Middle School students are working hard on their Math Wiki. They are using a variety of tools to create tutorials (Garageband, SmartBoard Notebook, PowerPoint, Animoto).

Their latest creation to be embedded into the Wiki were Animoto Music Videos.

They created PowerPoint slides, then exported them as jpg files to be imported into Wiki were Animoto
Students are learning presentation skills and tools as they are designing the slides to create specific tutorials for math definitions and concepts they are learning in class.

“By learning you will teach;by teaching you will understand.”
~ Latin Proverb

To teach is to learn twice.
~Joseph Joubert, Pensées, 1842

Not only are students organizing their own thoughts and teaching each other, but they are also becoming web publishers who are inspiring and teaching math students around the world.

As they were working on the slides, we learned many things about presentation design:

• don’t use too much text on one slide. If you must have more text, duplicate the slide once or twice to be able to give the reader more time.
• use as many relevant visuals as you can.
• use arrows to point to explanations and help the viewer focus in on what you are trying to explain
• make sure you don’t place text/titles too close to the edges of the slides, as they tend to be out of the frame, when Animoto pans across the slide.
• use contrasting colors
• use bigger font sizes
• less on a slide is better

Here are some of their Animoto examples:

If you have not thought of podcasting with your younger elementary school students, I encourage you to think again.

The first graders at my school had listened to the second grade podcast about animals, and had really enjoyed their story.They were especially thrilled that the second graders had received so many comments from teachers around the world. Believe it or not, but having an audience matters… even to 6 year olds.

They were enthusiastic and eager to record their own voices to get them “into other people’s computers and iPods” too.

I had started reading a chapter book called Vacation under the Volcano by Mary Pope Osborne from the Magic Tree House series with them.

The idea was to pretend that we were interviewing Jack and Annie, the two main characters, about their latest adventure that had taken them to Pompeii.

We read one chapter at a time and discussed as a class,  what happened as we were reading. After each   reading, I typed up all the questions and answers that students had came up with. The following time I went to their classroom, we recorded these questions and answers from the “script”.

I rotated all students to be either the interviewer, Jack (boys) and Annie (girls). I also had them record several segments as a class chant together (ex. gasping, “no children allowed”), which they seemed to enjoy very much.

Recording with Garageband

I had several students at a time come to the back of the class and record directly into Garageband, while the other students were silently working on classroom work or reading a book. A few times, I also took them out into the hallway, if the teacher had another activity planned in the classroom.

• I was amazed how cooperative and attentive to what was going on with the recording in the back of the room while it was not their turn.
• Several students started to take a real interest in the editing part of the podcast too. They were verifying that I was editing out any clicking noises that were included when I stopped the recording segment, or if a word was repeated twice.
• If they were not happy with their recording, they asked to record over it for a second, third or fourth time.
• Shy and quiet students were coming out of their shell. Their classmates were surprised and impressed of these new “podcast” voices they were hearing from them.

Recording in the Hallway

Recording:

• After demonstrating the difference in the sound of their voices and fluency, students agreed to NOT read off the script.
• I read one sentence at a time to the student who was to record. I let them practice saying the sentence out loud and coached them with their volume, melody and to use different acting voices.
• Some students needed to have sentences split into parts. Putting each sentence back together made it sound seamless in the recording.
• I could tell a drastic improvement among students in their confidence level and voice expression as we progressed in the book.

After class,

• I “cleaned” the recording tracks
• added music and  sound effects

The class couldn’t wait to hear the entire recording the next day. They wanted to hear the audio from start to finish, including the newest chapter clips. They begged to hear it again and again from the beginning and not only the added part. By the time we reached the end of the book they had heard the podcast over 20 times.

Skills addressed:

• listening
• speaking
• presenting
• comprehension
• storytelling
• performance
• voice acting
• oral fluency
• media
• technology

Take a “listen” and leave a comment to these first graders who worked very hard and enthusiastically on their recording. Let them know where you are from too. We will create a google map with placemarks to show how far their voices reached.

Thank you for leaving our first graders comments. You are making a worldwide audience real for them and are keeping them motivated. We are tracking them on our Google Map. Once you leave a comment with your location, we will add you to our Google Map.

View MJGDS- 1st Grade Podcast: Magic Tree House in a larger map

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about my  Thoughts on Setting up a Student Created Wiki.

