Curriculum Project

I created my video on weather because we are starting our weather unit this week. I thought this would be a great way to introduce some of the types of weather we will be focusing on. I think my students will really enjoy it!!

I hope you enjoy it too!!

Voicethread / Educ 552 Reflection

Twitter Experience

What did you learn from using Twitter?

I learned how easy it is to follow others and I now have learned new great ideas and resources for my classroom. You can follow others that have similar interests, jobs and hobbies.

Who was the most interesting person or persons that you followed? Why?

Honestly I thought the most interesting people that I followed were those in our class. I got some great resources from others and I really liked tweeting back and forth with others. I liked getting responses from others or advice if I said I was having a hard time with something. When I was getting ready to work on my animoto video, I had two girls respond to me and said they had done their's and they would be willing to help me if I needed it. You can post a question or comment and get an immediate response from someone.

Do you think you’ll continue to use Twitter personally, professionally and/or both after this assignment is complete? Why or why not?

I think I will use twitter occasionally. If I have a question about something or am in need of a new idea or resource, I will use twitter to get immediate responses from others in the education field. I feel I will also get on once in a while and look at what others are tweeting to see if there is anything that benefits me. In the future, (when I am done with school, and am done being pregnant) I think it would be great to set up a time once a week for parents to get on and tweet any questions or concerns or comments they have and get an immediate response from me. This would benefit my parents and not my students (they are too young). I do feel this would be something parents would find beneficial. This would also allow them to tweet with each other even if I am not available.
Tweet the link to your blog post.

Embedded Screencast

Let's try this again. Click on the video above to watch my screencast video.

Screencast / Quicktime Player Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCgngQJ4V-k

This is a program that the students have started using, but I always log them in to take a quiz. I am ready for them to try it on their own. I hope this video will help them get an idea and practice how to do it on their own.

Animoto Video - Animal Groups

Wow, creating this video, was an awesome experience. There are so many great ways you could include these videos in your teaching. I created this video to review a unit we will be finishing up. You could also use it to introduce a new topic, reinforce topics/concepts and like I used it for, reviewing topics. I am really excited to share this with my students to see how they react. I will definitely create more videos to incorporate in my teaching!

Reactions from Richard Byrne’s Blog Site

One set of resources that I found interesting and would love to try with my students from Richard Byrne’s blog site were the comic strip resources. I clicked on his favorite websites link, then on number four, which states, 10 ways to create comics online.  I really liked how he introduced how creating comic strips can help students write.  He said that creating cartoon and comic strips is a good way to get reluctant writers writing.  He also stated that you could work through the elements of fiction in a fun way that can be familiar to them.  There were many different programs you could choose from.  A few were, Witty Comics – provides a simple platform to create two character dialogues, The Super Hero Squad Show which invites kids to create their own hero comic strips and comic books or PikiKids where students can upload images then edit the images or add text bubbles and titles. 

            I have a handful of students in my classroom that I seem to have to fight with everyday to write.  They have a very hard time thinking of things to write about or getting their thoughts on paper.  I can’t wait to try this, and see how much of a difference it will make.  I really think it will help them be more interested and excited about writing and will also build their confidence. 

            I teach first and second grade, so if I created a blog specifically for my classroom, it would be more for the parents and families of my students.  This could be something they sit down and look at together and watch videos or projects I have posted or even visit a website and play a game for homework.  I think parents would really enjoy something like this and it would be a great change from a nightly writing or math page.