The Edublogger’s Introduction to Blogging
Want to know more about blogging, blog terminology and use of blogs in education?
Here you go!
Check out our “Introduction to Blogging” that you can read online here or download as a PDF version.
10 Tips for Starting an Education Blog
It was about a year ago that I really started to get into the idea of blogging. I was hesitant, unsure, and fairly new to the whole idea. I spent most of the initial stages of blogging just learning how to use the site to benefit myself, understanding widgets and embedding, and learning how to write for an audience. Below are tips that I would offer someone based on my own experience.
1.) Develop a Memorable URL and Title - I originally titled this blog ZimmerTIS. I did not think that let people know the purpose, plus the URL did not help explain what the blog would be about. So I changed the title and URL. Make yours something simple, memorable, short and sweet.
2.) Develop a Theme and Focus - I started doing daily posts related to different aspects of Educational Technology last year and created a Focus for my blog. I no longer do that, but it helped me to create posts that are relevant and specific.
3.) Create a Weekly Post - Develop a post that you have each week to keep readers coming back. Make the post something that will be an easy read and provide beneficial knowledge or resources. I started this year creating posts related to the Core Subjects of Math, Science, English, and Social Studies.
4.) Educate Yourself on Formatting - I have had to take some time and learn about HTML coding and embedding. I like for my links, images, videos, and other resources I embed to be flush with my template, so I learned about understanding the simple aspects of HTML code. This can be very helpful in the future and be beneficial to your readers.
5.) Learn About Widgets - Widgets are a great addition to a blog. It allows you to add things for readers to access. There are several out there that can be great additions. There are also some that will slow up the speed of your page load. I made the mistake of over doing this. Be simple with what you add (blogs you read, labels, previous post, popular post, search bar, translator, etc. A great addition will be to create a Social Signature. Jason Bedell has created a great site calledSocial Sig 4 Me. Use that site to add your RSS feed, Twitter name, etc. This way your readers can find you in other social networks.
6.) Use Copyright Free and Creative Commons Images - There are several images out there that are copyrighted and you want to be careful when using those images. Wylio is a great site for finding such images. I recommend you bookmark that site and use it for adding images to your blog.
7.) Watch Your Labels and Tags - You can add labels to your posts. Be broad with your labels. If you are to specific then you will have a ton of different labels and struggle with the organization of your blog postings. I find myself editing my labels about twice a year where I merge some of the labels together. For example, I had "comic," "comics," and "cartoons" all for the same resources, but did not include the same label throughout.
8.) Choose a Welcoming Layout/Theme - When I first started this blog I had a dark black background (even though I had "Happiness" in the title). I realized that this was not as welcoming and inviting. So I went with a lighter background and brighter hyperlinks. So far I am happy with the change. Blogger, Wordpress, and Edublogs all have themes and layouts that you can choose. Choose one that is welcoming to your readers. Here is a great post by The Edublogger forIntroducing Blogging using Edublogs
9.) Join and Share Blog on Twitter - I discovered thatTwitter was the BEST way to share my blog with others. Steven Anderson has done a great job putting together An Educators Guide to Twitter, where you will also find my So You Are New to Twitter post. Through Twitter you will be able to connect with other educators and share your blog. It is the greatest way to increase the readership of your blog, as well as introduce you to other blogs that you can comment on. By commenting on other blogs, many blogging educators will return the favor.
10.) Interact, Interact, Interact - When people comment on a blog post, interact with them. Tell them thanks for commenting and taking the time to read your post. Answer questions if they have any as well. Turn your blog into a form of networking with others. Creative commenting can lead to a large growth of readers.
The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010
The title of this “The Best…” list is pretty self-explanatory. What you’ll find here are blog posts and articles this year (some written by me, some by others) that were, in my opinion, the ones that offered the best practical advice to teachers this year — suggestions that can help teachers become more effective in the classroom today or tomorrow. Some, however, might not appear on the surface to fit that criteria, but those, I think, might offer insights that could (should?) inform our teaching practice everyday.
For some, the headlines provide enough of an idea of the topic and I haven’t included any further description.
You might be interested last year’s edition:
The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2009
Here are my choices for The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010 (not in order of any preference and, in fact, not in any order at all):
How to Create Nonreaders by Alfie Kohn
This Is What I Do When Students Are Late For Class…
What a good IEP looks like… is the best and most useful piece I’ve ever seen about IEP’s, the “Individualized Education Plans” that students facing learning challenges are supposed to have if they’re in the U.S. public education system. And I’m not just saying that because the author, Ira Socol, says something nice about me in it 
What Is Your Technique For Memorizing Student Names?
Evaluating Student Athletes
I’m a big believer in the importance of developing relationships. Organizers say community organizing is just another word for relationship-building, I have a chapter on developing relationships with students in my book on teaching English Language Learners.
There’s a nice article in Middle Ground titled “The Power Of Positive Relationships” by Tara Brown that shares some more ideas on how to enhance building relationships in the classroom.
Can Providing Hand Sanitizer In The Classroom Help Student Learning?
Excellent Info On The Importance Of Reading For Pleasure
Dropbox Works Nicely
Dan Meyer, a highly regarded math teacher who uses a lot of multimedia in his lessons, has generously placed his entire curriculum for Geometry and Algebra online for people to use. Also, just a reminder that I have my entire United States History curriculum from one year ago online, too. Lastly, even though they certainly are not as complete, you might also find the lessons in my Theory of Knowledge, Ninth Grade English, and Intermediate English class blogs useful.
Edutopia has a very nice and useful “Back-to-School Guide: Jump Start Learning With New Media” available for free download. All you need to do is type in your email address here, and it’s yours.
Book Trailers
What I Do During The Final Week Of School
My Revised Final Exams (And An Important Lesson)
My Personal Responsibility Lesson For This Friday
Tom Barrett is known for his “Interesting Ways” series, which include numerous ideas on how to use Web 2.0 applications (including Wordle, iPod, Google Wave, Prezi, etc.) in the classroom. The series, however, is not only limited to technology, and also includes topics like supporting reading comprehension and spelling. He’s put them all in one place now. You definitely want to bookmark his Interesting Ways page.
Post-Test Weeks…
More Test-Prep Hints
Talking With Students About Standardized Tests
Getting Students To Talk About What They’re Reading &”Book Talks”
“Be Niiiiiicccccceeeee”
“Book Discussion Group Guidelines”
“The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book,” edited by Terry Freedman, is a must-read for anybody who wants to use Web 2.0 applications with their students.
Giving Students “Reflection Cards”
What to Look for in a Classroom is a nice chart developed by Alfie Kohn. It lists “Good Signs” and “Possible Reasons To Worry” for a number of categories, including furniture, “on the walls,” sounds, etc. It wouldn’t necessarily take it all as “gospel” (and nor do I believe he intended it to be). I’m not a big advocate of students seated around tables, for example. But it’s a good general guide to use and figure out which side do you tend to be on…
How Do You Think Working Hard & Learning Everything You Can In This Class Might Help You Now & In The Future?
Two Ways I’m Using Our School Library
“Should Have, Could Have: What Parents Regret About High School”
A Lesson Highlighting Community Assets — Not Deficits
Have You Ever Felt Like You & Your Students Are “Enduring” Class Instead of Enjoying It?
“Will Sleeping More Make Me Smarter?” — A Lesson I’m Trying This Week
“Point, Quote, Connect”
Student Metacognition & Instructional Strategies
The Best Number For A Small Group
“I Haven’t Been Feeling Very Respected….”
Blogging 4 Everyone
Blogging 4 Everyone is a resource for anyone who wants to learn how to blog. It has very simple, straightforward instructions for starting a blog including a video.
It does not mention Blogger, so here is my instructions for getting started with Blogger.
This would be a good resource to use if you want to create your own blog or if you are trying to get your students using blogs in class.
10 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers
As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have been working with some of my Grade Two students to set up individual blogs. I have found myself giving them lots of little tips along the way that I have picked up over my own blogging journey.Many of these ideas have originally come from some of my blogging “mentors” such as Linda Yollis and Sue Waters.
Here are 10 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers
- Post frequency: Find a balance. Don’t post too often (ie. daily) otherwise you will not be able to generate much conversation through commenting. Post too infrequently (ie. monthly) and your readers might start to forget about you. I advise my students to post once or twice a week.
- Reply to comments: I am often disappointed at how many student and adult bloggers there are out there who do not reply to their comments on their own blog. I feel that it is basic blogging etiquette to reply. Acknowledge your readers’ comments and they will be encouraged to comment again.
- Have an “about” page: The first thing I do when I visit a new blog is look at the About page. I am always disappointed when there isn’t one! Don’t keep your readers in the dark about who you are.
- Theme changes: Students love playing around with the different themes available when they first start blogging. I encourage them to explore for a week or so but then advice them to find a good theme and stick with it. Readers may be able to identify less with your blog if it looks different every time they visit it.
- Fun widgets: Young bloggers love widgets! In my opinion, it is advisable to limit “fun” or “novelty” widgets. Too many widgets take away from the actual content of the blog posts and can slow down loading time! I suggest my students have no more than three “fun widgets” such as virtual pets, Christmas countdowns, jokes, tips, music clips etc.
- Add a search box: Early on in the year, I teach my students how to use the search box on blogs to find content. I find it frustrating when blogs don’t have the search box.
- Subscribe via email: While I also use Google Reader and Twitter to keep track of blogs I like, I love having the ability to subscribe via email to my favourite blogs. Adding this feature could bring more regular visitors to your blog.
- Add links to blog posts and comments: Links help your visitors gain a deeper understanding of what they’re reading. Links in blog posts can also be used to acknowledge or compliment others’ work. Links in blog comments can add extra information to a conversation. If you don’t know how to add a link to a blog comment, check out Linda Yollis’ excellent blog post and quick video.
- Visit other blogs: You can’t expect many people to read and comment on your blog if you don’t read and comment on others’ blogs.
- End with a question: On my class blog and this blog I like to end with a question to stimulate and direct conversation in the comment section. My Grade Two students are learning how to ask “broader” questions that will appeal to more readers (eg. if a child writes a post about a holiday to Noosa, instead of simply asking “have you ever been to Noosa?” they could ask readers to leave a comment and describe a holiday they have been on).
One more tip! Don’t lose your comment. All my students now know how to copy (Control C), their comment before they hit “submit”. This allows them to paste (Control V) the comment if something goes wrong when they hit the “submit” button. This happens fairly frequently with young students due to the wrong spam word being entered etc.
Batalugu
Batalugu is a new (beta) site that is great for creating digital books. I like to think of this as a cross between BookRixand Tikatok, that is ideal for digital storytelling. This is a very user friendly site w/ lots of options to choose from such as: themes, page layout, etc etc. My only concern is if a user can actual order a hard copy of their book rather then just share them online w/ others.
I highly recommend checking out Batalugu for creating digital books by clicking here!!
Make Beliefs Comix
Make Beliefs Comix is a fun site for creating digital comics. What makes this a really nice option for teachers are all the resources available for educators such as writing prompts, lessons, and the ability to create comics in different languages.
I highly recommend checking out Make Beliefs Comix by clicking here!!!
Digital Storytelling Encourages Student Expression
Welcome to another installment of SimpleK12's 2 Minute EdTech Talk, where educators integrate technology - in just two minutes! The goal? To share, to collaborate, and most of all – to help and encourage teachers to try new forms of technology in their own classrooms.
Last week, Steven Katz talked about how podcasting is quick, easy, and free.
This episode of 2 Minute EdTech Talk is with Alex Francisco, English as a foreign language teacher and blogger in Madeira, Portugal.
Watch below to see what she has to say about GoAnimate.
Get in touch with Alex through:
- Twitter - @alexgfrancisco
- Her class website - ZarcoEnglish
Check out the following GoAnimate examples made by Alex and her students:
- Our School - a virtual tour of Alex's schools
- Teach with edtech - music video for a song about resisting technology integraion
- Student Showcase - find many examples of student work with GoAnimate
Learn about other digital storytelling webtools in SimpleK12's eBook, "101 Free Tech Tools for Teachers". Click here to sign up to receive your free copy of the eBook.
So, tell me, how do you use digital storytelling in your classroom?
- Kimberly
PS - To view a current list of all of my 2 Minute EdTech Talks on topics such as VoiceThread, Piclits.com, CoverItLive, Xtranormal, Drop.io, Screencast-o-matic and more, check out this blog post.
Related Stories
Top 10 Blogging Solutions
"A blog (a blend of the term web log)[1] is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. (wikipedia)"
Blogging is one of the most popular web 2.0 tools around and used by educators everywhere. Basically, it is "online journaling" and a great way for students/teachers to create online content. However, the key to a blog is it's collaborative nature and the ability to generate communication among others.
That being said, I decided to list my favorites blogging solution for educators...
Top 10 Blogging Solutions
- Edmodo - A terrific solution for blogging in the classroom and it's free. It allows teachers to create student accounts and monitor all their activity.
- Kidblog - A great free way for students to blog w/ no email account necessary, teachers have total control of student content.
- Gaggle - A semi-free (paid version removes ads) way for student's to blog in a filtered environment. Gaggle will also filter Google Apps, provide forums, and filter YouTube as well.
- Blogger - Google's free blogging service that is very easy to use and has a beautiful user interface w/ lots of: themes, gadgets, and options to choose from.
- Word Press - One of the most popular free blogging platforms on the web. It requires an install and setup which means it has a bit of a higher learning curve then some other options.
- Edublog Campus - A paid blogging solution for schools that is built around the Word Press Platform.
- Penzu - Is a nice new (beta) site for blogging that allows users to choose if they want their posts to be public or private.
- Live Journal - Is a combination of a blogging platform and social network that is very popular w/ a focus on social media.
- 21 Classes - A wonderful blogging solution for students/Teachers. Teachers can create student accounts and monitor all blog entries before they are posted.
- TypePad - Create excellent looking blogs w/ this very easy to use paid service.
Top 10 Sites for Creating Digital Comics
Creating Digital Comics has been one of my favorite thing to do w/ students when trying to integrate technology. While this can be done w/ any number of applications such as Comic Life or Toon Boom, there are many online alternatives (mostly free) that offer up a nice solution as well.
Top 10 Sites for Creating Digital Comics
- Pixton - Has an educational portal (paid) that is ideal for schools (no student email account necessary). Also, there are a ton of options such as voice recording, drag-n-drop interface, and importing/exporting features.
- ToonDoo Spaces - One of the most popular online comic creators that is very similar to Pixton, w/ the ability to create a private space for education for sharing/collaborating on comics.
- Comic Master - A very nice looking site that is user friendly w/ lots of features to choose from such as: backgrounds, objects, speech bubbles, etc.
- Bitstrips - Is a great site w/ an educational instance (paid) that allows students to create comics in a safe/secure environment.
- Stage'D - A great looking site for creating animated comics!!
- Make Beliefs Comix - A wonderful site w/ lots of options to choose from that even lets users create comics in Spanish.
- Super Hero Squad Show - A fun site for kids to make comics off of their favorite Marvel super hero.
- Chogger - A nice site for creating a comic w/ the ability to create a drawing from scratch.
- Comic Creator - From Read Write & Type, a easy/simple to use comic creator that is nice to use w/ the younger kids.
- Witty Comics - A comic creation site that focuses more on creating text more then anything else.
Beginning With Blogging
One of the best things about my new job is that I get to teach my own class, grade 6 MYPTechnology (my favorite class to teach, actually). As much as I love coaching and working with lots of different teachers and students, there is just something special about having your own class to work with. And in this case, I get the best of both worlds: teaching my own classes and coaching! In addition, since this is the first year of our MYP implementation, I have a clean slate to develop the entire MYP technology curriculum.
Since there was no existing curriculum, and no formal technology classes at the elementary level, I wasn’t sure exactly where I should start with this new class. I want to make sure that we take advantage of all the amazing resources we have at our disposal (not to mention the faaast internet connection), enhance what the school is already doing and continue to expand the range of online experiences for both student and teachers. It’s also important that I make the class approachable for the parents, teachers and students – starting too far out of the realm of understanding could bring some unwanted backlash early in the year. Plus, I want whatever we do in tech class to be useful to the students within their other classes as well. And, of course, I want it to be fun!
For the last year or so, many students and teachers were utilizing the YIS blogging portal, The Learning Hub. We also send home paper portfolios eight times a year (I think). So, I’m thinking hoping that I may be able to expand the school’s vision of a blog (as a regular reflective practice for students and teachers) and also build up to the idea of an eportfolio instead of the paper folders we send home so many times a year by beginning our MYP tech class with a blogging project. We all know how I feel about those paper portfolios, right? I’m also working on modeling a thoughtful and reflective teacher-blog with my new YIS Middle School Tech blog.
Of course, we’re going to go through the Technology Design Cycle and really expand on the process of creating a blog, so this will probably be the most in-depth look any YIS students have at blogging. I’m anticipating that the unit will take us several weeks (we have class for 90 minutes, once a week), but because I work with the entire sixth grade, our middle school will then have a really solid understanding of the power and potential of blogging. I think it will be an easy transition to the MYP-style technology class and hopefully provide an easy to follow model for other teachers in the middle school.
Part 1: Investigate
We just got started last week with the investigate stagewhere we are reviewing other popular and well-designed blogs to see what features are essential in a quality blog. I provided the students with a list of blogs to start with, and after they review at least 2 from my selection they can review as many of their own favorite blogs as they want (with prior-approval from me). Just for fun, we reviewed one of my favorite ramen blogs in class first. We were all salivating by the end of class and the students really understood that they can blog about anything they are passionate about, even if it’s as simple as a bowl of noodles.
In order to bring in another useful skill, we’re completing the reviews on Google Docs so I was able to introduce the students to their GApps accounts and the concept of collaborative note taking. In this case, each student is filling out their own review form (and sharing with me), but I’m sure we’ll circle back to collaborating on a single GDoc soon enough. I was really impressed with how quickly the picked up the idea of creating a duplicate copy of the Blog Research sheet (and so thankful that we used GDocs since within the first half hour two students had accidentally closed their browser window, which would have resulted in lost work had we been using Office).
Our next step is to start brainstorming a potential blogging focus by exploring our own interests. We’ll most likely be using Inspiration to create a well-organized mind-map of ideas that each student can blog about (in addition to their academic posts). I’m hoping that if we concentrate a bit on their personal interests, their blog will become more than just a school project. A few of the girls have already come up to me super excited about their own blogging ideas. I would love to see their unique voices start to shine through in their posts instead of always reading the same post from every student (which can so often happen when blogging becomes “homework”).
Once they have some ideas about what they might be able to blog about, as well as the features of a quality blog, we’ll spend some time exploring WordPress. I will admit, I often gloss over this part because I feel like it’s so intuitive, but I’m planning to spend a little more time with this group to see if that cuts down on questions later.
The final part of the Investigate stage will be reflecting on what we’ve learned so far and what needs to come next (never the students’ favorite part, but a critical piece of the MYP design cycle process).
Part 2: Plan
Once that part of the project is complete, we’ll begin the planning. I would like to use Konrad Glogowski’s How to Grow a Blog process. I’ve used it peripherally before with middle school students, but this time I would like to really spend some time with it, so students feel more ownership over their own blog.
We’ll do a little bit of design work, potentially exploring a little Photoshop, so students have a chance to design custom headers at least (since the themes are all pretty much set) and probably determine which widgets they will use based on the look of their theme and header. I usually like to have them plan out what a finished product will look like in colored pencils so they focus on the design work before they actually get to the computer. That way their time spent actually creating their finished work is really productive.
I may also have them design a simple sitemap to really understand the purpose of (and difference between) categories, tags, archives, calendars, etc. This always seems to be a difficult piece to work in when I’m coaching in the classroom, there’s just never enough time to really explore tagging and categories so students always end up with dozens of posts in uncategorized and teachers struggle to understand the potential of a blog as eportfolio without that kind of structure.
Finally, we’ll reflect before we move on to the next stage.
Part 3: Create
Only after they bring in their signed permission slips, will we actually create the blogs. This will be the shortest part of the project because they will have done the majority of the thinking, planning and designing already. I’d love to have them publish a few pieces of work from different classes using pictures, videos, VoiceThreads or other embeddable objects during this time. Most likely we’ll also talk about the power of linking and start writing posts which connect to other student’s posts in class (or around school).
Hopefully at this stage, we will also be able to connect with other blogging partners around the world. If anyone is interested in working with us, please let me know!
And, of course, we’ll do a little bit of reflecting before moving on to the final stage.
Part 4: Evaluate
This final part of the project will focus on evaluating the success of the blogs we created, as well as the process of creating them. It would be nice to be able to have some external evaluation of our blogs in addition to individual reflection, so maybe we’ll come up with a Google Form for feedback as well.
Final Thoughts
That’s the plan so far! I’m just in the process of really working out how I want to structure the plan, create and evaluate as I get to know the students.
Since I’m just in the early stages of planning this, I’d love your feedback: What am I missing?
Are you interested in being blogging partners with us? We would love to have some partners around the world!
Related posts:
Teaching students about Creative Commons and appropriate use of images
Kathleen McGeady has shared some great advice on teaching students about on appopriate use of images and has given me permission to cross post it here.
What inspires me about her post is her attitude that there are important skills everyone needs to learn and you’re never too young to learn them.
Please note:
- This was post written by our guest blogger Kathleen McGeady.
- It was originally posted on Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom and has been cross postedwith her permission.
The background
A few weeks ago I set up blogs for two of my most enthusiastic student bloggers, Rhiannon and Bianca.
I chose these students as they regularly left comments on our 2KM class blog and were committed to learning as much as they can about blogging.
After gaining their parents’ permission, I set their blogs up, adding myself as an administrator.
I had a discussion with Rhiannon and Bianca about what they’re going to blog about and how often they’ll post.
We then revised the features of quality posts as well as revising the cyber safety and netiquette guidelines they were already familiar with.
After some initial familiarisation sessions my students were off and it didn’t take them long to learn the basics of blogging.
Check out:
Before long, my students were keen to use images off the internet to enhance their posts.
This was a dilemma for me.
While my students are only in Grade Two and I don’t want to make blogging too complex for them, I knew that I would have to delve into the topic of copyright and Creative Commons to help my students develop good blogging habits.
Little do many people know, you can’t just use any images off the internet in your blog posts. Not only is this ethically incorrect but you could leave yourself open to copyright infringement.
Explaining Creative Commons and using images in blog posts
Wanting to make this process clear to my students, I typed up a document explaining copyright, copyright infringement and Creative Commons while also offering step-by-step instructions on how to use FlickrCC to upload and attribute images in blog posts.
