Slacker City!!!

That's how I'm feeling right now. Somehow, I spaced on the blog and am just reading all the thoughtful posts you guys have up there. I guess it's time to put my two cents (if it's really worth THAT much) in. First of all, I was really impressed with all of the comments Ronlyn had about our portfolios and felt proud for our team. Did you really think I would look up my comments and not read everything about everyone elses? That just wouldn't be me :) But, I was expecting that we were behind based on the mass email she sent out. In reality, it appears we are right on track with some very minor edits to our pages. Go STEPPERS!!!

On another note, I'm hoping that Dawn's techno problems get resolved quickly as I also use ELMO every day and would feel a little lost without him at this point in my teaching.

Lastly, I was unable to attend trainings for podcasting and am trying to navigate my way through the process. What it seems to me thus far is that we are using the site www.voicethread.com to create two voicethreads that we can post onto our wiki. I hope that's right, if someone could let me know that would be great. I've checked around the site and am excited to try it our when I have a little more time. The questions that have come up, but hopefully will resolve once I test it out are 1) how do you do a podcast that doesn't have extra files with it but just has my voice recorded, and 2) if you upload a powerpoint presentation, will it open each slide for you to make comments on? I think if I spend a little time with the program these things will become clearer.

OK, that's all for now. It's 11:23 p.m. and I'm just winding down from night school, ate 1/2 bag of m&m's and am ready for bed. See you all manana!!! Thanks to STEP program for my new microphones/headset thingamaginees!!!

Friendly colleagues

Everyone has been so very helpful to me during this entire STEP process.

Today, I planned to work further on my portfolio, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, my ELMO is not working. I wanted to use the ELMO to capture some images for use in my digital story. So, today I had a nice surprise visit from Ronlyn. She is looking into ways to help me with this problem. Maisie has also given me some help that I needed, as she downloaded all the software I needed to complete the projects and integrate some other technology as well. One piece of equipment that I like to use is the Clickers and although it takes some time to set up, once you get it going, it can be used as a pretty nice evaluating tool.

Just some thoughts....

Sliderocket

Hey all, I found this hot website to make interactive presentations. Try www.sliderocket.com. It allows you to a free 30-day trial. See what you think and let me know.

- Dawn :)

Trouble in Tech Land

Hey Steppers:

I have experienced so many issues with the equipment and the assigned projects. Today, my ELMO shuts DOWN on me! The A/C adapter cord for some reason either has a short, or simply does not want to work anymore. This is a huge problem, as I use ELMO daily. At this point, I will contact our lovely T3 team so that I can get some help!

On another note, I lost my power point presentation documenting how we use ELMO in our classes. I have been trying to work on the Wiki and thankfully, it has been cooperating. I have been attempting to pull this PhotoStory together. As mentioned before, I am developing a commercial. Doing something like this is a major undertaking. My students have been angels. They have taken photos, sent the photos to me, the whole nine, I am just lost on what to do for my other PhotoStory sample. Who knows? How is everyone else feeling? Maybe it's just me....... We'll see : )

Photo Story

I think the students can learn a lot using PhotoStory. I have been holding my two Photostories on a zip drive. How do you upload our Photo Stories to the Internet?

Creating Wiki

After reading Bianca's post, I wanted to comment and elaborate on her post about Wikis. I do find the Wiki that I established is beneficial to me because the information is all saved electronically. Through this method, I do have a convenient way to keep track of all portfolio items in one place. The problem with a Wiki as well is Blackboard is the initial stages of establishing all of the areas. With this use of technology it is easier to maintain rather than establish it. I would find this beneficial to my students because each prep that I teach could have its own page with information on it. I see the wiki as more or less a place to disseminate information, but it is not interactive like Blackboard. On Blackboard, I have had my students answer selected response questions about text and complete homework assignments by posting to the discussion board. In addition, I have administered surveys to students about what they thought about my teaching style. Both the wiki and blackboard allow the uploading of files. With the Wiki I could foresee giving access to my students, but I would like to see them establish Wiki's themselves as part of one of our thematic units for 9th grade English.

