Turning students into teachers

Class Wikis

The best web tools

http://edudemic.com/2011/11/best-web-tools/

The Evolution of Classroom Technology | Edudemic

The Evolution of Classroom Technology Edudemic

YouTube For Schools: A Safer Way For Students To Learn | Edudemic

YouTube For Schools: A Safer Way For Students To Learn Edudemic

Youtube for schools

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/12/youtube-for-schools/

So useful!
Youtube pops up with so many related but yet unrelated videos links and also have really inappropriate comments.
This youtube EDU sounds good... educational!!! I must check it out!!

Are we wired for Mobile Learning?

Via: Voxy Blog

How to encourage commenting

http://educational-blogging.wikispaces.com/How+To+Teach+Commenting+Skills

Why teachers should blog...

http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2011/07/seven-reasons-teachers-should-blog.html

The important question...

The most important question a teacher can ask a student is not, “Did you do your homework?” It’s not, “Did you study for your test?”
The most important question a teacher can ask a student is, “What are you interested in learning?”

http://stevemiranda.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/the-most-important-question-a-teacher-can-ask-a-student-is/

The Elephant in the room

http://traintheteacher.visibli.com/share/SKgpK1
Interesting read!! I like the concluding statements and think we are on the right path for 2012 at Vardon - having our set action plan will help.

Quad Blogging

http://quadblogging.net/

I've signed my class up for this in 2012!!!

Using Twitter as a PLN

Well, I've been tweeting now for about 5 weeks, ever since I went to a session called "A tweet for a teacher" at Ulearn11.
At the start I wasn't convinced but... I have made a complete 180 degree spin on the whole idea of twitter.

I am using twitter as a PLN (professional learning network). I have already made contact with other schools and teachers.

So far....

• I have signed my class up for quadblogging - links with other blogs around the works with a ficus on quality commentng!


• made my class blog available for commenting and viewing - so far views from 6 countries across the globe!


• comments have been made on my class blog and on Toby's e-journal - Toby actually said "I want people from other countries to make comments?" and now that has happened... can't wait for his to read them tomorrow at school!

I can definitely see the benefit in having a twitter account now!!! Unfortunately twitter is blocked at school?!?

http://ideasfactory.me/using-twitter-the-pln-in-education

Audioboo

Using audioboo ..... can see this being a useful tool in the class.

Also- jing is a great tool to video how to do something. I'm going to put this video on my class blog and see if my class can watch it and follow the instructions.

Private verses public blogging.....

One thing I have thought a lot about lately is making our class blog public. Everyone I talk to has a public blog and the ones you search for on the Internet have so many visitors from all over the world.

I went to a course at Ulearn on "A tweet for a teacher" and now I can say with pride I am on twitter!! Not to tweet what I am watching on t.v or where I am but tweeting as PLN. I have already make connections with a teacher in Auckland who has made a comment on our class blog... they are studying the same topic this term.... there's a huge pro for making blogs public!!!

Other Pros...
an authentic audience, comments from a range of people, making new connections across the globe, making our posts meaningful....
Cons...
???? Are there any???

I know some people think you should not put names next to photos, problems with parents viewing other children's work.... are these real problems? In todays world with facebook, twitter, youtube faces and names are all over the place. Are we being too protective?

I would LOVE to know your thoughts.... make a comment.... a thought-provoking comment :)

What will the future look like then?

Facebook at Vardon???

Have a read of this website and see what you think.... should we set up a facebook page for our school? I'd love to know what you think!

Innovation in action!

Fotobabble

Talking photos....

Can be used for reflection, discussion about photos, recounting experiences....

Audioboo

Yay!! I have now got this to embed and have deleted my other attempts!!!

I needed to click on audioboo labs and click standard player to get the correct embedding code for blogger.

I can see this being used in the classroom for....

• recording stories


• reading fluently


• reflections

It's a quick way to capture student voice and embed to share with an audience!!

Story Telling

• Click to view my story.





• 

My first trial with little birds tale... no voice??? This needs further exploration!

Further exploaration...

A great video to show how and why (which is more imporant) to use little bird tales!!

My second attempt....

Cool Class tools...

http://www.classtools.net/about.php
This website is great!!! On the right hand side are great tools to use... I love the random name generator and the arcade game generator!!!!

Wikis instead of blogs???

http://room10waihibeachschool.wikispaces.com/
I found this really cool class wiki that I'm keen to explore more of.... watch this space!

My thoughts....