Obviously, there is more than one way to do this but given the age of my students, I wanted to keep things as straightforward as posssible.
I’ve embedded this document below:
Feel free to use it with your students to teach them about these important blogging habits. (Please Note: the instructions for uploading the image to a blog post apply toEdublogs blogs)
My approach to Student blogging
One of the things I love about teaching seven and eight year olds is that I can teach them about issues such as copyright, cyber safety, netiquette, social networking etc just before they reach the age where they would dive into these areas, prepared or not.
I feel like I can make an impact in setting my students on the right path for their futures.
I am constantly amazed at how my students respond when I challenge them and engage them with ICT and their results across the board never fail to impress me.
Set your standards high, provide the structure and the support that your students need to scaffold their learning and reap the rewards!
Final Thoughts
Thanks Kathleen for letting me share your post here.
Please make sure you drop past Kathleen’s post and share your thoughts on:
- Will the how-to document be useful for you and your students?
- Do you have any questions about blogging or using internet images?
- What results have you seen from using ICT and setting high standards for your students?
Storify
Storify is an interesting site for creating digital storytelling using social media. The way this is done is by taking different media: weets, pics, text, etc) and then arranging them in any order (similar to Google Search Stories). A user then can add text to create a story. Once the story is created it can then be embedded into a site.
I highly recommend checking out Storify by clicking here!!
Thanks to the wonderful blog, Zarco English for the tip.
Five Alternatives to Traditional Book Reports
On Tuesday evening I gave a presentation in Second Life for school librarians and media specialists. One of the topics that I talked about was alternatives to traditional book report assignments. While this post is a follow-up to that presentation, the post on its own should give you some ideas for alternatives to traditional book report assignments.
1. Create book trailers. I ran a post about book trailers during the summer which you can read here. In short, a book trailer is a short video created by students to highlight the key points of a book. When creating their book trailers students should be trying to "sell" viewers on a book. To create their videos your students could use Animoto for Education, JayCut, or PhotoPeach. Learn more about these free video creation tools in my free guide Making Videos on the Web.
2. Create animated or stop-motion videos about a book's plot. To make an animated video try Memoov which is a free service that your students can use to create an animated video book review. Memoov allows users to create animated videos up to five minutes in length. Creating an animated video with Memoov can be as simple as selecting a setting image(s), selecting a character or characters, and adding dialogue.
If stop-motion videos are more your speed, Kevin Hodgson'sMaking Stopmotion Movies is a fantastic resource for directions and advice on making stop-motion movies.
3. Create literature maps. Using Google Maps or Google Earth students can map out the travels of character in a story. Google Lit Trips has many examples of teachers and students using Google Earth in literature courses. If you're not familiar with how to create placemarks in Google Maps, please see my free guide Google for Teachers for directions.
4. Create 3D augmented reality book reviews. ZooBurst is an amazing service that allows you to create a short story complete with 3D augmented reality pop-ups. Students could use ZooBurst to create short summaries of books that really jump off the screen.
5. Create multimedia collages about books.Glogster allows users to create one page multimedia collages. Students could create a collage containing videos, audio files, text, and images about books they've read. For example, a Glog about Into the Wild could contain images of Chris McCandless, chunks of text about the book, and this video featuring a song from the movie based on the book.
10 Ideas For Class Blog Posts
- Share a photograph of your classroom. Explain about the different parts of it and how it is being used. Invite other teachers and classes to write a similar blog post explaining about their classroom. Encourage children from your class to leave comments about what they like about it or even suggestions for changes they would like to see.
- Publish children’s work. Don’t just post work that is flawless but also invite comments and suggestions on work that can be improved.
- Publish your shared writing. As you produce writing with the class in your lessons, post it to your blog and invite the class or blog visitors to improve something and to comment.
- Share your classroom rules or charter. This can be done at the beginning of the year and is a good way to share your class agreement with the wider community.
- Share a photograph of a classroom display.
- Post a video of SMARTBoard or IWB session during a maths lesson. For example the written methods for multiplication are included, the children can use it as a revision aid – the parents get to see how the school wants it set out AND the children get to comment on their favoured method.
- Posting images from a digital microscope for the children to comment on. “What is under our microscope?” – or even asking for people to guess what the image is and to comment on the suggestions.
- Posting homework tasks every week – eg. maths problems, children to comment as their task.
- Art gallery. Post pictures of all of the artwork created in a session, make a gallery or slideshow.
- Post Concept Cartoons for science prior to a lesson or a week of work. Children are asked to comment on what they think will happen and then these can be used as a start to the first lesson or as an intitial assessment.
I have started a new Interesting Ways resource which includes these classroom blogging ideas – 10 Interesting Ideas for Class Blog Posts. Please feel free to add your ideas, however simple or complex, to help develop the resource.
5 Free 21st Century Presentations
Recently, I've had the opportunity to present and compile some presentations that I've done throughout the year. I've made these all available for free and allow people to edit them and use them as they desire. I feel these courses could offer a nice guide to educators who want to explore 21st Century/Web 2.0 technologies. I try to cover a wide range of areas such as building a PLN to blogging in the classroom.
- Cutting Edge Technology - A course that focuses on web 2.0 technologies and building a personal learning network (PLN).
- Digital Storytelling 4 Everyone - A list of sites arranged by grade level w/ a Voicethread example.
- Blogging 101 - A great way to introduce and use blogging in a classroom.
- 50 Sites in 60 Minutes - A collection of great websites that can be used in the classroom.
- Backchanneling in the Classroom - A nice way to learn how to use a backchannel channel chat in a classroom w/ a list of resources.
The Edublogger’s Introduction to Blogging
Want to know more about blogging, blog terminology and use of blogs in education?
Here you go!
Check out our “Introduction to Blogging” that you can read online here or download as a PDF version.
10 Tips for Starting an Education Blog
It was about a year ago that I really started to get into the idea of blogging. I was hesitant, unsure, and fairly new to the whole idea. I spent most of the initial stages of blogging just learning how to use the site to benefit myself, understanding widgets and embedding, and learning how to write for an audience. Below are tips that I would offer someone based on my own experience.
1.) Develop a Memorable URL and Title - I originally titled this blog ZimmerTIS. I did not think that let people know the purpose, plus the URL did not help explain what the blog would be about. So I changed the title and URL. Make yours something simple, memorable, short and sweet.
2.) Develop a Theme and Focus - I started doing daily posts related to different aspects of Educational Technology last year and created a Focus for my blog. I no longer do that, but it helped me to create posts that are relevant and specific.
3.) Create a Weekly Post - Develop a post that you have each week to keep readers coming back. Make the post something that will be an easy read and provide beneficial knowledge or resources. I started this year creating posts related to the Core Subjects of Math, Science, English, and Social Studies.
4.) Educate Yourself on Formatting - I have had to take some time and learn about HTML coding and embedding. I like for my links, images, videos, and other resources I embed to be flush with my template, so I learned about understanding the simple aspects of HTML code. This can be very helpful in the future and be beneficial to your readers.
5.) Learn About Widgets - Widgets are a great addition to a blog. It allows you to add things for readers to access. There are several out there that can be great additions. There are also some that will slow up the speed of your page load. I made the mistake of over doing this. Be simple with what you add (blogs you read, labels, previous post, popular post, search bar, translator, etc. A great addition will be to create a Social Signature. Jason Bedell has created a great site calledSocial Sig 4 Me. Use that site to add your RSS feed, Twitter name, etc. This way your readers can find you in other social networks.
6.) Use Copyright Free and Creative Commons Images - There are several images out there that are copyrighted and you want to be careful when using those images. Wylio is a great site for finding such images. I recommend you bookmark that site and use it for adding images to your blog.
7.) Watch Your Labels and Tags - You can add labels to your posts. Be broad with your labels. If you are to specific then you will have a ton of different labels and struggle with the organization of your blog postings. I find myself editing my labels about twice a year where I merge some of the labels together. For example, I had "comic," "comics," and "cartoons" all for the same resources, but did not include the same label throughout.
8.) Choose a Welcoming Layout/Theme - When I first started this blog I had a dark black background (even though I had "Happiness" in the title). I realized that this was not as welcoming and inviting. So I went with a lighter background and brighter hyperlinks. So far I am happy with the change. Blogger, Wordpress, and Edublogs all have themes and layouts that you can choose. Choose one that is welcoming to your readers. Here is a great post by The Edublogger forIntroducing Blogging using Edublogs
9.) Join and Share Blog on Twitter - I discovered thatTwitter was the BEST way to share my blog with others. Steven Anderson has done a great job putting together An Educators Guide to Twitter, where you will also find my So You Are New to Twitter post. Through Twitter you will be able to connect with other educators and share your blog. It is the greatest way to increase the readership of your blog, as well as introduce you to other blogs that you can comment on. By commenting on other blogs, many blogging educators will return the favor.
10.) Interact, Interact, Interact - When people comment on a blog post, interact with them. Tell them thanks for commenting and taking the time to read your post. Answer questions if they have any as well. Turn your blog into a form of networking with others. Creative commenting can lead to a large growth of readers.
The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010
The title of this “The Best…” list is pretty self-explanatory. What you’ll find here are blog posts and articles this year (some written by me, some by others) that were, in my opinion, the ones that offered the best practical advice to teachers this year — suggestions that can help teachers become more effective in the classroom today or tomorrow. Some, however, might not appear on the surface to fit that criteria, but those, I think, might offer insights that could (should?) inform our teaching practice everyday.
For some, the headlines provide enough of an idea of the topic and I haven’t included any further description.
You might be interested last year’s edition:
The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2009
Here are my choices for The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010 (not in order of any preference and, in fact, not in any order at all):
How to Create Nonreaders by Alfie Kohn
This Is What I Do When Students Are Late For Class…
What a good IEP looks like… is the best and most useful piece I’ve ever seen about IEP’s, the “Individualized Education Plans” that students facing learning challenges are supposed to have if they’re in the U.S. public education system. And I’m not just saying that because the author, Ira Socol, says something nice about me in it
What Is Your Technique For Memorizing Student Names?
Evaluating Student Athletes
I’m a big believer in the importance of developing relationships. Organizers say community organizing is just another word for relationship-building, I have a chapter on developing relationships with students in my book on teaching English Language Learners.
There’s a nice article in Middle Ground titled “The Power Of Positive Relationships” by Tara Brown that shares some more ideas on how to enhance building relationships in the classroom.
Can Providing Hand Sanitizer In The Classroom Help Student Learning?
Excellent Info On The Importance Of Reading For Pleasure
Dropbox Works Nicely
Dan Meyer, a highly regarded math teacher who uses a lot of multimedia in his lessons, has generously placed his entire curriculum for Geometry and Algebra online for people to use. Also, just a reminder that I have my entire United States History curriculum from one year ago online, too. Lastly, even though they certainly are not as complete, you might also find the lessons in my Theory of Knowledge, Ninth Grade English, and Intermediate English class blogs useful.
Edutopia has a very nice and useful “Back-to-School Guide: Jump Start Learning With New Media” available for free download. All you need to do is type in your email address here, and it’s yours.
Book Trailers
What I Do During The Final Week Of School
My Revised Final Exams (And An Important Lesson)
My Personal Responsibility Lesson For This Friday
Tom Barrett is known for his “Interesting Ways” series, which include numerous ideas on how to use Web 2.0 applications (including Wordle, iPod, Google Wave, Prezi, etc.) in the classroom. The series, however, is not only limited to technology, and also includes topics like supporting reading comprehension and spelling. He’s put them all in one place now. You definitely want to bookmark his Interesting Ways page.
Post-Test Weeks…
More Test-Prep Hints
Talking With Students About Standardized Tests
Getting Students To Talk About What They’re Reading &”Book Talks”
“Be Niiiiiicccccceeeee”
“Book Discussion Group Guidelines”
“The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book,” edited by Terry Freedman, is a must-read for anybody who wants to use Web 2.0 applications with their students.
Giving Students “Reflection Cards”
What to Look for in a Classroom is a nice chart developed by Alfie Kohn. It lists “Good Signs” and “Possible Reasons To Worry” for a number of categories, including furniture, “on the walls,” sounds, etc. It wouldn’t necessarily take it all as “gospel” (and nor do I believe he intended it to be). I’m not a big advocate of students seated around tables, for example. But it’s a good general guide to use and figure out which side do you tend to be on…
How Do You Think Working Hard & Learning Everything You Can In This Class Might Help You Now & In The Future?
Two Ways I’m Using Our School Library
“Should Have, Could Have: What Parents Regret About High School”
A Lesson Highlighting Community Assets — Not Deficits
Have You Ever Felt Like You & Your Students Are “Enduring” Class Instead of Enjoying It?
“Will Sleeping More Make Me Smarter?” — A Lesson I’m Trying This Week
“Point, Quote, Connect”
Student Metacognition & Instructional Strategies
The Best Number For A Small Group
“I Haven’t Been Feeling Very Respected….”
Blogging 4 Everyone
Blogging 4 Everyone is a resource for anyone who wants to learn how to blog. It has very simple, straightforward instructions for starting a blog including a video.
It does not mention Blogger, so here is my instructions for getting started with Blogger.
This would be a good resource to use if you want to create your own blog or if you are trying to get your students using blogs in class.
10 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers
As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have been working with some of my Grade Two students to set up individual blogs. I have found myself giving them lots of little tips along the way that I have picked up over my own blogging journey.Many of these ideas have originally come from some of my blogging “mentors” such as Linda Yollis and Sue Waters.
Here are 10 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers
- Post frequency: Find a balance. Don’t post too often (ie. daily) otherwise you will not be able to generate much conversation through commenting. Post too infrequently (ie. monthly) and your readers might start to forget about you. I advise my students to post once or twice a week.
- Reply to comments: I am often disappointed at how many student and adult bloggers there are out there who do not reply to their comments on their own blog. I feel that it is basic blogging etiquette to reply. Acknowledge your readers’ comments and they will be encouraged to comment again.
- Have an “about” page: The first thing I do when I visit a new blog is look at the About page. I am always disappointed when there isn’t one! Don’t keep your readers in the dark about who you are.
- Theme changes: Students love playing around with the different themes available when they first start blogging. I encourage them to explore for a week or so but then advice them to find a good theme and stick with it. Readers may be able to identify less with your blog if it looks different every time they visit it.
- Fun widgets: Young bloggers love widgets! In my opinion, it is advisable to limit “fun” or “novelty” widgets. Too many widgets take away from the actual content of the blog posts and can slow down loading time! I suggest my students have no more than three “fun widgets” such as virtual pets, Christmas countdowns, jokes, tips, music clips etc.
- Add a search box: Early on in the year, I teach my students how to use the search box on blogs to find content. I find it frustrating when blogs don’t have the search box.
- Subscribe via email: While I also use Google Reader and Twitter to keep track of blogs I like, I love having the ability to subscribe via email to my favourite blogs. Adding this feature could bring more regular visitors to your blog.
- Add links to blog posts and comments: Links help your visitors gain a deeper understanding of what they’re reading. Links in blog posts can also be used to acknowledge or compliment others’ work. Links in blog comments can add extra information to a conversation. If you don’t know how to add a link to a blog comment, check out Linda Yollis’ excellent blog post and quick video.
- Visit other blogs: You can’t expect many people to read and comment on your blog if you don’t read and comment on others’ blogs.
- End with a question: On my class blog and this blog I like to end with a question to stimulate and direct conversation in the comment section. My Grade Two students are learning how to ask “broader” questions that will appeal to more readers (eg. if a child writes a post about a holiday to Noosa, instead of simply asking “have you ever been to Noosa?” they could ask readers to leave a comment and describe a holiday they have been on).
One more tip! Don’t lose your comment. All my students now know how to copy (Control C), their comment before they hit “submit”. This allows them to paste (Control V) the comment if something goes wrong when they hit the “submit” button. This happens fairly frequently with young students due to the wrong spam word being entered etc.
Batalugu
Batalugu is a new (beta) site that is great for creating digital books. I like to think of this as a cross between BookRixand Tikatok, that is ideal for digital storytelling. This is a very user friendly site w/ lots of options to choose from such as: themes, page layout, etc etc. My only concern is if a user can actual order a hard copy of their book rather then just share them online w/ others.
I highly recommend checking out Batalugu for creating digital books by clicking here!!
Make Beliefs Comix
Make Beliefs Comix is a fun site for creating digital comics. What makes this a really nice option for teachers are all the resources available for educators such as writing prompts, lessons, and the ability to create comics in different languages.
I highly recommend checking out Make Beliefs Comix by clicking here!!!
Digital Storytelling Encourages Student Expression
Welcome to another installment of SimpleK12's 2 Minute EdTech Talk, where educators integrate technology - in just two minutes! The goal? To share, to collaborate, and most of all – to help and encourage teachers to try new forms of technology in their own classrooms.
Last week, Steven Katz talked about how podcasting is quick, easy, and free.
This episode of 2 Minute EdTech Talk is with Alex Francisco, English as a foreign language teacher and blogger in Madeira, Portugal.
Watch below to see what she has to say about GoAnimate.
Get in touch with Alex through:
- Twitter - @alexgfrancisco
- Her class website - ZarcoEnglish
Check out the following GoAnimate examples made by Alex and her students:
- Our School - a virtual tour of Alex's schools
- Teach with edtech - music video for a song about resisting technology integraion
- Student Showcase - find many examples of student work with GoAnimate
Learn about other digital storytelling webtools in SimpleK12's eBook, "101 Free Tech Tools for Teachers". Click here to sign up to receive your free copy of the eBook.
So, tell me, how do you use digital storytelling in your classroom?
- Kimberly
PS - To view a current list of all of my 2 Minute EdTech Talks on topics such as VoiceThread, Piclits.com, CoverItLive, Xtranormal, Drop.io, Screencast-o-matic and more, check out this blog post.
Related Stories
Top 10 Blogging Solutions
"A blog (a blend of the term web log)[1] is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. (wikipedia)"
Blogging is one of the most popular web 2.0 tools around and used by educators everywhere. Basically, it is "online journaling" and a great way for students/teachers to create online content. However, the key to a blog is it's collaborative nature and the ability to generate communication among others.
That being said, I decided to list my favorites blogging solution for educators...
Top 10 Blogging Solutions
- Edmodo - A terrific solution for blogging in the classroom and it's free. It allows teachers to create student accounts and monitor all their activity.
- Kidblog - A great free way for students to blog w/ no email account necessary, teachers have total control of student content.
- Gaggle - A semi-free (paid version removes ads) way for student's to blog in a filtered environment. Gaggle will also filter Google Apps, provide forums, and filter YouTube as well.
- Blogger - Google's free blogging service that is very easy to use and has a beautiful user interface w/ lots of: themes, gadgets, and options to choose from.
- Word Press - One of the most popular free blogging platforms on the web. It requires an install and setup which means it has a bit of a higher learning curve then some other options.
- Edublog Campus - A paid blogging solution for schools that is built around the Word Press Platform.
- Penzu - Is a nice new (beta) site for blogging that allows users to choose if they want their posts to be public or private.
- Live Journal - Is a combination of a blogging platform and social network that is very popular w/ a focus on social media.
- 21 Classes - A wonderful blogging solution for students/Teachers. Teachers can create student accounts and monitor all blog entries before they are posted.
- TypePad - Create excellent looking blogs w/ this very easy to use paid service.
Top 10 Sites for Creating Digital Comics
Creating Digital Comics has been one of my favorite thing to do w/ students when trying to integrate technology. While this can be done w/ any number of applications such as Comic Life or Toon Boom, there are many online alternatives (mostly free) that offer up a nice solution as well.
Top 10 Sites for Creating Digital Comics
- Pixton - Has an educational portal (paid) that is ideal for schools (no student email account necessary). Also, there are a ton of options such as voice recording, drag-n-drop interface, and importing/exporting features.
- ToonDoo Spaces - One of the most popular online comic creators that is very similar to Pixton, w/ the ability to create a private space for education for sharing/collaborating on comics.
- Comic Master - A very nice looking site that is user friendly w/ lots of features to choose from such as: backgrounds, objects, speech bubbles, etc.
- Bitstrips - Is a great site w/ an educational instance (paid) that allows students to create comics in a safe/secure environment.
- Stage'D - A great looking site for creating animated comics!!
- Make Beliefs Comix - A wonderful site w/ lots of options to choose from that even lets users create comics in Spanish.
- Super Hero Squad Show - A fun site for kids to make comics off of their favorite Marvel super hero.
- Chogger - A nice site for creating a comic w/ the ability to create a drawing from scratch.
- Comic Creator - From Read Write & Type, a easy/simple to use comic creator that is nice to use w/ the younger kids.
- Witty Comics - A comic creation site that focuses more on creating text more then anything else.
Beginning With Blogging
One of the best things about my new job is that I get to teach my own class, grade 6 MYPTechnology (my favorite class to teach, actually). As much as I love coaching and working with lots of different teachers and students, there is just something special about having your own class to work with. And in this case, I get the best of both worlds: teaching my own classes and coaching! In addition, since this is the first year of our MYP implementation, I have a clean slate to develop the entire MYP technology curriculum.
Since there was no existing curriculum, and no formal technology classes at the elementary level, I wasn’t sure exactly where I should start with this new class. I want to make sure that we take advantage of all the amazing resources we have at our disposal (not to mention the faaast internet connection), enhance what the school is already doing and continue to expand the range of online experiences for both student and teachers. It’s also important that I make the class approachable for the parents, teachers and students – starting too far out of the realm of understanding could bring some unwanted backlash early in the year. Plus, I want whatever we do in tech class to be useful to the students within their other classes as well. And, of course, I want it to be fun!
For the last year or so, many students and teachers were utilizing the YIS blogging portal, The Learning Hub. We also send home paper portfolios eight times a year (I think). So, I’m thinking hoping that I may be able to expand the school’s vision of a blog (as a regular reflective practice for students and teachers) and also build up to the idea of an eportfolio instead of the paper folders we send home so many times a year by beginning our MYP tech class with a blogging project. We all know how I feel about those paper portfolios, right? I’m also working on modeling a thoughtful and reflective teacher-blog with my new YIS Middle School Tech blog.
Of course, we’re going to go through the Technology Design Cycle and really expand on the process of creating a blog, so this will probably be the most in-depth look any YIS students have at blogging. I’m anticipating that the unit will take us several weeks (we have class for 90 minutes, once a week), but because I work with the entire sixth grade, our middle school will then have a really solid understanding of the power and potential of blogging. I think it will be an easy transition to the MYP-style technology class and hopefully provide an easy to follow model for other teachers in the middle school.
