Google Earth (Week 8 Thing 19)

I've been using google earth for a while now. I always get it out when we talk about the 13 original colonies. We look at Jamestown and the other surrounding areas. Usually the activty progresses to looking at our homes nearby etc. and the students love it. It certainly makes the earth look smaller and larger at the same time.

Slideshare (Week 7 Thing 18)

I'd never heard of slideshare before learning about it here in this class. I found a slideshare about the human body which is a new unit for fifth grade that we are looking at teaching in February. This is a human body fun quiz. While the quiz itself is probably meant for oler students than my fifth graders, I liked the idea. Once I've organized what I am to teach (I'm still learning myself about the human body systems) I would like to create something similar for my class.

The Human Body...A Fun Quiz

View more presentations from Bro. Oh Teik Bin.

Podcasts!! (Week 7 Thing 17)

Podcasts- I love podcasts. I discovered them about a year ago and have several that I listen to regularly and eagerly awaiting each week for another installment. I've wanted to figure out how to create podcasts in my class. I love listening to Stuff You Should Know. (It is already added to my Google Reader.) I love how Josh and Chuck research the same topic, then sit down and have a conversation, sharing what they have learn. And I always learn a ton. I believe by just listening to my students hold a solid conversation about a topic, I could learn who understands what about that topic. We tried it with the first English colonies.

Please note this was our first try and we learned a lot. I would like my students to listen to a TON more examples of podcasts and to try and learn how be more relaxed. Of course, I am not sure I would be more relaxed if it were me being recored. It sure was fun, though, and my students loved listening to them at home.

The Tubes (Week 7 Thing 16)

Youtube and TeacherTube.

This is certainly not the first time I've played around in Youtube. It is a little overwhelming because there are a lot of useless material out there. The trouble is sorting through everything thing to find the diamond in the rough. Usually I see something from someone else and use it. For example, I've used the escalator clip in my class before. It is fun to have the student talk about the thinking that wasn't going on in that video and how easy it is to fall into the same trap.
I've never really looked at TeacherTube before and enjoyed what I found there. It is a little easier to look through and find something.
I've embeded a few colonies videos from the two sites into my wiki since we are working on the 13 original colonies right now in social studies. Here is one of the videos:

Harvest of Love Part III

Fun Facts and the reason behind it all

Harvest of Love video Part II

Field Trip to Care and Share Warehouse

Harvest of Love (Week 6 Thing 15)

Okay, this video has been a long time coming. I've been bribing my kids with the video recorder when I had to leave them with a guest teacher to attend this class. They've been waiting and waiting and finally, I gave them a chance to try it out.

I have a leadership group in my class who wanted to help out this year with the Care and Share Harvest of Love food drive. The following video, finally completed after weeks of talking and discussing and filming, was filmed and put together through the efforts of both student and teacher. The film was long enough that I could not upload here, so I broke it into three parts. The first one is here.

What is Care and Share

Challenges: It took a LONG time to get this video together. The students did most of the filming and I realized afterward how many clips we couldn't use because the middle part of a sentence or answer was missing from the video. Also, it is a little jumpy. Also, we recorded using Audible a couple of parts and realized during the assembly performance that the sound file doesn't stay with the video clip it is supposedly linked to if you change other things. Easy to fix once you realize, but sometimes it takes time to realize what the problems might be. I admit, the thought of trying this with a class of students, all at once, even group projects, makes me want to pull my hair out before I've even begun.

VoiceThread (Week 6 Thing 15)

VoiceThread was fun to play around with. I can both see myself using VoiceThread and not using VoiceThread. I imagine after taking the time to teach the process to my class, I could simply assign a picture with a question or comment to start the student's thinking and assign it as homework. It is one of those hurdles you need to sow in order to reep the rewards.

We are starting a biography project soon and would love to have the students comment on a picture of a famous historical figure. Also, I can see it being used in reading and science. Just the idea of getting the students THINKING is the important part.

Here is my 'beautiful' voice commenting. (Please read the 'beautiful' with a touch of irony.)

Google Docs (Week 5 Thing 13)

I did enjoy learning about google docs. I can see myself using this professionally and for fun. I would actually love to use this in my classroom and can see myself doing just that in the future. The problem is the availability of technology at the moment. Wouldn't I just love to write a grant and see 15 permeate computers in my classroom. Then I could see myself creating assignments on a more regular basis for my students that involve the computer. As it is, computers tend to get used more often on the BIG assignments that happen every once and a while.

Right now, as Brittney wrote on her blog, I can see us using this in a professional capacity when colaborating with collegues.