Thursday, March 10, 2011
Xtranormal Presentation
I can't tell you how much fun I had planning this presentation! I got to play around making movies, cartoons, and writing scripts! Drama and Art were always my favorite subjects and these programs: Xtranormal, Animoto, and Goanimate are so easy to use.
I was first introduced to Xtranormal when my practicum teacher used it to create a fake video conference with a Ear expert. We were working on the Hearing and Sound unit and had some science experts come in to review the program. The kids loved how both my partner teacher and I got to interact with the Ear doctor. She had the program divide the kids into groups and explain the tasks that they had to do. It created such a fun environment from the very start of the lesson that the students were "hooked" until the end and didn't want to go out for recess!
Xtranormal is very well designed but beware if you are a perfectionist because you can spend hours going over and adding to your cartoon.There are tons of different styles to choose from (cuddly bears and crash test dummies ). If you want to go for the more detailed graphics it could end up costing you. However, as educators we can send an e-mail to their customer service address and get all the fees dropped. I was so impressed with this choice on their part, because this really is a great educating tool. I would caution anyone from letting their grade 4 class go on this site alone or unsupervised just because it does have an age restriction (pg13). I believe they chose this because you can view other people's movies and some of them would definitely not be appropriate for young children. For student use without constant supervision I would recommend Goanimate because it is also easy to use and especially created for a younger age group. I loved the little props that you can use in Goanimate. It is not 3 dimensional like Xtranormal but it does the trick.
WEBSITES:
http://www.xtranormal.com
http://animoto.com
http://goanimate.com
Friday, March 4, 2011
Guest speakers fron the Calgary Catholic Board
Build 21century learning environments
-supporting one another in our practice
-supporting teachers
-going from the classic lecturer to listener to active collaboration
-Aisi = Alberta government help for teachers
-searching vs research
I love the term elbow partners, very creative way of saying turn to the people beside you.
I am pleased to hear that the government did not cut this program completely, though a 50% drop in funding is substantial. The Literacy and numeracy is exactly what my partner teacher was trying to tell me when I was doing my practicum; they are beyond the subjects of Math or English just concentrating on the skills. Need to use technology to support tasks that are interesting. I love the commercial that one of the speakers ended with to illustrate the point that technology can only be used when it makes sense. The man kills a fly with his ipad and smashes the ipad far worse than the fly.
I love the points the speaker is making about the loss of skills in handwriting and wrist and finger strength. I noticed it in my first practicum and especially when I tried to get the students to sew a Christmas craft that I remember doing in grade 3. I was working with grade 5 students and they could not sew for the life of them; the project took all day. If someone had worked on fine motor skills when they were younger or even if I had thought to do some work before then it would have helped them to be more successful.
Be Positive!
I was unaware that showing library movies was illegal in the classroom.I really appreciated the link to the movie data base.
-supporting one another in our practice
-supporting teachers
-going from the classic lecturer to listener to active collaboration
-Aisi = Alberta government help for teachers
-searching vs research
I love the term elbow partners, very creative way of saying turn to the people beside you.
I am pleased to hear that the government did not cut this program completely, though a 50% drop in funding is substantial. The Literacy and numeracy is exactly what my partner teacher was trying to tell me when I was doing my practicum; they are beyond the subjects of Math or English just concentrating on the skills. Need to use technology to support tasks that are interesting. I love the commercial that one of the speakers ended with to illustrate the point that technology can only be used when it makes sense. The man kills a fly with his ipad and smashes the ipad far worse than the fly.
I love the points the speaker is making about the loss of skills in handwriting and wrist and finger strength. I noticed it in my first practicum and especially when I tried to get the students to sew a Christmas craft that I remember doing in grade 3. I was working with grade 5 students and they could not sew for the life of them; the project took all day. If someone had worked on fine motor skills when they were younger or even if I had thought to do some work before then it would have helped them to be more successful.
Be Positive!
I was unaware that showing library movies was illegal in the classroom.I really appreciated the link to the movie data base.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Working on the Circumference of the Earth
This was a fun task to complete and I know I would want to do this with my own students if I taught grades 5 or 6. I learnt the most about creating blog pages and what a powerful tool they can be in school. I would love for my class to have enough time to access the computers for a blog page. Unfortunately the reality is that this might be a homework assignment or a year long project that has only a few entries because of the limited time most classes have in the computer labs. Blogging would be a great way to get students to reflect and become more accomplished typers. I believe that being familiar with this type of technology will benefit me in the instance that now that I know how to use it I more likely will.
