Voicethread Example

As promised I have uploaded an example of one our voicethreads. My students love voicethreads and so do I. We hope you enjoy this version of Judith Vorist poem "If I Were In Charge of the World." This poem is a great model for students to practice their writing skills.

Teaching High Tech

More Comic Life Fun

I just love integrating writing into every subject across the curriculum. It was even more fun integrating it into math today. Students used comic life to write acrostic poems about perimeter, area, and volume. Students were very creative in their thinking, and this was a quick assessment to see if students really understood these concepts. Here is a short example of student work:

Area

A-Area is a covering of a space
E-Everything has area like walls, carpet, and gardens
R-When it rains an area is covered with water
A-Amazing LxW=A

I would say this student has a good understanding of area.

Google Earth, Math, and Geography

What excitement in the classroom today, when students used Google Earth to fly around the world to find 3-D figures in real life. We have been studying 3-D figures in math; so students were given the assignment to think about how these solids were used in real life. They came up with things like The Great pyramids, the Eiffel Tower, skyscrapers and the Pentagon.

Then students used Google Earth to fly around the world and locate 3-D objects. They placed a marker on the location; then told how many faces, edges, and vertices the object had. Students had a wonderful experience with this activity. They were applying math skills, a little geography, and writing was involved too.

3-D figures using Comic Life

Yesterday, I introduced 3-D figures to my class. After using a wonder Promethean lesson on the topic, their assignment was to discover real world uses for 3-D figures. Students had to show a pictures and tell what type of 3-D figure was used in their Comic Life project. Some students included the number of faces, edges, and vertices each figure had.

Poetry

This is a website that my technology facilitator showed one of my students. Today that student came back to class and showed all of us. We wrote poems for Valentine's Day. At http://www.festisite.com/ you can also upload your own poetry, put your face on a playing card or a 1,000,000 dollar bill. I loved the poetry and writing aspects of this website. I also loved the fact that the student was sharing her knowledge of technology. I completely let her take over the instruction here because I didn't have a clue as to how to use the website. (Of course I remained in charge of the classroom and facilitated.) She did a great job of teaching us all. This also gave her self confidence and pride.

After writing their quick and easy poems, I let them explore the cards and money. They loved it because it was fun. However, one must keep in mind we are at school; so their has to be a learning application involved. Therefore, I am trying to figure out ways that I could connect the money to a practical application. These are some ideas I came up with: use the face of a character from a book and write about the character using the party printer, have students uses their faces and write about themselves to introduce themselves to the class at the beginning of the year, and use the playing card and have students place two character's from a book on a card and write a compare contrast paragraph about the character. Another use might be to put faces of explorers on different types of money from a country they explored; then write a list of reasons as to why this explorer found a million dollar discovery. If anyone else has an ideas, please feel free to post a comment.

Poetry

Creating a Flip Book using pages

Today students used pages to create a flip book on the Three Branches of Government. The outcome was for students to learn what the Three Branches of Government are and their functions. Student had a good graphic in their social studies book; so they used that as a starting point for their information. Then students used the website Ben's Guide to the Government for Kids: http://bensguide.gpo.gov/3-5/government/national/legislative.html to find more information.

After exploring the website; students created their flip book. First, they had to set a vertical ruler on the side of the document. You can find this under pages, preferences, enable rulers. Next, they used the shape tool to make a line at 3 inches and 4 inches on the first page of the document. (No line is placed at the bottom of the document.) They had to create a new page to place their last line at 6 1/2 inches on the new page. (Tip-if you hold down the shift key your line will be straight.) After all lines are in place, students made textboxes and placed labels of the three branches in the boxes. These boxes must be placed just above the lines, so the labels can be seen when books are put together. Finally, students had to place pictures and write a short paragraph about each Branch of Government and its function on sections of the document that were marked off with the lines. One student made a wonder graphic on the title page by placing her pictures inside a shape.

When students were finished, they printed their work and cut the document apart on each line; then layered the book and stapled it.

There you have it a flip book created on pages. You can make flip books for any subject area. Other examples may include but not limited to are 3 types of rocks, plot line in books, or 3D solid figures in math.

Making a Vociethread

After reading the poem If I Were In Charge of the World by Judith Vorist, I wrote my own version of the poem as a model for the students. Then they wrote their own versions of the poem.

We are in the process of turning our poems into a Voicethread. This seems to be taking more time then I had anticipated, but students are really enjoying this activity. When finished, I plan on posting our examples on to this blog.

Students can upload pictures to the Voicethread or make a keynote, and take a screen shot of each page; then upload it as their pictures. Using keynote is one way the students can add text to their Vociethread.

I love this activity, and students can really get creative with it.

Finding new ways to use the Promethean Board

I am experimenting with new ways to use the Promethean Board. Today I showed a Brain Pop video on erosion; then used the activotes to take the quiz. This is done by bringing up the Promethean software and activating the activotes to take the quiz. Students seemed to enjoy the experience the first few times I did it a couple of weeks ago, but were a little board with it today.

I also scanned a math worksheet last week; then placed it into a flipchart to make it interactive. This was a way for students to practice problems in a more active manner. Students were engaged by this which surprised me.