I chose to use wikispaces education wiki as the platform of the Math wiki. The set up of student accounts was very easy and fast, no email was required for the students.

I also pre-created a page for each middle school subject (6th grade math, Pre-Algebra, Algebra & Geometry) as well as a Wiki Help and a Wiki Netiquette page.

Here is the sequence I used to introduce the concept of  wikis to the Middle School students.

Show “Wikis in Plain English” Video

Introduce wikispaces site
http://mjgds-math.wikispaces.com/

• pass out usernames/passwords
• sign in

How to edit and format the wiki:

• Enter text
• Making Links and creating new pages
• Inserting images
• Widgets
• Making changes
• Saving your work

Added a ClustrMap
(the wiki will be private in the beginning until everyone gets comfortable. I plan to make it viewable to the public in a few weeks)

Discussion Area

• What do we use the discussion area for?
• Netiquette for discussion area

Wiki Netiquette-
I started out with an outline starter, encouraging students to complete, edit, move, change what they wanted to the wikiquette to look like.

Wikiquette= Wiki Netiquette
A Netiquette is a guideline how to behave and work with others on the internet.
A Wikiquette is a netiquette on a Wiki.

What is NOT permitted on our Wiki
The Math Wiki is an online extension of our school. The same conduct, values and rules of our MJGDS community apply. The wiki is WHAT YOU MAKE of it!
Contribute, Collaborate, Communicate, Care, Create, Celebrate

Wiki Help Section

Created step by step instructions with screenshots as reminders how to edit and format wiki (see #3 above)

Content: What are we creating?

• Definitions
• Formulas
• Audio & Video Explanations
• Tutorials for peers

Content: How are we connecting knowledge?

• To create new knowledge and understanding
• To create new perspectives
• To point out obvious and not so obvious links between knowledge
• To make sense of the information

Content: How do we organize content?
There is a need to learn how to organize, file, archive and later on retrieve a vast amount of information
Organize the information in a MEANINGFUL way

In math it is often hard to use the keyboard to write formulas, exponents, angles, etc.. I showed students how to use the SmartBoad Notebook software on the computers in the lab to record screencast videos or take screenshots with Skitch (buy can also be done with the SmartBoard software).

In the next few weeks, I will also let them use Garageband to create audio files for tutorials/explanations. Stay tuned for the next installment in the series of blog posts regarding  a “Student created Math Wiki”.

Cross posted on the TechLearning Advisors Blog

As the Technology Integration Facilitator, I was “stationed’ in the computer lab. Although classroom teachers did not “drop” their students off at the lab for me to teach a separate lesson, I still felt disconnected. This was mainly due to a lack of (or no) collaborative planning time between the classroom teacher and myself, but it was also limited due to the once a week nature of scheduled lab time for the classes.

My current position as the 21st century Learning Specialist has allowed me to have the freedom of not having scheduled classes in a lab and be invited to plan and co-teach in the classroom by the teachers.

This gives me the opportunity to be with many  different grade levels (Kindergarten -8th grade) on a project based basis. I am able to support the teachers in their classrooms as much (or as little) as they desire.

I use my blog to document my work with the teachers and students, but also to share with others these projects, ideas, thoughts, lesson plans, etc.

While I twittered a link to one of my latest blog post describing a SmartBoard lesson  “Graphing on the Smartboard for Little Ones,” Paula White, who blogs at TZSTeacher, called for more posts describing lessons.

Her tweet got me thinking…

• Is there enough encouragement for teachers to share what they are doing in the classroom with a wider audience?
• Are the “in theory…”, “teachers should be doing these kind of activities…”, and “research says…” kind of blogs intimidating teachers in the trenches to share REAL examples from their classrooms?
• Do classroom teachers know that THEIR VOICES are important and others want and need to hear from them?

I was told, on several occasions, by teachers that they:

1. Wouldn’t know what to share
2. Are wondering why would anyone care to know what they are doing
3. Don’t have the time it takes to blog and share what they are doing
4. Wouldn’t know how to share what they are doing in the classroom

Here are my answers to these comments:

Teachers don’t know what to share.

