Do 2nd Graders Get Twitter?

Yes, they do. I was overwhelmed when I read this post and then heard the students themselves speak about how Twitter has helped them. They really understand Twitter and the value of posting comments. Students also speak about how Twitter is helping them to become a better writer. Listen to their reflections by accessing this post: They Really Get It! These students are convincing, and perhaps listening to them will help convince you to open a Twitter account and begin to use it in the classroom with your students. If you are on Twitter, follow @grade1.

When you go to the post, be sure to click on the play button in the Twitteracy area to hear the students speak. Also, note how the Livescribe pen works.

Image from Aviva's blog 

By the way, the teacher who maintains the blog you will visit is Aviva Dunsiger. As time permits, scroll through and read other posts on her blog: Grades 1 and 2 At Ancaster Meadow School to learn more about exciting tech projects that Aviva does with her students.

Please be sure to leave a comment. What did you learn from hearing the 2nd graders discuss Twitter? If you visited the Grades 1 and 2 At Ancaster Meadow School further, what interesting discoveries did you make about how tech is being used with the 1st and 2nd graders?

Skype in the Classroom: Connecting Students across Schools

Connecting Classrooms with Skype describes a project connecting students in two states: Washington and North Carolina.  Students in both classes created PowerPoints on Native Americans and also created questions for their Skype exchange. The site Connecting Classrooms with Skype provides tips for creating cross-classroom Skype projects and contains some informative videos. Have you used Skype? Have you seen cases of classrooms Skyping with one another? What did you think of the Connecting Classrooms with Skype project? Was the Connecting Classrooms with Skype site helpful?

TodaysMeet: Perfect Tool for On-the-Spot, Total Student Engagement

Looking for a way for students to write comments during class for all to see and interact. TodaysMeet is the answer. It is a safe environment for students to post comments, a bit like Twitter, but all comments are just seen by those who are given the URL to join the discussion. It is easy for a teacher to moderate the comments, and the students are not off on the Internet using an open, public site like Twitter. TodaysMeet is excellent for backchanneling, having a place for students to write comments and pose questions while a class is in session. Check out at the site's About TodaysMeet, and then grab some friends, set up a room at the main TodaysMeet page by entering a URL, and then sending the URL to those you want to join in. TodaysMeet is definitely a powerful teaching tool. Here is also a video to learn more about TodaysMeet. Additionally, check this blog post one educator wrote about using the tool: Backchanneling with Elementary School Students. If you have checked out TodaysMeet, let us know your thoughts. If you have used it, tell us about your experiences. What are your suggestions for using the tool with students?

You Don't Have a Blog Yet, What Are You Waiting For?

Ideally, teachers should maintain a website. Even more ideal, they need a blog. Check the 20 Top Teacher Blogs from Scholastic's Instructor magazine to see what other teachers are doing. Let us know what you think of some of the blogs listed, and tell us of other teacher blogs you follow or find useful. Use the Index on this blog, Computers in the Classroom, to find other postings about blogging.

Teachers' Websites

Let's share examples of excellent teacher websites you have explored. Based on one student's contribution to our class's online discussion, I found an excellent model created by a teacher who has been a student at Saint Joseph College. Please take some time to explore Mercier's Magic. There's plenty to explore here. When you first open the site (be sure to have sound on), you will find her current school year site, but under the Home tab, you will see accessible sites from prior years.

Not only does Ms. Mercier group her content by subject area and audience (e.g., parents), she also provides throughout the site links to wonderful websites for instructional purposes. She uses Weebly to maintain her site. Feel free to explore Weebly as a mean to create your own student-centered website.

Ms. Mercier works with symbaloo.com to create customized pages of recommended sites for students. Here are fast links to some of her Symbaloo pages:
multimedia , math, and writing.

To create your own customized resource pages for your students with Symbaloo, open an account, and then you are set to build your pages of recommended sites by discipline, subject area, or general area of interest, using Symbaloo's database of recommended sites.

Ms. Mercier also maintains a blog through Weebly, allowing her students to post comments. In addition, check her Twitter account.

Webbly, Mrs. Scelia is a site designed by another Weebly-user teacher. Ms. Scelia started this site August 2010 to provide resources to her young students.

Let us know what you think of the websites these teachers maintain.

Post your recommendations of teacher websites worth visiting by providing the URL's.

Photo of Ms. Mercier from Mercier's Magic. Photo Ms. Scelia from Webbly, Mrs. Scelia
Logo from Weebly.

Failing Grades for Attracting Women and Minorities into STEM

Several new reports just released show the trend to attract women and minorities into the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (often designated by the acronym STEM) remains dismal. Here are links to read more about two recently released reports.

