Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets can sometimes be difficult for any age of student to learn.  Microsoft Excel is the the main program that people learn to do spreadsheets on.  The problems I always come across in this program is getting frustrated that the program isn't doing what I want it to do.  That is the reason I now use the Numbers program on my Mac computer.  I believe it is more user friendly than Excel.  I would try and incorporate one of these programs into my classroom lesson plans by asking children to make simple spreadsheets just so they can get used to the program.  I believe that the could use these programs to do projects or simple things like keeping track of their own class grades.  I will make sure spreadsheets will be incorporated somehow into my lesson plans.

Here is a link to my Weather Tracking Spreadsheet

I want to live here!

This movie was filmed by myself and edited by iMovie. The movie is primarily video feed with a couple pictures from the internet. iMovie is an easy program on Apple computers that you can add and edit videos to create a movie. The video is about a family that is not happy with where they are living. They decide to research information about a place they found in a magazine. They decide to move and an old friend calls and wants to come for a visit. The movie is simple but cannot be understood without any sound. The movie is all narrative so you need to listen to the movie while you view it.

Editing the movie took the least amount of time because I have already made a five minute movie for another class. The hardest part of making the movie was trying to find time to film it in the sun. I did have help with the video from a classmate by acting in the movie with her children.

The tools that I used could be easily integrated in the classroom. iMovie, is easy to understand but would need a couple of days to be taught to the students. That would be the only drawback to using iMovie in the classroom. To integrate just the video recording part of this assignment to your classroom would be easy. Students could record their family at home on a camcorder, camera, or even a cell phone. Most elementary students these days have recorded some type of video already.

Making this movie was hard work and took up a lot of time . Although the work was not hard, it was just long tiring. I hope to integrate the technology use that I learned from doing this assignment in my class one day, after hours of teaching my students how to effectively use these tools.

7 Elements of Digital Storytelling

The 7 elements of Digital Storytelling are crucial to creating a great presentation. In my movie I am going to cover the idea of the best place to live. My dramatic Question that will be answered at the end of the story is, what place can you live in that would maximize happiness for yourself and/or others. The emotional content is that the son of the family that is unhappy living in South Texas, is that he is unhappy where he is living. If you are unhappy and have the means to move, then move. The story is about a family that is unhappy with where they are living. This relates to so many people that do not like the climate, resources, or things to do around where they are living. I do not have any music or sounds that support the storyline in my movie. The movie is short and gets to the point without distractions and too much information. The movie is well paced because each scene is carefully thought out so that there is not too much time in between scenes. My movie is a good example of Digital Storytelling and can be understood by many. Although the movie itself will not be nominated for an Emmy award, it covers all of the 7 elements of Digital Storytelling.


Here is my unit plan for the Best Place to Live Movie

Internet Resources

How could I use some other communication tools in the classroom?

I could use a chat/IM tool so that the students in my class can contact and ask questions about the city that they live in.  Sometimes when people judge a city on if it is a good place to live or not, they do not see what is not presented to them.  By using the chat tool students can ask questions and receive the answers back almost instantly.  This would help them truly decide which place they think is the best.  

Internet Resources that could be used by students.

How can I see using each of these tools in my future curricular integration plans?

Any of these resources will be helpful in any classroom.  Technology is such a big part of education now, that we use these resources on a daily basis without really knowing that we are.  Blogs are great for students to be able to display their work and get comments from people that are viewing their blogs.  Kid friendly search engines are great because children can get information off sites that the teachers know are safe.  The chat and Im resource is great for when students from one classroom want to communicate with students in another room and or across the country.  Email can be used to communicate with other students, family members, teachers, or pen pals.  When I was in elementary school we used email to communicate to students in other countries that were the same age as us.  Surveys are great for students to fill out or just use the information that is provided from the survey results.  Voip is just another way for students to communicate with other students.  This resource is a bit more complicated to use, but it is useful.  Images, sound and videos are great for students to hear and see what they need to know or what they want others to know.  All of these are great resources for any classroom and for any grade level.

Digital Storytelling Theories

Digital storytelling is a way for people to share information or projects in a variety of different ways on the computer. One way is by doing a slide share presentation which allows students to create an interactive PowerPoint presentation. Slide Cast is a lot like Slide share because it helps you create a presentation in which students can use to add more to just a PowerPoint presentation. Voice threads can also be used which allows people to insert pictures and record sounds such as voice to go along with the picture. One example we observed was a classroom posted pictures of an object and then each student recorded themselves telling a Haiku. This allowed the viewer to click on the picture and hear the actual student talking. All of these are great for students because they are able to be embedded or linked on the Internet so that it is easy to access. It would be fun to be a parent and click on a project of your child's and see and hear a project of theirs.

If teachers incorporate the use of digital storytelling at a young age, it will be a great tool for students to use throughout their school years and even beyond. When students complete a project that they had been working hard on, they enjoy seeing the end result. Students could do a personal presentation or even educational based presentation. Either way they will be amazed about how nice their presentation comes out using digital storytelling. This will create motivation for the student which is what every teacher aims for.

In my unit plan I will incorporate the slide share tool by having the students prepare a slide share based on their favorite place to live.  They will be asked to find fun facts and pictures about the city they choose to be the best place to live.  The 2nd grade students will be just using google, slide share and voice thread if they want to.

I will incorporate voice thread in my future lesson plans because of how neat the projects come out.  Finished projects in voice thread come out nice looking and easy to understand.  I think it would be fun for students to hear their voice on their prepared slide.  They will feel like they have accomplished something cool.  Also, I like that parents are able to view these projects and comment on them online.  Some parents work on computers all day at work and it would be nice for them to click over and look at what their child has been doing in class.

Blogging in the Classroom

Technology can be and is used in almost every one's lives these days. Encorporating technology in the educational classroom can be a smooth and easy transition if it is done the right way. In an article found on David Warlick's website, says we are working in a world that is driven by technological advance and improvement". I believe this is true and that teachers should teach students the proper way to use the internet and teach them the many free resources on the web other than popular websites such as myspace and facebook. One way that teachers can incorporate technology into their classroom is by having students set up a blog account. This will help students express their ideas and comments for other students to view.

I want to teach junior high science when I enter the teaching field. I can see myself using a blog in the classroom so that students can voice their opinions about questions or comments about what is happening inside the classroom. For example, if a student doesn't understand something that we covered in class, they could blog about the subject and include what they could understand and what they did not understand. Other students or myself could then go in and follow their blog and leave comments trying to help explain the subject better or in a different way. Another way students could benefit by using blogs would be if they would like me to expand on a certain subject that they are interested in. People could then comment on whether or not they agree to expand the information or not. I could use this as a guide to what the students want to know on a particular subject.

Best Place to Live/ 2nd Grade

When you are planning to do an inquiry based project or a project based project, you need to develop an essential question to fit the unit. This question should be able to be researched in different subjects. My essential question is where is the best place to live? By asking this essential question, students will have to research and evaluate regions that would be ideal for them to live in. Because of different wants and needs of people, there is no correct answer to this question. My essential questions can be researched in science, social studies and language arts. In my unit plan, I included three unit questions to help students get to the best answer. The students will compare information, make desicions, and learn by listening so that they produce and answer to the essential question. The answer to my essential question can be best answered by the beliefs of the person asking theirself the essential question.