November 21, 2008
I know some about where my family comes from. I want to ask my parents questions to help me start. I know that we have lots of family in up-north Michigan but I don't know what city. I think that our family came from Germany to start. I think this because my mom is always calling my grandpa a "grumpy old German." I know that in the town of Frankenmuth, Michigan, my family name of "Rau" is the name of stores. I wonder if I am related to those people. Maybe I could get some free candy if so. :-) My grandma takes lots and lots of pictures so I will be able to use some of those to remember my family that is not here no more.
~Susan
Friday, November 21, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Little Betsy Bookworm & the Wormgerm
Betsy Bookworm Story Lesson
These standards apply for grades K-1 in which students learn about basic hygiene.
EALR 2.0 – The student acquires the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain a healthy life: Recognize patterns of growth and development, reduce health risks and live safely.
Component 2.2 – Understanding the concept of control and prevention of disease.
Benchmark Indicator 2.2.1 – Identify and demonstrate skills that prevent and reduce the risk of contracting and transmitting communicable diseases.
Grade Level Expectations: Understand how to prevent or reduce the risk of contracting a Communicable Disease
Kindergarten: Demonstrate basic hygiene techniques to reduce illness (i.e., washing your hands, covering your mouth when you cough, not sharing combs. Prevention of tooth decay)
First Grade: Identify ways to prevent germ transmission and diseases (i.e., sharing food, hand washing, immunizations)
Teachers could use podcasting in the classroom in a variety of ways. The first use that comes to mind would be recording long lessons or lectures depending on the grade level. This would allow the students to go back and listen to the actual lesson again if they needed to. It would also allow the students to truly pay attention to the teacher and not worry as much as taking notes. This would also be beneficial to students who may miss a class. The teacher would not have to devote additional time during the day to "catch-up" these students.
Podcasting would also allow the teacher to record parts of lessons before the school day starts. These could be stationed around the room and the students could listen in using headphones. This would allow the teacher to be in more places at once and allow the students some options and freedom to choose which lesson they wanted to work on at which time. It would allow the teacher more time to work with individual students or groups on specific tasks or projects instead of always having to be in front of the classroom. Additionally, the students would be able to control the sound level. This would be very helpful for students that might have trouble hearing or focusing sounds when there is a great deal of surrounding noises.
Students would also be able to use podcasts like a weekly or even daily newsletter that parents, other classrooms, and teachers would be able to tune in to and hear what is going on. The students would be able to work in a variety of subject areas to accomplish this lesson. Students could also use podcasts to present works like bookreports or "Who am I?" projects. I can see this being helpful for students who are not quite ready to give live presentations. It would also provide the teacher a reference point in case something happened and she missed a section of the report. The teacher could also use this podcast as a frame of constructive feedback for presentation skills with the student. The teacher could listen with the student and give feedback about voice, emphasis, clarity, and so on. When the students do give live presentations to their classmates, these could be recorded as podcasts and could also be posted publicly for parents to actually hear what their students are doing in the classroom. Most teachers would love to have parental involvement daily in the classroom and even have parents present for their student's big report, but this is impossible for all parents to do. Students could also use podcasting for interview assignments outside of the classroom. They would be able to share the complete interview and not have to give just a synopsis of the information found.
Teachers would also be able to connect interior classroom learning with popular devices like the Ipod. The students could take their lessons with them everywhere and stay up-to-date with the classroom even over weekends and holiday breaks.
Lesson Source
PDF of Story
These standards apply for grades K-1 in which students learn about basic hygiene.
EALR 2.0 – The student acquires the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain a healthy life: Recognize patterns of growth and development, reduce health risks and live safely.
Component 2.2 – Understanding the concept of control and prevention of disease.
Benchmark Indicator 2.2.1 – Identify and demonstrate skills that prevent and reduce the risk of contracting and transmitting communicable diseases.
