Eternal Learning of the Open Mind

User-Friendly? - part 2

2011-12-14T18:46:00.000-05:00

So, here are the nuts and bolts of how I rearranged my library to be genre based. The entire process took just over a year and I'm loving the change.

Step 1
I determined the genres I would use and where each genre would be housed. I decided to go with the following genres (I've also added the colors I decided to go with):
Historical Fiction
Chick Lit
Realistic Fiction
Humorous
Mystery
Sports Fiction
Horror
Action/Adventure
Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Easy Reader
Classics (no color)

Step 2
I purchased transparent colored labels and decided what color each genre was going to be.

Step 3
I weeded heavily and shifted my books around to create an area of space to begin

Step 4
I chose a genre and methodically went through my fiction section from AAA to ZZZ and picked out all the books that fit in that genre
I began with historical fiction because the open shelves from my weeding were right where I planned on housing my historical fiction section. So, I'll use my historical fiction as my example for the rest of the post.

Step 5
My aide changed a few things in Destiny for each book.
*each title received a genre code in front of the current call number - ex) HISTORICAL F XXX
*the sub-location of each book was changed to the appropriate genre
My aide then placed a transparent colored label over the existing spine label for each book and then shelved the books.

Step 6
I created a wordle for the genre by looking at titles and authors of the books that were housed in that section. I had the wordle created into a poster. I placed a few of the labels on the poster, to create a square of the color that was assigned to that genre. Finally, I hung the posters above the beginning point of each genre section. This is crucial for making it easy for your users to find the appropriate genre section.

After pulling out all the books of one genre from the fiction section, I re-shifted the remaining fiction collection which opened up some more shelving. So, I just repeated the process over and over until I had about 2 library carts full of those books that just don't seem to fall into one genre. I slowly worked my way through that cart - asking students for their feedback, reading online summaries, and looking at the recommended subject headings for that book. Going through those two library carts was tedious, and sometimes I wished I could have created a separate category just for those difficult books ... but I found it better to just make an executive decision and house the book in a specific genre.

I created a google form and polled my students to get some feedback from them. While of course, there were those who didn't like the change, the overwhelming majority loved it.

"I like that I can find the mystery ones (I like them the best) right away in their own section."

"I like fiction organized by genre because I know where to look for the specific kind of book I want."

"Because I know where all the fiction book are which I prefer"

User-Friendly? - Part 1

2011-11-20T13:08:00.000-05:00

I had been rolling an idea around in my head for several years ... reorganizing my fiction collection by genre. Finally, last year, I decided to actually go for it. It genuinely took an entire school year + a few months into the second school year. Now that it is 99% finished, I have no regrets. I am so glad the library has been reorganized.

RATIONALE

1. Bookstores
Bookstores don't organize themselves using the Dewey Decimal system. They use the BISC - Book Industry Standards and Communication which was developed by the BISG - Book Industry Study Group. According to their website:

BISG motivates and moderates debate about current book industry practices and about the future of digital publications on the international book trade
BISG develops, maintain and promotes standards and best practices that enable the book industry to conduct business more efficiently and cost-effectively. Our standards cover a wide range of business processes, including product identification and description, business communications, product and carton labeling and digital discovery and delivery.
BISG conducts and publishes primary research related to the size of the U.S. book industry and in areas of topical interest such as the environmental impact of the book industry and consumer attitudes toward digital publishing.

2. Help Me Find a Book!
I wonder if libraries ever performed any market research on using Dewey for classifying their entire collection? Now, I cannot claim that I performed any sort of market research before I made the decision to change. However, I was constantly asked by students to help them find a book - they didn't have a specific one in mind ... they wanted recommendations. So, the first words that would come out of my mouth were, "Well, what are you in the mood for? Mystery, fantasy, sports, romance ...?" Once I knew the genre they were looking to read at the moment, I say, "Ok, let's walk the shelves and I'll pull out a few options for you." Being the librarian, I was uniquely aware of my collection - what books/authors I had available and where they were on the shelves. So, the student and I would walk through the shelves and I would begin pulling off a book here and there that I thought would interest them. After providing them with a few options and telling them a little about each one, they would make their decision or ask me to show them more.

I realized my collection was only friendly to students looking up a specific book or author. For the students that knew they wanted to read a scary story, but didn't know an exact title or author that they wanted, the collection's organization was not meeting their needs. They needed me and my knowledge of where the scary stories were in my fiction collection in order to find a few options to sort through. Sure, they could look up scary stories in the library catalog, but the number of results in a bit overwhelming and then looking through the entire fiction collection to pull a few out for themselves to decide was not something that middle school students felt like doing. I wanted the library to be user-friendly and to promote reading ... I felt like my fiction collection, as it had been organized, was far from doing that.

Book Shelves photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/33377700@N00/443545349/.

The Good, The Bad, The Challenges

2011-08-27T12:41:00.002-04:00

The start of a new school year always brings changes. This year, the middle school where I work is dramatically changing its schedule. The good news is that I no longer have to teach classes. I will now have a completely flexible schedule. The bad news is that the students no longer have any free time (study halls) to come to the library to select books, work on projects, read for pleasure. Of course, ever change brings new challenges, and I have two main challenges for this year.

My first challenge will be to build a stronger collaborative environment with my teachers. Previously, I just did not have the time and flexibility in my schedule. There were certain teachers and projects that I worked with, but overall, I was too tied down to with classes to reach out to more teachers. So, I'm trying to be proactive before school starts. I have created a packet of information to advertise what I have to offer at the library - description of offerings, example projects, and our research guide. (see below) I plan on starting small. I want to focus on language arts and history, then I will broaden my scope to target science and specials as well. I will be meeting with teachers individually and talk to them about how I can help them and what the library has to offer.

My second challenge will be to provide library opportunities for students without study halls. I'm thinking about lunch passes of some sort, but that will needs to be worked out.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions that you have. How does the library scheduling work at your school? When do students use the library?

GLOG DESCRIPTION OF OFFERINGS

Example web2 projects for LA

View more documents from Miss Makatche.

PLUSS research guide

View more presentations from Miss Makatche.

Desk photo used under Creative Commons license from dcJohn.

It's Been Too Long

2011-08-27T12:05:00.001-04:00

Eternal Learning of the Open Mind is open again for bogging. I took the past year off from writing any posts. Sometimes you just need a break ... but it's good to be back.

I have decided, though, that this blog will look a bit different than it has in the past. Before, the focus was primarily on using technology. I am going to expand it to include all my work as a librarian ... what I do to promote reading, how I help teachers with research, how our projects integrate technology. I'll still highlight new technologies that I love, but those posts will be part of a larger variety of posts.