Creating Wiki

Using the Wiki reminds me of using Blackboard. Once I remembered  how to do it, I enjoyed using it. I heard that Blackboard was going to be retired next year.  So, if this is true, I will probably move all for information to the Wiki.  I prefer Blackboard because I can created quizzes and it has a grade book.  I am looking forward to learning more about Wikis and to see if they have features similar to Blackboard.

Teacher lead Digital Camera

I taught students who visit the library how to create their own accounts using Turnitin.com in response to an IB  student's  request.  Some on the IB students wanted to check their work to make sure they could not be accused of plagiarism. I create an account where students could upload their work and see the report highlighting any sections of their paper with questionable text.  I created 10 assignments for them.  Over 20 students have uploaded their papers to Turnitin.com.  They edited their papers as a result and added quotations marks if needed.  Once I figure out how to upload my Photo Story to the Internet, I can see many benefits from using this software. 

Digital Camera

I used my advisory students to create a Photo Story using the digital camera.  Advisory meets once a month.  It used to meet everyday.  A lesson plan was distributed on how to manage your time.  It consisted of two handouts.  One required students to list their activities for a 24 hour period.  Students were supposed to read an article about how to manage their time. I gave the camera to students and they were able to find plenty of pictures of how to not spend your time.  Since the advisory will not appear on their report cards, students are resistant to doing anything that requires any work.  I had to write the script including the 5 steps to manage their time.  The voice over was performed by a student.  All my advisory students are seniors.  I like to pictures the student took and they also used included their own words in the voice over.  The student who recorded her voice really enjoyed the experience.  She said she will never forget how to manage her time.  I was pleased with the end product. 

Digital Storytelling

To date, my experience with the digital camera has been great. I am quite excited about the features the digital camera and Photostory 3 offers. Although developing the Photostory will take much time and effort, I have made some progress towards the completion of this Digital Story. I plan on using Photostory 3, along with the digital camera to create an Infomercial.

During this time in the school year, rising seniors go about the task of selecting their senior classes. One of the courses offered is the Advanced Placement Biology class. The objective of the Informercial developed by my students and I will be to familiarize the Parkdale High School student body with the Advanced Placement Biology course. Current AP Biology students will capture digital images, select appropriate assignment samples and music, not to mention providing the narration for this project. In the story/infomercial, students will discuss the objectives of such a course, highlight the benefits of taking AP courses, in particular AP Biology, chronicle their own experience in the class and highlight some of the fascinating activities we have completed and places we have visited as a class.

Again, this project will require some time and thought on my end. Yet, not only am I excited, but also confident that this project will become a part of my professional portfolio and a resource for students in the years to come.

Digital Camera-Future Usage 2nd Photo Story

As we sat in our work session today, I was contemplating how I would use the digital camera for student use. I would like to break students into groups and have them use photo story to complete an activity on themselves. We are currently in the non-fiction unit and something autobiographical in nature might work. I asked students if they had any suggestions as to how we could accomplish such a task in groups and some suggested breaking in to groups based on common experiences. I would then need photo story installed on the classroom computers because they would need full autonomy in working on the project. I see this option as too time-consuming so I may have to think of an alternate activity.

Digital Camera-Teacher Usage

The digital camera (as Maisie said) has been a pickle to plan. I have almost completed one photo story to demonstrate the process my students used to complete an artistic activity on two speeches. Students read "I Have a Dream" (MLK) and "Glory and Hope" (Mandela). We compared the two for rhetorical devices and found they had similarities. In addition, students found overlapping themes. Before getting students to write about the common themes, I designed an activity where students used puzzle pieces in pairs. Students were asked to artistically represent one or more of the themes, but some how their needed to be continuity in the matching puzzle pieces. The continuity could be in the colors used or the themes used. I took pictures of them as they worked from the inception of their ideas to the outcomes of the puzzle pieces. We now had a wonderful body of work produced to replace the character sketches in the classroom.

