Digital Storytelling

Last week in class we learned about the digital storytelling project and got to see a few examples. They were all done very differently and I liked how we got to see these differences because it shows that we can take many angles to our story. My favorite one, by far, was the wedding one where the audience found out in the end that the whole story was really about her husband's brother! I really want to try to think of something that clever for my story, but I know it won't be that easy. I also know that I will have to find a few days to work on it because I haven't done anything like this since my freshman or sophomore year in college. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to remember. It will definitely be a good re-learning experience. I also would like to have my digital story be something that I could show my first graders. I think they would enjoy it and I could have an extention activity afterwards, depending on what my story is. I also liked the different points of view we got to watch in the examples. That is going to be another huge part of my story-deciding which point of view I would like to use. All in all, it sounds to me like I have a lot to think about and get started on!!

Workshops

I think in one of my last blogs (or someone else's) we talked about getting teachers interested in using different technologies by having some kind of workshop for school buildings. These workshops could include how to use technology & also how to use it effectively in your classroom. Last week, the technology coordinator in my building sent out an email asking teachers to sign up for Smart Board training. Only THREE people responded!! It was myself, another 1st grade teacher, and a 2nd grade teacher. This was just crazy to me. I know that we only have 2 Smart Boards in our building, but they are portable. I guess I don't understand why teachers wouldn't want to at least attend a workshop to see what the Smart Board can do & then decide if they're interested in using it in their classroom. Maybe teachers think that whatever they're doing in their classrooms now is working for them, so why change it? I don't know what exactly the mindset is, but I now think that instead of only offering workshops for technology, they should be required! I don't really like the idea of forcing technology on teachers, but I want them to at least see and know what technology can do in their classroom. Most importantly, they should learn how it can greatly benefit the students. Hopefully when I find out more details about this training/workshop, I will be able to recruit more of my colleagues!

Hope everyone is having a great week...

Rentals Anyone?

It took me awhile to decide what I would write about for this week's blog. I started thinking about conferences this week and what I will be sending home with parents. Then I thought about how nice it would be if all of the families had a home computer (or easy access) and I could give them some educational websites to go to with their children. In my school, I am positive that most of my students don't have computers at home. From here, I started thinking about when I was an undergrad and what I would do if I (or any of my collegues) wanted to use technology for educational purposes. The CTLT of course! They have a wide variety of technology available for check out & the people that work there also have knowledge of how people can use it. Now that I'm working with students & their families, I'm wondering if there's any sort of rental system like the CTLT in the "real world". Please share if there is because I would really like to recommend it to parents!!

Digital Portfolios

Next week, we will be having conferences. My team always works together on everything and in the past they have put together portfolios to show at conferences. There are six different areas of the portfolios. Within these six subjects, we put 4 pieces of student's work in the portfolios throughout the year. This way, the parents can see how much progress their child has made in each of the areas throughout the year. (Hopefully this all makes sense!)



Anyways, I've been thinking a lot about different ways to show "portfolio-type" work digitally. Something that came to mind immediately, and maybe obviously, was taking pictures throughout the year of different activities we do in & out of the classroom. I know when I was in elementary school, the school counselor would take lots of pictures and videos of each classroom every year and when we had our 5th grade graduation, we got to view all of the pictures throughout our elementary career. It was so awesome! She would also video-tape us & ask questions about ourselves. We got invited back to our elementary school when we were graduating from high school to watch the slideshow again! It was just as fun when we got older to see ourselves in elementary school. Something that I wish could have been different about this experience is that we could actually have gotten a copy of the slideshow so we could come back and watch it any time we wanted. I would love to do something like this for my students so they could have it forever. I could take videos and pictures and put them on a CD for parents at the end of the year. I would also somehow like to include student work that they complete throughout the school year. I know it will be a lot of work, but I'm really excited!



Can anyone else think of anything more I could add to the digital portfolio?

Google Earth

Last week was super hectic at school & I didn't get a chance to write so I'm writing two blogs this week to make up for it! For social studies, my first graders are learning about maps & globes. I think it would be awesome to show them Google Earth by using the infocus projector. I've been looking through materials for map-type worksheets and using Google Earth would be a great follow-up activity. We could look up the location of our school and talk about what's located around us. I think they would also be interested to see different parts of the world. I know that I love to Google Earth places around the world, so I'm sure my students would think it was awesome! It's also a good source to look at different landforms. I could even take a screen shot of our school and print off copies. Then we could make a key together and decide what kinds of symbols we could use to describe what's around our school. After I test out this lesson, I will have to write another blog explaining how well (or not so well) it went.