Summer vacation!

Have a great summer vacation all! Enjoy what's left of it and hopefully the weather will begin to cooporate now that we are officially on vacation!

Have a good one! Great chatting with all of you!

Kids music!

I was creating my powerpoint presentation and thought it would be fun to include some songs as examples of possible projects. It took me a while to figure it out, but I did it! Yeah me! Found a cute website www.freekidsmusic.com

Had some great classics such as tinkle twinkle, the alphabet song and many others. Great ressource for the younger grades and for any parent.

Check it out!

Love technology!

Saw this and thought it was hilarious! I went through 17 hours of labour with my daughter and if this were my husband I think I would have smacked him. Thank goodness for digital imagery!

Digital Imagery Ressources

http://www.wacona.com/digicam/digicam.html

http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ucfcasio/qvuses.htm

http://www.hardin.k12.ky.us/res_techn/TEC/digitalcamera/primary.htm

http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~toh/image/DigitalCameraUses.htm

Puzzle making with digital imagery

One thing that Iwas taught to aid in pre-writing and pre-writing is the reognition of letters. In one of my courses, they concentrated on the form, shape and curves that all the letters make. They explained how puzzles can really help with this as it forces students to really look at the shape and contour of the puzzle pieces in order to put them together. I had a few puzzles in my classroom, but not many so rather than go out and buy some I created puzzles with them. At the beginning of the year I would take photos of the students in my class and then print them and glue them onto a cardboard. I would then cut them into different pieces (5 piece puzzles to start) and they would have to put them together. They loved it and it worked the recognition of curves and shapes for, eventually, letters and they got to work on getting to know one another and putting names to the faces of their classmates.

Ahhh memories!

Ona very positive side of digtial imagery, it is one the most amazing ways to create and preserve memories. In my classroom, I love to take pictures of the children's personal accomplishments and special events. The children love to see theses things and it's a wonderful keepsake for them and their parents as well.

Often, in JK what happens is during play time students will build a castle or a fort with the building blocks or legos, well when it comes time to clean up they often don't want to because they don't want to undo what they've accomplished. So what I do is I take a picture of it and then print it later and post in the class so that that student can now remember his personal accomplishment. It's a great way to help them remeber things and to avoid conflict because they are worried that someone will ruin their castle. it has certainly settled a few issues in my classroom.

BEWARE!

When using a digital camera in a classroom and/or in a school one must be aware that a parents consent is mandatory in order to take their childs picture. For example, in our school we have a monthly news letter that goes out to all of the parents as well to the church that is affiliated iwht our school. Because this newsletter is distributed to a small part of our community, the school must have the parents permsission to take their childs picture.

Even if their is no newsletter distributed throughout the community, I have to wonder of we still need permission to take their picture, because I know that I take my photos to wal-mart to be printed, but someone could very easily look over my shoulder and see photos of my students. There may be some parents out there who do not want this for many reasons.

In order to cover our bases, shouldn't all schools have a consent form for picture taking?

Digital Audio

I truly believe that digital audio is the new way in our classrooms. As mentioned by our teacher in one of our forums, a lot of our teaching is based on talking and listening, but are we being heard? I have this argument with husband many times when I ask if he is listening to me and he responds with "yes I hear you!" and my response is always "you may hear me, but are you listening?" We could ask our students the same questions. Even as adults we often tune someone out as they are speaking, we may hear that the person is talking about IEP's or diversity in the classroom, but are we truly listening? Often when we are not listening it is because our minds are elsewhere. "Did I lock thr door when I left this morning?", "My daughter has a doctors appointment at 3pm today.", "When are report cards due again?", and the list goes on. Our students maynot have the same thoughts as us, but they too become distracted.

With digtial audio, this gives our students the opportnity to listen over and over again to the same thing until it is clear. As we all know, many if our students need more repetition than others but it can sometimes be difficult to manage with 1 teacher and 20 students. With digital audio it allows them the freedom of repetition of and when needed.

The new technology could do so much for us as teachers and for our students, now the hard part is trying to find the time and the various ways to integrate it.

7 things you should know about... Digital Storytelling

Interesting article printed by Educause Learning Initiative- Advanced learning through IT innovation.

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7021.pdf

Ckeck it out!

Interesting quote!

