I actually use digital stories often in the library. I love to use book trailers when I do book talks for classes. The visual images, in combination with music and words, can "sell" a student on a book much better than my description alone. When I talk about books, I usually have a combination of trailers and those without. The books with trailers always get checked out first.
Book talks is only a portion of what I do. I can see that digital stories could really add to the actual lessons that I teach as well. It's reminding of when I used to teach high school social studies. I used to try hard to make the "stories" come alive to my students by painting a word picture, and talking in a conversational way that pulled them in. Why then have I started doing all of my library lessons as power points with bullets? Wouldn't these lessons be impacted just as much by "stories"? I have tried some things, but there is really so much more out there that will really allow me to impact my students more.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Digital Storytelling
I am really looking forward to this class. I think that I'm in for a lot of work, but the content seems interesting. These are skills that everyone needs to improve on, and if I can make my presentations more effective and entertaining, I will be able to make a larger impact on my school community.
I am also a little worried about this class. Typically, creativity is not one of my strong suits. I have never enjoyed creative writing and I am artistically challenged. (My stick figure don't even look like stick figures) Hopefully I can learn some skills and tools that will help my struggling right brain. I have used some tools, like photostory and microsoft movie maker to make "book trailers" and as an assessment tool for a health class project. (The students create a photo story as their final presentation for a unit on diseases - some of these were very personal and powerful)
I am actually currently seeking an alternative to Photostory. Our district upgraded to Windows 7 over the summer, and chose not to purchase the compatible upgrade to photostory. Therefore we need to come up with something else for the health classes to use before these projects begin again in January.
I am also a little worried about this class. Typically, creativity is not one of my strong suits. I have never enjoyed creative writing and I am artistically challenged. (My stick figure don't even look like stick figures) Hopefully I can learn some skills and tools that will help my struggling right brain. I have used some tools, like photostory and microsoft movie maker to make "book trailers" and as an assessment tool for a health class project. (The students create a photo story as their final presentation for a unit on diseases - some of these were very personal and powerful)
I am actually currently seeking an alternative to Photostory. Our district upgraded to Windows 7 over the summer, and chose not to purchase the compatible upgrade to photostory. Therefore we need to come up with something else for the health classes to use before these projects begin again in January.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Course Reflection
Whew! This has been the toughest of the classes so far. Apparently my life has a very delicate balance and I can function when all of the pieces fit where they are supposed to. But when one of those pieces slips out of place....watch out.
Actually, I can keep everything together when I stay on top of them, but I managed to get behind in this class and it made it very hard to keep going. That being said, I really enjoyed the class. These are important concepts to effective teaching that sometimes get forgotten in the push for "content". It is necessary to reflect on the different ways that we can impact our students, and to develop an arsenal of strategies to have at our disposal. Isn't it funny how sometimes the simplest concepts (such as feedback) are the ones that we tend to forget, yet they are also the ones that can provide the biggest "aha" moments?!
Actually, I can keep everything together when I stay on top of them, but I managed to get behind in this class and it made it very hard to keep going. That being said, I really enjoyed the class. These are important concepts to effective teaching that sometimes get forgotten in the push for "content". It is necessary to reflect on the different ways that we can impact our students, and to develop an arsenal of strategies to have at our disposal. Isn't it funny how sometimes the simplest concepts (such as feedback) are the ones that we tend to forget, yet they are also the ones that can provide the biggest "aha" moments?!
Week 5 Homework and Practice/Similarities and Differences/Hypotheses
Homework and Practice
Practice is extremely important in order for a skill to become second nature. However, there needs to be a point to the assignments. Constant drills lose their effectiveness after a while. If homework is to be successful, it needs to build on the learning and expand on the lesson. If students are engaged in the learning they will be more apt to complete the assignments and they will certainly get more out of them.
Similarities and Differences
This is an important skill for students to learn. It is often one of the easiest ways to begin analyzing information. I have used wordle.net as a way to visualize the similarities and differences. Students have put the attributes of one character in a wordle and the attributes of another in a separate wordle. Then we start to reduce the number of words in each. It soon becomes apparent what the similar attributes are, as well as which ones are different.
Generating and Testing Hypotheses
I have generally only thought of hypotheses in regards to science classes, but I suppose that it is a skill that you could easily apply to all aspects of learning. Aren't the reading predictions that we ask students to make really just hypotheses by another name? Don't we want students to form questions in order to guide their learning? I know that I will be more careful about getting hung up on terminology in the future.
Practice is extremely important in order for a skill to become second nature. However, there needs to be a point to the assignments. Constant drills lose their effectiveness after a while. If homework is to be successful, it needs to build on the learning and expand on the lesson. If students are engaged in the learning they will be more apt to complete the assignments and they will certainly get more out of them.
Similarities and Differences
This is an important skill for students to learn. It is often one of the easiest ways to begin analyzing information. I have used wordle.net as a way to visualize the similarities and differences. Students have put the attributes of one character in a wordle and the attributes of another in a separate wordle. Then we start to reduce the number of words in each. It soon becomes apparent what the similar attributes are, as well as which ones are different.
Generating and Testing Hypotheses
I have generally only thought of hypotheses in regards to science classes, but I suppose that it is a skill that you could easily apply to all aspects of learning. Aren't the reading predictions that we ask students to make really just hypotheses by another name? Don't we want students to form questions in order to guide their learning? I know that I will be more careful about getting hung up on terminology in the future.
Comparison of On-line Mapping Tools
I have used a number of these on-line mapping tools before. I love Webspiration, it is easy to use and they have great graphics. However, it is too expensive for large-scale use. Bubbl.us is a good simple tool that is really easy to use, and free! If you have younger children, or are just looking for a very basic mind-map, this is a great site to use. I am afraid that our older students are often looking for things with more bells and whistles. Some of the other sites could be used as presentation tools as well (once you add pictures and other content), but this one is too basic for that use. I have used Mind Meister myself for other classes and found it to be easy to use, however students need to have an e-mail address in order to sign-up. This is a big issue for our district. We have talked about setting up Gaggle accounts for our students in the future, but as of yet that is not the case.
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