Open sign used under Creative Commons license from Tanakawho.

Newbie Presenter

2010-04-20T21:02:00.010-04:00

This past weekend was my first presentation (other than at school, of course). I was a presenter at the 37th annual Pennsylvania State Librarian's Association Conference.

I'm happy with how the presentation went. There are a few things that I wish I would have done differently in hindsight. I wish I would have taken 5 minutes at the beginning of the presentation to make sure everyone in the audience was able to get to the online portion of my presentation. A few people were having trouble finding the link on the conference wiki. I also wish I would have scheduled about 5 minutes between each application I was talking about to answer a few questions. Oh well, next time I'll try to remember to do those things. Live and learn:)

I began with a short presentation embedded below:

At the end of the presentation, I linked out to a poll by Poll Everywhere. I wanted to get an idea of where everyone in the group was at in terms of using applications like glogster, wordle, audacity, etc.

Then I launched into the content of my presentation using a LiveBinder I created. I absolutely LOVE LiveBinders for presentations because your presentation then becomes a resource binder for those in the audience. My session focused on creating multi-media book projects. I talked to teacher librarians about how to make book projects 2.0-style and allow students to learn important 21st century skills - creative commons, visual literacy, communication, etc.

Book Projects 2.0

It is amazing how a presentation that can take hours upon hours to create and organize, is over in 1 hour and 15 minutes. I wanted more time, but the time I did have was great and the participants were wonderful!

Number 1 photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00/2115400318/.

Collaborative Writing Made Fun and Easy

2010-04-07T21:25:00.024-04:00

Last month my fifth graders completed a unit on Internet Safety. Our culminating activity (which only took 1 1/2 periods!!) was a group essay.

To facilitate the collaborative writing process, which can be difficult, we turned to Etherpad, making the whole process fun and flow smoothly.

So, I'm disappointed to hear that Etherpad will be shut down and access to previously created pads will be lost on May 14. Google had recently purchased Etherpad, released their API, and now they are shutting Etherpad down. Luckily two "clone" sites are available, so I will be using one of them in the future:
PiratePad
TypeWithMe

Process
1. I introduced Etherpad to the students, which only took about 10 minutes. Then I allowed the students to test it out and practice with it for another 10 minutes. Since it was my first time and their first time using it, we worked out all the kinks and brainstormed some ideas on how to use Etherpad effectively to create a collaborative essay. This was also a great teachable moment on discussing the difference between academic writing and text/chat writing because they were switching back and forth between both!

2. Now the students were ready to really begin. Before their next class, I created 5 pads for each class and posted the invite URLs online. All the students had to do was click on the link corresponding with their group and everyone was on the correct pad and ready to write!

3. The class was silent even though they were constantly checking in with one another and communicating about their writing process. Here's just a sampling of the conversations occurring about their writing in the chat box.

4. Once they finished their final products I showed them what the TimeSlider button did. They loved seeing a video of their entire writing process enfold before their eyes. It is the perfect end to a collaborative writing process.

TimeSlider video (I imagine this link will not work after May 14, 2010).

Finished Products

Classroom Ideas:
Write a group story
Lab reports
Group projects
Summarizing (book, lesson, presentation, video) activity

Teamwork photo used under Creative Commons license from

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22177648@N06/2137737248/

Book Review Podcasts

2010-03-02T20:37:00.036-05:00

I just finished working with an eighth grade Language Arts teacher and her students on creating book review podcasts. (I've blogged previously on podcasting - here and here.)

Podcasts are a great way to build students skills not only in technology, but in academic content as well. I was inspired by the poster Langwitches created in her "It's not about the tools . . . it's about the skills". It is such a powerful visual reminder that having students record a podcast is not all about the podcast skills. It is about the writing, speaking, communication, etc. skills taught and reinforced in the process. It is about allowing students to build these skills in a real-world, hands-on experience.

One thing that really struck me throughout the recording process was the growing self-awareness that the students developed about how they sounded while speaking. Common remarks during the first day of recording included: "Do I actually sound like that?" "I need to record that again because I was mumbling" "I can barely hear myself. I need to speak louder next time." The ability to hear what they just said and receive immediate feed back allowed the students to analyze their recording for quality speaking skills. Without much coaching, the students listened to and reflected on the quality of their recordings (speaking skills) and then took measures to correct or improve upon their recording.

We used Audacity to record our podcasts. Alternatives to audacity are GarageBand (for Mac users) and Myna.

Timeline
1 Period - Write book review podcast script
1 Period - Introduce Audacity and let the students play/practice
2 Periods - Record vocal portions of podcast
1 Period - Import music and a sound effect

How To
Book Review Podcast Directions
Full screen version.

Audacity Instructions
Full screen version.

Final Product

To place all the podcasts in a place for all students to have access to them, I uploaded the podcasts to a glog - quick and easy! Each class has their own glog page with their podcasts like the picture to the left.

I wish I could share the direct link for you to listen to a few, but unfortunately I cannot.

Podcasting Skills and Literacies photo used under Creative Commons license from Langwitches.

Bulletin Board Happiness

2010-02-20T18:08:00.013-05:00

I have to send out a big thanks to Tara Ethridge for introducing me to WallWisher. She has written two blog articles about using WallWisher here and here.

WallWisher is a sort of online bulletin board. It allows users to post sticky note type messages and attach photos, videos, documents, and links.

I thought I would give it a try in an upcoming lesson to fifth graders about Internet safety. Before we delved into the topic, I asked them to share their thoughts, tips, rules for staying safe online. Normally this would be done as a class discussion with raised hands and people taking turns speaking. However, using WallWisher provided each student equal opportunity to express their knowledge. I loved the experience as much as the students did. I plan on repeating this activity at the end of our Internet Safety unit to compare their two boards and let them see how their knowledge and understanding has grown and evolved.

How To:
Creating a wall on WallWisher is so easy! Simply create an individual account and then set-up your wall(s). Students do not need to create accounts to be able to interact with a wall, you just have to allow anonymous posts when you are creating your wall. Once students click on the link to your pre-created wall, they can immediately post. They can change the default "anonymous" name to their own, but it is not necessary.

Example:
Click here if you cannot view embedded example below.

Classroom Ideas:
Class brainstorming
"Ticket out the door" activity
Before and After a lesson/unit activity to show learning
Resource gathering - students (or teacher) can add links, videos, photos, documents
Alternative to a standard poll

How would you use or have you used WallWisher with your classes?

Bulletin Board photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/69676244@N00/2315822008/.