US Gets Poor Grades in Nurturing STEM Diversity from Education Week.

Why So Few? AAUW Report

There's a lot to chew over in these two articles. Take some time to read them and to check some of the links to other resources contained within the articles. As educators, we need to be concerned about stereotypes we create and how our attitudes influence the students in our classrooms. What can we do to serve as strong role models to encourage students to pursue interests and eventual careers in the fields represented by STEM, areas in which more and more professionals will be needed in the future to sustain our growth as a world leader? What is our responsibility to encourage students in general to pursue careers in these fields and to start preparing them for such futures in grades as early as the elementary school?

President Obama has already proposed several steps to support STEM. (See "Obama Unveils Plan to Bolster STEM," Jan. 2010.)

So much of the future of our country rests in nurturing young people's interests in the STEM fields. What is your response to the recent reports about our failings as educators to support and nurture young people's interests in the STEM areas? Are the solutions offered in the articles and the related reports feasible? What do you see as solutions?

photo credit: cover from report obtained at

http://www.aauw.org/research/WhereGirlsAre.cfm

Videos Feature Winning Digital Natives

See some wonderful digital media projects created by students, some as young as 8 and 13, and read their profiles to learn more about who they are. Youth Portraits at Eutopia features the stories of students showcased in the Digital Generation Project. This project is intended to help educators and parents understand how students are using digital media. Spend time reading the students' profiles and seeing their digital work. Afterwards, return to this blog and post your comments about the project. Which students' work did you find impressive? What have you discovered by viewing the students' profiles and work? Note what the students have to say about their education and how digital media has motivated them as students and learners. If you have some extra time, explore the Digital Generation: Educators section for specific teaching ideas. Let us know what you fnd of particular of interest to you.

Be Imaginative, Create a Comic Strip

Need some time to relax and play like a kid. Try out the MakeBeliefs Comix.com site. Create your own comic strips easily. Then imagine young children using the site to create comics, practicing their literacy and imaginative skills. In addition to writing in English, students can write in Spanish, Italian, and other languages. There's a Teacher Resource section. Check out "About the Author" to learn about the site's writer and illustrator. Try creating a few panes in a comic strip with the options available: characters, text boxes, think bubbles, objects, sizing, moving, and backgrounds. Remember to give your strip a title and to list yourself as its author. Use the Next feature when you are ready to print, or email your creation to a reader. It takes a little trial and error to get going, but it should not take you long to create your first comic. Have some fun and a few laugh! Let us know what you think.

2010 African-American Read-In

The annual International Reading Association (IRA) and National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) are once again sponsoring the Black History Month Read-In, and providing suggestions for activities to do throughout the month. Check out the events and activities. What are your thoughts on NCTE, IRA, and other educational organizations sponsoring suggested activities, lesson plans, and resources in honor of Black History Month? Let us know of other online resources for celebrating Black History Month that you have found. (Photo of Langston Hughes)

Why Let Students Blog in the Classroom

This video provides numerous reasons for letting students blog in your classroom. View it, and please take a moment to comment. Does the video spark your interest in using blogging in the classroom ? If so, how and why? If not, why not?

Easy Moviemaking with Photo Story 3

Starting with this tutorial (see below embedded video), you can learn about Photo Story 3, a free download from Microsoft, and how to use it. After viewing the first tutorial, which shows the basics of assembling your photos and adding basic features, you can go on to the second and third tutorials, which show how to set timings for each visual in a movie, how to add transitions between the visuals, and how to add music. Although the three tutorials don't show how to add narration, for students using Photo Story 3, I highly recommend they add narration, as in writing their script, they will also gain practice with writing. They will also enjoy hearing their own voices in their movies. After watching the embedded video below, use the hyperlinks below it to access the second and third tutorials. I have also left links to two completed videos created by the person who authored the three tutorials. In addition, there is a link to another Photo Story tutorial that is worth viewing because it uses young children engaged in creating at art project, which might appeal to elementary school teachers. Let us know if you find the tutorials clear, even if all you do is watch the first tutorial. Although the tutorials are certainly helpful, downloading Photo Story 3 and just playing around with it, is probably all you need to get started. The program is easy to learn and rather intuitive, and an excellent introduction to movie making for young students in the elementary school or for any users who wants to create a movie from digital photos, scanned pictures, pictures found on the Internet, or a combination of the three.



