Integrating Social Networking Project (u05a2)

I'm currently teaching 2nd grade, and this year we will be departmentalizing our instruction. I will only be teaching language arts, so I chose to adapt a lesson and project that I currently do with my 2nd graders to incorporate social media. When I think of social media, Facebook and Twitter automatically come to mind, but there are many sites that allow for online interaction. I'm choosing to use Voice Thread for this project. It is a Web 2.0 tool that I became familiar with during another EDIM course, and would LOVE to use it with my kiddos this fall.

Lesson Plan for Tomie dePaola Author Study Culminating Project (Multi-Day Project)
Goal: As a class, we've been studying Tomie dePaola as an author and illustrator. We're learning from him through both our reading and writing eyes. The goal of this project is for students to choose a favorite Tomie book, analyze it with the given criteria, illustrate four pictures to match their descriptions using paint, create a Voice Thread digital story, and comment on the digital stories of at least 2 other classmates.

Objective and Relevancy: TSW analyze Tomie dePaola as an author, construct a reflection of what they've learned, and respond to the learning of their classmates in order to properly share opinions with others and integrate technology into their learning.

Procedures: (After finishing reading/discussing several Tomie dePaola books and analyzing them as readers and writers.)

1. Ss choose favorite Tomie dePaola book and respond in their journals to the following prompts:
         * What is your favorite Tomie dePaola book.
         * Who is your favorite character in that book and WHY?
         * What is your favorite part of the book and WHY?
         * What is the author's message?

Sample Template for Student Prompts

2. Ss illustrate a rough draft in their journals to make a picture for the following slides:
         * Design a new book cover for your favorite book.
         * Draw and label a picture of your favorite character.
         * Draw a picture to represent your favorite part of the book.
         * Draw a picture to represent the author's message of that story.

3. After T has a chance to correct steps 1&2, take Ss to computer lab to paint their four pictures using Paint. T troubleshoots as needed and directs Ss how and where to save the pictures they are drawing.

4. T guides students through the Voice Thread process of uploading photos, recording their voices, and sharing the links with the teacher. (See example Voice Thread created about Tom. All pictures included in the Voice Thread were painted by yours truly using Paint.)

5. After T compiles links to all Ss Voice Threads, Ss spend a day in the computer lab commenting on fellow classmates Voice Thread projects.

Closure: Back in the regular classroom, Ss and T dialogue and reflect on what they learned from completing the project, what their favorite part was, and one thing Ss enjoyed hearing another classmate learn.

Assessment: completed projects, observation, q&a, student interaction on other's Voice Threads

I've completed a project similar to this with my 2nd graders in previous years. It's a LOT to bite off with 7 year olds, but I've learned that slow and steady wins the race. I can't expect them to complete this project in one day unless I want to see tears from them and shed a few myself! :)
In the past, I've done this project in Photo Story (as per district requirements) and embedded each project onto our class website as something to share at November conferences. This year, it would be really neat to add the aspect of social media via Voice Thread so that students could interact with one another's projects. I think expanding their audience gives more relevancy to the project (which is a huge push in our district right now). I also think that it would give students another technology tool for their tool belt. Even at the age of 7, they know how to do some great technology projects! The final reason this project would be beneficial to complete whole class would be because I could then assign Voice Threads as a center for some of my students to work on during Language Arts (on iPads and PCs). They would LOVE this, and it would give more "beef" to my sometimes "meh" centers!

Photo-A-Day #7 and Project Reflection

Meet Rubie...a puppy of one of my great friends. Rubie gave me a new perspective on two things this weekend. First, Rubie gave me a new perspective on patience. My friend and her husband adopted Rubie not too long ago and are going through many of the challenges a puppy brings - sleep schedules, potty training, eating everything, etc. Spending time with my friend and Rubie this weekend showed me a whole new perspective on how patient my friend really is...not just with her pets, but with people, too. To go along with that, Rubie also shed a new perspective on parenting. I'm not a parent, and my friend has no human children, but she and her husband are definitely parenting their dogs. Rubie is in that "newborn/toddler" stage, and is giving them a perspective on parenting as they work through those challenges together.