Typing Time

2010-02-02T21:08:00.009-05:00

I'm sure we've all seen it . . . the one-fingered, hunting, pecking typer. Since our school does not provide keyboarding classes, the majority of the fifth graders enter the middle school with a complete lack of typing skills. Many teachers bemoan the fact that projects requiring computers (and, therefore, typing) take longer than they should if the students had even basic typing skills. So, I found a few sites that students can use to practice their typing skills.

Sites
Typing
- thanks to ilearntechnology
- excellent resource
- ideas for encouraging kids to practice typing
- list of typing tutorials/games

Typing Web
- provides courses by key rows
- provides courses by level of proficiency
- games available
- registration is optional

Classroom Ideas
Let students practice their typing if they finish a project early
Create typing contests for your students
Have students set goals and track their progress

Typing photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/95492938@N00/1418402951/.

30-Minute Projects with Miss M

2009-12-10T11:26:00.030-05:00

I have been having a fun time this year coming up with alternative ways to assess student reading for the Language Arts teachers in my school - read here and here.
While some projects may take several class periods, I was asked to provide some ideas for a quick, one-period projects. So, I tried to come up with some quick 30-minute projects/assessments for teachers who cannot always spare much classroom time.

IDEA 1 - Bookr
How To:
Bookr allows you to create a photobook/photostory. What helps to make this project so quick is that all the tools necessary are in one place.
As long as the students come prepared with a short summary, character sketch, description of favorite part, theme analysis, etc., this can easily be completed in 30 minutes.
Creating Accounts
Students do not need accounts to use Bookr.
Steps
1. Students type one sentence or phrase per page.
2. Student find a picture (using the built-in flickr photo search) to support that text.
3. When the students finish their photo books, they should e-mail them to the teacher for assessment.
Example:

or view book here Soldier X
by Don Wulffson by Miss Makatche

IDEA 2 - BLABBERIZE
How To:
As long as the students come prepared with a short summary, character sketch, description of favorite part, theme analysis, etc., this can easily be completed in 30 minutes.
The finished product is fun and quirky. As I were testing Blabberize out in school, some eighth grade students in the library at the time all wanted to give it a try. So, this one is basically kid-tested and approved.
Creating Accounts
I created one account and was able to have more than one computer creating their blabberize at the same time. I recommend having only one account per class that all students log into because this will make grading the final products much easier since they will all be available on the same account.
Steps
1. Students find a picture of an animal/person/statue (basically anything with a mouth)
I would recommend having a folder on the network available with a variety of pictures from which the students can choose. This helps in two ways: It will save time and it will ensure that the students only choose a picture that has a good mouth area to work with the blabberize concept.
2. Students place the mouth movement area on their picture
3. Students record their written piece and publish/save
Example:

IDEA 3 - GOOGLE FORM
How To: Here is the quickest assessment of the three. While the students are not creating a product, the Google Form will provide the teacher with an easy, compact way to assess students' independent reading.
Creating Accounts
Students do not need to create accounts.
Teacher will have to have (or create) a free account with Google.
Steps
1. Teachers should embed form on website or wiki or blog or provide students with link to form.
2. Students simply fill out the form and hit submit.
Example:
Loading...
or view form here.

Stopwatch photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/77436208@N00/2737425814/.

Character Traits with Wordle

2009-11-07T14:01:00.008-05:00

I have been working with one of my eighth grade language arts teachers to create book projects 2.0 style. Since I've been on a Wordle kick lately, I thought I would come up with a book project using Wordle.

I had recently given my mom, a French teacher, the idea of using Wordle to have her students work with adjectives. Her students created word clouds of French adjectives describing themselves using Wordle. So, I thought, why not transfer that idea to characters in a book.

The students chose one character from their book on which to focus. They then filled out the worksheet embedded below to determine the character traits they would include.

Character Traits

View more documents from Miss Makatche.

Using Wordle Advanced (see previous post), students created their Character Trait word clouds.

Finally, the students will present their Character Trait word clouds to their classmates. They used the worksheet with the reasons/examples demonstrating why the character presents a trait to develop their oral presentation.

Cloudy in the Library

2009-10-12T16:40:00.041-04:00

To continue our goal to build a culture of reading at the middle school, I decided to enlist the help of Wordle. I wanted to come up with a way for students to share with their classmates what books they have been reading. Wordle popped into my mind as a way to allow students to create fun "lists" of what they have read - aka "book clouds". Students have been hanging their newly created "book clouds" throughout the library.

TIPS

Creating Lists

Have students create a list in a Word document. This will prevent and solve any problems that arise from students running out of time or having technical difficulties with Wordle.

Create a numerical scale for them to stay within when creating their lists. I had students assign their names as 100. The maximum number they could assign a book title was 60 and the minimum number was 20. This prevented any titles from being too large and competing with their name or from being so small they could not be seen. I recommended that the students use the numbers as a rating system for how they liked the book - the more they liked it, the higher the number.

Encourage them to create a fairly lengthy list. I printed out their circulation logs to help them remember some titles they read. I recommend at least 25 titles.

Example List:
MISS MAKATCHE READS:100
Hunger Games:55
Fablehaven:50
Someone Named Eva:44
Soldier X:23
Sisters of the Sword:38
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life:26

Using Wordle Advanced

Pasting the list into Wordle Advanced allows you to keep book titles together.

Wordle - Advanced Tools via kwout

Personalizing

Students can continue to hit the RANDOMIZE button until they find a configuration that they like.

The students can tweak the color, font, and layout by using the toolbar at the top of their word cloud.

EXAMPLE

Cloud photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/35375520@N07/3680331543/.

Book Review 2.0

2009-09-27T20:59:00.016-04:00

I was approached by one of my eighth-grade language arts teachers at the beginning of the year about book reports. She requires her students to read 2 books per quarter and wanted to try some innovative ways to "track" their reading. So, I created a list of ideas for her (which I hope to blog about later), which she will pull from throughout the year.

For her first book project, she decided to go with Glogster book reviews. Glogster is a very teacher/student-friendly site with a separate education portal. So, we set her up with an account and created her student accounts as well . . . very simple!

In order to help her students write a quality book review to incorporate into their glog, I volunteered to do a 20-25 minute mini-lesson on writing book reviews. I did not feel like an expert on writing book reviews, but I found Steve Peha's ideas very helpful.

Here are the 3 resources I created to help the students learn: (all embedded below)
1. Google presentation - unfortunately the speaker notes do not embed along with the google presentation, so some slides at the end may not make complete sense

2. Handout

Writing Book Reviews

View more documents from MissMak.

3. Example

I am really excited about the direction we are headed. Each quarter the students will have critically evaluated their books utilizing a variety of media. Gone are the days of the standard written book report/review!

