The first video I viewed was about grammar. It is geared toward middle school students. It includes a gorilla with a sense of humor, but it is also very rich in content. I think it would engage 6th graders. Next, I looked at a math video. I wanted something fun that the kids would enjoy. Instead, I found something that intrigued me. It is called Right Brain Math, and it looks at doing multiplication using shapes and patterns. Although the person talking isn’t real exciting, the material itself is. I don’t know if kids would enjoy watching the video, but it made me wonder about this philosophy. I am curious about the research behind it (the guy in the video has published a book on it). Would it help our struggling students? For my How To Video I decided to do some research on building a good sandcastle. I found a series of videos to take you step by step to make a good, sturdy castle on the sand. The best video was the one entitled How to Build a SandCastle: Using Water to Shape Sandcastle. I always wondered how to keep it from falling apart: just use a spray bottle to keep it wet and compact…duh! This video showed me exactly how to do it. My fun video is one that keeps me laughing. You should check it out!!
YouTube videos would be great for students or teachers to produce. However, since they are restricted at school, accessing them is a more tedious process. I do think that kids would enjoy creating these to show their learning. I think they would also be great for administration to use to relay information and such.
I previewed several different podcasts. I had a hard time finding ones that I liked or that I thought would be beneficial in a 6th grade classroom. I’m sure if I continued my search, I would find that there are many out there. I first looked in the english directory. I watched something by the Grammar Girls. I did not think this was appropriate for my students. I think they would get bored by it. I was also disappointed by the ones in the math directory. From there, I browsed podcasts on The Education Broadcast Network. Through this, I looked at a daily comedy podcast. I thought this would be a good one for me to subscribe to and listen to daily to start my day off with a laugh. Maybe teachers could have something similar to this playing as kids walk into the class each day. I looked at another one entitled Podkids Australia. I enjoyed this one. The children in it seemed to enjoy it, and I’m sure some of our kids would be successful at showing their learning throught podcasts. It seems that after these kids learn about a topic, they make a podcast to share their learning. This is a cool idea.
Finding pictures to add to my slideshow was fun, but frustrating. I finally realized that the program I used would only accept jpeg images, but I had chosen many gif pictures, and they wouldn’t show up. It was a neat excerise though, and I think my students would enjoy it as well.
I had a lot of fun looking at various pictures in Flickr. Mostly, I spent my time looking at beaches I wish I were sitting on. I can see how students would benefit from this as well. For topics they have no background knowledge of, it would help to look at pictures, so they could better understand. It opens the whole world to them!
Prior to beginning Thing 10, I had never even heard of Creative Commons. Although I am aware of the ‘c’ on some things, I have never noticed a ‘cc’ on anything. Now that I am aware of it and I have a limited understanding of what it is and means, I think it could be very helpful for teachers. Why re-create something, if it is already there and it is ok to use it. This is a great way for teachers across the world to work together and more efficiently plan and create lessons. Although I am not in the classroom anymore, if I were, I would try to use digital images, audio clips, and video clips to engage my students. Creative Commons seems like a great place to find these resources.
After reading Vicki’s blog about using wiki’s in the classroom, I was interested in learning more about them. If I were in the classroom and we could access them from my school, I think they would be a great tool for our students. After looking at several of the examples, I especially liked the “Go West” wiki. The material was interesting, and it appeared that students have a lot of choice in how to show their understanding and what they had learned about the Oregon Trail. Some kids chose to create detailed graphic organizers, others wrote, and some created videos. This is a great way to differentiate. The “Primary Math” wiki was neat because teachers from all around the world shared their math lessons. The “Code Blue” wiki was full of information about the human body. The material was organized very clearly. It seems that this would make learning about various topics more fun and engaging for the kids. I also think they would take more pride in their work, knowing it would be on display for the whole world to see.
After completing Thing 6, I found several interesting blogs to subscribe to. The most interesting one is about Autism. It includes level posts about the current debate over vaccinations. Many of these posts seem geared toward parents as they include topics ranging from finding food children with Autism will eat to helping parents find a school to fit their child. Since I am greatly interested in this specific disability, I will find this subscription useful in helping me stay up-to-date.
Well Gosh! I hate that Phil has said we will have 6 more long weeks of winter. I don’t know about ya’ll, but I’m ready to break out my flip flops and beach towel. Guess I will have to hold off for a little longer…
In reading Dan’s post, I really enjoyed his take on assigning homework. I agree entirely with his philosophy. My students sound a lot like his. In addition, reading the many responses gave even more insight into the topic. It appears that he still used formal rhetoric…as if if this were a journal article. On the other hand, the next postby Mrs. Edmison’s class, was a letter. I did find reading blogs more difficult than relaxing on my couch with a good book. For me, the computer is sometimes hard to navigate on, my back begins to hurt, and my eyes give out on me. It is interesting to see how so many people are able to share so much through this phenomenon.
My initial thought regarding the article “A Day in the Life of Web 2.0″ was Wow, what awesome ideas! I feel that I am still at the beginning of this journey, but the possibilities are endless for teachers, students, and parents. Since we began implementing the technology that we received through the grant, I have had many opportunities to see some of the possibilities. Because I am not in a classroom on a daily basis, I don’t often get to implement new things that I learn. But, I see that my teachers have greatly expanded their methods of delivering instruction and it seems to be highly effective with our students. I recently began teaching a class to other teachers and have actually used some of the technology in my teaching. It has enabled my (teachers) students to be more involved in the learning, and as a teacher, it makes it easier to engage students.
