Forget Teaching, I Want to Work for Twitter!

This video shows why it is important for today's students to learn how to program compters. very interesting, but what caught my eye was what companies like Twitter and Facebook are doing to get the best IT employees. Check out the offices at Twitter. They have roof garden working space, free dry cleaning, band practice rooms,free food. and you're allowed to skateboard in the office. Makes me want to learn how to code!

Hot Diigoy Dog!

Ok, so can my blog titles get any worse?! Here is a link to my Diigo library.

Want More Blog Followers?

I found this article on edudemic.com called 30 Ways to Promote Your Blog. It has some great ideas if you seriously want to continue blogging.

I'm A YouTuber!

 

Here is my digital story that I uploaded to YouTube. It is an informational story that I will show my class this week as we begin our nonfiction research and writing unit. I felt that this was a good way to get the kids interested in the subject of animals that live in the arctic, for each student will be responsible for researching and writing a report about an arctic animal. Hopefully something in this digital story will peak their interests enough to be motivated to write a report of their own. I really enjoyed preparing this digital story and look forward to making more!

The Pig's Name is Chris P. Bacon!

Sorry, but I just love this video. I don't know if I will use it in my classroom but I had to share. It does tell a great story about overcoming disabilities, so maybe I will share it with my students, after all they do know how much I love pigs! Do you ever share silly videos with your students? My students' favorite this year was the hero pig who rescued a goat from the water.

A Blog about a Glog (aka Glogster)

Glogster is site where you can make multimedia posters. It is a cool way to put put a huge amount of information about a subject in one place. This is a Glogster for the next story in my first grade anthology called Stormy Weather. It has our phonics, comprehension skills, and information on storms on what Glogster calls a poster.  I use this on my SMARTboard and the students can also access it in the computer lab.

Have You Ever Viewed a Prezi?

I have used other educators' Prezis in my classroom but had never made one myself. Being snowed in because of the blizzard gave me the chance to  learn how to make one myself. I found out it is pretty easy to do! Prezis are like PowerPoint presentations only amped up a bit. You can focus in and out on the slides which are called tiles. I could think of a lot of uses for these in my classroom, can you?

My Voki

Here is my first attempt at making a Voki.  It would be funny to use in school if you were going to have a substitute because you can record your own voice. i just used one they already had to begin with. Maybe I'll experiment some more now that I know how it works.

Animotos for Reading

I need to teach my first graders homonyms(multiple meaning words) next week and I want to try something new, so I thought about making an Animoto. It was a great idea if I do say so myself! It is difficult to describe homonyms using just words to six and seven year olds. Using  pictures is good, but having to print out multiple pictures takes time and also uses lots of printer ink. I can't wait to show this Animoto to my students and see their their reaction. I think they are going to love it. The catchy music and quick moving photos are sure to capture their attention. If it is as successful as I think it will be, I just might make an Animoto every week for vocabulary words.

Digital Storytelling with Toondoo

I made my first cartoon with a website called toondoo. It's really cool and kids will love being able to make and write their own cartoons. It's very simple. First, you just pick characters, settings, and props if you want then. Then, you add speech bubbles and write your text.  I'm still discovering all that it can do. This is my first cartoon attempt called Sleepy Dog.

Digital Story Telling on iPads

I found out from my IT person at school that I can connect my iPad to my SMARTboard. This has made me very excited because I have found so many great apps that I want my students to be able to use. Some of these apps have to do with Digital Storytelling. I discovered a woman, Karen Ogen, who has put together this presentation on Ipad apps that can be used for digital storytelling. She has some great ideas that I never would have thought possible! Go to
http://www.lexrich5.org/webpages/kogen/files/istorytelling.swf.  to check it out. The presentation itself is done on something called iSpring, which is a more advanced version of PowerPoint.