I found this quote to be quite intresting, meaningful and true. I thought it was worth sharing.


“Stories move in circles. They don’t move in straight lines. So it helps if you listen in
circles. There are stories inside stories and stories between stories, and finding your
way through them is as easy and as hard as finding your way home. And part of the
finding is getting lost. And when you’re lost, you start to look around and listen.”

- Corey Fischer, Albert Greenberg, and Naomi Newman
A Travelling Jewish Theatre from Coming from a Great Distance
Excerpted from Writing for Your Life by Deena Metzger

www.storycenter.org

I found this website about this international company that due digital storytelling. Here is a small part of there introduction explaining a little about them.

The Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS) is an international non-profit training, project development, and research organization dedicated to assisting people in using digital media to tell meaningful stories from their lives. Our focus is on partnering with community, educational, and business institutions to develop large-scale initiatives using methods and principles adapted from our original Digital Storytelling Workshop. We also offer workshops for organizations and individuals and serve as a clearinghouse of information and resources about storytelling and new media.

This company offers workshops as well as public speaking and story screenings across Canada and the U.S in order to help and assist people to tell their own stories.

Considering this a term that I had never heard of, I found it quite interesting to see that there is even a company that does this.

What is Podcasting in the classroom and Digital Storytelling?

I figure that before I start commenting on the pros and cons of theses new methods, I had better find out what they are first. Here's what I found in terms of definitions:

PODCAST is a series of digital computer files, usually either digital audio or video, that is released periodically and made available for download by means of web syndication.
The syndication aspect of the delivery is what differentiates podcasts from other ways of accessing files, such as simple download or streaming: it means that special client software applications known as podcatchers (such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes or Nullsoft's Winamp) can automatically identify and retrieve new files in a given series when they are made available, by accessing a centrally-maintained web feed that lists all files currently associated with that particular series. New files can thus be downloaded automatically by the podcatcher and stored locally on the user's computer or other device for offline use, making it simpler for the user to download content that is released episodically.

Like the term broadcast, podcast can refer either to the content itself or to the method by which the content is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting. A podcaster is the person who creates the content.

"DIGITAL STORYTELLING" is an emerging term, one that arises from a grassroots movement that uses new digital tools to help ordinary people tell their own 'true stories' in a compelling and emotionally engaging form. These stories usually take the form of a relatively short story (less than 8 minutes) and can involve interactivity.
The term can also be a broader journalistic reference to the variety of emergent new forms of digital narratives (web-based stories, interactive stories, hypertexts, and narrative computer games).
As an emerging area of creative work, the definition of digital storytelling is still the subject of much debate.

The importance of audio in software.

Another criteria that I find to be very important to OESS is the audio factor. With my experience with the young children, they are very much stimulated visually and by sound and I am sure this is the same with the older kids as well. If a software program does have audio, then I believe it should not only be clear but also up-to-date and appealing. It's not appealing for anyone at any age to listen to a voice that is monotone, unclear and not loud enough. I have found with some older programs that we have in our school some instructions are given via voice demand and if this is not clear than it makes for a very difficult time to foolow the instructions and follow the program. Many students will often lose interest in the software because they can't undertsand anyway therefore it impacts the functions of the program. No matter what gae you are, if something is unclear than you often make the association that it is not working correctly and will therefore not use this software that probably cost a pretty penny.

Cost influences many of decisions, does it influence the OESS?

Everyday of our lives we are faced with financial decisions. Cost influences many of my everyday decisions, as in I will buy milk from Wal-Mart because it's only $3.97, however at Fortino's it's $4.69. I could buy diapers at Wal-Mart because I am already here, however I will make the drive over to Zellers because they are on sale this week. Theses are decisions that we face in our everyday lives...where can I save a few bucks?

I have to ask myself if cost should be a part of the criteria when the OESS is evaluating software. In a perfect world we would all love to drive the new car, but does it fit into our budget? Does this fancy new state of the art software fit into the school boards budget? Into the Ministry of Education's budget? When evaluating software I truly believe that this should be a part of the criteria. Cost influences our decisions on a daily basis, so you would think that cost would influence the usage of a new software program. Surely it would nice for all schools to have the best of the best but unfortunately it is not a reality. The price doesn't take anything away from the product and how great it may be, but if no one can afford it then all it is is a fancy new car sitting in the lot because no one can afford the payments.

