Math Stories with GoAnimate

Our 6th grade students used GoAnimate for Schools to create their own animated math stories to share what they have learned thus far in math by either creating a story that demonstrates how to apply a mathematical process or to create a problem for others to solve.  View some of our students' creative examples below.

Which country should host the next Olympics?

Everyone out there in the world, the 7th graders at our school need your help!  They just completed an integrated Social Studies/Language Arts project creating videos to convince you to host the next Olympics in a country that they researched.  Now they need you to decide which video is the most persuasive.

To coincide with the 7th grade Social Studies curriculum of world cultures, students worked in teams in their Social Studies classes to research different countries.  Studies needed to find information on the history of the country's flag, national anthem, and popular tourist attractions, among other information.

In Language Arts, students worked to learn the different persuasive techniques that appear in advertising.  Some of the techniques learned included slogans, repetition, testimonials, glittering generalities, and bandwagon.  They learned how advertisers used these techniques to appeal to us and sway our opinions.

Once students completed the above, it was time to put what they learned together.  In Language Arts, students created videos using Animoto to persuade viewers as to why the next Olympics should be held in the country that they researched.  They needed to combine the facts learned from their Social Studies research with the persuasive techniques studied in Language Arts.  For some students the task was more challenging than others!  Despite the obstacles, students created very impressive and persuasive products.

Now we are looking to you to help decide which country should host the next Olympics.  Please view the top 11 videos on our Google Site, Olympic Videos.  After viewing the videos, please access the Google Form (also available on our Google Site) and vote for your favorite.  Voting will be open until March 15.  The winning country will be announced the week of March 17.  Everyone's vote counts, so please tell your students, parents, neighbors, friends, and other family members to vote as well.

We can't wait to see the results!  Thank you for your votes!

Photo credits: Sydney 2000 Olympics - Athletics . Photography.Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 26 Feb 2014. http://quest.eb.com/images/158_2462956

Analyzing Characters with Voicethread

Students in Mrs. Yeager's Language Arts class are using Voicethread to help them think deeply about the characters that they are reading about in their Reading Workshop books.  Each student created a Voicethread with text and audio comments to share information about their book's main character.  Then they shared their Voicethread with another student in the class who interpreted the information shared about this character and responded with further questions and comments.  The result is a conversation about different characters with higher-level thinking and deep analysis.  Below are a few examples of what the students have done already.  The conversations are ongoing, so new questions and comments will be added soon.

What is Digital Citizenship?

Students in my Integrated Technology classes are just beginning to learn how to define digital citizenship and  what that term encompasses.  To demonstrate their understanding of its definition, students created digital citizenship word clouds using Tagxedo.  Tagxedo also allows students the ability to make creative shapes with their word clouds.  See some samples of their work below.

7th Grade Skype with Olympic Torch Bearer Jon Tait

Yesterday during Bulldog Time all 7th graders had a Skype visit from a very special speaker,  Jon Tait, a physical education teacher from the United Kingdom and an Olympic torch bearer for his country during the summer 2012 London Olympics.  Jon's presentation about the meaning and history of the Olympic torch and his feelings representing his country as a torch bearer were the focus of his presentation.  Students also had the opportunity to ask questions about his experiences- everything from what he wore as a torch bearer to how he was chosen to represent his country.  This was done using Skype's group call feature, allowing us to connect 6 Skype accounts at once.

Jon's presentation provided a perfect connection to 7th graders' current integrated Language Arts/Social Studies project.  Students are connecting what they are learning about world countries in Social Studies to their Language Arts study of persuasion.  Currently, students are in groups researching details about one country in the world.  Next week, they will take what they learned about that country and create a persuasive video in Language Arts that attempts to persuade the "Olympic Committee" to host the next Olympic games in their country.

You may wonder who are the elite members of the "Olympic Committee" that will be deciding which country is selected for the next games.  The answer is EVERYONE!  As soon as students' videos are complete, we will send out a link asking for you to decide which video is the winner.  Stay tuned for the completed videos at the beginning of March.

A big thank you goes out to Jon Tait for taking his time to share his experiences with our students.  His passion and ability to easily connect with kids really impacted our students.  At the end of the day as I passed students in the hall, I heard so many "thank yous" and "that was awesome." 

To learn more about Jon Tait, visit his Skype in the Classroom page or follow him on Twitter @TeamTait.

