What Did You Write??

Did I mention I love to blog?? When it was time for me to teach about this new form of technology I was so excited.  I love to update my blog and share my ideas and students with the world.   So often my students ask me “We want to have a blog.”  So I decided it was time to introduce them to the blogging world.  Blogs allow students to share their ideas, opinions, and personal experiences.  There are several types of blogs including school, personal, and business.  My classroom has a blog that parents check on a regular basis to receive updates and homework assignments and to read our weekly newsletter.  I also upload photos each week so parents are able to see their child’s classroom participation.  Using Blogger.com, my students were able to create their own blog and write about their favorite experiences on our recent field trip or their favorite trip. 

Bart and Collin writing about their favorite trip

Watch the video below to learn how to start a Blog

Students were able to upload photos of their trips and share with their family members by asking them to follow their blogs.   So far, I think this activity was their favorite technology project!!  It was very personal to each one and they took ownership in their entries.  Also, it helped improve their writing and communication skills.  I try to comment on each of my student’s posts to encourage them to continue their writing.

Connor, Seth, and Tyler creating a Blog



William, Whitney, and Beth writing their Blog entries



What Did You Say??

Podcast?  Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? My students certainly have not!!  I decided to introduce this new technology to my students because I knew this type of audio would be used in their future.  Remember our field trip last week?? I thought it would be fun for students to get in groups and do a Podcast on their favorite exhibits.  Students were instructed to listen to other Podcasts online to become more familiar with this technology, create an outline of their Podcasts, and record their Podcasts with other team members. 

Johnny practicing for his Podcast



Sarah and Anna recording their Podcast



My students listening to their audio


Some teams decided to let each member take a turn and share their favorite exhibit and other teams decided to do an interview style Podcast.   Using Audacity, my students were able to record and edit their voices.  The students were really excited and eager to do a good job when the principal agreed to upload some of their Podcasts on our school website!!  I thought this assignment would encourage other educators to do this activity with their students.  I believe Podcasts are very interactive and creating them allowed my students to develop better teamwork skills.  Finally, it was a great opportunity for my students to develop better literacy skills and practice their speaking and listening skills. 

Listen to an audio Podcast:

http://www.podcastkid.com/2011/podcasts/show-23-when-i-grow-up/

Here is an example of a Video Podcast used in a classroom:

What Did You See??

Pioneer Museum of Alabama-Field Trip 2011

Today my 4^th grade students took a trip to the Pioneer Museum of Alabama in Troy.  They were very enthusiastic about using digital cameras since we completed our unit on digital cameras.  Our school is fortunate to be able to furnish each fourth grade class with an automatic sub-compact, point and shoot digital camera.   The students were given a photography assignment and instructed to create a digital photo album and present it to the class through a slideshow with music and text. Students will review their pictures and delete unwanted pictures.  Using Adobe Photoshop, my students will be able to download their selected pictures to edit, crop, and modify. Each student must email me a picture slideshow before presenting it to the class.  I found this assignment remarkable because students could take pictures of life before the invention of electricity and use the latest technology to illustrate what they saw on their trip. 

 

Mark, Catherine, Ethan, and Sam taking turns using the digital camera



Reviewing  and deleting photos

Many of my students had never operated a camera or taken pictures with a digital camera.  This field trip allowed them to become more familiar with digital photography and experience a field trip through a lens! Now I feel that my students have the foundation to develop their digital photography skills and share their digital images via print, email, and the Internet including image sharing sites such as Flickr.   To learn more about the Pioneer Museum of Alabama go to their website at http://www.pioneer-museum.org/.