With the help of Richardson and experimenting with Google reader, I think RSS is making a little more sense. I didn't even realize that I was using reader before reading chapter 5, but since I had subscribed to my group's blogs their posts were obviously coming up on my reader. They were extremely helpful, especially Jessica's animoto because I will be doing the New York project as well. Check it out, it's very well done.
Now that I understand how to subscribe to different things, I have been hunting around trying to find a good digital story telling site. This led me to Larry Ferlazzo, who then had directions for how to add his site to my feed. Funny how these things all work together! Now I have some feeds in folders and a little more clarity on voice threads and story telling. Oh, and a ton of websites in my diigo. Before you know it I will be a true technology whiz!
Now I just have to figure out how to use RSS to help my students with their research projects. Hmmm....
Good think Stacy is in my reader!
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
I did it!
I have to say it is extremely exciting to me that I actually created an Animoto. My students are starting research projects on the changing earth. The whole idea of the video was to get them started thinking about their topics. I decided to display questions regarding things such as how landforms are made, what the earth is made of, the layers of the earth, and how the continents have shifted. I gathered pictures that I thought would interest my students to go with each topic. I left each question open ended because the idea is to peak their interest to find answers for themselves. At the end of the video I brought up questions for students to start thinking how they will find the answers and what they will do to present the information to the class. I will show the video to them tomorrow and let you know how it goes!
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Richardson Chapter 3
This chapter was perfect for me to read right now because I am in the midst of trying to start a class blog. I decided to try Kidblog because it looks easy and obviously kid friendly. The chapter reminded me the importance of checking with my principal first to make sure she is OK with me starting a blog. I also need to get the parents on board. My first thought is to just post a question a week and let my students post responses. Eventually I would like to post homework and other things that students might need to access from home. Maybe one day it will even be as cool as Mrs. Schmidt's Classroom Blog. She has all kinds of fun stuff like even skyping with authors. OK, maybe skyping is a stretch for me, but it sure is an awesome way to get students excited about authors. Wish me luck in my new blogging adventure!
Getting to Know Animoto
I am beginning to think that I can handle this whole Animoto thing. After viewing some really cool ones from sample animotos, the ideas began coming to me and I started to look for pictures. We are doing a unit called The Changing Earth right now in science. My idea is to get pictures of some really cool landforms and put them into categories. This will get my students thinking about good topics for a research project that they have to do. I compiled a few pictures of basalt columns, picked out my music and am now on my way. This might be kind of fun if I can figure it all out! I was particularly inspired by International Dot Day Trading Card Project and might use that template if the earth one doesn't work for me.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Richardson chapters 1 and 2
I have to start by saying that technology is something that intimidates me to the core. Anytime that I am faced with opening a website in front of my students or trying something new on the Smart Board, I can feel my anxiety level rising. "What if it doesn't work, what if something inappropriate pops up, what if my students can't wait to go home to tell their parents that Mrs. Bohle has no idea what she is doing." These are the "what ifs" that start dancing in my head. It is the subject area where most of my students are more comfortable and have more knowledge than I do. So, as I am faced with this class, it brings me both excitement and fear.
It is an interesting fact that as the rest of the world around us is changing so fast in the use of technology, education seems to be dragging their feet a bit. Of course this is not true for all teachers, but a vast majority of us are holding onto the old ways of teaching literacy. Students now are able to find information with the click of a button through social media. They also are able to create blogs and websites to give themselves an outlet of writing and sharing information. This is the exact reason why it is important for teachers to be comfortable with the technology and teach our students the correct and positive ways to use blogs and websites. I like how Will Richardson emphasized that we must first learn ourselves how to navigate our way around blogs and such. Then we can become more effective in teaching our students the ways of our world.
I am excited to learn many of the tools that Richardson suggests. While reading chapter two many ideas began to swirl around in my head of things that I would like to include on a class blog. I found myself scribbling notes in the margin such as; daily writing prompt, bucket filling, on-line book club, and math word problems. I even began to think of a fun title for the blog. These are huge steps for me because the task of creating a class website or blog has always seemed so daunting and unknown to me. It was particularly helpful for me to look at other class blogs and websites. Ann Davis's really stuck out to me because it was such a friendly and positive place to be. I also really liked Mr. C's Class Blog. This one was informative to both teachers and students. At first the site seemed a bit overwhelming to me, but everything was labeled in a way that ended up being easy to navigate through. I liked how he posed questions to his students and how he had videos for teachers. Both of these examples provided me with great ideas to try in my classroom.
