Blogging. Resources. VoiceThread Docents on the iPads Our second grade teacher, Ms.S., was ready to “upgrade” a traditionally taught unit on reptiles. We met to discuss how she could incorporate the 5 C’s of 21st century skills as well as support new emerging literacies. The basic idea was to upgrade a typical report, using books from the library to research and fill out a “research” template on a piece of paper. “Upgrading” meant to find ways to go beyond the traditional text based resources and local classroom community and AMPLIFY… the skills being introduced or supported…the reach students’ voices (in a myriad of media) have…teaching as a skill of learning…the audience they are writing, talking or presenting to… With that in mind, we came up with VoiceThread, as a tool to allow for this amplification to happen.
A docent is defined as 1. 2. The classroom teacher set up a visit from our local Reptile Store, who came to school with live animals. Here are the logistics of how I set up the VoiceThread to be used with the iPads. Like this: Our Second Graders Are Piloting Evernote At Van Meter. I love the words on the Evernote site... Remember everything. Capture anything. Access anywhere. Find things fast. I have always thought... "Wouldn't Evernote be perfect to use in education? " As stated on the Evernote for Schools site, "Keep a lifetime of learning at your fingertips. The possibilities are endless on how Evernote can be used within our schools by students, teachers and the school community. As I started working with the Evernote for Schools pilot program, I wanted to do a project that would include using multiple devices (iPads, iTouches, laptops and desktops) and the new eBooks in our library collection.
After I set up the Van Meter Evernote Group, I invited Tracy, Mindy and the rest of the staff and secondary students to join. We also worked together to brainstorm what type of project we wanted to do using Evernote. In my initial conversations with Evernote, they told me about Skitch. The students would research animals and communities within the eBooks. Writing prompts. Discover It! One of the biggest teacher complaints about technology roll out and integration is lack of training.
I'll be honest...there is a part of me that finds this to be an excuse to not use technology. It also disheartens me to hear someone say this because I wonder how we are to inspire a passion for learning if we don't model this ourselves; particularly with things we are unfamiliar with. Know that I am not completely heartless. I have done some thinking about why technology isn't being embraced by more teachers on a more regular basis. When I have a material and/or tool that I think my students will find beneficial in their learning, one that has multiple ways to use it, I use a Responsive Classroom® practice called Guided Discovery. You may remember me talking about this practice in a previous post about the app Talking Tom, but I'm going to briefly explain it here. How do I see Guided Discovery being utilized with teacher technology training?
Have everyone explore the same app. The Technology Integration Answer (Well Almost...) Earlier this year our group adopted the TPACK model of technology integration. What is TPACK you ask? Basically, it takes the approach that planning for technology integration shouldn't be an event. It should be something that adds to what we are already doing. Through the use of Activity Types, teachers can take the activities they are already doing and match them up with appropiate technologies that may or may not work, depending on the context of learning. You can view this presentation to learn more. According to the feedback we have gotten from the folks who have embraced it has been overwhelmingly positive.
Recently I came across something that you can also use to make technology integration easier for you and your staff. There are actually 2 that you can take a look at. The first is the original from The Florida Center For Instructional Technology at the University of South Florida. The other is an adaption from Northern Arizona University. Poetry as emotion. Ten Amazing Wordle Lessons for the Classroom. Internet and Digital Technology Use in Education: blogs, digital, internet, lessons, media, technology, websites, wikis | Glogster EDU - 21st century multimedia tool for educators, teachers and students. Skitch By Evernote. Cool Links: Highlights from the National Art Education Conference. School librarian Melissa Techman attended NAEA in New York and gleaned some great art-infused ideas for the classroom and media center By Melissa Techman The annual conference of the National Art Education Association (NAEA) featured hands-on fun, resource sharing, and thoughtful discussion on harnessing the power of art to enrich all disciplines. ©2012 Seth & Laura Freeman www.sethfreemanphotography.com Just like librarians, art teachers view themselves as interdisciplinary instructional leaders who support critical thinking and help students acquire knowledge that’s often neglected in a “teach-to-the-test” world.
So it’s not surprising that the conference, held March 1–4 in New York, offered real value to librarians and media specialists. John Maeda, President of the Rhode Island School of Design talked about cultivating innovation and the critical role of art in his keynote presentation. Museum educators met to share programs to entice and involve young users.
iPads all around at NAEA. Barrow Media Center. Today was National Digital Learning Day. I honestly didn’t plan anything specifically for the day, but rather looked at what we were already doing today and highlighted it. Using technology as a natural part of learning to both consume information and create it is a big part of our media center vision and mission. I appreciate this day to highlight the great work going on around our country, but I didn’t feel like I needed to go over the top with planning digital learning, when it’s already a part of what we do. Here’s a glimpse of the kinds of learning that took place today in the Barrow Media Center. 11 students used e-readers to download samples of multiple books and read them to make decisions about what e-books they will commit to readingTwo enrichment clusters used iPads, desktops, and laptops to explore different ways of using these devices.
How do you celebrate digital learning day every day? Like this: Like Loading... Kathy Cassidy -- Blogmeister. This spring, our class has been working with other classes around the world--sharing and learning together. Several collaborative projects have resulted. The book below is one of the products from that collaboration and contains pages created by various PreK - 2 classrooms from around the world as part of the Flat Classroom Project. Each of the participating classes focused on "A View From the Window" of their school in a different way. Our page (containing photos and text created by the students) is first, but it is fascinating to see what all of the other classes have created as well. NCPS ICT Elementary Curriculum. Interactive Lessons About Art and Artists. Lower-School-Learning - Biographies.