Student Learning

Our district using a software program called DMAC solutions to look at testing data. We are able to look at assessments objective by objective and it is easy to target specific areas. We can run all types of reports with the software. Our TAKS data is automatically entered and our district enters data for our district math benchmark. Teachers can enter whichever testing data they would like to run reports on.

Our newest assessment tool is called MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) testing. This testing helps you individualize instruction and analyze programs being used. Our second grade team piloted this program last year and third grade is going to be participating in MAP testing this coming school year. For third grade, we are going to have MAP testing at the beginning of the year and in the middle of the year. The testing is done on the computer and you can choose which areas you would like to assess. We are going to be doing math and reading. The reports generated from MAP will show you where your students are performing. We can use this information to form tutoring groups, small group instruction, enrichment groups, etc.

Second grade really liked this testing last year and they (as well as third grade) is going to be taking the testing to the next level. We really want to analyze the information to better teach the students and individualize their instruction. We think this will really improve learning for our students.

For more information on MAP testing, click here.

Other basic assessment tools include STAR testing which shows reading levels and Accelerated Reader. Third grade doesn't do much with AR testing, but some teachers do run reports with it. I like to send home STAR reports to my students' parents so they can see grade level equivalents for their reading. I don't place a whole lot of emphasis on these reports, but I think it is a good guide for them to know what types of books they should help their children pick out. I think it is a good starting place for kids to pick out books themselves, but I also want them to know whether or not a book is hard/too hard.

School/District Improvements

The big push in our district and school is global communication and learning. We have hired a global communications coordinator to facilitate this. Our goal is to establish connections throughout the world for our students to collaborate with. Our district is spending a lot of money training teachers on how to create global learning communities in the classroom. I just got back from BLC (Building Leadership Communities) in Boston with Alan November with a group of teachers from my district. We are going to take the information we learned and share it with our campus.

This is still in the works, but our appraisal system is about to change. We are going to start having online studies/groups to talk about what we are doing in our classroom. Teachers will keep track of what they are doing/learning to move forward in the 21st century. Because our district is so small, it is easy for our design teams to collect data from teachers to discuss how to move forward. We have a CLC (Campus Leadership Council) that meets throughout the school year to discuss plans for the campus. I actually sit on this council and help discuss improvements. Technology is the biggest push at our campus. We measure this growth through feedback from students, teachers, parents, and administrators. Our principal is always asking for feedback and ideas on how to move forward.

As a district, we are also moving toward assessment for learning/formative assessment. I went to a workshop with our design team on how to establish this in our building. I think this is a work in progress and something that you have to take baby steps toward. Many teachers are resistant to change and want to do the same old thing. As a design time, we are going to teach strategies that we can integrate in the classroom for formative assessment. We will measure our growth with feedback.

In my classroom, my goal is to continue having more formative assessment. I think it is so beneficial to my students. I definitely see great results from immediate and descriptive feedback.

Writing for REAL!

Writing for REAL!

Writing is an act of creation, communication, and expression.

We make writing real by letting students know they have a voice and their words are valuable…they don’t have to be published….their voice matters.

Imagine only – paints a picture for your mission…add a visual.

It’s the rallying of others around your message that will get the attention from others. You need readers to stop and pay attention.

Message and meaning should lead before spelling and grammar!

*Donald Graves on writing – what do you write about? You write about the first thing that comes to your mind. You write in front of the kids. Then the class becomes a class of writers. After that you share your writing. I AM A WRITER!

Have a journal wherever you go…take pictures and write about…notes on life. Things you notice, moments of clarity.

Writing Territories:

Put it on the wall! A list of Who? What? Why? Post all the formats of writing!

In collecting your writing territories, consider?

What I wonder?Think of Wonder – make a wonder box or wonder bag. Writers are anthropologists…they study life.

Who I am as a writer –

· I SEE my goals

· I know WHO I’m writing to

· I’ve defined the HEART of my message

· My ACTIONS support why it’s important

· I TAKE my reader to new places

Making Writing REAL:

· Would a real writer do this?

· Take pictures of what writers look like and what they do

· What is their reasoning for writing?

Capture some Writers!!!