Doing the photo-a-day project has probably been one of the most fun projects of this course for me. I really enjoy taking pictures as a "journal" for life's adventures. In the past few weeks, I've been doing a great deal of life processing, and perspective has been a theme that's come up. It was fun to thread that word through all aspects of life this week. I started out the week (Monday and Tuesday) looking intentionally for a picture that would encapsulate perspective. Wednesday and Thursday, I just took pictures as I normally would and then looked at them to see what reflected my perspective of the day. Friday-today, I wanted my pictures to showcase my vacation with friends. After taking the pictures (either on my Nikon CoolPix or my iPhone), I posted some of them raw, edited some using Pixlr, and collaged some on Pixlr to encapsulate more than just one moment. This is how I post all of the pictures I share online so I approached this challenge no differently. I'm sure there are many ways to upload onto my blog, but I posted each through my computer. It was just easier for me to manage, and once I got myself into the routine, it didn't take very long at all. I've seen several of these "challenges" done on Facebook before, but had never participated myself. As I was thinking about this project from a classroom sense, I thought it would be neat to have a picture or two of the week that my class decides on as a whole group. We could Tweet them and share them on our class website. I'm sure they would definitely take ownership over that! It would also be neat because I put together a photo slide show/video for them as an end of the year gift, and they would feel like they had a part in creating it.

Photo-A-Day #6

This was Saturday's picture that I took while vacationing this weekend. Typically, when I hear the word vacation, my mind automatically goes to the hustle here, hustle there, see everything we can possibly cram into our limited days mentality. My college friends challenge my perspective on vacation as we venture off to a quiet lake house in the Pocono Mountains of PA. I love sitting on this dock, catching up with friends, and having time to unplug and process life. It often gives me a new perspective --- or at least reminds me of the perspective I've lost sight of so often.

Photo-A-Day #5

I'm headed out on a long weekend vacation with my college friends today. Once a year we come from wherever we're currently living to reconvene at a lake house in the Pocono Mountains of PA. It's been a yearly tradition and one weekend of the summer that I really treasure! No cell phone service, no fluffs and frills, no husbands...just the four of us girls, some junk food, a lake with boats, and grandma's 1970s cottage. The timing of this weekend is one friend's birthday, another's anniversary, and the third's almost anniversary. So for gifts this year, I took a new perspective. I've gotten into painting recently and decided I would personalize a painting for each of my friends to fit in a special place of their home. It's much easier to just buy something, but this year I wanted to make it. The above photo is my perspective from the morning as I'm getting ready to wrap gifts and head out for some adventures.

Photo-A-Day #4

It's that time of year again...
When thinking about perspective today, I immediately thought of school. It seems like just yesterday that summer vacation started, but today was rearrange my furniture, open the closets, and begin the daunting task of setting up my classroom again. I'm sure you can all relate to the love/hate relationship we have when Back-To-School displays start popping up mid-July!

Photo-A-Day #3

A roommate trip to the Philadelphia Zoo (with the free teacher admission in the summer, of course!) was full of adventures. Yes, we took pictures of and with several of the animals, but I also thoroughly enjoyed riding the carousel. It just brings out the little kid in me! :) Thinking about perspective this week, my roommate suggested taking our picture in the mirror while we were riding. This is definitely a self-portrait from a different perspective.

Photo-A-Day #2

When it's time to hang up picture frames, everyone has a different perspective. Should it go here or there? Is it level? Which picture goes where? My roommate and I are in the process of decorating our apartment and working on communicating our perspectives on decorations, photos, and life in general. Hence, perspective is the theme of the week!
PS...I know it's not QUITE straight! :)

Photo-a-day Day #1

It's time to start the Photo-a-Day Challenge. I LOVE taking pictures, so this was a great idea for me to think about a common theme in my pictures this week. I've chosen #perspective as my hashtag for the week.

My friends and I love to geocache. We went out tonight in the Mt. Joy, PA area and found several caches. This is a quick look at our finds from a different perspective.

I Knew I Was Going to be an Educator When...(Digital Story Created with a Cell Phone - u04a2)

This was a tricky assignment for me because there were an endless amount of approaches you could take to making a digital story. I thought about taking snapshots, captioning them in Pixlr, and rolling them altogether. I thought about calling in to iPadio and making a podcast to share. I also toyed with the idea of being behind the camera and making my friends tell my story. What I decided on, though, was the tried and true video function of my iPhone. I decided to tell my own story - to pick out props and mile-markers from my journey into education. As I was deciding how to approach my script, I thought back to what I teach my 2nd graders. They learn how to write with "comeback lines" because it keeps the reader (or listener) on track with their story. My comeback line was, "I knew I was going to be an educator when..."