Wordle

2009-09-08T21:00:00.010-04:00

Wordle is not a new application, but sometimes it's helpful to remember those little tools in our technology toolbox that don't get used on a regular basis, but are perfect for certain jobs. So, I went right over to Wordle to create a word map of President Obama's speech to students.

I sent this over to my history/social studies teachers to use as an additional resource when discussing the speech with their students.
I think it would be a cool project for students to create their own Wordles, even if just on paper, of the main ideas and messages that they took away from the speech or that inspired them.

Classroom Ideas

analyze historic documents (Gettysburg Address, Declaration of Independence, etc.)
analyze students' own writing - show words commonly used/overused and check to see if main idea or theme truly comes through
create a character description Wordle
create an autobiographical Wordle
DigiGogy's blog post on the Wonders of Wordle
Slideshare - Ways to use Wordle in the classroom

Cultivating a Culture of Reading

2009-08-06T18:10:00.017-04:00

Sometimes trying to cultivate readers in middle school has felt like trying to grow a garden on a sidewalk. The only places where reading was encouraged and promoted was by their language arts teachers and me, the librarian. We provided the cracks in the otherwise barren surface, hoping readers would spring up even under the "harsh" conditions.

So, in an attempt to harvest a greater crop of readers, I formed a reading committee at the end of the school year. I invited teachers of all subject areas to participate. To my pleasant surprise, I received a lot of interested from math teachers to social studies teachers to language arts teachers. We met 2 times over the summer and came up with some fun ideas to create a rich environment for cultivating a love of reading.

Our goal is to create an environment where teachers from all subject areas are promoting the importance and the love of reading. All our initiatives are voluntary (except the SSR) because we want students to choose reading instead of only doing it because it is required.

One Book-One School - We will be encouraging all teachers and students to read Three Cups of Tea

Reader of the Week - Each week a teacher or student will advertise a book over the morning announcements and (hopefully) a blog I would like to set up for this

"I'm reading" Signs - each teacher will have a sign outside their door where they can post the book/magazine/newspaper that they are currently reading

Book Discussion Groups - 3 times a year teachers will choose a book on which to host a discussion group and then students will sign up to participate in the various book discussions

Silent Sustained Reading (SSR) - 15 minutes every Monday morning (it may not be a lot, but it is a start!)

5th Grade Orientation - presentation to parents on the importance of reading and how to encourage their child to read

I would love to hear what do you do to promote reading with students!

Seedling in pavement photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/50835495@N00/46083890/.

Seedling in soil photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/86048711@N00/171923662/.

Test Driving Edmodo

2009-08-02T17:25:00.011-04:00

With the emergence of Twitter this past year as a mainstream source for news (Iran and Venezuela), updates from government officials, info from businesses, etc. I want to make sure my students understand microblogging. I do not feel comfortable having my 5th grade students set up individual twitter accounts, so I am planning on using the education friendly Edmodo.

Setting Up Accounts
I have already created my account and created my classes. Each class receives its own access code. As students create accounts on Edmodo (no e-mail address required!) they enter the access code to join their class.

Features
Edmodo provides a calendar and a file management system along with the microblogging. While Edmodo lacks the @ and # that Twitter uses, it provides for them in a slightly different way. Instead of using @ to direct message someone, you can choose a specific person to send it to by choosing from a list. Instead of using a hashtag to create "groupings" on a specific topic, students can tag their posts (tweets). While these are slightly more cumbersome and a little less authentic, I believe students will still learn the fundamentals of microblogging that will easily transfer to twitter or plurk.

Edmodo - Home via kwout

Classroom Ideas

Resource Sharing - ie: You are doing a project on the Oregon Trail, find a website that you would recommend to others to use for this project. Briefly, in about 15 words, summarize the website/why you would recommend it.
Submitting final products - students could message you directly and attach their file
Bell-ringer activity/Exit Ticket activity - students respond to a prompt at the beginning of class or the end of class
Reminders - remind students about project deadlines, tests, homework
Online Discussions - discuss books, current events, music, etc.

I'm sure that I will discover more about Edmodo as I begin to use it with students this year. Look for a future post about additional features I am not yet aware of and more ideas for use in the classroom.

Steering wheel photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/51035555243@N01/50927878/.

Annual Report

2009-07-02T20:17:00.005-04:00

I always enjoy reading through other librarian's annual reports. It gives me a lot of great ideas for my own library. So, I thought I would add my annual report to the mix. While I would have liked to be able to post the annual report I submitted to my principal and superintendant, it was full of student pictures that I could not share online. So, here is my abbreviated (less pretty) annual report.

We're sorry, your browser doesn't support IFrames. You can still visit this item., however.

To try out something new, I uploaded the report to Yudu to create a an embeddable report. I read about Yudu from Richard Byrne's blog. I have a feeling that Yudu is going to become a new favorite of mine and my students. I forsee this as a great way to include documents on wikis instead of the standard method on wikispaces. Documents can be published as books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, etc. Yudu also provides you with the ability to upload photos, audio, as well as visually bookmark websites. I'll definitely be exploring Yudu more this summer!

Technology Boot Camp

2009-06-28T15:47:00.010-04:00

It is hard to believe that another school year is over. However, unlike the start of many summers, I spent the first two weeks at school. Between participating in our school's technology camp and helping interview candidates for the high school librarian position, my summer vacation was "postponed" for a little over a week. I cannot say anything about the interviews. However, it was an interesting process to be a part of and deciding upon the best candidate for the job is not always an easy task. The technology camp was an exciting endeavor initiated by our two wonderful technology coaches. I like to think of it as a "boot camp" for many of our teachers. It gave them an initiation into the world technology and its uses in the classroom. I think many of them caught the technology bug!

This year our high school participated in the Classrooms for the Future grant. With this grant, the high school hired a classrooms for the future (CFF) coach. The success of the high school caused my superintendent to want to bring on a coach for the middle and elementary schools. Much of what a CFF coach does mirrors and/or supports what librarians do. I was lucky enough to work with two excellent technology coaches, who were always willing to work with me and share ideas. So, I was thrilled when they recruited me to help them with two of the days in the technology camp.

I led a day training teachers how to use Interwrite Pads. I absolutely love my Interwrite pad. Interwrite Pads provide all the functionality of a SmartBoard or a Promethean Board, however, they are mobile. I (and my students) can annotate websites, interact with Word documents, control the computer, and much more from anywhere in the room. Here is the wiki I created for the teachers using Interwrite Pads.

