End of the Semester Farewell

I just wanted to post how much I have enjoyed this class this semester. I have learned so many new and useful things. I've shared them with my colleagues, used them in my personal life, and utilized them to enhance my assignments in my other graduate classes. I want to thank the professor for creating a cool and innovative class that is extremely relevant and interesting. I went into this class thinking we'd be learning about Microsoft Office, message boards, and a typical graphics program. I also want to thank my peers who have struggled through the ups and downs of technology to learn some new things. Congratulations to all for making it to the end of the semester. I hope you all have a happy holiday season! Enjoy the break! You deserve it.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Podcasting Part 2

My podcast was about the water cycle which is an important Standard of Learning in the third grade. We spend a lot of time teaching about the water cycle. Through Google Docs you can access a water cycle unit I team taught in one of our third grade classrooms this year. The second lesson is actually the one I did for my formal observation this year, and despite an unexpected exploding glass bowl it went really well!

Audacity

I have used the program Audacity before to create podcasts. But I haven't recorded a lecture or a lesson. I have mostly used it to record audiobooks for my listening library. It's nice to be able to transform the books in my classroom library to an audio version for the listening center. I then create a list of comprehension questions to test their listening skills.

For this project, I wrote up a small lesson on the water cycle. It covers Virgina Standard of Learning (SOL) 3.9. I added the sound effect of water dripping at the end.

I like Audacity because you can go back and cut out small sections if you make a mistake or other noises unexpectedly interfere with your recording. (like your dog barking in the middle of it!)

As a teacher, you could use Audacity for lectures like this, to assist students who were absent and missed instruction, to create audiobooks, and to record student reading. Listen to my podcast below. My script is also linked as a Word Document.


The Water Cycle Listen Now

Intel Ranking Tool

The Intel ranking tool was as easy to set-up as a teacher as it was to use as a student. I decided to make my ranking project about the accomplishments of Benjamin Franklin. We have been studying Famous Americans and it related directly to my state's Standards of Learning.

I originally made the mistake of entering my information in the first available spot instead of in the Visual Ranking Tool. I reentered my information in the Visual Ranking Tool section and set up my student teams and my question. If you would like to rank Ben's Best Stuff , feel free to take part in my mock survey. Be sure to click on the Visual Ranking Tool (second one down) and not the first one that I haven't figured out how to remove yet.

This tool would be a good way to do surveys in the computer lab or during individual morning computer work. It would probably work best with the upper elementary and secondary grades. Although primary students may be able to complete simple rankings as well. Ranking reasons for a character's acctions in a book

Ben's Best Stuff

Teacher login: iharned
Username: Team 1
Password: one

Jing Video

At first, I was stumped about what to do my Jing video on. But I scrolled down through the list of assignments for the class to remind me of some of the applications and programs we've put into practice so far. I decided to show a quick example of how to play around and change a picture using Photoshop Express.

I had some early problems including mistakenly pressing the red X at the end of the video capture which cancelled it without saving. (Unfortunately I made this mistake more than once. ) I also had some changes I wanted to make and I had to redo it a few times. Once I had a successful .swf video,

I had to download an Adobe Flash update. I still couldn't find a program on my computer that would play the file, including VLC player which I love.
So I searched on the Internet to find a program that would convert the .swf file to an .avi file which would be more compatible.I found the program Moyea which converted my Jing video with the weird .swf format to a user friendly .avi. Moyea was pretty easy and free. It did play the video and "recapture" it.

I thought the Jing video program would be great for Technology Resource Teachers that we have here in Virginia. It would also be great for anyone who was providing a training or staff development. Teachers of older students could use this to show students how to access and use programs, how and where to save files, and numrous other possibilites. It could also be used to provide information to parents about how to access the school website or use classroom recommended sites or programs. Jing is so easy and so useful. I believe it will be a normal part of my computing from now on. At least until another cool program takes it to the next level. Hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

Feel free to check out my little PhotoShop Express example below.

Jing Picture

This post will probably reflect my sentiments in past entries. I had not heard of Jing prior to this assignment. But I was curious after reading Dr. Pierce's rave review of it. So after I downloaded and watched the "How To Capture" stuff tutorial, I jumped right in.

Since I am a snowboard enthusiast and a teacher (let's face it- we all love snow days!), I decided to take an image from www.burton.com I chose a picture from the homepage of a snowboarder. I added the caption " Let it Snow. Let it Snow. Let it Snow". It's just a fun image that reflects my wishful thinking.

Using this program was easy and effortless. The little sun on the border of the screen is out of the way and yet instantly accessible. This would also be easy for students to use to capture images, and of course it will be a great tool for any teacher to add to their PowerPoints, websites, and Interactive whiteboard lessons.

Now I must find a video to capture and post.

Intel Ranking Tool

I was in Group 3 for the team ranking project about the causes of the Civil War. Our ranking was close to Group 4 and Group 6, both of which had a strong positive correlation of 0.70. Group 6 had slavery at the third position while we left it as number one. Group 4 had economic differences as their fourth position, while ours was at the second spot.

I had never used this tool before. While it was interesting to use as a student, I can see how it would be beneficial as a teacher tool. I could survey my class or ask them to rank content items and defend their reasoning. This does allow for higher level thinking skills and for some interesting group work! Now I guess that's my next assignment, so I better start thinking of ideas!