If your students learned from a unit, a lesson, even from a fleeting teachable moment … it is worth sharing. If you are new to teaching and feel you could not possibly contribute anything, you are forgetting the Power of a Newbie. Although Vicki Davis writes about the tech newbie, the same concept can be applied to a teacher-newbie.

When you are a newbie, you have something that tech-experts do not have: the perspective of a new user.

If you are a veteran teacher, your experience and knowledge are invaluable. Don’t lock them up within the four walls of your classrooms. Share and allow other students to benefit and learn from them through their teachers as they learn from YOU!

Teachers are wondering, why would anyone care to know what they are doing in the classroom?

Teachers who are daily in the classroom with students have an incredible advantage over the theorists that are populating the edublogersphere. They know what works and what doesn’t with their particular group. They are not theorizing or relying on others to give them data, they are working in the trenches and are doing “it”…the real thing…the teaching… on a daily basis.

Teachers don’t have the time it takes to blog and share what they are doing.

You don’t have to write an essay or a novel. Notes, even a bullet list can be great. If you create your lesson plans electronically, it could be just a matter of copy and pasting. Documenting what you are doing with a digital video or photo camera  doesn’t have to be time consuming either. Reflections on your lesson plan, teaching and on student learning are great for a teaching portfolio and our own continues learning, but not necessary if you just want to share what you are doing.
Check out Kevin Jarrett’s incredible site, where he shares his K-4 tech lesson plans.

Teachers wouldn’t know how to share what they are doing in the classroom.

• I usually start documenting a planning session with teachers in my blog’s drafts.
• As the lesson or unit progresses, I edit and add more information to the draft.
• Take as much media as possible: images, video, audio, screenshots.
  When I take pictures and video, I am careful not to take students’ faces or anything identifying (names written on papers or their desks). Standing behind them and taking the shot “from their perspective”(back of their head)  usually works great.
  ex.:
• I add resource links used in the preparation or execution of the lesson.
• I embed video clips or other media as much as possible (if embed code available and not copyrighted).
• After the lesson or unit is completed, I go over the draft, add and edit some more, put thoughts in order, images in sequence and … publish…
• I tweet about the blog post to spread the word

We need YOU!

Why not try it out? Why not document, upload and share what you are doing in the classroom. You could use a wiki or a blog to create a presence for your teaching lessons and ideas. If you are already sharing your lessons, why not encourage and mentor another classroom teacher to do the same?

Here are some of my favorite teacher blogs who share great examples of what is happening in their classroom trenches:

• Karen Bosch’s Great Tech-spectations
• Kevin Jarrett’s NCS-Tech
• Tom Barrett’s ICT in my Classroom
• Glenn Kenyon’s Off the Hypotenuse
• Lesley Edward’s The WebFooted Booklady

Please contribute some of your favorite links to teacher who are sharing lessons.

Nancy von Wahlde from the American School of Madrid and I have been trying to collaborate on a project for a while now. We finally settled on connecting two of our first grade classes (Allison W. & Meghan M.)

We started looking at each others curriculum maps for the next few months and paid attention to units that were overlapping. It looked like that “I have a dream” writing assignment was one that we had in common.

After speaking with my first grade teacher Allison W., we settled on using their written “I have a Dream” essay and have students record them into VoiceThread.

I created placeholder images for each student from both schools. They will record their “I have a dream” essay directly on that image, using their own avatars, which are identities under the teacher’s account.

Each student will record their “dream” on the place holder image with their name. Their assigned buddy from the other class will be listening to the audio and THEN draw a picture illustrating the dream. We were lucky that each class had exactly 18 students.

We would love to make it possible to have each buddy talk with their partner (on Skype) AFTER they have listened to dream, but BEFORE they draw the picture. That way they already have heard their buddy’s voice and know already something about him/her. It might also give them the opportunity to ask some clarification questions before they start drawing.

Those illustration can be scanned in, digital picture taken or directly drawn in a drawing program.  They will then replace the place holder images.

Around the World with 80 Schools is making waves around the world.

Check out some of the sites that have blogged about the project. Thank you bloggers for spreading the word!

