Monday, November 21, 2011

Time of Thanksgiving

I've been humored in recent weeks seeing all the Christmas decor and signs of the holiday season starting to pop up around school and local shops. It seems so early! I'm usually able to tune all of the Christmas-y things out until at least after Thanksgiving, and even though Thanksgiving is not necessarily celebrated in Italy, I wanted to talk about the holiday with a few classes. So, with two 3rd grade classes and one Kindergarten class, we talked about what we were thankful for this Thanksgiving. On my Showing Off Our Work page, you can see the results of their work. Precious!

Audacity: software libero di modifica e registrazione dell'audioIn a lot of these projects, I have been recording with the various kids, whether it is through Power Point or Audacity. In Power Point, there is a recording feature which allows you to record on each slide separately. Audacity is a free download that allows you to create audio files and export them as mp3 files. Instead of typing out directions for how to use Audacity, I found a video that does a nice job explaining what Audacity is and how you can use it. This video even taught me a few new tricks!


This year, I'm thankful for the opportunity to work with such a terrific group of enthusiastic and willing teachers and for the experiences that living in Italy is providing me.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Tech, Tech, Tech

So, here we are already in November...I always wonder where the time goes?!?!? Now that the school year is well under way, I'd like you to ask yourself if you've changed anything about how you are teaching this year. Are you doing something different because of the group of students you have? Have you tried a new strategy or idea? Are you able to incorporate your Interactive Whiteboard into your lessons? As teachers we know that no year is ever the same as the previous ones, even if we do some of the same things. So, I hope you'll consider some new technology ideas as the year progresses.

Here are two possibilities:
StoryJumper- Right now Ms. Julie's 4th grade class is learning how to use StoryJumper. You can build and write stories on this site without needing email addresses to log in your students. It is different from StoryBird in that the students create the backgrounds and illustrations just as they would if they created a book on paper. We're still getting to know the website at this point, but if you'd like to try it out, just let me know.
Little Bird Tales- This site is another story creating site. Just this week, the second graders are beginning to work on stories about day and night, their current unit. In this site, you can upload pictures or images of your own to add as backgrounds, and it has a recording feature. We are starting our stories by drawing and writing about things we do during the day and at night. Then the images will be scanned and we'll record our voices for each slide. Finally, I hope to have the students create an individual story on the site as well.
Lastly, I want to share the link to my website again. The link takes you directly to the Showing Off Our Work page, where I have been adding files of some of our digital accomplishments. You can listen to Kindergarten singing their song of the week and see a Power Point put together with second grade writing and illustrations. I've also got a cute video to share of the Kindergarten students programming the BeeBot. I'll add it to that page as soon as it's ready!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Podcasting

Since my last post I worked with Ms. Kate's 1st grade class to record some of their thoughts about their trip to the zoo. Ms. Kate had them write down their thoughts before I worked with them so that we were ready to record when I joined the class. Using Audacity, free audio recording software, each student recorded their prewritten sentences into my laptop. We used the built in microphone and afterwards the students were immediately able to hear their own recording.

After all the recordings were complete, I worked with the tracks to balance the sound as best as I could. Right now, this is the trickiest part for me. Each of the students voices had a different tone and pitch and finding the right balance was necessary for the track to come together nicely. I cut and pasted different parts of each track together and while the final product isn't perfect, it is so cute to hear their voices all put together and a great jumping off point for future podcasting projects.

You can visit my school site to hear Ms. Kate's class recording! Hopefully, you'll able to open it from there. It is there as a mp3 file. If not, you are always welcome to stop by and ask to hear it!

So, do you have an idea in mind for a podcast? Perhaps that project you have planned could be recorded by the students into a podcast instead of asking them to write or type it. Or maybe you're reading a book together as a class and would like the students to record their thoughts. Is your class ready to podcast? Just let me know!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

the Least Complicated...