Photos Story Tutorial # 2
Photo Story Tutorial # 3
Final version of Yosemite Park Photo Story based on the 3 tutorials
Photo Story of the author's bio (includes narration)
Photo Story 3 tutorial created with children engaged in an art project
To see a tutorial on how to add narration, view this tutorial, the first half of which reviews how to customize motion and the second half of which explains the ease with which narration is added: Narrate Your Pictures and Customize Motion
For those of you interested in using Photo Story to string together pictures already found on the Internet, perhaps by using the "Image" search feature in Google, this tutorial will give tips on creating a Photo Story with found images on the Internet. This video is very helpful for working with students who will find pictures on the Internet and want to know how to save them and what the minimum resolution (500 pixels) should be for the pictures not to look grainy (fuzzy) in the final movie. Because this video is so helpful for learning how to use Photo Story in the context of an actual movie that students might create for a class project, I have also embedded the YouTube. The topic for the movie was the culture of China. If you only have 8 minutes to learn about Photo Story 3, I suggest you start with this tutorial, viewing it from my blog or the YouTube link provided. In this way, you learn about Photo Story as well as see a finished product all within 8 minutes.

I know there a bit to absorb in the blog, but want to emphasize how much can be done with simple free tools like Photo Story 3. You will find a host of movies made with Photo Story at YouTube, TeacherTube, and other online video hosting sites. If you find ones worth sharing, please post their URL's. Happy hunting, and enjoy!

Another Teacher Commends Blogging

Read from one 6th grade teacher, named Teacher of the Year, practical ideas for using blogs in the classroom. Bill Ferriter of North Carolina offers these practical suggestions at Teacher Tips for Blogging in the Classroom. Here are some of his summative points for effective student blogging:

• Emphasize the important role that quality writing plays in successful blogs.
• Consider naming and training student editors.
• Require that students use pseudonyms while writing.
• Include—and regularly explore—visitor maps and statistics on page views.
• Remind students to respond to commenters.

Check the link above to access his full description, covered in a 3-part blog, about tips for integrating blogs in the classroom. There are also numerous links off of Ferriter's site worth exploring. This might be one site you want to bookmark for future reference. Let us know which advice that Ferriter offers you find useful. His blog is sponsored by Teacher Leaders Network.

Photo of Bill Ferriter is from his blog site, The Tempered Radical at the Teachers Network Site, whose logo is also displayed.

Free Technology for Teachers

Check out this blog, Free Technology for Teachers. This site is worth bookmarking and returning to weekly for access to sites that you can use. Just today I discovered from this blog this slide show Tap Into the World of Comics: Strategies for Using Comics in the Classroom as well as Museum of Humor, which offers teachers a host of lesson plans. The left sidebar on Free Technology for Teachers offers a list of links for resources in teaching social studies, English/language arts, math, science, and foreign language, while the right sidebar has links to a variety of resources. The site's designer boasts: "In 2008 Free Technology for Teachers was awarded the Edublogger Award for 'Best Resource Sharing Blog.' Free Technology for Teachers is read by an audience of more than 8000 subscribers." I know this is one blog that I have bookmarked and follow weekly. Hope you do too, and share with us helpful resources you find through the blog. Yesterday, October 29, the blog's main post was on the Crash of 1929, with the 80th anniversary of the Black Market marked on that date. A link to CNN Student News to a short segment and a PBS series American Experience with an hour long video about the stock market crash of 1929 were provided as well as this offering for watching an American Experience: The Crash of 1929 by clicking here. I also learned about the Science Netlinks - Dozens of Science Lessons, including ones for integrating science into the elementary school classroom.



For those of you seeking videos beyond YouTube these are offered:

Great Alternatives to YouTube
Dozens of More Resources
Teacher Tube
Edu Blogs TV
Nibipedia
Ted - Ideas Worth Spreading
Hulu

Top 25 Websites for Teachers

American Association of Libraries posts the Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning. Check out the list, and let us know if you use any of the sites professionally. Which sites pique your interest? Which would you explore using for your teaching? Another recommended site for teachers is PBS Teachers for featured teacher resources by grade level and subject area. Let us know what you find there that's of value to you. What are your favorite sites for teaching and learning? What would make your Top Ten list?

Teacher Tube

For those of you who can't use YouTube in the classroom, don't forget TeacherTube is a growing repository of resources. In addition to videos, podcasts, photos, you will find other resources on the site. Even if you can use YouTube in your classroom, TeacherTube offers a a wealth of instructional resources geared toward the K-12 curriculum. Check out the site, and let us know what valuable resources you find or what you think of the site in general. Image is the logo from TeacherTube site.

Handwriting Peaks in Fourth Grade

Is technology making the ability to hand write legibly less of a necessary skill in the 21st century? Check out this Associated Press article, Cursive Writing Might Be Fading, But So What?, and let us know what you think. Image is from the AP link.