The second day, I led the instruction on podcasting. The teachers used Audacity to create a short podcast. We also talked about how podcasting could be used with students and how to display the students' finished products. This led into further discussion about glogster and nings which led to discussion on all things Web 2.0. I showed them my Web2HowTo wiki and encouraged them to sign up for all the technology camp sessions if they had not already.

The general technology comfort level of the teachers who participated was low. However, they were all open to and excited about learning. As the teachers finished the podcasting session, I left them with a short video that I found on YouTube. I think many of them could identify with the video and it gave them a few laughs.

The technology camp created a forum for teachers to be introduced to, play with, and think about technology and its uses in the classroom. It gave me a forum to interact with many of my teachers at once and discuss new projects to implement with their students using the technologies to which they were introduced. I give a lot of credit to our two technology coaches for initiating, planning, and conducting such a successful camp. I would love to create a "Help Desk" night once a month to build upon this initiative. The idea of after-school sessions for teachers was planted by Kim Corfino's insightful post on PD sessions. To implement a "Help Desk" night once a month would be a great way to provide teachers with the continued support and instruction they will need.

Boots photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/72731134@N00/275276240/

Glogs, Glogs, Glogs

2009-05-28T23:18:00.016-04:00

While this is not the newest tool on the market, I think it is one of the best for educators! Within the past year, glogster has created an education portal for teachers to use with their students. This allows a teacher to create a safe environment for students. Now, students can create their glogs without worrying about running into an inappropriate glog or having an unwanted someone viewing their glogs.

It is so easy to sign-up for an education account. Just visit the edu portion of glogster and set up a class account. If you already have an account, you will want to create a separate account under the edu portal. Glogster will ask you how many student accounts you need and will create the usernames and passwords for you quickly. Within a matter of minutes you will have a separate, private account for each student all integrated within your master account.

An excellent way to display them is to embed the glogs on wikipages. However, there is also a print option and a link option.

There are some great tutorial videos available on creating and embeddinig if you scroll to the bottom of the home page.

Glogs are an amazing tool for your students to use. However, they are also a powerful tool for teachers as well. Use glogs to jazz up your webpage, create a study guide for students, create graphic organizers, host videos and/or audio libraries, create webquests, and much more!

Classroom Ideas:

History
- create timelines (using arrow graphics)
- create historical scrapboks (include pictures,
music, videos, info from the time period)

Language Arts
- create autobiography pages
- book reports
- use as a presentation tool instead of a PowerPoint
- create a poetry glog (find images and music that enhances a poem)

Science
- create an electronic textbook (each student creates a glog around a specific topic from the
chapter)
- create a glog illustrating the steps of the scientific method

Music
- create a glog about a specific composer/artist or genre of music (include sample audio)
- create music library for students around specific composers/artists/genres with some basic
information or links for additional information

Art - host pictures of student artwork

If you have any ideas of your own for using glogster with students, please leave a comment:)

Examples: View a wiki with glogs created by my 5th grade students.

Screen shot of glogster.com/edu taken using kwout.com.

Geocaching!

2009-05-02T11:12:00.010-04:00

The PSLA conference is over and it was back to the old grind today. However, I need another couple of days just to sort through and flesh out all of the ideas that are swimming around in my head right now from all the great sessions.

One of my favorite sessions was by Bridget Belardi on geocaching. I had heard of the term before, and knew vaguely what it was, however, I wanted to learn more about integrating it into the classroom. Geocaching is basically a treasure hunt using GPS technology. A cache can be placed at any location and then seekers must use coordinates and GPS devices to pinpoint the location. The direct connection to geography is obvious, but there are many more ways to use geocaching in the classroom.

The only equipment you need is a GPS device (Garmin was recommended) or an iPhone with Groundspeak's geocaching app. The official geocaching website is great for personal use or to have a generic class acount, but the presenter did not recommend that each student have their own account.

Obviously this is only a project in the making. I plan on talking to my geography teachers tomorrow and seeing if we can write up a proposal to purchase some GPS devices. I would love to be able to implement it next year!

Classroom Ideas:
ideas from Geocaching with Kids
ideas from Science Spot

Additional Resources:
Edcaching wiki
Geocaching (Belardi's webpage)
Educaching

Geocaching photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/90146879@N00/52849909/.

Copyright 180

2009-04-30T20:51:00.011-04:00

I am attending the always wonderful PSLA Conference at State College, PA.

Yesterday morning I attended a session for librarians and the CFF (Classrooms for the Future) coaches. We began with an enlightening session on how CFF coaches and librarians can work together instead of fighting "turf" wars (see great wiki on collaboration by Hempfield School).

Afterwards we began an eye-opening session on copyright by Renee Hobbs. Renee is founder of the Media Education Lab. Renee provided us with a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education. I feel like the copyright chains have been released for educators and students. We discussed fair use and transformative works in the context of education and how that allows us and our students to use copyrighted materials in many cases where we previously thought we could not. The idea of transformative works is the open window in the stifling environment of copyright guidelines. I feel better equipped to teach my students and teachers how to use copyrighted materials in accordance with the Code of Best Practices instead of always saying, "No, you can't use it."

Watch this video by the Media Education Lab on User Rights! You will do a 180 on the way you deal with copyright (if you haven't already).

Although, I did leave the session wondering, "Where does Creative Commons fall into this picture?" As my students have been creating more digital/media products, I have been pushing Creative Commons this year. So, as if reading my mind, Joyce Valenza began her session on Creative Commons.

Photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/69141388@N00/97338266/.

Rethinking Vocabulary

2009-04-28T19:48:00.017-04:00

Merriam-Webster defines "drudgery" as "dull, irksome, uninspiring or menial labor". As students are working on homework in the library, I tend to hear, "Miss M, can you help me/us?" While often it is technology related or project related, many times they need help with their vocabulary homework. I have sat down with many students to help them through their vocabulary workbook . . . talk about uninspiring.

I wonder if a different approach would be more inspiring and interactive to students, and therefore more effective. So, I began to build an alternative (or additional) approach to vocabulary to share with my Language Arts teachers. I wanted the options to be practical, completable in one class period, and introduce and/or reinforce the vocabulary for the week.

1. Wordia - have student pick a word from the list and create a short video wordia-style

Have students sit/stand in front of camera with little to no props and explain the word by defining it, telling what it means to them, and giving an example of how to use the word

2. WordAhead - have students create their own narrated definition and example sentence with a visual

Instead of having one picture playing the entire explanation (as is done in wordahead) I would have students use a comic generator
Try Pixton, Bitstrips, or GoAnimate

3. Weboword - have students create their own stick-figure representations of their word

This could be done on good old paper and scanned, in Paint, or try ArtPad or SketchPad

4. Shahi - have students create their own visual dictionary

To find pictures try compfight, morguefile, 4FreePhotos, and behold
How you choose to have the students create and share their visual dictionary - PowerPoint, online presentation apps, MovieMaker, Word document, Wikispaces, Photostory, Animoto, Big Huge Labs

All of these sites themselves could be used to introduce students to their vocabulary. However, the number of words available on these sites is very limited. I think their true strength lies in providing an example of what students could produce by working with their vocab words.

