my version of transparent, collaborative leadership...with a Teamann twist

Extra time?

by Leave a Comment

Did you LAUGH at my title? As teachers, we all know that there is NO such thing as extra time. Especially in the Spring in Texas, wink wink…

I think there are spurts of time, maybe just not for us or for every single student. There’s always one or two kids who get done first or maybe aren’t on the same page with you in class anyway that could use a bit of direction.

I got this site in my email today (gotta love the listservs!) about ABCya! Their blurb:

ABCya! is the leader in free educational kids computer games and activitiesfor elementary students to learn on the web. All children’s educational computer games and activities were created or approved by certified teachers. ABCya! educational games are free and are modeled from primary grade lessons and enhanced to provide an interactive way for children to learn. ABCya! games and activities incorporate content areas such as math andreading while introducing basic computer skills. Many of the kindergarten andfirst grade games are equipped with sound to enhance understanding.

 

I checked out the fourth grade options and there looked to be some good centered based activities. Keep in mind that even an extra 5 minutes in the
computer lab, in the back of the room, or on the presentation computer would be SO beneficial. Students who are struggling could use a different

approach or another visual to help solidify what they are seeing. Take advange of this free site, ABCya!

 

C-ing ya later,

Amber

Why flip out?

by Leave a Comment

Love the phrase I read today…”Video is the new Power Point”….and I so agree! One of my favorite lines from Grey’s Anatomy that I use ALL the time is “Power Point is SO 1997.” Makes me chuckle every time, 🙂

Luckily, the days of yesteryear are gone, where it takes an expert, or an army, or a week to make something happen with a camcorder. Many digital cameras have a “movie” button and now we have the newest “toy”, er, “tool” in education…the flip camera. I’ve blogged about the flip camera before but think that many teachers still struggle with its place in the classroom. Here are THREE high quality, new and improved, and value sized links that can give YOU even more ideas.

My Luna Lions, I would LOVE to include some videos from YOUR classroom for the campus website. Let me know if you are doing something interesting, informational, or just want to fire up your students…I’ll be your personal videographer!

  1. FortyWays – This GoogleDoc presents in a visual format forty different ways to use a Flip Camera in the classroom. Some good ideas and certainly some that can be adapted for all age levels and abilities.
  2. FlipVideo – A wiki dedicated to the use of Flip Cameras in education and moderated byChris Bell. It has sample videos, ideas for Flip accessories, and links to some ‘workshops’ including Digital Storytelling, Video Podcasting, and an introduction to the Flip camera. A good place to start and find some ideas for your classroom.
  3. Video In the Classroom is a site all about using (surprisingly enough) Video in the Classroom, 🙂

director-ly,
Amber

web 2.0 wow!

by Leave a Comment

  In my Tech Edge newsletter this week there was a fancy list of new web 2.0 tools for both teachers and students. Many of these I’d seen or heard of before, but there were a couple newbies thrown in, 🙂 I thought I’d share the list with you, just in case you too needed a fresh toy, er, tool, for Spring. 🙂
  • 280 Slides – presentation tool similar to PowerPoint; embed video, audio, and images
  • Animoto – “the end of slideshows;” create videos from still images
  • Aviary – free photo editing tools
  • Create A Graph – great for even young students to easily create and change graphs
  • Creately – create and collaborate on online diagrams and designs
  • Crocodoc – easily share and review documents online, including PDF, Word, and PowerPoint
  • Eyeplorer – search and cross reference terms in Wikipedia in order to collate notes
  • Gliffy – draw and share diagrams on the web
  • GoAnimate – make your own cartoons and animations
  • Kerpoof – create pictures, cards, book, and even movies; for elementary students
  • Number Gossip – a search engine for everything about numbers
  • Penzu – the anti-blog; keep your thoughts private in this online journal
  • Phuser – personal message boards and private shared discussion spaces
  • Scribble Maps – lets you draw, scribble, and annotate over Google maps
  • Springnote – free online notebook based on a wiki
  • Stixy – flexible online creation and collaboration
  • ToonDoo – online cartoon strip creator
  • VideoLobby – create your own professionally-styled live webcast
  • Voki – create your own avatar; even record your voice
  • Voxopop – audio tool that lets users record their voice for others to listen and respond to
  • WallWisher – a virtual bulletin board where users can attach sticky notes and discussion points
  • Web-Chops – users can “clip” any part of a web page and rearrange clips onto a custom page that can be shared with other people, eliminating ads or questionable material
  • WordSift – text visualization tool
  • Writeboard – collaborative writing software
  • Xtranormal – text-to-speech avatar movie making

