My first movie!

and the service continues on!

The students have put a lot of extra work into this project for me and I appreciate it so so much! We worked on a web resource page on friday. We decided to make it a collaborative one that they could all edit and add the websites they used to get information for their spreadsheets. They finished it so I am posting it on my blog so that it only has to be posted once and not by each team. They have learned so much since I started working with them. Its cool to see the progress they've made in such a short period of time. They really took the lead on learning all the new programs I showed them. I told them that was the best way to learn how to use all the tools on for example google docs, on their own time signed into mine and just tested out the tools. Now they can make their own spreadsheets! Im so proud of them and all the work they have done for me. The project is almost complete, the only thing left I believe is for the teams to post their own spreadsheet on the class blog. Here is the link to see their first web resource page!

service project update!

Hey, so I am working with the teams right now. They are showing me all the information they got from the  coaches about what to buy in the uniforms. They searched the internet to find prices and different styles they wanted. Im going to show them how to make a work cited page for all the different sites they visited. Right now we are working on their spreadsheets. I showed them a example one I did for a baseball teams uniforms so they can see what its supposed to look like. I am going to get them to post their work cited pages on the blog today and hopefully have to spread sheets posted by tomorrow or Friday. So far the project is going really well and the students are working well together. They are learning a lot about Google Docs and how to search the internet!

Spread Sheets!

I have always been familiar with excel but always hated using it because I thought it was really complicated. I learned how to use spread sheets to calculate money or numbers this week and I must say it makes using excel much more convenient to use for certain things like budgets. I did a practice one to test my knowledge by completing this wedding budget spread sheet. It made it so simple to add all the individual amounts up into a grand total and I even found the difference between two numbers! I think this would be a great tool to teach students in the class room so that they can easily figure out the total cost, amount or number of what ever they are doing to spread sheet over. Its a organized way to sort things into columns, rows and present numerical information. It can give you the percentages and organize your information into graphs. I did a spread sheet over what my wedding would cost with a budget of 40,000.

SERVICE PROJECT INTRO:

I am creating a project for students high school level to complete about budgeting. I've met with the students a couple times before to prepare then with the information they will need to complete the project. We've gone over simple budgets techniques and tips to help save and manage your money so your able to buy the things you need. The first time we met I helped them create a K-W-L chart that maps out what they wish to get out of this project and the directions of the project for the students. I will have six students from a life skills class, they are separated into 3 teams of 2. They are assigned one of the school's sports teams. They must gather information from their teams about how many people are on the team, what their team uniforms consist of,  and what their previous budget was for new uniforms. Once they have gotten all this information form the coach, their job is to find a uniform for the team, calculate the cost for everything they need and present it to the coach. In case their total comes out to be more expensive then the previous years budget for uniforms they will also have to come up with a fundraiser to get the money. I created this project to be fun and a learning experience, the students seem to be excited to get started. I also set up a class blog for the groups to post updates and communicate, it'll be a learning experience since non of them have ever blogged before.

Go out with a BANG!

Once again we have been challenged with another assignment and this one really takes the cake, we have to make a MOVIE (yes, a movie). Over the course we have been given the tools and knowledge to be able to complete such a task. Now, after lots of planning using storyboard and learning about the 7 elements of storytelling I was able to create a short film about weather. Knowing the 7 elements of storytelling is very important and serve as sort of a check list to make sure you’ve incorporated everything you need to make your story great. The 7 elements are 1) Point of view: what is the perspective of the author 2) A dramatic Question: a question that will be answered by the end of the story 3) Emotional Content: serious issues that speak to us in a personal and powerful way 4) The gift of your Voice: a way to personalize the story to help the audience understand the context 5) The power of the Soundtrack: music or sounds that support the storyline 6) Economy: simple put, using just enough content to tell the story with out over loading the viewer with too much information 7) Pacing: related to Economy, but specifically deals with how slowly or quickly the story progresses. Before starting to brainstorm and create a movie you should have a good understanding of these 7 elements so that your movie comes out effective and professional.

For my movie I first organized my information into a activity plan which just has the essential question involved with this movie, the TEKS that it covers and some small outlines of the movie its self.  My movie is geared towards 1st and 2nd science and what is appropriate for different types of weather. I made a storyboard to map out scene by scene of how I want my movie to be. Its divided up into different tables that separate the scene description, narration, sound, and the duration of the scene. My movie is about a student waking up in the morning and trying to pick out something to wear to school. She/He checks the weather report online and then took a look outside? Once she/he has gathered enough information we applied it to our closet to figure out what is a appropriate outfit to wear for the weather that day.

