About Voicethread

This is what I like about Voicethread. It's easy to use, it's fast, and there aren't a lot of buttons that you have to push to make it work. Overall, it is an awesome tool. The best thing, in my opinion, about voicethread is that the student is a storyteller. They are a performer. Let's face it, some of the best stories are the ones that are read aloud to us. Authors can add inflection, funny voices, and other elements that can't be caught just from looking at the page. In my time, I have known some great storytellers and I think that asking your students to assume the role of a storyteller will only add to their excitement about writing. How great would it be to add funny voices and other dramatic elements? In other words....voicethread rocks my socks.

A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama

About Panraven

Alright, so I know that I am behind everyone else. I have been struggling to keep up. I don't have internet at home and finding time to make it to the library to complete assignments has been difficult.
Panraven is a pretty cool program. I especially liked the possibility of publishing stories. This transforms kids INTO writers. Work can be added to a class library and kids can check out each other's books. This could be meaningful to any kid and it encourages them to keep writing. Students who see themselves as authors will continue to write. It's just that simple. I was frustrated with how long it took to upload pictures to the computer. This could be very frustrating in the classroom--a STOPPER if you will. I can only hope that the program will advance as it remains online and 'grows up'. Hopefully this can be something that I could plug into the classroom
Sam

Revised Panraven- A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama

Panraven-A Man A Plan A Canal Panama

Comic Life

I think Comic Life is a pretty snazzy program and tool. The options are limitless for the classroom and I think that it is a tool that every teacher should be well versed in. I myself, have used a program similar to Comic Life for a class of mine. The class required that we write a paper explaining the intervention process that teachers go through with special needs children. Instead of writing a formal paper (which let's face it, is not exciting) I decided to format my explanation in the form of a comic. It was pretty freaking cool. And it made more sense to me
This summer, I plan to use this program in my classroom. Students will be keeping journals (for either creative writing or journal-type writing. At intervals during the summer, students will be given the option to publish their stories and add them to the class libraries. I have many students who LOVE comic books and I can see them really getting into the whole publishing process through this media! I can't wait to try it out!

Flickr Slideshow- A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama

So here is a slide show of my trip to Panama. Did you know that "A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama is a paladrome? This means that the saying spells the same thing forward as it does backwards. It was an amazing trip that rocked my socks!
In a classroom, I could use this tool to have kids share their own personal experiences with the rest of the class. The great thing about this idea is that I'm no longer the teacher. The kids are. They are the experts of their own experiences--just as I am the expert of this trip to Panama. I think that it's important to put the 'ball' in kid's court. They don't always want to listen to you blah blah blah. Many times, they want to teach themselves. Kids like being an expert of something.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Digital Movie:Finished (Finally)

well the digital movie is done. although i can sucessfully say that it was not easy. I'm not sure why, but when I was trying to make my movie, my computer would completely freeze up every couple of frames. I think that this may be because i was trying to cram too much into a really small window of time "urrggh computer no like thinking". I tried to do my project on another computer and it had the same problem....so i worked through it....it was not fun...
however, i think that my project came out fairly well. I am happy with the results. However, I have decided not to post it on my blog for fear of getting my pants sued off by disney.
Overall i think that the movie serves the original purpose I intended it for and I hope that the kids in my drama club will like it a lot.
I hope to have some of my summer camp kids use this program this summer (those poor kids are totally my guniea pigs for everything). I am hoping that they will create some stories in their journals, so then we can turn them into funny movies.

Other than that, life is going well. The sun is shining, spring break was nice, and I had lots of time to relax. life is pretty freaking good.

Alright, well this blog is to document my progress with my movie....or lack there of. I have an issue. I'm a huge perfectionist. Once I know what I want in my mind, I have a huge problem settling for anything less. Therefore... I am painfully trying to create this stupid movie that doesn't want to do what I need it to do.
Anyhoo, here is the idea. I work in an after school program. Once a week, I run a drama club (theater is something that I love). Well many kids get really excited about acting, but few get really interested in working backstage (a place where a lot of fun can occur). SO I am creating (or attempting) to create a movie to get the kids thinking about backstage elements of theater. I ask them to assume the role of costumer, lighting designer, set designer, and choreographer. I ask them to problem solve real issues that these people face with the theater. I chose to equate the problems to Disney's version of the Lion King. For instance, if the said child was a set designer, they would be asked to create a stampede onstage. How would they do it? How would they capture the massivity of the effect that needed to be created. Then I plan to show them how actual set designers solved the problem
I'm sure that I'm making this sound way more complicated than it needs to be. However, this is something that when I'm finished I can use in my drama teachings, both now and later this summer as a theater instructor at my job.

02 Powerpoint as an Instructional Tool: Learning to Learn

During this portion of our class, I was asked to create an instructional slideshow presentation explaining how to use a peripheral. I will admit that at first I was attracted to the drawing tablet. However, upon taking it home, I found that it was really similar to the Paint program that's already installed on my computer (perhaps I didn't really delve deep enough to find the cool stuff). So when I returned to class on Monday, I decided to try something different. I chose the digital microscope.
Alright, for those of you who chose not to use the digital microscope, you should be sorry. It's freaking awesome. During the summer I work with students at a summer camp and I can already see my boys wanting to examine some cool crawly bugs under this thing. What's even better about the microscope is that it is pretty simple to use. I mean I could figure it out, so it can't be THAT complicated.
For my 'teaching lesson' i decided to create an instructional slideshow explaining how to dissect a flower under the microscope. I began with the assumption that students would already know how to plug their microscopes in, open them under applications, and focus their microscopes. From this assumption, I asked the students to dissect different parts of their flowers and take pictures of them. I also asked the students to create a 'Petal Movie' showing the transformation of a petal that is fresh and alive to dead and decaying. The cool thing about this feature is the fact that students will be able to see the progression in fast motion 'ala Planet Earth' style.
Creating the Power Point was not a horrible challenge to me. I worked a lot with the program in middle school and high school and I felt fairly confident around them.
The only downside to the digital microscope is the fact that you need a MAC to run the microscope program. For a PC user like me, this was a real downer. I was able to accomodate myself to create this lesson, and it was kind of cool to try something new on a type of computer that I'm not used to.
Overall, I thought this lesson was pretty cool. It has given me lots of ideas for what to do in my own classroom, and it's something that I look forward to.
Till the next blog
Sam