With each new ICT tool I find to use it's finding more access to computers to allow my chn time to practise these new skills and then use these newly acquired skills to increase their capability!!!
I am finding I am integrating the skills of publishing with Google docs. I have trialled using the slideshow presentation on google docs (similar to PowerPoint) with my class. I find it just the same as powerpoint but you can add youtube videos and it's great for chn because they can embed it straight away into their blog to share with an audience!

A comment made by another school at the holiday ICT course at Southall was... how do we manage individual e-journals with yr 3-4 chn.... I think we are doing a great job. The main problem is getting the chn on the computer as much as possible with as many relevant learning tasks as possible!

It's about teaching the relevant skills for the future and providing chn with the opportunities to develop these skills.

One part of the ICT survey we completed with Jo Wilson was about knowing if our chn are achieving their goals in ICT. How do we know this? How do we know chn are achieving success in ICT? Is it when they can transfer their ICT knowledge to other learning tasks? Is it when they can teach others?
I'd love to know your thoughts on this!

Reflections so far...

There have been lots of positives and some "interestings" along the way.

There are so many webtools that's it gets a little confusing about which one to use. I have turned this into a positive by looking at the tool and thinking 'Will this increase student capability?" and "How can I use this within my class programme?"

On the go (at the moment)... VOICETHREAD
When I found voicethread and started using it in the classroom I could see the benefits straight away!!!
It captures student voice instantly and then can be uploaded and shared straight away on children's e-portfolios.
It's great for instant reflection and because you can upload a scan of children's work or a photo it provides the visual sample as well.

Here's an example: (from my class blog)




I have also trialled using googledocs to create online powerpoints and documents. The positive from creating online powerpoint is you can upload videos from youtube and you can share/embed your powerpoint onto blogs. Visit room 7's blog to see an example of using a google doc and very shortly I'll have a powerpoint embedded.

I am going to trial using this with my class next term.

I have found that a computer roster works wonders at getting children taking turns at updating their e-portfolio or using IT tools on the computer. I use ICT leaders within the classroom to teach others and support them so that my teaching groups are not interrupted.

As a staff we have discussed teaching children to be reflective about their ICT learning. We do this in written form and orally often in our classroom so it's logical to transfer this knowledge to the digital form. I try to ensure that children regularly reflect on their work and either add a written reflective post or a verbal reflection captured on voicethread. I have began getting chn to make comments on their peers' e-portfolios and respond back to the comments I make. This is working well and chn love reading their comments!!!


Onward and upwards!!!


My goals for term 3:

• keep up the momentum of using voicethread in the class



• get children to upload samples of their writing onto their e-portfolios and then reflect and set new goals

As ICT leader my goals are to:

• continue with sharing and reflecting on ICT at staff meetings (which is working well so we need to keep the momentum!)



• ensure each syndicate is sharing, asking questions and supporting each other with their ICT journey

Ideas to inspire

A great website!!!! There are ideas on how to use different ICT tools. I am currently exploring using voice thread to 'capture student voice' in my class and this gave me some great ideas.
You can also use the ideas on IWB's.
Looking forward to utilising this website to it's full potential!!!
Click the link below...
http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/index.html#1

ICT ideas

http://edte.ch/blog/?page_id=424


http://edte.ch/blog/?p=555

I need to sit down and fully review the above websites. From first glance they looked great!!!

Keep tuned for my summary of these websites!!!

Voice Thread

This didn't embed?!?!?! Why not?????
Here's the link....

http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/voicethread.htm

http://edte.ch/blog/category/voicethread/ Another great link to ideas on using voice thread!!

Voice thread trial

My second attempt at using voice thread.
I purchased a microphone for my class computer and am excited about chn creating their own avatars (do you like mine) and recording their voice!!!!

I'll share with everyone once I'm a confident voice thread user!!!

Blogging support!!!

http://bling4yrblog.blogspot.com/

I found this great website with helpful tips on how to blog!! I'm going to sit done and have a good read through and see what helpful tips I can use for my class blog!!!

Voice thread

My trial with voice thread... I need a mic so my voice it louder!
I am going to set this up on my class computer and get chn to record... therefore capturing their "voice"!!

Numeracy website

http://www.teachertools.co.nz/lessons-more/

Writing session with Pukete

I really enjoyed spending time at another school, with another team of teachers to discuss writing!!