Part 1: Investigate
We just got started last week with the investigate stagewhere we are reviewing other popular and well-designed blogs to see what features are essential in a quality blog. I provided the students with a list of blogs to start with, and after they review at least 2 from my selection they can review as many of their own favorite blogs as they want (with prior-approval from me). Just for fun, we reviewed one of my favorite ramen blogs in class first. We were all salivating by the end of class and the students really understood that they can blog about anything they are passionate about, even if it’s as simple as a bowl of noodles.
In order to bring in another useful skill, we’re completing the reviews on Google Docs so I was able to introduce the students to their GApps accounts and the concept of collaborative note taking. In this case, each student is filling out their own review form (and sharing with me), but I’m sure we’ll circle back to collaborating on a single GDoc soon enough. I was really impressed with how quickly the picked up the idea of creating a duplicate copy of the Blog Research sheet (and so thankful that we used GDocs since within the first half hour two students had accidentally closed their browser window, which would have resulted in lost work had we been using Office).
Our next step is to start brainstorming a potential blogging focus by exploring our own interests. We’ll most likely be using Inspiration to create a well-organized mind-map of ideas that each student can blog about (in addition to their academic posts). I’m hoping that if we concentrate a bit on their personal interests, their blog will become more than just a school project. A few of the girls have already come up to me super excited about their own blogging ideas. I would love to see their unique voices start to shine through in their posts instead of always reading the same post from every student (which can so often happen when blogging becomes “homework”).
Once they have some ideas about what they might be able to blog about, as well as the features of a quality blog, we’ll spend some time exploring WordPress. I will admit, I often gloss over this part because I feel like it’s so intuitive, but I’m planning to spend a little more time with this group to see if that cuts down on questions later.
The final part of the Investigate stage will be reflecting on what we’ve learned so far and what needs to come next (never the students’ favorite part, but a critical piece of the MYP design cycle process).
Part 2: Plan
Once that part of the project is complete, we’ll begin the planning. I would like to use Konrad Glogowski’s How to Grow a Blog process. I’ve used it peripherally before with middle school students, but this time I would like to really spend some time with it, so students feel more ownership over their own blog.
We’ll do a little bit of design work, potentially exploring a little Photoshop, so students have a chance to design custom headers at least (since the themes are all pretty much set) and probably determine which widgets they will use based on the look of their theme and header. I usually like to have them plan out what a finished product will look like in colored pencils so they focus on the design work before they actually get to the computer. That way their time spent actually creating their finished work is really productive.
I may also have them design a simple sitemap to really understand the purpose of (and difference between) categories, tags, archives, calendars, etc. This always seems to be a difficult piece to work in when I’m coaching in the classroom, there’s just never enough time to really explore tagging and categories so students always end up with dozens of posts in uncategorized and teachers struggle to understand the potential of a blog as eportfolio without that kind of structure.
Finally, we’ll reflect before we move on to the next stage.
Part 3: Create
Only after they bring in their signed permission slips, will we actually create the blogs. This will be the shortest part of the project because they will have done the majority of the thinking, planning and designing already. I’d love to have them publish a few pieces of work from different classes using pictures, videos, VoiceThreads or other embeddable objects during this time. Most likely we’ll also talk about the power of linking and start writing posts which connect to other student’s posts in class (or around school).
Hopefully at this stage, we will also be able to connect with other blogging partners around the world. If anyone is interested in working with us, please let me know!
And, of course, we’ll do a little bit of reflecting before moving on to the final stage.
Part 4: Evaluate
This final part of the project will focus on evaluating the success of the blogs we created, as well as the process of creating them. It would be nice to be able to have some external evaluation of our blogs in addition to individual reflection, so maybe we’ll come up with a Google Form for feedback as well.
Final Thoughts
That’s the plan so far! I’m just in the process of really working out how I want to structure the plan, create and evaluate as I get to know the students.
Since I’m just in the early stages of planning this, I’d love your feedback: What am I missing?
Are you interested in being blogging partners with us? We would love to have some partners around the world!
Related posts:
Teaching students about Creative Commons and appropriate use of images
Kathleen McGeady has shared some great advice on teaching students about on appopriate use of images and has given me permission to cross post it here.
What inspires me about her post is her attitude that there are important skills everyone needs to learn and you’re never too young to learn them.
Please note:
- This was post written by our guest blogger Kathleen McGeady.
- It was originally posted on Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom and has been cross postedwith her permission.
The background
A few weeks ago I set up blogs for two of my most enthusiastic student bloggers, Rhiannon and Bianca.
I chose these students as they regularly left comments on our 2KM class blog and were committed to learning as much as they can about blogging.
After gaining their parents’ permission, I set their blogs up, adding myself as an administrator.
I had a discussion with Rhiannon and Bianca about what they’re going to blog about and how often they’ll post.
We then revised the features of quality posts as well as revising the cyber safety and netiquette guidelines they were already familiar with.
After some initial familiarisation sessions my students were off and it didn’t take them long to learn the basics of blogging.
Check out:
Before long, my students were keen to use images off the internet to enhance their posts.
This was a dilemma for me.
While my students are only in Grade Two and I don’t want to make blogging too complex for them, I knew that I would have to delve into the topic of copyright and Creative Commons to help my students develop good blogging habits.
Little do many people know, you can’t just use any images off the internet in your blog posts. Not only is this ethically incorrect but you could leave yourself open to copyright infringement.
Explaining Creative Commons and using images in blog posts
Wanting to make this process clear to my students, I typed up a document explaining copyright, copyright infringement and Creative Commons while also offering step-by-step instructions on how to use FlickrCC to upload and attribute images in blog posts.
Obviously, there is more than one way to do this but given the age of my students, I wanted to keep things as straightforward as posssible.
I’ve embedded this document below:
Feel free to use it with your students to teach them about these important blogging habits. (Please Note: the instructions for uploading the image to a blog post apply toEdublogs blogs)
My approach to Student blogging
One of the things I love about teaching seven and eight year olds is that I can teach them about issues such as copyright, cyber safety, netiquette, social networking etc just before they reach the age where they would dive into these areas, prepared or not.
I feel like I can make an impact in setting my students on the right path for their futures.
I am constantly amazed at how my students respond when I challenge them and engage them with ICT and their results across the board never fail to impress me.
Set your standards high, provide the structure and the support that your students need to scaffold their learning and reap the rewards!
Final Thoughts
Thanks Kathleen for letting me share your post here.
Please make sure you drop past Kathleen’s post and share your thoughts on:
- Will the how-to document be useful for you and your students?
- Do you have any questions about blogging or using internet images?
- What results have you seen from using ICT and setting high standards for your students?
Storify
Storify is an interesting site for creating digital storytelling using social media. The way this is done is by taking different media: weets, pics, text, etc) and then arranging them in any order (similar to Google Search Stories). A user then can add text to create a story. Once the story is created it can then be embedded into a site.
I highly recommend checking out Storify by clicking here!!
Thanks to the wonderful blog, Zarco English for the tip.
Five Alternatives to Traditional Book Reports
On Tuesday evening I gave a presentation in Second Life for school librarians and media specialists. One of the topics that I talked about was alternatives to traditional book report assignments. While this post is a follow-up to that presentation, the post on its own should give you some ideas for alternatives to traditional book report assignments.
1. Create book trailers. I ran a post about book trailers during the summer which you can read here. In short, a book trailer is a short video created by students to highlight the key points of a book. When creating their book trailers students should be trying to "sell" viewers on a book. To create their videos your students could use Animoto for Education, JayCut, or PhotoPeach. Learn more about these free video creation tools in my free guide Making Videos on the Web.
2. Create animated or stop-motion videos about a book's plot. To make an animated video try Memoov which is a free service that your students can use to create an animated video book review. Memoov allows users to create animated videos up to five minutes in length. Creating an animated video with Memoov can be as simple as selecting a setting image(s), selecting a character or characters, and adding dialogue.
If stop-motion videos are more your speed, Kevin Hodgson'sMaking Stopmotion Movies is a fantastic resource for directions and advice on making stop-motion movies.
3. Create literature maps. Using Google Maps or Google Earth students can map out the travels of character in a story. Google Lit Trips has many examples of teachers and students using Google Earth in literature courses. If you're not familiar with how to create placemarks in Google Maps, please see my free guide Google for Teachers for directions.
4. Create 3D augmented reality book reviews. ZooBurst is an amazing service that allows you to create a short story complete with 3D augmented reality pop-ups. Students could use ZooBurst to create short summaries of books that really jump off the screen.
5. Create multimedia collages about books.Glogster allows users to create one page multimedia collages. Students could create a collage containing videos, audio files, text, and images about books they've read. For example, a Glog about Into the Wild could contain images of Chris McCandless, chunks of text about the book, and this video featuring a song from the movie based on the book.
The Edublogger’s Introduction to Blogging
Want to know more about blogging, blog terminology and use of blogs in education?
Here you go!
Check out our “Introduction to Blogging” that you can read online here or download as a PDF version.
10 Tips for Starting an Education Blog
It was about a year ago that I really started to get into the idea of blogging. I was hesitant, unsure, and fairly new to the whole idea. I spent most of the initial stages of blogging just learning how to use the site to benefit myself, understanding widgets and embedding, and learning how to write for an audience. Below are tips that I would offer someone based on my own experience.
1.) Develop a Memorable URL and Title - I originally titled this blog ZimmerTIS. I did not think that let people know the purpose, plus the URL did not help explain what the blog would be about. So I changed the title and URL. Make yours something simple, memorable, short and sweet.
2.) Develop a Theme and Focus - I started doing daily posts related to different aspects of Educational Technology last year and created a Focus for my blog. I no longer do that, but it helped me to create posts that are relevant and specific.
3.) Create a Weekly Post - Develop a post that you have each week to keep readers coming back. Make the post something that will be an easy read and provide beneficial knowledge or resources. I started this year creating posts related to the Core Subjects of Math, Science, English, and Social Studies.
4.) Educate Yourself on Formatting - I have had to take some time and learn about HTML coding and embedding. I like for my links, images, videos, and other resources I embed to be flush with my template, so I learned about understanding the simple aspects of HTML code. This can be very helpful in the future and be beneficial to your readers.
5.) Learn About Widgets - Widgets are a great addition to a blog. It allows you to add things for readers to access. There are several out there that can be great additions. There are also some that will slow up the speed of your page load. I made the mistake of over doing this. Be simple with what you add (blogs you read, labels, previous post, popular post, search bar, translator, etc. A great addition will be to create a Social Signature. Jason Bedell has created a great site calledSocial Sig 4 Me. Use that site to add your RSS feed, Twitter name, etc. This way your readers can find you in other social networks.
6.) Use Copyright Free and Creative Commons Images - There are several images out there that are copyrighted and you want to be careful when using those images. Wylio is a great site for finding such images. I recommend you bookmark that site and use it for adding images to your blog.
7.) Watch Your Labels and Tags - You can add labels to your posts. Be broad with your labels. If you are to specific then you will have a ton of different labels and struggle with the organization of your blog postings. I find myself editing my labels about twice a year where I merge some of the labels together. For example, I had "comic," "comics," and "cartoons" all for the same resources, but did not include the same label throughout.
8.) Choose a Welcoming Layout/Theme - When I first started this blog I had a dark black background (even though I had "Happiness" in the title). I realized that this was not as welcoming and inviting. So I went with a lighter background and brighter hyperlinks. So far I am happy with the change. Blogger, Wordpress, and Edublogs all have themes and layouts that you can choose. Choose one that is welcoming to your readers. Here is a great post by The Edublogger forIntroducing Blogging using Edublogs
9.) Join and Share Blog on Twitter - I discovered thatTwitter was the BEST way to share my blog with others. Steven Anderson has done a great job putting together An Educators Guide to Twitter, where you will also find my So You Are New to Twitter post. Through Twitter you will be able to connect with other educators and share your blog. It is the greatest way to increase the readership of your blog, as well as introduce you to other blogs that you can comment on. By commenting on other blogs, many blogging educators will return the favor.
10.) Interact, Interact, Interact - When people comment on a blog post, interact with them. Tell them thanks for commenting and taking the time to read your post. Answer questions if they have any as well. Turn your blog into a form of networking with others. Creative commenting can lead to a large growth of readers.
The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010
The title of this “The Best…” list is pretty self-explanatory. What you’ll find here are blog posts and articles this year (some written by me, some by others) that were, in my opinion, the ones that offered the best practical advice to teachers this year — suggestions that can help teachers become more effective in the classroom today or tomorrow. Some, however, might not appear on the surface to fit that criteria, but those, I think, might offer insights that could (should?) inform our teaching practice everyday.
For some, the headlines provide enough of an idea of the topic and I haven’t included any further description.
You might be interested last year’s edition:
The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2009
Here are my choices for The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010 (not in order of any preference and, in fact, not in any order at all):
How to Create Nonreaders by Alfie Kohn
This Is What I Do When Students Are Late For Class…
What a good IEP looks like… is the best and most useful piece I’ve ever seen about IEP’s, the “Individualized Education Plans” that students facing learning challenges are supposed to have if they’re in the U.S. public education system. And I’m not just saying that because the author, Ira Socol, says something nice about me in it
What Is Your Technique For Memorizing Student Names?
Evaluating Student Athletes
I’m a big believer in the importance of developing relationships. Organizers say community organizing is just another word for relationship-building, I have a chapter on developing relationships with students in my book on teaching English Language Learners.
There’s a nice article in Middle Ground titled “The Power Of Positive Relationships” by Tara Brown that shares some more ideas on how to enhance building relationships in the classroom.
Can Providing Hand Sanitizer In The Classroom Help Student Learning?
Excellent Info On The Importance Of Reading For Pleasure
Dropbox Works Nicely
Dan Meyer, a highly regarded math teacher who uses a lot of multimedia in his lessons, has generously placed his entire curriculum for Geometry and Algebra online for people to use. Also, just a reminder that I have my entire United States History curriculum from one year ago online, too. Lastly, even though they certainly are not as complete, you might also find the lessons in my Theory of Knowledge, Ninth Grade English, and Intermediate English class blogs useful.
Edutopia has a very nice and useful “Back-to-School Guide: Jump Start Learning With New Media” available for free download. All you need to do is type in your email address here, and it’s yours.
Book Trailers
What I Do During The Final Week Of School
My Revised Final Exams (And An Important Lesson)
My Personal Responsibility Lesson For This Friday
Tom Barrett is known for his “Interesting Ways” series, which include numerous ideas on how to use Web 2.0 applications (including Wordle, iPod, Google Wave, Prezi, etc.) in the classroom. The series, however, is not only limited to technology, and also includes topics like supporting reading comprehension and spelling. He’s put them all in one place now. You definitely want to bookmark his Interesting Ways page.
Post-Test Weeks…
More Test-Prep Hints
Talking With Students About Standardized Tests
Getting Students To Talk About What They’re Reading &”Book Talks”
“Be Niiiiiicccccceeeee”
“Book Discussion Group Guidelines”
“The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book,” edited by Terry Freedman, is a must-read for anybody who wants to use Web 2.0 applications with their students.
Giving Students “Reflection Cards”
What to Look for in a Classroom is a nice chart developed by Alfie Kohn. It lists “Good Signs” and “Possible Reasons To Worry” for a number of categories, including furniture, “on the walls,” sounds, etc. It wouldn’t necessarily take it all as “gospel” (and nor do I believe he intended it to be). I’m not a big advocate of students seated around tables, for example. But it’s a good general guide to use and figure out which side do you tend to be on…
How Do You Think Working Hard & Learning Everything You Can In This Class Might Help You Now & In The Future?
Two Ways I’m Using Our School Library
“Should Have, Could Have: What Parents Regret About High School”
A Lesson Highlighting Community Assets — Not Deficits
Have You Ever Felt Like You & Your Students Are “Enduring” Class Instead of Enjoying It?
“Will Sleeping More Make Me Smarter?” — A Lesson I’m Trying This Week
“Point, Quote, Connect”
Student Metacognition & Instructional Strategies
The Best Number For A Small Group
“I Haven’t Been Feeling Very Respected….”
Blogging 4 Everyone
Blogging 4 Everyone is a resource for anyone who wants to learn how to blog. It has very simple, straightforward instructions for starting a blog including a video.
It does not mention Blogger, so here is my instructions for getting started with Blogger.
This would be a good resource to use if you want to create your own blog or if you are trying to get your students using blogs in class.
10 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers
As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have been working with some of my Grade Two students to set up individual blogs. I have found myself giving them lots of little tips along the way that I have picked up over my own blogging journey.Many of these ideas have originally come from some of my blogging “mentors” such as Linda Yollis and Sue Waters.
Here are 10 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers
- Post frequency: Find a balance. Don’t post too often (ie. daily) otherwise you will not be able to generate much conversation through commenting. Post too infrequently (ie. monthly) and your readers might start to forget about you. I advise my students to post once or twice a week.
- Reply to comments: I am often disappointed at how many student and adult bloggers there are out there who do not reply to their comments on their own blog. I feel that it is basic blogging etiquette to reply. Acknowledge your readers’ comments and they will be encouraged to comment again.
- Have an “about” page: The first thing I do when I visit a new blog is look at the About page. I am always disappointed when there isn’t one! Don’t keep your readers in the dark about who you are.
- Theme changes: Students love playing around with the different themes available when they first start blogging. I encourage them to explore for a week or so but then advice them to find a good theme and stick with it. Readers may be able to identify less with your blog if it looks different every time they visit it.
- Fun widgets: Young bloggers love widgets! In my opinion, it is advisable to limit “fun” or “novelty” widgets. Too many widgets take away from the actual content of the blog posts and can slow down loading time! I suggest my students have no more than three “fun widgets” such as virtual pets, Christmas countdowns, jokes, tips, music clips etc.
- Add a search box: Early on in the year, I teach my students how to use the search box on blogs to find content. I find it frustrating when blogs don’t have the search box.
- Subscribe via email: While I also use Google Reader and Twitter to keep track of blogs I like, I love having the ability to subscribe via email to my favourite blogs. Adding this feature could bring more regular visitors to your blog.
- Add links to blog posts and comments: Links help your visitors gain a deeper understanding of what they’re reading. Links in blog posts can also be used to acknowledge or compliment others’ work. Links in blog comments can add extra information to a conversation. If you don’t know how to add a link to a blog comment, check out Linda Yollis’ excellent blog post and quick video.
- Visit other blogs: You can’t expect many people to read and comment on your blog if you don’t read and comment on others’ blogs.
- End with a question: On my class blog and this blog I like to end with a question to stimulate and direct conversation in the comment section. My Grade Two students are learning how to ask “broader” questions that will appeal to more readers (eg. if a child writes a post about a holiday to Noosa, instead of simply asking “have you ever been to Noosa?” they could ask readers to leave a comment and describe a holiday they have been on).
One more tip! Don’t lose your comment. All my students now know how to copy (Control C), their comment before they hit “submit”. This allows them to paste (Control V) the comment if something goes wrong when they hit the “submit” button. This happens fairly frequently with young students due to the wrong spam word being entered etc.
Batalugu
Batalugu is a new (beta) site that is great for creating digital books. I like to think of this as a cross between BookRixand Tikatok, that is ideal for digital storytelling. This is a very user friendly site w/ lots of options to choose from such as: themes, page layout, etc etc. My only concern is if a user can actual order a hard copy of their book rather then just share them online w/ others.
I highly recommend checking out Batalugu for creating digital books by clicking here!!
Make Beliefs Comix
Make Beliefs Comix is a fun site for creating digital comics. What makes this a really nice option for teachers are all the resources available for educators such as writing prompts, lessons, and the ability to create comics in different languages.
I highly recommend checking out Make Beliefs Comix by clicking here!!!
Digital Storytelling Encourages Student Expression
Welcome to another installment of SimpleK12's 2 Minute EdTech Talk, where educators integrate technology - in just two minutes! The goal? To share, to collaborate, and most of all – to help and encourage teachers to try new forms of technology in their own classrooms.
Last week, Steven Katz talked about how podcasting is quick, easy, and free.
This episode of 2 Minute EdTech Talk is with Alex Francisco, English as a foreign language teacher and blogger in Madeira, Portugal.
Watch below to see what she has to say about GoAnimate.
Get in touch with Alex through:
- Twitter - @alexgfrancisco
- Her class website - ZarcoEnglish
Check out the following GoAnimate examples made by Alex and her students:
- Our School - a virtual tour of Alex's schools
- Teach with edtech - music video for a song about resisting technology integraion
- Student Showcase - find many examples of student work with GoAnimate
Learn about other digital storytelling webtools in SimpleK12's eBook, "101 Free Tech Tools for Teachers". Click here to sign up to receive your free copy of the eBook.
So, tell me, how do you use digital storytelling in your classroom?
- Kimberly
PS - To view a current list of all of my 2 Minute EdTech Talks on topics such as VoiceThread, Piclits.com, CoverItLive, Xtranormal, Drop.io, Screencast-o-matic and more, check out this blog post.
Related Stories
Top 10 Blogging Solutions
"A blog (a blend of the term web log)[1] is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. (wikipedia)"
Blogging is one of the most popular web 2.0 tools around and used by educators everywhere. Basically, it is "online journaling" and a great way for students/teachers to create online content. However, the key to a blog is it's collaborative nature and the ability to generate communication among others.
That being said, I decided to list my favorites blogging solution for educators...
Top 10 Blogging Solutions
- Edmodo - A terrific solution for blogging in the classroom and it's free. It allows teachers to create student accounts and monitor all their activity.
- Kidblog - A great free way for students to blog w/ no email account necessary, teachers have total control of student content.
- Gaggle - A semi-free (paid version removes ads) way for student's to blog in a filtered environment. Gaggle will also filter Google Apps, provide forums, and filter YouTube as well.
- Blogger - Google's free blogging service that is very easy to use and has a beautiful user interface w/ lots of: themes, gadgets, and options to choose from.
- Word Press - One of the most popular free blogging platforms on the web. It requires an install and setup which means it has a bit of a higher learning curve then some other options.
- Edublog Campus - A paid blogging solution for schools that is built around the Word Press Platform.
- Penzu - Is a nice new (beta) site for blogging that allows users to choose if they want their posts to be public or private.
- Live Journal - Is a combination of a blogging platform and social network that is very popular w/ a focus on social media.
- 21 Classes - A wonderful blogging solution for students/Teachers. Teachers can create student accounts and monitor all blog entries before they are posted.
- TypePad - Create excellent looking blogs w/ this very easy to use paid service.
