Prezi

I love Prezi! I know that there are some individuals out there that do not care much for Prezi but personally I think anything is better than Power Point! With the technology available today, it still amazes me that there are instructors out there that still use a bullet filled slide (on a white background no less) during lectures. Wake up your students! Engage them with something different and I promise you will experience a new classroom.

Here are just a few Prezis that I created or was a member in the creation.  See the difference???

Brain Based Analogy on Prezi

Using a Classroom Website to Enhance Learning on Prezi

RILS Reflection

I really enjoyed the web 2.0 tool that Lori and I chose for this project.  Writing is an essential skill that so many students fail to master.  Working in higher education I see first hand how many students graduate high school without proper writing skills.  Though I was not physically in the classroom to watch the implantation of the RILS lesson, we incorporated my son into the project as the “mystery blogger.”  I enjoyed reading the students posts and hearing feedback from Lori how the students were taking to blogging.  For me, my work was behind the scenes. I was tech support so to speak.  I set up the classroom website and added the link to kidblog.  I created a classroom blog and created accounts for each of the students.  The one thing that I learned from this experience was that my directions to Lori on how to access the blog and each individual blog page could have been much more detailed. However, from the success of the blog lesson I have a feeling that the students did not seem to get hung up on that minor hiccup.

I really hope that this tool is able to help Lori increase the writing skills of her students and that they are able to find their voice through blogging. 

BP8- RILS Comments

Now that our RILS assignment is complete and we shared our lessons on Educator Studio. Below you will find links to my classmates lessons.  I hope you enjoy their lessons as much as I did.


Please follow this link to Cyndee's lesson on ES. Cyndee's RILS project focused on Wordle. She really showed how this tool can be used in a collaborative way.

The second RILS lesson that I commented on was completed by Cynthia and Amanda.  Take a look at their lesson and my comment here.

BP7-RILS Final Project

Brief Overview:

Blogging can be an incredibly powerful tool used to encourage learners to write. Writing their own blog posts can open up a whole new world for your students. Through the sharing of stories with one another, students learn how connected we really are. This blog lesson creates an environment were students can learn from each other, challenge each other, question each other and receive feedback on their stories.

Target Audience:
Our target audience will be a class of 21 4th grade students.

Materials: 
We will need access to:
Computers
Internet
Teacher created classroom website
Blogging Platform


Objectives:  At the conclusion of the lesson, students will be able to:

• Investigate a topic of their choice (books, Web 2.0 applications, sports, video game, etc.)
• Compose a blog post describing their chosen topic
• Design a grading rubric for blog posts
• Evaluate and score fellow classmates blogposts

Procedure:
Prior to students beginning the blogging lesson an account on kidblog.com was created for classroom blogging. Instructor added each student and created a unique password for each user. The direct link to the kidblog classroom login page wascopied and added to the classroom webpage hosted by teacherweb.com.

1. Students will be asked to brainstorming ideas of interest and decide on one topic.
2. Students will present their topic to the teacher for approval.
3. Upon teacher approval students will be provided directions on how to access to their blog pages.
4. Students will be given access to kidblog.com through the classroom website created on teacherweb.com
5. Students will login to kidblog.com and locate his/her pre-created blog page.
6. Student will then create their first blog post.
7. After students have posted the teacher will be notified that there is a new blog post to review and approve.
8. Students will be provided directions and examples on how to create a rubric which will be used to evaluate fellow classmates blogs.
9. Students will create a rubric.
10. Students will be randomly assigned to read fellow classmates blogs.
11. Students will comment to assigned blogs.
12. Students will evaluate assigned blogs with student created rubric.

Web 2.0 Tool:
A classroom website was created on teacherweb.com. Teacherweb allows teachers to quickly create classroom websites to share information with parents and students. The teacher website provides pertinent information about the classroom along with multiple student links. One of the links will redirect students to kidblog.com a site for designed especially for elementary classroom blogs. Kidblog is a site created by teachers that is safe and secure, allowing teachers to monitor and control all classroom blogs.