As I sit down to plan what I'm doing in my weekly lessons with each class and the possible projects to incorporate into your activities, I find myself getting caught up in ideas that have so many steps the final product seems unattainable. Does this happen to you? I've been thinking about a variety of technology related things to try out and have to remind myself that a project doesn't have to be complicated or have a lot of components to be educational and have value to our students.

Over the past few weeks in the K-1 classrooms, I've changed the format of my lessons with this idea of simplicity in mind. Now, I teach half the class a lesson using the Interactive White Board and the other half works on a website they have become familiar with under the supervision of the assistant. This strategy has proven to be much more effective in classroom management and in allowing the students to use the IWB in the manner it was designed to be, as an interactive tool. This strategy might be an effective way for you to use the laptops in your room.

The students who work on the laptops are using sites that I have used regularly the last few years. You can find a list of these sites here at ASM under any student log in on the Internet Favorites, but I wanted to share a few of them below.

www.abcya.com This site provides educational games and activities sectioned off by grade level. I think the activities for K-2 are especially useful and age appropriate, which is often hard to find. I've done Alphabet Matches with Kindergarten and 1st grade and Word Clouds with 5th graders on this site.

www.sheppardsoftware.com This site has a myriad of options for students of all ages. There are even sections that would be appropriate for Early Childhood classes. It is divided more by topic and subject area than by grade level and there are usually multiple options within a game to add a challenge where a students may need it.
www.poissonrouge.com This is a great site for EC-Grade 1, though students a bit older than that do seem to enjoy it as well. It is great for learning mouse control through some of the different activities and also has options to check out alphabets in five different languages. There is a section where students can play a few notes on a keyboard and then the computer will play the song they have written back to them. This site adds new sections frequently and it seems every time I try it out there is something I haven't seen before.

When you get a chance, check out these sites and see if you can find a use for them in your classroom activities.

Trying to stay with the simplicity theme, Ms. Kate's 1st grade class and I are going to try our hand at podcasting. Podcasting is simply creating an audio and/or video file that is in a format that could be listened to on an mp3 player or similar device. We are going to have each student record a sentence about this week's zoo field trip and also something they have learned during their class study of animals. Once we have their recordings, I'll be editing the clips together for the students to listen to and enjoy, and to share via their class site. Hopefully, our project will be successful and we'll be able to share how easy it is to podcast as a class! Stay tuned for updates!

A little shout out this week to Camilla Luccio who has been working diligently on her new Google site. It looks terrific and I'm sure her students' families will find it useful and informative!

Finally, since I entitled this post the Least Complicated, I thought I'd share one of my favorite tunes of the same name...

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Creative Storytelling

I've been debating for the past few days what I should write about this week. There are so many websites and resources out there that it is hard to pick just one thing to focus on, but I am also very conscious of overwhelming my targeted audience with too much, too soon. However, I reminded myself of that old adage that 'no one can do everything, yet everyone can do something'. So, with that in mind, I hope that each week one of my colleagues at ASM will read about something that really inspires them and I will worry less that all my suggestions, ideas, thoughts are too much for anyone to take in.

So, this week my post will focus on the website, Storybird. Storybird is a collaborative storytelling site where you can create stories based on illustrations submitted by various artists. I have used this site with 3rd graders with great success. The kids love it and ask to use it regularly. Kids can log in to the site with usernames and passwords you set up for them. It does not require email addresses for students use, which is a huge perk. You search through the artists and designs to find something that inspires you and then select the pictures you want to add page by page. To me, this kind of flips the regular order of a writing project, where you might write first and then illustrate, on its head. I like that creative challenge. Take a test run of the site and read some Storybirds that have been created by others. See what you think. This can work at almost any grade level in some format. I know some ASM teachers have already used this site in the past, and a special shout out to Peggy Dorta, who has already planned and discussed with me to introduce it to her class in the coming weeks. Have you used Storybird before? What do you like best? least? How do you manage it in your class? Whole group? Small groups? Please share.

