The Camp
Wow. What an experience this has been! I chose to make my digital story about a camping trip I took my two kids on, with a friend and her two kids. We had a blast. I created my draft, knowing that I talk fast, and made sure to include ALL DETAILS! Then my peer editor gave me a great idea. I told the story from my son's perspective. He just turned seven and is going into first grade. I was a little nervous about how I wrote the story, as I used pretty simple words since he was "telling the story". But my peer editor suggested that I have my son read the story for publishing. That was the PERFECT touch! We started off and we were getting close to six minutes, so it was TOO LONG! I sent him to play and revised. We sat down again, and we nailed our time-limit of 5 minutes! He did great! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. So glad to have this!!
*My pictures are watermarked by StoryboardThat.com. I used this site to create all my images, for free. It did get tricky, but with deleting and creating it was made possible. When I chose my topic, images did not come to mind. Unfortunately, I did not have but a couple pictures from our camping trip. This site was VERY easy to use, download, and upload! With the free trial- they do watermark all images. But I did do all the creating!
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Writing Process vs Digital Storytelling Process
I think the Digital Storytelling Process is taking the Writing Process and making it "game like." Why do I say, "Game Like".... because anytime I put my students on the computers this past year (they were second graders) they thought they were playing a game.
When I created my web for my Digital Story, I did think it was fun. I also thought to myself how much the students would like and want to do the same thing. The tool I used was easy to use, once I spent just a few minutes playing and figuring it out. It was easy to color-code and navigate. (click here to see) I felt it was very student friendly, even for the younger students.
Creating the script, was much like the rough draft of the writing process. I am really enjoying the idea of being paired up for Peer Editing. My partner and I are using Google Documents to do our peer editing, and this would be easy to complete with students. Our district has Google accounts for our students in upper grades, I could see them using the computer to complete the editing just as my partner and I are. The younger students could maybe write and print, or just hand write and share with another friend.
I feel the process we have taken with Digital Storytelling is very much like the Writing Process, and I think the students would LOVE every minute of the process! Since last posting, I have been hired as our K-5 Computer Lab teacher. I would like to take Digital Storytelling to the Computer Lab. It would be a huge task, but I have it on my list of projects for the year! I am anxious to complete this journey, so I can see how it will better work at the hands of the students!
When I created my web for my Digital Story, I did think it was fun. I also thought to myself how much the students would like and want to do the same thing. The tool I used was easy to use, once I spent just a few minutes playing and figuring it out. It was easy to color-code and navigate. (click here to see) I felt it was very student friendly, even for the younger students.
Creating the script, was much like the rough draft of the writing process. I am really enjoying the idea of being paired up for Peer Editing. My partner and I are using Google Documents to do our peer editing, and this would be easy to complete with students. Our district has Google accounts for our students in upper grades, I could see them using the computer to complete the editing just as my partner and I are. The younger students could maybe write and print, or just hand write and share with another friend.
I feel the process we have taken with Digital Storytelling is very much like the Writing Process, and I think the students would LOVE every minute of the process! Since last posting, I have been hired as our K-5 Computer Lab teacher. I would like to take Digital Storytelling to the Computer Lab. It would be a huge task, but I have it on my list of projects for the year! I am anxious to complete this journey, so I can see how it will better work at the hands of the students!
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Week 4: Classroom Website and Sharing through Technology
As you have seen me mention before, and those of you that get to work with me- know first hand... I have made a few changes in the past couple years. We once used Dreamweaver to build our websites. This was a very time consuming tool to navigate at first. I then found Weebly. I now use Weebly to create my websites. I just pulled up my 5th grade website (that hasn't been used in over a year) and started looking at it for this post today. Then compared it to my 2nd grade website from this past school year.
My 5th grade website (dormant for over a year) : http://mrsmeurer.weebly.com/
My 2nd grade website (used this past year): http://sheameurer.weebly.com/
In comparing my websites- I feel I did a better job this past year with getting the newsletter portion of my website updated promptly. My district switched over to Google, and I am really enjoying it. Before this past year I was copying and pasting my newsletter into my 5th grade website. This past year, I simply embedded my newsletter Google Document into my Weebly website. As I would type and update my newsletter, it was updated for parents on my website. (no need for copy and paste for this feature!)
Both websites were created and built for student use. My links are geared for my students to use during the course of our class period and/or at home. I set my student computer's homepage in my classroom to my website, and this allows my students to access my website whenever they are at the computer.
Plans for the future:
Actively using the Blog feature with my site. I used a hashtag on Twitter last year, I am uncertain how much my "Tweets" were really viewed upon by parents. I am hoping the use of a Blog will help me see interaction with parents and even my students by seeing comments left on the Blog.
Sharing through the use of technology in my building is happening at small levels. Just as I mentioned Google Docs and sharing with my parents my instant updated newsletter. Teachers are sharing documents, calendars, spreadsheets, etc. through the use of the share option on our Google accounts. Other than this feature, we are simply attaching documents to our emails and sharing this way. I feel our building has a mass quantity of technology ( student computers, SmartBoards, iPads, Macs for all teachers and students grades 6-12) however, we need more training on how to get the most bang for our buck with these devices! This hope for training is one more reason I am pursuing my MET degree. I know there are endless opportunities for educators and technology. Educator to educator, educator to administrator, educator to student and visa versa. I know I am fortunate to work in the district that I am in, and able to have access to the tools we have. I often find myself hoping I am utilizing my tools to the best of my ability!
