Below is my first attempt at creating a podcast for my class blog. I was really amazed at how easy it was to create this podcast.
I am so excited to use this technology in my classroom. I will update you guys on how I use this in my classroom beyond me just recording tutorials on math and science topics.
My main concern right now is that since I only teach science and math, I often need to show the what I am talking about. For example, this podcast is on simplifying fractions and I think that kids might get lost when listening to it. I would really like to be able to write/type/show them what I am talking about. At this point I have learned that our school has a handheld whiteboard (Qomo Wireless Tablet) that I would like to see if I can use to create an audio & visual explanation for Math. I am hoping to use this whiteboard technology joined with the program Jing (a free program that can be downloaded, which is what Dave used to explain podcasting). If I am able to figure all of this out, I will upload an example.
If I can get this together, I would mostly be able to use the same tutorials each year, which would save lots of time.
Gabcast! Mrs. Medley's Classroom #2 - Simplifying Fractions
In this podcast you can review how to simplify or reduce fractions.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Assistive Technology
Ever since we talked and read about assistive technology, it has been on my mind much more than normal. Having a physically handicapped nephew that is in preschool, assistive technology has frequented family conversations for a while. Now I've begun looking at how I have been incorporating it and whether I always use it when I should.
My nephew, who only has 1 finger, requires many special devices. I can't imagine someone denying him the use of his special scissors or his prosthetic hand! After class, I really began looking at times when I may not have given a child all of the tools that he/she needed to be as successful as they could. Instead of dwelling on what I may or may not have done in the past, I have committed to trying to evaluate what the needs of my kids are and giving them the tools they need.
An example of giving this change, happened just the other day in one of my math classes. I have a very sweet child that has an extremely difficult time in math. We were going over how to reduce fractions. We had taken notes and practiced. The next day, the kids were doing some independent practice that was going to be graded. My sweet student was struggling terribly with remembering the steps, or what to do when and why. After working with him one-on-one for quite awhile, I asked the LD resource teacher to work with him. After she had worked with him, he was still struggling terribly. I suggested to her that he use a calculator to complete his sheet. (Now, I should say that we have a class set of the fabulous TI-15 calculators. These calculators will allow the user to input fractions and keep the fraction as a fraction!! for more info... ) So, the LD resource teacher spent 3 or 4 minutes showing him how to reduce a fraction on the calculator. (He already knew how to input a fraction and was very good at adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers on this calculator). He finished the worksheet in a decent amount of time and turned it in. I quickly graded it and gave it back to him. I struggled with whether or not I should give him the 100% he earned with the calculator, then I thought back to our conversations about assistive technology. When I gave back his paper with the 100% on the top he looked at me a little confused. I went back to my desk to try and grade and conference with a few more students. He came up to me, gave me a big hug and said "Mrs. Medley, I never got a 100% before!" Wow, did I feel good and bad in one instant. Good- with this calculator that I let him use, he was able to be successful. Bad-how many other times could I have let him use something to help him be more successful.
Within the same week, I was working on my Literacy Through Photography Project for another teacher, when I was approached by a student that was editing his paper. He asked me if he could print his paper (he had typed it in Word). When I walked up to the computer screen I noticed that most of the words were underlined in green and red. I asked him if he thought any of his words were misspelled. He did, so I explained that the red lines indicated that Word did not recognize the word he typed in other words, he probably had misspelled it. I showed him that he could right-click on the word to see a list of correctly spelled words that he could choose from. If he saw the word in the list, he could click on it and his misspelled word would be replaced. If he did not see the word there, either Word wasn't sure what he was trying to spell or it was a word that it didn't know. We tried a few together, some that were in the list and one that wasn't. Then I let him finish the rest of the page. When he was finished his page looked perfect. He was really proud of himself!
After my recent pleasant experiences with assistive technology I will continue to try and assess what my kids need and give them access to those tools. I hope to get better at determining when kids need help and how much they need. I often get worried that I will give them so much help, they will get lazy or too reliant on tools that they don't really need.
My nephew, who only has 1 finger, requires many special devices. I can't imagine someone denying him the use of his special scissors or his prosthetic hand! After class, I really began looking at times when I may not have given a child all of the tools that he/she needed to be as successful as they could. Instead of dwelling on what I may or may not have done in the past, I have committed to trying to evaluate what the needs of my kids are and giving them the tools they need.