Grade Level Expectations: Understand how to prevent or reduce the risk of contracting a Communicable Disease
Kindergarten: Demonstrate basic hygiene techniques to reduce illness (i.e., washing your hands, covering your mouth when you cough, not sharing combs. Prevention of tooth decay)
First Grade: Identify ways to prevent germ transmission and diseases (i.e., sharing food, hand washing, immunizations)
Teachers could use podcasting in the classroom in a variety of ways. The first use that comes to mind would be recording long lessons or lectures depending on the grade level. This would allow the students to go back and listen to the actual lesson again if they needed to. It would also allow the students to truly pay attention to the teacher and not worry as much as taking notes. This would also be beneficial to students who may miss a class. The teacher would not have to devote additional time during the day to "catch-up" these students.
Podcasting would also allow the teacher to record parts of lessons before the school day starts. These could be stationed around the room and the students could listen in using headphones. This would allow the teacher to be in more places at once and allow the students some options and freedom to choose which lesson they wanted to work on at which time. It would allow the teacher more time to work with individual students or groups on specific tasks or projects instead of always having to be in front of the classroom. Additionally, the students would be able to control the sound level. This would be very helpful for students that might have trouble hearing or focusing sounds when there is a great deal of surrounding noises.
Students would also be able to use podcasts like a weekly or even daily newsletter that parents, other classrooms, and teachers would be able to tune in to and hear what is going on. The students would be able to work in a variety of subject areas to accomplish this lesson. Students could also use podcasts to present works like bookreports or "Who am I?" projects. I can see this being helpful for students who are not quite ready to give live presentations. It would also provide the teacher a reference point in case something happened and she missed a section of the report. The teacher could also use this podcast as a frame of constructive feedback for presentation skills with the student. The teacher could listen with the student and give feedback about voice, emphasis, clarity, and so on. When the students do give live presentations to their classmates, these could be recorded as podcasts and could also be posted publicly for parents to actually hear what their students are doing in the classroom. Most teachers would love to have parental involvement daily in the classroom and even have parents present for their student's big report, but this is impossible for all parents to do. Students could also use podcasting for interview assignments outside of the classroom. They would be able to share the complete interview and not have to give just a synopsis of the information found.
Teachers would also be able to connect interior classroom learning with popular devices like the Ipod. The students could take their lessons with them everywhere and stay up-to-date with the classroom even over weekends and holiday breaks.
Lesson Source
PDF of Story
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Podcast Stuff
UGH! I have no idea what I am doing with this. :-/
Here is a link to the web based podcast though.
https://www.msu.edu/~fredellr/podcast/dreaming.mp3
[[http://educationaltechonologyexploratio.wikispaces.com/file/view/Dreaming.mp3|Dreaming.mp3]]
Here is a link to the web based podcast though.
https://www.msu.edu/~fredellr/podcast/dreaming.mp3
[[http://educationaltechonologyexploratio.wikispaces.com/file/view/Dreaming.mp3|Dreaming.mp3]]
Monday, November 10, 2008
Digital Imagery
Prior to our class about the use of digital images and appropriate accreditation for images, I would have suggested to the student to search using Google or Yahoo image searches and post the link to the site on which she found the image. Or, if there is a specific photographer or author to use that name. I would also highly recommend starting the image search within the document creator she is using. Most students tend to use Microsoft Word and this has a built in image function. If she was not able to find the images there I would suggest to use the same Microsoft image search to search through their online database. If she found images there I actually don't think I would be able to tell her how to give appropriate credit for them. I am not sure if you would need to.
After our class, I now know that you can still search for images using Google and Yahoo image searches, but you must look for the copyright licenses and seek to find creative commons licenses in order to appropriately use the images. I would recommend searching on flickrCC or CCSearch for images with CC licenses and walking her through how to use the labels for the licenses. I would also use the tutorials presented to us in class to show her how to use these images. I think that these tutorials were helpful to me and will be sure to bookmark them for future use with students.
