Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Week 5 thing #12 Voice Threads

In March, one of the ASD librarians came out to Bartlett Area and gave us a lesson on voice threads. What a cool educational tool.There are so many uses for it educationally. Students can demonstrate any of the subjects on it, people can be permitted to dialog on it or not and it can be saved for awhile.
After watching the lesson this, I wanted to come back and have students work on this. One teacher I talked to wanted to do something with Mother's Day on it. This wasn't exactly what I have in mind.
I like that users have to be 13 to join this.
My sixth graders went into voice threads. I had them peruse the site. I also suggested to them they could use voice threads as one of the two visuals assigned for their current project. Presently, I do not have any takers.
In the projects, students have to do some research, write down what they want to say, have this edited,rewrite, come up with a picture- photo or drawing and then scan that and last record their words. There is so much learning being done by the student.
Another quality I like about voice threads is it seems incredibly safe for student usage. Did I mention I can't wait to start using it.

Week 5 Thing #11 Wigets from yourminis


For more widgets please visit solidaire maintenant



I love stuff that moves. I love aquariams I don't have to clean.
Students will love this.

Week 5 thing #11

At first, I went and looked at all the sites choices. This was a little overwhelming. So, I chose the short list.
Some of the choices I knew about and use. I love Pandora. It is a neat concept. I like being able to chose the genre of music I feel like listening too. I also like the idea of hearing unknown musicians. This site has a ton of old stuff. Ya know from the '80's.
Ann Morgester has shown me several of the choices found on the short list:
Del.icio.us and Flickr.
Craigslist is addicting... I love your junk and it will look so good in my house.
Delicious is wonderful.
I thought the food choices could have been better. Food network does such a great job.
Some choices can not be seen on our school filter.
Naming something that one has a piece of themselves in is daunting at best. I love the names people have come up with to grab our attention.
Games sites are hit and miss. Some are caught in the filter and some can be played on our school computers until the filter people detect it or someone tells.
I liked this site.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Week 5 #10

TRADING CARD INVENTOR FROM Generator Blog FD Flickr Toys
Sixth graders are required two visuals for their Inventor Project. I presented this idea to them. I used the trading card toy from big huge labs website to make this. I uploaded a picture from google and then put into my own words her accomplishments. The most difficult thing to do was to align her name and caption under her picture. I am a little too perfectionistic... All the students made one of these using their chosen inventor. Students were reminded to capitalize names, could chose to write in a complete sentence or a phrase. Overall students did a great job. I am proud of them.

Comic Stripping


My creation
Originally uploaded by akles
This is my try at comic stripping. I wanted to see the different ways to have a creature voice bubble. I find the small bubble w/ their words take away least from the picture. It is also difficult to know if this is amusing or not. I found it to be.
I wish there were more choices on the size of the bubble or the font.

The Star

Visual Poetry - ImageChef.com I made this star using imagechef. This is a lot of fun to do.
I played around with various ideas. Another favorite is word mosaic.
One idea I have is would this teach students to use a capital letter when writing a name or beginning an idea?

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Week 4 #9

RSS  I looked in  blogdigger.com to look around and view ways to find elementary library lesson plans. What I received was a blog from Jen Robinson's book page. I found her site very useful. In fact I got side tracked in it. She has lots to offer about books, literacy, read- a-louds, non-fiction books to help teachers understand better about reading. 
The interesting issue I found with RSS is I get side tracked way to easily. I find interesting columns to read and think about. I found this particular RSS very informative.
I love the idea of receiving information tailor made to my needs. How American is that?
I am not afraid of RSS and I will willingly look for them at blog, web pages and other areas found on the information highway.

Week 4 #8


RSS has for some reason been difficult to wrap my head around. I watched the Common Craft Show about RSS and feel I have a better understanding of it. Web 2.o has really begun to make computers user friendly. The idea that we choose a website with a RSS to it one time and that website serves us until we no longer need it. There is no fuss to it.
I had great fun with this. As the man said in Common Craft Show this is very addicting.
What else I liked about RSS is that a lot of information can be given and I chose when I am going to read it.
I do think this form of service can either broaden a persons thinking or keep it narrow if RSS feeds are the only place she/he received their news and ideas from.
I like that public libraries are using RSS feeds. This is great promotion for the library. A Good idea.
Last night I went into Meehive and made up my own newspaper. I tried to add it to my own RSS reader but have been unsuccessful. I will work on this tomorrow.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Week 3 Thing #7

Several weeks ago Ann mentioned go2web20.net. My sixth grade students and I have been looking at it. My perimeters for them is if it looks too adult it probably is, no chat rooms, any major skin and xnay it, and last if a student has been there before, find a new site to go to. I also give students a thumbs up to share.
So, far, students have been having lots of fun with it. Some have gone home and shared with parents.
Now, I am not monitoring them and can explore. It was a little tough at the university computer lab. Some of the websites I clicked on were not coming up.
One that I did is called MeeHive which sets up a persons personalized newspaper. it was easy to set up. Gave me a list of ideas to chose from plus give it ideas/interests that I have. As usual I can go in and change it as I change about things that I am interested in.
This is a good find.

Week 3 #6

Flickr is so very fun. I see lots of ideas for using trading cards. One librarian had the idea to use these to teach Dewey. What a great idea. Students can go on line and find a picture from flickr or google to match the Dewey number they were using. Students could then write down what subjects could be found. I think this idea is fantastic.


I also saw possibilities for use in other subject matter such as math. One math concept per card.


The possibilities are endless.


One thing I like about this is students can connect books and technology together.


My Librarian Trading Card.


The two on either side of me are my sister-in-laws.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Week 3, #5, Flickr

The past two years, my sixth graders have been introduced to bighugelabs website. They saw a lot of potential for this. Last year's sixth graders used magazine cover for one of their Newberry Medal Winner unbookreports. Students learned all pixels are not created equal.
Originally when I viewed Flickr, I was thinking this is a great way for family to share photos with each other. So, more at a personal level rather than at an educational/library level.
There are some fantastic photographers out in the world.
A plan is forming in my head to explore flickr more. As posted by others this is a lot of fun.
The other thing I liked about this website is it takes the difficulty out of some of the projects. For example, a magazine cover, trading cards or a poster.