Digital Picture Project

What a great idea!

This lesson would be great for my students! A lot of the students in my school are first generation Americans or even emigrants (like me) and probably have very different perspectives on life.

So by keeping a photo journal could be very interesting.

While I don't know if the pictures my students would take would be as harsh as the ones mentioned in this article, I do think I could learn new things from my students with the pictures. Also, some of my students are very shy, and this could be just the sort of creative outlet that will get their gears going and give them that voice that has been missing.

Free tec could also be used such as Picaso by Google so the students can have access to the pictures and edit them at any time needed.

Look at this article for perspective.

Idea for a Mini Lesson

Today I was thrilled when I walked into my Upper Grades classroom (4th,5th,and 6th students) and saw we have plentiful laptops. The students where working on presentations for their research projects. I was so excited to see PowerPoints, Glogsters, and Prezi being used to present their information I have seen them collecting for a few weeks now.
Unfortunately, it was obvious to me that no one has instructed the students on how to correctly. There where long paragraphs of information that might have been carefully researched, but I can guarantee that they will be read word-for-word by the student and bore the class.
Here is a video that is short and sweet and could have helped the students I was working with:

Interesting Use of Technology for Preschool

I was in a pre-school classroom yesterday afternoon and was interested in watching these students use technology.

First of all, I was unhappy with where the computer was placed in the classroom. It was against a wall that  was in the middle of the classroom facing out. So, when one student was on the computer, the whole class could turn in the direction of the computer and watch the screen. I saw this as a huge distraction and would change the position of the computer if I was the instructor of the class.

On a brighter note, I really liked the lesson on the computer that day I went. It was a PowerPoint that would first display a word, have the student listen to the proper pronunciation (there is a button to say it in Spanish too because it is a dual language school) and the next slide would be a picture of the word. I liked this lesson because it is independently done and the student can hear the word said in two languages as many times as they like by just clicking a button. While they hear it, they also see the word in text. The students enjoyed looking at the pictures too because the pictures where very large and also very good quality.

Standardized Test Rap!

A rap made by a school in my home town area in Baltimore, MD. Very cute and hopefully educational in terms of technology and preparation for the kids!

Time Warp!

Just taking some time to revisit a lesson from undergrad that involved getting the students using technology, in this case TurningPoint.

TurningPoint is an "audience response system" that I used in turn with PowerPoint. My school had "clickers" that where like tiny remotes. I see now that TurningPoint can be used with cell phones and iPod touches, which is exciting!

Turning point is great because it gives students interaction with their lesson and great for teachers to get immediate feedback and can be used as formal or informal evaluations.

Take a look at this sample lesson:

Showcase Lesson Reflection

Technology: 2/20/09

Lindsey Huber

            My incorporation of TurningPoint in my lesson in order to review vocabulary words gave a different approach to studying. Not only did I enjoy making the presentation, I was able to informally gage how the class as a whole understood their words. My showcase lesson went very well I believe, but there would be some things I would change in order to enhance it.

            For instance, on the day before when I was setting up the classroom computer to do this lesson, the technology coordinator and I only tested a few clickers to see if TurningPoint worked. Now I know that I should have tested every clicker that day because half of them did not work when I went to do the lesson. I was very embarrassed with my supervisor there, but luckily I had alternate work prepared that would review their vocabulary words. This really saved me because I was not stranded with nothing for the students to do that day. The clickers ended up to be out of batteries and my supervisor was very understanding of my situation, but I was still embarrassed. So now I know that I should check every piece of technology that day in order to make sure it all works correctly. Also, I should always have a back up plan in case things do not go right.

            Another thing I have learned with my lesson is to not take too much time on the TurningPoint activity in order to prevent boredom. With my other class, I took the time to read every sentence and choice of answers. This approach took a lot of time and by the end I felt as if I was loosing the students. With the lesson where my supervisor was there, my mentor suggested that I should not take the time to read every sentence and choice to words. This seemed to work better because we moved faster and also the students where more engaged. This is most likely because the students would have to read the selection for themselves and not have to hear the droning of my voice. So the showcase lesson used TurningPoint for just enough time.

            I think that next time, I would use a short matching worksheet as an opening activity to get the students think about the words and their definitions. This is because the activity that I had for the students was a little bit more difficult and took too much instructional time. Though I do like the reenforcement activity, I think it was a little over kill on their minds. 

            I think that the use of technology in my lesson gave the students an alternate way to review their vocabulary in a way for me and my mentor to see their progress. We gave this lesson the day of their test and I was able to informally see if they understood the definitions correctly in a short amount of time. I liked doing this and I think I will do this again in the future and make appropriate changes.

My EDET 650 Blog Spot: Let's Kick It -- Downloading Video From YouTube

This was recently blogged by my classmate and find it very useful! It's about taking YouTube videos from online to your desktop and hopefully into the classroom to enhance lessons.

Hopefully everyone will click the link and take a look fore more information and an instructional clip on how to do this.

My EDET 650 Blog Spot: Let's Kick It -- Downloading Video From YouTube:

"This week I have been working on kicking videos from YouTube to my desktop.  This allows me to sync them to the iPods for my students to use as review and reference. I first tired to “kick” using FireFox and was not successful. I then tried using the web browser, Safari and found that downloading these videos was very simple and painless. So remember to use Safari. I created this movie to help anyone “kick” with ease. Good luck. "