After our class, I now know that you can still search for images using Google and Yahoo image searches, but you must look for the copyright licenses and seek to find creative commons licenses in order to appropriately use the images. I would recommend searching on flickrCC or CCSearch for images with CC licenses and walking her through how to use the labels for the licenses. I would also use the tutorials presented to us in class to show her how to use these images. I think that these tutorials were helpful to me and will be sure to bookmark them for future use with students.
Calendar & Unit Planning Using Online Resources
For this part of our CEP416 assignment, I chose to teach about playmaking. This is the title of the tag I used in my delicious account to identify and collect these resources. You can find this here.
I collected and planned to use more than five resources during this unit. I explained some of their uses in the descriptions on my calendar pages. I will reiterate those here though. I planned the lesson to being on November 17.
For day one of the Unit I planned to have the students explore stories and elements of a story. We will begin by using this interactive website "http://www.learner.org/interactives/story/" to discuss the elements of a story based on the story of Cinderella. This website allows the students to interactively click through the story of Cinderella and make notes about the parts of the story. For each element of the story the students are "quizzed" on the parts and asked to select the correct parts. For example, the student is asked to select from a large group of characters which characters were in the story of Cinderella. Once they have finished their selections, they are told if they chose correctly or not.
After, we will discuss and possibly re-read some common stories (other fairy tales and stories we have been reading in class). When finished reading the stories we will analyze them and make note of each important part or element of the story. We will use this website: "http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/gen_act/pigs/story_mp.html" to help the students break down the story into the important parts. This is a link to an image of a worksheet called a story map. This can be printed out or the students can simply use the outlines and create their own version of the story map. This map allows the students to collect their information in a cohesive manner and visibly see which areas might need more work. For today's work they will be taking the stories we discussed and analyzing it to find each of the parts.
On day 2 of our unit, our class will write stories of our own creation. The students will be in 4 groups and create 4 individual stories. The groups will have to work together to create their stories. I will allow them to start from where ever they would like but I will suggest that they begin by brainstorming basic ideas for stories that they would like to write. They will again be given a blank story map but will be working in a different direction than they did yesterday. Today they will be starting their stories by filling out the map rather than analyzing an already written story.
To help us further develop the elements of our stories and characters, we will use this website "http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/engramja/elements.html" and this one "http://msansbach.edublogs.org/the-study-of-english/8-elements-of-character/". The first site will help the students by providing them with detailed descriptions and things to think about when working with each of their story elements. It gives the students a more concrete definition of the elements beyond the brainstorming and labeling that they did yesterday.
The second site will help the students to develop their characters in a fuller more rounder manner. By working with characterizations the students will be able to create a stronger story and ultimately a stronger script and performance. The site is actually a blog that asks a lot of questions that will help the students think through their process. At the end of the blog, the students are able to reply to the posting but I doubt the students will find the desire to do this.
On Day 3 of the unit, each group will present a dramatic reading of their story. I could not find a useful site to help the students with this aspect of the unit. However, using my experiences I will help the students work on voice projection, posture, and when and where to use emphasis when reading. I will also have the students provide suggestions for each other.
Also on this day, after their dramatic readings, each group will transform their stories into scripted pieces that they will perform. They will continue to work on the development of their stories and think about the structure of their scripted play using this website: "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_structure". This wiki site will help the students to see the parts of a play and think about how these might be similar and different to the parts of their stories. They will be able to use the information to determine if the order of the action in their story fits within the dramatic structure.
The students will also use this site: "http://homeworktips.about.com/od/homeworktopics/a/play.htm" This site depicts the parts of a script and a story and puts it into more kid-friendly terms. It also make emphasis on dialogue and how it can help tell a story much better. This site helps to define the difference between storyline and plotline using the basis of causality.