Top 10 Sites for Creating Digital Comics
Creating Digital Comics has been one of my favorite thing to do w/ students when trying to integrate technology. While this can be done w/ any number of applications such as Comic Life or Toon Boom, there are many online alternatives (mostly free) that offer up a nice solution as well.
Top 10 Sites for Creating Digital Comics
- Pixton - Has an educational portal (paid) that is ideal for schools (no student email account necessary). Also, there are a ton of options such as voice recording, drag-n-drop interface, and importing/exporting features.
- ToonDoo Spaces - One of the most popular online comic creators that is very similar to Pixton, w/ the ability to create a private space for education for sharing/collaborating on comics.
- Comic Master - A very nice looking site that is user friendly w/ lots of features to choose from such as: backgrounds, objects, speech bubbles, etc.
- Bitstrips - Is a great site w/ an educational instance (paid) that allows students to create comics in a safe/secure environment.
- Stage'D - A great looking site for creating animated comics!!
- Make Beliefs Comix - A wonderful site w/ lots of options to choose from that even lets users create comics in Spanish.
- Super Hero Squad Show - A fun site for kids to make comics off of their favorite Marvel super hero.
- Chogger - A nice site for creating a comic w/ the ability to create a drawing from scratch.
- Comic Creator - From Read Write & Type, a easy/simple to use comic creator that is nice to use w/ the younger kids.
- Witty Comics - A comic creation site that focuses more on creating text more then anything else.
Beginning With Blogging
One of the best things about my new job is that I get to teach my own class, grade 6 MYPTechnology (my favorite class to teach, actually). As much as I love coaching and working with lots of different teachers and students, there is just something special about having your own class to work with. And in this case, I get the best of both worlds: teaching my own classes and coaching! In addition, since this is the first year of our MYP implementation, I have a clean slate to develop the entire MYP technology curriculum.
Since there was no existing curriculum, and no formal technology classes at the elementary level, I wasn’t sure exactly where I should start with this new class. I want to make sure that we take advantage of all the amazing resources we have at our disposal (not to mention the faaast internet connection), enhance what the school is already doing and continue to expand the range of online experiences for both student and teachers. It’s also important that I make the class approachable for the parents, teachers and students – starting too far out of the realm of understanding could bring some unwanted backlash early in the year. Plus, I want whatever we do in tech class to be useful to the students within their other classes as well. And, of course, I want it to be fun!
For the last year or so, many students and teachers were utilizing the YIS blogging portal, The Learning Hub. We also send home paper portfolios eight times a year (I think). So, I’m thinking hoping that I may be able to expand the school’s vision of a blog (as a regular reflective practice for students and teachers) and also build up to the idea of an eportfolio instead of the paper folders we send home so many times a year by beginning our MYP tech class with a blogging project. We all know how I feel about those paper portfolios, right? I’m also working on modeling a thoughtful and reflective teacher-blog with my new YIS Middle School Tech blog.
Of course, we’re going to go through the Technology Design Cycle and really expand on the process of creating a blog, so this will probably be the most in-depth look any YIS students have at blogging. I’m anticipating that the unit will take us several weeks (we have class for 90 minutes, once a week), but because I work with the entire sixth grade, our middle school will then have a really solid understanding of the power and potential of blogging. I think it will be an easy transition to the MYP-style technology class and hopefully provide an easy to follow model for other teachers in the middle school.
Part 1: Investigate
We just got started last week with the investigate stagewhere we are reviewing other popular and well-designed blogs to see what features are essential in a quality blog. I provided the students with a list of blogs to start with, and after they review at least 2 from my selection they can review as many of their own favorite blogs as they want (with prior-approval from me). Just for fun, we reviewed one of my favorite ramen blogs in class first. We were all salivating by the end of class and the students really understood that they can blog about anything they are passionate about, even if it’s as simple as a bowl of noodles.
In order to bring in another useful skill, we’re completing the reviews on Google Docs so I was able to introduce the students to their GApps accounts and the concept of collaborative note taking. In this case, each student is filling out their own review form (and sharing with me), but I’m sure we’ll circle back to collaborating on a single GDoc soon enough. I was really impressed with how quickly the picked up the idea of creating a duplicate copy of the Blog Research sheet (and so thankful that we used GDocs since within the first half hour two students had accidentally closed their browser window, which would have resulted in lost work had we been using Office).
Our next step is to start brainstorming a potential blogging focus by exploring our own interests. We’ll most likely be using Inspiration to create a well-organized mind-map of ideas that each student can blog about (in addition to their academic posts). I’m hoping that if we concentrate a bit on their personal interests, their blog will become more than just a school project. A few of the girls have already come up to me super excited about their own blogging ideas. I would love to see their unique voices start to shine through in their posts instead of always reading the same post from every student (which can so often happen when blogging becomes “homework”).
Once they have some ideas about what they might be able to blog about, as well as the features of a quality blog, we’ll spend some time exploring WordPress. I will admit, I often gloss over this part because I feel like it’s so intuitive, but I’m planning to spend a little more time with this group to see if that cuts down on questions later.
The final part of the Investigate stage will be reflecting on what we’ve learned so far and what needs to come next (never the students’ favorite part, but a critical piece of the MYP design cycle process).
Part 2: Plan
Once that part of the project is complete, we’ll begin the planning. I would like to use Konrad Glogowski’s How to Grow a Blog process. I’ve used it peripherally before with middle school students, but this time I would like to really spend some time with it, so students feel more ownership over their own blog.
We’ll do a little bit of design work, potentially exploring a little Photoshop, so students have a chance to design custom headers at least (since the themes are all pretty much set) and probably determine which widgets they will use based on the look of their theme and header. I usually like to have them plan out what a finished product will look like in colored pencils so they focus on the design work before they actually get to the computer. That way their time spent actually creating their finished work is really productive.
I may also have them design a simple sitemap to really understand the purpose of (and difference between) categories, tags, archives, calendars, etc. This always seems to be a difficult piece to work in when I’m coaching in the classroom, there’s just never enough time to really explore tagging and categories so students always end up with dozens of posts in uncategorized and teachers struggle to understand the potential of a blog as eportfolio without that kind of structure.
Finally, we’ll reflect before we move on to the next stage.
Part 3: Create
Only after they bring in their signed permission slips, will we actually create the blogs. This will be the shortest part of the project because they will have done the majority of the thinking, planning and designing already. I’d love to have them publish a few pieces of work from different classes using pictures, videos, VoiceThreads or other embeddable objects during this time. Most likely we’ll also talk about the power of linking and start writing posts which connect to other student’s posts in class (or around school).
Hopefully at this stage, we will also be able to connect with other blogging partners around the world. If anyone is interested in working with us, please let me know!
And, of course, we’ll do a little bit of reflecting before moving on to the final stage.
Part 4: Evaluate
This final part of the project will focus on evaluating the success of the blogs we created, as well as the process of creating them. It would be nice to be able to have some external evaluation of our blogs in addition to individual reflection, so maybe we’ll come up with a Google Form for feedback as well.
Final Thoughts
That’s the plan so far! I’m just in the process of really working out how I want to structure the plan, create and evaluate as I get to know the students.
Since I’m just in the early stages of planning this, I’d love your feedback: What am I missing?
Are you interested in being blogging partners with us? We would love to have some partners around the world!
Related posts:
Teaching students about Creative Commons and appropriate use of images
Kathleen McGeady has shared some great advice on teaching students about on appopriate use of images and has given me permission to cross post it here.
What inspires me about her post is her attitude that there are important skills everyone needs to learn and you’re never too young to learn them.
Please note:
- This was post written by our guest blogger Kathleen McGeady.
- It was originally posted on Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom and has been cross postedwith her permission.
The background
A few weeks ago I set up blogs for two of my most enthusiastic student bloggers, Rhiannon and Bianca.
I chose these students as they regularly left comments on our 2KM class blog and were committed to learning as much as they can about blogging.
After gaining their parents’ permission, I set their blogs up, adding myself as an administrator.
I had a discussion with Rhiannon and Bianca about what they’re going to blog about and how often they’ll post.
We then revised the features of quality posts as well as revising the cyber safety and netiquette guidelines they were already familiar with.
After some initial familiarisation sessions my students were off and it didn’t take them long to learn the basics of blogging.
Check out:
Before long, my students were keen to use images off the internet to enhance their posts.
This was a dilemma for me.
While my students are only in Grade Two and I don’t want to make blogging too complex for them, I knew that I would have to delve into the topic of copyright and Creative Commons to help my students develop good blogging habits.
Little do many people know, you can’t just use any images off the internet in your blog posts. Not only is this ethically incorrect but you could leave yourself open to copyright infringement.
Explaining Creative Commons and using images in blog posts
Wanting to make this process clear to my students, I typed up a document explaining copyright, copyright infringement and Creative Commons while also offering step-by-step instructions on how to use FlickrCC to upload and attribute images in blog posts.
Obviously, there is more than one way to do this but given the age of my students, I wanted to keep things as straightforward as posssible.
I’ve embedded this document below:
Feel free to use it with your students to teach them about these important blogging habits. (Please Note: the instructions for uploading the image to a blog post apply toEdublogs blogs)
My approach to Student blogging
One of the things I love about teaching seven and eight year olds is that I can teach them about issues such as copyright, cyber safety, netiquette, social networking etc just before they reach the age where they would dive into these areas, prepared or not.
I feel like I can make an impact in setting my students on the right path for their futures.
I am constantly amazed at how my students respond when I challenge them and engage them with ICT and their results across the board never fail to impress me.
Set your standards high, provide the structure and the support that your students need to scaffold their learning and reap the rewards!
Final Thoughts
Thanks Kathleen for letting me share your post here.
Please make sure you drop past Kathleen’s post and share your thoughts on:
- Will the how-to document be useful for you and your students?
- Do you have any questions about blogging or using internet images?
- What results have you seen from using ICT and setting high standards for your students?
The Edublogger’s Introduction to Blogging
Want to know more about blogging, blog terminology and use of blogs in education?
Here you go!
Check out our “Introduction to Blogging” that you can read online here or download as a PDF version.
10 Tips for Starting an Education Blog
It was about a year ago that I really started to get into the idea of blogging. I was hesitant, unsure, and fairly new to the whole idea. I spent most of the initial stages of blogging just learning how to use the site to benefit myself, understanding widgets and embedding, and learning how to write for an audience. Below are tips that I would offer someone based on my own experience.
1.) Develop a Memorable URL and Title - I originally titled this blog ZimmerTIS. I did not think that let people know the purpose, plus the URL did not help explain what the blog would be about. So I changed the title and URL. Make yours something simple, memorable, short and sweet.
2.) Develop a Theme and Focus - I started doing daily posts related to different aspects of Educational Technology last year and created a Focus for my blog. I no longer do that, but it helped me to create posts that are relevant and specific.
3.) Create a Weekly Post - Develop a post that you have each week to keep readers coming back. Make the post something that will be an easy read and provide beneficial knowledge or resources. I started this year creating posts related to the Core Subjects of Math, Science, English, and Social Studies.
4.) Educate Yourself on Formatting - I have had to take some time and learn about HTML coding and embedding. I like for my links, images, videos, and other resources I embed to be flush with my template, so I learned about understanding the simple aspects of HTML code. This can be very helpful in the future and be beneficial to your readers.
5.) Learn About Widgets - Widgets are a great addition to a blog. It allows you to add things for readers to access. There are several out there that can be great additions. There are also some that will slow up the speed of your page load. I made the mistake of over doing this. Be simple with what you add (blogs you read, labels, previous post, popular post, search bar, translator, etc. A great addition will be to create a Social Signature. Jason Bedell has created a great site calledSocial Sig 4 Me. Use that site to add your RSS feed, Twitter name, etc. This way your readers can find you in other social networks.
6.) Use Copyright Free and Creative Commons Images - There are several images out there that are copyrighted and you want to be careful when using those images. Wylio is a great site for finding such images. I recommend you bookmark that site and use it for adding images to your blog.
7.) Watch Your Labels and Tags - You can add labels to your posts. Be broad with your labels. If you are to specific then you will have a ton of different labels and struggle with the organization of your blog postings. I find myself editing my labels about twice a year where I merge some of the labels together. For example, I had "comic," "comics," and "cartoons" all for the same resources, but did not include the same label throughout.
8.) Choose a Welcoming Layout/Theme - When I first started this blog I had a dark black background (even though I had "Happiness" in the title). I realized that this was not as welcoming and inviting. So I went with a lighter background and brighter hyperlinks. So far I am happy with the change. Blogger, Wordpress, and Edublogs all have themes and layouts that you can choose. Choose one that is welcoming to your readers. Here is a great post by The Edublogger forIntroducing Blogging using Edublogs
9.) Join and Share Blog on Twitter - I discovered thatTwitter was the BEST way to share my blog with others. Steven Anderson has done a great job putting together An Educators Guide to Twitter, where you will also find my So You Are New to Twitter post. Through Twitter you will be able to connect with other educators and share your blog. It is the greatest way to increase the readership of your blog, as well as introduce you to other blogs that you can comment on. By commenting on other blogs, many blogging educators will return the favor.
10.) Interact, Interact, Interact - When people comment on a blog post, interact with them. Tell them thanks for commenting and taking the time to read your post. Answer questions if they have any as well. Turn your blog into a form of networking with others. Creative commenting can lead to a large growth of readers.
The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010
The title of this “The Best…” list is pretty self-explanatory. What you’ll find here are blog posts and articles this year (some written by me, some by others) that were, in my opinion, the ones that offered the best practical advice to teachers this year — suggestions that can help teachers become more effective in the classroom today or tomorrow. Some, however, might not appear on the surface to fit that criteria, but those, I think, might offer insights that could (should?) inform our teaching practice everyday.
For some, the headlines provide enough of an idea of the topic and I haven’t included any further description.
You might be interested last year’s edition:
The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2009
Here are my choices for The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010 (not in order of any preference and, in fact, not in any order at all):
How to Create Nonreaders by Alfie Kohn
This Is What I Do When Students Are Late For Class…
What a good IEP looks like… is the best and most useful piece I’ve ever seen about IEP’s, the “Individualized Education Plans” that students facing learning challenges are supposed to have if they’re in the U.S. public education system. And I’m not just saying that because the author, Ira Socol, says something nice about me in it
What Is Your Technique For Memorizing Student Names?
Evaluating Student Athletes
I’m a big believer in the importance of developing relationships. Organizers say community organizing is just another word for relationship-building, I have a chapter on developing relationships with students in my book on teaching English Language Learners.
There’s a nice article in Middle Ground titled “The Power Of Positive Relationships” by Tara Brown that shares some more ideas on how to enhance building relationships in the classroom.
Can Providing Hand Sanitizer In The Classroom Help Student Learning?
Excellent Info On The Importance Of Reading For Pleasure
Dropbox Works Nicely
Dan Meyer, a highly regarded math teacher who uses a lot of multimedia in his lessons, has generously placed his entire curriculum for Geometry and Algebra online for people to use. Also, just a reminder that I have my entire United States History curriculum from one year ago online, too. Lastly, even though they certainly are not as complete, you might also find the lessons in my Theory of Knowledge, Ninth Grade English, and Intermediate English class blogs useful.
Edutopia has a very nice and useful “Back-to-School Guide: Jump Start Learning With New Media” available for free download. All you need to do is type in your email address here, and it’s yours.
Book Trailers
What I Do During The Final Week Of School
My Revised Final Exams (And An Important Lesson)
My Personal Responsibility Lesson For This Friday
Tom Barrett is known for his “Interesting Ways” series, which include numerous ideas on how to use Web 2.0 applications (including Wordle, iPod, Google Wave, Prezi, etc.) in the classroom. The series, however, is not only limited to technology, and also includes topics like supporting reading comprehension and spelling. He’s put them all in one place now. You definitely want to bookmark his Interesting Ways page.
Post-Test Weeks…
More Test-Prep Hints
Talking With Students About Standardized Tests
Getting Students To Talk About What They’re Reading &”Book Talks”
“Be Niiiiiicccccceeeee”
“Book Discussion Group Guidelines”
“The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book,” edited by Terry Freedman, is a must-read for anybody who wants to use Web 2.0 applications with their students.
Giving Students “Reflection Cards”
What to Look for in a Classroom is a nice chart developed by Alfie Kohn. It lists “Good Signs” and “Possible Reasons To Worry” for a number of categories, including furniture, “on the walls,” sounds, etc. It wouldn’t necessarily take it all as “gospel” (and nor do I believe he intended it to be). I’m not a big advocate of students seated around tables, for example. But it’s a good general guide to use and figure out which side do you tend to be on…
How Do You Think Working Hard & Learning Everything You Can In This Class Might Help You Now & In The Future?
Two Ways I’m Using Our School Library
“Should Have, Could Have: What Parents Regret About High School”
A Lesson Highlighting Community Assets — Not Deficits
Have You Ever Felt Like You & Your Students Are “Enduring” Class Instead of Enjoying It?
“Will Sleeping More Make Me Smarter?” — A Lesson I’m Trying This Week
“Point, Quote, Connect”
Student Metacognition & Instructional Strategies
The Best Number For A Small Group
“I Haven’t Been Feeling Very Respected….”
Blogging 4 Everyone
Blogging 4 Everyone is a resource for anyone who wants to learn how to blog. It has very simple, straightforward instructions for starting a blog including a video.
It does not mention Blogger, so here is my instructions for getting started with Blogger.
This would be a good resource to use if you want to create your own blog or if you are trying to get your students using blogs in class.
10 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers
As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have been working with some of my Grade Two students to set up individual blogs. I have found myself giving them lots of little tips along the way that I have picked up over my own blogging journey.Many of these ideas have originally come from some of my blogging “mentors” such as Linda Yollis and Sue Waters.
Here are 10 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers
- Post frequency: Find a balance. Don’t post too often (ie. daily) otherwise you will not be able to generate much conversation through commenting. Post too infrequently (ie. monthly) and your readers might start to forget about you. I advise my students to post once or twice a week.
- Reply to comments: I am often disappointed at how many student and adult bloggers there are out there who do not reply to their comments on their own blog. I feel that it is basic blogging etiquette to reply. Acknowledge your readers’ comments and they will be encouraged to comment again.
- Have an “about” page: The first thing I do when I visit a new blog is look at the About page. I am always disappointed when there isn’t one! Don’t keep your readers in the dark about who you are.
- Theme changes: Students love playing around with the different themes available when they first start blogging. I encourage them to explore for a week or so but then advice them to find a good theme and stick with it. Readers may be able to identify less with your blog if it looks different every time they visit it.
- Fun widgets: Young bloggers love widgets! In my opinion, it is advisable to limit “fun” or “novelty” widgets. Too many widgets take away from the actual content of the blog posts and can slow down loading time! I suggest my students have no more than three “fun widgets” such as virtual pets, Christmas countdowns, jokes, tips, music clips etc.
- Add a search box: Early on in the year, I teach my students how to use the search box on blogs to find content. I find it frustrating when blogs don’t have the search box.
- Subscribe via email: While I also use Google Reader and Twitter to keep track of blogs I like, I love having the ability to subscribe via email to my favourite blogs. Adding this feature could bring more regular visitors to your blog.
- Add links to blog posts and comments: Links help your visitors gain a deeper understanding of what they’re reading. Links in blog posts can also be used to acknowledge or compliment others’ work. Links in blog comments can add extra information to a conversation. If you don’t know how to add a link to a blog comment, check out Linda Yollis’ excellent blog post and quick video.
- Visit other blogs: You can’t expect many people to read and comment on your blog if you don’t read and comment on others’ blogs.
- End with a question: On my class blog and this blog I like to end with a question to stimulate and direct conversation in the comment section. My Grade Two students are learning how to ask “broader” questions that will appeal to more readers (eg. if a child writes a post about a holiday to Noosa, instead of simply asking “have you ever been to Noosa?” they could ask readers to leave a comment and describe a holiday they have been on).
One more tip! Don’t lose your comment. All my students now know how to copy (Control C), their comment before they hit “submit”. This allows them to paste (Control V) the comment if something goes wrong when they hit the “submit” button. This happens fairly frequently with young students due to the wrong spam word being entered etc.
Batalugu
Batalugu is a new (beta) site that is great for creating digital books. I like to think of this as a cross between BookRixand Tikatok, that is ideal for digital storytelling. This is a very user friendly site w/ lots of options to choose from such as: themes, page layout, etc etc. My only concern is if a user can actual order a hard copy of their book rather then just share them online w/ others.
I highly recommend checking out Batalugu for creating digital books by clicking here!!
Make Beliefs Comix
Make Beliefs Comix is a fun site for creating digital comics. What makes this a really nice option for teachers are all the resources available for educators such as writing prompts, lessons, and the ability to create comics in different languages.
I highly recommend checking out Make Beliefs Comix by clicking here!!!
Digital Storytelling Encourages Student Expression
Welcome to another installment of SimpleK12's 2 Minute EdTech Talk, where educators integrate technology - in just two minutes! The goal? To share, to collaborate, and most of all – to help and encourage teachers to try new forms of technology in their own classrooms.
Last week, Steven Katz talked about how podcasting is quick, easy, and free.
This episode of 2 Minute EdTech Talk is with Alex Francisco, English as a foreign language teacher and blogger in Madeira, Portugal.
Watch below to see what she has to say about GoAnimate.
Get in touch with Alex through:
- Twitter - @alexgfrancisco
- Her class website - ZarcoEnglish
Check out the following GoAnimate examples made by Alex and her students:
- Our School - a virtual tour of Alex's schools
- Teach with edtech - music video for a song about resisting technology integraion
- Student Showcase - find many examples of student work with GoAnimate
Learn about other digital storytelling webtools in SimpleK12's eBook, "101 Free Tech Tools for Teachers". Click here to sign up to receive your free copy of the eBook.
So, tell me, how do you use digital storytelling in your classroom?
- Kimberly
PS - To view a current list of all of my 2 Minute EdTech Talks on topics such as VoiceThread, Piclits.com, CoverItLive, Xtranormal, Drop.io, Screencast-o-matic and more, check out this blog post.
Related Stories
Top 10 Blogging Solutions
"A blog (a blend of the term web log)[1] is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. (wikipedia)"
Blogging is one of the most popular web 2.0 tools around and used by educators everywhere. Basically, it is "online journaling" and a great way for students/teachers to create online content. However, the key to a blog is it's collaborative nature and the ability to generate communication among others.
That being said, I decided to list my favorites blogging solution for educators...