Document Camera-Student Usage

My students did enjoy the use of the document camera after a few times of pulling teeth with them. Initally, students were somewhat reticent about bringing in personal items to use with the document camera. They did not understand why we were using these items. After demonstrating my own character sketch with the graphic organizer and demonstration of making a watermark in the background of the document, they seemed more interested in bringing in the personal items. I let them set up how the item would be positioned and take the image themselves. We then uploaded their images to our class blackboard account. The images sat in their digital dropboxes until they were ready for use. I bent a few arms to print them in color. The result was great! I hung them all in the classroom, students awed at their own work, and I reveled in their success secretly as they complimented each other. What I also learned is that students somehow get too wrapped up in the aethestic aspect and sometimes neglect producing a quality work. I had to continually remind them that this is technology infusion for enhancements not substitutions.

Blog Post -- Digital Camera and ELMO Document Camera

I have used the ELMO document camera every day in class in a variety of ways. I have used ELMO to post student responses to warm ups, lead guided discussions, construct graphic organizers for in-class debates, etc.

More specifically, I recently used ELMO to help my AP Biology students prepare for the AP Biology exam by providing them with a daily question. I use a variety of resources to pool these questions. One resource in particular is the Princeton Review. As I am sure EVERYONE could relate, I do not have the time nor resources to photocopy these questions every day for my students. Instead, I simply post their daily question using ELMO and the Princeton Review guide. The students have even used this to practice their essay writing.

Another way that I have used ELMO was to have the students assemble a puzzle using the processes of protein translation. Students are provided with "puzzle pieces" that reflect the various steps of translation. Each student is then responsible for assembling the completed puzzle on their desk. They are then called upon to assemble these pieces on the ELMO stage to be viewed by the entire class. Makes a great reviewing tool!

Over the past month, I have also been able to use the digital camera. With the camera, I was able to capture images of my students working on a simulation of transcription and translation using color coded pieces, resembling the 4 nucleotide bases found in DNA and RNA. Upon reviewing the images, I was so encouraged and excited to see how engaged and invested my students became during this activity. Quite naturally, they were excited to see themselves as well.

March 4, 2009 8:21 PM

ELMO Usage

I found the teacher usage of the document camera a valuable tool. I have been able to model various activities that I ask my students to complete in real time. Instead of reviewing a sample, students are able to see me "think through" and 'talk through" the process. This piece of technology provides students with a lens into my metacognitive processes to better foster theirs.

Digitial Camera

Students liked using the digital camera. However, when I told them to take a sequence of pictures to tell the story, they could not think of what to do. I was not able to use a class that I see regularly to do this activity. We used to have an Advisory daily and now we have them only once a month for 30 minutes. So, I try to get other students to fill in the gaps. I am still working with Photo Story and it is taking more time than I thought.

March 4, 2009

After posting my wiki site to the google document for STEP, I'm curious about all the google email features I'm not using because I don't know how to use them. Where can I find more information about the new features of google mail?

On another note, I love ELMO and can't get enough of it. I use it almost every day in class and the two of us are connected at the hip :) I'm actually surprised I got along so well without him in my life. We are a match made in heaven and I would be lost without him. I am able to do so many more things in my classroom and communicate so much better with my students through ELMO. Thank you STEP!!!

As for the digital camera, I'm so excited to have it but at a bit of a loss for how to use it right now. There were several things in the beginning of the year that would have been great to use it for, but now right now. As I'm typing, I'm thinking about how we're about to get into our genetics unit. Perhaps I can have the students take pictures of different traits that they each have, then somehow predict which traits are recessive or dominate based on their frequency in the class. That could work.

Time for bed.

Let's Blog

Hello All, Please take time to blog about the experiences or questions that you and your students have had when using the Elmo Document Camera, Canon Digital Camera, or when creating your wiki and project artifacts. Thanks! ~Patrick & Tiffanie