An example of giving this change, happened just the other day in one of my math classes. I have a very sweet child that has an extremely difficult time in math. We were going over how to reduce fractions. We had taken notes and practiced. The next day, the kids were doing some independent practice that was going to be graded. My sweet student was struggling terribly with remembering the steps, or what to do when and why. After working with him one-on-one for quite awhile, I asked the LD resource teacher to work with him. After she had worked with him, he was still struggling terribly. I suggested to her that he use a calculator to complete his sheet. (Now, I should say that we have a class set of the fabulous TI-15 calculators. These calculators will allow the user to input fractions and keep the fraction as a fraction!! for more info... ) So, the LD resource teacher spent 3 or 4 minutes showing him how to reduce a fraction on the calculator. (He already knew how to input a fraction and was very good at adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers on this calculator). He finished the worksheet in a decent amount of time and turned it in. I quickly graded it and gave it back to him. I struggled with whether or not I should give him the 100% he earned with the calculator, then I thought back to our conversations about assistive technology. When I gave back his paper with the 100% on the top he looked at me a little confused. I went back to my desk to try and grade and conference with a few more students. He came up to me, gave me a big hug and said "Mrs. Medley, I never got a 100% before!" Wow, did I feel good and bad in one instant. Good- with this calculator that I let him use, he was able to be successful. Bad-how many other times could I have let him use something to help him be more successful.
Within the same week, I was working on my Literacy Through Photography Project for another teacher, when I was approached by a student that was editing his paper. He asked me if he could print his paper (he had typed it in Word). When I walked up to the computer screen I noticed that most of the words were underlined in green and red. I asked him if he thought any of his words were misspelled. He did, so I explained that the red lines indicated that Word did not recognize the word he typed in other words, he probably had misspelled it. I showed him that he could right-click on the word to see a list of correctly spelled words that he could choose from. If he saw the word in the list, he could click on it and his misspelled word would be replaced. If he did not see the word there, either Word wasn't sure what he was trying to spell or it was a word that it didn't know. We tried a few together, some that were in the list and one that wasn't. Then I let him finish the rest of the page. When he was finished his page looked perfect. He was really proud of himself!
After my recent pleasant experiences with assistive technology I will continue to try and assess what my kids need and give them access to those tools. I hope to get better at determining when kids need help and how much they need. I often get worried that I will give them so much help, they will get lazy or too reliant on tools that they don't really need.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Student Blogging
I finally set up a blog for my students! I had wanted to do this since we set up our own blogs. Setting up the blog was easy, deciding how to have the kids blog was difficult. It was also hard for me to decide when and where they would blog. Since I only teach science and math I it took me a long time to determine when I could show them how to blog. I was also unsure when they would have time to blog and how I would have them sign in to the blog. I wanted to have all of these kinks worked out before I exposed them to this exciting technology.
I decided the kids would blog as part of their morning work. At times, I will also have them blog during Math and Science as a closing activity. I also decided just to have the kids add comments to the blog topics I post. Some people might argue that this isn't exactly blogging, but I think it is pretty close. I moderate all comments, which can be time consuming with 60 kids!
I did run into a small problem today, that could be an issue. I asked all of the kids to go to the blog (they are great at this!) and then wait. I wanted to review the rules before they got started. One of my students decided to click on "Next Blog" when he did he exclaimed "Mrs. Pickles Blog!" I immediately told him to go back to our site and talked to him about the need to follow my directions. I am a bit concerned that when they are at the site, they may decide to look at other blogs, which may have inappropriate material.
Overall, I have been happy with the blogging and will keep you guys updated on how it is going!
I decided the kids would blog as part of their morning work. At times, I will also have them blog during Math and Science as a closing activity. I also decided just to have the kids add comments to the blog topics I post. Some people might argue that this isn't exactly blogging, but I think it is pretty close. I moderate all comments, which can be time consuming with 60 kids!
I did run into a small problem today, that could be an issue. I asked all of the kids to go to the blog (they are great at this!) and then wait. I wanted to review the rules before they got started. One of my students decided to click on "Next Blog" when he did he exclaimed "Mrs. Pickles Blog!" I immediately told him to go back to our site and talked to him about the need to follow my directions. I am a bit concerned that when they are at the site, they may decide to look at other blogs, which may have inappropriate material.
Overall, I have been happy with the blogging and will keep you guys updated on how it is going!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
WebQuests
I found creating a WebQuest to be very easy. I used PowerPoint to create my WebQuest, which was great! Since I was comfortable with PowerPoint, I was able to create the WebQuest fairly quickly. I created a WebQuest on land biomes and I was so happy with how it turned out that I decided to go ahead and use it with my class.
