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.

Favorites

I read the article that talked about how teachers set up a favorites list and have the kids choose from that list of web sites to go to for research or any other project they were working on in class. I am curious about that and hope we get more information on how to manage that in the classroom. It could be a great way to limit what they use and to be sure that time in the computer lab is well spent. Also, setting a page up on my web site would be another great way to scaffold that research that younger kids do. I never thought of doing that but it is a great idea. Does anyone already do it? I would be interested in how it works.

Digital storybook help

I am working on this digital storybook - I am not sure it is what Dr. S wants but I am just going with my ideas. I have a crazy week the week it is due - report cards due, conferences that Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday so I just have to get it done now and take whatever grade I get. I have never used moviemaker so I am learning the program as I am doing a project that is totally new to me (as I am sure some of you all are doing too) so it is a bit challenging. SO.................. I was wondering if anyone knows how to transition audio so it fades in and out. I am only using a audio clip at the beginning and at the end but I need to get it to slowly fade out and then in and I cant figure out how to do it. I hae gone to the help program but have not found any answers. I am on a Dell computer with windows XP and I am using moviemaker. If anyone knows how to do it, I will be forever indebted to you!!!

Also, all the files she wanted us to download off of the ISU server did not get delivered to my mailbox when I emailed them to myself. If any of you all have them could you email them to my email address at home. It is mdjohnson@q.com. I am using my own storyboard that I found off the web but there were other docs she said we needed to do the project. Thanks to all of your for any help you can send my way.

Constructivist Lessons & New Teachers

I am very interested in working with new teachers and I always have enjoyed working with preserve teachers in my classroom. As I was thinking about our discussion on basing lessons on a constructivist problem/solution approach as opposed to a more traditional approach of teaching, I thought about what the undergrads must have been thinking as we are saying what "good" teaching looks like. I know how incredibly overwhelming your first year of teaching is and I know that most first year teachers will be lucky to even get in one lesson/unit in a constructivist framework just because it is so time consuming. Also, to plan a constructivist based lesson/unit you really need to be able to see the whole picture of your curriculum to integrate subjects. Most teachers will not be able to see that until after their first year, or second semester at the very earliest. I think it is so important to give these preservice teachers and first year teachers permission to wait on these types of lessons until they have the basic fundamentals of teaching down first. I would hate for them to beat themselves up for not teaching the way "good teachers teach". It will evolve as they become more comfortable in their position. I think if new teachers are reminded of this, the rate at which teachers change careers after only a few years in the profession may be reduced. Just some thoughts I had that I wanted to share.

PodCasts

I went to the PodCast websites and enjoyed listening to the kids teach me about various topics such as the constitution, fish, and art (Thank you Dr, Schmidt for emailing me the websites). The one thing that stuck me the most was the fluency in reading that I heard in grades 7 all the way down to 1st grade. Those students must have practiced their script several times to be able to read that fluently. They all seemed very knowledgeable of their topics too. I wished they had video to go with them. If they did, my computer did not show it or I didn't understand how to get them to play.

What are the benefits of the Podcasts in the classroom. One benefit would be a deeper understanding of the subject matter. My guess is they learned the information (comprehension), wrote their script (synthesis and evaluation) and then produced the podcast. What a deep learning would take place in this type of project. Reading fluency would improve due to the repeated readings of the script they wrote. Cooperation between group members had to occur which helps with the social aspect of school and the ability to get along and take constructive criticism. Motivation has to be very high in these types of assignments and finally the listening piece by other students.

What would be the uses in the classroom for Podcasts? The two uses that jump right into my head are science and social studies reports and readers theatre scripts or book readings. We could have a whole library at our school of various books being read or reader's theatres scripts that people have written for kids to listen to. It would be easy to record with sound effects and it would be highly engaging for the kids to listen to. For the science and social studies projects, what an awesome way to teach other kids than to listen to Podcasts that kids in earlier years have produced.

Are podcasts better than other technology projects we have learned about in class? I am not so sure. I really like the iPod recordings with pictures and sound that we did at the end of class last week. I am really excited about those for listening to books on tape just because of the visual aspect of those productions. I am also very excited to learn more about talking books. I can't wait to learn how to make those so the sound and animation works.

