My old iPhones come out of the junk drawer and are now used as reward time in class. Eventually, I hope to use the video, audio tools to do more creative projects to build concepts and vocabulary. I also had an iPad funded by my Donors Choose project.
(Sarah Zykanov)
This is our school's mascot, a dolphin. I used this supposedly free image to create a new badge in Edmodo for my students who got a perfect score on a vocabulary quiz.
The Gray Family Grows Up: I got the idea for a digital slideshow after learning about the One Second Everyday App that people have used to document their children’s growth (thank you to George Couros who spoke at MCOE last week). I loved the idea of documenting my children’s lives, but since I didn’t have nineteen years of video to use, I had to think of a different way to put together what I did have available-our annual family photos. It was a fun project and, best of all, I learned a new technology tool to help me complete the task of creating a digital family memento! I can see students doing a similar project with photos taken during class projects and field trips that is then shared with parents and peers.
Background on the photos: Since our son was born in December, it worked well to send our 'first day home' photo out to family and friends as a joint birth announcement and holiday card. The following year, we sent an updated photo with our holiday cards and so started an annual event. The photos were never meant to be anything fancy or polished, just a quick snapshot (often taken in our living room at the last moment) to share with people we don't see very often. A few years ago, I gathered up and framed all of the photos and hung them in our hallway. It's a great visual document of the kids' growing up (and the parents aging!). The last photo, a family selfie taken this past summer in Northern Ireland, will be this year's holiday photo.
Background on the photos: Since our son was born in December, it worked well to send our 'first day home' photo out to family and friends as a joint birth announcement and holiday card. The following year, we sent an updated photo with our holiday cards and so started an annual event. The photos were never meant to be anything fancy or polished, just a quick snapshot (often taken in our living room at the last moment) to share with people we don't see very often. A few years ago, I gathered up and framed all of the photos and hung them in our hallway. It's a great visual document of the kids' growing up (and the parents aging!). The last photo, a family selfie taken this past summer in Northern Ireland, will be this year's holiday photo.
As a technology coach, it is challenging to find time to explore programs and technology integration standards with teachers. I created a Voicethread tutorial on getting started with the Voicethread program. It may be a little long, but I was hoping that interested teachers could start, stop, and skip slides on this tutorial for their individual needs. This was my first screencast and I am working on improving them to be most beneficial. Next time I create a screencast for my teachers, I will first search for the resource as it may already exist.
I have not done anything mind-breaking or new but I have been having my students practicing typing by writing letters, poems, and research papers to make class books. They first write the rough draft in print and then they are learning to type and use keyboard keys such as TAB and to insert pictures, shapes, etc. They are also focusing on learning to find credible websites and how to read and learn from websites to write a report. - Alex Cusick
Nancy Wasserman: I wanted to try to use Animoto for the first time. After pondering several educational topics, I scrapped them all and decided to make it on mountain climbing.
Julia Marrero: My students are making screencasts to demonstrate their understanding of how to compute fractions and decimals. They are using Educreations on three ipads to make their screencasts. Click here to watch a student screencast.
