Here is a whiteboard application I used with a group from my W550 class.

Here is a non-linear presentation I created on the water cycle.  It includes information, a method of assessment, and a game in which students get to create a unique bracelet.  Enjoy!

I chose to research and work with Prezi for my last technology blog.  Prezi allows the user to create a visual representation of a topic using pictures and text, along with size, to emphasize importance.  It was a little confusing to me at first, but I watched the introductory video and that explained a lot.  One thing that I wish the Prezi application had was its own clip art library.  If you want to put images in the presentation you have to find them on the internet or have them already on your computer.  I think Prezi has a number of things it could be used for in school.  If I taught high school I would use it to have students create outlines for projects and papers.  Since I teach elementary, I decided to create a Prezi I could use in my own classroom.  In Louisville, The Kentucky Derby is like its own holiday.  Beginning two weeks before the race, the whole city take part in many different celebrations from Thunder Over Louisville (a fireworks show) to the Pegasus Parade.  We even get the day before Derby, Oaks Day, off from school.  I created an outline I could use to help teach a lesson and give topics to discuss about The Derby.

The third form of technology that I chose to research was Animoto.  I didn’t really know what to expect before I went to the website, just that it would probably be something animated.  I really liked Animoto after I played around with it.  You can create a slide show using pictures, video, and music.  You are able to upload your own pictures and video.  For sound, there are clips to choose from, or your can upload your own, too.  You are only able to create a short 30 second slide show for free.  If you would like to make anything longer you must become a paying member.  I would like to use this to create slide shows of different activities that my class does.  Field trips, projects, experiments, etc. would be great for this.  I created a slide show of pictures from a field trip taken to the Newport Aquarium.  Enjoy!

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

The blog post that I read on Edutopia was “Good Teachers Are the Product of Nurture, Not Just Nature.” When I saw the title of this blog, I was expecting something different from what I read, but I still enjoyed reading the post and very much agree with what the author has said.  The author talks a lot about how if teachers could just collaborate, a lot of issues in education may not be issues anymore.  He also says that schools need to make sure that they have an environment where collaboration is easy to do and expected.  I really agree with collaboration among teachers.  I feel that all teachers should consider themselves life-long learners and should not look at teaching as a place to make yourself look good and colleagues look bad.  I am currently in a cohort with about three other schools in which my district is having us teach collaboratively and meet to discuss the different methods of doing this.  Each day I teach I have the ECE teacher with me in my classroom for an hour.  It really works great, because we support each other.  If she notices something I may not have touched on, she will join in the teaching and I will do the same for her.  Some days, we may get into the classroom and completely change the direction of our lesson because of the previous day’s results.  We can also work with small groups more easily, given that there are more adults in the room to supervise.  I feel very lucky to be able to do this each day and I really hope that more schools could be able to do this in the future.

The video on Edutopia that I chose to watch was “Kids and Adults Design New Tech Tools.”  Right from the beginning I liked the idea and concepts that were presented.  What could be a better way to come up with new forms of technology than to have students work as focus groups.  I really feel that children should be involved in something like this because they will be the ones using the technology.  As I got further into the video, I was really interested in the section about the website that students could communicate with children in Haiti.  Obviously this is a hot topic right now with the earthquake just happening.  The children’s words are translated to the native language of the children in Haiti and vice versa.  They are able to help needy families through this website.  I really believe this is a great way for students to learn how to vocalize their ideas which could then make it easier to, for example, answer essay questions.  The focus groups allow the children time to clarify as well as use vocabulary they may not normally use.

I think after watching this, a goal I would like to set for myself is to ask my students for ideas on how to do things more often.  For example, now that we have studied solids and liquids in science, what do you think we might learn about next?  And if it’s feasible, try to do what they suggest.  In the video a lot of the students were talking about video chatting when in their focus groups.  While I don’t have that capability in my classroom, I might like to try and partner with another class and become e-mail pals.

While watching the videos for Module 4, I definitely laughed a few times.  It seems like any time a new form of technology comes out, people go through the same process – nervousness and being unsure that this “new thing” will work just as well as their old standby.  As for making things fun so that more people will use something, I agree with this, but how do we determine what would be fun?  Wouldn’t every student have a different idea of what is fun as far as technology is concerned?  I could be wrong, and I’m not trying to down technology at all, but you might have to create focus groups to get an agreement on what is fun to use in the classroom.

I got this forward from a colleague at work.  It really describes my experiences to a T.  Enjoy!

It is 5:30 A.M, and I have been up for nearly 45 minutes.  I have showered, eaten breakfast, enjoyed a cup of coffee, and watched my good friends tell me about the news and weather of the day.  This morning, however, I will not be rushing out the door as normal to my wonderful job.  I will not be checking to make sure I have copies, sending emails, finalizing lesson plans, or going through the mounds of papers that I have strategically placed on neat piles around my desk.  None of this will occur because in Kentucky it is a snow day.

For all you adults out there who don’t work in the school system, I ask you to go back into your childhood for a brief moment.  Step back to the days when you were a lad in school. When you would run to the window then to the T.V. and wait patiently for the Snow Bird report.  Do you remember the feeling?  The feeling of glee, the feeling of excitement, the feeling that the world was yours for the taking and nothing could hold you down.  I can tell by the smile on your face that, yes, you do remember.  Now take that feeling and multiply it by 25.  This is what a teacher experiences.