One technology tool that I think is very important for our students is to simply learn to type. First of all, computer testing is going to quickly become the norm for these students. It will be impossible for students to write narratives and informational text if they don't know the correct buttons to type or take forever to find a letter key. Also, the world of business will not be functional for them and students won't be able to find jobs without typing or word processing skills. Students will have a very hard time becoming successful in life with out these skills.
Safety on the Internet, as mentioned before, is probably my biggest fear. Our school does have a filter, but there have been several occurrences at our school where students are caught looking at things they shouldn't. Obviously, teaching the students appropriate actions is a necessity. You never know what you will find even when putting in an innocent search word. I have also given a lot of thought to how to keep my students' identities safe. There was mention in the book of using class numbers instead of names. I think that this is probably what I will do because my feeling is that you can never be too safe. My students have class numbers anyway, so I believe that this is a logical solution to the problem. It is also of utmost importance to stress to students how many people have access to what they are putting out and the importance of keeping private information to themselves.
I think that teacher blogs are important for many reasons. First of all, it gives students a place to find information that they might have missed. Instead of an "absent folder", I could simply post work for students to download. It also gives them a place to write and practice the skills learned in class. I also think that blogs are a great place for parents to find information. They will feel more connected to my classroom. Another reason to have a blog is to stay connected to other teachers. It was extremely helpful for me to check out blogs created by other teachers and schools. Merriwether-Lewis Elementary School was very beneficial for me to look at. I was able to navigate around to teacher websites and see what types of designs and work that those teachers used.
Most importantly, I think that it is important for students to be interacting and contributing to the blog. It really is a great way for them to integrate reading and writing. It gives them practice publishing to a specific audience and receiving feedback from the audience. It also of course builds community whether just in the classroom or to the entire outside world. In a nutshell, I am excited to overcome my fear and explore blogging with my students.
It is an interesting fact that as the rest of the world around us is changing so fast in the use of technology, education seems to be dragging their feet a bit. Of course this is not true for all teachers, but a vast majority of us are holding onto the old ways of teaching literacy. Students now are able to find information with the click of a button through social media. They also are able to create blogs and websites to give themselves an outlet of writing and sharing information. This is the exact reason why it is important for teachers to be comfortable with the technology and teach our students the correct and positive ways to use blogs and websites. I like how Will Richardson emphasized that we must first learn ourselves how to navigate our way around blogs and such. Then we can become more effective in teaching our students the ways of our world.
I am excited to learn many of the tools that Richardson suggests. While reading chapter two many ideas began to swirl around in my head of things that I would like to include on a class blog. I found myself scribbling notes in the margin such as; daily writing prompt, bucket filling, on-line book club, and math word problems. I even began to think of a fun title for the blog. These are huge steps for me because the task of creating a class website or blog has always seemed so daunting and unknown to me. It was particularly helpful for me to look at other class blogs and websites. Ann Davis's really stuck out to me because it was such a friendly and positive place to be. I also really liked Mr. C's Class Blog. This one was informative to both teachers and students. At first the site seemed a bit overwhelming to me, but everything was labeled in a way that ended up being easy to navigate through. I liked how he posed questions to his students and how he had videos for teachers. Both of these examples provided me with great ideas to try in my classroom.
One technology tool that I think is very important for our students is to simply learn to type. First of all, computer testing is going to quickly become the norm for these students. It will be impossible for students to write narratives and informational text if they don't know the correct buttons to type or take forever to find a letter key. Also, the world of business will not be functional for them and students won't be able to find jobs without typing or word processing skills. Students will have a very hard time becoming successful in life with out these skills.
Safety on the Internet, as mentioned before, is probably my biggest fear. Our school does have a filter, but there have been several occurrences at our school where students are caught looking at things they shouldn't. Obviously, teaching the students appropriate actions is a necessity. You never know what you will find even when putting in an innocent search word. I have also given a lot of thought to how to keep my students' identities safe. There was mention in the book of using class numbers instead of names. I think that this is probably what I will do because my feeling is that you can never be too safe. My students have class numbers anyway, so I believe that this is a logical solution to the problem. It is also of utmost importance to stress to students how many people have access to what they are putting out and the importance of keeping private information to themselves.
I think that teacher blogs are important for many reasons. First of all, it gives students a place to find information that they might have missed. Instead of an "absent folder", I could simply post work for students to download. It also gives them a place to write and practice the skills learned in class. I also think that blogs are a great place for parents to find information. They will feel more connected to my classroom. Another reason to have a blog is to stay connected to other teachers. It was extremely helpful for me to check out blogs created by other teachers and schools. Merriwether-Lewis Elementary School was very beneficial for me to look at. I was able to navigate around to teacher websites and see what types of designs and work that those teachers used.
