Tornado Alley

Staying out of the Eiras' way was quite difficult, letting her work on her own was really hard. She has never done anything like this before so some of the vocabulary that I used was not in her memory. I had to teach her the words and what they meant and then tell her what she needed to do to get the results that I wanted from her. She really enjoyed making all the tables like the KWL Chart and the Storyboard also the Works cited she had never heard of so I had to show her how to make it and what it was used for. Altogether this project was fun and could teach a class how to do this. It may take a bit longer to teach the students but once they learned it would make for great projects. Helping her to tap into her creativity was not hard at all she wanted to know more and to figure out how to get the video into her blog so trying to get her to understand those things were great. The overall of the service project went great and I am proud of the results of the voice thread she produced for a first timer.

Service Project

My students are excited they have came up with a question that they thought would be interesting and that they have been wondering for a while. Eiras has made a blog and has made a short blog to get the idea of how to use the page. The idea of her trying to get a question that required her to think deeply was hard. I had to ask her numerous questions to get her to think deeply. That her ideas where hers and that she needed to think about how she could actually answer her own question, how she might find the answers and possibly how there could be no answer to the question. We started off with the KWL chart to help get her past the point of trying to figure out. Next we are going to work on research and then the voice thread.

Spreading the knowledge

The ability for the students to use many tools in the classroom is both resourceful and helpful a teacher needs to be able to help the students by allow them to learn many new technology tools. All the information a person has must be given to the next. Using valuable tools like the spreadsheet may help a child who has a problem with adding or putting information down on paper. Being able to put the information into a usable chart that has organization and flow will ease a child's anxiety. The use of this tool in the classroom cover many topics for example the students can use it to chart the paths of the hurricanes in the last ten years. With the column having the years and the names in the rows. Each spreadsheet can be customized to fit your subject or information. We are going to check the unit plan for TEKs. The amount and detail is up to the creator. The spreadsheet can be fun and have the students be creative.

I have created a spreadsheet with questions that a student could possibly do to extent the lesson on hurricanes. Here is the sample FOOD BUDGET. I also asked questions that I knew they would have to think and come up with their own answers. Types of foods, amounts of the food and how much each person will eat to figure the total they will need each day. The spreadsheet will come in use for many application and should be a great tool for any teacher.

Woohoooo a Video !!!!!

The ideas used in schools should be kept to school related themes and subjects. The tools and the objects that a teacher uses should be clearly checked and understood by the students. The students need to feel confident when shooting and filming the movie or video. The editing process can be confusing and time consuming each student should have a storyboard down with detailed ideas and prompts to allow for the video to flow.

Allowing for the use of the movies to be made in the classroom provides for an extreme amount creativity and feedback from students and parents. A video can be watched and reviewed by parents for a percent of the student grade. The possibilities are so endless with the creation of the videos by students that it will make a great lesson no matter what the lesson may be. The video I created extends on the unit plan about hurricanes, and I have included plastics. This video helps teach proper preparation during a hurricane and reducing the need for plastics so that they don't end up in the ocean when the hurricane has past. Hurricanes & Plastics with works citied.

Art in digital storytelling

The art of storytelling, it can be digital through the work of movie making which including images, pictures, and audio. There are 7 important steps to telling a story the point of view, which gives the authors view how the producer wants the information to be portrayed. It also has a dramatic question that will be answered at the end of the story. Emotional content is also involved, the power of the message. The authors voice to help personalize the story. We would like music to be added to help support storyline. You want to have just enough information, not overloading the story. Pacing is the last element, you must allow for proper pacing and flow of the story.

To make a great digital story you must include all of these elements and help students understand that it’s a great thing to use them and always think about them when making a digital story. The digital story flows with a mix of videos and images; it has live shots of the important information with audio in the back to emphasize the shots taken. The shots that they take to make the story are important and the students should learn about the elements to video making. The digital stories are a great tool to use in the class it helps with extending a lesson. This allows for students to work in small groups, learn about technology, and make a cool digital story to share with friends and family. In my unit plan is an in depth look at the TEKs and questions surrounding the digital story.

The wonderful world of digital stories.....

When you introduce stories to a child its at a very young age. Stories are with a child forever. Giving a student the ability to have many different stories available to them makes a world of difference in their learning. They learn so much more and have a love for reading that's unimaginable. When you introduce digital stories to them and allow students to create a digital story in the classroom you are opening them up to a world of fun and excitement about learning.

Many things are involved in digital stories, you bring in all the subjects that they are learning in the classroom, math is involved by them timing the slide cast, science is used to have them develop a problem and try to fix it, language arts is used too in reading and writing skills, spelling skills, and social studies to allow them to relate to the past and future. So many things are incorporated in the digital story and it can be used in many projects. Hurricanes is an example that involves a multi-curricular topic. Many learning tools are used to find out a simple question. See sample activity plan.

The research has been done the popularity of the digital stories is high. The youngest students can go and do a digital story. The teacher can also go and make one and the students go in an respond by adding voice or comments to the story. It allows for the connection of the world to each other. Many people don't have access to talk on the phone but through a digital story many people can stay connected and up to date with each other, like pen pals or far away parents. Technology is so advanced to teachers that using all the tools out there is a hard task but staying up with the latest ones and the most useful are the best way to enhance a child's learning.

Hurricanes

View more OpenOffice presentations from Monica Pugh.

Internet Resources

Many things can be found off of the Internet, are they really good for are students to be looking and there are many education sites that aren't educational. As an educator you must pick and choice what is right for your students and make sure they are being able to have quality time with a good source. There are many search engines that are kid friendly sites. So when a student gets on a search engine they must know how to look for the information appropriately. The student must be able to put in the information in the search bar to get the best hits on the topic. Using the Internet and having students make up their own blog is an idea situation, or having a group blog.

This could be where student groups create a blog and follow each others all year long. This helps with social media groups and allows for peer review and feedback. Many sites help out with teaching the students how to create and review a blog. When a student tags their work it allow for easier finding of the archive later. Labeling all things helps with organization. The evaluation tools that are listed are a great resource for peer grading and reviews. A works cited for all your students work is a great resource for them the have and to learn to do with every project it is a lifelong learning tool that makes the assignment easier if they need to reference a topic. This works cited was done for Hurricanes. It is an example of the many sites and enormous amount of information that the Internet holds and how valuable the resources can be. Many other options for learning on the Internet are available. The Rss feeder, vi op, chat, and video. These are all things that can enhance any learning in the classroom if they are taught right to the students and used to the maximum potential of the student. The Internet just brings the world together.