This was one of my first times shooting a video that I've shared on my iPhone. I just came out of the dinosaur phone era 4 weeks ago! I realized when I downloaded the video that because my roommate and I planned and shot the video in portrait style, it needed rotated in order to play on the computer. I imported the video and did a quick rotate so that you wouldn't have to turn your head sideways to see when I knew I was going to be an educator! :) That was just one of the fun joys of this project. Thanks for the opportunity to stretch myself and look at my phone as a learning tool.

I had a hard time using Blogger's uploading video feature so I embedded my video from YouTube. Hopefully it's working! 

Mobiles in the Classroom (u04a1)

After reaching out to several different teacher friends about their use of cell phones in the classroom, I was coming up with a pretty blank canvas. I have one friend, Mrs. Fillion, who teaches high school learning support, and she uses cell phones with students as part of their IEP’s in order to keep them organized (calendar, alarms, etc.) and to give them initiative in starting tasks. Another teacher friend, Amy, uses her personal cell phone alarm for switching subjects and as a timer in her elementary classroom. She said that she’d often use a fun song as the ringtone and the kids loved it!

All that to say, I was discouraged when I realized this week that there is a great deal of potential with cell phones in the classroom, but many teachers are not even beginning to tap into that – especially at the elementary level. An “aha” moment clicked for me, though, when I realized that we were talking about mobile devices (not just cell phones) this week. I immediately went online and looked up the definition of mobile devices. When you Google “mobile devices” the articles and image searches show cell phones, tablets, a variety of e-readers, and mp3 players! It made me feel a little bit better to hear from teachers who are using mobile devices.

I decided to then zone in on conversations I’ve had with the teachers in my building who are utilizing iPads. This past school year was our first experience, and it was definitely a learning process. As with any new technology being introduced to a school district, there are kinks along the way! The biggest hurdle was with district policy to ensure proper monitored usage and student safety. Being a K-3 building, the frustration I heard most was that our kids had to log-in to use the browser every time they picked up an iPad. It seemed to be taking away the ease of use of our devices. The other hurdle that had to be overcome was the app choosing, purchasing, and installation process. Teachers were finding great apps at home on their personal devices, but were unable to quickly transfer that to their classroom iPads. The district still requires all apps to be preapproved and pushed out at an allocated time from the IT department.

The teachers I chatted with range in age from 25-55. That really reminded me that age, technology usage experience, and years of teaching have little to do with technology implementation in the K-3 classrooms. Willingness to learn, try, and probably flounder are the biggest factors in bringing our students up around technology. How are these teachers using mobile devices, then? There are Kindles in classrooms as special rewards to read great books on. iPads are being utilized independently for math and language arts centers. Students are also using them to take pictures, create digital stories, and make Screen Chomp videos to share with their parents. iPods are being utilized as listening centers to save on space and specificity of books that wasn’t available with books on tape or CD and also because of their relevancy and student buy-in.

So what did I pull from this week? First off, I realized that I had a very limited view of “mobile devices”. Secondly, I realized that parents and administration are very supportive and encouraging of the various technology uses. They’ve adapted to the fact that the way we “do” school isn’t now what it always was. I need to take more of that mindset and utilize what my students are already using on a daily basis to support classroom instruction. I also learned that technology implementation is much more difficult of a transition for the adults than it is the kiddos. Kids are used to having to trouble shoot, seeing a new version what seems like every 3 days, and learning to touch everything to figure out how to make it do what you really wanted to. Finally, I learned that I need to think outside the box when it comes to using mobiles. In much the same way that an iPod is just a music player anymore, phones are not just phones. How willing am I to be creative and try something new?