Most importantly, I think that it is important for students to be interacting and contributing to the blog. It really is a great way for them to integrate reading and writing. It gives them practice publishing to a specific audience and receiving feedback from the audience. It also of course builds community whether just in the classroom or to the entire outside world. In a nutshell, I am excited to overcome my fear and explore blogging with my students.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Blog Post 1
Literacy has been constantly changing since the beginning of time, but now in the age of technology literacy is changing at an even more rapid pace. New literacies are the redefinition of literacy to include how to learn, comprehend and interact with technology. Some examples of technology that have redefined literacy are things such as the Internet, web pages, blogs, instant messaging, software, and wikis. The terms are changing so quickly and literacy is being redefined so often, that it is important to stay on top of the new technology as teachers to give our students current information.
There is a place for teachers to go in order to find the standards that students should be learning for a global and digital world. This is referred to as NETS or National Education Technology Standards for Students. NETS focuses on the importance that students must be given pre-college time to use, analyze and explore technology in the classroom. The standards and profiles are created by instructional technology experts and educators around the world. I found the site to be extremely user friendly and found it useful to see what my fourth grade students should be exploring and using in our classroom. The standards are also broken into six sections. Creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, research and information fluency, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making, digital citizenship, and technology operations concepts.
Of course it is also important for teachers to stay on top of technology themselves. There is also a site with standards for evaluation of the skills and knowledge a teacher needs to teach, work and learn in a digital society. This is referred to as National Education Technology Standards for Teachers. NETS-T is broken into five categories. Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity, design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments, model digital age work and learning, promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility, and engage in professional growth and leadership.
I am already analyzing ways to use new literacies in my classroom and forming ideas around NETS. It is perfect timing because my students are beginning a research project on the changing earth. The students will need to locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media such as stated in standard 3b. The students will also need to present the information with some sort of publishing mode. My students already publish pieces of work in writers workshop by typing, printing and putting the piece in a published folder. I now have the idea to publish the pieces on a blog or website. This way all of the students can read each other's work.
I am very excited to lean new literacy and implement a multitude of technology into the classroom. I hope to create a blog that my students are able to contribute to. I also want to make my webpage more interactive form them. This will give my students a place to go for resources and activities.
Coiro, J., Leu, D.D., & Leu, D.J. (n.d.). Teaching with the internet k-12: new literacies for new times. Retrieved from http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~djleu/fourth/one.html
International Society for Technology in Education. (2012). NETS. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students
There is a place for teachers to go in order to find the standards that students should be learning for a global and digital world. This is referred to as NETS or National Education Technology Standards for Students. NETS focuses on the importance that students must be given pre-college time to use, analyze and explore technology in the classroom. The standards and profiles are created by instructional technology experts and educators around the world. I found the site to be extremely user friendly and found it useful to see what my fourth grade students should be exploring and using in our classroom. The standards are also broken into six sections. Creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, research and information fluency, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making, digital citizenship, and technology operations concepts.
Of course it is also important for teachers to stay on top of technology themselves. There is also a site with standards for evaluation of the skills and knowledge a teacher needs to teach, work and learn in a digital society. This is referred to as National Education Technology Standards for Teachers. NETS-T is broken into five categories. Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity, design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments, model digital age work and learning, promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility, and engage in professional growth and leadership.
I am already analyzing ways to use new literacies in my classroom and forming ideas around NETS. It is perfect timing because my students are beginning a research project on the changing earth. The students will need to locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media such as stated in standard 3b. The students will also need to present the information with some sort of publishing mode. My students already publish pieces of work in writers workshop by typing, printing and putting the piece in a published folder. I now have the idea to publish the pieces on a blog or website. This way all of the students can read each other's work.
I am very excited to lean new literacy and implement a multitude of technology into the classroom. I hope to create a blog that my students are able to contribute to. I also want to make my webpage more interactive form them. This will give my students a place to go for resources and activities.
Coiro, J., Leu, D.D., & Leu, D.J. (n.d.). Teaching with the internet k-12: new literacies for new times. Retrieved from http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~djleu/fourth/one.html
International Society for Technology in Education. (2012). NETS. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Blogging Day 1
Thanks for visiting my blog. Our first class was filled with lots of different activities introducing us to different types of technology. We learned about wiki and how to create a blog. I also was given the time to post on a student's blog.
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| I am practicing putting up pictures. This is a co-worker and my son. We have our classroom bears. |
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