For my personal goal of learning one tool a week, I am on track. I have learned more about podcasting and with our upcoming wiki project, I have reviewed tutorials on wikis-next is voicethread. I have shown my students examples of podcasts and powerpoints and how to do them. We watched a video clip on story elements and students filled out their story element sheet on the story they selected to do their PowerPoint or podcast. Now it’s off to the computer lab. Everything went great. There were a few problems with the newer computers-we couldn’t get the jingle part of Garage Band to work. But I was pleased and the student really enjoyed it! I Hope to get everyone finished by Friday.
I have learned that there are many resources to help me reach my instructional goal and many resources available to help students find information and to keep them engaged in the learning process. There are still tools out there that I am not familiar with and tools that I have limited ability in putting into practice. I really want to have confidence in using these tools and be proficient in as many as possible-one tool at a time!
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It sounds like you are really making a concerted effort to try new technology in your classroom. The students love technology and I can certainly see why they would be excited and motivated by your project. I am interested in how you used story elements in your classroom project. What types of projects did you have the studnets complete? Like you I would like to try and learn a new type of program or technology each week, but found I had to scale back as it was getting too overwhelming for both myself and my students. Good luck- it sounds as though your GAME plan is going really well.
ReplyDeleteMy student created podcasts and powerpoints this week! They loved it and were really engaged in the activity. I only had 4 computers available for students to do a podcast on using Garage Band. So 8 of my students did podcasts and the rest used the computer lab to create a powerpoing. Since this was our first time doing a podcast, we used the same story. It was about a Korean girl in 1896. The students had to present the setting, tell about the characters, summarize the the story, break a-part the plot, provide a reader's response, and tell about the author. Those who did powerpoints had to provide pictures and a map of Korea. They are going to do this again next week-all taking turns using the computers to do a podcast on a book of their choice. It was fun and I was glad to have help with the powerpoints.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a lot of learning is going on in your classes for both the students and the teacher. I think that even though I may not know something, it is not always bad if you are learning along with the students. Sometimes they might be able to teach you a thing or two about the technologies. Good luck with your GAME plan.
ReplyDeleteMike
Rebekah,
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you had a great week full of technology learning activities…Good for you! You are right about the unlimited resources that our students have to research information and about the many tools they could use to communicate their learning. All the technology you are currently or planning on using are very good, PowerPoint, podcasting, voicethread, etc. I’m sure that as you practice more you will become proficient and will be able to help your students with their learning. But you will be also surprised that some students might learn it faster than you and that is good too because they can be your technology liaisons. That’s how I call my students who are proficient on using some of the technology that I use in my classroom. Those students can be very valuable helpers in our classrooms. Good luck keeping your students engaged in their learning and excited about creating their projects!
Yolanda
Rebekah
ReplyDeleteWow!It sounds like you are right on track. It is great that your are making so much progress with your GAME plan. Always expect the unexpected especially when it comes to technology. Everytime I take my students to the computer lab or get excited to do an activity with the students it seems like something goes wrong. At first I would get very frustrated and the students would get out of control but now I roll with the punches and the students get involved in trying to remediate the problem. They will say "Mrs. Ellis try this..." or "did you make sure you did this first...". It is wonderful how much they observe and learn.