Instructional Unit Atoms and Presentation

The most difficult part of this assignment was fitting all my information into a few slides. I did manage to get all my information on ten slides. The idea for the project was easy since I was already doing some of it with my students. I think they enjoyed making the videos though we did run into some technical difficulties, but we overcame them. It was great having access to atomic learning because that helped me and the students. We spent a couple class periods just going over videos explaining how to deal with some of the issues we ran into. I learned a lot more about making the videos right along with the students. The students also enjoyed the internet games and quizzes. I heard quite a few of them saying wow I really get this by doing these activities. I even heard it from one of my skepitcal students who originally asked me why we had to even go to the computer lab and do those stupid internet activities. I didn't have the students do the online storybook this year, but I may incorporate it next year. I will have them create a voice thread when we do the atom models. I plan to start those on this Thursday and Friday. I will just have to remember the camera so we can take pictures of the models. I have a chemical equation activity that I found online that the students can take pictures of too. The website provided colored images of chemical symbols, formulas, numbers, and arrows that the students will put together to make chemical equations that we can take pictures of. I might even have them create chemical equation balancing tutorial and problems that their classmates can solve by commenting on their voice threads. Putting together this project really helped me come up with some new ideas for teaching chemistry to eight graders in physical science I really enjoyed it, thanks Skip.

Comment on Voice Thread

I waited to post this comment until after I had done some commenting on other voice threads. I found using this technique much easier than the online storybook. However, I did run into some problems with getting my audio and video to save correctly. I ended up recording many times just to get it saved. It began to get a little frustrating and I was cut off a couple of times in the middle of comments. If it caught most of what I said and wasn't just left hanging in the middle of something I just left the audio where it was so it least I had something on there. I had the same problem when trying to comment on other's projects. I then went back to the voice thread website and browsed through some of the posts. I found some amazing ideas on there for using this tool in the classroom. I already had a few ideas for projects including having students take pictures of projects they have been doing and then reflecting on the project and what they learned. I also have thought about using it in art as a method of critique. Students work could be photographed and then the artist and other students could comment on each others work. I would probably want to keep this one private or students would have to agree to having photos of their work posted. While I was browsing I found that you could also use voice thread for review of concepts and assignments. Students can even put the answers right on the voice thread or they can hand an assignment in separately. It would be a great way to have students who are gone for sports trips or other events complete assignments and get notes while they are away. Living here where students sometimes leave for a week or more on sport trips this will be an awesome tool. I can summarize notes and leave questions that students can answer and be graded on even before they return. It would also be a great tool for bell ringers especially in our high school classes as we are in the one to one program and all high school students should have their laptops with them everyday. It would provide time for doing those before class details like attendance and other things you might need extra time for at the beginning of a class. It would be a new way of doing think pair-share because after students post their comments you could have them go and read and post on other students comments. This is a great tool that I can't wait to implement in class.

Gabby and Ryleigh's Trip to the Florida Aquarium

Panraven Online Storybook

Panraven Online Storybook

After many trials and tribulations I finally got through getting an online storybook created in Panraven. I began in Tabblo and liked many of the features there much more, but I could not get my pictures ordered the way I wanted them to go. Panraven was much easier setting up the order of pictures for the storybook. I still had problems and my computer almost crashed. When I was finishing I realized many of my photographs were in low resolution so I don't know if it is worth trying to get this published. I would like to publish it because I think my granddaughters would love it, but I don't know if it will work. The pictures may end up looking grainy when they are printed so I'll have to do some checking on it first. I don't really know if I could use this for a class project. It was very difficult to get it set up and then most of the writing at least in Panraven didn't fit. I did notice there was other page layouts that possibly could have more text, but when I tried one of those layouts my computer froze and I ended up with a white screen that I am still dealing with. I think there must be an easier way to have students create an online storybook so I will have to investigate it much more. I would love to have them document one of their labs or inquiries though so I will have to think about it.

Working on my Online Story Book

I hope that I can get my story book online sometime tonight. I was working on a story book in Tabblo so that I could actually get a soft copy published for my granddaughters for Christmas. I think they would really get a kick out of seeing themselves in a book and reading a story of our adventures at the Florida Aquarium. Actually if I can get the hang of it I would probably make a book for each of my grandchildren highlighting an experience or day we had together. I think it will be a great educational tool for teaching my grandchildren about the places and things we saw. I am highlighting the wildlife I photographed at the Florida Aquarium and explaining some of the ecology or biology associated with each organism. I can see using it in my classroom highlighting lab projects or possibly making a zoobook in biology. I again see some problems possibly with copy right issues of pictures my students might want to use off the internet. I just thought about contacting Fish and Wildlife or even the Park Service here and seeing if they have pictures archived there that my students might be able to use. I know they have lots of photos at least at Fish and Wildlife because we always had to take photos when we were out in the field. I also have lots of photos that could be used and I could also have students do their own drawings for the books and scan them in. I am sure I will be able to find ways to utilize this tool. It would be a great way for students to document their lab experiences and share their observations, diagrams, and even pictures (since we have a classroom digital camera) online with other students doing similar experiments or even to put on our schools website. Once I get something done that can be put up on here I will comment somemore on the experience of creating this book. I was waiting for things to upload so I figured I would go ahead and do a post now with more to come.

Flickr Slide Show Florida Aquarium

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I found using Flickr photo a little difficult at first. I tried to upload my photos at home and could not get anything to upload. I ended up saving my photos on my laptop so I could upload them at school. Once I got the hang of it everything went pretty well. I got my photos uploaded my titles and descriptions on. I then had to re-visit elive to get directions for putting the slide show on my blog. I also had to download firefox because for some reason flickr.com did not load correctly on Internet Explorer there was an error on the page. I could not go to organize to create my set and order my slides for my story. Once I got on Firefox I was able to create my set and order my pictures. Then when I went to FlickrSlidr I could not preview the slide show because there was no plugin even after I downloaded Adobe Flash. There was definitely some frustrating moments, but for the most part I really enjoyed the project. I was trying to think of how I might use this in my classroom and nothing was coming to me at first. I was working on my assignment at carnival and one of my students asked what I was doing then made the comment that she would really like to try to make a Flickr Slide show. As I was setting up my descriptions and explaining the scientific information about the birds and animals in my slide show I realized I could use it to have students take pictures during field trips or of lab projects and put them in a Flickr Slide Show to share with others on the internet or to put on our school web site. I was trying to think of ways that we could get photos that would not cause copyright issues also. The only things I could think of was maybe setting up a folder with the many pictures I have taken at field camps and national parks. I have quite a few pictures that I could use to set up a picture library for students to publish their own Flickr Shows. They would be required to do the research for the scientific descriptions. As I was sitting here writing this post I thought of having students take pictures of their labs and inquiry projects as a possibility as I mentioned before. Again writing the descriptions with scientific information and details about their methods and observations would certainly help reinforce and enhance their learning.