Top 10 Blogging Solutions
- Edmodo - A terrific solution for blogging in the classroom and it's free. It allows teachers to create student accounts and monitor all their activity.
- Kidblog - A great free way for students to blog w/ no email account necessary, teachers have total control of student content.
- Gaggle - A semi-free (paid version removes ads) way for student's to blog in a filtered environment. Gaggle will also filter Google Apps, provide forums, and filter YouTube as well.
- Blogger - Google's free blogging service that is very easy to use and has a beautiful user interface w/ lots of: themes, gadgets, and options to choose from.
- Word Press - One of the most popular free blogging platforms on the web. It requires an install and setup which means it has a bit of a higher learning curve then some other options.
- Edublog Campus - A paid blogging solution for schools that is built around the Word Press Platform.
- Penzu - Is a nice new (beta) site for blogging that allows users to choose if they want their posts to be public or private.
- Live Journal - Is a combination of a blogging platform and social network that is very popular w/ a focus on social media.
- 21 Classes - A wonderful blogging solution for students/Teachers. Teachers can create student accounts and monitor all blog entries before they are posted.
- TypePad - Create excellent looking blogs w/ this very easy to use paid service.
Top 10 Sites for Creating Digital Comics
Creating Digital Comics has been one of my favorite thing to do w/ students when trying to integrate technology. While this can be done w/ any number of applications such as Comic Life or Toon Boom, there are many online alternatives (mostly free) that offer up a nice solution as well.
Top 10 Sites for Creating Digital Comics
- Pixton - Has an educational portal (paid) that is ideal for schools (no student email account necessary). Also, there are a ton of options such as voice recording, drag-n-drop interface, and importing/exporting features.
- ToonDoo Spaces - One of the most popular online comic creators that is very similar to Pixton, w/ the ability to create a private space for education for sharing/collaborating on comics.
- Comic Master - A very nice looking site that is user friendly w/ lots of features to choose from such as: backgrounds, objects, speech bubbles, etc.
- Bitstrips - Is a great site w/ an educational instance (paid) that allows students to create comics in a safe/secure environment.
- Stage'D - A great looking site for creating animated comics!!
- Make Beliefs Comix - A wonderful site w/ lots of options to choose from that even lets users create comics in Spanish.
- Super Hero Squad Show - A fun site for kids to make comics off of their favorite Marvel super hero.
- Chogger - A nice site for creating a comic w/ the ability to create a drawing from scratch.
- Comic Creator - From Read Write & Type, a easy/simple to use comic creator that is nice to use w/ the younger kids.
- Witty Comics - A comic creation site that focuses more on creating text more then anything else.
The Edublogger’s Introduction to Blogging
Want to know more about blogging, blog terminology and use of blogs in education?
Here you go!
Check out our “Introduction to Blogging” that you can read online here or download as a PDF version.
10 Tips for Starting an Education Blog
It was about a year ago that I really started to get into the idea of blogging. I was hesitant, unsure, and fairly new to the whole idea. I spent most of the initial stages of blogging just learning how to use the site to benefit myself, understanding widgets and embedding, and learning how to write for an audience. Below are tips that I would offer someone based on my own experience.
1.) Develop a Memorable URL and Title - I originally titled this blog ZimmerTIS. I did not think that let people know the purpose, plus the URL did not help explain what the blog would be about. So I changed the title and URL. Make yours something simple, memorable, short and sweet.
2.) Develop a Theme and Focus - I started doing daily posts related to different aspects of Educational Technology last year and created a Focus for my blog. I no longer do that, but it helped me to create posts that are relevant and specific.
3.) Create a Weekly Post - Develop a post that you have each week to keep readers coming back. Make the post something that will be an easy read and provide beneficial knowledge or resources. I started this year creating posts related to the Core Subjects of Math, Science, English, and Social Studies.
4.) Educate Yourself on Formatting - I have had to take some time and learn about HTML coding and embedding. I like for my links, images, videos, and other resources I embed to be flush with my template, so I learned about understanding the simple aspects of HTML code. This can be very helpful in the future and be beneficial to your readers.
5.) Learn About Widgets - Widgets are a great addition to a blog. It allows you to add things for readers to access. There are several out there that can be great additions. There are also some that will slow up the speed of your page load. I made the mistake of over doing this. Be simple with what you add (blogs you read, labels, previous post, popular post, search bar, translator, etc. A great addition will be to create a Social Signature. Jason Bedell has created a great site calledSocial Sig 4 Me. Use that site to add your RSS feed, Twitter name, etc. This way your readers can find you in other social networks.
6.) Use Copyright Free and Creative Commons Images - There are several images out there that are copyrighted and you want to be careful when using those images. Wylio is a great site for finding such images. I recommend you bookmark that site and use it for adding images to your blog.
7.) Watch Your Labels and Tags - You can add labels to your posts. Be broad with your labels. If you are to specific then you will have a ton of different labels and struggle with the organization of your blog postings. I find myself editing my labels about twice a year where I merge some of the labels together. For example, I had "comic," "comics," and "cartoons" all for the same resources, but did not include the same label throughout.
8.) Choose a Welcoming Layout/Theme - When I first started this blog I had a dark black background (even though I had "Happiness" in the title). I realized that this was not as welcoming and inviting. So I went with a lighter background and brighter hyperlinks. So far I am happy with the change. Blogger, Wordpress, and Edublogs all have themes and layouts that you can choose. Choose one that is welcoming to your readers. Here is a great post by The Edublogger forIntroducing Blogging using Edublogs
9.) Join and Share Blog on Twitter - I discovered thatTwitter was the BEST way to share my blog with others. Steven Anderson has done a great job putting together An Educators Guide to Twitter, where you will also find my So You Are New to Twitter post. Through Twitter you will be able to connect with other educators and share your blog. It is the greatest way to increase the readership of your blog, as well as introduce you to other blogs that you can comment on. By commenting on other blogs, many blogging educators will return the favor.
10.) Interact, Interact, Interact - When people comment on a blog post, interact with them. Tell them thanks for commenting and taking the time to read your post. Answer questions if they have any as well. Turn your blog into a form of networking with others. Creative commenting can lead to a large growth of readers.
The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010
The title of this “The Best…” list is pretty self-explanatory. What you’ll find here are blog posts and articles this year (some written by me, some by others) that were, in my opinion, the ones that offered the best practical advice to teachers this year — suggestions that can help teachers become more effective in the classroom today or tomorrow. Some, however, might not appear on the surface to fit that criteria, but those, I think, might offer insights that could (should?) inform our teaching practice everyday.
For some, the headlines provide enough of an idea of the topic and I haven’t included any further description.
You might be interested last year’s edition:
The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2009
Here are my choices for The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010 (not in order of any preference and, in fact, not in any order at all):
How to Create Nonreaders by Alfie Kohn
This Is What I Do When Students Are Late For Class…
What a good IEP looks like… is the best and most useful piece I’ve ever seen about IEP’s, the “Individualized Education Plans” that students facing learning challenges are supposed to have if they’re in the U.S. public education system. And I’m not just saying that because the author, Ira Socol, says something nice about me in it
What Is Your Technique For Memorizing Student Names?
Evaluating Student Athletes
I’m a big believer in the importance of developing relationships. Organizers say community organizing is just another word for relationship-building, I have a chapter on developing relationships with students in my book on teaching English Language Learners.
There’s a nice article in Middle Ground titled “The Power Of Positive Relationships” by Tara Brown that shares some more ideas on how to enhance building relationships in the classroom.
Can Providing Hand Sanitizer In The Classroom Help Student Learning?
Excellent Info On The Importance Of Reading For Pleasure
Dropbox Works Nicely
Dan Meyer, a highly regarded math teacher who uses a lot of multimedia in his lessons, has generously placed his entire curriculum for Geometry and Algebra online for people to use. Also, just a reminder that I have my entire United States History curriculum from one year ago online, too. Lastly, even though they certainly are not as complete, you might also find the lessons in my Theory of Knowledge, Ninth Grade English, and Intermediate English class blogs useful.
Edutopia has a very nice and useful “Back-to-School Guide: Jump Start Learning With New Media” available for free download. All you need to do is type in your email address here, and it’s yours.
Book Trailers
What I Do During The Final Week Of School
My Revised Final Exams (And An Important Lesson)
My Personal Responsibility Lesson For This Friday
Tom Barrett is known for his “Interesting Ways” series, which include numerous ideas on how to use Web 2.0 applications (including Wordle, iPod, Google Wave, Prezi, etc.) in the classroom. The series, however, is not only limited to technology, and also includes topics like supporting reading comprehension and spelling. He’s put them all in one place now. You definitely want to bookmark his Interesting Ways page.
Post-Test Weeks…
More Test-Prep Hints
Talking With Students About Standardized Tests
Getting Students To Talk About What They’re Reading &”Book Talks”
“Be Niiiiiicccccceeeee”
“Book Discussion Group Guidelines”
“The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book,” edited by Terry Freedman, is a must-read for anybody who wants to use Web 2.0 applications with their students.
Giving Students “Reflection Cards”
What to Look for in a Classroom is a nice chart developed by Alfie Kohn. It lists “Good Signs” and “Possible Reasons To Worry” for a number of categories, including furniture, “on the walls,” sounds, etc. It wouldn’t necessarily take it all as “gospel” (and nor do I believe he intended it to be). I’m not a big advocate of students seated around tables, for example. But it’s a good general guide to use and figure out which side do you tend to be on…
How Do You Think Working Hard & Learning Everything You Can In This Class Might Help You Now & In The Future?
Two Ways I’m Using Our School Library
“Should Have, Could Have: What Parents Regret About High School”
A Lesson Highlighting Community Assets — Not Deficits
Have You Ever Felt Like You & Your Students Are “Enduring” Class Instead of Enjoying It?
“Will Sleeping More Make Me Smarter?” — A Lesson I’m Trying This Week
“Point, Quote, Connect”
Student Metacognition & Instructional Strategies
The Best Number For A Small Group
“I Haven’t Been Feeling Very Respected….”
Blogging 4 Everyone
Blogging 4 Everyone is a resource for anyone who wants to learn how to blog. It has very simple, straightforward instructions for starting a blog including a video.
It does not mention Blogger, so here is my instructions for getting started with Blogger.
This would be a good resource to use if you want to create your own blog or if you are trying to get your students using blogs in class.
10 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers
As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have been working with some of my Grade Two students to set up individual blogs. I have found myself giving them lots of little tips along the way that I have picked up over my own blogging journey.Many of these ideas have originally come from some of my blogging “mentors” such as Linda Yollis and Sue Waters.
Here are 10 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers
- Post frequency: Find a balance. Don’t post too often (ie. daily) otherwise you will not be able to generate much conversation through commenting. Post too infrequently (ie. monthly) and your readers might start to forget about you. I advise my students to post once or twice a week.
- Reply to comments: I am often disappointed at how many student and adult bloggers there are out there who do not reply to their comments on their own blog. I feel that it is basic blogging etiquette to reply. Acknowledge your readers’ comments and they will be encouraged to comment again.
- Have an “about” page: The first thing I do when I visit a new blog is look at the About page. I am always disappointed when there isn’t one! Don’t keep your readers in the dark about who you are.
- Theme changes: Students love playing around with the different themes available when they first start blogging. I encourage them to explore for a week or so but then advice them to find a good theme and stick with it. Readers may be able to identify less with your blog if it looks different every time they visit it.
- Fun widgets: Young bloggers love widgets! In my opinion, it is advisable to limit “fun” or “novelty” widgets. Too many widgets take away from the actual content of the blog posts and can slow down loading time! I suggest my students have no more than three “fun widgets” such as virtual pets, Christmas countdowns, jokes, tips, music clips etc.
- Add a search box: Early on in the year, I teach my students how to use the search box on blogs to find content. I find it frustrating when blogs don’t have the search box.
- Subscribe via email: While I also use Google Reader and Twitter to keep track of blogs I like, I love having the ability to subscribe via email to my favourite blogs. Adding this feature could bring more regular visitors to your blog.
- Add links to blog posts and comments: Links help your visitors gain a deeper understanding of what they’re reading. Links in blog posts can also be used to acknowledge or compliment others’ work. Links in blog comments can add extra information to a conversation. If you don’t know how to add a link to a blog comment, check out Linda Yollis’ excellent blog post and quick video.
- Visit other blogs: You can’t expect many people to read and comment on your blog if you don’t read and comment on others’ blogs.
- End with a question: On my class blog and this blog I like to end with a question to stimulate and direct conversation in the comment section. My Grade Two students are learning how to ask “broader” questions that will appeal to more readers (eg. if a child writes a post about a holiday to Noosa, instead of simply asking “have you ever been to Noosa?” they could ask readers to leave a comment and describe a holiday they have been on).
One more tip! Don’t lose your comment. All my students now know how to copy (Control C), their comment before they hit “submit”. This allows them to paste (Control V) the comment if something goes wrong when they hit the “submit” button. This happens fairly frequently with young students due to the wrong spam word being entered etc.
Batalugu
Batalugu is a new (beta) site that is great for creating digital books. I like to think of this as a cross between BookRixand Tikatok, that is ideal for digital storytelling. This is a very user friendly site w/ lots of options to choose from such as: themes, page layout, etc etc. My only concern is if a user can actual order a hard copy of their book rather then just share them online w/ others.
I highly recommend checking out Batalugu for creating digital books by clicking here!!
Make Beliefs Comix
Make Beliefs Comix is a fun site for creating digital comics. What makes this a really nice option for teachers are all the resources available for educators such as writing prompts, lessons, and the ability to create comics in different languages.
I highly recommend checking out Make Beliefs Comix by clicking here!!!
Digital Storytelling Encourages Student Expression
Welcome to another installment of SimpleK12's 2 Minute EdTech Talk, where educators integrate technology - in just two minutes! The goal? To share, to collaborate, and most of all – to help and encourage teachers to try new forms of technology in their own classrooms.
Last week, Steven Katz talked about how podcasting is quick, easy, and free.
This episode of 2 Minute EdTech Talk is with Alex Francisco, English as a foreign language teacher and blogger in Madeira, Portugal.
Watch below to see what she has to say about GoAnimate.
Get in touch with Alex through:
- Twitter - @alexgfrancisco
- Her class website - ZarcoEnglish
Check out the following GoAnimate examples made by Alex and her students:
- Our School - a virtual tour of Alex's schools
- Teach with edtech - music video for a song about resisting technology integraion
- Student Showcase - find many examples of student work with GoAnimate
Learn about other digital storytelling webtools in SimpleK12's eBook, "101 Free Tech Tools for Teachers". Click here to sign up to receive your free copy of the eBook.
So, tell me, how do you use digital storytelling in your classroom?
- Kimberly
PS - To view a current list of all of my 2 Minute EdTech Talks on topics such as VoiceThread, Piclits.com, CoverItLive, Xtranormal, Drop.io, Screencast-o-matic and more, check out this blog post.
Related Stories
The Edublogger’s Introduction to Blogging
Want to know more about blogging, blog terminology and use of blogs in education?
Here you go!
Check out our “Introduction to Blogging” that you can read online here or download as a PDF version.
10 Tips for Starting an Education Blog
It was about a year ago that I really started to get into the idea of blogging. I was hesitant, unsure, and fairly new to the whole idea. I spent most of the initial stages of blogging just learning how to use the site to benefit myself, understanding widgets and embedding, and learning how to write for an audience. Below are tips that I would offer someone based on my own experience.
1.) Develop a Memorable URL and Title - I originally titled this blog ZimmerTIS. I did not think that let people know the purpose, plus the URL did not help explain what the blog would be about. So I changed the title and URL. Make yours something simple, memorable, short and sweet.
2.) Develop a Theme and Focus - I started doing daily posts related to different aspects of Educational Technology last year and created a Focus for my blog. I no longer do that, but it helped me to create posts that are relevant and specific.
3.) Create a Weekly Post - Develop a post that you have each week to keep readers coming back. Make the post something that will be an easy read and provide beneficial knowledge or resources. I started this year creating posts related to the Core Subjects of Math, Science, English, and Social Studies.
4.) Educate Yourself on Formatting - I have had to take some time and learn about HTML coding and embedding. I like for my links, images, videos, and other resources I embed to be flush with my template, so I learned about understanding the simple aspects of HTML code. This can be very helpful in the future and be beneficial to your readers.
5.) Learn About Widgets - Widgets are a great addition to a blog. It allows you to add things for readers to access. There are several out there that can be great additions. There are also some that will slow up the speed of your page load. I made the mistake of over doing this. Be simple with what you add (blogs you read, labels, previous post, popular post, search bar, translator, etc. A great addition will be to create a Social Signature. Jason Bedell has created a great site calledSocial Sig 4 Me. Use that site to add your RSS feed, Twitter name, etc. This way your readers can find you in other social networks.
6.) Use Copyright Free and Creative Commons Images - There are several images out there that are copyrighted and you want to be careful when using those images. Wylio is a great site for finding such images. I recommend you bookmark that site and use it for adding images to your blog.
7.) Watch Your Labels and Tags - You can add labels to your posts. Be broad with your labels. If you are to specific then you will have a ton of different labels and struggle with the organization of your blog postings. I find myself editing my labels about twice a year where I merge some of the labels together. For example, I had "comic," "comics," and "cartoons" all for the same resources, but did not include the same label throughout.
8.) Choose a Welcoming Layout/Theme - When I first started this blog I had a dark black background (even though I had "Happiness" in the title). I realized that this was not as welcoming and inviting. So I went with a lighter background and brighter hyperlinks. So far I am happy with the change. Blogger, Wordpress, and Edublogs all have themes and layouts that you can choose. Choose one that is welcoming to your readers. Here is a great post by The Edublogger forIntroducing Blogging using Edublogs
9.) Join and Share Blog on Twitter - I discovered thatTwitter was the BEST way to share my blog with others. Steven Anderson has done a great job putting together An Educators Guide to Twitter, where you will also find my So You Are New to Twitter post. Through Twitter you will be able to connect with other educators and share your blog. It is the greatest way to increase the readership of your blog, as well as introduce you to other blogs that you can comment on. By commenting on other blogs, many blogging educators will return the favor.
10.) Interact, Interact, Interact - When people comment on a blog post, interact with them. Tell them thanks for commenting and taking the time to read your post. Answer questions if they have any as well. Turn your blog into a form of networking with others. Creative commenting can lead to a large growth of readers.
The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010
The title of this “The Best…” list is pretty self-explanatory. What you’ll find here are blog posts and articles this year (some written by me, some by others) that were, in my opinion, the ones that offered the best practical advice to teachers this year — suggestions that can help teachers become more effective in the classroom today or tomorrow. Some, however, might not appear on the surface to fit that criteria, but those, I think, might offer insights that could (should?) inform our teaching practice everyday.
For some, the headlines provide enough of an idea of the topic and I haven’t included any further description.
You might be interested last year’s edition:
The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2009
Here are my choices for The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010 (not in order of any preference and, in fact, not in any order at all):
How to Create Nonreaders by Alfie Kohn
This Is What I Do When Students Are Late For Class…
What a good IEP looks like… is the best and most useful piece I’ve ever seen about IEP’s, the “Individualized Education Plans” that students facing learning challenges are supposed to have if they’re in the U.S. public education system. And I’m not just saying that because the author, Ira Socol, says something nice about me in it
What Is Your Technique For Memorizing Student Names?
Evaluating Student Athletes
I’m a big believer in the importance of developing relationships. Organizers say community organizing is just another word for relationship-building, I have a chapter on developing relationships with students in my book on teaching English Language Learners.
There’s a nice article in Middle Ground titled “The Power Of Positive Relationships” by Tara Brown that shares some more ideas on how to enhance building relationships in the classroom.
Can Providing Hand Sanitizer In The Classroom Help Student Learning?
Excellent Info On The Importance Of Reading For Pleasure
Dropbox Works Nicely
Dan Meyer, a highly regarded math teacher who uses a lot of multimedia in his lessons, has generously placed his entire curriculum for Geometry and Algebra online for people to use. Also, just a reminder that I have my entire United States History curriculum from one year ago online, too. Lastly, even though they certainly are not as complete, you might also find the lessons in my Theory of Knowledge, Ninth Grade English, and Intermediate English class blogs useful.
Edutopia has a very nice and useful “Back-to-School Guide: Jump Start Learning With New Media” available for free download. All you need to do is type in your email address here, and it’s yours.
Book Trailers
What I Do During The Final Week Of School
My Revised Final Exams (And An Important Lesson)
My Personal Responsibility Lesson For This Friday
Tom Barrett is known for his “Interesting Ways” series, which include numerous ideas on how to use Web 2.0 applications (including Wordle, iPod, Google Wave, Prezi, etc.) in the classroom. The series, however, is not only limited to technology, and also includes topics like supporting reading comprehension and spelling. He’s put them all in one place now. You definitely want to bookmark his Interesting Ways page.
Post-Test Weeks…
More Test-Prep Hints
Talking With Students About Standardized Tests
Getting Students To Talk About What They’re Reading &”Book Talks”
“Be Niiiiiicccccceeeee”
“Book Discussion Group Guidelines”
“The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book,” edited by Terry Freedman, is a must-read for anybody who wants to use Web 2.0 applications with their students.
Giving Students “Reflection Cards”
What to Look for in a Classroom is a nice chart developed by Alfie Kohn. It lists “Good Signs” and “Possible Reasons To Worry” for a number of categories, including furniture, “on the walls,” sounds, etc. It wouldn’t necessarily take it all as “gospel” (and nor do I believe he intended it to be). I’m not a big advocate of students seated around tables, for example. But it’s a good general guide to use and figure out which side do you tend to be on…
How Do You Think Working Hard & Learning Everything You Can In This Class Might Help You Now & In The Future?
Two Ways I’m Using Our School Library
“Should Have, Could Have: What Parents Regret About High School”
A Lesson Highlighting Community Assets — Not Deficits
Have You Ever Felt Like You & Your Students Are “Enduring” Class Instead of Enjoying It?
“Will Sleeping More Make Me Smarter?” — A Lesson I’m Trying This Week
“Point, Quote, Connect”
Student Metacognition & Instructional Strategies
The Best Number For A Small Group
“I Haven’t Been Feeling Very Respected….”
Blogging 4 Everyone
Blogging 4 Everyone is a resource for anyone who wants to learn how to blog. It has very simple, straightforward instructions for starting a blog including a video.
It does not mention Blogger, so here is my instructions for getting started with Blogger.
This would be a good resource to use if you want to create your own blog or if you are trying to get your students using blogs in class.
