K-12 Online Conference

Tonight I went to the K12 Online Conference. I decided to check out the "Little Kids, Big Possibilities" Presentation. It appealed to me because it was designed for teachers of students under 13. I really liked that I could work on this while in the comfort of my own home. This could be a problem if you are easily distracted. It was nice being able to pause the laptop when I needed to attend to my own children.
I found this presentation to be beneficial. There were several ideas and sites that peaked my curiosity. This is a wonderful presentation for fourth or fifth grade teachers. I highly recommend it to intermediate teachers.
I experimented with a few of the sites that were introduced. Click on the link below to see one of the things I did.
http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1448177/Maria%27s_




"Comic Creators" was one section of the presentation that I found most interesting for my second graders. However, when I went to each of the sites mentioned I had trouble creating one. I will need to do more research to get these working.

EtherPad and Scriblink

I recently explored the site EtherPad and Scriblink. I wish I would have had these programs at my fingertips when I was working on my master's degree. They would have made editing much easier. I imagine sites like this are wonderful tools for authors and their editors.
I really like the idea of EtherPad. I imagine I could find a way to incorporate this into a lesson for my second graders using their sixth grade reading buddies.
I know that they would enjoy Scriblink. They could each work on an assignment using laptops. I am thinking this would be great for teaching transition words and phrases. We could write our directions for building a snowman, add transition words or phrases, then underline them. We could look at each others pieces and circle the different transition words that they used.

Screencast

I created my screencast using my morning message. After making the first one, I decided that I really like the idea. This is great for days when you have a substitute.
I can also see using this for math games and activities. I can't wait to try it again.
Click on the link below to visit my first attempt with screencasts.
December11 0607.wmv

Getting Started

I am still having a difficult time trying to find a great way to use a blog in a primary classroom. I spent countless hours searching the web for ideas that I could use. Unfortunately, all I could find were for fourth grade on up. I am still optimistic that I will come up with something, even if it is as simple as creating a place to "publish" my students' work.
I did come across a site that appeared much more "kid friendly"; thinkquest.org. I'm currently looking into how to make this work.