Ordinary People doing Extraordinary Things

My students have learned about wordle (wordle.net) in the past, which is a website where you can make art using different words. We are also going to try acapela.tv (www.acapela.tv), which is a message creator.

Today, my students will be watching the video "Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things" from You Tube (Shout out: you can watch any you tube video you want if, at home, you use keepvid.com to download it to your computer or flashdrive. Then you can take it with you wherever you want.) After watching this video, my adorable little softies, whom I enjoy so much, are going to create either a wordle or acapela.tv message about one of the people on this video. I will strongly invite them to post their work on this site, so anyone interested can see what they learned about one of the people named from the "Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things".

If you are interested, please check out the posts!! If you want to use this idea in your own classroom (If any teachers indeed check this blog out), I have all the links right here necessary for this lesson.

Lesson Plan:

Obj: SWBT identify a person who has done an extraordinary thing, research more information on that person, and create either a wordle or acapela message about that person.

SLE: R.12.10.2 Establish a focus for research, IR.12.10.3 Utilize a variety of research tools to access, multiple sources, R.12.10.12 Create research products

Plan:

1. watch video

2. choose a name for the group

3. 1 partner research more information

4. 1 partner create wordle/ acapela

5. Post to this blog

Animoto

Toronto Summer 2009

So, I have been meaning to try out a new website that I have known about for awhile.

It is called animoto (animoto.com). It is a site that uploads your videos, pictures, and music and turns it into a ready made collected video. Animoto is really easy to use! I made Toronto Summer 2009 concerning my trip to Toronto in, literally, 15 minutes. I didn't even have to worry about music. Animoto already has a large collection, albeit a little random. The site speaks for itself. My professional development on this site was to: a) go to the site, b) watch the 60 second demo, c) look at a sample video, d) register, e) go through the dummy proof instructions on making the video. Yay!

Drawback: You can only make a 30 second video with a free account.

Bonus: Your pictures and videos can come from anywhere! I used the pictures I had on Facebook. I chose that venue option and Animoto did everything else.

Try it out!!!

Glogster

Alright, anyone interested in a bit of new technology? Well, I am always game for any new, fun way for students to present information. Thanks to my friend Melody, I have been introduced to something new! It is called Glogster. I'm not sure how I want to use it, yet, but I am toying with the idea of it becoming my next nine weeks independent reading project. Educators and students check it out!

I think this is the link to my Glog. Yes, I know it is very primitive, I would like to do much more. However, I have "miles to go before I sleep" (Frost); I've got many things to do. If any student takes an interest, I would love to give them an account in order to let them really become the expert. It would be totally awesome if someone in each of my classes decided to become the expert, and then one day next nine weeks he or she could teach a lesson on how to use the new, cool form of blogging. If the expertise was good, I would be willing to use this work as a quiz trade. (In place of taking the grade of an in-class quiz, I would consider this as a replacement, provided the student would be willing to create a lesson for the class as well.) Right now, this is a first come, first serve bonus for each of my classes. If you are interested in a new activity and willing to create a lesson for the rest of your classmates, let me know.

Please post to let me know what you think.

Check What the Lincoln Sophomores are Reading!!

I want to see what kind of book reviews we can get from the Sophomore's independent reading. My regular English is in charge of reading 1 play and 1 fun book, my Pre A. P. are reading 2 plays and 1 fun book. I would like regular English to post a review about their fun book, and Pre A. P. to review a fun book and a play. The following is a list of what I need in order for credit:

1. Why would someone like your book/play?

2. Include at least 2 quotes from different sections of your book adequately integrated into your paragraph proving you have actually read the book.

3. Make sure your title of the post includes book/play title, author, your first name only:

ex. Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman - Heather

This should be done by March 5, 2010 and is worth 20 points.

Wanting a Wiki??

Oh the Wonderful World of Wiki

Several conferences in 2008 had a wiki as the star attraction. A video explained a wiki by having a hand place pictures on a white board.  The suggestion was that wiki’s were a tool to help facilitate instruction and collaboration, however a cloud of doubt rolled into my thoughts: Why haven’t I seen any suggestions on how to integrate wikis into classroom instruction? It took about a semester of deeper delving to realize that not many examples of classroom wiki usage were out there.  So after a semester of playing, I have come up with some examples of what I have done using a wiki in the classroom: 

1.      Narrative wiki page: Each student made a page on a wiki explaining an event, including an image, and a link.
   
2. 2.     Posting Discussions: the teacher posts a question or discussion having students respond for homework.
   
3. 3.     Students can create their own wiki for independent reading/ book reports/ or term knowledge and invite others to the page.
   
4. 4.     Students can collaborate on a wiki page for information (note: currently students’ are still having trouble collaborating on a page without erasing work)
   

 Benefits of a Wiki

1.       Class has access to a sort of mail on the wiki that they can all correspond.
   
2. 2.     Can monitor times/ and who is doing what work on the pages.
   
3. 3.     Can be used to link and share resources.
   
4. 4.      The Wiki can be private or public.
   

Of course, the wiki takes some dedication and patience; the students need accounts, as well as some practice on the wiki. Even though these students are the digital natives, this is a relatively new/ unused program for them. The difference is how quickly they adjust to the new technology. Several of my students used it throughout the summer after introducing it during the spring term, and by the end of the fall 9 weeks they were using it as a regular digital medium.

The Moon Lesson. . .A Hit!

The moon lesson from Friday went extremely well. I uploaded the Moongirl video onto my Facebook and first hour a fellow English teacher came up to me and said that she had viewed it on my profile and wondered if I had it downloaded. I did and she borrowed it for her classes. My sophties had great discussions over the bombing of the moon. It really freaked some of them out! Others thought building a base on the moon would be quite a trip. They all really got into the movie, and especially enjoyed when the span of glass jars were shown. The best part of this lesson was that after the first class read the article, watched the movie, and combined the two stories, students from each class afterwards were excited to see the information for themselves. The lesson generated such interest that students were talking to each other about it outside of class. AWESOME!!! Hats off to my friends on Facebook, You Tube, and my husband.

Facebook, You Tube, Wii Created Lessons, Oh My!

Fridays, I like them to be days of weekly reflection and fun, sneaky learning. I thought we were going to do our assessment over Footloose (style, form, p. o. v.), and then watch a slide show of the students' summer. (The show was not completed.) Time for a change of plan. I noticed on that one of my friends had commented on facebook concerning NASA blowing up a peice of the moon. He left a link and I followed. It was an interesting read, and he had many comments over the topic. So, I decided to make it my fun bit of reading tomorrow. Nathan, my husband, just realized we have an Internet channel on the Wii with all the benefits that entails, and was catching me up on some entertaining You Tube videos. Among them was Moongirl, a short film by Henry Selick, director of The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and Coraline. I decided my students would write a collision between the two pieces of information (one fiction, one nonfiction). Moonday tomorrow! I'll reflect on the lesson.

The Lesson:

Objective: SWBT (students will be able to) analyze form, style, and point of view from the movie Footloose, and combine a piece of nonfiction and fiction into a reflection.

Standard: R.10.10.20  Explain the influence of historical context on the form, style, and point of view of a written work

Plan:

1. Take an assessment over form, style, p. o. v.

2. Read NASA bombing moon.

3. Reflect for 2 minutes

4. Share out/ discussion

5. Watch Moongirl

6. On a moon graphic organizer combine the two stories as final reflection.