Summary of Educational Blogs

I took a look at not only the educational blogs that I am following but also those of a few of my classmates. Josh is following a blog called Art of Learning. I was not that excited about the initial content or the format but I have an RSS to my iGoogle site so I can follow it and see if it is useful to me.

I am currently following three sites: Kathy Schrock, Free Tech for Teachers and Cool Cat Teacher Blog

Kathy Schrock's site has been useful and is mostly about technology. This week she highlighted technology to support teachers in creating documentation displays through electronically generated paper cut-outs of letters and images. If you go to Variquest Visual Learning Tools there are videos and templates to make it easy to get started.

The Free Technology for Teacher's website has been the most useful site for me on almost a daily basis. Today I found three sites worthy of review.

The first was a website that helps teachers help kids to make videos. The site Kidsvid has all the components for successful story writing from storyboard support, making tips, editing tools and video support. I bookmarked this site for future use.

I quickly bookmarked the next resource for free music. There is much more than music here, there are slideshows and movies and power points. There is a huge variety from sound effects to classical music to comedy. I will have to spend more time here to see how easy it is to use.

Next was a video and link to a site that teaches kids about Internet Safety with Garfield. I watched the video with my children and looked around at the information. It was enjoyable and informative for all of us.

There was a discussion of a new website called listhings.com which is another site for creating sticky notes. This one seems to be unique in that you can create more than one page of sticky notes and you can invite people then to specific pages to add ideas.

Lastly I found an article about the use of Lego in doing math. This was an interesting site with activities for kids that are all designed as competitions. You could use it this way or just as an individual endeavor.

I do not like the Cool Cat Teacher blog format. It is hard to follow and feels like it just moves me around from one site to another versus being an immediate source of information.

Searching the Web

When I was set with the task of researching assistive technology I first started with a Google search because I am most familiar with this process. For all my searches I put the words in quotes. The Google search had plenty of options from sites where I could purchase assistive equipment, blogs, government sites and articles on the topic. I feel I found what I would need to get started learning about this topic yet.

I then searched using Delicious and had a list of all new sources. The fact that these are sites that other people have used led me to link and look around. I found one person whose bookmark was a list of links with a one line detail describing the link. This would be very helpful since it is so specific to the sub topics of assistive technology.

Diigo was my next try. I liked the aspect on this search site that showed me who had used this site before and then offered their tags that then took me to even more links. There was a list of blog sites on the left hand side of the Diigo site that then gave me access to personal and professional blogs.

The Bing and the Yahoo sites seemed very similar to the Google search, nothing too different from what I had already seen and many links took me to sites selling things.

Utube was next and spent some time watching videos. I can relate to my students when they tell me they would rather watch something versus read something. Video and audio combined has such a big impact in terms of learning and even memory for me. My memory of the videos compared to what I read about assistive technology is more vivid.

The last place I looked for information on assistive technology was the UAA Consortium Library. Recently I went with one of my classes to the library and Judy Green, the Education Libraria, gave us a tour of the library and taught us how to search for information within their system. I found this very helpful and it has given me yet another way to find information. I recommend checking out the site, find the Educational Resource Information Center, ERIC data base and then the Teacher Reference Center data base that are both on the Education page in the library system.

When doing future research I would likely use a combination of search engines starting with Google, Delicious and Utube for general information. If I needed to do a research paper then I would likely use the library search engines for articles and books related to my topic.

Voice Thread Links and Activities for Elementary Students

After reviewing the Voicethread4education site and many of the Voicethreads there, I went to the Pageflakes site and viewed even more. Lots of great ideas implemented by kids and adults. It was nice to see the families commenting on even the simplest threads. It was nice to see people of all ages commenting on strangers threads. It seemed that I may be missing a beginning piece. There doesn't seem to be any opening introduction to the threads where there are many commentators. It is like you have to figure it out from the dialog, what the intent or topic is. Am I missing something?

Many of the educational sites I as looking at were for older elementary kids where this type of technology would be even more useful. I am sure kids themselves have come up with innovative uses. I focused on the younger ages as I hope to create a thread or two in my Pre K class soon.

Here are a few ideas:

Pre K

Documentary: Life of a Worm

Photos and a student comment on each of the events. This project will help students to articulate what they are doing and why. Students work can be shared with family and friends.

Composting for food

Recycling for a habitat

Planting for a habitat

Composting for a habitat

Future worm habitats

Pre K

Student Story Telling. Beginning VT use. Keeping it simple yet personal.

Student draws picture for thread.

Student tells about picture.

Encourage more pictures to continue story.

Pre K

Story Acting of the Three Little Kittens. The students really enjoy acting out their favorite stories. The VT will be am easy way for them to share their joy.

VT of scenes for Three Little Kittens

Scene 1: Kittens playing outside while Mother inside cooking

Scene 2: Kittens lost mittens and Mother scolds

Scene 3: Kittens find mittens and Mother praises

Scene 4: Kittens eat pie with mittens on and Mother scolds them for soiled mittens

Scene 5: Kittens wash mittens and Mother praises

Scene 6: Applause, Bow and off stage

Daylight Saving Time...Ever wonder why?

This is a great video that not only explains when and why we do this but whether it really does what it was set out to do.

Test yourself before watching the video.

Ask yourself these questions.

Why do we have Daylight Saving Time?
Do you think we save something?

Then watch "Has Anyone Seen A Missing Hour of Sleep?" to find out!

Lifeyo: website and blog all in one

Following Free Techology for Teachers by way of my easy RSS link, I found a recent posting about Lifeyo a website that allows people to create their own websites easily, even if they are technologically challenged or have limited time. A blog can be intergrated into the site making it easier to post and follow. There are templates and photos you can use to spruce it up and with a click you are published.

I will try this and comment later. I have wanted to create something more than a blog site.

Lesson Plan: The Mitten

Hello classmates,

I have posted the lesson here as well as the imovie I created, and the brochure. This process was initiated first by my students' desire to act out their favorite stories, secondly by the desire/request to use more technology and thirdly by my Children's Literature class where I was tasked to produce a multi-media project with literature and a piece (the brochure) that discusses the process and it's significance for students, parents and teachers.

The video is a bit shaky as a student wanted to help. I edited a lot! I would love feedback on the brochure and if you would find this format helpful to you as a teacher or if a word doc would be preferable.

Here is Jan Brett's site. There is a lot of supportive materials for many of her books. Printables!

The Lesson for the Mitten

The Brochure for the Mitten

The Movie of the Mitten: Warning, the movie is a 6 minute download.

Have a great week, Kimmer