The fine line between the teachers responsibility and the parents!

I truly believe that a teacher is a teacher 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. Our job never ends and we always have the best interest of all students as a priority. When it comes to internet safety, I have to wonder where our job ends and the parents' begin. We, as teachers, can only do so much to teach our children internet safety and to prevent cyber-bullying, however once they are out thoses school doors our hands are somewhat tied in terms of what we can do. When the cyber-bullying is happening from a home computer, I believe that the parents play a key role in being responsible for this. This was an issue this year at my school, but what is a teacher to do when this is happening outside of our walls? Surely we do our best to educate about the subject and to prevent it as much as possible, but where does the teachers' responsibility end and the parents' begin?

Once it's out there you can't get it back!

I like to think that I know a little bit about technology, however there is just so much to learn. Some of what I have learnt has been self taught and other things from reading manuals and even articles.
My biggest concern about the internet is it's permanency. It bothers me to know that our lives are all on a computer and that someone out there could potentially access it at any given time. I will confess into my love for Oprah and I once watched an episode all about internet safety. This show really hit me. It reminded me of how easy it is for someone to retrieve information about you. I am guilty of using facebook on a regular basis, however I am now hesistant about what I post on this site. Even the whole idea of blogging bothers me a little bit as I am careful of what I type in order to not give to much personal information. Perhaps some may say that I am paranoid and perhaps this has to do with me being somewhat uneducated when it comes to this form of technology, however do I not have reason to be? Please don't misunderstand me by this, I due fully support new technology and I do my best to keep up with it, however I just wonder about my personal information being accessible by others.

http://supportblogging.com

Even though I found this website very interesting and though it gave many good points and positive aspects in regards to blogging, I still ask myself how one would make this method fair for thoses who do not have computer access.

Here are a few key things that I held on to from this website.


1. Blogging is about reading and writing.
2. Literacy is about reading and writing.
3. Blogging is about literacy.

Uses for blogging in eduaction:
- Teacher communication
- Dialogue generation
- Student blogs
- Teacher blogs

What blogging does for students:

Helps them find a voice:
Another benefit to educational blogging (and wiki-writing) is the opportunity for the student to find a personal "voice" and to develop individual interests. Much like journal-writing, blogging gives wings to ideas that otherwise may can stay trapped in the mind. Many individuals find that blog-writing changes their lives in a significant way by allowing them to express their ideas in a medium that appears to have life and longevity--and that might find a kindred audience.

Creates enthusiasm for writing and communications
It is not expected that all students will take to blogging (just as not all students enjoy writing), but it is believed that blogging has a unique ability to create enthusiasm for writing and the communication of ideas.

Engages students in conversation and learning
Educational Blogging is more than just being about writing, just like writing is more than just writing business correspondence or a lab report for Chemistry class.Unlike traditional forms of publication that are one-way, when the work is done at the end of the publication process, students can be engaged in ongoing conversations about their ideas and thoughts. This can be threatening for some administrators afraid of endangering children, yet, it brings a reality to the classroom that was not previously possible.

Provides an opportunity to teach about responsible journalism
Because students who are posting blogs reach an audience with their posts, whereas a personal diary can be kept private, students have the opportunity in blogging to learn about the power of the published word. Whereas they might be tempted to criticise or make fun of someone in private conversation or in a diary, they can be taught about responsible journalism, and that the consequences of these kinds of remarks in the new world of the read/write web can be serious and long-lasting.

Empowers students
Student blogging is incredibly empowering in the following ways:
1) Instead of writing as a mechanized approach to empowerment where we learn to write well enough for school and work, we learn to write for life-long learning purposes.
2) Writing and blogging and life are intertwined as difficult issues are exposed and dealt with in a transparent community of voices. Although this type of writing entails risk and trust, growth and teamwork naturally result.
3) Writing and blogging encourage students' initiative to write, to be engaged at more than just the head level. It involves writing from head and heart. Children often have not learned to do more than live from the heart, while adults have concentrated their efforts on more cerebral approaches. This means adults and children can bridge the gap that exists by writing together, creating a community of writers in their classrooms where there is no pseudo-community, only community where humans write.