Interactive White Boards and Clickers

I've often been asked why our school doesn't have Interactive Whiteboards (IWB). I feel for the price of them there are much better ways to use our technology budget and I quite frankly am not convinced that they make teaching that much more innovative. I was so excited to read The Innovative Educator's blog post today on the same topic. It really solidified my thinking!

Read, Write, Think

I love the Read, Write, Think website. They have great literacy activities or ways to help kids write. I ran across their Flip Book maker and it's no exception. You are able to make up to ten pages with labels at the bottom. Then you get to add text titles, information, and pictures. You can have any combination of the three in your book.

I created one with four pages showing a plant growing. I attempted to attach it to the blog, but my blog doesn't like PDF files. As with any Read, Write, Thing project there is no way to save your progress so students have to work from there all at once.
Enjoy!

Free sound effects!

FreeSFX provides free sound effects for use in projects. According to the FAQ on the website, "All the sound effects available for download on freeSFX are uploaded by the owners of the sounds who have granted permission for them to be downloaded and used." This means it's a perfect place for teachers to send students who want a particular sound effect because it's easy to search. Next time you need a sound effect, try FreeSFX!

What to read?

I finally finished my reading from the Iowa Teen Award list and I'm looking for something new. Since this is a story based blog I thought I'd ask for some assistance in choosing what to read next. These are three options I received from my classmates. I'm really enjoying Young Adult Literature but I'm willing to read just about anything from any genre. Have any other good ideas? Share them in the comments section!

Stories for Kids

As an educator, it can be hard to find appropriate videos for your students. Our state allows us access to Discovery Education but it can be hard for younger students to navigate. I ran across Kideos - Videos for Kids which provides a safe online environment where students can watch appropriate videos. All of the videos are screened by an advisory board before they're placed on the site. There is a navigation bar which allows you to choose the age level that the video is appropriate for. It starts at 0-2, however, studies have shown children under 2 shouldn't be watching TV because it can have negative developmental effects, and I would think watching videos on the computer would do the same. It is up to each parent to make the decision for their own child, but that's my 2 cents.

When I was browsing the site I found a variety of videos. I found 'Just Me and My Dad' by Mercer Mayer (in the 5-6 section) as well as 'Baby Dancing to Beyonce - All the Single Babies' (also in the 5-6 section) so there is quite a variety of videos and most are from YouTube. The thing I like best is that students aren't able to get into inappropriate videos, like they sometimes can in other video sites. Check it out and if you use this site already, leave a comment and let me know what you do with it!

Wordle

I love Wordle and as I was thinking about the site today, I thought even Wordle can be used to tell a story! I actually encouraged my Language Arts teachers to have their students use it as a cover for one of their papers after writing it. They copied and pasted the text into a Wordle and created a cover. It was a neat way to display their stories and give the reader a preview of what was to come! I realized that you can create a Wordle through your blog posts and I was curious as to what story it would tell. See for yourself...

As you can see 'created', 'one' and 'slide' are a few of my major words. I think it's interesting what makes "the cut" in Wordle. Try it with your blog or with your students and see what you find!

Slide Six

I know I've talked about one of my favorite blogs Free Technology For Teachers but they've done it again. They showed me a great resource. The Slide Six is a way to upload your audio directly to your PowerPoint ONLINE! We had great problems with this in one of my summer classes and this would've been a PERFECT solution to uploading our projects and it's FREE! I tried it with a short presentation I made in PowerPoint and uploaded to Slide Six. One of the nice benefits is that they let you try it without getting an account! How nice is that!

Here is the premiere of my own trial of Slide Six. It worked GREAT!

Th1rteen R3asons Why

I created the following book trailer for a class I'm taking at UNI. I took all of the video with a Flip camera and did all of the editing in iMovie. Enjoy!

Collage Stories

I've always enjoyed creating collages. This is one I created in college and it says so much about me at that time. It shows what was important to me and the things I spent my time on. The most interesting thing is that some have changed but not all. I still love to read both magazines and books and I love to keep in touch with my friends. However, I don't use AIM anymore and I don't have a Xanga account anymore. What a great snapshot of one part of my life.