Integrated Technology featured in Mrs. Young's article about Digital Citizenship

I am very excited to share that I have officially written my first article for an educational publication.  I wrote an article entitled "A 21st Century Model for Teaching Digital Citizenship" which is being published in the February issue of Educational Horizons magazine.  This article is all about how I teach Integrated Technology and my philosophies about teaching topics such as Internet Safety, Cyberbullying, and Copyright.  You can read my article in full text on the Educational Horizons website until February 12.  Let me know what you think:

Access my article at: http://pilambda.org/horizons/a-21st-century-model-for-teaching-digital-citizenship.

Spanish Language Practice Using Photostory

Sixth-graders in Mrs. Hurst's Spanish classes used Photostory3 to illustrate and share information about themselves using the Spanish that they learned during the first semester. To complete the project, students had to write 13 facts about themselves in Spanish and then add audio to five slides of their choice. Students really enjoyed sharing the Spanish that they learned while also creating a rich multimedia project about themselves.  See some examples of their final products below.

Schools of the Future using Voki and iFakeText

As semester one comes to an end, I have mixed feelings about the group of Integrated Technology kids who will leave me. While I will miss working daily with this great group of kids, I also want to celebrate how far they have come and the exciting work that they have done!

As a fun culminating activity to challenge them to think about how technology will affect the future of education, I used this idea from Jessica Johnston.  Students first created a Voki of a student who attends school 50 years from now in the year 2064.  Imagining what a student living 50 years from now would share, students considered how technology will make learning different from the way students learn today.  The second step was to create a fake text conversation between themselves and this student of the future using iFakeText.  Upon completion, students saved the fake text file and shared their results via Edmodo.

Below you will see some examples of my students' creativity.  This activity forced students to really think about how technology impacts our lives and how it will impact future generations.  Thanks for a great semester!


 

Exploring the Web to Learn about Explorers

All fifth graders began working on a research project involving famous explorers.  To get them ready for research, the students came in with their Social Studies teachers to learn a few things about researching from Mrs. Young.

Students completed an online scavenger hunt for an assigned explorer.  Their mission: answer some basic questions about the explorer using two websites.  They needed to be good researchers and check both links for the needed information.

As students began digging into the facts, some discovered something interesting: each site had different information.  Students then worked in teams to discuss the similarities and differences of each site and figure out what to do to resolve the problem of the conflicting information.

At the end of the lesson, students understood the big picture- the Internet is not always a reliable tool for research, and it is important to be familiar with a topic before beginning research online.  We also read a fabricated article about Christopher Columbus in class from the website All About Explorers, and learned that this site was made for the sole purpose of teaching students how important it is not to believe everything that they read online.  Many students had an ah ha moment when we read the article aloud as many admitted to only skimming their articles for answers, not reading them closely.  Therefore, they missed discovering some of the obvious clues that showed this site a fake.

The next day, students returned to the library for part 2 of the lesson: If the Internet is not always trustworthy, where do I find the good stuff?  Mrs. Young defined subscription databases and showed links to the ones that our school has available to them.  She also compared the publication of a book to the publication of a website which exemplified why printed books are excellent, trustworthy research resources.

It was a big lesson for the fifth graders, but one that will hopefully stick with them as they engage in future research projects.

Sharing Books with Biblionasium

All seventh graders and students in Mr. Wegner's class are using the awesome website Biblionasium to share their love of reading.  Biblionasium is an online reading community where students can create their own virtual bookshelves, participate in reading competitions, share book reviews and suggestions, and log their reading.  The students have been enthusiastically sharing their recommendations with one another.  Check out the shelf that I have started.

 

Here are some students at work creating their shelves.  What fun they are having! 

Advice to New Students

The end of each year is bittersweet. While it has been an exciting year, and it is awesome to see how much everyone has grown, I will miss the connections that have been made and working with such a great group of kids! Each year I have the current fifth graders end their semester in Integrated Technology by creating a voki sharing advice for next fall's new fifth graders. It's a nice way to reflect on the year, welcome our new students into the building, and learn how to use one more technology tool. Below highlights the advice given by this year's group. These students have some important lessons to share!

5th Grade Creative Writers

The 5th graders in Mrs. Dachelet's classes have taken their writing to a new, creative level by publishing their stories using Storybird.  After learning how children's books are written and structured, and viewing several examples, they wrote stories of their own and used Storybird's publishing tools to share professional-looking projects with the world.  Many of the students used the collaborate feature to write and edit stories together.  View some of our students' highly creative stories below.

Indian in the Cupboard Character Scrapbooks

To reinforce their understanding of the characters and events from the the book The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks, 5th graders in Mr. Wegner's class created character scrapbooks using Biteslide.  Their scrapbooks had to portray events that occurred throughout the story from the point-of-view of a chosen character.  View a few of our students' creative examples below.