Lastly, I'd also like to give props to Leah Dawson and her 4th grade class. I approached Leah a few weeks ago about a technology project I had in mind and without even knowing what it was, she said yes. (Generally, I'd advise against this!!) However, her project is now underway and, as a result, her class is the first lower school class from ASM on Twitter. They've begun "tweeting" and I hope over the next few weeks and months they will find more and more classes to connect with around the world. The goal is to simply expand their learning beyond the classroom walls. Once we've given them some time to try things out and see how things work, I'm hoping that others will be interesting in adding their class to Twitter. If you personally are on Twitter, look them up at @ASMilanMissD.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Change things up a bit with...

This week, I thought I'd share an idea of how you could make one small change that would add a little variety to the type of technology you use in your classroom. Do you write your students a morning message each day? Do you find yourself repeating directions for assignments?

What if you programmed an avatar to do that for you?

There is one on my page here...have you tried it out? Push the play button. It is just a short, quick message.

I built this avatar at http://www.voki.com/ and love to use them just to keep things interesting. There are lots of options for a variety of characters, outfits, backgrounds, and even bling! You can type in a message for the voki to say for you or you can record one with a microphone. Once you've finished your voki, you can email it or embed it in a blog. If you emailed it to yourself, you could have it open on the white board for student's access. When they are ready to hear the message or you are ready to play it, you'd just push the play button. Since you can embed vokis in blogs and websites, you could create a more permanent welcome message and add it to your site. You could do this for project directions or field trip information too.

As always, I am happy to work with you to do this. If you would like my help, just ask!!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

New Beginnings...

In the past, I've used this blog only for personal use and for classroom instruction. I thought that this year, with a new position, in a new school, it might be more relevant and useful to have it serve a new function as well. Each week, at least that is my goal, I'm hoping to update this blog with links and resources about something you might be able to use in your classroom and would add technology into what you are already doing. Because, as a former classroom teacher, I know that's they key. We have to find ways enhance and develop the ideas you already have...because they are great! It may be a bit challenging at first, and you may have to jump a few hoops to feel successful, but in the long run it should provide your students with a more quality education, and that is, of course, our goal!

Since being hired for this job, I've been trying to expand my PLN (professional learning network) beyond just the walls of the schools I work in. To do this, I started reading blogs, created a RSS feed for myself, and joined Twitter. I "tweeted" for the first time just a short while ago. What I have already learned is that the resources and ideas out there are more than you can possibly imagine. It is, at times, even overwhelming, to take in all the websites, strategies and possibilities out there. But, you only have to start with one idea to get the ball rolling.

Our school's Director of Technology, Stephen Reiach, recommended the blog written by Kim Cofino. ( www.kimcofino.com/blog ) She currently works at Yokohama International School in Japan as the Technology and Learning Coach. What she is doing in the classrooms at YIS is simply amazing. Each post of hers is inspirational to me and I hope to one day feel just as accomplished in integrating technology across all age groups. Take a minute and read a few of her recent posts. Are you inspired? Can we take one element of something she's done and do it in our classrooms?

Another blog I have been following is the Langwitches blog written by Sylvia Rosenthal Tolisano. ( http://langwitches.org/blog/ ) Tolisano travels offering workshops in "Globally Connected Learning" and blogs about all kinds of possibilities in adding technology into your classroom. Look at her blog. If you come across something that interests you and you'd like to try it in your classroom, let me know! Let's work together to build our technology skills!

So, my challenge to my colleagues at ASM and anyone else who happens to come across this blog is to start looking beyond your classroom and school walls for ideas and inspiration. Do you have an education-related blog you already follow? Please share! Did you read about something you'd like to try? And, just as a side note...following blogs is as easy as using an RSS feed! ("What?" You say?!) An RSS feed updates automatically each time a post is added to a blog you follow and you can read the updates all in one place. Want to learn? Let me know!

21st century kid image from http://www.thinkfinity.org/peter-reynolds-21st-century-kid