My 5th grade website (dormant for over a year) : http://mrsmeurer.weebly.com/
My 2nd grade website (used this past year): http://sheameurer.weebly.com/
In comparing my websites- I feel I did a better job this past year with getting the newsletter portion of my website updated promptly. My district switched over to Google, and I am really enjoying it. Before this past year I was copying and pasting my newsletter into my 5th grade website. This past year, I simply embedded my newsletter Google Document into my Weebly website. As I would type and update my newsletter, it was updated for parents on my website. (no need for copy and paste for this feature!)
Both websites were created and built for student use. My links are geared for my students to use during the course of our class period and/or at home. I set my student computer's homepage in my classroom to my website, and this allows my students to access my website whenever they are at the computer.
Plans for the future:
Actively using the Blog feature with my site. I used a hashtag on Twitter last year, I am uncertain how much my "Tweets" were really viewed upon by parents. I am hoping the use of a Blog will help me see interaction with parents and even my students by seeing comments left on the Blog.
Sharing through the use of technology in my building is happening at small levels. Just as I mentioned Google Docs and sharing with my parents my instant updated newsletter. Teachers are sharing documents, calendars, spreadsheets, etc. through the use of the share option on our Google accounts. Other than this feature, we are simply attaching documents to our emails and sharing this way. I feel our building has a mass quantity of technology ( student computers, SmartBoards, iPads, Macs for all teachers and students grades 6-12) however, we need more training on how to get the most bang for our buck with these devices! This hope for training is one more reason I am pursuing my MET degree. I know there are endless opportunities for educators and technology. Educator to educator, educator to administrator, educator to student and visa versa. I know I am fortunate to work in the district that I am in, and able to have access to the tools we have. I often find myself hoping I am utilizing my tools to the best of my ability!
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Week 3- Incorporating Literacy in Content Areas
I have many years experience in 5th grade math. I was often seeking ways to pull in literacy into my math classroom. I pulled in writing through math writing prompts, I saw some amazing writings come from my math students. (as I only taught math all day) Then, I would try and get a book to share with the students to tie our math concept to a book. And there were times this was tricky, but often I was able to get help from the library and get a great book to help bring the two together. The last, probably, three years teaching 5th grade math I ended the year with each of my classes recreating Math Curse.
We would read the book, I always changed the teacher's name to mine- and the science teacher's name to ours. The kids LOVED that! Then we would brainstorm ideas for our book. Each student would have a page they were responsible for writing. They were asked to come up with a math problem of some sort for someone to solve, and the answer had to be given upside down at the bottom of the page. Students would have to have other students check their problem and the solution before they could publish. This was a lot of work- but in the end, very worthwhile! Once the books were completed, I would create a cover page and place them in the school library for all to see!
Anytime I could pull out a book and tie it to a lesson, the students enjoyed it. They often get too narrow minded and think that I only "know" math since that was all I taught. However, I also knew how to read and they thought that was pretty neat!
Not only pulling books into math, but reading strategies for word problems into math was something I often tried to accomplish. Anytime I could cross over with the ELA girls, I would. As it made students realize how it all goes together!
The diversity came in my assignment, with the actual pages created. Some of my students were creating multiplication and division problems, others simple fractions, and others addition and subtraction problems. I knew their abilities, and pushed from there. If I had a stronger student, and every time I did, try to create a basic problem... I would tell them to make it more challenging. My struggling students, I would help brainstorm ways to make it not so overwhelming. I asked students to make the problem multi-step, and my lower students would hear that and panic. After working with them, they would see it is was something they too could handle!
We would read the book, I always changed the teacher's name to mine- and the science teacher's name to ours. The kids LOVED that! Then we would brainstorm ideas for our book. Each student would have a page they were responsible for writing. They were asked to come up with a math problem of some sort for someone to solve, and the answer had to be given upside down at the bottom of the page. Students would have to have other students check their problem and the solution before they could publish. This was a lot of work- but in the end, very worthwhile! Once the books were completed, I would create a cover page and place them in the school library for all to see!
Anytime I could pull out a book and tie it to a lesson, the students enjoyed it. They often get too narrow minded and think that I only "know" math since that was all I taught. However, I also knew how to read and they thought that was pretty neat!
Not only pulling books into math, but reading strategies for word problems into math was something I often tried to accomplish. Anytime I could cross over with the ELA girls, I would. As it made students realize how it all goes together!
The diversity came in my assignment, with the actual pages created. Some of my students were creating multiplication and division problems, others simple fractions, and others addition and subtraction problems. I knew their abilities, and pushed from there. If I had a stronger student, and every time I did, try to create a basic problem... I would tell them to make it more challenging. My struggling students, I would help brainstorm ways to make it not so overwhelming. I asked students to make the problem multi-step, and my lower students would hear that and panic. After working with them, they would see it is was something they too could handle!
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