Voice Thread

Our class was fortunate enough to experience first hand the voice thread tool a couple of weeks ago. As I was browsing through the site I found a really good example of not only utilizing that particular technology but also a tutorial for high school students on blogging. How fortuitous--a two-fer! Check it out:



I think this could certainly be used to introduce kids to voice thread as well as help them get their feet wet with blogging. I love it!

SlideShare

Take a look at the fun Flat Stanley presentation I found in SlideShare:

Flat Stanley

View more PowerPoint from irishlassie7

My family is taking a vacation to Florida in the next couple of weeks to visit my in-laws, so this particular Flat Stanley adventure really caught my eye. I think it would be fun to use with kids, and SlideShare is easily accessible and a cinch to use.

Google Reader

Good news! At long last (now that our class is about half over) I have finally figured out how to use and access Google Reader! I'm not sure why it didn't click the first class--or any subsequent classes--until recently. I couldn't figure out how to share my digital storyboard, so I did mine in PowerPoint instead. It wasn't until last week's virtual class where I had to figure it out for the assignment that the light bulb finally went off. Check out Megan's most recent blog post here where she talks about the importance of letting kids use trial and error to figure out how to do something new. That's exactly what I had to do before it sunk in. My dad used to say, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." Well, look at that, Dad, this old dog has learned plenty of new tricks!




Image credit: Google images: kristinelowe.blogs.com

The Flat Stanley Project

Whoever came up with this idea for a project is brilliant! Was it the author of the Flat Stanley books? Who knows. Who cares! (I'm just kidding; I read the background page on the site The Flat Stanley Project and know it was a guy named Dale Hubert, not Jeff Brown, the author. But really, who cares?) I loved geography as a kid, so traveling vicariously through a miniature man in an envelope and learning about his adventures appeals to me in an odd sort of way.

This is the first year my school is a museum academy magnet school. We're grant-funded for three years and are required to have three exhibition nights during the school year--two focused on social studies and one on science. Since we decided our first exhibition would focus on social studies and first grade does a unit on Flat Stanley anyway, it was only natural for them to choose the Flat Stanley Project for their first exhibition night back in November. It was a huge success! The kids were thrilled to receive letters and e-mails from China, California, Russia and from up and down the East Coast. Our families were impressed with the scope of Flat Stanley's reach. I think the Flat Stanley Project is an excellent way to sneak in some geography lessons for kids, particularly when the average adult can barely identify the location of our nation's capital on a map (thanks, Jay Leno).

Dale Hubert with Flat Stanley; image credit, www.flatstanley.com

Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures, Book #1; image credit: www.amazon.com

Internet Workshop

"Internet Workshop (Leu & Leu, 2000) consists of an independent reading of information on the Internet around a topic and a location initially designated by the teacher; it concludes with a short workshop session where students can share and exchange ideas and strategies they discovered during their work on the Internet. Internet Workshop permits students to learn from one another about content information, critical literacy skills, and the new literacies of Internet technologies."

Doesn't this sound incredibly intriguing? Internet Workshops can be used as a directed learning experience, simulation, center activity, or with many other instructional practices teachers already use. The steps involved include:

1.	Find a site on the Internet that has content related to one of your units of study and bookmark it.
2.	Design an activity; feel free to invite your students to use the site as they look for content (you can even have them develop independent inquiry projects).
3.	Complete the research activity.
4.	Ask students to share their work, any questions they may have, and new insights at the end of the week during a workshop session.

The author suggests bookmarking the site to prevent random surfing and to select several central sites for each subject area. The activities created by the teacher should be open-ended to allow for more critical thinking. Leu also suggests teachers create a schedule so students have Internet access for one hour each week--30 minutes alone and 30 minutes with a partner.

I love this idea, for a lot of reasons. First, an "Internet Workshop" can fit into a daily classroom routine just about anywhere--Reader's and Writer's Workshop, Math, Science, Social Studies--so no more complaints about not being able to fit technology in during the day. Second, it's fun for kids and gives them some authentic learning experiences. finally, it helps develop critical thinking skills and a more global awareness. I'm going to share this strategy with teachers at my school at our next staff meeting!

Image credit: http://www.positscience.com/games-teasers/brain-games-kids/memory-attention/abc-gulp

Skyping with Aviva

I enjoyed our Skype session with Aviva Dunsiger, the first/second grade combination teacher from Canada, last week. I love that she included two of her students--second grade girls--in our discussion because it lent authenticity to the conversation. Getting a first person report of the technology tools from the girls is invaluable on many levels, but most importantly it tells us what students that age are  interested in and why, so that we can focus our efforts on utilizing those tools. The girls talked about several games and activities they play in class on their handheld devices and they literally lit up when they talked about them.

One of the nagging questions a few of my classmates and I had was how Aviva is able to find the time to update her classroom blog, her professional blog, and her class wiki so frequently. When I get home at night from after care I just want to collapse into a coma! Somehow hearing that Aviva doesn't have kids at home gave me a twinge of perverse satisfaction because if she did and was still able to accomplish all that she does I'd feel like a complete loser. It's sad that we as educators feel the need to compare ourselves to others, to hold ourselves up against some kind of standard. The truth is, we all do the best we can with what we have to work with. Aviva is an exceptional educator whose students are fortunate to benefit from her skills and talents. Every educator brings their own unique skill set to their role and that's what we need to remember. That and our support for and collaboration with one another.

Image credit: Google Images: itcenter.intel.com

Diigo - Take Two

Here's a link to my Diigo page. Admittedly, all but one are all math sites, which may seem weird for a class called "Integrating Technology with Literacy." I will add more literacy-based websites, I swear, but right now my oldest son, who's 9 and in fourth grade, has been using my page to access his favorite sites. He loves math and is good at it; a recent assessment showed he performs at a high school level. He certainly didn't get that aptitude from me, I can assure you (my husband's an actuary, so guess where he gets it from)! I'm lucky I can keep up with my third grade math group at school! Anyway, feel free to check my site if you're interested in math resources and let me know if you come across any you think my son would like.