Let me know if you do something fabulous with one of these!

 

Webbingly,

Amber

Transitioning Teamann

by Leave a Comment

As most know by now, I have transitioned over from my role as Title I Technology Facilitator to an Assistant Principal role at Luna Elementary. I’m now fully switched over, 🙂 and have started figuring out where to go from there.

One such transition is this blog. I have always been a “tech”nically driven person and I can’t imagine that changing, regardless of my role. I think I’ll just be able to add in some admin related pieces…that have application to my campus specifically, as well.

Luckily, my PLN (8amber8) on Twitter is a diversified group and there are several administrators that share my technology interest, so I have that to start with. And hopefully, I’ll get my new campus on board as well. It’ll be a PLC & PLN blogging bonanza!!

planningly,
Amber

Connecting with Comments

by Leave a Comment

The training schedule for next semester will be added to the intranet this week. One of the new classes that we’ll be offering will be on blogs and having your own classroom blog. I’m going to be doing several posts about blogs and why/how I think they are such an easy way to not only integrate technology into your classroom, but also provide you with an opportunity to extend your classroom beyond your four walls and your 8 to 3 time slot.
Since I know I have some readers (lurkers!) that already are blogging, I wanted to start with commenting and how to lead your students in the right directions when teaching them to comment. Just like with any other tool, modeling what you expect from your students is VERY important. Show them other blogs that have great comments and the comments you find lacking. Discuss with your students why each example is good or what is missing from those you’d rather not see.
One of the most important pieces to show students is that you want each comment to be meaningful and actually contribute to the post. Simply saying ” I agree” or “This class rocks” does not count. I wanted my students to either give a strong opinion on what I was writing about or to agree or disagree with another students comments. I taught them to use the “@” for their reply discussions. For example, @Icantu…I agree with what you said but what about…@Jaliefen, remember in class when Mrs. Teamann said….
This helped everyone keep up. Many posts I required my students to comment and then address someone’s comment as well. Conversations would begin, and I would simply try to keep up, 🙂
Keeping in mind that I taught math and science, one point of controversy is whether or not I counted off for spelling or if I released comments that had misspelled words. Yes, I did. I wasn’t using my blog to teach writing, grammar or spelling. I wanted discussions about the content of our classes to be the focus. An added bonus was that the students policed themselves. MY fourth graders were MUCH harsher than I could have been when their peers misspelled words like “friend” than I could have been. Getting called out on the playground for such a thing only happened a couple of times before I noticed students taking their writing SO much more seriously.
From Twitter (8Amber8,) I was directed to a great blog, The Langwitches Blog where this teacher recommended these reminders to her students in regards to how to comment on their class blog.
  • Acknowledge the author of the blog post.
  • Let the author know if you agree with him/her and why.
  • It is also ok to disagree with something, just let the author know why you feel that way.
  • One word comments are not very useful. Writing just “cool” or “nice” are not very
  • helpful and don’t let the author of the blog post really know what you are thinking.
  • Always make sure you follow “netiquette”. Think if it is appropriate BEFORE you hit
  • the submit button.
  • Always be polite . It does not matter if you agree or disagree with what you are reading in a blog. Don’t write anything you would be ashamed of saying to someone’s face.
  • Don’t hurt somebody’s feelings.
I thought this was a great place to start!
Commentingly,
Amber