My First Screencast

So I have a friend in the teaching program at the local university that is learning to use Activinspire.  Rather than trying to walk her through steps on the phone, I thought I would use screencast-o-matic that I have heard a few others talk about.  I know there are other sites out there, but this one seems kind of simple and can hold up to 15 mins. Then there is an instant upload to Youtube... which I suggest, because I had troubles with my video being viewed straight through the site. 

So my first attempt is here =  yes I talk fast and say a lot of ummmsss....hopefully I'll grow out of that someday!



Pretty nifty tool.

My friend, Paul Nolan, is using it to pull up essays of a student and give them personal review of their papers for them to listen to.  This saves class time, he records at home and gives them the link.  Then the whole class can listen to his conferencing on their paper at the same time in class.  If you try to pull each student one on one in class - there goes a whole week!  Also, he knows what topic to recover as a whole class, or what specific student he really needs to pull for some extra work. Genius I say!

May have to do this more often!

ITSC 2012

What a whirlwind!

It's amazing how one conference re-ignites the passion for why I decided to change jobs and why I love the education field.  ITSC has always been a favorite, as I have gone as part of grants I received when teaching, and one year out of desperation for inspiration, I paid for it myself!   This year I was inspired by presenters both new to me and others that I have followed on blogs and twitter throughout my career.  Of course, the time to network with other like minded teachers from around the Pacific Northwest sometimes can not compete with the presenters!

So now I am off to sift through my sites, notes, presentations, app lists, EVERYTHING that I jotted and recorded and bookmarked over the past 4 days.  I also have lots of emails to send out to try to keep the momentum going from the conference with the other lucky teachers who were able to attend from our ESD region.

It's not about the tools, it's about the skills....... @langwitches

Kidblog and the Classroom

Sometimes trying lots of new things in the classroom can be intimidating or feel like too much.  One thing to remember is to take small steps.  Once you have done that, push yourself to take a few more steps.

With blogging it's important to make sure to keep things meaningful for the students.  There is a great blog post on "Blogging through the 4th Dimension" that discusses how to make blogging meaningful for students.  You can see her post here:  http://mrspripp.blogspot.com/2011/05/14-steps-to-meaningful-student-blogging.html

This blogger/teacher also uses Kidblog, here is her sample letter that she sends home with her students: Parent Letter for Kidblog .
She also has student sign an internet safety plan. (this is different than your district's acceptable use policy - especially because it's in kid friendly language!)

Here is a direct link to the Knowledgebase for Kidblog where you can find answers to all sorts of questions!

Here is a direct link to a wiki from Purdue University of Web 2.0 Resource for the Classroom - A whole page devoted to Kidblog! 

Blog on!

Get the Kids Writing!

There are two online tools that work well together for intermediate grades. Both these tools will incorporate writing and reading, with the reading focusing on non fiction and opinion writing.

 Kidblog.org is easy, simple interface, that allows students to get a chance to write for an audience, all the time, anytime. It's teacher monitored, safe, and needs NO email!

I used this blog site to start my 4th graders out on blogging.  I've seen it used from 1st to 8th grades in the schools with great success.  Knowing that others will be reading it, ups the production and quality level.  I would have students write blog posts on their own time, on their own topics, and the result is greatly improved writing skills.

My Sample Kidblog

Login for Sample Kidblog

A few key things:
*you can edit their password in case students forget. (That would NEVER happen!)
*placing a link to the direct log in for your class is the easiest way for students to log in.
*everything, posts and comments, come to the teacher before they can be published.

Once I established using kidblog, using it to respond to journal entries, talk about video and book responses, etc.... I found Tween Tribune.

Tween Tribune is an online newspaper that takes high interest articles and rewrites them in smaller, simpler terms for "tweens".  Students can have teacher created accounts which allow them to submit comments, responses, and even their own rewritten articles to the site.  Many teachers, though, use tween tribune as a place for students to go, choose an article that interests them, read it, and respond on their own kidblog or other writing format.

Definitely a resource to check out!