On Day 4 of this unit, the students will continue to edit their scripts and start rehearsing them. The groups will be given the option of performing through puppets and will be provided supplies and help to create these puppets. Some websites that we will use include: and . The first site listed here provides examples and patterns to make crafty puppets. The descriptions are geared more towards the teacher, but students can easily understand the directions and adapt them to the supplies available. The site provides a great amount of options that can help the students get their creative juices flowing. The second site is a huge resource for tons of puppets and patterns to make puppets. It also provides some stories that are performed well with puppets. The students will be able to see the many uses of puppets and encouraged to think about this form of production for future projects.
All of the students will work on expressionism through characterization. We will use these sites to help us with our work: http://www.dotolearn.com/games/facialexpressions/face.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emotions. The first site is an interactive site on which the students can create animated characters to view various expressions and emotions. The students will be asked to then recreate these expressions on their own faces and view them using mirrors. The students will be asked to think about what their character will look like at different parts of their script. The second site provides a list of emotions. The students will be asked to incorporate a variety of emotions into their characters. The students will be able to use the two site collaboratively to make a visual representation of an emotion.
On this last day of our unit the groups will perform their pieces and will provide feedback for all of their classmates. Collaboratively the entire class will create a feedback form that will be used by all of the students to give a base analysis of the performance. They will each be asked to fill out a storymap for their classmates' performances to see if what the group performing read well or not. The students will be asked to think about all of the things that went into the creation of this performance to help provide the most in-depth feedback. To assist in the productivity and sensitivity involved with providing feedback we will use the following sites: http://home.earthlink.net/~hopefull/i-statem.htm and http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-622.html. The first site describes the "I" statement philosophy and how to use these statements. The students in my class should already be familiar with this form of feedback and use of the "I" statements in conflict resolution, but this site can serve as a reminder and as additional proof that others use the same approach. The second site is a "for dummies" approach to giving constructive feedback. Although I do not want my students to feel that I think they are dummies, the site provides a simple approach to giving feedback. With the popularity of these types of books and instructional methods, I believe that a disclaimer statement by myself before sending the students to this site will counteract any negative feelings about the use of this site.
I collected and planned to use more than five resources during this unit. I explained some of their uses in the descriptions on my calendar pages. I will reiterate those here though. I planned the lesson to being on November 17.
For day one of the Unit I planned to have the students explore stories and elements of a story. We will begin by using this interactive website "http://www.learner.org/interactives/story/" to discuss the elements of a story based on the story of Cinderella. This website allows the students to interactively click through the story of Cinderella and make notes about the parts of the story. For each element of the story the students are "quizzed" on the parts and asked to select the correct parts. For example, the student is asked to select from a large group of characters which characters were in the story of Cinderella. Once they have finished their selections, they are told if they chose correctly or not.
After, we will discuss and possibly re-read some common stories (other fairy tales and stories we have been reading in class). When finished reading the stories we will analyze them and make note of each important part or element of the story. We will use this website: "http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/gen_act/pigs/story_mp.html" to help the students break down the story into the important parts. This is a link to an image of a worksheet called a story map. This can be printed out or the students can simply use the outlines and create their own version of the story map. This map allows the students to collect their information in a cohesive manner and visibly see which areas might need more work. For today's work they will be taking the stories we discussed and analyzing it to find each of the parts.
On day 2 of our unit, our class will write stories of our own creation. The students will be in 4 groups and create 4 individual stories. The groups will have to work together to create their stories. I will allow them to start from where ever they would like but I will suggest that they begin by brainstorming basic ideas for stories that they would like to write. They will again be given a blank story map but will be working in a different direction than they did yesterday. Today they will be starting their stories by filling out the map rather than analyzing an already written story.
To help us further develop the elements of our stories and characters, we will use this website "http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/engramja/elements.html" and this one "http://msansbach.edublogs.org/the-study-of-english/8-elements-of-character/". The first site will help the students by providing them with detailed descriptions and things to think about when working with each of their story elements. It gives the students a more concrete definition of the elements beyond the brainstorming and labeling that they did yesterday.