If I had the equipment at school and I knew how to use it without much relearning, I would do it if it worked into my curriculum and I had a group of kids that could do it. Some years we do have kids we can do just about anything with - some years we do not.

Online Lit Circles and Talking Books

Wow! Great articles.

On Line Lit Circles - I have a friend that teaches 3rd grade in Birmingham Alabama. We team taught a regular ed classroom together for a year due to classroom constraints and we bought 3 sets of classroom books together. I emailed her after I read this article. I also sent her the article. I know we could set something up like this with one or all three of those books this year. Her 3rd graders are operating slightly below our 3rd graders and my 2nd graders are pretty much on grade level so I think it would work. How cool it would be for the kids to interact about a book and not just writing and sending pen pal letters.

The talking books sound so cool. I do power point presentations all the time to introduce a topic or to cover information. I used them much more in middle school than I do now but this idea may be a way to engage the younger students with these kinds of presentations. I love the idea and cant wait to find out how to use the audio and animation features of power point. I have never been successful with the audio part so power point.

The Dark Side of Technology in the Classroom

I read an interesting article in NEA Today about the dark side of technology. It was about how kids will record events that go on in the classroom on their cell phone, take it home and edit it to look like something completely different then post it on You Tube. The article reported about incidents that didn't turn out so bad for the teachers (a teacher performing a cheer to her students in a somewhat provocative way. She was called into administration but not fired) to incidents that made the teacher lose their job or go on probation. I know last year, as a joke to introduce the year, our tech guy showed us a video on You Tube where a kid was recording on his cell phone in the classroom. The video showed a student run up from the back of the class, pull the teachers pants down to his ankles and then run out of the room. All the students in the classroom were screaming with laughter. It had been posted on the web for all to see. A middle school or high school teachers worse nightmare. He showed us other videos that kids had recorded of teachers reprimanding (screaming at) individual kids, tackling kids, or yelling at the whole class. Though I know behavior like that is not acceptable, it is not up to the students to expose it. I think in all this technology training, the one piece we cant forget is the social responsibility we need to teach to kids. What is the acceptable way and what is the unacceptable way to use this technology in schools. Though we are mostly elementary teachers, it has to start from day one.

Yesterday was an "F" day at my school so I took Dr. Schneider's advice and did a publishing party. The kids sat in two groups and read their writing with their peers. It was awesome and I heard the kids say that they loved it too. We are always going to do that on "F" days - what a great management idea. I always struggled with trying to fit in the reading piece to writers workshop and this worked great. Thanks for the idea Dr. S!!!!!

Tim Stednitz Lesson Plan

Getting To Know Numbers
Getting to know numbers is the lesson I chose to review. It focuses on calendars, odd/even, and counting on/counting back. There were not many lessons to choose from for the primary grades. I like this lesson to teach calendars. I have been wanting to do calendars every month for the kids and I like the idea of using handhelds to reinforce how a calendar is set up, the abbreviations it uses, and then finding important dates. Birthdays are always a big deal to 2nd graders (to all kids) so I know the subject matter will be engaging. I am not so sure it teaches odd/even but it does offer practice and reinforcement of this concept. I couldn't get the PrizeWheel to come up (I couldnt find it) but that did sound fun to count up and to count back with numbers. Input and output are concepts I found needed to be explicitly taught to 2nd graders so this would be a good reinforcemnt activity. I will bring the lesson to class.

Kidspiration

My school does have Kidspiration and I did get on it this week and it is cool. I really love the writing templates. There is one on there that helps kids write a friendly letter. You fill in the blanks and then transfer it over to word and you have your letter. It is really fun. I think I am going to use it soon in my classroom. I am going to have the kids do their own idea web for writers workshop on it. I think they will like it.

I will bring in my slide show from KidsPix but it is not the way I wanted it to turn out but I have invested way too much time into it and it was suppose to be a student project. I am not so sure I will do it next year. However, most of my time spent was learning the program. Doing and undoing, saving and resaving. It has been a true learning experience.

Also, if you are interested in showing the class what the webkins web site looks like, I can give you matthews user name and password and we can explore it on Wednesday. He doesnt use it much - he is very much an outside boy but you mentioned that it would be fun for everyone to see what kids are doing at home so I thought I would offer.