• Bulgaria
  • Teacher Blog
• Israel
  • Israel Teacher Ning
• Portugal
  • Around the world with 80 Schools :: ZarcoEnglish
• England
  • Integrating ICT into the MFL classroom:: Around the World with 80 Schools Project
• USA
  • School ‘langwitch’ teacher to reach out with Skype Video to 80 schools around the world – Skype in the US
  • Learning Is Messy – Blog » Blog Archive » Around The World with 80 Schools
  • Skyping through the world | Kevin’s Meandering Mind
  • Skype Journal

Technorati Tags: AroundTheWorldWith80Schools

In the process of Skype becoming more and more popular in schools and  teachers are becoming more comfortable in using it with their students. there seems to be something else emerging:

Rituals

Two of the Around the World with 80 Schools participants have let me know of a ritual  that they are observing at the start of a Skype conversation another school.

Lorraine Leo from the Jackson School writes:

Our class traditionally sings ‘The Circle Song’ at the beginning of our Skype contact with schools followed by a short chat.

The lyrics the song are:

‘Come and join the circle, come and take my hand.  Come and join the circle.  Come and be my friend.  Gather round and see what the world can be.  Come and join the circle.  Come and share God’s word with me.

Another ritual came to me via the wiki invitation from one of the participants ( I am sorry, but I can’t remember who it  exactly was. You know who you are, please drop me an e-mail or comment here, so I can give you properly credit )

We start out every Skype conversation with a game of  “Rock, Paper, Scissors”. The winner out of three games, wins cookies from the other class.

I think the idea of a ritual is a great one.  On wikipedia, you can read

The purposes of rituals are varied; they include [...] strengthening of social bonds [...] stating one’s affiliation, obtaining social acceptance or approval for some event — or, sometimes, just for the pleasure of the ritual itself.

I have added a page on the Project’s Wiki to add your existing school’s Skype ritual or an idea of one.

If you are not one of the project’s participants, leave us your school’s ritual or routine as a comment on this post.

I am off to think of one for my school…

Technorati Tags: AroundTheWorldWith80Schools, Skype

All of our teachers at my elementary school maintain their own classroom blog.  As I wrote about in Blogs vs. Static Website and Changes in Classroom Blogs, we still have a long way to go as we need to move forward from merely a one sided communication tool to an online learning space that encourages, fosters and supports students’ creativity and learning.

Being able to read AND express yourself in a digital world is an important part of being literate in the 21st century.

Bill Ferriter on Digitally Speaking says:

Blogging and podcasting has allowed me to create a forum where my students discuss current events connected to our social studies curriculum while developing language arts skills like critical thinking and persuasive dialogue. It has also given my students the opportunity to be creators—rather than simply consumers—of online content. Finally, blogging and podcasting have given my students an audience for their ideas, which has increased levels of interest and motivation.

Blogging is one way of linking writing, reading, and connecting information and learning together. It seems the perfect venue to introduce elementary school students to the online world world of networked learning. They need to get acquainted to reading and writing hyperlinked text .

Somewhere between 4th and 6th grade (10-12 year olds), students discover social network places such as MySpace and Facebook. Their older siblings, cousins, neighbors or friends “are on it” and they long to be be part of that network to chat, upload and comment on each others’ photos and generally know what is going on in their school and with their group of friends.

Now is the time for us educators to expose them to safe practices AND to academic uses of online spaces.

One of our 5th grade teachers, Mrs. K., has maintained her classroom blog for over a year now. (Sorry, but is password protected for now, as all our school’s classroom blogs are).

It has been a place where she posts:

• communication to parents
• homework assignments
• reminders
• rubrics

At the beginning of this current year, she took a step forward by creating usernames and a passwords for each one of her students as  “subscribers”.  This allowed students to leave comments on  posts that she had created.

Students were enthusiastic and each blog post generates quite a few responses. Here are some of my observations:

• There are no formal assignments to comment or assessment of the content.
• Several students are using the blog as a forum to stay in touch after school and now during winter break.
• There are many comments, completely unrelated and irrelevant to the blog post content
• Comments are sprinkled with typical tweenie exclamation point writing and plenty of emoticons.
  
• Each student was given a username that represents their number on the class list. They are to use and address each other with that number in order to not reveal their identity to an outsider. Yes, the blog is behind a password protection, but it is important to get the younger children aware and  used to safety. More and  more students are using their first names anyway when signing their comment. They are referring to each other with their first name and even clarifying which username belongs to which student!!
• It is clear that protecting their online identity is an issue that has to be visited over and over again.