The second site will help the students to develop their characters in a fuller more rounder manner. By working with characterizations the students will be able to create a stronger story and ultimately a stronger script and performance. The site is actually a blog that asks a lot of questions that will help the students think through their process. At the end of the blog, the students are able to reply to the posting but I doubt the students will find the desire to do this.
On Day 3 of the unit, each group will present a dramatic reading of their story. I could not find a useful site to help the students with this aspect of the unit. However, using my experiences I will help the students work on voice projection, posture, and when and where to use emphasis when reading. I will also have the students provide suggestions for each other.
Also on this day, after their dramatic readings, each group will transform their stories into scripted pieces that they will perform. They will continue to work on the development of their stories and think about the structure of their scripted play using this website: "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_structure". This wiki site will help the students to see the parts of a play and think about how these might be similar and different to the parts of their stories. They will be able to use the information to determine if the order of the action in their story fits within the dramatic structure.
The students will also use this site: "http://homeworktips.about.com/od/homeworktopics/a/play.htm" This site depicts the parts of a script and a story and puts it into more kid-friendly terms. It also make emphasis on dialogue and how it can help tell a story much better. This site helps to define the difference between storyline and plotline using the basis of causality.
On Day 4 of this unit, the students will continue to edit their scripts and start rehearsing them. The groups will be given the option of performing through puppets and will be provided supplies and help to create these puppets. Some websites that we will use include:
All of the students will work on expressionism through characterization. We will use these sites to help us with our work: http://www.dotolearn.com/games/facialexpressions/face.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emotions. The first site is an interactive site on which the students can create animated characters to view various expressions and emotions. The students will be asked to then recreate these expressions on their own faces and view them using mirrors. The students will be asked to think about what their character will look like at different parts of their script. The second site provides a list of emotions. The students will be asked to incorporate a variety of emotions into their characters. The students will be able to use the two site collaboratively to make a visual representation of an emotion.
On this last day of our unit the groups will perform their pieces and will provide feedback for all of their classmates. Collaboratively the entire class will create a feedback form that will be used by all of the students to give a base analysis of the performance. They will each be asked to fill out a storymap for their classmates' performances to see if what the group performing read well or not. The students will be asked to think about all of the things that went into the creation of this performance to help provide the most in-depth feedback. To assist in the productivity and sensitivity involved with providing feedback we will use the following sites: http://home.earthlink.net/~hopefull/i-statem.htm and http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-622.html. The first site describes the "I" statement philosophy and how to use these statements. The students in my class should already be familiar with this form of feedback and use of the "I" statements in conflict resolution, but this site can serve as a reminder and as additional proof that others use the same approach. The second site is a "for dummies" approach to giving constructive feedback. Although I do not want my students to feel that I think they are dummies, the site provides a simple approach to giving feedback. With the popularity of these types of books and instructional methods, I believe that a disclaimer statement by myself before sending the students to this site will counteract any negative feelings about the use of this site.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Maps & Mashups -- Underground Railroad
View Larger Map
I created this map using a variety of locations important to the study of the Underground Railroad, a very important piece of American History. This map would be appropriate to use in fifth to seventh grade and the students would be able to see how close and distant some of the stations on the railroad were from each other. They would also be able to follow the links provided in the tags to learn more about the history of the railroad and of each location added on the map. They would also be able to see where the historical museums were at to plan a visit.
With more time and detail, we would be able to use these maps to create an actual route for a slave escaping from the south to the north. The students, or myself the teacher, would be able to create a "trip" using a slave of their making and use some of the stations provided in this map to help them plan their journey. Once the trip has been created, we would present the trip to the rest of the class by pushing play and seeing the way in which the slave would have escaped. Using Google Earth and the map, we would be able to see what some of the terrain would have looked like for these freedom seekers.
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