Books Lists Made Fun

2009-04-21T18:02:00.019-04:00

I always love finding new ways to promote reading with my students. So, I have slowly been adding to my web2.0 repetoire of book and reading websites.
22books is one of my new favorites. 22books allows you to create book embeddable book lists. The site is very easy to use and plans on offering more features in the near future (ability to share lists, blog lists, etc.)

List Ideas
1. summer reading lists
2. author book lists
3. genre book lists
4. new books in the library
5. books I would like to read
6. books similar to ______________ .
7. books that make use of

Classroom Ideas
1. If students project is to create a wikipage for a school project, have them embed a list on a wiki with books that go along with the topic of the page
2. Have students create lists of books that display a specific literature element
3. Let students create list of books that caught their attention after book talking
4. Let students just have fun with it!

Examples:
In the future they plan on providing users with the opportunity to blog their lists. So, for now, here a direct link to the list I created for students who have read all the books from the Twilight series and are looking for similar reads. If you would like to see an embedded version of the list, you can see it here on my wikispace.

Web2HowTo

2009-04-13T13:30:00.011-04:00

At the end of last year, I decided I would try to create a powerful resource for the teachers in my school on various web2.0 applications. I wanted to show them not only what was available, but also provide them with some "how-to's", as well as examples of how to implement in their classroom.

While I'm not exactly sure how many teachers in my school visit this wiki as a resource currently, I hope it will grow into a "go to" place for them.

I recently read Joyce Valenza's blog post on finding the pace of growth, "challenging, and stunning, and staggering." I felt like that post was speaking to me. At times I feel so overwhelmed by the sheer number of amazing web2.0 resources curently available and how many new ones I am constantly discovering. However, as I was reflecting on my web2.0 wiki, I feel that I have found a way to keep a reign on the resources that I want to focus on promoting.

While this wiki may have begun as a resource for the teachers in my school, it has evolved into a resource for me as well. It is a work in progress, and hopefully it always will be a growing "library" of my favorite web2.0 resources to use in the classroom.

21st Century Book Talks

2009-03-18T21:22:00.007-04:00

Earlier this month our school celebrated Read Across America Day. We invited guest readers to come into the Language Arts classes to read aloud to the students and interact with them about books. I was invited to read to 5 classes. For the 7th and 8th grade classes I read to, I ended with some book talks. However, I decided that I would try something new.

I created a presentation on one of my favorite sites, Sliderocket. I was able to add a mixture of book covers and book trailers. The students loved the book trailers . . . picture students staring in rapt attention with mouths slightly open as a book is being promoted:)

Harper Teen has a wonderful YouTube channel that features book trailers and interviews with authors. So, I converted a few of the video to insert into the presentation. The result is a great advertisement for books that I can use from year to year with different classes.

Book Rainbow photo used under Creative Commons License from http://www.flickr.com/photos/candiedwomanire/1651870/sizes/m/

Final Product

2009-03-05T19:38:00.006-05:00

WRMS Science Rocks via kwout

"
Our science video podcast project was a true success! The students imported their previously recorded audio and ther creative commons photos into Windows MovieMaker to create their finished product. For the photo credits slide we created powerpoint slides and then saved them as JPEGs which we imported at the end of the photos. As the science teacher viewed each finished product, she has been uploading them to her newly created WRMS Science Rocks ning.

This is the first year that I've been pushing technology with my teachers, since I only discovered the wonderful world of web2.0 in May of last year. Because of this, any technology that we incorporate is new to the students. So, they need to be taught how to use the technology. I'm hoping that as teachers begin to incorporate more technology into their teaching and projects, students will become more independent in using the various technologies.

The students learned so many things working on this project. They learned about alternative energies, about creative commons licensing, how to use audacity, how to use windows moviemaker, and about nings. One student commented, "This is the coolest project I've ever done." What more can you ask for . . . students enjoying their learning experiences?!

Podcasting - Step 2

2009-02-19T19:23:00.013-05:00

SECOND STEP

Last Week
In a post a week ago, I chronicled the first step in the seventh grade scence alternative energy video podcast project.

This Week
To facilitate the students' research, the science teacher created a worksheet packet which is posted on her website. This packet includes requirements, a research guide, and a storyboard template.

Students spent about 4 class periods researching alternative energy sources and finding pictures relating to alternative energy. After they finished filling out their research guide, the students had to write out a script for their podcast (minimum 1 1/2 pages long). Finally, before they were ready to begin, the students created a storyboard of their video podcast.

Today
The science teacher brought her students to the library to record the audio portion of their podcasts using Audacity. After the first class, we realized that we needed to give them a limit of 3 chances at recording. We found that they would record, and being not quite satisfied with it, re-record again, and again, and again. I originally had thought we could get the recording completed in 10-12 minutes, but it ended up taking the entire period. Luckily I had the laptops, microphones, and headphones all set up for the students before they came to the library. When the students arrived, I did a quick tutorial on how to use Audacity and let them begin recording. The students were excited about recording and they had a great time!

Next Week
On Monday, the science classes will be down to the library again. They will be importing their audio and pictures into moviemaker (my solution to creating video podcasts without macs) and uploading their finished product to a ning. More about that on Monday!

Number 2 photo used under Creative Commons License by http://www.flickr.com/photos/gratzer/1414922403/sizes/m/

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-15T23:41:00.003-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!
(a day late, but I like to celebrate the entire weekend)

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

Valentine's Day always makes me think of poetry and all the wonderful poets who expressed their love so elegantly. Poetry makes me think of PicLits and how I love matching a poem to a picture . . . so here is a PicLit valentine for all my readers:)

My First Steps Into Podcasting

2009-02-11T19:04:00.014-05:00

Last spring I attended a podcasting session at the PSLA conference and I knew that podcasting would be my big push this year with my teachers.

I began by getting audacity and the LAME encoder downloaded on all the computers/laptops in the library. Next, I taught myself how to use audacity - there are tons of great tutorials out on the web and audacity itself is very simple to use. Then I bought enough headphones and USB microphones for an entire class.

So, now I was ready to pull in the teachers. In addition to talking to teachers, I sent out an electronic newsletter hoping to introduce, educate, and interest teachers in doing podcasts with their students. I was able to interest 5 teachers in developing podcasts projects this year.