The children have been begging to get their own blogs. Mrs. K is ready to jump on board and start integrating blogging into her teaching.

BUT…

….although there is merit in allowing students to get comfortable in their classroom space by learning how to read posts and other comments,  sign in, type and respond in the blog environment….

….there comes a time, when to get serious…

• How can we prepare the classroom space to become a space for learning, reflecting, and for a portfolio of their learning process?
• What are the expectations that the teacher needs to make clear of what is acceptable and unacceptable in terms of content in that learning space?

I am taking the time to create a blogging guide/unit plan for this 5th grade teacher and other elementary school teachers who want to start their own blogging adventure with their younger students.

The purpose of this guide is to address the following topics:

• Introduce students (3rd grade and up) to the world of academic blogging.
  • Outline of unit lesson plan
  • Introduction
  • Online Safety
  • Effective Commenting
  • Relevant Writing
• Setting up a blog
• Logistics of formatting blog posts
• Difference between hypertext and “traditional” writing and reading
• How to create a learning community on your classroom blog
• Connecting to a world wide audience
• Assessment and evaluation of student blogging

So follow along, as I am exploring and reflecting on each one of these of topics as we are planning for lessons and reflecting upon outcomes.

Any contribution of  links to resources, examples or anecdotes of your adventures in blogging with younger students are greatly appreciated.

Check out the following links for more resources about blogging with students (Thanks to Larry’s post on Best Sources for Advice on Student Blogging for pointing me into the direction, that kept leading to more and more resources)  :

• Sue Waters’ Tips on Blogging with Students
• Bil Ferriter’s Two Critical Tips For Classroom Blog Projects
• Kim Cofino’s Blogging is Elementary
• Al Upton’s Class blogs – management, moderation and protection

Update: Thank you to Gail Desler’s Blogging with 4th Graders post, I found the following video from Alice Mercer:

Third Grade studied endangered and threatened animals of Florida in their science curriculum. TechConnect, together with the classroom teachers planned to take this unit to the 21st century and have students, not only research facts, but become experts in their assigned animals and make a difference by share their knowledge with others. They were to learn about their animal and then produce a podcast episode. These episodes will be available to listen to and download for their iPods.

What an incredible opportunity to not only learn about each animal, but also to work on:

• Research skills
• Sound editing software
• Speaking and communication skills
• Oral fluency
• Copyright issues
• Information literacy
• Storytelling skills

The project was divided into several different pieces.

1. Students were assigned one endangered or threatened animal from Florida and given research question.
   1. Describe your animal’s habitat (Where he lives? What he eats?)
   2. Why is your animal endangered or threatened?
2. Teachers previewed and selected a limited number of links that students were to get their information from. These links were posted to the teacher’s blog.
3. Draw their animal using a drawing program (KidPix)
4. Introduction and “play time” in Sound Editing program (Audacity)
5. Voice recording of facts. Editing, re-recording, paying attention to expression, articulation, captivation, persuasion
6. Inserting and editing music as background
7. Creating an “intro” and “outro” for the podcast as a group

Here is a screenshot of the sound editing software and the project of one of the students. They learned to record, pause, edit clips, move tracks, import audio files. They are getting really good at “reading” their own voices too.

Listen in to their class episodes on Endangered and Threatened Animals in the State of Florida/USA

At the beginning of 2008, I started a collaborative VoiceThread project “What Could It Mean?”Almost 1700 views and over 350 comments later, I have added two more images from Perú and I am inviting you and your students to add their comments on (from their perspective) what it could mean?

It is a perfect opportunity to discuss with your students that the same image might conjure up a different meaning depending on you cultural background.

If you would like to contribute an image from your country about a particular custom, habit or tradition check out the project’s wiki with specific instructions.

The teacher’s key on the meaning of each image is also available for you to view.

Here are the newest added images:

Image 18- Urubamba Valley, Perú
Urubamba Valley is the Sacred Valley, about one hour away from Cusco, the ancient capital of the Incas. Gigantic stones were placed on the road due to a strike in order to prevent ANYONE from passing by or doing or getting to work.

Image 19- Cusco, Perú
You will see statues of 2 bulls on top of many roofs in Peru. Many times they are combined with a cross. The bulls are a symbol for good luck.