is one of Michigan's Freedom to Learn (Laptop Program) Showcase Sites for the 2006-2007 school year. Winning applications were those that showed successful implementation of one to one teaching and learning so that powerful technology and instructional integration are fundamental to the classroom. Requirements included having effective, vision-into-action teams (principals, teachers, technology coordinators), who have overwhelmingly demonstrated technology integration best practices. The FTL team at Sarah Banks Middle School have committed to providing core activities that will be offered statewide. 6th grade teachers Mark Lada and Randy Micallef use interactive whiteboards, tablet PCs, videoconferencing, and the CPS the evaluation system as part of their instructional practices. Additionally, students and teachers are podcasting and creating instructional video.

To learn more about the events and support that will be offered in 2007, please visit the FTL Showcase website. We extend an open invitation for administrators, technology personnel, and teachers to visit. We can also set up a videoconference or chat session if you are unable to come to Walled Lake.

Podcasting is Elementary

 Today I worked with Katharine  Keeble-Chapman, the Media  Specialist/Computer Resource Teacher at Maple  Elementary School. Katharine wanted to learn  more about podcasting. She was amazed to learn  that the process is quite easy. Together we  planned and recorded the first "Podcasting is Elementary" audio clip. Katharine plans to use it to introduce the idea of podcasting with a group of 5th graders. She believes that the students will be anxious to create their own podcasts in the near future! Listen to our podcast, "An Introduction to Podcasting."