Flip Video

I am excited to say the least. I never thought that I would have the opportunity to working with a flip video camera! I am a little bit nervous but looking forward to the challenge and the opportunities that it will offer. I am going to play with the tool and use it in a practical and academic setting.
I will update everyone as soon as I have something interesting to talk about...

Zoomerangers

As I sit in class I cannot help to overhear my colleagues talk about their surveys and a cute little website called zoomerang. If you have the right mind set and have a set of questions that you would like a target population that you need to obtain information from then a survey is a great way to collect data.
I would like to set up my class with a survey reflect something in the near future. I am not sure what I would like to collect data on but I am looking forward to trying it out.

Fun vs. Hard Work

My students equate fun with using laptop, playing games, and participating in center. They look at hard work as being a teacher-centered class with tests, worksheets, and quizzes.
I have fooled all of my students... I am so proud!
Through a plethora of websites, games, question, and a check list I have fooled the students into thinking that they were just having fun, but they were actually completing assignments, providing data that reflect their personal knowledge and the knowledge of a group.
A great example of this is the use of Study Island. The children are asked to complete and obtain a ribbon on a specific topic. Then they are asked to individually answer questions on a worksheet that reflect what they worked on and they level of completion. I, as a teacher, am able to check each students progress and understanding of a topic as well as an entire class' am able to reinforce topics that may not be understood. I also collect the check list and provided feedback to each individual.

NJ ASK

I am not a big fan of standardized testing. It has thrown a huge monkey wrench in my teaching, enthusiasm, and my students' excitement. Trying to juggle a masters, end of the year assessments, field trips, surfing, school unity day, and all of the other day-to-day activities is difficult enough and then to have this ASK test makes life no fun!
Now that the ASK is over the children are DONE! They are treating every day as if it were the last day of school and not putting much thought or emotion into what they would normally do in school. The days are getting longer...
I am not a fan of the ASK...

I know that~!

I have found a site.... iknowthat.com and it is great! I put it up on my favorite list and the children are really benefiting from the tutorials that are offered as well as the games. I love that the children are getting excited about learning. This is a good way to grab their attention and get them interested in what we are learning in class. It is also a bargaining child... if they are behaved then they get the opportunity to work on I know that.
This has helped and given support and enrichment for my class!

Turning Over New Stones

The women that I work with here in my MAIT cohort are in another world... and I mean that in the best, most dignified way! I come into class thinking that I am up-to-date with some of the latest techie tools, gadgets, and gizmosbut am rudely awakened when I hear about some of the things that they are taking about.
Today a fun little site was brought to my attention, animoto.com. Here is a site that you can upload photos and the program sets the pictures to music and creates a great little slide show... I am defiantly going to use it.

Alice

Alice is a new program that is offered by Carnegie Mellon University to be down loaded for free. The program is manageable for students to navigate through and can be an alternate avenue for students to give a visual example of a story that they have written or read. This program is a spin off of Sims but is a little bit more low tech and not as developed.
I have had the opportunity to work with a student on this program and it is very interesting and fun. It does take a long time to produce a product that can explain a story or give a visual representation of a writing piece.
I do not think that I will use this program due to the individual attention that I would need to give each one of the praticiapating students.
If you have any suggestions of sites that would be more comprehensive to my class and my personal need please let me know!