6th Graders Blog and Wiki

Using the link below this post, check out the first page of a blog created for 6th graders. In addition to the class blog, you will notice that all students have after their posts, a link to their own blogs. Check the main page, see the tabs to access other information, read some of the students' blogs on the class's main blog, and connect to a few of the students' own blogs to get a sense of how this project is working. The class project was featured in a story in The New York Times, under another blog called Lesson Plans. I am posting both the URL to get to the class's blog as well as a link to the New York Times story. Take some time to explore the potential of blogging for our students grades K-12. A former SJC student demonstrated one day at a workshop how her 3rd graders in a local Hartford elementary school were also using blogging, primarily as a way to post their creative writing stories. Think about how you might use blogging in your own teachings, for students to create a collaborative one, for you to create one for your students to read, or for students in your class to go to get information and ideas related to what they are learning in your classroom.

Here is the link to the class blog:

http://www.tellraven.us/denali/

Here is the link to the Times article with an excerpt from the teacher:

https://webmail.sjc.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://lessonplans.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/telling-the-raven/Excerpt:September 29, 2008, 9:00 PMTelling the RavenBy DOUG NOONFor each of the past three years, my students have published their writing on our Tell the Raven Web site. It is a writing space where we share our ideas with one another, and with other interested people around the world. Traditionally, school teachers have been the primary audience for student writing. But now, Web publishing software offers us a platform from which we can tell our stories toanyone who cares to pay attention.

Moviemaking Energizes Students

Digital Moviemaking Reinvents Learning in infinite ways. Not only are children as young as third grade easily make movies, but they are also collaborating with peers across the world. Using digital editing tools such as i-Movie, which Jamie Sacharko, demonstrated in our class this week, young children are enamored with making movies.

David S. Gran, a technology specialist, reported in Digital Directions, using i-Movie and Web 2.0 technologies, now as many as 2,600 students and teachers from 40 countries around the world produce collaborative movies. Patricia M. Fuglestad, one of the teachers, commented of her fifth graders: “Complex software is not intimidating to my digital natives….They just need to know where to click.” Citing an example, she referred to three trail-blazing girls who worked on their animated film by drawing "75 frames for their 15-second animation...making one or two frames each day.” She added that digital media creates “a surprising motivation level when it is connected to an authentic audience, even if it requires tedious work.”

Fuglestad reports she that she observes "a consistent spike in student enthusiasm when her students know their work will be shared online….When a group of her 5th graders made a movie called Young Sloppy Brush about a paintbrush that is destroyed in the hands of a careless artist, she tracked the progress of the project on her blog. Fugelstad recalls that on the day the the movie was uploaded, "we had over 800 views.” To help her students understand the extent of their audience, she “printed out a world map and put push pins in places where they received an e-mail or some feedback.” The movie went on to win a top prize at a local film festival and to be entered in three international film festivals. Fugelstad finds moviemaking: “teaches countless interdisciplinary skills....When students make a movie, they learn so much more than the content of the film…They learn to frame a shot, express and capture the appropriate mood from their subject, articulate their words to better communicate, politely critique, work together, take turns, be fair, and share.”

Another teacher, Kristine M. Fontes, who participated in the global moviemaking project, commented that although the moviemaking proces is "complicated, students are eager to learn and often master the software easily....They enjoy the responsibility of creating a project with so many layers and can’t wait to show me their work each day....The entire process is so engaging that it is difficult to get the students to log off their computers and go to lunch.”

Fontes has posted her students work on her website my Web site and burns their movies to a CD for them to keep. She reminds us, “The world is no longer as big as it seems, and their moments of shared creative expression are no longer limited to the four walls” of the classroom.

Use these immediate hyperlinks to view Fuglestad's students' Young Sloppy Brush, Fugelstad’s blog, and Fontes my Web site, explore. Direct links below connect to the web pages of some of Fontes' students for quick access to their movies. Enjoy.

Island Adventure
http://www.krisfontes.com/island.htm
Global Warming
http://www.krisfontes.com/global.htm
Werewolves of London
http://www.krisfontes.com/werewolves.htm

Let us know how you see the technology and the moviemaking empowering young and older learners alike by engaging them in the learning process and expanding their horizons. What is your response to these new moviemaking forays? Do you believe these kinds of filmmaking experiences belong in the school curriculum?

Source: Ash, K. (2008, June 5). Digital tools cast student moviemakers on a global stage. Digital Dimensions. Retrieved June 5, 2008, from http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2008/06/05/04art_web.h01.html

Image from: www.mrssabol.com