Rules of Writing:

1. Writers write what they know about, care about, and wonder about

Heart Mapping – map out what you are diligently willing to explore thinking and writing about. Walking kids step by step to design a writing map.

http://kc3rd.pbworks.com/f/WriteFromtheHeart.pdf

http://www2.scholastic.com/content/collateral_resources/pdf/h/HPLesson1_Final.pdf

2. Writers learn from other writers! Find authors on Skype! Figure out who inspires them!

http://www.helenlester.com/

http://www.gailgibbons.com/

The best writers are the best readers. Kids must see the link and think insightfully about who the writer is. WRITER TO WRITER: What writers inspire you and what does it make you think about?

“Make Writing a Habit” – Stephen King

3. Writers learn from READERS!!!

Connect & Complete

Cluster Map - http://www.clustrmaps.com/ - see where your readers are coming from!

What do Writers Need?

· TIME – you can’t get good at anything if you don’t have time – long blocks of time! You cannot force a writer to get over the blank page.

· AUDIENCE – it has to be more than you…it can be GLOBAL! Every moment they need to see another writer is going to give me feedback.

Big Universe – http://www.biguniverse.com/?gclid=CLCw0Lqo66ICFRBx5QodHTnygA

Real Writer - http://realewriter.com/

National Gallery of Writing - http://galleryofwriting.org/

Publishing Books - https://www.lulu.com

~Speaking is a form of communication! Podcasting!!!

http://mps.wes.schoolfusion.us/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=115312

· YOU – they need YOU! They need the privilege of what it means to be a good writer!!! They need you to model!

Current Assessment Practices

Our district is taking on a different approach to assessment. It's new for us, but not a new idea/concept. We are focusing on assessment of an for learning...some people consider this formative assessment. It is hard to transition out of the usual 100 point scale, but that's the direction we are heading. My grade adopted a 3-2-1 grading scale in 2008 and it was quite a shocker at first, but now that I've gotten used to it, I like it. There is not an emphasis on the grade, it's a focus on the learning...which is what I think is best for my students.

We don't do a lot of standard testing. We do lots of informal assessments. This might be through math/writing/reading journals, a quick five questions, or sometimes we use the Activevotes. I to usually give a test at the end of each math unit that comes from EnVision Math. I like informal assessment because the feedback is quick and meaningful to them. I feel like I can be more specific with the feedback especially if I'm working one-one-one. Our district gives one math benchmark in January and any other benchmark is up to the teacher/grade level to give. We usually do a reading and math on our own each semester. This test is usually an old TAKS test. The district math benchmark is graded electronically and we get the breakdowns of the test which is nice. We can then focus on the objectives that are weak as well as pinpoint students who need the extra help.

I do use portfolios in my classroom. We keep a writing and math portfolio and this past year I started an electronic portfolio which was really cool. We integrate technology in just about everything we do, so my kids had awesome portfolios at the end of the school year. The each get their own storage drive, but it's wiped at the end of each year. Most of my kids brought flash drives/discs to store their work....they certainly didn't want to lose it! I love portfolios because I think it helps you measure growth and it provides various samples of work instead of just one grade.

I do a lot of projects in my class. I think they are fun and engaging for the students and I think they can promote higher level thinking if done correctly. We usually do some sort of performance assessment in each math unit. Last year the favorite was the GeoNews movie that they created for the multi-media class....they were so proud! I also like to incorporate technology projects with novel studies. I like to get them thinking through the literature and then the technology makes it exciting!ki

As far as technology and assessment goes, I use Excel to keep my grade book. It's shocking that with all the advanced levels of technology my district has, we don't have an electronic grade book in the elementary schools. It's up to the teacher to determine how they want to keep grades...and yes, most use the old-school paper grade book. I mentioned earlier that we use the Activevotes quite frequently. Those are the electronic clickers that work with the Promethean (Smart) board. My kids love them! We also have Activeexpressions which allow you to write/text. I haven't used them yet, but I'm going to next year. Our school also purchased a class set of Nintendo DS's. THESE ARE AWESOME for quick checks. The kids basically use them as chatrooms to answer specific questions that I give them. You can have multiplication tests, spelling tests, the sky is the limit! We love the DS's!!!! I also use Moodle which is similar to Blackboard to give assessments. This also gives immediate feedback to the students. The quizzes are a bit of a trick to make, so I don't do it all that frequently.