Blog of My Choice 01

Okay, I know this blog is late....so apologies for that. The Friday I went into a classroom at Effie Kokrine to do my fieldwork. The seventh grade class was learning about airplanes and aviation. The classroom has a SMART board. During the class that I observed, the teacher actually had a flight instructor come in and hook up a flight simulator so the kids could practice flying 'in action'. I thought this went along with what we are doing in class right now---how to use technology tools to teach. The kids all got to try the flight simulator and they learned about all of the dials on the airplane, how to take off, and how to chart a heading. Of course, all of the boys in the class were mainly interested in crashing the plane. Nonetheless, they still walked away with some hands on knowledge that they might not have had without the assistance of technology. Kudos to the teacher!

01 Software Resources

Software Title: Brain Pop
Grade/Age level: 3rd-6th grade
Subject Area(s): Math, Reading, Arts, Science, Social Studies, Technology
Platform: Both Mac and Windows
Purpose: Let's say you're teaching a lesson and you have a couple of kids who finish their assignment before the rest of the class. What's a teacher to do? Don't pile them down with buy work like grading papers. Instead, allow them the opportunity to do independant research about a topic they are interested in. Brain Pop allows kids to research hundreds of different fields under many different topics. Kids can reasearch their interests, take the quiz at the end to test their knowledge. Brain Pop also provides kids room to do experiments (none of them are costly or time consuming). This site can also serve as a great introduction or attention getter at the beginning of a new unit. It will peak kids interests. The characters are funny and exciting to watch. The only downside to this site is that it does require subscription. If you want a taste of the website (to see if it's worth your money) there are a couple of topics that are free to look at.

Software Title: Starfall
Grade/Age level: Primary (K-2nd)
Subject Area(s): Reading
Platform: Both Mac and Windows
Purpose: I first learned about this website through my Literacy for Children class. This is a great website for primary children who are just beginning to understand that 'words have meaning'. The area that I will be focusing on in my presentation is "ABCS". This area discusses the different letters and the different sounds that the letters make. Many ABC websites I found were mainly about asking students to sequence the alphabet. To me, this has no meaning. This website actually teaches the kids that certain letters have certain sounds. It also focuses on the difference between capitol letters and lower case letters. It really hits home the point that even though an "A" and an "a" may look totally different from one another, they actually make the same noise. The website is bright, colorful, and easily accessible for a kid of a young age. Finding a website for kindergarten is no easy feat and I think that this website serves as a great introduction to computers.

Software Title: Comic Creator
Grade/Age level: 1st-6th
Subject Area(s): Writing
Platform: Both Mac and Windows
Purpose: Do you have kids in your class who hate writing? Are you looking for a way to spice up your writing prompts or are you looking for an innovative way to incoprorate a lesson about onomatopoea? If you answered yes, then this is the website for you. The comic creator allows kids the opportunity to express their writing ideas in the form of a comic strip. This website provides students with a comic creator simulator and a comic strip planning sheet. This invites kids to prewrite before they begin. In addition to this, this website provides teachers with lots of lesson plans that teachers can plug into this webpage. Here are some examples:
Book Report Alternative: Examining Story Elements Using Story Map Comic Strips
Buzz! Whiz! Bang! Using Comic Books to Teach Onomatopoeia
Comics in the Classroom as an Introduction to Genre Study
Overall, I think this is an idea that kids can really get excited about. It think it would do wonders for kids who dislike writing and I think that this tool can be used to teach innumerable concepts--not just one.

One to One

The idea of having a one to one program in schools has always had me uneasy. Growing up I was raised on the idea that television and computers will rot your brain. Moving away from such a sentiment has been difficult for me. Certainly, I can see the benefits of using television and computers in the classroom. Both can open the doors for students.
My fear about having computers in the classroom is that they will become overused. It can be very easy for a teacher to rely too heavily on the power of computer. Rather, teachers aren't using them as tools, they are using them as a babysitter or teacher in lieu of themselves. Overuse of computers could have a negative connotation. Students who type on a computer instead of writing things out are not gaining the necessary motor skills that come with writing. Students who perform science experiments through the computer instead of by hand may be robbed of the expereince that comes with tactile learning.
Of course, I can see the allure of computers. I don't think that we shouldn't use computers in the classroom, I just think that they must be viewed as a tool--not a be all end all solution to everything in the classroom. A healthy balance will prove beneficial for all types of students and all types of learners.

Personal Introduction

Hi! My name is Sam Newcombe and I am a senior elementary education student at UAF. I have lived up here in Fairbanks for about seven years. I come from a military family--something that has bred a wonderful love for travel. I have lived everywhere from Washington D.C. to South Korea and have traveled much much more. This winter I had the opportunity to travel to the Panama Canal. It was an amazing place with a fantastically rich culture!
When I'm not in class, I'm ususally working. I work in an afterschool program with twenty two first and second graders. I have over fifteen boys in my classroom and they defidently enjoy keeping me on my toes!
Besides work and school I enjoy biking, cooking, reading, and drawing. I hope that this class will help me to better understand technology and I hope that it will give me useful strategies that I can use in my future classroom.