Because our group had difficult time schedules we had to do quite a bit of work by correspondence and shared passwords. I found that this was a very effective way to work as long as the whole group understands the deadlines and objectives of the project. I think our group did very well when we divided the tasks and had an outline created. It was the easiest to do because of our schedules and everyone became accountable to the group for specific projects. I put the most pressure on the group because of my holiday plans and they were very accommodating by agreeing to meet a week earlier than we would have normally to plan everything out. Being away I did not see the finished project until I returned and was really impressed how it all came together. The most frustrating thing that we encountered was even though we all thought the project would be a great experience, we could not replicate it because it was the wrong time of the year and we could not get in touch with anyone from a school on the same latitude as us to complete the experiment. Because of this we had to find a more complicated way to figure out the circumference which involved several extra steps. I felt disappointed that I could not be part of the final steps to putting the project together, but I really enjoyed my holiday. Next time I think I will invest in a fortune teller to inform me if the holidays written in the handbook are correct or not so I could be part of the whole process. the only thing I need to work on now is finding those contacts so that if i do attempt this project in the future I will have another teacher who is 500km away that I can work with.
Because our group had difficult time schedules we had to do quite a bit of work by correspondence and shared passwords. I found that this was a very effective way to work as long as the whole group understands the deadlines and objectives of the project. I think our group did very well when we divided the tasks and had an outline created. It was the easiest to do because of our schedules and everyone became accountable to the group for specific projects. I put the most pressure on the group because of my holiday plans and they were very accommodating by agreeing to meet a week earlier than we would have normally to plan everything out. Being away I did not see the finished project until I returned and was really impressed how it all came together. The most frustrating thing that we encountered was even though we all thought the project would be a great experience, we could not replicate it because it was the wrong time of the year and we could not get in touch with anyone from a school on the same latitude as us to complete the experiment. Because of this we had to find a more complicated way to figure out the circumference which involved several extra steps. I felt disappointed that I could not be part of the final steps to putting the project together, but I really enjoyed my holiday. Next time I think I will invest in a fortune teller to inform me if the holidays written in the handbook are correct or not so I could be part of the whole process. the only thing I need to work on now is finding those contacts so that if i do attempt this project in the future I will have another teacher who is 500km away that I can work with.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Presentation on Second Language Aquisition and Researching
The second group also gave some excellent sites. I am really excited to use Jing; it looks like a great program. I also didn't know about the e-library on the Calgary Public Library site. It is just amazing that you can get papers from around the world for free and that are current. I would get so frustrated in my first year when I would find a great video and not be able to play it in the class. In this way you can download the video and share it in the class. I found this class extremely helpful and I cant wait to use it.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Visit from Neil Stephenson
"Inquiry is how you think about the topics that you teach."
-Neil Stephenson
I was really impressed with Neil as a speaker and the information he provided for the class. I was really interested in the Calgary Science School as a school and their modus operandi. I loved how they decided against expanding into two schools or a high school because they wanted to maintain their small status and focus on perfecting their teaching skills to help others. I was not surprised that there are 3/4 more boy's at the school than girl's, but I was disappointed.
I really agreed with what he had to say about the inquiry procedure. I really liked how Neil made a point to discuss the fact that many teachers think that just having the technology in their classroom will help. I love that it is not about the technology; it is about the thought that goes behind the task that the teacher decides how to use the tools and why. He also reiterated the fact that teachers have to balance the fine line between teacher centered classrooms and student centered classrooms. I just loved this class there was so much information to think about.
-Neil Stephenson
I was really impressed with Neil as a speaker and the information he provided for the class. I was really interested in the Calgary Science School as a school and their modus operandi. I loved how they decided against expanding into two schools or a high school because they wanted to maintain their small status and focus on perfecting their teaching skills to help others. I was not surprised that there are 3/4 more boy's at the school than girl's, but I was disappointed.
I really agreed with what he had to say about the inquiry procedure. I really liked how Neil made a point to discuss the fact that many teachers think that just having the technology in their classroom will help. I love that it is not about the technology; it is about the thought that goes behind the task that the teacher decides how to use the tools and why. He also reiterated the fact that teachers have to balance the fine line between teacher centered classrooms and student centered classrooms. I just loved this class there was so much information to think about.
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