Thing 12-Google Forms, Rubistar, Data Tools

Each pair of students will be given one of the four lessons in a Chapter in the Social Studies text.  The two students will partner read the lesson and then create a Social Studies poster to present to the class during the day I read the lesson to the class.  This rubric will help me assess the students because it has specific expectations that for the students to follow and for me to look for during the presentation.  It takes out the subjectivity and makes the grading system very concrete and transparent for all involved.

Thing 11-Prezi and Zoomit

 Prezi is more interactive than powerpoint, students get to see the whole layout and are taken through the presentation scrolling from one point to the next.  Whereas powerpoint is less interactive, where you just go from one screen to the next and do not get to see the big picture of the presentation format.  Prezi also allows the student to be zoomed in on important details while also allowing them to be zoomed back out to see the main topic.  Powerpoint is just a linear slide show.  I will be able to use Prezi to create presentations to teach them about reading strategies, and Science information.  This will help some kids process the content that they are having a hard time learning by giving them a new and interesting way to view it and interact with it.  It will help focus in the kids by zooming them in from the main idea to important details and back, without them getting lost or overloaded with information like they may on an internet sight.

Zoomit is going to help me teach kids how to use websites and apps the correct way by allowing me to zoom in and highlight the important aspects of the website and the tools that I want them to use.  Zoomit will really help the students that get easily distracted by a lot of text or flashing information that accompanies many websites by allowing me to focus their attention just on the important information they will need to use to be successful.

Thing 10-Picasa

http://picasa.google.com
This is the URL that I downloaded Picasa from.
To edit the original photo in Picasa I first added text to explain it was a trip with my former 7th grade class.  Then I reduced the color temperature to get it to glow a little. Next I changed the tint to red because Mars is the red planet.  Finally, I used the graduated tint to darken the edges.  picasaweb.google.com/105119369540484365757/OldStudentPictures  This is the URL of my Picasa web album that I am using to store my new Mission to Mars photo.  I also used my Picasa web album to share this new photo with my wife Amanda.  I can use this in my 3rd grade classroom by taking pictures of the students doing skits, cooperative learning, getting awards, putting their pictures on awards, or student of the month to add them to my blog or teacher website to communicate with parents and acknowledge students.

Uploading to a public photo sharing site was a little confusing, I hope Flickr counts.  Here is my upload on Flickr.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/80609790@N02/?uploaded=1&magic_cookie=3a4b94dcc059fdf7c81a36f33977087a 
 

Thing 9-Creative Commons

I looked and looked to try and figure out how to paste this to my blog, then I checked the questions/comments section and learned about gadgets.  Wonderful little tools on the blog.  Also, I created this quiz about copyrighting, but have not had a chance to have collegeus take it since school is out.  I plan to email it out and hope to get some responses.

Thing 8- Bubblus/Wordle

In third grade, I could have the students use bubblus after reading informational or short stories to write down the main idea and a few details to go with the main idea to make a graphic organizer.  They could also use them to do a K.W.L. before, during, and after reading informational text.  As far as Wordle goes, they could answer a writing prompt in class or do narrative writing, then type it into Wordle to make it more interesting.  Another way they could use it would be vocab words in Social Studies or Science to make presentations more interesting.  I could use it as the teacher to make some cool posters about nutrition, health, or any curricular area.  COOL!!!

Thing 7- Critical evaluation

http://www.improb.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html
The title is "Feline Reactions to Bearded Men".  This is a study where they showed pictures of bearded men and supposedly recorder their responses to collect data.  The content appears to be accurate.  I couldn't find the date of the sites creation.  All the links work and the picture below shows you how user friendly they appear.  I used deleted parts of the URL until I got back to the home site which is www.improb.com.  No credentials found.  It ends in .com, but that makes it seem legit.  No other sites link to this one.  The site is meant to persuade/inform and really just to entertain.  It's a biased website and tough to tell fact from fiction.  The site is very user friendly and the design is good with a consistent format from page to page.  The spelling and grammar was good.

















http://burmesemountaindog.info/
The title is "Burmese Mountain Dog".  This website appears to contain information about the Burmese Mountain dog.  It appears to be accurate information but it is willed with bias and opinion statements.  Most of the links work.  It says that it is the official site for this dog and the site appears to be created by a Dr.Charlie White.  Having the doctor as the creator makes you believe it is a real site.  It is very tough to distinguish fact from opinion.  The page seems cheesy, but it is labeled pretty well.  No spelling errors.  I think this site is very tricky to tell that it is a fake.

Since I teach 3rd grade, an activity that I would do would be on acceptable use.  I would pull up websites on the projector and ask them to discuss if the sites fit our definition of acceptable use at school.  The second activity would be to teach them about cyber-bullying using email and facebook, yes third graders have facebook accounts, and explain what cyber-bullying is, what to do if it is happening, and the consequences for cyber-bullying.

Thing 4- Skype

I would like to use this in a couple ways next year. First I would like to Skype with other classrooms around the world to allow the kids to share about common stereotypes and commonalities that they have. Also, I would love to Skype with an author or government official. I think it would help to engage students further in books.

Thing 3- Google Docs

Google templates will make me more productive because it has templates I can use instead of having to create them from scratch.  The newsletter, presentations, and party invitation templates seem useful in my 3rd grade class.  

Google docs is going to make me more productive and more importantly better at collaborating because I can use this as a grade level team member to create systemic grade level forms and newsletters that the team can collaborate and add their input to during the summer time when we are not in direct contact.  As a whole building, it can be used to collaborate on planning parties, parent events, and creating systemic templates that everyone can add their input to, on their own time, throughout the use of the google docs program.

Thing 5- Thinkfinity

One activity I could use is "Fractured Fairy Tales".  In this activity, the kids read an example of a fractured fairy tale and then they read an actual fairy tale, then rewrite it as a fractured fairy tale.  This seems like an engaging way to get kids to write and think deeper about fairy tale elements.  I would use it after doing a fractured fairy tale as a class.  I would have them work in teams of two and come up with a fractured fairy tale using the interactive online tool.  Then have them share to the class.  Another activity I would use is "Eye on Idioms".  In this activity, the students have to choose the right idiom from a list of idioms to complete the sentence.  It also asks them to explain what the idiom means and gives them a picture as a clue.  I like this activity because it gives kids the visual and would allow for good discussion as a class.  I would do this whole class at first to get them comfortable with the task and then have them work in pairs to use the online idiom tool and discuss later as a class.

Thing 2- Face of the Classroom

http://mrvshawks.weebly.com

Making a website for my classroom using this website was a little frustrating because it did not allow me to put things like small powerpoints onto the pages which would have been very useful to me.  Also, I just tripped over my own feet for a while trying to figure out how to make new pages and choosing the best template.  Finally, the free pictures weren't very good, but knowing how to use jing made that no problem at all.  This could be very useful for parents to have a central site to go to in order to see what their child is learning, learn about their teacher, and be able to have continued conversations with their studnets about what they are learning.  P.S.  I've just been diagnosed with pneumonia, so I apolagize for not being very active, but it has been a very difficult week health wise.