I found out that we are both on the right track with thanks to the National Standards and the levels. The team I was with decided to place the sample of chn's writing that both schools had into groups; below, at and above. This was great because we could compare our school with their school and we actually found out we agreed with these samples.
We began talking about levels and as I am reflecting right now I know (I think I did already) that we (teachers at Vardon) are quite knowledgeable about the levels and what skills each level requires for chn to achieve at each level. We can thank our wonderful PD with Anne Grady last year. It was really drilled into us that you need to have a purpose for writing and it needs to be linked with the term's big idea.
We discussed this and found that we are doing this differently and in my opinion quite well. Our big idea in our team this term is "Strength". We are looking at bridges, our new school logo, Hotumaeua and the history of our Waikato River. We therefore write on topics linked to this big idea. There is then a purpose for writing.
We also discussed writing in pen verses pencil and this is something that my team and I are going to look into. We like the idea of chn writing in pen because they then do not rub continuously out their mistakes and sharpen their pencils!!!
We shared our idea of planning/brainstorming in notebooks. This is going really well in all our middle syn classses. We find that ALL chn are motivated to write and it doesn't matter what level the child is working at they all have a go at writing words, sharing and "hitch-hiking" other ideas. The next step for us is to think about how we can encourage chn to use their plan effectively to write!

Where to from here?

• Liz (from Pukete) would like me to e-mail her ideas from our team on how we provide language experiences for our chn and how we link our big idea


• As a team we discussed mtg with the Yr 2/3 and Yr 4/5 team at Pukete in a couple of weeks. We would live to invite them to our school and discuss our writing levels at a deeper level and what they mean, how we link our big idea to writing and motivating chn to write.


• Trialing using pen instead of pencil


• explore how we can get chn to effectively use their brainstorm/plan to write

Maths blogs

I am finding ways to extend 2 very capable mathematicians?!? We have grouped the 2 boys together (one is from room 10) and the other from my class.

In the past I have trialed making a blog for each of my maths groups so I decided to do the same for these 2 boys.

So...I have created a blog just for them :)

I met with these boys today (my student teacher is on full control so I am able to work one-on-one with them). They added their maths blog to the e-portfolios and thought it was very cool to have their own blog.

They are working on decimals at the moment - place value, ordering, skip counting in tenths and hundredths and adding and subtracting decimals. So I added some website for them to practice and asked them to post a reflection on their individual portfolios.

I will also add samples of work, or they will, and add on-going reflections from both the chn and myself.

Any other ideas on how to extend these 2 able mathematicians?

Here is the beginning of their e-portfolio:

http://ovalsgroup.blogspot.com/2011/06/maths.html

Websites

http://photopeach.com/
Here you can put your photos together and choose the music! Just like our video editing on our flip videos but better?? because you can use saved photos form your computer plus your own music!

http://www.fotobabble.com/
You can add voices to photos on this website.

http://www.imagechef.com/ic/word_mosaic/
You can make mosaics from words.

http://www.dogonews.com/
A news page for chn. You need to sign in. You can then create news pages for your class. It could be used for reading groups. You can even write questions.
I have heard this site is wonderful but I haven't given it a true look at yet... it's on my to do list :)

I found this AMAZING website for creating photo albums/slideshows etc...

http://www.picturetrail.com/

I tested it out with photos of my "boyz". What do you think??? There are so many other cool album options!

Making your blog private

I had a question from Robyn a while ago... she mentioned that on blogger she could scroll the "next blog" and a random blog would show.

She then asked me... "Could my blog show up here?"

I have now remembered that you can make your blog private by going to settings and changing the 2 questions below to NO.

Doubles song!!!

I found this great song for teaching chn the doubles to 20!!!

If you want to post it on your class blog.... watch it and embed the code (copy and paste into a new post). Remember when you paste you need to click edit html first them compose.

What IT skills do children need for the future?

What are other schools doing?

http://nzedublogs.wikispaces.com/NZ+classroom+student+blogs

This is a great website to view what other schools are doing with digital portfolios!

Check them out (there's quite a lot!!) and I'd love to know what you enjoyed and might try with your class.

Staff Meeting

At our teacher meeting this week we all created our own teacher e-portfolio. We discussed the purpose of having teacher e-portfolios and recorded our thinking on a wallwisher wall on our main staff blog. We came to a shared understanding of this purpose.

All teachers now know how to create their own wall using the wallwisher website and to embed the code onto their blog. I can't wait to go on each wall and post a sticky note!!
Some very excited teachers even created a second wall and posted it onto their classroom blog for their class to add to.

I look forward to viewing and making comments on teachers e-portfolios!