10 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers
As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have been working with some of my Grade Two students to set up individual blogs. I have found myself giving them lots of little tips along the way that I have picked up over my own blogging journey.Many of these ideas have originally come from some of my blogging “mentors” such as Linda Yollis and Sue Waters.
Here are 10 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers
- Post frequency: Find a balance. Don’t post too often (ie. daily) otherwise you will not be able to generate much conversation through commenting. Post too infrequently (ie. monthly) and your readers might start to forget about you. I advise my students to post once or twice a week.
- Reply to comments: I am often disappointed at how many student and adult bloggers there are out there who do not reply to their comments on their own blog. I feel that it is basic blogging etiquette to reply. Acknowledge your readers’ comments and they will be encouraged to comment again.
- Have an “about” page: The first thing I do when I visit a new blog is look at the About page. I am always disappointed when there isn’t one! Don’t keep your readers in the dark about who you are.
- Theme changes: Students love playing around with the different themes available when they first start blogging. I encourage them to explore for a week or so but then advice them to find a good theme and stick with it. Readers may be able to identify less with your blog if it looks different every time they visit it.
- Fun widgets: Young bloggers love widgets! In my opinion, it is advisable to limit “fun” or “novelty” widgets. Too many widgets take away from the actual content of the blog posts and can slow down loading time! I suggest my students have no more than three “fun widgets” such as virtual pets, Christmas countdowns, jokes, tips, music clips etc.
- Add a search box: Early on in the year, I teach my students how to use the search box on blogs to find content. I find it frustrating when blogs don’t have the search box.
- Subscribe via email: While I also use Google Reader and Twitter to keep track of blogs I like, I love having the ability to subscribe via email to my favourite blogs. Adding this feature could bring more regular visitors to your blog.
- Add links to blog posts and comments: Links help your visitors gain a deeper understanding of what they’re reading. Links in blog posts can also be used to acknowledge or compliment others’ work. Links in blog comments can add extra information to a conversation. If you don’t know how to add a link to a blog comment, check out Linda Yollis’ excellent blog post and quick video.
- Visit other blogs: You can’t expect many people to read and comment on your blog if you don’t read and comment on others’ blogs.
- End with a question: On my class blog and this blog I like to end with a question to stimulate and direct conversation in the comment section. My Grade Two students are learning how to ask “broader” questions that will appeal to more readers (eg. if a child writes a post about a holiday to Noosa, instead of simply asking “have you ever been to Noosa?” they could ask readers to leave a comment and describe a holiday they have been on).
One more tip! Don’t lose your comment. All my students now know how to copy (Control C), their comment before they hit “submit”. This allows them to paste (Control V) the comment if something goes wrong when they hit the “submit” button. This happens fairly frequently with young students due to the wrong spam word being entered etc.
Batalugu
Batalugu is a new (beta) site that is great for creating digital books. I like to think of this as a cross between BookRixand Tikatok, that is ideal for digital storytelling. This is a very user friendly site w/ lots of options to choose from such as: themes, page layout, etc etc. My only concern is if a user can actual order a hard copy of their book rather then just share them online w/ others.
I highly recommend checking out Batalugu for creating digital books by clicking here!!
The Edublogger’s Introduction to Blogging
Want to know more about blogging, blog terminology and use of blogs in education?
Here you go!
Check out our “Introduction to Blogging” that you can read online here or download as a PDF version.
10 Tips for Starting an Education Blog
It was about a year ago that I really started to get into the idea of blogging. I was hesitant, unsure, and fairly new to the whole idea. I spent most of the initial stages of blogging just learning how to use the site to benefit myself, understanding widgets and embedding, and learning how to write for an audience. Below are tips that I would offer someone based on my own experience.
1.) Develop a Memorable URL and Title - I originally titled this blog ZimmerTIS. I did not think that let people know the purpose, plus the URL did not help explain what the blog would be about. So I changed the title and URL. Make yours something simple, memorable, short and sweet.
2.) Develop a Theme and Focus - I started doing daily posts related to different aspects of Educational Technology last year and created a Focus for my blog. I no longer do that, but it helped me to create posts that are relevant and specific.
3.) Create a Weekly Post - Develop a post that you have each week to keep readers coming back. Make the post something that will be an easy read and provide beneficial knowledge or resources. I started this year creating posts related to the Core Subjects of Math, Science, English, and Social Studies.
4.) Educate Yourself on Formatting - I have had to take some time and learn about HTML coding and embedding. I like for my links, images, videos, and other resources I embed to be flush with my template, so I learned about understanding the simple aspects of HTML code. This can be very helpful in the future and be beneficial to your readers.
5.) Learn About Widgets - Widgets are a great addition to a blog. It allows you to add things for readers to access. There are several out there that can be great additions. There are also some that will slow up the speed of your page load. I made the mistake of over doing this. Be simple with what you add (blogs you read, labels, previous post, popular post, search bar, translator, etc. A great addition will be to create a Social Signature. Jason Bedell has created a great site calledSocial Sig 4 Me. Use that site to add your RSS feed, Twitter name, etc. This way your readers can find you in other social networks.
6.) Use Copyright Free and Creative Commons Images - There are several images out there that are copyrighted and you want to be careful when using those images. Wylio is a great site for finding such images. I recommend you bookmark that site and use it for adding images to your blog.
7.) Watch Your Labels and Tags - You can add labels to your posts. Be broad with your labels. If you are to specific then you will have a ton of different labels and struggle with the organization of your blog postings. I find myself editing my labels about twice a year where I merge some of the labels together. For example, I had "comic," "comics," and "cartoons" all for the same resources, but did not include the same label throughout.
8.) Choose a Welcoming Layout/Theme - When I first started this blog I had a dark black background (even though I had "Happiness" in the title). I realized that this was not as welcoming and inviting. So I went with a lighter background and brighter hyperlinks. So far I am happy with the change. Blogger, Wordpress, and Edublogs all have themes and layouts that you can choose. Choose one that is welcoming to your readers. Here is a great post by The Edublogger forIntroducing Blogging using Edublogs
9.) Join and Share Blog on Twitter - I discovered thatTwitter was the BEST way to share my blog with others. Steven Anderson has done a great job putting together An Educators Guide to Twitter, where you will also find my So You Are New to Twitter post. Through Twitter you will be able to connect with other educators and share your blog. It is the greatest way to increase the readership of your blog, as well as introduce you to other blogs that you can comment on. By commenting on other blogs, many blogging educators will return the favor.
10.) Interact, Interact, Interact - When people comment on a blog post, interact with them. Tell them thanks for commenting and taking the time to read your post. Answer questions if they have any as well. Turn your blog into a form of networking with others. Creative commenting can lead to a large growth of readers.
The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010
The title of this “The Best…” list is pretty self-explanatory. What you’ll find here are blog posts and articles this year (some written by me, some by others) that were, in my opinion, the ones that offered the best practical advice to teachers this year — suggestions that can help teachers become more effective in the classroom today or tomorrow. Some, however, might not appear on the surface to fit that criteria, but those, I think, might offer insights that could (should?) inform our teaching practice everyday.
For some, the headlines provide enough of an idea of the topic and I haven’t included any further description.
You might be interested last year’s edition:
The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2009
Here are my choices for The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010 (not in order of any preference and, in fact, not in any order at all):
How to Create Nonreaders by Alfie Kohn
This Is What I Do When Students Are Late For Class…
What a good IEP looks like… is the best and most useful piece I’ve ever seen about IEP’s, the “Individualized Education Plans” that students facing learning challenges are supposed to have if they’re in the U.S. public education system. And I’m not just saying that because the author, Ira Socol, says something nice about me in it
What Is Your Technique For Memorizing Student Names?
Evaluating Student Athletes
I’m a big believer in the importance of developing relationships. Organizers say community organizing is just another word for relationship-building, I have a chapter on developing relationships with students in my book on teaching English Language Learners.
There’s a nice article in Middle Ground titled “The Power Of Positive Relationships” by Tara Brown that shares some more ideas on how to enhance building relationships in the classroom.
Can Providing Hand Sanitizer In The Classroom Help Student Learning?
Excellent Info On The Importance Of Reading For Pleasure
Dropbox Works Nicely
Dan Meyer, a highly regarded math teacher who uses a lot of multimedia in his lessons, has generously placed his entire curriculum for Geometry and Algebra online for people to use. Also, just a reminder that I have my entire United States History curriculum from one year ago online, too. Lastly, even though they certainly are not as complete, you might also find the lessons in my Theory of Knowledge, Ninth Grade English, and Intermediate English class blogs useful.
Edutopia has a very nice and useful “Back-to-School Guide: Jump Start Learning With New Media” available for free download. All you need to do is type in your email address here, and it’s yours.
Book Trailers
What I Do During The Final Week Of School
My Revised Final Exams (And An Important Lesson)
My Personal Responsibility Lesson For This Friday
Tom Barrett is known for his “Interesting Ways” series, which include numerous ideas on how to use Web 2.0 applications (including Wordle, iPod, Google Wave, Prezi, etc.) in the classroom. The series, however, is not only limited to technology, and also includes topics like supporting reading comprehension and spelling. He’s put them all in one place now. You definitely want to bookmark his Interesting Ways page.
Post-Test Weeks…
More Test-Prep Hints
Talking With Students About Standardized Tests
Getting Students To Talk About What They’re Reading &”Book Talks”
“Be Niiiiiicccccceeeee”
“Book Discussion Group Guidelines”
“The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book,” edited by Terry Freedman, is a must-read for anybody who wants to use Web 2.0 applications with their students.
Giving Students “Reflection Cards”
What to Look for in a Classroom is a nice chart developed by Alfie Kohn. It lists “Good Signs” and “Possible Reasons To Worry” for a number of categories, including furniture, “on the walls,” sounds, etc. It wouldn’t necessarily take it all as “gospel” (and nor do I believe he intended it to be). I’m not a big advocate of students seated around tables, for example. But it’s a good general guide to use and figure out which side do you tend to be on…
How Do You Think Working Hard & Learning Everything You Can In This Class Might Help You Now & In The Future?
Two Ways I’m Using Our School Library
“Should Have, Could Have: What Parents Regret About High School”
A Lesson Highlighting Community Assets — Not Deficits
Have You Ever Felt Like You & Your Students Are “Enduring” Class Instead of Enjoying It?
“Will Sleeping More Make Me Smarter?” — A Lesson I’m Trying This Week
“Point, Quote, Connect”
Student Metacognition & Instructional Strategies
The Best Number For A Small Group
“I Haven’t Been Feeling Very Respected….”
Blogging 4 Everyone
Blogging 4 Everyone is a resource for anyone who wants to learn how to blog. It has very simple, straightforward instructions for starting a blog including a video.
It does not mention Blogger, so here is my instructions for getting started with Blogger.
This would be a good resource to use if you want to create your own blog or if you are trying to get your students using blogs in class.
The Edublogger’s Introduction to Blogging
Want to know more about blogging, blog terminology and use of blogs in education?
Here you go!
Check out our “Introduction to Blogging” that you can read online here or download as a PDF version.
10 Tips for Starting an Education Blog
It was about a year ago that I really started to get into the idea of blogging. I was hesitant, unsure, and fairly new to the whole idea. I spent most of the initial stages of blogging just learning how to use the site to benefit myself, understanding widgets and embedding, and learning how to write for an audience. Below are tips that I would offer someone based on my own experience.
1.) Develop a Memorable URL and Title - I originally titled this blog ZimmerTIS. I did not think that let people know the purpose, plus the URL did not help explain what the blog would be about. So I changed the title and URL. Make yours something simple, memorable, short and sweet.
2.) Develop a Theme and Focus - I started doing daily posts related to different aspects of Educational Technology last year and created a Focus for my blog. I no longer do that, but it helped me to create posts that are relevant and specific.
3.) Create a Weekly Post - Develop a post that you have each week to keep readers coming back. Make the post something that will be an easy read and provide beneficial knowledge or resources. I started this year creating posts related to the Core Subjects of Math, Science, English, and Social Studies.
4.) Educate Yourself on Formatting - I have had to take some time and learn about HTML coding and embedding. I like for my links, images, videos, and other resources I embed to be flush with my template, so I learned about understanding the simple aspects of HTML code. This can be very helpful in the future and be beneficial to your readers.
5.) Learn About Widgets - Widgets are a great addition to a blog. It allows you to add things for readers to access. There are several out there that can be great additions. There are also some that will slow up the speed of your page load. I made the mistake of over doing this. Be simple with what you add (blogs you read, labels, previous post, popular post, search bar, translator, etc. A great addition will be to create a Social Signature. Jason Bedell has created a great site calledSocial Sig 4 Me. Use that site to add your RSS feed, Twitter name, etc. This way your readers can find you in other social networks.
6.) Use Copyright Free and Creative Commons Images - There are several images out there that are copyrighted and you want to be careful when using those images. Wylio is a great site for finding such images. I recommend you bookmark that site and use it for adding images to your blog.
7.) Watch Your Labels and Tags - You can add labels to your posts. Be broad with your labels. If you are to specific then you will have a ton of different labels and struggle with the organization of your blog postings. I find myself editing my labels about twice a year where I merge some of the labels together. For example, I had "comic," "comics," and "cartoons" all for the same resources, but did not include the same label throughout.
8.) Choose a Welcoming Layout/Theme - When I first started this blog I had a dark black background (even though I had "Happiness" in the title). I realized that this was not as welcoming and inviting. So I went with a lighter background and brighter hyperlinks. So far I am happy with the change. Blogger, Wordpress, and Edublogs all have themes and layouts that you can choose. Choose one that is welcoming to your readers. Here is a great post by The Edublogger forIntroducing Blogging using Edublogs
9.) Join and Share Blog on Twitter - I discovered thatTwitter was the BEST way to share my blog with others. Steven Anderson has done a great job putting together An Educators Guide to Twitter, where you will also find my So You Are New to Twitter post. Through Twitter you will be able to connect with other educators and share your blog. It is the greatest way to increase the readership of your blog, as well as introduce you to other blogs that you can comment on. By commenting on other blogs, many blogging educators will return the favor.
10.) Interact, Interact, Interact - When people comment on a blog post, interact with them. Tell them thanks for commenting and taking the time to read your post. Answer questions if they have any as well. Turn your blog into a form of networking with others. Creative commenting can lead to a large growth of readers.
The Edublogger’s Introduction to Blogging
Here you go!
Check out our “Introduction to Blogging” that you can read online here or download as a PDF version.
It was about a year ago that I really started to get into the idea of blogging. I was hesitant, unsure, and fairly new to the whole idea. I spent most of the initial stages of blogging just learning how to use the site to benefit myself, understanding widgets and embedding, and learning how to write for an audience. Below are tips that I would offer someone based on my own experience.
1.) Develop a Memorable URL and Title - I originally titled this blog ZimmerTIS. I did not think that let people know the purpose, plus the URL did not help explain what the blog would be about. So I changed the title and URL. Make yours something simple, memorable, short and sweet.
2.) Develop a Theme and Focus - I started doing daily posts related to different aspects of Educational Technology last year and created a Focus for my blog. I no longer do that, but it helped me to create posts that are relevant and specific.
3.) Create a Weekly Post - Develop a post that you have each week to keep readers coming back. Make the post something that will be an easy read and provide beneficial knowledge or resources. I started this year creating posts related to the Core Subjects of Math, Science, English, and Social Studies.
4.) Educate Yourself on Formatting - I have had to take some time and learn about HTML coding and embedding. I like for my links, images, videos, and other resources I embed to be flush with my template, so I learned about understanding the simple aspects of HTML code. This can be very helpful in the future and be beneficial to your readers.
5.) Learn About Widgets - Widgets are a great addition to a blog. It allows you to add things for readers to access. There are several out there that can be great additions. There are also some that will slow up the speed of your page load. I made the mistake of over doing this. Be simple with what you add (blogs you read, labels, previous post, popular post, search bar, translator, etc. A great addition will be to create a Social Signature. Jason Bedell has created a great site calledSocial Sig 4 Me. Use that site to add your RSS feed, Twitter name, etc. This way your readers can find you in other social networks.
6.) Use Copyright Free and Creative Commons Images - There are several images out there that are copyrighted and you want to be careful when using those images. Wylio is a great site for finding such images. I recommend you bookmark that site and use it for adding images to your blog.
7.) Watch Your Labels and Tags - You can add labels to your posts. Be broad with your labels. If you are to specific then you will have a ton of different labels and struggle with the organization of your blog postings. I find myself editing my labels about twice a year where I merge some of the labels together. For example, I had "comic," "comics," and "cartoons" all for the same resources, but did not include the same label throughout.
8.) Choose a Welcoming Layout/Theme - When I first started this blog I had a dark black background (even though I had "Happiness" in the title). I realized that this was not as welcoming and inviting. So I went with a lighter background and brighter hyperlinks. So far I am happy with the change. Blogger, Wordpress, and Edublogs all have themes and layouts that you can choose. Choose one that is welcoming to your readers. Here is a great post by The Edublogger forIntroducing Blogging using Edublogs
9.) Join and Share Blog on Twitter - I discovered thatTwitter was the BEST way to share my blog with others. Steven Anderson has done a great job putting together An Educators Guide to Twitter, where you will also find my So You Are New to Twitter post. Through Twitter you will be able to connect with other educators and share your blog. It is the greatest way to increase the readership of your blog, as well as introduce you to other blogs that you can comment on. By commenting on other blogs, many blogging educators will return the favor.
10.) Interact, Interact, Interact - When people comment on a blog post, interact with them. Tell them thanks for commenting and taking the time to read your post. Answer questions if they have any as well. Turn your blog into a form of networking with others. Creative commenting can lead to a large growth of readers.
1.) Develop a Memorable URL and Title - I originally titled this blog ZimmerTIS. I did not think that let people know the purpose, plus the URL did not help explain what the blog would be about. So I changed the title and URL. Make yours something simple, memorable, short and sweet.
2.) Develop a Theme and Focus - I started doing daily posts related to different aspects of Educational Technology last year and created a Focus for my blog. I no longer do that, but it helped me to create posts that are relevant and specific.
3.) Create a Weekly Post - Develop a post that you have each week to keep readers coming back. Make the post something that will be an easy read and provide beneficial knowledge or resources. I started this year creating posts related to the Core Subjects of Math, Science, English, and Social Studies.
4.) Educate Yourself on Formatting - I have had to take some time and learn about HTML coding and embedding. I like for my links, images, videos, and other resources I embed to be flush with my template, so I learned about understanding the simple aspects of HTML code. This can be very helpful in the future and be beneficial to your readers.
5.) Learn About Widgets - Widgets are a great addition to a blog. It allows you to add things for readers to access. There are several out there that can be great additions. There are also some that will slow up the speed of your page load. I made the mistake of over doing this. Be simple with what you add (blogs you read, labels, previous post, popular post, search bar, translator, etc. A great addition will be to create a Social Signature. Jason Bedell has created a great site calledSocial Sig 4 Me. Use that site to add your RSS feed, Twitter name, etc. This way your readers can find you in other social networks.
6.) Use Copyright Free and Creative Commons Images - There are several images out there that are copyrighted and you want to be careful when using those images. Wylio is a great site for finding such images. I recommend you bookmark that site and use it for adding images to your blog.
7.) Watch Your Labels and Tags - You can add labels to your posts. Be broad with your labels. If you are to specific then you will have a ton of different labels and struggle with the organization of your blog postings. I find myself editing my labels about twice a year where I merge some of the labels together. For example, I had "comic," "comics," and "cartoons" all for the same resources, but did not include the same label throughout.
8.) Choose a Welcoming Layout/Theme - When I first started this blog I had a dark black background (even though I had "Happiness" in the title). I realized that this was not as welcoming and inviting. So I went with a lighter background and brighter hyperlinks. So far I am happy with the change. Blogger, Wordpress, and Edublogs all have themes and layouts that you can choose. Choose one that is welcoming to your readers. Here is a great post by The Edublogger forIntroducing Blogging using Edublogs
9.) Join and Share Blog on Twitter - I discovered thatTwitter was the BEST way to share my blog with others. Steven Anderson has done a great job putting together An Educators Guide to Twitter, where you will also find my So You Are New to Twitter post. Through Twitter you will be able to connect with other educators and share your blog. It is the greatest way to increase the readership of your blog, as well as introduce you to other blogs that you can comment on. By commenting on other blogs, many blogging educators will return the favor.
10.) Interact, Interact, Interact - When people comment on a blog post, interact with them. Tell them thanks for commenting and taking the time to read your post. Answer questions if they have any as well. Turn your blog into a form of networking with others. Creative commenting can lead to a large growth of readers.
The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010
For some, the headlines provide enough of an idea of the topic and I haven’t included any further description.
You might be interested last year’s edition:
The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2009
Here are my choices for The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010 (not in order of any preference and, in fact, not in any order at all):
How to Create Nonreaders by Alfie Kohn
This Is What I Do When Students Are Late For Class…
What a good IEP looks like… is the best and most useful piece I’ve ever seen about IEP’s, the “Individualized Education Plans” that students facing learning challenges are supposed to have if they’re in the U.S. public education system. And I’m not just saying that because the author, Ira Socol, says something nice about me in it
What Is Your Technique For Memorizing Student Names?
Evaluating Student Athletes
I’m a big believer in the importance of developing relationships. Organizers say community organizing is just another word for relationship-building, I have a chapter on developing relationships with students in my book on teaching English Language Learners.
There’s a nice article in Middle Ground titled “The Power Of Positive Relationships” by Tara Brown that shares some more ideas on how to enhance building relationships in the classroom.
Can Providing Hand Sanitizer In The Classroom Help Student Learning?
Excellent Info On The Importance Of Reading For Pleasure
Dropbox Works Nicely
Dan Meyer, a highly regarded math teacher who uses a lot of multimedia in his lessons, has generously placed his entire curriculum for Geometry and Algebra online for people to use. Also, just a reminder that I have my entire United States History curriculum from one year ago online, too. Lastly, even though they certainly are not as complete, you might also find the lessons in my Theory of Knowledge, Ninth Grade English, and Intermediate English class blogs useful.
Edutopia has a very nice and useful “Back-to-School Guide: Jump Start Learning With New Media” available for free download. All you need to do is type in your email address here, and it’s yours.
Book Trailers
What I Do During The Final Week Of School
My Revised Final Exams (And An Important Lesson)
My Personal Responsibility Lesson For This Friday
Tom Barrett is known for his “Interesting Ways” series, which include numerous ideas on how to use Web 2.0 applications (including Wordle, iPod, Google Wave, Prezi, etc.) in the classroom. The series, however, is not only limited to technology, and also includes topics like supporting reading comprehension and spelling. He’s put them all in one place now. You definitely want to bookmark his Interesting Ways page.
