Lesson 5

      This week was an amazing week of learning. Visual literacy was something I had never considered or even really knew what it meant. According to http://visual-lit.wikispaces.com/What+is+Visual+Literacy%3F, "Visual literacy is the ability to see, to understand, and ultimately to think, create, and communicate graphically. Generally speaking, the visually literate viewer looks at an image carefully, critically, and with an eye for the intentions of the image's creator." What an amazing concept. Director Martin Scorsese gave a great interview about visual literacy. He sees visual literacy as visual story telling. He talked about how his sickly childhood and low academic performance led to him examining movies visual expression. Movies are not just storylines. Emotion and stories can be told through the positioning of a camera. He discusses how the visual image has taken over society and that it is important, powerful tool and how directors have a responsibility to use it wisely and safely. The violen movies he made for an adult audience should not be showng on cable before ten or eleven o'clock at night. He even stated, "I think there's a danger of visual language having more of an effect on kids than it used to. We have to try to deal with this and teach them to interpret the power of visual language." What a powerful view of visual literacy.

      One program I found particularly interesting was Edmodo. This tool creates an interactive classroom. Students can access homework, feedback, grades, discussions, notifications, and even apps! The apps must be purchased but the ability to have such an interactive class in one place is great. No more checking a blog on one page, skip to you gradebook website, skip to your wiki... it is all right there. Teachers can even create badges for their students to achieve. What a neat motivator. The best thing is it is FREE.

     Glogster is amazing program as well. Many students are familiar with making posters for projects. Posters are very one deminsional, with very little opportunity for the use of multimedia. At best, a poster can hold printed photos. Glogster allows for students to create posters with the ability to show video, audio, and files. These posters are far more interactive than any other form of poster. Imagine students researching Native Americans and finding a video of a powwow. Previously, the best way to present this information to the class was through a still photo. Now with Glogster, students can embed the actual video into their poster.

Check my previous blog entry for examples of some of my other technology explorations.

Websites:
http://www.edutopia.org/martin-scorsese-teaching-visual-literacy - interview with Martin Scorsese
http://www.edmodo.com/

http://www.glogster.com/

Playing Around with Jing and Prezi

Using Jing: Here is a Back to School Video from Teachertube called Welcome Back to School:

http://screencast.com/t/MxbovzRjNZ

This is not a true presentation, just something to give me a feel for Prezi. See what you think.

http://prezi.com/fx8unbx6wt7q/copy-of-mrs-caudills-hip-hoppin-frogs/

Playing with Spicynodes

I created a Spicynodes web for the after school book club that I am in charge of this year. Bookfest is a neat program sponsored by a local university. Students read 6 books and then go to Boofest to participate in all kinds of activities that pertain to the books. There are also many contests where students can win gift cards for creatively applying what they have read to critical thinking activities. Check it out:

http://www.spicynodes.org/a/39d451fab75d6dec58ea55ce66d07a3a

Lesson 4

     Making presentations is a part of a teacher's job. Although many of the technologies have changed to be more interactive than PowerPoint, it can still be an effective tool for presenting, providing you do not read straight from the slides. I constructed the PowerPoint below to introduce my students to the scientific method in preparation for the upcoming science fair.  The item that I am most proud of in this PowerPoint is the slide focused on hypothesis. Although you cannot see it by just looking at the handout, there is a link to a clip from the preschool show "Dinosaur Train" where Buddy explains what a hypothesis is in very simple terms. It is a catchy presentation of the definition and it is one that will stick with the students. The design of the presentation is consistent, with easy to read font sizes and types. I even like the fact the design is science themed. I also really like the chart I found at http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_scientific_method.shtml. It really shows the process visually, and even how you should circle back to your hypothesis in the end.  There are not too many words on each page, and the graphics go along with the content for the most part. There are spots built in for practice and discussion, allowing for students to be interactive, which highly desirable. As the school year is out, I had to present it to my three and seven year old sons. The content is aimed at 5th grade students, so my children lost interest pretty quickly. The "Dinosaur Train" clip caught their interest again and they were even able to answer what a hypothesis is. If I were to reconstruct this presentation for my children, I would "dumb" down the information as they are not yet ready for the level of information I expect of my 5th graders.  In some ways the presentation was too long, and I may want to consider how I can condense the information a little more. In all reality, I plan to cover this PowerPoint over the course of two days, allowing time for activities that correspond with the slides. For example, to demonstrate the importance of specific procedures, I want students to instruct me how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Following their directions exactly always opens up their eyes to the importance of being specific and going in order. Try it with your students! You will find it to be an eye opening and humorous experience.
     Other than creating PowerPoints this week, I spent a great deal of time exploring various websites, most of which are labeled below. One of my favorites is Comic Life. You, or students, can upload your personal pictures and create a comic book. I took two very simple pictures from my family vacation last week and put them together. No, the frog leg I ate was not actually Senor Frog. Senor Frog was returned to the puddle near out house that very night. I actually didn’t have frog legs until several nights afterwards. It was a neat little program that is easy to use. I could definitely see students creating comic book scenes from novels they read or events from history. My other favorite was Storybird. Storybird is a storybook creator similar to Tikatok, but with less control over placement. However, the image selections are better in my opinion. The goal seems to inspire children to write through art. I just did a quick off the cuff story, but as you can see, the pictures are nice and it even comes with a cover page and summary. It is very quick for students to use and can be published to a classroom library. Teachers can even assign topics for stories and have them all collected in one easy to find location. I highly recommend both products.