A few things

1. In the new edition of The Reading Teacher it has an article about creating Wiki's within the classroom. I thought it sounded like a cool thing to do when researching and studying science topics like animals or history time periods. Does anyone have any prior experience with these or does anyone know anything about how this would work?

2. The comic strip maker web site that Heartland AEA had in their newsletter was www.makebeliefscomix.com. I am going to check it out since we do not have Comic Life and I love Chad's idea that he posted on this blogg.

3. We are doing a fun project in my class right now with Kid Pixs. We are studying communities and how a school is a lot like a community. We got into pairs or triads and chose a community worker within our school to interview regarding the job they do for our school. Examples would be the principal, custodian, lunch ladies, secretary, counselor and the nurse. We also had a group interview a teacher's associate. They they used Kid Pixs to make a slide presenting the information they learned about the job that their person does. We added pictures too. Next, we are going to invite the people we interviewed to view our slide show either by putting it on a drive that is available to the whole school to use or have them join us in our classroom. We are also going to share it with the other 2nd grade classrooms. It has turned out to be a really cool thing and I thought I would share it with all of you!

Social Networking in the Education Domain

I love the idea of Social Networking within the educational setting. I read all three articles this week end and I think it would be so awesome to have a networking system within my school district. I do not know that much about how it would work, but I think the idea sounds so awesome. As an educator, there are times when our work is so isolated and contained within our classroom. We don't have time to go out and share what we are doing with our colleagues. It seems like if we could network with other teachers within our district via a blogg or some other platform we would communicate and support on another so much more. Excellent articles!!

Activities Reflection

The three activities we did last week in class were incredibly fun to participate in. But even more importantly, they applied to many of the Educational Technology Standards for teachers and students. And in the day and age of No Child Left Behind, we only have time for classroom activities that are going to move our students forward in their learning.


For the student standards, I feel all three activities fit into Standard 1 Creativity and Innovation. Specifically, I believe that all three activities guided us to apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas and products and we also created original works as a means of personal and group expression. In all three activities, we started out with a piece of literature, and then applied what we experienced with that book to a project we created on our own. It also was an activity that was high on Blooms Taxonomy - Synthesis - which is so excellent for students to participate in. I also believe that the I Spy project and Rosie's Walk project fit into Standard 2 Communication and Collaboration. Specifically substandard a "interact, collaborate, and publish with peers a variety of digital environments and media. We worked in a group to complete the power point and digital image page. We also planned and managed these projects which fits in Standard 4, substandard b. Finally, Standard 6 applied to all three projects as well.


It was also not difficult to find the Educational Technology Standards for teachers that applied to these projects. Standard 1a definitely applied to all three projects. By reading the book, modeling the programs we were to use and then explaining the project, you were promoting, supporting and modeling creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness to your students. Standard 2a also applied in that we were using digital tools and resources to learn and create(synthesize) our own version of the project. Standard 3a&b were also demonstrated in that we worked together to create the I Spy and Rosie's Walk project using new technology applications.


I am sure there are other standards that apply. But to me, the activities we did seem to apply to the standards mentioned above the most.

I want to know if Chad is feeling any better. I called another friend that is teaching and she is sick too. Something must be going around.

Its a Friday night and my focus now shifts to my class at ISU. I really need to get my kids into the computer lab and onto the computers but I struggle with what to have them do. Too bad I dont have a blog set up and they could post a message to their pen pals. I continue to think about ways I could use it in the classroom. I would love to hook them up with a classroom abroad. I know of an Ankeny HS science class that has their students working with a class in Norway or Finland. I wonder if I could set one up with my web page.

If anyone knows of any good on line programs that would be good for my kids to practice any of their academic skills, let me know. Any fun math programs, besides FunBrain.com, would be very much appreciated.

As I read the article on blogging in Teddy Bears go blogging, I struggle with my own 2nd graders being able to use this as a tool without the keyboarding issues slowing them down. I do something like that only with pen pals in Alabama. We learn about the south and ask them questions, make them gifts, and eventually would like to do a live link with them. The kids get so frustrated with the mail being so slow and having to wait so long to get a response to their letters. Blogging may be the answer if the keyboarding issue can be addressed. To be continued......