The buildup for teachers begins days ahead of the predicted storm.  I accredit this mostly to the fact that, unlike students, teachers usually watch the news on a regular basis and therefore understand how the seven day forecast works.  Being a Wednesday that the schools are closed means that talk of what they were predicting began on Monday during a faculty meeting.  The prior knowledge of what could happen sets in motion what I like to call “The 7 Stages of a Teacher Snow Day.”

Stage One:  What?….Really!
The initial rumor of snow ignites a momentary glee that cannot be contained within the soul of a teacher.  Much like the feeling you get when you win a raffle, you are excited and can’t believe that it could actually happen to you.  You smile, skip around, and begin thinking of what chores and errands you will catch up on if you are so lucky.

Stage Two:  The Decline
In stage two the educator, still excited about the possibility, thinks back on all the times forecasters in Central Kentucky have been wrong.  This begins to make him or her ask more questions about the report.  How much are they calling for?  What’s the anticipated high and low temperature?  How warm will the ground be?  This is immediately followed by the checking of various long range weather reports on-line and speaking with other teachers to see, “What have you heard?”

Stage Three:  The Professional Emerges
Somewhere after stage two, reality sets in, and the old school marm that lives in the depths of every teacher begins to show her face. The fact that they have a very serious job to do comes to mind, and they are reminded that there are state tests quickly approaching for which their students are not yet ready.  It is during this stage that teachers lie to their co-workers and families and tell them that it would be better if they had school.  This way they won’t fall behind schedule or have to redo plans.  Please note that this is purely a self-preservation stage just in case school is not cancelled.

Stage Four:  Excitement sneaks back in.
It could not be suppressed for long.  You are now closer to the anticipated wintry mix, and the forecast still looks promising.

Stage Five:  Anger
This is a very common stage.  Once again the enthusiasm has been snuffed out and replaced with the thoughts that there is no way we’re getting out of school.  You are then reminded of the 13 built-in snow days that we don’t get paid for and lose if we don’t take them.  You begin to get angry at the transportation director for being willing to risk the safety of our students, the school board for not being willing to compensate us for unused snow days, and that blankety-blank weatherman for getting our hopes up to begin with.  I am warning you to stay clear of any educator you may believe is in this stage.

Stage Six:  Cautious Optimism
You are preparing for bed the night before what could be a day off.  To the common observer everything looks normal.  Lunches have been packed, clothes laid out, and alarms set. You avoid discussing it with your spouse, and you tell your children to go to bed at their normal time.  Everyone knows that the slightest bit of hope could jinx the whole thing and you will wake up to sunny skies with a high well above freezing.  You slip in your bed say a last silent prayer.  Being prepared for the worst, you very quietly to yourself hope for the best.

Stage Seven:  Uncontrollable Enthusiasm.
You spring from your bed and race to the T.V.  You find the first local news channel and look for those wonderful county names scrolling across the bottom of your screen.  You flip from channel 2 to 4 to 5.  You even take a look at Fox.  Your mission is to find the channel whose scrolling ticker at the bottom is closest to your county.  Finally, you find one that says Oldham, Shelby  County…you know yours is coming up.  There it is …and….and…  Jefferson  County! Thank you, Jesus, YES. YES, YES!!!  You jump around your living room as adrenaline shoots through your veins like a bullet.  You smile, you dance, you thank God for his unbelievable kindness to you.  However, in a moment of sudden panic you are jerked back to reality.  You begin to think they got it wrong.  It could be a mistake, you say to yourself.  Quickly you search for the remote which went flying out of your hands earlier.  Finding it behind the sofa you look for another station to verify in fact you do not have to go to work. Once again you see it, and the ecstasy and elation starts all over again.

You think about going to get back in bed, but if you are like me you are now much too awake to even dream sleep.  Besides how could you waste even one second of this glorious day off?   Instead you pour your coffee into a real mug instead of a travel one.  You slip on your house shoes, grab a blanket, and once again soak up the delight of knowing you are a teacher, and it is a snow day in Kentucky.

The second application I decided to try out was Wordle.  I actually just used Wordle for another class assignment and I really enjoyed it.  I did have to go to the FAQs section to figure out how to make sure words in phrases were not split up and also how to make some words appear larger than others.  I really like how artistic this program is.  You can change the font, layout, and color scheme for your wordle.  One thing I believe I would like to try with my students is to have them use Wordle for adjectives.  They would pick an object, with that word being the largest word, and then add adjectives to the wordle.  I really think it would be neat to create a bulletin board display of the wordles.  Here is a link to a wordle I created as an example of what I would do in my class.  I chose to create my wordle on adjectives describing an apple.

I had never heard of Story Bird and it sounded interesting so I decided to check it out.  I was really excited about trying it out.  I signed up for an account and started experimenting with what could be done as well as looking at examples from other people.  Story Bird is a free application and seems to be fairly a fairly new application as well.  Eventually they will have the ability to actually print and publish the stories that are created and this will require a fee.  One positive thing is that you can choose whether or not to make your creation public or to keep it private.  I think this is a good feature to have when students are using the application.  I really think this would be a great way to have my students create their personal narratives for their writing portfolios.  It allows the students to use their creativity while not having the pressure of having to draw something on their own.  I often have students with anxiety about not being able to draw something as well as they think it should look.  I created an example of what a personal narrative might look like.  Take into account that I teach 1st grade.  I do wish that there was a search application for the art.  I wasn’t able to find one, but I could have overlooked this.  I think that would make the application much easier to navigate.  Here is the link to my Story Bird “My Trip to the Zoo.”