Creating Video

This was my first time creating a video, and ended up being such a great learning experience. Taking the shots were not very difficult because the two websites that were given www.mediacollege.com/video/shots and movements were very easy to understand and learn from. The tough part for me came while I was editing the video. I found myself going back and forth to atomic learning to ensure I was doing this correctly. I also played with all the tools as well to help me maneuver around Movie Maker for a while before I was sure I was doing it correctly.
Soundzabound was a great site to use for audio. They had so many audio clips to choose from! I downloaded so many tunes into my itunes for free!
I have to admit that when I first read the instructions for this assignment, I was very intimidated, but after I completed the assignment, I felt really excited to learn something so new that I could take and use both my classroom and with my family.
Making a movie is so much fun, and now I am looking forward to creating my Video Content.

GEO TECH 2010

Geo Tech was defintely new experience for me. This was the first time that I had attended a TECH workshop, and very glad that I did! There were so many interesting classes to choose from.

A great session that I attended was how to geotag pictures. I was so amazed with the way a person could track pictures from around the world. The instructor gaves us some websites that allowed geotagging. Some of them were Flickr and Panaromio.

Geotagging is a great tool to use in the classroom. I could use it as a visual tool for many of my students. Many of my students are from low-socio economic backgrounds and would really benefit from seeing real life pictures to create that schema within. As their reading teacher I have learned that many of my students need that schema to improve in their reading score, and this is definetely a way that I could activate their schema!

TEACHER TUBE

I was amazed with how many videos I found that I could show my students in class that relates to what they are learning. My students are always wanting to go on you tube when we have indoor recess time. I really believe that they are going to enjoy watching these videos, and the best part is that they are very short and straight to the point.
I watched several videos, but the ones that I plan to use soon are Writing Rap and Reading Rap. My 5th graders would really get a kick out of them. I could use them as an example for my students to listen to them, and then create their own rap with their reading book, and even with their stories they are writing in class.

On another note, just in case you want to use youtube.com.....instead of teachertube, I have posted the following....

There are plenty of educational videos on youtube. The problem occurs with the ads and comments surrounding the videos. www.safeshare.tv is a site that allows you to create a safe link to the video you want to show, without allowing the parts you don’t want to be seen by your students. It is also possible to “crop” the videos to start and stop where you want it to.

Audacity

My students are very familiar with using Audacity. They record themselves every 2 weeks for fluency check. They are able to listen to their own reading and listen to how much they are improving. My English Language Learners get really motivated when they listen to themselves because they realize how much their English reading is improving. I am also able to listen to their audio files because each one of my students have their own H-Drive. I am able to pull their drives up from my computer and keep electronic portfolios for each students.I like to conference with my students and sit down with them to set their reading goals.

Another way that I use Audacity in my classroom is for writing. After students draft their writing, thye log on to Audacity and record their own stories. Then, they go back and listen to their stories to listen for fluency writing. I have noticed that when students are editing their own writing without Audacity, they tend to read right through their syntax errors. With Audacity, they are able to go back and replay their sentences to ensure they are revising correctly.

I love Audacity and it's a great resource to have in the classroom!

First Animation

I was feeling overwhelmed just knowing that I had to create my first animation, but after reading Richardson's book, listening to the tutorials on atomic learning, and Alice I started to feel more at ease. I did try to use Alice to create an animation, but then a colleague of mine recommend another site; goanimate.com.

Goanimate.com is a very friendly user site and it's free! This is a great site to use with your students that are not very technology savvy. It was very easy to create characters and maneuver them around. I was able to easily add captions, and include music as well. One thing that I really liked about it was how I could keep previewing and editing it. It did take me a while to finally finish it, but I really think it was due to it being my first time playing around with it. The only problems that I had was downloading into my computer, and keeping it 5-10 seconds. I finally was able to do it after many trials and errors.

I plan on integrating animation into my reading and writing lessons. I know my students are really going to enjoy it! I

Atomic Learning Lessons

I was finally able to view Lesson Accelerators on Atomic Learning! The first one I viewed was Language Arts 3rd-5th grade Kid Pix titled Shape Poem. This is a fun activity that my students can do in a center. It's all about creating poems with the integration of graphics. Students can add many colorful graphics to their poem and even record their voice. The text can be shaped to what the poem is talking about. Students create a slide show as their final product. This is a fun and unique way to get kids motivated on writing poetry.

The second one I viewed was titled a Picture Perfect Slide show and was also Language Arts 3rd-5th grade. The lesson gave an example of a Picture Perfect Alphabet using Comic Life and Photo Story application. It even gave you a tip on how to download a resource packet that can be imported directly into Photo Story. Even though this project covered ELA, it could easily be modified for other subject areas.

First Jing!

One my reading centers consists of student listening to stories on tumblebooks.com. It is a great site for students, but my students were taking too long on fiding a book to read. Jing came to my mind immediately! I went on Tumblebooks.com and captured exactly where my students had to go on to find their reading level. This will help them log on, and get started immediately!