Symbols and Landmarks

Here is a video of the class research project we just completed on US Symbols and Landmarks.

Introduction

Playing with digital storytelling...

Video

Creating Non Fiction Books with Primary Students

Digital Storytelling 1

Reader.Google

I spent the last hour exploring Google Reader. At first, I thought I would just add news feeds. After adding five feeds from the bundles that were already created, I decided to browse and search other areas. I was impresses to find several feeds for cheerleading coaches. They contained great tips and ideas including general coaching assistance through pep rally ideas. I then searched for feeds designed for wives of firefighters and found a number of infomative sites. Finally, I ventured into second grade teaching ideas. The first feed to show up was for my favorite website, Santa Bonita School in CA. I have this as one fo my favorites on my school computer.
Next I subscribed to ReadWriteThink. This is another site I am familiar with. However, the feed automatically gives you current and up to date ideas for lessons.
I was not expecting to have so much fun searching for feeds. I thought it would be a struggle to find a total of five or at least 3 that correlate to elementary school. I am pleased to say that I found so many useful feeds.

Voice Thread

Here is the link for my voice thread:

Podcast

http://mchilds.podbean.com/

Audacity

While researching audacity, I found myself distracted thinking about the ways I could use this. I think it could be very useful in building fluency for young readers. Recording their reading and then having them reread while listening to the recording would help to meet some of those auditory learners needs. I can see it working well with fluency. I feel this would be something that would work well for our struggling learners and might also prove beneficial to those with special needs.
I am thinking it would be nice to use to transfer learning CD's such as our anthology storied onto an Ipod. This could them be used in the classroom (which doesn't change from the CD), but it could also be made available to students. Once again this would help with fluency.
I am going to try to record a few of my students reading a leveled reader to see how it turns out.

Bloom's Taxonomy

I love the phrase, "climb to a higher level of thought" as a way to describe the use of bloom's taxonomy by educators. I have always been a strong supporter of the use of Bloom's in great classrooms. Encouraging students to acheive those Higher Order Thinking Skills is something I try to encorporate and foster in my classroom on a regular basis.

I feel revived when I look at the new taxonomy. I especially like the change from nouns to verbs when describing the different layers.

When I was first introduced to Bloom's decades ago, we didn't have the technology that we have today. It is so easy to find wonderful sites filled with explanations and ideas so you can successfully and effectively implement Bloom's in your classroom. There is help out there for anyone looking to improve their teaching. There are ideas, lessons and projects to use at every level.

Here are links to the two sites I found the most useful:
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic69.htm

http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Bloom's_Taxonomy#end

Skype

Anyone walking into my family room on Friday night would have found themselves in complete laughter. My husband was eagerly helping me experiment with Skype. After creating his own account we spent hours sitting across the room from each other skyping on our laptops. Of course Skype was not intended to be used by people in the same room, it was still fun to practice. We quickly found out of state family members that have Skype accounts and encouraged others to sign up. I can't believe it took me so long to get acquainted with this useful tool.

With all the recent media coverage of the earthquake that devastated Haiti, I found comfort in seeing the families that were able to see their loved ones through Skype. How fortunate we are to have this technology available free of charge to all.

I was also very amazed to see how many Maria Childs exist throughout the world. I guess I am not as unique as I had hoped!

Itunes Search

Today I spent many hours exploring itunes in ways I never imagined. Until a year ago when I bought my son an itouch, I believed ipods were only for music. After Connor starting downloading tv shows and movies, playing games and getting online I realized they had other uses. Now, I am once again amazed to see what itunes has to offer. I had no idea that there were lesson plan ideas and explanations for lessons. I began my search by first entering second grade lessons which yielded no results. I then tried k-6 lessons, which was also a dead end. The third time was a charm, math lessons. There were several hits to scroll through. I found that the Podcasts (Video Math Tutor), were all above the level I was looking for but some of the clips were beneficial. The two best clips came from Michigan's MI Learning and Florida Department of Education. There was a virtual math manipulatives clip which shared a screencast on how to utilize the Illuminations.nctm.org site. It had step by step instructions that could prove quite beneficial in a primary classroom. It had exploration lessons and activity sheets. There was also a link to edutopia.org that would be great for intermediate grades. When I tried searching for individual lessons such as money or inferring, I found the disappointing results. Once again the clips were above the grade level I teach but definately great for older grades or even adults.
Overall, I was very pleased with the beginning of my exploration of itunes.

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.

Where do I begin? Every time I take a new class I find myself overflowing with mixed emotions. I am always a bit excited and overwhelmed at the same time. My mind seems to race away full speed, ready to start everything at one time. I love all the new ideas and the possibilities they promise. I compose lengthy lists of the ideas I hope to use to transform my classroom. Usually, the classes I talk are grade specific or at the very least geared towards a primary classroom. I am a bit puzzled as to how to incorporate blogs, wikis and more into my room. I'm thinking that it would be a great idea to develop videos of the math games we use in second grade. Then the parents could access the instructions online, to reinforce them at home. This should be an interesting and enjoyable adventure.