I follow the technology TEKS and we dig pretty deep into them. I was amazed by everything they learned in the technology world last year!!!

Assessment goals that I have:

(1) I would like to continue to add more and more quick feedback

(2) I would like for my building to use more formative assessment

(3) I would like for my building to use more technology to assess

Multimedia Project

I finished my multimedia project and I'm really excited about it. I tweeked the assignment a bit and did not focus on 1 lesson. Instead, I focused on a geometry unit. I created activities, posted videos, websites, and forums for my kids to learn/discuss geometry in the real world. I decided to do this on Moodle because my district uses this LMS. It makes it very easy for my kids to login from home and they are comfortable using Moodle. I wanted to create something that my students will actually use.

I started off using Soft Chalk and I will say that there are more activities available on Soft Chalk. I really liked the activities and was excited about using them. I decided to use Moodle and then link to Soft Chalk for the activities. Unfortunately I have had a really tough time trying to figure out how to publish my work to the web. I downloaded a free account, so perhaps I don't have that type of access. I watched a lot of the videos to learn how to use it, but I'm still a little confused. I hope to be able to figure it out because I think the activities would be highly beneficial and fun for my kids.

On my Moodle page I have forums that discuss what geometry is and where you would see it in the "real world". I also uploaded our class GeoNews video for future students to refer to. There is a youtube section where I link really fun/educational videos for my kids to watch. My current students have really enjoyed this. I also have a video section for educational videos from Discovery. Each video is followed up by a forum with questions and discussion items that the kids will participate in. There is an Assessment section and I have included a summative assessment as well as choices for 3 different performance assessments. My current students have also enjoyed the website section. There are great websites about geometry that are quite engaging.

I am really excited about sharing this with my team because I think we will use it in the future. My goal is to create a page like this for every math unit we discuss.

For those of you who haven't used Moodle, it's awesome. It's a great way to get your kids to collaborate and participate. My students have really loved it this year and I think I will use it even more next year.

The Stiletto Heel

This is a fun example on how you can use Voicethread. My students are going to use it for their book report. We are doing nonfiction books. I picked the topic of the stiletto heel and made a voicethread.

Digital Data

Storing digital data and keeping it protected is very important. I remember my first year at my current school, I wasn't storing my files properly. I saved them on my computer and sadly when my computer was re-imaged, all of those files were gone. I was SO sad, but I used that as a learning experience and then set down with our CIT and learned how to properly store data...and back it up!

Our server is set up, so there are different drives. Each faculty member can save to their "H" drive, which is a personal storage space, no one else (except tech administrators and CIT's) can access my H drive. There is also the "R" folder or student public drive where I can save documents/files in my "McCoy" folder for my students or whoever else to access. I store anything for my students to access here...pictures, videos, documents, etc. The public drive is for faculty members to access. For example, if my team created a great lesson that we wanted to share, we would save it here for others to see. Each of my students also have an "H" drive where they can save their personal data. This is where all of their projects are stored. I can access this from the "W" folder (I know...very confusing...it just takes practice). The "X" drive is for video/movie downloads and anyone can access them. Each school has a folder and each faculty member has a folder, but you can access anyone's folder. The "K" drive is set up the same way and that's where you save your flipcharts for the Promethean board. This may sound a bit overwhelming, but once you get the hang of it, it's quite simple. For safety measures, I back up my files on disks at the end of the year. I just got an external hard drive for my new computer, so I will probably back up on this as well.

I asked our CIT about how we digitally store our data:

HPISD uses a Redundant SAN(storage area network) for storage and protection of digital data. It is mirrored to a second SAN for disaster recovery. Brief answer, but that's the explanation.

Our e-mail is also backed up for 7 years for every user in the district.

I think our district does a nice job of keeping our data organized and safe.

Video in the Classroom

I made a video with my kids and we loved it! It was quite a learning experience and I think next time we make a movie, it will be SO much better.

Classroom management was the biggest issue for me. I spoke with our CIT and she would like to help me next time. I would take a group out in the hallway to film, and some of my kids practicing would get off task. I think the more structured you make the project, the better. I also had my kids write their own script...which was great and SO creative, but I think next time I may get them started. It took them a while to grasp that this was supposed to be educational and not just "fun". Once, they got serious, they were fabulous. I gave them a rubric and we discussed the expectations of the project. They were to show everything they had learned during our geometry unit.