Social Learning/Collaboration:
Learners will be asked to share ideas for blogging and help each other come up with topics that are interesting to them and their reader audience. Students will be required to post comments on fellow classmates blogs and engage in a discussion (via the web). Students will also be assigned specific topics to blog and comment on. Kidblogs enables the instructor and students to engage in discussion in a fun and interactive way. By allowing student to write blog posts and replies to the blogs, there will be sharing of ideas and feedback from peers.

Making Connections:
Previous knowledge varies greatly among our target audience. The one thing they all have in common is text messaging. From mini messages to much bigger messages,  blogging is an extension of that previous knowledge. Interacting with peers is extremely important to our audience. The fact that blogging allows for an exchange of thoughts and opinions makes blogging inherently relevant. As students blog, and comment on blogs they will be sharing with their classroom community as well as a guest blogger from another state to demonstrate the endless possibilities of a broader blogging audience. 

Create/Produce:
 Students will create a personal blog post, compose comments, produce a rubric.

Assessment:

• 10 points for creation of initial blog post by deadline.
• 10 points for comments to assigned classmates’ blogs.
• 10 points for collaboration on student created rubric.
• 10 points for grading assigned classmates’ blogs using student created rubric.
• 10 points for using appropriate and respectful language. 

Student created rubric:

Reflection:

a.  Students will evaluate their own blog posting and reflect on what they did well and what they would do better next time. Students will also evaluate and give constructive feedback to their classmates through the use of a student created rubric.  After the students have completed the blogging assignment the teacher will engage the students in a discussion about their blogging experience and what they each learned from the assignment and the comments from their fellow classmates.

b. During the open discussion with students the teacher will ask students about their experience and likes/dislikes with blogging. Through monitoring of student work the educator will take notes on the ease of access to the blogging platform and the ease of directions. As a final reflection the educator will blog about the overall experience and any difficulties that were observed. The instructor will look back at the process of this scenario and evaluate what went well, what could be improved if the lesson were repeated, and think about what new components they might add to this scenario next time.

PE5- Kidblog.org

As I stated in PE4-Teacherweb, I had to find a work around for Lori to be able to blog with her students. She really wanted to have a blog page for each of her students. After some research, I came across kidblog.org. Kidblog.org was created by educators, which appealed to me since student safety was important to me.

Kidblog is extremely user friendly and the steps were very easy in order to set up an account and classroom.  I added all 22 students and provided each with a password.  I set the account settings so that only classmates can read the blogs, again a nice feature in keeping students safe.  A guest account can be set-up so parents can be given a generic log in and password to be able to read student blog entries.

One element of kidblog that I find lacking is that there are only a few themes to choose from. However, some real pluses of the site is the features that it offers when blogging. Students can add pictures, movies, and audio. I can’t wait to see what the students produce. 

PE4- Teacherweb

I am working together with Lori Hobbie to complete the RILS project.  In a previous month we worked together on creating a class website.  The site we choose worked for the concept but was clunky and limited. Lori really wanted to have a website that was easy to use and suited all of her needs. Lori decided on teacherweb.com to use for her new website.

Lori created an account and choose the template for the website.  Then I went in and began transferring over the information from the old site to the new site.  Teacherweb was a bit confusing in the beginning but once I figured it out it was not difficult at all.  There are many features for teachers and so many different types of pages to choose from.

One feature that Lori was looking to incorporate into her classroom was blogs for the students. When I was building the website with teacherweb I was not able to create a blog page for each student as you are limited to seven blog pages. As an alternative I created a link on Lori’s class website and created an account on kidblog.org. 

PE3_iMovie

I am bummed! I tried the green screen effect...and I failed.  I hate admitting that. I just did not have the right   green background. It would have been awesome too.

I took my son's green comforter off his bed and hung it in my living room.  Trouble with it was- it was way to dark and I did not have enough lighting.  My husband and son had this fantastic Harry Potter spoof all scripted out and alas I could not use any of the footage. Of course now I want to buy a real green screen because I hate when I am not able to complete something. I just might have to invest in the real deal and have them reenact their skit so I can get it just right.

I really feel like I learned a lot from the tutorials and I wish I would have had them in month one when we had to create our intro video.  But better late than never! Of course I think I am addicted to Lynda.com and want to watch every tutorial they offer.