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.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Thursday, January 23, 2014
NLEA gift to our library!
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!
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Sharing the Artistic Process through QR Codes
Students in Mrs. Daly's seventh grade art class created projects that will be shared with the whole community come spring. Spring in New London is huge on the Wolf River, especially during the time when sturgeon fishing begins. To celebrate this exciting community activity, seventh graders each created and designed a sturgeon of their own which will be publicly displayed at Mosquito Hill Nature Center in the spring. The design of each sturgeon reflects something symbolically important to each student, and much thought was put into the design itself before the actual artwork began.
Mrs. Daly was inspired to do this project after learning about Chicago's 1999 "Cows on Parade" public art project where hundreds of fiberglass cow sculptures were decorated by local artists and displayed around the city. Similarly, in nearby Appleton, prior to the 2007 premiere of Fox Cities PAC's The Lion King, the city celebrated by creating their own public art project called "Lions of the Valley" where local artists painted fiberglass lions and distributed them throughout the city.
These public art displays not only give artists an opportunity to share their talents with the wider community, but they also create an increased sense of pride for the city as many of the artists choose to add elements representing their community into their artwork. Our students showed the same type of pride as several Wisconsin themes are also visible in their artwork.
I personally loved the idea of the public art display but felt that adding a 21st century technology component would make the display that much more powerful. Mrs. Daly and I both agreed that the artistic process of planning and designing the sturgeon was an important piece that the public would not see unless students were given an opportunity to present their entire artistic process. That led us to the decision to have students create videos explaining the meaning behind each sturgeon. After each video was created, students uploaded their videos to their school YouTube accounts. To easily share the videos with those visiting the public display at Mosquito Hill, I showed students how to create QR codes. Each sturgeon will not only have a label identifying the artist and the name of the piece, but also an attached QR code that will link the community to the videos of students sharing their artistic process.
For most students this was their first experience using QR codes. After they were created, students tested them out by scanning them using the free app QR Reader. Ah ha! moments occurred when students realized that they have seen these codes at the grocery store, on their games, and even at Starbucks! I can only imagine the things that they will scan now on their own outside of school.
Mrs. Daly was inspired to do this project after learning about Chicago's 1999 "Cows on Parade" public art project where hundreds of fiberglass cow sculptures were decorated by local artists and displayed around the city. Similarly, in nearby Appleton, prior to the 2007 premiere of Fox Cities PAC's The Lion King, the city celebrated by creating their own public art project called "Lions of the Valley" where local artists painted fiberglass lions and distributed them throughout the city.
These public art displays not only give artists an opportunity to share their talents with the wider community, but they also create an increased sense of pride for the city as many of the artists choose to add elements representing their community into their artwork. Our students showed the same type of pride as several Wisconsin themes are also visible in their artwork.
I personally loved the idea of the public art display but felt that adding a 21st century technology component would make the display that much more powerful. Mrs. Daly and I both agreed that the artistic process of planning and designing the sturgeon was an important piece that the public would not see unless students were given an opportunity to present their entire artistic process. That led us to the decision to have students create videos explaining the meaning behind each sturgeon. After each video was created, students uploaded their videos to their school YouTube accounts. To easily share the videos with those visiting the public display at Mosquito Hill, I showed students how to create QR codes. Each sturgeon will not only have a label identifying the artist and the name of the piece, but also an attached QR code that will link the community to the videos of students sharing their artistic process.
For most students this was their first experience using QR codes. After they were created, students tested them out by scanning them using the free app QR Reader. Ah ha! moments occurred when students realized that they have seen these codes at the grocery store, on their games, and even at Starbucks! I can only imagine the things that they will scan now on their own outside of school.
Monday, January 6, 2014
5th Grade Blogging Partner Project
The library was dead silent last Friday as 5th graders from Mr. Wegner's class wrote steadily and diligently on their own blogs. The only sound audible was the tapping of keys as students eagerly typed drafts of their latest Language Arts writing piece. What got these students so excited and engaged in their writing? It was not only the knowledge that they would be sharing it for the first time with everyone on their own blogs, but it was especially exciting to know that they were also publishing for their writing partners in Mrs. Castonguay's class from Canada.
Each student from Mr. Wegner's class created his or her own blog using Kidblog and was then paired with a student from Mrs. Castonguay's class. During the course of the remainder of the school year, students will be using their blogs to post writing drafts and other thoughts for feedback from their writing partners. The goal is that students not only receive feedback on their writing from a source outside of their classroom walls, but that they also learn how to safely develop a digital connection under the guidance of Mr. Wegner and me.
It has been an exciting beginning! We look forward to watching the students grow as writers and developing a digital connection with their new friends in Canada.
We would love your feedback on our blogs as well. Check out Mr. Wegner's Kidblogs and Mrs. Castonguay's Kidblogs.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Holiday Video Exchange with Sweden
Integrated Technology students have been working hard these last few weeks to create videos using iMovie for our partner school in Sweden. Each school made videos explaining each country's popular holidays. Our students had a fantastic time showing off their creativity and exploring the power of iMovie all while helping our new friends in Sweden meet their English listening goals. View some of our student examples below.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
App Smashing Fun!
Fifth grade students had the chance to be creative through app smashing! What's app smashing? App smashing combines multiple apps together to create one end product. After completing a writing assignment explaining something that a book character holds dear, students created a video in the voice of the character using the app Tellagami. Tellagami is a fun app that allows users to create their own talking avatars. While recording in Tellagami, students took on the book character's persona and explained an object that each character would argue is a favorite. Once the recording was completed, students searched for an image that would accurately represent the character's favorite object.
To also abide by copyright laws, students located images from a rights-cleared image database, ImageQuest. Our students know that in order to legally use images from ImageQuest, they must also cite the image. To combine the citation with the found image, students used the app Pic Collage. The final Pic Collage image was saved to the iPad camera roll and then added to the background in Tellagami.
Below you will see some of our fifth graders' final creations. When asked to rate this project, it was a unanimous five out of five stars!
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