internet 4 classrooms

A co-teacher of mine told me about this internet site. She said she goes there all the time in the computer lab for math practice for her kids. I just went there and it is pretty good. I did a 2nd grade search to filter out some of the info and that helped find what I was looking for.

Wiki space still going well. We did our first QAR questions to our pen pals today and the kids did really welll. They really get QAR and it helps so much in our discussions in other subject areas because I can ask them a question and tell them if it is an in the book or on my own. I can tell it helps them so much to know where to go to get the answers. It almost relieves some of the stress of not knowing how to answer questions. It gives them a bit more scaffolding in responding to questions. I did not teach them author and me right away - maybe later. We just did right there and on my own. Next week we are going to try think and search.

Wikispaces for 2nd graders

Today we started our electronic pen pal project on wiki spaces. We are going to post messages to our pen pals but we are also going to do a type of literature circle using the space while both classes read Horrible Harry and the Holidaze. Today I taught the web site to the kids for about 20 minutes, they wrote the user name and password on their writing folder and then they wrote a short message to their pen pal. We went into the computer lab this afternoon and I was amazed at how well they did. I couldnt believe it. They sat down got the home page up typed in their user name and password. The only thing I had to help with was how to find the discussion page. WHat an awesome thing that was. I would highly recomment this type of project. Their reaction to seeing their posts on the web was worth all the work we put into setting up the space and planning the management of it.

Technology Article #2:

The Educated Blogger: Using Weblogs to Promote Literacy in the Classroom
Huffaker, D. (2005) AACE Journal, 13(2), 91-98

This article was very similiar to the first article I read. It summarized why blogging was best practices for literacy education. It stated that blogging is like a personal journal and provides an online platform for self expression and creativity. It stated that positive attributes to blogging are instant publishing, archiving past blogs by date, and hyperlinks to other bloggers. It also stated that blogging is an important addition to literacy due to its storytelling capabilities, its collaborative learning characteristics, and it applicabiltity to other disciplines.

The article then went on to summarize how teachers can use blogs in the classroom. It was somewhat general in that it stated that english teachers can have students use blogs to discuss stories that have been read in class and critique and comment class discussions. Journalism class can use blogs to help with editing. The article also discussed a piece of software called Li-Blog-ary where research, reading and writing is promoted outside of the classroom walls. It also stated that blogging can be a effective tool for entry level teachers in helping them share ideas and give support when needed. It also said that blogs can be used to showcase student writing.

The information in this article confirmed for me the value of blogging in the classroom. I do plan on using it to showcase student work and to help kids see there is a world beyond Ankeny. I want to give kids the chance to get to know another 2nd grader that lives in a completely different part of our country. I believe blogging is a valuable alternative to writing pen pals letters due to its ability to give the students a much faster response to their posts. It will not substitute letter writing but it an be included in the pen pal activities. I also plan on using it to teach QAR (which I have mentioned in earlier bloggs) which I am starting next Monday. I see blogging as a valuable tool to have in my classroom.

Photoblogs

I just looked up photoblogs and viewed a few and have decided that photoblogs are just like an online photoalbum. It is kind of cool.

Scaffolding for Struggling Students

1st Technology Article
Scaffolding for Struggling Students
by: Sara Kajder and Glen Bull
Learning & Leading with Technology
Volume 31 Number 2

Summary:
I focused on blogging in the classroom because that is an area I really think I will use. Especially since my unit on Horrible Harry and the Holidaze is coming up very soon. This article summarized the value of blogging for literacy. It stated that blogging is like a personal journal and can provide teachers and students a rich and engaging space that is low on the knowledge scale. It also stated that blogs provide an audience for writer's which is very motivational and engaging. It presented 6 blog characteristics that are relevant to instruction. They were: economy (the best blogs are brief and targeted), archiving abilities, feedback (instant), multimedia (images and sound can be used), immediacy (instantly appears on the web), and active (students can be part of the learning community). The article then went on to discuss 10 ways blogging can be used in the classroom which was the part that was very interesting to me. I will list the ways the article discussed and then pick 2 of the activities I think I will use.
1. Character Journals, 2. Character Roundtables, 3. Open minds, 2. Think-Aloud Postings, 5, Literature Circle Group Responses, 6. Nutshelling, 7. Devil's Advocate Writing, 8. Exploding Sentences, 9. Photoblogs, and 10. Storyblogs.

The two activities that were very interesting to me as a 2nd grade teacher were Character journals where students pick a character and almost do a character sketch on line but the blog is written from the character's point of view and then the readers of the blog have to guess which character the blog was written by. HOW FUN IS THAT?!! The other activity is Storyblogs where one blogger gives a story starter and then a specified reader has to add to the story and then another specified blogger has to add to the story and so on until the story has finished. This also sounded very fun and so authentic and engaging for young writers. I am also intrigued by photoblogs and will research more on this kind of blogging. I am very visual so it sounds like something I might really like.

Blogging in the classroom

I am very excited about how I am going to use blogging in my classroom. My co-teacher in Birmingham, Alabama and I are going to do an on-line book study together. We are going to read Horrible Harry and the Holidaze together in December and teach QAR as a questioning strategy. As we read each chapter, our kids, who are already paired up as pen pals, are going to ask each other comprehension questions using a private blog that my friend has set up. We will respond to these questions by identifying what kind of question it is (right there, think and search, author and me, or on my own) and then answer the question based on the information they have read. We are going to do this each week in computer lab. If it goes well, we are going to do it with Sara ain and Tall as well in the spring. The nice thing about this is that the higher kids and answer their own pen pal question but also others if they have time. I am very interested in how this will all work.

ReadWriteThink activities

I teach the lower group of kids in my intervention group time and I just came back from the computer lab where I asked my media specialist to put 4 of the student resources web pages I found on Readwritethink. They are excellent for lower grades or struggling readers who need help in decoding or accuracy. I used Construct a word, picture patch and word wizard. Whats in the bag is good for problem solving but is pretty basic for 2nd graders. It would be better for Kindergarten or 1st. I will use those web sites and others I found on there. It is an excellent resource for teachers.