I think students would love to create a collage. It would be neat to do at the beginning of the year and see if anything has changed even at the end of the year.

Friends

I'm really enjoying finding new ways to create stories. It allows me to see the possibilities and see how feasible it'll be in school. I created the video above using Picasa and it was super easy. It didn't take very long to put together, but like my students, the music took me the longest!

Search Stories Video Creator

This is such a neat idea and a fun way for students to create stories.
Create your own and see others that are already created :)

Newsweek article on Creativity

I ran across this Newsweek article through Dan Pink's website (www.danpink.com). What caught my attention most was this quote:
Researchers say creativity should be taken out of the art room and put into homeroom. The argument that we can’t teach creativity because kids already have too much to learn is a false trade-off. Creativity isn’t about freedom from concrete facts. Rather, fact-finding and deep research are vital stages in the creative process. Scholars argue that current curriculum standards can still be met, if taught in a different way.
Read the entire article here
That fits so well with use of technology and digital storytelling opportunities. It's articles like these that make me realize it's worthwhile to take the time and energy to allow students opportunities in creativity and technology.

Life in an Event

I had some thoughts relating to Life in a Day discussed in the previous post and was thinking about how this could be used in the classroom or just in life. I attended a wedding over the weekend and many of my friends from high school were there. We are all picture fanatics and always have been. I was thinking about the different stories that would be told if we all combined all of our photos. What facial expressions or dance moves did someone catch that I missed because I was talking? It would be interesting to make a "Life in the Day" type movie on a single event, like that wedding. What a great idea the creators had for the "Life in a Day" project. I'm so excited to see what comes of it!

Life in a Day: A Historic Cinematic Experiment

Free Technology for Teachers blog is one of my favorites to follow for a few reasons. First they do a good job of finding new and useful resources. Second, they share how they think it can be used in schools. Recently, I came across one of their new blog posts about Life in a Day. This project is asking people to film themselves on July 24 and upload the video to Youtube. Then the director, Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald are going to combine the footage into a movie and present it at the Sundance Festival. It's such a unique way for the world to share a story together. They do a much better job of explaining it over at Free Technology for Teachers, so visit their website to find out more

Photographs

Last night I was at an event for an upcoming wedding. As I was sitting there watching new friends of the bride connect with older friends and vise versa I was thinking about the stories each of these ladies can share. The attendees of the event all submitted photographs and notes for the bride which were compiled into a scrapbook. The saying "a picture's worth 1000 words" has never been more true. We started sharing the stories behind the photos or sharing how we knew the bride. Some of the stories included others in the room and some were more personal. It was a great way to connect with one another and really for everyone to get acquainted.

When I chose my photographs for the book I had a hard time because each tells a small story of our friendship. How do you take 10+ years of friendship and tie it into 2 or 3 photos. It's similar to the problem I had when creating the Italian Adventures digital story (found in an earlier post). There are so many pictures to fit into a short amount of time. It really opened my eyes into how much thought and energy needs to go into choosing photos for a story. No wonder it takes illustrators so long to complete a book! Photographs and illustrations can really enhance or deter from the story!

Our New Playground

This was a project created to thank our CPTO for all the work they did to help us fund our new playground. At the beginning of the school year the entire school dedicated the playground with holy water. This was again done during our Open House night with parents. It was a great event for all and the students really enjoy their time on it. Using Animoto is an easy way to create a unique thank you!

Italian Adventures

View my story of Italian Adventures!

Celebration of Life

In July 2005 my dad was diagnosed with colon cancer. In October 2008 he was given a terminal diagnosis. Unlike most people, he threw a celebration of life party. This is the story I created for him.

My first trip to California!

In January I made my first trip to California. I was only there for 5 days but I had a great time!

Digital Storytelling

I've always been fascinated by digital storytelling. It's a great way for students to share and it's so much fun to see what they create. I'm excited to start sharing my own stories.