One thing I learned from shooting the video, was allowing for some margin around their heads. When I went to edit, one scene had their heads cut off!!! I spoke with our CIT and she said that you have to allow a little room for editing. When I filmed, their heads were totally in the picture, so this was a learning experience. I would have re-shot the clip, but I had already sent their costumes home when I realized it.

I will definitely do a video with my kids again. We are currently working on obj. 6 "Theatre Math" and they are performing skits about their math problems...so fun! Video is a great way to assess the material you have covered in class.

Here is a great video about video in the classroom:

Future Classroom

Every year I add more technology in our every day routines of learning. I become more and more reliant on technology and I'm always so amazed by what my students are learning. They can pick it up so quickly...it's unbelievable. Ideally, I wish each of my students had a computer in our room. We have a COW that rotates around my grade level, but it ends up being an ordeal to pass out the laptops, roll down the cart, etc. I do it, and it's highly beneficial, but I wish there was an easier way. Currently, I have 4 desktops for my students and I have set up two of the laptops permanently. I want every one of my students to have access to a computer at all times. I

I want my students to collaborate more with students in other classrooms. I think it is important for the future of our children to know how to have empathy and relate to other people. As we are becoming more and more global, we need to know how to communicate...globally. Here is a great podcast about having online community:

http://www.novemberlearning.com/podcasts/Resnick2010Part2Final.mp3

My goal is for my students to feel so competent with technology that they don't need me to tellPublish Post them what to do. I love it when my students can just log on and know their task. Obviously that takes time to teach, but I love that end result! There are so many amazing web 2.0 tools out there and I'm so excited to see what's to come. This is a really cool video showing the emergence of digital text and the future of web 2.0....I really liked it.

I think the classroom of the future will be filled with video, online research, interaction with the web, collaboration, and lots of creativity and engagement. This is a different generation we are teaching and they learn differently...the classroom needs to look different too.

Here's a fun video:

I also see IPads instead of text books!

I'm excited about my future classroom.

Cyber Safety

We truly are living in different times. I think back to my computer lab in elementary school and we had never even heard of the Internet, much less blogging, social networking, and youtube. I think parents can do 1 of 2 things. They can either shelter their children and not allow them to participate in these computer activities, or they can equip them with the tools they need to be cyber smart and ready to enter the world wide web.

The Internet is such an incredible tool and our society is becoming more and more dependent on it. As a teacher, I love nothing more than to see my students researching online, finding and working on engaging websites, blog at home to work on class assignments, etc. That being said, I feel confident that my students are educated on Internet safety. My students have watched web safety videos and we have a great filtering system at school. One problem we have faced in the classroom is with google images. Inappropriate pictures can pop up when a child is innocently looking for a school-related picture. My students have learned to cover the screen and report it to me. It is a reality and it's not going away, so I want my students to handle it appropriately.

I loved the cyber ethics for kids website and I plan on sharing it with my students and parents. I think the FBI also has a good site for kids http://www.fbi.gov/kids/k5th/safety2.htm. I really liked this site, it is from cyber criminals most wanted. http://www.ccmostwanted.com/kids/interactive.htm There are some great interactive sites for students to explore on. This would be great to show your students.

This is a good youtube video on looking out for predators online.

This is a another good youtube video for teachers and students. It talks about giving too much information online and what you should do to do the right thing.

My Kids Are Finally Blogging!

I have been wanting to take this leap for months now, but I've been trying to overcome the hurddles of parents who are concerned about their children blogging. Our district now has access to a Mac OS server that allows students to have a blog. It's highly protected, so hopefully parents won't be concerned. They created their own blog pages today and we uploaded a video from their Biography Day. My kids loved the way they could personalize their pages. I think this is a great way for them to write reflections about concepts we are learning as well as reflections on how they are learning, what they like about school, etc. I have been using Moodle with my kids, which is great, but I like the way a blog is more personalized for them. I think they can pour their personalities into them. Angie Cheatham also told me about a great site for those teachers who don't have access to their own blog for studenst. www.kidblog.org It's free and very easy to use. Get your kids blogging if you haven't already done so!!!