How does technology affect us: a comparison with our Estonia partners

We have continued our partnership with our Estonia friends to discuss technology and how it affects our lives. We used the website Mindmeister to create individual mindmaps sharing our thoughts on how technology impacts different aspects of our lives.

 New London students

Estonia Students
Click here to view their mindmap.

Next, students compared and contrasted their mindmaps through our collaborative Edmodo group.

What did we learn?  The biggest lesson students learned was that across oceans and countries, we have much in common when it comes to how technology affects our lives!

Conversations with Estonia

Students in Mrs. Young's Integrated Technology classes have partnered with students from Tallinn, Estonia to talk technology. Since our timezone differences make it impossible to speak with one another via Skype, we had to be creative about our mode of communication. Enter VoiceThread to the rescue! Using webcams and phones, we are able to record video our comments and share them with one another. Others can watch the created VoiceThread and add new comments to the original slides, allowing students to actually see and hear one another in order to create a more meaningful conversation. See our first VoiceThreads below. Our goal was to give the other school a brief introduction and then start a conversation. We will then respond to one another's VoiceThreads to engage in a deeper discussion.

 



 Our next VoiceThreads will ask students to reflect on how technology affects education and the pros and cons of technology. We look forward to a meaningful conversation and learning from our new friends in Estonia.

5th Grade Edmodo Book Project

The fifth graders in Mr. Wegner's class have been busy sharing what they have been reading in class using the classroom social networking site Edmodo. After reading their independent selections, students have been using Edmodo to discuss and share with other members of the class. Students love Edmodo because it reminds them of another popular social networking site. Can you guess which one?

Students were responsible for completing posts sharing the following:

1.  an image that symbolizes something about the book.

2.  a new ending to the story.

3.  a fake tweet using the website Fake Tweet Builder summarizing the book.

Not only did the students enjoy connecting via a social networking platform with which many were very familiar, but these tasks challenged the students to think about their books in very different ways.  Once information was posted, students then had the chance to comment on one another's information and try to meaningful infer what was being shared about each book.

In addition, during some of the writing tasks, Mr. Wegner's students used the Google extension Read & Write, available through the Chrome Webstore, after adding text into a Google Doc.  Read & Write plays the written text out loud so that students may hear exactly how their writing sounds.  This helps students identify when grammatical and spelling mistakes have been made. 

Students were very engaged when they had this opportunity to connect with one another and explore their reading in unique and meaningful ways.

Learning about the History of the Olympic Torch

Yesterday, seventh graders had the opportunity to Skype with a former London 2012 Olympic torch bearer, Jon Tait.  During Bulldog Time, Jon did a presentation all the way from Great Britain (2:55 pm our time was 7:55 am his time) on the history of the Olympic torch, how he was selected to run in the relay, and the impact that it has had on his life.  The students were excited to see the real torch that he carried!

Thanks to Skype's generosity, we were able to use Skype's free group calling feature, allowing Jon to present to all seventh graders spread out across six different Bulldog Time classrooms.  Jon did a fantastic job answering their questions which ranged from "Was the torch hot?" to "How far did you have to run?" to  "Did you have to do any training before you ran?"  Our students truly enjoyed learning more about the torch and connecting what they learned to their previous Language Arts/Social Studies projects where they created persuasive videos to convince the Olympic Committee Chair to choose a country that they researched as the host of the next Olympic games. (You can view the top 10 videos at http://www.newlondon.k12.wi.us/midint/olympicvideos.cfm).

To learn more about Jon and his story, you can visit his blog Edutait.  You can follow him on Twitter @TeamTait.

Our students are bloggers!

Fifth grade Integrated Technology students are excited about sharing their knowledge of Internet safety through their very own blogs!  Working collaboratively with schools in Somers Point, NJ and Bethel, CT, students from each school will be writing blog posts following various lessons on Internet safety.  They will also be reading one another's posts and adding comments to create a virtual discussion about these important topics.

We would love to hear what you think about our blog posts as well.  View our blogs by going to http://kidblog.org/IntegratedTechnology/ and http://kidblog.org/KaburuYoungBlog/.  You can view students' individual blogs by choosing a name from the list on the right.  Please leave the students comments as well.  They would love to hear what you think.

At the end of the project, students from each school will be creating Internet safety public service announcements and exchanging them with one another.  Stay tuned for a future post sharing their creations.