My PowerPoint:

My Examples of some of the Technology Explorations:

  

Goofing off with Comic Life

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/13575548/historical-figurez-movie- a short 26 second animated movie

http://storybird.com/books/a-lonely-forest/ - See my StoryBird book.

Websites:

http://comiclife.com/ - take your photos and turn them into a comic

http://www.ispeech.org - Provides the text to speech audio for this Blog.

http://voicethread.com/#q.b913891.i4865967 - A Voice Thread Book Report on The Lightning Thief, a wonderful example of how it can be used in the classroom.

http://storybird.com/ - another way students can create stories

http://www.scribblar.com/- an online, collaborative whiteboard

http://nlvm.usu.edu/ - great website for online manipulatives

Lesson 3

     I often use word processing programs and spreadsheet programs to make worksheets, flyers, posters, and project sheets. Often times these documents lack visual appeal as they are made very quickly. However, when the topic demands or when there is lots of time to develop visual appeal, I have created several types of visually appealing documents.

        Last year, all our weekly newsletters were required to be sent home by e-mail. This led to most teachers, including myself, to just typing information into a textbox with little to no visual appeal. To make things easy to identify, subjects were broken up into clearly labeled paragraphs or bullets, and important information was bolded and/or highlighted. Below you will see an image of a template I have made for the upcoming school year in order to make newsletters visually appealing to parents.

     Being able to email the newsletters allows for the effective use of color. Each of the subjects are color coded to the book colors in class. We color code many things including out books, planners, and folders. Now I have the capability for the newsletters to also be color coded. Having each subject in its own box allows for quick reference. Each box has space for a general objective for that subject that week as well as a labeled space for upcoming quizzes and tests and the material that will be covered. Quick reference, I have found, is important to parents as they are less likely to read a newsletter if you have a paragraph for each subject. Upcoming dates that are important have their own box and there is a quickly referenced space at the bottom for parents to find my contact information.

     I have also created a project menu for our highly anticipated American Revolution Unit. This project has been modified through the years but has finally settled on a menu style choice. With this being the case, the project is set up like a menu. The menu is four pages comprising of at least four choices for each of the following: appetizer, entrée, and sides.  There is an optional section labeled desserts. Each section has a main objective that students will choose a project from to demonstrate their proficiency. The choices are given entertaining names, just like restaurants do. Then after each project option name there is a description of what is expected for the completion of that option. I originally had picture examples for select project options, just like restaurants do, but I found students were copying the ideas. Therefore I changed the images to general images that relate to the project. You can see JPEG images of the menu below.

Websites:

Practice worksheet from posters.4teachers.org

http://poster.4teachers.org/worksheet/view.php?id=162825

Practice student poster

http://poster.4teachers.org/view/poster.php?poster_id=453541

Examples of Videos

http://kidsvid.4teachers.org/nav_pages/theater.shtml

JPEGS of Newsletter and Project Menu

Lesson 2

Spreadsheets and Databases

  Spreadsheets and databases are not just for businesses anymore.  Once again technology has slipped into the everyday life of education. Educators use spreadsheets for so many things. Just check out this article from Education.com: http://www.education.com/reference/article/impact-spreadsheets-education/. Spreadsheets are being used for administrative purposes as well as educational lessons, because they are effective and efficient.

     Administratively, teachers use them for a variety of purposes. I personally use Excel as a place to write up and organize my lesson plans. I also develop unit overviews, seating charts, inventories, and organizational charts. I even use excel to develop my own pacing guides. Data is easily collected and analyzed through the use of Excel. Students are constantly being tested - formally and informally - so that teachers can make educated decisions about how to best move forward to meet student needs. Creating graphs, using functions, and making charts are central to this process. I have even found where other teachers have created posters using Excel. I live, breathe, and promote Excel for educator use everyday, but now I have a new reason to love Excel.

     For me, the idea of student's using Excel was reserved for their computer special. Surely elementary students would not be able to use Excel as an integrated portion of various subjects. Why I was so naive, I will never know. Dr. Alice Christie has created a website with several elementary level uses of spreadsheets in the classroom. Most are related to mathematics, but other subjects are included as well.  Take for instance the activity of charting the climate of two U.S. cities. This is often done during a science unit on chart paper. However, students can use Excel to chart the information, and then quickly create graphs to make comparisons and inferences. If you visit http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110054/Classroom_Activities.html, activities are even broken down by subject. Under "Grammar", this teacher had the idea of students typing in their vocabulary words in one column and their definitions in a separate column. Students then copied and pasted these columns onto a blank worksheet. The list of vocabulary words were sorted alphabetically, giving students a way to study through matching terms with definitions. Students were able to self-check through the using the original worksheet.

     Although I have not previously used Excel in the classroom with my students, I see it becoming integrated into many of my units. With so many ideas at my fingertips, it would be horrifying to deny my students the opportunity to grow more advanced in their use of technology and to be actively engaged.  Technology has become center to our students' lives, even if we may find ourselves reluctant to admit it. It is time for me to learn to integrate Excel into my classroom, isn't it about time for you to do the same?

Examples of how I have used Excel:

Curriculum Pacing Guide

Lesson Plan Book

  Unit Overview

 

Websites:

http://www.education.com/reference/article/impact-spreadsheets-education/

http://alicechristie.org/edtech/ss/ - Dr. Christie's Website 

http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=111 - How to make posters using Excel.

http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110054/Classroom_Activities.html - Classroom Spreadsheet Activities

http://learntech.ties.k12.mn.us/Excel_Classroom_Projects - Excel Classroom Projects

http://www.madison.k12.al.us/compserv/Spreadsheets/spreadsheetresources.htm - Links to other spreadsheet resources