Royalty Free Music

When I made my video, I used some music from my itunes account because it was so fitting for my two cute actresses. I did explore some free royalty free music and I think it's good to know that it's out there. I found this site helpful http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/free-music-resources.html


Royalty Free Music.com offers a comprehensive music library of production music for your various royalty free music needs including full albums, tracks and free music clips, loops, and beats available for download.

Sounzabound was also a good site.
http://www.soundzabound.com/

I think royalty free music is very useful for the classroom. As I learn more and more about video production, I want my kids to know how to add music to enhance the video.

Videos

This was my favorite assignment so far. I used IMovie and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! I did the video shots with my Flip camera and the clips were saved as media clips and they would not work in Movie Maker. I used the Flip software to make movie clips for each one and then was able to use them in IMovie. IMovie also has great tutorials that are easy to access while you are making your video. I'm so bad about trying to figure things out on my own, so I finally gave in and watched them....they were very helpful.

I highly recommend IMovie it is very user friendly and there are so many cool options. I had the old version of IMovie and I went ahead and upgraded to the IWork 09 for my next movie. I plan to use this software for vacations, classroom activities, etc. I loved it.

For the next video, I think I will try and borrow an actual video camera. My Flip was fine, but some of the shots at a distance were a little fuzzy. I also will use a tripod next time. My hand wasn't so steady. A couple of my shots (the tilt especially) were filmed too quickly. I will take multiple shots next time so that I have choices when I'm editing the video.

Another problem I had was compressing my video. The original video was over 95 MB and when I compressed it to upload to MediaFire, it was still 91 MB. I think next time I will need to compress the movie files before I edit the video. I'm still trying to figure out the whole "compressing" thing. If anyone has any tips, I would love them!

GeoTech 2010

I really enjoyed the GeoTech conference today...especially the afternoon session. It was neat to interact from teachers all over. There were even people from Wyoming and Rhode Island! I was very impressed with the technology presented and I was also impressed with Bishop Dunne. The quality of work displayed throughout the hallways was amazing. I went to 2 different sessions. The first was an intro to GIS and the second was about using technology to enhance reading and writing.

GIS
What is GIS? It stands for Geographical Information Systems – which are map layers with data attached. We can ask the map/data questions to better understand georgraphy…like transparencies.

Why bother? We need to understand patterns. GIS gives you an opportunity to teach analysi, solve problems and make decisions. In the professional environment this software is designed to make city decisions and landscaping decisions. You are looking for patterns & trends.

GIS tools: GPS (data collection device), Geocaching & Earthcaching – world community of people who are putting out there….you can try and find them,

GIS software tools:
• Online mapping – all you need is a web browser
• Virtual globes – free software

• Google Earth
• ArcGIS Explore (AGX)

Online mapping: http://www.nationalatlas.gov/
You can download GIS files/map-maker

Collections of 14 lessons for GIS - http://www.blogger.com/www.isat.jmu.edu/stem

Desktop GIS:
ARCEXPLORER Java – free tool…desktop GIS – you don’t need an internet conncetion.
My World GIS – desktop GIS

The presenters made a really good point. If you are going to start using GIS….START FREE! Try the free stuff first before you start purchasing things.

Run With Scissors in the Literacy Classroom

Building a culture of readers and writers requires that students become engaged in the writer’s work. This uses technology as their hook for engagement in reading & writing.

Must See Youtube Videos –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZTVX21jPtc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecFizWZgIiA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZfRaWAtBVg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2p5augniQA - These kids go to a low SES school in NY and Stevie Nicks saw this video and showed her manager. These kids got to perform with her in Madison Square Garden and then were invited to fly to a couple of other performances...what an opportunity for them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnQLnWhzmPE - OK now I want one! :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk

2 Recommended Reads:
• Steven Johnson – Everything Bad is Good for You! You can analyze complex social networks! The skills aren’t tested by the current school system.

• Daniel Pink – A Whole New Mind Why Right Brainers Will Rule the World – today we live in a left brained society. Anything that involved with left brained thinking can be outsourced, if our kids are going to be prepared, we need to learn how to use both hemisphere’s effectively.