I signed out the laptop cart from our media center. I attempted to bring the 500 pound cart over to the POD with a couple of students holding the doors. When I could not get the cart over the door frame, I pushed harder. Then I conned a colleague into helping me. She pushed, I pulled. We pushed and pulled so hard, a wheel fell right off. With one wheel missing, the janitor had to assist with getting the cart to the POD. That is when the second wheel fell off and I had to send the kids away. We were eventually able to get the cart to the POD.
Eventhough this project got off to a rocky start, it turned into something great! The lesson went fantastic, the kids were very engaged and they learned a ton! The only problem I had, if it can be considered a problem, was that one student (who was sitting right next to the principal) decided he would leave the webquest and go Google his own biome websites. He did go to a great biome website and he was excited about learning. What this showed me is that in future webquests I should consider adding a link to a search engine where the kids can find their own sites to read. I think by allowing them to find their own site, they would feel even more ownership of the information they find. This would require closer supervision, to ensure they do not go to inappropriate websites or sites that don't have great information.
I will definitely do more webquests in the future, especially since my kids will never leave me alone until we do!
I signed out the laptop cart from our media center. I attempted to bring the 500 pound cart over to the POD with a couple of students holding the doors. When I could not get the cart over the door frame, I pushed harder. Then I conned a colleague into helping me. She pushed, I pulled. We pushed and pulled so hard, a wheel fell right off. With one wheel missing, the janitor had to assist with getting the cart to the POD. That is when the second wheel fell off and I had to send the kids away. We were eventually able to get the cart to the POD.
Eventhough this project got off to a rocky start, it turned into something great! The lesson went fantastic, the kids were very engaged and they learned a ton! The only problem I had, if it can be considered a problem, was that one student (who was sitting right next to the principal) decided he would leave the webquest and go Google his own biome websites. He did go to a great biome website and he was excited about learning. What this showed me is that in future webquests I should consider adding a link to a search engine where the kids can find their own sites to read. I think by allowing them to find their own site, they would feel even more ownership of the information they find. This would require closer supervision, to ensure they do not go to inappropriate websites or sites that don't have great information.
I will definitely do more webquests in the future, especially since my kids will never leave me alone until we do!
Digital Books
Here are two books I created with Tarheel Reader. There is one book on Weather and another on Trees. This program was very easy and enjoyable to use. I love that if I can't find a book that is easy enough for my struggling readers, on a particular topic, I can create a book that can be read on their own or be read to them. I anticipate using this program with my kids, to create class books.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Facebook vs. MySpace
So, with much reservation I tried out both MySpace and Facebook. I found Facebook easier to use, mostly because it didn't have as many features as MySpace. I found them equally easy to find and add friends. I also liked Facebook because it showed me people I actually did know. I would have no problem continuing to use Facebook for some time. I can also see how it could be a useful tool for networking or keeping in touch with colleagues, friends and family. However, I quickly discovered this is a social networking site that is definitely NOT intended for kid use...
So here is the disaster that caused me to realize I would NEVER absolutely NEVER use these programs with my kids. I was looking at a close friend's MySpace page (I should mention I was using my school issued laptop). While looking at her page, I saw her sister listed on the side, so I went ahead and looked at her page as well. It so happened that her page was public. Then I decided to look at my friend's new husband's page, to get to know him a bit better. However, his page was not public, so I was not able to see it. But, never fear, MySpace always suggests public pages that you may want to view and they provide pictures of these random people. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can try going to one of our MySpace pages, before adding us as a friend. So anyway, one of the pictures was a close up a male body part that need not be photographed outside of National Geographic or an adult film. I know that MySpace has precautions set up to avoid this problem, but OBVIOUSLY it doesn't always work. Therefore I would never, ever use this at school with my kids!!
So here is the disaster that caused me to realize I would NEVER absolutely NEVER use these programs with my kids. I was looking at a close friend's MySpace page (I should mention I was using my school issued laptop). While looking at her page, I saw her sister listed on the side, so I went ahead and looked at her page as well. It so happened that her page was public. Then I decided to look at my friend's new husband's page, to get to know him a bit better. However, his page was not public, so I was not able to see it. But, never fear, MySpace always suggests public pages that you may want to view and they provide pictures of these random people. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can try going to one of our MySpace pages, before adding us as a friend. So anyway, one of the pictures was a close up a male body part that need not be photographed outside of National Geographic or an adult film. I know that MySpace has precautions set up to avoid this problem, but OBVIOUSLY it doesn't always work. Therefore I would never, ever use this at school with my kids!!
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