Post-Test Weeks…
More Test-Prep Hints
Talking With Students About Standardized Tests
Getting Students To Talk About What They’re Reading &”Book Talks”
“Be Niiiiiicccccceeeee”
“Book Discussion Group Guidelines”
“The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book,” edited by Terry Freedman, is a must-read for anybody who wants to use Web 2.0 applications with their students.
Giving Students “Reflection Cards”
What to Look for in a Classroom is a nice chart developed by Alfie Kohn. It lists “Good Signs” and “Possible Reasons To Worry” for a number of categories, including furniture, “on the walls,” sounds, etc. It wouldn’t necessarily take it all as “gospel” (and nor do I believe he intended it to be). I’m not a big advocate of students seated around tables, for example. But it’s a good general guide to use and figure out which side do you tend to be on…
How Do You Think Working Hard & Learning Everything You Can In This Class Might Help You Now & In The Future?
Two Ways I’m Using Our School Library
“Should Have, Could Have: What Parents Regret About High School”
A Lesson Highlighting Community Assets — Not Deficits
Have You Ever Felt Like You & Your Students Are “Enduring” Class Instead of Enjoying It?
“Will Sleeping More Make Me Smarter?” — A Lesson I’m Trying This Week
“Point, Quote, Connect”
Student Metacognition & Instructional Strategies
The Best Number For A Small Group
“I Haven’t Been Feeling Very Respected….”
Blogging 4 Everyone is a resource for anyone who wants to learn how to blog. It has very simple, straightforward instructions for starting a blog including a video.
It does not mention Blogger, so here is my instructions for getting started with Blogger.
This would be a good resource to use if you want to create your own blog or if you are trying to get your students using blogs in class.
10 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers
As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have been working with some of my Grade Two students to set up individual blogs. I have found myself giving them lots of little tips along the way that I have picked up over my own blogging journey.
Many of these ideas have originally come from some of my blogging “mentors” such as Linda Yollis and Sue Waters.
Here are 10 Blogging Tips for Students and Teachers
- Post frequency: Find a balance. Don’t post too often (ie. daily) otherwise you will not be able to generate much conversation through commenting. Post too infrequently (ie. monthly) and your readers might start to forget about you. I advise my students to post once or twice a week.
- Reply to comments: I am often disappointed at how many student and adult bloggers there are out there who do not reply to their comments on their own blog. I feel that it is basic blogging etiquette to reply. Acknowledge your readers’ comments and they will be encouraged to comment again.
- Have an “about” page: The first thing I do when I visit a new blog is look at the About page. I am always disappointed when there isn’t one! Don’t keep your readers in the dark about who you are.
- Theme changes: Students love playing around with the different themes available when they first start blogging. I encourage them to explore for a week or so but then advice them to find a good theme and stick with it. Readers may be able to identify less with your blog if it looks different every time they visit it.
- Fun widgets: Young bloggers love widgets! In my opinion, it is advisable to limit “fun” or “novelty” widgets. Too many widgets take away from the actual content of the blog posts and can slow down loading time! I suggest my students have no more than three “fun widgets” such as virtual pets, Christmas countdowns, jokes, tips, music clips etc.
- Add a search box: Early on in the year, I teach my students how to use the search box on blogs to find content. I find it frustrating when blogs don’t have the search box.
- Subscribe via email: While I also use Google Reader and Twitter to keep track of blogs I like, I love having the ability to subscribe via email to my favourite blogs. Adding this feature could bring more regular visitors to your blog.
- Add links to blog posts and comments: Links help your visitors gain a deeper understanding of what they’re reading. Links in blog posts can also be used to acknowledge or compliment others’ work. Links in blog comments can add extra information to a conversation. If you don’t know how to add a link to a blog comment, check out Linda Yollis’ excellent blog post and quick video.
- Visit other blogs: You can’t expect many people to read and comment on your blog if you don’t read and comment on others’ blogs.
- End with a question: On my class blog and this blog I like to end with a question to stimulate and direct conversation in the comment section. My Grade Two students are learning how to ask “broader” questions that will appeal to more readers (eg. if a child writes a post about a holiday to Noosa, instead of simply asking “have you ever been to Noosa?” they could ask readers to leave a comment and describe a holiday they have been on).
One more tip! Don’t lose your comment. All my students now know how to copy (Control C), their comment before they hit “submit”. This allows them to paste (Control V) the comment if something goes wrong when they hit the “submit” button. This happens fairly frequently with young students due to the wrong spam word being entered etc.
Batalugu is a new (beta) site that is great for creating digital books. I like to think of this as a cross between BookRixand Tikatok, that is ideal for digital storytelling. This is a very user friendly site w/ lots of options to choose from such as: themes, page layout, etc etc. My only concern is if a user can actual order a hard copy of their book rather then just share them online w/ others.
I highly recommend checking out Batalugu for creating digital books by clicking here!!
I highly recommend checking out Batalugu for creating digital books by clicking here!!
Make Beliefs Comix
Make Beliefs Comix is a fun site for creating digital comics. What makes this a really nice option for teachers are all the resources available for educators such as writing prompts, lessons, and the ability to create comics in different languages.
I highly recommend checking out Make Beliefs Comix by clicking here!!!
I highly recommend checking out Make Beliefs Comix by clicking here!!!
Last week, Steven Katz talked about how podcasting is quick, easy, and free.
This episode of 2 Minute EdTech Talk is with Alex Francisco, English as a foreign language teacher and blogger in Madeira, Portugal.
Watch below to see what she has to say about GoAnimate.
Get in touch with Alex through:
- Twitter - @alexgfrancisco
- Her class website - ZarcoEnglish
- Our School - a virtual tour of Alex's schools
- Teach with edtech - music video for a song about resisting technology integraion
- Student Showcase - find many examples of student work with GoAnimate
So, tell me, how do you use digital storytelling in your classroom?
- Kimberly
PS - To view a current list of all of my 2 Minute EdTech Talks on topics such as VoiceThread, Piclits.com, CoverItLive, Xtranormal, Drop.io, Screencast-o-matic and more, check out this blog post.
Related Stories
Top 10 Blogging Solutions
"A blog (a blend of the term web log)[1] is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. (wikipedia)"
Blogging is one of the most popular web 2.0 tools around and used by educators everywhere. Basically, it is "online journaling" and a great way for students/teachers to create online content. However, the key to a blog is it's collaborative nature and the ability to generate communication among others.
That being said, I decided to list my favorites blogging solution for educators...
Top 10 Blogging Solutions
Blogging is one of the most popular web 2.0 tools around and used by educators everywhere. Basically, it is "online journaling" and a great way for students/teachers to create online content. However, the key to a blog is it's collaborative nature and the ability to generate communication among others.
That being said, I decided to list my favorites blogging solution for educators...
Top 10 Blogging Solutions
- Edmodo - A terrific solution for blogging in the classroom and it's free. It allows teachers to create student accounts and monitor all their activity.
- Kidblog - A great free way for students to blog w/ no email account necessary, teachers have total control of student content.
- Gaggle - A semi-free (paid version removes ads) way for student's to blog in a filtered environment. Gaggle will also filter Google Apps, provide forums, and filter YouTube as well.
- Blogger - Google's free blogging service that is very easy to use and has a beautiful user interface w/ lots of: themes, gadgets, and options to choose from.
- Word Press - One of the most popular free blogging platforms on the web. It requires an install and setup which means it has a bit of a higher learning curve then some other options.
- Edublog Campus - A paid blogging solution for schools that is built around the Word Press Platform.
- Penzu - Is a nice new (beta) site for blogging that allows users to choose if they want their posts to be public or private.
- Live Journal - Is a combination of a blogging platform and social network that is very popular w/ a focus on social media.
- 21 Classes - A wonderful blogging solution for students/Teachers. Teachers can create student accounts and monitor all blog entries before they are posted.
- TypePad - Create excellent looking blogs w/ this very easy to use paid service.
Creating Digital Comics has been one of my favorite thing to do w/ students when trying to integrate technology. While this can be done w/ any number of applications such as Comic Life or Toon Boom, there are many online alternatives (mostly free) that offer up a nice solution as well.Top 10 Sites for Creating Digital Comics
- Pixton - Has an educational portal (paid) that is ideal for schools (no student email account necessary). Also, there are a ton of options such as voice recording, drag-n-drop interface, and importing/exporting features.
- ToonDoo Spaces - One of the most popular online comic creators that is very similar to Pixton, w/ the ability to create a private space for education for sharing/collaborating on comics.
- Comic Master - A very nice looking site that is user friendly w/ lots of features to choose from such as: backgrounds, objects, speech bubbles, etc.
- Bitstrips - Is a great site w/ an educational instance (paid) that allows students to create comics in a safe/secure environment.
- Stage'D - A great looking site for creating animated comics!!
- Make Beliefs Comix - A wonderful site w/ lots of options to choose from that even lets users create comics in Spanish.
- Super Hero Squad Show - A fun site for kids to make comics off of their favorite Marvel super hero.
- Chogger - A nice site for creating a comic w/ the ability to create a drawing from scratch.
- Comic Creator - From Read Write & Type, a easy/simple to use comic creator that is nice to use w/ the younger kids.
- Witty Comics - A comic creation site that focuses more on creating text more then anything else.
Beginning With Blogging
Since there was no existing curriculum, and no formal technology classes at the elementary level, I wasn’t sure exactly where I should start with this new class. I want to make sure that we take advantage of all the amazing resources we have at our disposal (not to mention the faaast internet connection), enhance what the school is already doing and continue to expand the range of online experiences for both student and teachers. It’s also important that I make the class approachable for the parents, teachers and students – starting too far out of the realm of understanding could bring some unwanted backlash early in the year. Plus, I want whatever we do in tech class to be useful to the students within their other classes as well. And, of course, I want it to be fun!
For the last year or so, many students and teachers were utilizing the YIS blogging portal, The Learning Hub. We also send home paper portfolios eight times a year (I think). So, I’m thinking hoping that I may be able to expand the school’s vision of a blog (as a regular reflective practice for students and teachers) and also build up to the idea of an eportfolio instead of the paper folders we send home so many times a year by beginning our MYP tech class with a blogging project. We all know how I feel about those paper portfolios, right? I’m also working on modeling a thoughtful and reflective teacher-blog with my new YIS Middle School Tech blog.
Of course, we’re going to go through the Technology Design Cycle and really expand on the process of creating a blog, so this will probably be the most in-depth look any YIS students have at blogging. I’m anticipating that the unit will take us several weeks (we have class for 90 minutes, once a week), but because I work with the entire sixth grade, our middle school will then have a really solid understanding of the power and potential of blogging. I think it will be an easy transition to the MYP-style technology class and hopefully provide an easy to follow model for other teachers in the middle school.
Part 1: Investigate
We just got started last week with the investigate stagewhere we are reviewing other popular and well-designed blogs to see what features are essential in a quality blog. I provided the students with a list of blogs to start with, and after they review at least 2 from my selection they can review as many of their own favorite blogs as they want (with prior-approval from me). Just for fun, we reviewed one of my favorite ramen blogs in class first. We were all salivating by the end of class and the students really understood that they can blog about anything they are passionate about, even if it’s as simple as a bowl of noodles.
In order to bring in another useful skill, we’re completing the reviews on Google Docs so I was able to introduce the students to their GApps accounts and the concept of collaborative note taking. In this case, each student is filling out their own review form (and sharing with me), but I’m sure we’ll circle back to collaborating on a single GDoc soon enough. I was really impressed with how quickly the picked up the idea of creating a duplicate copy of the Blog Research sheet (and so thankful that we used GDocs since within the first half hour two students had accidentally closed their browser window, which would have resulted in lost work had we been using Office).
Our next step is to start brainstorming a potential blogging focus by exploring our own interests. We’ll most likely be using Inspiration to create a well-organized mind-map of ideas that each student can blog about (in addition to their academic posts). I’m hoping that if we concentrate a bit on their personal interests, their blog will become more than just a school project. A few of the girls have already come up to me super excited about their own blogging ideas. I would love to see their unique voices start to shine through in their posts instead of always reading the same post from every student (which can so often happen when blogging becomes “homework”).
Once they have some ideas about what they might be able to blog about, as well as the features of a quality blog, we’ll spend some time exploring WordPress. I will admit, I often gloss over this part because I feel like it’s so intuitive, but I’m planning to spend a little more time with this group to see if that cuts down on questions later.
The final part of the Investigate stage will be reflecting on what we’ve learned so far and what needs to come next (never the students’ favorite part, but a critical piece of the MYP design cycle process).
Part 2: Plan
Once that part of the project is complete, we’ll begin the planning. I would like to use Konrad Glogowski’s How to Grow a Blog process. I’ve used it peripherally before with middle school students, but this time I would like to really spend some time with it, so students feel more ownership over their own blog.
We’ll do a little bit of design work, potentially exploring a little Photoshop, so students have a chance to design custom headers at least (since the themes are all pretty much set) and probably determine which widgets they will use based on the look of their theme and header. I usually like to have them plan out what a finished product will look like in colored pencils so they focus on the design work before they actually get to the computer. That way their time spent actually creating their finished work is really productive.
I may also have them design a simple sitemap to really understand the purpose of (and difference between) categories, tags, archives, calendars, etc. This always seems to be a difficult piece to work in when I’m coaching in the classroom, there’s just never enough time to really explore tagging and categories so students always end up with dozens of posts in uncategorized and teachers struggle to understand the potential of a blog as eportfolio without that kind of structure.
Finally, we’ll reflect before we move on to the next stage.
Part 3: Create
Only after they bring in their signed permission slips, will we actually create the blogs. This will be the shortest part of the project because they will have done the majority of the thinking, planning and designing already. I’d love to have them publish a few pieces of work from different classes using pictures, videos, VoiceThreads or other embeddable objects during this time. Most likely we’ll also talk about the power of linking and start writing posts which connect to other student’s posts in class (or around school).
Hopefully at this stage, we will also be able to connect with other blogging partners around the world. If anyone is interested in working with us, please let me know!
And, of course, we’ll do a little bit of reflecting before moving on to the final stage.
Part 4: Evaluate
This final part of the project will focus on evaluating the success of the blogs we created, as well as the process of creating them. It would be nice to be able to have some external evaluation of our blogs in addition to individual reflection, so maybe we’ll come up with a Google Form for feedback as well.
Final Thoughts
That’s the plan so far! I’m just in the process of really working out how I want to structure the plan, create and evaluate as I get to know the students.
Since I’m just in the early stages of planning this, I’d love your feedback: What am I missing?
Are you interested in being blogging partners with us? We would love to have some partners around the world!
Related posts:
What inspires me about her post is her attitude that there are important skills everyone needs to learn and you’re never too young to learn them.
Please note:
- This was post written by our guest blogger Kathleen McGeady.
- It was originally posted on Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom and has been cross postedwith her permission.
The background
I chose these students as they regularly left comments on our 2KM class blog and were committed to learning as much as they can about blogging.
After gaining their parents’ permission, I set their blogs up, adding myself as an administrator.
I had a discussion with Rhiannon and Bianca about what they’re going to blog about and how often they’ll post.
We then revised the features of quality posts as well as revising the cyber safety and netiquette guidelines they were already familiar with.
After some initial familiarisation sessions my students were off and it didn’t take them long to learn the basics of blogging.
Check out:
Before long, my students were keen to use images off the internet to enhance their posts.
This was a dilemma for me.While my students are only in Grade Two and I don’t want to make blogging too complex for them, I knew that I would have to delve into the topic of copyright and Creative Commons to help my students develop good blogging habits.
Little do many people know, you can’t just use any images off the internet in your blog posts. Not only is this ethically incorrect but you could leave yourself open to copyright infringement.
Explaining Creative Commons and using images in blog posts
Wanting to make this process clear to my students, I typed up a document explaining copyright, copyright infringement and Creative Commons while also offering step-by-step instructions on how to use FlickrCC to upload and attribute images in blog posts.Obviously, there is more than one way to do this but given the age of my students, I wanted to keep things as straightforward as posssible.
I’ve embedded this document below:
Feel free to use it with your students to teach them about these important blogging habits. (Please Note: the instructions for uploading the image to a blog post apply toEdublogs blogs)
My approach to Student blogging
One of the things I love about teaching seven and eight year olds is that I can teach them about issues such as copyright, cyber safety, netiquette, social networking etc just before they reach the age where they would dive into these areas, prepared or not.I feel like I can make an impact in setting my students on the right path for their futures.
I am constantly amazed at how my students respond when I challenge them and engage them with ICT and their results across the board never fail to impress me.
Set your standards high, provide the structure and the support that your students need to scaffold their learning and reap the rewards!
Final Thoughts
Thanks Kathleen for letting me share your post here.
Please make sure you drop past Kathleen’s post and share your thoughts on:
- Will the how-to document be useful for you and your students?
- Do you have any questions about blogging or using internet images?
- What results have you seen from using ICT and setting high standards for your students?
Storify
Storify is an interesting site for creating digital storytelling using social media. The way this is done is by taking different media: weets, pics, text, etc) and then arranging them in any order (similar to Google Search Stories). A user then can add text to create a story. Once the story is created it can then be embedded into a site.I highly recommend checking out Storify by clicking here!!
Thanks to the wonderful blog, Zarco English for the tip.
On Tuesday evening I gave a presentation in Second Life for school librarians and media specialists. One of the topics that I talked about was alternatives to traditional book report assignments. While this post is a follow-up to that presentation, the post on its own should give you some ideas for alternatives to traditional book report assignments.
1. Create book trailers. I ran a post about book trailers during the summer which you can read here. In short, a book trailer is a short video created by students to highlight the key points of a book. When creating their book trailers students should be trying to "sell" viewers on a book. To create their videos your students could use Animoto for Education, JayCut, or PhotoPeach. Learn more about these free video creation tools in my free guide Making Videos on the Web.
2. Create animated or stop-motion videos about a book's plot. To make an animated video try Memoov which is a free service that your students can use to create an animated video book review. Memoov allows users to create animated videos up to five minutes in length. Creating an animated video with Memoov can be as simple as selecting a setting image(s), selecting a character or characters, and adding dialogue.
If stop-motion videos are more your speed, Kevin Hodgson'sMaking Stopmotion Movies is a fantastic resource for directions and advice on making stop-motion movies.
3. Create literature maps. Using Google Maps or Google Earth students can map out the travels of character in a story. Google Lit Trips has many examples of teachers and students using Google Earth in literature courses. If you're not familiar with how to create placemarks in Google Maps, please see my free guide Google for Teachers for directions.
4. Create 3D augmented reality book reviews. ZooBurst is an amazing service that allows you to create a short story complete with 3D augmented reality pop-ups. Students could use ZooBurst to create short summaries of books that really jump off the screen.
5. Create multimedia collages about books.Glogster allows users to create one page multimedia collages. Students could create a collage containing videos, audio files, text, and images about books they've read. For example, a Glog about Into the Wild could contain images of Chris McCandless, chunks of text about the book, and this video featuring a song from the movie based on the book.
If stop-motion videos are more your speed, Kevin Hodgson'sMaking Stopmotion Movies is a fantastic resource for directions and advice on making stop-motion movies.
10 Ideas For Class Blog Posts
- Share a photograph of your classroom. Explain about the different parts of it and how it is being used. Invite other teachers and classes to write a similar blog post explaining about their classroom. Encourage children from your class to leave comments about what they like about it or even suggestions for changes they would like to see.
- Publish children’s work. Don’t just post work that is flawless but also invite comments and suggestions on work that can be improved.
- Publish your shared writing. As you produce writing with the class in your lessons, post it to your blog and invite the class or blog visitors to improve something and to comment.
- Share your classroom rules or charter. This can be done at the beginning of the year and is a good way to share your class agreement with the wider community.
- Share a photograph of a classroom display.
- Post a video of SMARTBoard or IWB session during a maths lesson. For example the written methods for multiplication are included, the children can use it as a revision aid – the parents get to see how the school wants it set out AND the children get to comment on their favoured method.
- Posting images from a digital microscope for the children to comment on. “What is under our microscope?” – or even asking for people to guess what the image is and to comment on the suggestions.
- Posting homework tasks every week – eg. maths problems, children to comment as their task.
- Art gallery. Post pictures of all of the artwork created in a session, make a gallery or slideshow.
- Post Concept Cartoons for science prior to a lesson or a week of work. Children are asked to comment on what they think will happen and then these can be used as a start to the first lesson or as an intitial assessment.
Recently, I've had the opportunity to present and compile some presentations that I've done throughout the year. I've made these all available for free and allow people to edit them and use them as they desire. I feel these courses could offer a nice guide to educators who want to explore 21st Century/Web 2.0 technologies. I try to cover a wide range of areas such as building a PLN to blogging in the classroom.- Cutting Edge Technology - A course that focuses on web 2.0 technologies and building a personal learning network (PLN).
- Digital Storytelling 4 Everyone - A list of sites arranged by grade level w/ a Voicethread example.
- Blogging 101 - A great way to introduce and use blogging in a classroom.
- 50 Sites in 60 Minutes - A collection of great websites that can be used in the classroom.
- Backchanneling in the Classroom - A nice way to learn how to use a backchannel channel chat in a classroom w/ a list of resources.
Digital Storytelling 4 Everyone
I just wanted to share a quick/simple course I created for Digital Storytelling, based on the inspiration from Shelly Terrell, Naomi Harm, and the Merton School District. This is designed specifically for all sorts of grade levels and can be used as a nice way to introduce this concept.
Please, feel free to use anyway you can and if you'd like to contact me about something more in-depth or detailed let me know.
Click here to engage in this wonderful 21st Century tool!!
Mobile Motivation: 17 Digital Storytelling & Literacy Apps/Resources for Kids
Memoov
Memoov is an excellent site for digital storytelling similar to My Storymaker. As w/ most sites like this, a person can select a character (edit), add a scene/action, and then add text to create a story. This site is very user friendly and even allows users to record their own voice to add to a character. Once a story is done a person can upload it and share via a URL or watch on a YouTube channel.
I highly recommend giving Memoov a try by clicking here.
I just wanted to share a quick/simple course I created for Digital Storytelling, based on the inspiration from Shelly Terrell, Naomi Harm, and the Merton School District. This is designed specifically for all sorts of grade levels and can be used as a nice way to introduce this concept.Please, feel free to use anyway you can and if you'd like to contact me about something more in-depth or detailed let me know.
Click here to engage in this wonderful 21st Century tool!!