*If you need an e-mail address for your kids - Create a gmail account
melinda.mccoy+whateveryouwantitisignored@gmail.com

Technology tools that will help engage your students and make you cooler:

www.wordpress.com – helps you create your own blog-export-and carry with you on a flashdrive. Your students can have a portfolio of their whole k12 experience and then they are given a flashdrive of their own portfolio.

***Google Wave – Email 2.0 – it is in BETA it’s being developed now. You must have an invitation to use it. The first program to use HTML 5 – a new language for the web. This is a combination of blog/email/search/INSTANT instant feedback

Create your own WIKI - www.wikispaces.com

Create words/poems/language - www.smilebox.com

I am looking forward to checking out some of these tools. I received an invitation for gmail wave, so I can't wait to learn more.

Teacher Tube

What a great site this is! I am going to use this when planning for math lessons. I love incorporating videos in my classroom and in the past I have used United Streaming and/or You Tube. This site will be great because I can look specifically for certain subject/content area. I looked for videos on multiplication and I found many videos that I could show my student. I have seen this one before, but it cracks me up every time. I have never shown this one to my students, but I think this would be a funny video to show when learning multiplication and division. It is similar to the Ma & Pa Kettle video that many of you have probably seen.

Audio in the Classroom

I remember when I first heard about a podcast in the classroom. It was a couple of years ago and I had an ipod and I couldn't imagine creating something that I could actually listen to on my ipod. The thought actually overwhelmed me and I tucked that thought away as something I would deal with later. Once I actually played around with audacity and realized how easy it is to record and create, I realized how greatly audio can impact teaching.

Podcasting is exciting to my kids. If I tell them that they are going to take a piece of their writing a make a podcasting of it, they think it's the coolest thing ever! It is such an easy way to give some novelty to a writing assignment and my kids will take ownership of it. I think that using audio can enhance their reading as well. In third grade, we are trying to build fluency. I love for my kids to listen to good reading and I also like for them to listen to themselves read.

I think audio is even more beneficial when it has a video component. With software like Jing and Camtasia, students can create tutorials, make demonstrations, ask questions and so much more. My students love to make a Jing of a particular math concept instead of doing a math worksheet. I usually give them the option. They will spend an hour making a great Jing video instead of doing a boring worksheet that would have probably taken them 5-10 minutes. I think showing me their thinking is more beneficial and they have more fun.

I have also talked about Voicethread. This is a great use of both audio, text and graphics. If you haven't tried it with your students, you should check it out (www.voicethread.com). This is an easy way to make any lesson more engaging for your students. It allows them to be creative and expressive as well as to collaborate with others...which is key for 21st century learners.

I wish I had been a student in the 21st century...it's so much cooler.

Animation

Wow...this week was a challenge, but I can honestly say that I enjoyed the learning process (as frustrating as it was). Yes, I think animations are a fantastic way to engage students in their learning. I think students could benefit from watching animations as well as creating their own animations.

I chose to use an animation software called Alice. I had never used it before, but they offered some good tutorials. I spent a lot of time playing around on Alice. One of the things that frustrated me was the limitation to objects you could add. Originally, I wanted to stick with a planet theme, but the space objects were limited to 3 objects...none of which were planets. I decided to use the sea objects instead. At first I tried using an ocean floor background, but the layers were extremely difficult. Objects would hide between layers and I couldn't find them. I gave up on that as I could not get my shark to show up and I stuck with the basic template. After creating it, I realized there were some good sky backgrounds that are user friendly.

To me the most frustrating thing about Alice was the saving/exporting option. I wish there had been a tutorial on exporting the video. You have to install 3 Java applets. I wouldn't have figured this out on my own....I'm not that tech savvy. Once you install those, it's pretty easy to export.

I haven't use the software, Scratch, but I've heard great things. It ws develped by some MIT students. Our CIT (Campus Instructional Technologist) really likes this animation software.

http://scratch.mit.edu/

Another site I've recently learned about is Kerpoof. This is geared towards children. They can even earn points every time they create a story, picture, drawing, etc. They can use their points to by new tools for their creations. I am letting my kids create their own accounts with a fake e-mail. If they have their own e-mail they can use it. They are all very excited about this!

http://www.kerpoof.com/

I am glad I have learned more about animations.

