4th Grade War Project

War Project on Prezi

Emerging Technology #4- Photobucket

I stumbled upon Photobucket after reading and viewing blogs and assignments of some other colleagues. I have discovered that I really enjoy this website and am still discovering all it has to offer. Photobucket allows you to upload pictures, albums, create slideshows, even movies to share with family and friends. Not only can you upload your own images, Photobucket also has thousands of photos, backgrounds, even quotes and sayings for you to use to 'spruce up' your own creations. Everything is very user-friendly to make it easy to upload images. You can easily add captions and titles to your pictures.

I do see a few concerns with this technology. One issue is that you do need to sign up and create an account in order to upload pictures. This would present a problem if each student wanted their own account. However, since I have an account, I can publish my pictures which will still make them accessible to students. Another concern is the appropriateness of all the quotes and pictures provided by Photobucket. Although most are very kid friendly and general, we all know how kids are able to find the inappropriate ones.

One feature of Photobucket that I think would be neat to use in the classroom is allowing parents to view our pictures from home. Our Angel websites at school allow pictures to be viewed, but pictures are often too large to be inserted into our site or take a long time to load. By using the Photobucket link, students and parents can easily access their pictures and see what we are up to in school. I created a to highlight the training I am doing with my students for our upcoming 5K run.

Emerging Technology #3 - Thinkfinity

Thinkfinity is an excellent resource geared towards educators, parents, students, and those involved in after-school care. This website offers a wide variety of pre-made lesson plans and interactive activities to use, all organized by content and grade level. Embedded in many of these lessons are additional links to offer more explanation or information. This 'database' of lessons is easy to use, simply type in the content you are looking for and click go! A list of lessons pops up for you to choose from and explore. As an educator, I used Thinkifinity to find a lesson on my upcoming unit on natural resources and recycling to tie into Earth Day in April. I found many options and clicked through to find one suitable to use for my 4th graders. I was happy to find that the lesson I chose came from Science NetLinks, which also offered more information and more lessons I can use in the future. Many lessons on Thinkfinity are supported or submitted from reputable partners such as the Smithsonian National Museum and the International Reading Association. All lessons are tied to standards, which is convenient for teachers!

One downfall I did notice was that some links in the lessons did not work, which can be frustrating if you need a lesson quickly or are excited about the lesson preview. Also, although Thinkfinity offers a wide range of lessons, some topics can't be found, especially when relating to specific people or state history concepts.

Thinkfinity also offers interactive games for students right on the website things such as practicing math concepts and science classification. Also, under the student section, homework help is available in the form of atlases and graphic organizers to write essays and letters. Book lists are also available for students.

I feel that Thinkfinity is a great time saving resource for teachers. It offers new ideas for teachers to motivate their students, and engages students in educational games. Click here to view the lesson on recycling that I plan to use in my class.

Module 4-2: Digital Literacy

I read the blog post titled "Picture Perfect: Make Your Own Motivational Posters." Using the website bighugelabs.com, teachers can now make their own motivational posters. The posters look just like the ones that you can buy at the store, however, you can now personalize them using your own pictures, titles, and messages. What a unique way to showcase your students on a poster to motivate others in the class. The blog article touches upon the thought that once you label a student lazy or not a hard worker, that is exactly what you get. But, by including a picture of this 'lazy' person on a poster, encouraging other students to try harder, you are more likely to receive a different outcome. I visited the website, and it is extremely easy to use. Simply upload a picture from your file and add a title and message. There are links included on the page in case you are at a loss for motivational phrases. The website also offers other options for you to personalize by uploading personal pictures, such as magazine covers, calendars, and jigsaw puzzles. Although, you can buy these products through BigHugeLabs.com, it is also easy to download the images as a JPEG file and print on your own.
After looking at the skillset for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, these personalized motivational posters easily supports this framework. Not only do these posters support creativity and innovation, but also technology, career, and life skills. After seeing themselves on posters to help others, students can create their own posters. This would also help to promote a comfortable and supportive learning environment necessary for students to succeed. I know that I will be using BigHugeLabs.com in the future!

Module 4: 21st Century Skills

I watched the video titled "Big Thinkers: Howard Gardner on Digital Youth," because I am familiar with some of his work using multiple intelligences. Although this video did not target this area of his research, I still felt it was very interesting and meaningful. He commented about the vast amount of information available on the Internet, and how students no longer are using the 'old school' way of research by looking in an encyclopedia. I also found it interesting that he mentioned that a teacher's role in the classroom is shifting to become more of a coach and role model. I can see how this could happen in schools, as students can educate themselves using the vast amount of resources and tools online. If kids can teach themselves how to play ( and beat) video games, text message, listen to podcasts, and how to blog, then why shouldn't they be able to teach themselves many other skills? Teachers would then become a guide, rather than a leader figure. In essence, many of us do this today in our own classrooms. We provide students with the tools they need to arrive at a conclusion and become independent thinkers.

