Podcasts for School Website

I had a great conversation with my principal before spring break about our school website which she has now put me and my colleague in charge of to maintain and organize. Woohoo! We had a discussion about the website and how it can be more user friendly for parents when presenting information on the website that they can have access to when needed in relation to parent meeting topics we have once a month during the school year. I brought up the idea of using podcasts and her reaction to the idea at first was inquisitive but interested, which I expected and so when the conversation continued with me explaining how it would work and benefit parents and teachers that cannot make those meetings by having access to an archive library of podcasts of the meetings for parents which can be access throughout website for the year. She really likes the idea of using podcasts and using technology to offer flexibility to access information about our school and programs to parents and anyone else who may use our website. So, it looks like we will be adding podcast to our school website!

Heartfelt Digital Video Assignment

Digital video is great for students to learn how to create stories, important messages, psas, with information and turn them into visual and audio presentations. I also believe that students benefit using digital video in relation to a lesson and activity to use for prior knowledge in order to make additional connection to the information in order to solve authentic problems. I had a student that passed away from cancer in the month of March and he was a great student and I enjoyed my three years with him so very much. The students and I decided to make a get well and missing memoir digital video for Ryan and the students really felt a great duty to make the video was awesome and why they wouldn’t. They made sure they took in all the information on how to use a flip cam and we all filmed and edited the video together. Even though the students were not aware that their peer Ryan journey was coming to they still felt a since of urgency and responsibility to ensure Ryan he missed and hope to see him soon. It was a great learning experience and heartfelt journey shared with my students that I will never forget.

Web-Based Learning Design Project

A web-based learning project that I would use with students would be about finding ways to exploring and communicate with others.

Information Collection and Analysis

Goals and Objectives:
English, Language Arts, Social Studies, especially Geography, Map Skills:
· To provide students with a fun, authentic learning situation that will allow them to use thinking skills and problem solving to organize information and form and confirm hypotheses on geographical locations.
· To practice mapping skills.
· To encourage students to work together co-operatively.
URL - http://www.learnquebec.ca/en/content/pedagogy/cil/telecollab/structur2.html
Overall Place in the Lesson:
As a class, students will write a series of clues leading to the discovery of the location of their school. These clues, exchanged via e-mail, will become the questions for a massive virtual treasure hunt they will take part in as well. This lesson will also have students work on reading atlas maps and understanding different geographic locations around the world.
Authentic Problem:
Students will use an atlas to try and discover the location of each participating school, taking on the challenge of who can guess the locations of 5 schools using clues from different students around the world. They will then identify these locations on a map posted in the classroom. They will also make charts to organize thinking. Participating schools are encouraged to do the same and a copy of the sets of clues (without the answers) will be made available upon request. The names and locations of all participating schools (the answers) will be posted at the close of the hunt. E-mail addresses will be included; this will support communication between the schools taking part in the hunt.
Process:
Students, working in small groups, will create a series of clues about where their school community is located, using a set of suggestions to guide them. Students will submit their clues to an online website. Groups of students from other locales will “solve” the geographic location; additionally, they will review solutions from other schools attempting to locate their school. The groups will then challenge one another to see which can locate the 5 schools first and then compare information strategies and methods used to locate these schools.

A rubric will be used to assess student performance and each step of the activity.

Podcasting Thoughts

I learned so much about using and implementing podcast in the classroom. I am really excited to use this tool with my students as well as for myself as a teacher. I learned that podcast could be used as a great assessment tool to help my students recall and apply information in order to show what they have comprehend during activities.

I also like that podcasts cab be created to used for review for a particular subject. I also like that podcast can be use to keep parents inform by sharing updates and events about what is going with their son or daughter schooling and classroom activities. Podcasts bring great flexibility to use in the classroom and easy to have students create their own while having fun.

I Think Wikis Are Great But.....

Reading about wikis and how easily assesssible they can be for people who need information quickly has been motivating to me to bring this idea to my principal. I went to her with some facts about wikis and how using this tool may help with some of the anxeity that the teachers face when it comes to completing IEP's, Reevalutions, Being Team Leaders, Assessmesnts and so on. I stated that wikis can also be a great collaboration project to share ideas about lessons and other curriculum materials in one central location which would be very helpful for our teachers.

The idea seemed appealing and interesting but then I got hit with, well you know teachers here wouldn't know how to use it and so on and I replied with, well this is why we have staff developments and teacher meetings where we have the opportunity and time to focus on things that will help us as a school. So, while it feels like a battle when trying to implement new ideas that will help teachers and staff, I will continue to push the ideas and implement them in my own classroom with my students to show how useful some technological tools can be.

Blogs!!!

What I have read so far about Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts are awesome and it makes sense. I love the thought of using these tools in way that weren't truly created for. For example; educators can use these tools in education in an extraordinary way and can be very motivating for students when they find out what they are exactly learning and applying when using these tools.

This is what I am focusing on to implement in my own classroom as well in our new curriculum at my school.