***A special thanks this week to Terry Fillion, Amy Boot, and several of my Ore Valley colleagues for sharing their thoughts, frustrations, and ideas!***

Discovering Something New (u03a2)

This week, I visited Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything to explore a variety of websites. The first site that I chose to explore was a photo fun website called Dumpr. This is a “freemium” Web 2.0 photo fun tool. It’s not required that you register to create a free account, but it is strongly encouraged because it gives you the opportunity to save and store your photos. Dumpr adds a variety of fun effects to images from your computer, Facebook, Flikr, etc. After working its magic, it allows the user to save or send the image. It also connects to a variety of social media by giving you an embed code for several websites including Facebook, Wordpress, and Blogger. It appeared to me as though Dumpr has a social media aspect where you can follow other “friends” and dialogue back and forth about pictures, but I could not find any of that information very easily. My guess is that it is part of the paid membership. I tried to figure that out, but did not have much success. When I looked for more information on Dumpr, there was an old video on TeacherTube and also a link to the Dumpr blog, but it seemed as though the blog hadn’t been updated since 2009. Evaluating this site as an educator, it would not rank very high on my list of sites to devote class time to, but I do think that students would enjoy it to add a little bit of spice to presentations and tech projects.

              
                

Under online audio editors, Creaza was the next site I chose to explore. I was looking for something in similar functionality to Audacity so that my students could have access to it anywhere, but I was happily surprised that Creaza does way more than just edit audio. Creaza is not an American based company, which is neat, but also proved frustrating to me more than once. There are 9 different languages supported in Creaza and in the middle of my projects, I was sometimes switched to another language. This made navigating around an unfamiliar site very tricky! There are definite pros and cons to this. High school language teachers might enjoy the challenge for their students, but as a 2^nd grade teacher, this would be frustrating for mine. After reading the blog, investigating some of the tools available, and checking the help section of the website, I decided to sign up. You can have an individual free account, but there is a fee for schools to use this site. One of the frustrating things was that they wouldn’t tell you a fee up front. You had to submit quite a bit of information to request a quote for your school. Dealing internationally with no physical address linking to this website made me uncomfortable. Other than that, Creaza was very relevant, engaging, and easily accessible (with accounts) making it a great resource to use within the classroom. The first thing I decided to try my hand at was Mindomo, which is an online mind mapping tool. I found it pretty easy to navigate once I started exploring, and I was surprised at the amount of features that were available with the free subscription. I appreciated this tool because you could lay out your mind map in the way that made sense to you and it was very easy to reposition thoughts and ideas once you got them down onto the screen. You can save right to your Creaza online account, which is nice for data storage and ease of access for students to come back to the project at home. Projects can also be edited and saved again, which is a very nice feature.

I then moved on to try my hand at the actual audio editing software. Multiple times that I clicked on the AudioEditor tool, it brought me a fresh screen, but it was in German! A few of my EDIM classmates might appreciate that, but it was EXTREMELY frustrating for me! I went ahead and tried to make a mixed sound effect anyway. Below is a screen shot of what I was able to accomplish. It is a small sound clip of rushing water with horses trotting through. The help section of the website was very helpful, and there was even a YouTube video embedded into it, but when all of the sounds are in German, I couldn’t decipher all of my options!

I know my students would love to use Creaza if I presented it as an option. A few more features that are available include making cartoons and movies! Creaza also has an app available for iPads, which I may look into for the fall. I spent over an hour and a half on this site and could have been there for a dozen more hours, but alas I had to keep moving.

The final site that I chose to explore was Zamzar – an online video converting site. Working with students on digital storytelling projects, iPads, mp3 players, etc. leaves teachers with a variety of media files. Sometimes it’s nice to convert them into a usable format so that all students can work with them. Zamzar allows you the opportunity to convert any file (up to 100MB) for free. All you have to do is select your file, choose which format you would like it converted to, and submit your e-mail address. It sounds quick, but this process takes quite a while. Once you’ve received the e-mail that your file is converted, you have 24 hours to retrieve your converted file. As I was exploring the site, I found it very user friendly, but full of advertisements. The help tab was well organized and gave all of the information I needed. Like the other sites I checked out, Zamzar also had a blog to give you up-to-date news and information and ways that others were using the service. I chose not to register for a Zamzar account, as it was a paid service of $7 a month. Since I wouldn’t use it that much, I didn’t feel like this was a worthwhile investment for me. I did go through the process of converting one of the videos I took on my iPhone to .wmv format to see how the site worked. The e-mail came through within 30 minutes, and I was easily able to download my new file! If I were going to use this site, I personally wouldn’t send my students to it. I would do the leg work and convert the files for them so that we were ready to go when it was time to publish a technology project.