Exporting Your Video on Alice

This was really hard for me, but I finally did it! I hope this video will help you when exporting. Make sure you download those 3 Java applets. Let me know if you have any questions.

Wikis

I enjoyed reading Richardson's Wiki chapter. Over the last couple of years I have felt like Wikis are a HUGE no-no in the classroom. I have to admit that I look at Wikipedia frequently when I need a quick answer to a question. For example, my students are ALWAYS asking me questions and often I do not know the answer. I can quickly go to Wikipedia and find a good response...and my kids think I'm a genious!

I liked what Richardson said about allowing students to use Wikipedia. I feel better about it after he mentioned how credible it typically is. If major journals and media allows it, why can't we. If we are living in the digital age, isn't time that we do things differently than we did before?

It has also been pointed out to me that at the bottom of a Wikipedia page there are references. This is a great tool itself as students can click on these links to other information that might be helpful in research.

Last year a teacher at my campus created wikis with her students. She teaches 4th grade so they were studying Texas History. Her class worked in groups as the did a "bike tour" across Texas. The information they found was entered into a wiki created by the students. This was a highly engaging activity for her students.

I have always been so curious about wikis and I am certainly interested in having my students create them. I am not sure how to do it, but I'm excited to learn more about it. I would love to hear from people who have created wikis with their students, so I will put the question out there. Has anyone created a wiki with their students?

In the meantime, I am not going to shy away from letting my students use Wikipedia. I don't think it should be the only site they research, but it is certainly worthy of a look.

Evaluating Internet Research

As more and more information is becoming available on the Internet we need to be careful of what we read and how we find our information. Most importantly, we need to be critics and have the skills to identify good sites and good information. As educators, it is crucial that we teach our children how to evaluate the Internet.

I really like Robert Harris's analogy of closing your eyes and choosing a magazine at the grocery store. I have never taken a step back to truly think about all of the information that is out there or all of the people who are putting information out there. I think Harris also gave to great checklists that would be easy for our children to remember:

1. The CARS checklist

• Credibility - who is the author?
• Accuracy - is the information correct?
• Reasonableness - is the information reasonable? What is the tone?
• Support - are the sources sited?

2. The CAFE' Advice

• Challenge - challenge the information and demand accountability
• Adapt - adapt your skepticism and requirements for the quality to fit the importance
• File - file the new information in your mind
• Evaluate - evaluate and re-evaluate regularly as new information will affect the accuracy

I also like the toolbox that Smith mentioned. It basically listed the same steps for evaluation as Harris, but in more detail. Since children are becoming more and more dependent on the Internet, we have to teach them to become web literate. We have to teach them the basics of critical thinking and how to search for good information.

In Alan November's book, Web Literacy For Educators, he teachers how to narrow your search. When using google, after your search you can narrow it by typing site: ".ac" ".uk" what I just asked for was a search that is limited to an academic institution in the United Kingdom. We can use and extension guide as well as country codes to focus on where our information is coming from. We can also find the history of a site by using the Wayback machine. I have tried this and it is truly fascinating. November tells about a site, www.martinlutherking.org, that looks like a great site for students to research Martin Luther King. However, if you look at the history of the site, the owners of the site, and assess the information of the site, you will realize that this site is owned and maintained by a white supremacy group called Stormfront, Inc. Students can use easyWhois (www.easywhois.com) and determine who an organization actually is. You can also use back links to see who is linked into a site. These are like digital threads that come from other sites. You can then determine why groups or individuals have linked into a certain site. Another good example (and a funny one too) is to have your students analyze a link by having them go to zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/ which is a site for Saving the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. They can quickly realize this is completely unreasonable and they can look at the links and see that there are no links from trustworthy sources that prove the tree octopus actually exists.

I also was intrigued by the site http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/eval.html?step=0 for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I think this would be a good activity for students to investigate different sites and evaluate them.