I want to highlight the alternative energy video podcast project that a science teacher and I are currently working on. This will be the first of three posts chronicling the process.

FIRST STEP

We introduced the students to the project yesterday. I wanted her students to be aware of copyright and creative commons. So, I created a short presentation (see below) to introduce them to the Creative Commons license and how to give attribution to creators. I also introduced them to compfight - the image search engine they will be using to find their pictures (not blocked by our filter - yay!). Finally, I created a page on my website for students to reference.

After talking to the science teacher today, it sounds like she and the students are excited to be working on this project. The students have one week to create their script and find their pictures before we begin creating our video podcasts.

Next week . . . Second Step!

Photo used under Creative Commons license from http://www.flickr.com/photos/mexicanrejectdafe/3026301012/sizes/m/

Fun with Animoto

2009-01-27T18:47:00.010-05:00

I've been playing around quite a bit with Animoto the past several weeks. I have not broken down and purchased a full year subscription ($30) or even paid for one full video ($3). I have been sticking to the free 30-second shorts.

I decided that if I can stick to 30 seconds, my students could as well . . . making Animoto possible to use in the classroom (free). Students could sign-up for a free account and then go to town creating 30-second shorts for any class project.

It is beyond easy to use and there is a great music selection available. My only source of frustration is that I am limited to 8 to 9 slides within that 30 seconds, and I never know if they will all make it into my short video until after they have processed and created my 30-second short.

One thing that I really do like about the 30 second time limit is that it forces this to be a quick, one or two period project. So, it is a great technology that teachers can implement without a needing to commit a large amount of class time.

I was bothered by the lack of text that can be placed on the text slides. However, I finally found a way around that. Now, I create my text in Paint and save it as a JPEG which I then import to Animoto as a picture.

Examples:
I heard about an awesome idea by an Arizona math teacher from Lesley Edwards on her blog The Webfooted Booklady. He is asking the world to send his second grade class math question videos. So, I decided to create my own math problem for Room 46 using Animoto.

Here's a little 30-second short that I did as a opening for an in-service presentation I recently conducted on using Interwrite pads.

Classroom Ideas:
videos revolving around a certain vocabulary or spelling word
current event videos - around the world in 30 seconds
teacher created problems or prompts for response by students
create commercials for an advertising unit
book trailers
character studies

artwork portfolios

Do you have any other ideas for using this in the classroom? I would love to hear about them.

Miss M, I Forget How To . . .

2009-01-10T13:55:00.014-05:00

It seems no matter how well I think I explained something and no matter how clear the hand-outs are, I always hear these words a week later. Since I have discovered Jing, I no longer have to reteach the process to individual students. Instead of reexplaining how to do something computer related, I have recorded tutorials to which I now refer my students for a quick review.

With Jing I can create a narrated recording of what I am doing on the computer. I can also take screenshots and then use them to create a worksheet. I can then save the video/screenshot on my computer, embed the video/screenshot, or get a URL to link out to the videos/screenshot. Also, Jing provides free hosting of all videos and screenshots at screencast.

Using Jing is so simple; it is as easy as 1, 2, 3!
1. Select Capture (video or screenshot)
2. Select the portion of the screen you would like to be capture
3. Either begin to record video or begin to mark up screenshot with necessary arrows, text, boxes, etc.

Screentoaster is another site that allows you to record video of what you are doing on the computer. However, you cannot narrate your recordings with audio. I believe, however, that this feature will be coming in the future.

Classroom Ideas:
1. create video tutorials
2. create handouts using screenshots
3. have students create a recordings to demonstrate knowledge of a computer process, application, or software
4. facilitate differentiated instruction and independent work by creating the tutorial videos

Examples:
1. video tutorial
2. sceenshot

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/darling_clementine/2056654756/sizes/o/

You Don't Need to Break the Bank

2008-12-16T23:36:00.011-05:00

Podcasting has been my big push this year. So, I was upset when I found out that SoundSnap, my favorite website for downloading free copyright-friendly music and sound effects, was changing their policy. As of the last week, SoundSnap now requires users to create an account. Also, each account receives only 5 free downloads a month. Not very clssroom friendly.

To be honest, I was slightly devastated. I did not know of any website that could replace it. However, I was determined to find a replacement site. So, I began scouring the web and I found a great alternative. Royalty Free Music offers a free library of their professional quality music and sound effects to schools.

Here is a flyer that provides all the information necessary to sign-up to receive free access to this music library. After e-mailing the company with my information and then posting a link to their website on my site, I was given a username and password to provide to my students - no creating accounts and no cost - just free music/sound effect downloads!

Move over SoundSnap . . . here comes Royalty Free Music!

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielygo/2051820948/

Poetry in Pictures

2008-12-08T17:04:00.009-05:00

What is poetry, but pictures made of words. So, when I found a website that married the two, I was thrilled. I have already shown one of my fifth grade teachers PicLits and she will be using it during her poetry unit. It is very easy to use, which makes quick (even spur-of-the-moment) implementation possible.

One of the qualities I love about PicLits, is that (while preferable) you do not need to create an account to use it. When I see web applications like that, I cheer, because I know using it with students will be so much easier.

Also, PicLits includes a Learn It section that provides lesson ideas for using PicLits in the classroom. They are best suited for high school students, but could be modified for use by younger students.

There are two methods: the drag-and-drop and the freestyle. Drag-and-drop is exactly like magnetic poetry. However, the words provided you are tailored to the picture that you have chosen. I think this is fun, however, I see more potential in the classroom for the freestyle method. By choosing freestyle, students can type in whatever they want to say.

Examples:

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

Classroom Ideas:
1. matching a student-created poem with a powerful picture
2. using pictures for inspiration to creative writing or writing poems
3. writing sentences that include vocabulary words or grammar concepts and choosing pictures that best express the meaning of the word and/or sentences
4. teaching students about nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs (a possible alternative to mad-libs)

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/surrealmuse/4757004/

Web 2.0 Goodie Bag

2008-11-30T10:11:00.009-05:00

I just stumbled upon an amazing web2.0 resource. The Go2Web20 site is supported by TechCrunch who in their own words is all about, "obsessively profiling and reviewing new internet products and companies."

Go2Web20 is a web 2.0 directory that is very user friendly. You can sort by date to see what new sites have been added. You can also choose from a tag cloud - which is wonderful! If a teacher wants to do podcasts, I'll check out the podcast tag to see what it shows me. In my short time playing with this site so far, I know that it will become a go-to resource for me.