Of the other 3 videos we watched, I was particularly intrigued with the piano stairs. What an awesome way to transmit technology into everyday life and effect a large amount of people. After watching this video, I reflected on my own thinking, since I am the one that usually does take the stairs, not the elevator or escalator. I thought about why I did this: saving time, exercise benefit? I eventually came up with the fact that I am bored riding on an escalator, I want to do something: so taking the stairs is more fun for me. If I choose to do things in a fun way, why shouldn't my students? It was easy to see the joy and excitement of the people on the piano stairs in the video. They were enjoying themselves, which is the attitude I would like to transfer to my students.

As a goal, I would like to integrate more engaging technology use into my classroom. Since school is such a large part of a student's day, why not make it fun by using technology





What a neat idea! Using technology to make something ordinary, fun!



Very powerful video!

Emerging Technology: Animoto

I explored the presentation technology of Animoto. (http://animoto.com/). I found this technology easy to use and I was excited to produce a quality piece. This website allows you to input pictures, text titles, and music to create an exciting video. I think this technology is much more exciting to watch than a PowerPoint Presentation. Animoto provides a tutorial and step-by-step directions to walk you through the creation process. I easily signed up for a free membership. With this free membership, the videos you create are limited to 30 seconds, as compared to a paid membership with longer videos. The free membership also limits the number of pictures and text titles that can be included. Although the website does offer a wide selection of music, the music is obscure. You can use your own music if it is in a mp3 format.

This is a perfect tool for me to use in the classroom. In 4th grade, we study Indiana history. Not originally from Indiana, over the past few years I decided to travel around the state to actually visit the places I teach about. I then can show my students the pictures I take and bring the locations to life. I decided to make an Animoto video using the pictures from one of my latest trips to Corydon-Indiana's first state capitol, and the Civil War battlefield located in Corydon. I am excitied to show my students this video. I think it will keep them interested and engaged in Social Studies! Here is my link to my Corydon video:
http://animoto.com/play/oui7H4V88pXGt33R1BI5GQ

There are a few complications to this website when integrating it into the classroom. First, students would need to sign in with an e-mail address to get a free account. Several of my students do not computers at home, so therefore do not have e-mail addresses. In addition, as a teacher I wouldn't feel comfortable having my 4th graders enter their e-mail address, if they have one, at school. Also, the website does show other member's videos, which are not all appropriate for school. To counter this, Animoto seems like a tool that I can use to show my students on our projector. Although the students would not be involoved in the creation process, I still think the technology is engaging.

Emerging Technology: Wordle

Hi again! I have just started experimenting with Wordle, and so far I love it! (http://www.wordle.net) This unique website allows students to input words and phrases relevant to a topic. The website then jumbles the words around into a work of art! For someone like me, who loves art and to be artsy, but has no artistic talent whatsoever, this makes me feel like I accomplished something of value. The website is fairly easy to use. I did have to get used to typing in phrases or names without using spaces, or else the words will be split apart. Another thing I noticed was to be careful when spelling words, as once you jumble the words, you can't go back to correct misspelled words.

For kids, this is a great way to introduce adjectives, character traits, and poetry. Each wordle creation is a piece of art in itself. In my classroom, I used Wordle to create a piece on Martin Luther King, Jr. using words and phrases that my students and I discussed. I hung the poem on a bulletin board, surrounded by our "We Have A Dream..." stories. This was my way of introducing Wordle to my students. I plan on having each of my students create their own piece of art using character traits and adjectives to describe Abraham Lincoln or George Washington for our Preident's Day bulletin board. I think this will be a great way to get kids excitied about writing and taking ownership of their ideas. I'm excited to see how it goes! (Here is a link to my Martin Luther King Jr. word art. http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1565543/Martin_Luther_King )

One drawback I do foresee is that although these word poems look great in color, our school/administration restricts the use of color printing to a small handful of items. I've decided to print the word poems out in black and white, and then have the students color and decorate their own using crayons, colored pencils, or markers. The other thing that may be an issue for my students is spelling. This is a lacking skill for many of my students. I think the best way for my class to offset this is to first write all the words either by hand or in a Word document to check for spelling mistakes.