Mobile Motivation: 17 Digital Storytelling & Literacy Apps/Resources for Kids
Memoov is an excellent site for digital storytelling similar to My Storymaker. As w/ most sites like this, a person can select a character (edit), add a scene/action, and then add text to create a story. This site is very user friendly and even allows users to record their own voice to add to a character. Once a story is done a person can upload it and share via a URL or watch on a YouTube channel.
I highly recommend giving Memoov a try by clicking here.
I highly recommend giving Memoov a try by clicking here.
Kizoa - Digital Story Telling
Kizoa is another website for creating Digital stories out of photos. The main difference so far is that it also offers the ability to edit those photos as well with more features than I have seen from the other web-based applications. You can add transitions, flash animations, text, effects, and frames to the pictures when adding them to the slide-show making them more appealing to the viewer.
You can sort your photos into albums and give photos tags helping you keep them organized. You can share it with others and create private groups that people can join. Kizoa is completely free. Uploading 100 photos was rather simple. I was blocked by the firewall at my school, but doing it from home was easy. The user interface was also very easy to use as well. With the free account you get 1024 MB of storage, so if you plan on using high quality images, you probably want to pay for an account.
When finished you can burn the slide-show to a DVD, convert slide-show into video, and download and play the slide-show offline. Impressive software. Feels like they took the best of some of the others and combined them into one.
Bitstrips
Bitsrips is a comic creation site that is one of the better ones to come around in a long time. Like most similar sites a user selects a character, background, object, and then provides the text, but what separates this from others is there is an educational portal similar to Toon Doo Spaces. This is great for teachers as there is built in filtering, content approval before posting, and private hosting.
I highly recommend checking out Bitstrips for creating comics in the classroom!!!!
Thanks to the excellent blog Life Feast for the tip!!!
Kizoa - Digital Story Telling
Kizoa is another website for creating Digital stories out of photos. The main difference so far is that it also offers the ability to edit those photos as well with more features than I have seen from the other web-based applications. You can add transitions, flash animations, text, effects, and frames to the pictures when adding them to the slide-show making them more appealing to the viewer.
You can sort your photos into albums and give photos tags helping you keep them organized. You can share it with others and create private groups that people can join. Kizoa is completely free. Uploading 100 photos was rather simple. I was blocked by the firewall at my school, but doing it from home was easy. The user interface was also very easy to use as well. With the free account you get 1024 MB of storage, so if you plan on using high quality images, you probably want to pay for an account.
When finished you can burn the slide-show to a DVD, convert slide-show into video, and download and play the slide-show offline. Impressive software. Feels like they took the best of some of the others and combined them into one.
Bitsrips is a comic creation site that is one of the better ones to come around in a long time. Like most similar sites a user selects a character, background, object, and then provides the text, but what separates this from others is there is an educational portal similar to Toon Doo Spaces. This is great for teachers as there is built in filtering, content approval before posting, and private hosting.
I highly recommend checking out Bitstrips for creating comics in the classroom!!!!
Thanks to the excellent blog Life Feast for the tip!!!
I highly recommend checking out Bitstrips for creating comics in the classroom!!!!
Thanks to the excellent blog Life Feast for the tip!!!
Blogs Wikis Docs oh my!!!
Blogs Wikis Docs is a great chart that I found out from wonderful blog, Langwitches. This is a excellent comparison chart for deciding when to use a blog, wiki, or document.
I highly recommend checking out this useful resource by clicking here!!!
Top 10 Social Networks for Education
"A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes," which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge orprestige. (Wikipedia)" Being a huge advocate of social networking and Web 2.0 in general I decided to list my favorite networks for education that targets technology literacy.
Top 10 Social Networks for Education
- Twitter - Far and away one of the most popular social networks around. This micro-tweeting platform is used worldwide and especially in education (search hash tags; edchat or edtech).
- Classroom 2.0 - Created by Steve Hargadon and used by thousands of educators on a daily basis. This site alone changed the way I viewed education and ignited my passion for Web 2.0.
- Facebook -nuff said!!
- Plurk - A social network similar to Twitter w/ a timeline view and fun karma based platform.
- Educator's PLN - Built by Thomas Whitby, this social network is one of the fasting growing around and some of the top technology based innovators can be found here.
- Learn Central - Sponsored by elluminate, Learn Central is an ideal place for educators to host/learn through Learn Central's virtual conferences.
- ISTE Community - International Society for Technology & Education is a great place for educators to come together and collaborate on technology issues.
- Edutopia - A very popular organization created by the George Lucas foundation.
- Collaborative Translation - Created by well renowned educator James O'Reilly, CT is a great place to learn/share innovative ideas.
- IT4ALL - Integrating Technology 4 Active Life-Long Learners is a nice place for educators to share ideas on best practices for technology integration
Blogs Wikis Docs oh my!!!
Blogs Wikis Docs is a great chart that I found out from wonderful blog, Langwitches. This is a excellent comparison chart for deciding when to use a blog, wiki, or document.
I highly recommend checking out this useful resource by clicking here!!!
I highly recommend checking out this useful resource by clicking here!!!
"A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes," which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge orprestige. (Wikipedia)" Being a huge advocate of social networking and Web 2.0 in general I decided to list my favorite networks for education that targets technology literacy.Top 10 Social Networks for Education
- Twitter - Far and away one of the most popular social networks around. This micro-tweeting platform is used worldwide and especially in education (search hash tags; edchat or edtech).
- Classroom 2.0 - Created by Steve Hargadon and used by thousands of educators on a daily basis. This site alone changed the way I viewed education and ignited my passion for Web 2.0.
- Facebook -nuff said!!
- Plurk - A social network similar to Twitter w/ a timeline view and fun karma based platform.
- Educator's PLN - Built by Thomas Whitby, this social network is one of the fasting growing around and some of the top technology based innovators can be found here.
- Learn Central - Sponsored by elluminate, Learn Central is an ideal place for educators to host/learn through Learn Central's virtual conferences.
- ISTE Community - International Society for Technology & Education is a great place for educators to come together and collaborate on technology issues.
- Edutopia - A very popular organization created by the George Lucas foundation.
- Collaborative Translation - Created by well renowned educator James O'Reilly, CT is a great place to learn/share innovative ideas.
- IT4ALL - Integrating Technology 4 Active Life-Long Learners is a nice place for educators to share ideas on best practices for technology integration
Scuttle Pad
Scuttle Pad is a social network designed for kids ages 6-11. While I'm not sure how I feel about young kids using a social network, it is obvious that it plays a huge role in today's society and if it is going to be done, Scuttle Pad appears to be the way to do it. For example, all pictures are reviewed before being posted, kids can only choose from a preselected word list, and only first name and cities are allowed to be revealed. This might just be the solution that parents/teachers are looking for.
Give Scuttle Pad a try by clicking here.
Doing a "FLIP" Across the Curriculum
With part of the grant for the creation of my position, teachers got the ability to order several different kinds of technology equipment. One of those pieces of equipment, a FLIP Camera. I got one as well...I love it. I also won one at the Nashville TeachMeet last school year, so now I have one for work and play. So the question then becomes...how do we use such a great and simple tool in the classroom? Well here are some ideas for student use.
Social Studies
1.) Have students portray a President and recreate a famous speech
2.) Act out a time period in history
3.) Use for Mock Trial to record "evidence" at a scene of a crime
4.) Create advertisements for products when teaching Economics
5.) Create advertisement for inventions in history
6.) Interview family members
7.) Create Propaganda Techniques
8.) Film "On The Scene" news clips as if a news reporter from an event in history
9.) Create a movie trailer about an event in history, or even a biography of a person from history
10.)Create a music video for any of the subject matter
Science
1.) Record experiments and then include in a Glog instead of doing the standard lab write up
2.) Create video advertisements for all the Elements on the Periodic table and how they are used in real life
3.) Create a Music video...like these
4.) Interview people in different science careers and bring in for career day activities
5.) Video Science in action - life cycle, hydro-logic cycle, chemical reactions, etc
6.) Create How-To videos explaining the steps in scientific and physic processes
Mathematics
1.) Give to students to take home. Have the work out and explain a math problem. Then bring in to school and let the student share with the class
2.) Take a camera out and measure different angles in the school/community for a geometry lesson
3.) Create a "Math in my Life" video journal. Have students record when they use math in their daily lives and share at the end of the semester.
4.) Create How to videos over mathematics and formulas
5.) Have students record your explanations of math problems in your classroom and then make them available on the web or put them on their flash-drive for them to use for homework.
English
1.) Create a movie trailer for a book they are reading in the class
2.) Create a monologue for a poem from class. Catch the emotion of a poem.
3.) Allow students to record a speech instead of giving the speech in front of the class if nerves keep them from full potential
4.) Record students doing the My Three Words Campaign
5.) Recreate scenes from a play or short story
6.) Record a skit of dialogue from a section of a book.
Foreign Language
1.) Have students create common words translation videos
2.) Have students record a certain artifact and then translate it on video
3.) Have students go around school/town and translate popular spots, places, etc into the foreign language
ALL SUBJECTS
1.) Create a review video for students to use for exams and show on school news.
2.) Take on Field Trips and share with students via school news
3.) Record classroom discussions
4.) Record your lecture and make available as podcast, for viewing on your website, or on a flash-drive
5.) Record a daily vocabulary word and act out definition.
Scuttle Pad
Scuttle Pad is a social network designed for kids ages 6-11. While I'm not sure how I feel about young kids using a social network, it is obvious that it plays a huge role in today's society and if it is going to be done, Scuttle Pad appears to be the way to do it. For example, all pictures are reviewed before being posted, kids can only choose from a preselected word list, and only first name and cities are allowed to be revealed. This might just be the solution that parents/teachers are looking for.
Give Scuttle Pad a try by clicking here.
Give Scuttle Pad a try by clicking here.
With part of the grant for the creation of my position, teachers got the ability to order several different kinds of technology equipment. One of those pieces of equipment, a FLIP Camera. I got one as well...I love it. I also won one at the Nashville TeachMeet last school year, so now I have one for work and play. So the question then becomes...how do we use such a great and simple tool in the classroom? Well here are some ideas for student use.
Social Studies
1.) Have students portray a President and recreate a famous speech
2.) Act out a time period in history
3.) Use for Mock Trial to record "evidence" at a scene of a crime
4.) Create advertisements for products when teaching Economics
5.) Create advertisement for inventions in history
6.) Interview family members
7.) Create Propaganda Techniques
8.) Film "On The Scene" news clips as if a news reporter from an event in history
9.) Create a movie trailer about an event in history, or even a biography of a person from history
10.)Create a music video for any of the subject matter
Science
1.) Record experiments and then include in a Glog instead of doing the standard lab write up
2.) Create video advertisements for all the Elements on the Periodic table and how they are used in real life
3.) Create a Music video...like these
4.) Interview people in different science careers and bring in for career day activities
5.) Video Science in action - life cycle, hydro-logic cycle, chemical reactions, etc
6.) Create How-To videos explaining the steps in scientific and physic processes
Mathematics
1.) Give to students to take home. Have the work out and explain a math problem. Then bring in to school and let the student share with the class
2.) Take a camera out and measure different angles in the school/community for a geometry lesson
3.) Create a "Math in my Life" video journal. Have students record when they use math in their daily lives and share at the end of the semester.
4.) Create How to videos over mathematics and formulas
5.) Have students record your explanations of math problems in your classroom and then make them available on the web or put them on their flash-drive for them to use for homework.
English
1.) Create a movie trailer for a book they are reading in the class
2.) Create a monologue for a poem from class. Catch the emotion of a poem.
3.) Allow students to record a speech instead of giving the speech in front of the class if nerves keep them from full potential
4.) Record students doing the My Three Words Campaign
5.) Recreate scenes from a play or short story
6.) Record a skit of dialogue from a section of a book.
Foreign Language
1.) Have students create common words translation videos
2.) Have students record a certain artifact and then translate it on video
3.) Have students go around school/town and translate popular spots, places, etc into the foreign language
ALL SUBJECTS
1.) Create a review video for students to use for exams and show on school news.
2.) Take on Field Trips and share with students via school news
3.) Record classroom discussions
4.) Record your lecture and make available as podcast, for viewing on your website, or on a flash-drive
5.) Record a daily vocabulary word and act out definition.
Social Studies
1.) Have students portray a President and recreate a famous speech
2.) Act out a time period in history
3.) Use for Mock Trial to record "evidence" at a scene of a crime
4.) Create advertisements for products when teaching Economics
5.) Create advertisement for inventions in history
6.) Interview family members
7.) Create Propaganda Techniques
8.) Film "On The Scene" news clips as if a news reporter from an event in history
9.) Create a movie trailer about an event in history, or even a biography of a person from history
10.)Create a music video for any of the subject matter
Science
1.) Record experiments and then include in a Glog instead of doing the standard lab write up
2.) Create video advertisements for all the Elements on the Periodic table and how they are used in real life
3.) Create a Music video...like these
4.) Interview people in different science careers and bring in for career day activities
5.) Video Science in action - life cycle, hydro-logic cycle, chemical reactions, etc
6.) Create How-To videos explaining the steps in scientific and physic processes
Mathematics
1.) Give to students to take home. Have the work out and explain a math problem. Then bring in to school and let the student share with the class
2.) Take a camera out and measure different angles in the school/community for a geometry lesson
3.) Create a "Math in my Life" video journal. Have students record when they use math in their daily lives and share at the end of the semester.
4.) Create How to videos over mathematics and formulas
5.) Have students record your explanations of math problems in your classroom and then make them available on the web or put them on their flash-drive for them to use for homework.
English
1.) Create a movie trailer for a book they are reading in the class
2.) Create a monologue for a poem from class. Catch the emotion of a poem.
3.) Allow students to record a speech instead of giving the speech in front of the class if nerves keep them from full potential
4.) Record students doing the My Three Words Campaign
5.) Recreate scenes from a play or short story
6.) Record a skit of dialogue from a section of a book.
Foreign Language
1.) Have students create common words translation videos
2.) Have students record a certain artifact and then translate it on video
3.) Have students go around school/town and translate popular spots, places, etc into the foreign language
ALL SUBJECTS
1.) Create a review video for students to use for exams and show on school news.
2.) Take on Field Trips and share with students via school news
3.) Record classroom discussions
4.) Record your lecture and make available as podcast, for viewing on your website, or on a flash-drive
5.) Record a daily vocabulary word and act out definition.
Slide Six - Easily Add Narration to Slide Shows
Slide Six is a slide show hosting service that offers you the ability to add your voice narrations without having to create, upload, and sync a separate audio file. Slide Six does this by allowing you to record your narration directly through the Slide Six site. To use the feature just upload your slide show and then record your voice as you go through your slide deck. Slide Six also allows you to upload attachments to complement your presentations. YouTube and Vimeo videos are supported within Slide Six.Slide Six supports all Power Point formats, Open Office, PDF, and MOV presentations. You can try Slide Six without creating an account through the trial uploader.
Fuzzwich
from Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero by dkapuler
http://www.fuzzwich.com/
Tech Tools for Teachers #11 VoiceThreadfrom Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom by Kathleen McGeady
VoiceThread is a popular tool that allows you to narrate images, documents and videos. Others can join in the conversation too. Your completed VoiceThreads can be embedded in a blog or website, emailed or simply stored and viewed on the VoiceThread site.
http://voicethread.com/
5 Card Flickr Draw
from Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero by dkapuler
http://web.nmc.org/5cardstory/play.php
5 Card Flickr Draw is an interesting site that can be used for digital storytelling. The way this works is Flickr gives a person 5 pictures to choose from. Once the picture is chosen another 5 are shown until there are 5 pictures lined up. After that a person can share this story or start over.
I think this is a nice site for brainstorming and can really get those creative juices flowing to create a story that matches the pictures.
Here is a great collection of Digital Storytelling tools collected by Ozge Karaoglu http://ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org/about-me-2/ . Ozge is an awesome teacher that has put together some amazing collections of web tools for students to use. Click on her name to read her profile and see her e-portfolio. You should bookmark her page because she is sure to have something great to share with each post.
Jog the Web http://www.jogtheweb.com/ - This is a great site passed on by Anne Carnevale's Blog. Jog the web allows a teacher to set up a series of web pages the students explore in a set order. The best part is that it also allows the teacher to leave annotated notes that lets the teacher ask guiding questions as the student explores the web page. This would be great to use for Web Quests. There are many great examples on the site, but here is one that was created to provide background on Anne Frank before the students read her diary. This could allow students to have a guided tour of important webpages from their home. This is worth a look.
Awesome Stories http://awesomestories.com/ is a search engine for Primary Resources. I think this site will be tremendously helpful in Social Studies classes as students look for court cases, biographies, news articles on important events and even video. Students often claim, "I can't find anything good to use." or "Why can't I just use Wikipedia?" Awesome Stories allows students to search a large archive of Primary Resources that should make their research easier and more meaningful. This should be a must have on all Social Studies websites for students doing research.
Here is a great post on Free Technology For Teachers video tutorials on proper citation http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/03/animated-web-search-tutorials.html . As a High School English Teacher, I find that students still struggle with correct citation of information. These guided videos could help teach students the correct way to cite information they intend to use in papers or projects. Little things like this would be great to add to personal website so students can access them whenever they have questions about citation. The videos are geared more toward Upper Elementary and Middle School, but I think anyone that has citation questions could use this and learn.
Top 10 Sites for Digital Storytelling
from Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero by dkapuler
Digital Storytelling is the practice of telling stories w/ computer tools. Wikipedia explains teachers use digital storytelling for several reasons such as,"1) to incorporate multimedia into their curriculum and 2) Teachers can also introduce storytelling in combination with social networking in order to increase global participation, collaboration, and communication skills. Moreover, digital storytelling is a way to incorporate and teach the twenty-first century student the twenty-first century technology skills such as information literacy, visual literacy, global awareness, communication and technology literacy."
Top 10 sites for Digital Storytelling
http://www.digitalfilms.com/ - Quite simply one of the best digital storytelling sites around. This site is very user friendly w/ an iMovie HD feel and great for beginners!!
Myths & Legends http://myths.e2bn.org/index.php - Excellent site for storytelling, can add characters, backgrounds, objects, etc. and great for education w/ an educational instance/portal.
Xtranormal http://www.xtranormal.com/ - Very popular/fun site for digital storytelling. A very easy to use site where text is all that is needed to create an original story.
My StoryMaker http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/ - Great site for young readers to create a cartoon looking story.
Storybird - http://storybird.com/ An excellent site for creating pictures books for storytelling.
Primary Access http://www.primaryaccess.org/ - Is a wonderful site for creating digital stories using historical stock footage.
Google Search Stories http://www.youtube.com/searchstories - A very easy site to use by selecting stock video/audio to create a digital story.
Zimmer Twins - http://zimmertwins.com/ A fun site where users select cartoon footage to create their very own digital story.
Zooburst - http://alpha.zooburst.com/ Is a brand new site for creating 3D/pop-up stories. A user can either upload their own image or use stock photos. Hopefully, audio/video integration will be coming soon!
Stage'D - http://stagedproject.com/ A very impressive visual site where users choose their characters, backgrounds, and items to create their very own computer generated story.
Zooburst
from Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero by dkapuler and Larry Ferlazzo
http://alpha.zooburst.com/
Zooburst has to be one of my favorite new (alpha) sites around for digital storytelling!! This is such a great site for creating 3D pop-up books!
What makes ZB such an excellent resource is how easy it is to use as well as the number of features it has. A user has the ability to edit their background, the degree to which items pop up from the book, as well as embed their book into their site.
http://seanbanville.com/2010/04/27/paired-and-group-writing-activity/
Excellent “Paired and group writing activity”
from Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... by Larry Ferlazzo
Sean Banville, the man behind Breaking News English and a bunch of other websites used by ESL/EFL teachers all over the world, has written a post in his blog describing a neat Paired And Group Writing Activity.
He lays it out quite simply there, and I’d encourage you to take a look. It’ll only take a minute.
http://lightningbug.com.au/index.htm
from ilearntechnology
Lightning Bug is a great resource to have going on your classroom computers as a writing/publishing center. Students can visit the site to get help with every stage of writing. This is an excellent site to send home and alert parents to, it would be enormously helpful for at-home writing projects. If you have access to a computer lab or 1 to 1 setting, allow your students to walk through this website as they work on any piece of writing. The site is organized really well and easy to navigate independently. Be sure to take a look at the teacher resources.
A few of the recommendations for the writing process include worksheets such as mind maps. Instead of using a worksheet for students to map their ideas, consider using online tools that will let students organize their thoughts and collaborate with others as they write. Try using online mind mapping tools such as Creza’s Mindomo or Comapping. Students can use tools such as Zoho, Google Docs, or Kerpoof to collaborate as they write.
This is mainly for me to try learn and implement - I didn't want to forget the links! After I learn and try it out, I'd like to show any interested teachers in my school!
http://theedublogger.com/2010/01/05/week-1-create-a-class-blog/
http://theedublogger.com/2010/01/11/week-2-set-up-your-blogging-rules-and-guidelines/
http://theedublogger.com/2010/01/19/week-3-add-a-visitor-tracking-widget-to-your-blog-sidebar/
http://theedublogger.com/2010/01/28/week-4-add-your-student-blogs-to-your-blogroll/
http://theedublogger.com/2010/02/06/week-5-add-students-to-your-class-blog-so-they-can-write-posts/
http://theedublogger.com/2010/02/12/week-6-help-parents-connect-with-your-class-blog/
http://theedublogger.com/2010/02/19/week-7-add-your-student-blogs-to-a-folder-in-google-reader/
http://primarytech.globalteacher.org.au/
Digital Storytelling online guide: This guide was written especially for educators, who want to teach 21st century skills, such as collaborating, communicating, and connecting, through digital storytelling
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/digital-storytelling-tools-for-educators/4758345
This one is from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/education/teachers/guides/digital_storytelling.aspx
When students create a movie or interactive slideshow to tell their story, learning becomes personal.
With digital storytelling, students can: Improve their writing. Show creativity. Have a voice. Digital storytelling projects lend themselves well to portfolio assessment.
Wacky Web Tales (like Mad-Libs): http://www.eduplace.com/tales/
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/index.html
from Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... by Larry Ferlazzo
Fotobabble, a neat application where people can post photos along with an audio description.
http://www.fotobabble.com/
http://www.primaryaccess.org/
PrimaryAccess is a suite of free online tools that allows students and teachers to use primary source documents to complete meaningful and compelling learning activities with digital movies, storyboards, rebus stories and other online tools.