The Atomic Learning tutorials also showed some great search information. Children need to know how to search by using search engines, meta search, and subject directories. I want my students to know that best sites to search and how to use them. I have used Nettrekker as a subject directory, but there are other good sources out there. I have never used dogpile, but it's good to understand what a meta search engine is. One problem my students often has is an overwhelming number of results when they search. Knowing how to use advanced search options in Google is a great tool for them. I think it's also important to understand how a search engine works and how it searches as a database. I had never heard of the term "Invisible Web" or "Deep Web" so it's also good to know that search engines will not always find content that is hidden deeply. deepdyve.com is a good tool for finding this type of content.

The advanced tutorials provided more sophisticated tools to searching the Internet. A good model is provided from 21cif.com/resources/difcore/index.html. This model follows this guide: What am I looking for? Where to find it. How will I get it? How good is the information? How will I ethically use the information? One important tool to understand in searching is turning your question that you are searching into a search query. You need to be able to identify the "big ideas" of what you are really searching for. Leave out the unnecessary words or "stock" words. Using the Advanced Search option in Google is a good tool for this. The Internet Search Challenge would be a great activity to use with students in teaching about searching the Internet and evaluating sites.

We need to teach our children to be empowered researchers. They spend so much time on the Internet without supervision so they need to be the critic.

Tech Integration Projects Atomic Learning

I found 2 really good tech integration projects.

The first project was a language arts project using Comic Life. I've never used Comic Life before, so I'm unfamiliar with the software. I watched 2 different lessons on Comic Life and I think you could easily use it with language arts. They showed color books in which they made comic books showing pictures of different colors. I was thinking you could do a great adjective lesson and have an adjective on each page with pictures showing that adjective. This software allows you to export it to the internet where it can be displayed.

The second project I looked at was a math project using Excel. It comes from the book, "How Big is a Foot?". It's funny because I just read this book to my students yesterday. This is a book about measurement. The teacher would make a cut-out of herself/himself and the students would use their feet to make measurements in order to create a bed for the teacher. The students would record their measurements in Excel and see how inaccurate the measurements would be because their feet are all different sizes. They would then use actual measrements and input that data into Excel. Very cute lesson.

Jing-Screen Shot

I mentioned "Ning" in one of my previous posts. Ning is a great networking tool that you could use with your class or with other colleagues. I used Jing to show you a screen shot of the site. It's very user friendly.

Posting a Jing Video To Your Blog

Here is a video to show you how to post a jing video on your blog. Let me know if you have any questions.

Jing....in the classroom

Here is an example of how to use Jing in your classroom.

Jing: What is a Voicethread?

Below is a Jing on Voicethread. It's super cool and FREE!

New Technology...Check These Out...They're Free!

It is truly amazing to see all of the new technologies that are constantly arriving! A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of hearing Alan November. He spoke in our district and then I had a small group session the following day. He spoke on the importance of global collaboration and how we need to be teaching our students to be global learners. He showed us examples of why and how we need to be web literate and teach our students to be web literate. We need to show our students how to judge whether or not a site is a "good" site. They need to know how to search and find accurate information. Sites like www.archive.org has a wayback machine that can take you through the entire history of a site (my boyfriend was intrigued by this and has used it on several law cases that he is working on). He also showed us how to narrow searches with site: " " you can limit your searches with country codes and other domains like .edu, .gov, .ac, etc.

Here are a few other things that I learned about that you may want to check out. They are great tools that you can use in your classroom and your students will LOVE them.

• Jing (free download) - www.jingprojects.com Jing allows you to create tutorials. It records your computer screen while you are narrating. This is perfect when teaching concepts such as addition with regrouping, 2 digit multiplication, or other "step required" concepts. I have also let me students dod alternative homework assignments and create their own jing homework showing me that they truly understand the concept.
• Voicethread (free registry) - www.voicethread.com Voicethread allows students to upload a picture and explain something through narration, text, and/or drawing. Other students can then comment and give feedback. I am going to do this with my students and have them explain the different moon phases. This is a great teaching/learning tool.
• Ning (free registry) - www.ning.com - Ning is a networking tool. Our district has Moodle, so I probably won't use it. However, it is a great way for teachers to network and collaborate. You can share videos, links, etc. If your school doesn't have a networking software, this would be a great one to use...and it's free!

I am excited as technology continues to grow and change. In my classroom we are using more and more technology to enhance our learning. One thing I have to remind myself is curriculum should drive the instruction with technology integration NOT technology drive the instruction.