I'm really looking forward to exploring this site. I'm sure I'll find some absolutely perfect applications to use in the classroom! I'm sure I'll have plenty to post about as I explore this directory.

One for the Language Arts Teachers

2008-11-19T20:04:00.000-05:00

This week I happened to be introduced to two new sites that are so perfect for language arts and english teachers as they deal directly with spelling and vocabulary. Now, if I remember my middle school and high school days correctly, I would have been glad for anything innovative (and dare I say) fun that could have been done for these two tedious topics. So, I would like to introduce wordia and spellingcity to you.

Wordia - This was a popular one in the blogs this week, so I thought I needed to check it out for myself. My conclusion is wordia + vocabulary = good times!

Example: Here is an example from the site. I have not created one for myself . . . yet.

Classroom Ideas:

1. This could be used by teachers to create an interactive vocab list. Put up a list of links to the URLs of vocab words. Students can use these to help them study and internalize the meanings.

2. Assign each student a word from the list and have them create their own videos to upload and share to the class.

SpellingCity - In three steps you can create a fun and interactive way for your students to study their spelling words. Step 1 - As a teacher, you can register for a free account. Step 2 - Begin by create spelling lists (which will be saved until you delete them). Step 3 - Place a link on your website so students can easily access your list(s). It truly is as easy as that!

Example: Here is an example I created for Thanksgiving spelling words.

Classroom Ideas: This one is pretty straight forward - just begin creating lists for students to use! With each list, students can be taught the words, play games to practice, and take tests to check their knowledge.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcgutierrez/352732175/

Mashup Heaven

2008-11-11T18:33:00.000-05:00

"All it needs is a little salt . . . pepper, mustard, catchup, sauce, flavour." ~Trapper (M*A*S*H)

The photo mashup sites are like the salt, pepper, mustard, ketchup, and sauce that can be added to a photo to take it to the next level. A picture truly is worth a thousand words, and these mashup sites let you express the message you are trying to convey in a way pure words cannot!!! There are a ton out there, but here are my favorite four:

1) ImageChef - Provides you with hundreds of templates which you can modify for your own purposes. Some of the categories they include are signs, work, sports, music, characters, license plates, holidays, buttons, etc. Best of all, this site is soooo easy to use, especially when you don't have any of your own pictures off of which to work.

Example: This took me about 15 seconds to create!

Classroom Ideas: Jazz up your PowerPoints, wikis, and blogs.

2) Flickr Toys - You need a flickr account to be able to use this one. There are so many awesome toys here: create your own movie poster, magazine cover, ID badge, CD cover, jig-saw puzzle, trading cards, and much more.

Example: Here's my pathetic attempt at a magazine cover highlighting some spy novels. I apologize for the size of the picture here.

Classroom Ideas: historical figure trading cards, magazine cover about a book, poster about vocabulary words, movie poster about a country/nation, etc...

3. Bubblr - Create mini comic strips using pictures from flickr. This is site is so easy to use (and fun)! (no account necessary)

Example:

If you want to see a larger version click here:

Web 2.0 by Warrior Run

Classroom Ideas: storytelling, a fun way to summarize a current event, practice with grammatical concepts (adverbs, adjectives, prepositional phrases), poetry, etc.

4. Bookr - Create short books using photos from flickr (no account necessary).
Example:

Classroom Ideas: practicing synonyms and antonyms, poetry, figurative language, retell an historical event using few words and powerful pictures, vocabulary, book reports, etc...

Some other good image creator sites are:

add letters, fodey, picnik, spell with flickr

condiment photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/wordridden/2669139338/

Revolutionary Wiki

2008-11-08T23:59:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I participated in a webinar hosted by the wonderful wikispaces. It was an excellent hour-long course that quickly provided newbies with the basics. Then, the best part came. They had invited Clay Burrell to talk about his use of wikis in the classroom. I came away with some great ideas:

1) Have students write a class journal as historic characters.
2) Assign each student a chapter about which they create a wiki page with links, video, photos, and a re-written version of their chapter.
3) Create stories on which students have collaborated.

I decided to take his electronic textbook idea and try it out for myself. So, I talked with the fifth grade social studies teacher to see what she thought. She immediately jumped on board - yay!

So, I began by setting up our Revolutionary War wiki by creating the basic structure of an intro page, a task page, and an example page. Then I created pages from a list of topics that my social studies teacher had given me. Finally, I e-mailed wikispaces with a list of usernames and passwords, and they will create free accounts for all my students! We will be assigning each student a topic and they will build their page with an article researched and written by them, photos, links for additional info, and a works cited area.

I'm excited to see how the students do with it!

Pre-Research Fun?!?

2008-10-28T19:16:00.000-04:00

I've been playing with Twiddla and Dabbleboard as possibilities for use in pre-research activities. In the end, I found Dabbleboard to be my favorite for creating graphic organizers. While Twiddla has more bells and whistles, I found the simplicity of Dabbleboard more appropriate for middle students to use. Twiddla would be better suited for sharing documents, photos, and e-mails throughout a group project.

I just started using Dabbleboard with my students to help them think about how they are going to organize their research. Never before have I had students so excited to do a pre-research activity! I almost had to pinch myself at the positive student response.

For very broad topics, such as the Revolutionary War, creating a map to plan research can help students develop sub-topics. These sub-topics could be used to narrow their research topic or to help them create areas of focus for their research. Depending on the age and/or ability of your students, the Dabbleboard could be completed as a class, in pairs, or as an individual.

Also, the map gives them a structure to use in their note-taking. Anything that helps students in their organization cannot be a bad thing:)

There are a lot of other great ways Dabbleboard could be used. I think it would be great for students to create charts comparing two topics/ideas. Here is an example I created on Dabbleboard comparing McCain and Obama.

Beginnings

2008-10-20T19:37:00.000-04:00

My web 2.0 journey actually began in May of this past year after attending an eye-opening workshop by the always inspiring Joyce Valenza. (If you don't follow her blog NeverEndingSearch - what are you waiting for!) I have never been in a workshop where so much new information and so many new ideas were crammed into so little time . . . and so I had to explore more.

My biggest problem will be that I think I started the blogging process too late in my journey. I wish I could have taken this course 4 months ago. I have so many ideas and I have stumbled upon so many neat apps that I think I could sit here all day and night continuously blogging about it all. That said, I'm so glad that the first thing the web 2.0 class does is force me to start a blog. Now that I'm almost done my first entry I'm wondering, "why didn't I start blogging sooner?!?"

So, my goal for this class is to learn how to organize and process, in a more structured manner, the actual fruits of my life-long learning.

Photo by
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jim-ar/2195132024/in/set-72157606026728896/