I think being able to use digital storytelling in the classroom will give the students a chance to work on their speaking skills like pronunciation, duration and over all public speaking. It will give them the tools to be creative and organize stories they want to tell and give the students a since of achievement when they see their video come together.

BLOGS IN THE CLASSROOM:

       I am a new member of the blogging world, I just recently starting blogging and I hope to become as dedicated to it as David Warlick. He has a awesome blog called 2cents worth that he journals about he's daily activities and things he would like to share. He has so much cool information, links and journal post in his blog, its makes it a really neat place to learn. I made my own blog in hopes that I can provide some cool links, ideas and information for other teachers. I want my blog to help other teachers just as these teachers blogs do, like Mrs.Cassidys Classroom blog. Her blog is chalk full of videos, pictures and lesson plans that I love.  I also like A year of Reading blog, its a blog with all sorts of online book links, lesson plan ideas for reading and pictures of what some of her students are doing in the class.

       I also think blogs are a great tool to mass communicate with parents and students outside the class room. Blogs are a easy way for the parents to know exactly whats going on in the classroom each day, and with the comments option they can voice their ideas, concerns and questions about that day lessons. It is always stressed to keep the parents involved in the classroom so this takes the stress off makes newsletters and parent phone calls all the time. Also this is a great way to make a kid safe environment were your students can get on and look at links you've posted on the blog to take their learning experience outside the classroom.

IBL/PBL

Inquiry-based learning is a learning style, its developed around the idea that students are able to better grasp concepts from engaged learning. By using hands on techniques, and self inquiry a student can not only learn a concept but also have a deeper understanding of it which in turn results in learning beyond memorization.

Inquiry-based learning started with a man named John Dewy who revolutionized child-centered learning in the U.S in the fifties and sixties. The U.S had a growing concern of Russia’s quick military and space developments and felt that to “catch up” change with in the nations youth education was necessary. So Dewy created a learning technique that was based on real life experiences, that forced students to ask questions, engage and demonstrate a general understanding. This created the inquiry movement which gets students applying their knowledge to unique ideas, and creating more advanced, deeper understands and thoughts of concepts beyond just scratching the surface of a concept. Inquiry-based learning is based on the student demonstrating a ability to apply what they (Education Policies Commissions) call the “ten rational powers” which are recalling and imagining; classifying and generalizing; comparing and evaluating; analyzing and synthesizing; deducing and inferring. With these 10 components exercised in a concept students can effectively inquire knowledge and apply it to real life situations and expand the concept on their own.

   
    Project-based learning is a learning approach based on self exploration. The objective of this learning technique is that a student is forced to self inquire more knowledge and information beyond whats learned in the class room, they must research information and learn it to complete projects, then in turn they could present their finding to the class and also teach the class what they’ve taught themselves. Its a great tool to get the students involved in the learning material, they become the teachers.

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I think that all student should be exposed to these types of learning because it makes your lesson plan more dynamic and also teaches your students to learn in different ways.

VOICETHREAD IS AWESOME!

After becoming more familiar with voicethread, I've discovered that its a great tool to use in the classroom. Voicethread was created to make sharing ideas with others all around the world. When you use a voicethread the people involved in the thread can not only view the thread easily but they can be expand and express what the think about the thread. This tool is great to use with small businesses doing international work or for instructional purposes for multiple people.
        I really enjoyed using this tool, at first I was confused on what exactly a voicethread was. After playing around on the website voicethread.com it was easy to create a voicethread of my own. I did a mine over weather and used HOTS like what is appropriate cloths to wear, activities to plan and transportation to use in certain weather. The kids will be able to record their own opinons on what they think is appropriate and elaborate on what the weather is like.  
         I can see myself using this tool a lot as a teacher to help explain different information. Its a easy way to get the kids involved in the information and see if they are learning it or not. With the voicethread you can use it for all subjects and in many different ways. I am excited to learn more about voicethreads and expand on my uses of the voicethread tool. I used a lesson plan to help me plan out what my voicethread would be like, then I made it come together with photos and math problems. I am very pleased with my very first ever voicethread, I am impressed with how easy they made it to create.

A walk through the websites

I was doing some searching around the web to find some cool websites for students to use when learning about weather. I wanted my lessons to be dynamic, beneficial but fun. I found this really neat site that allows the student to chat with student from all around the world about what the weather is like where they are. Its a great way to get a good understand of how much weather effects other places in the world. Another cool way to get in touch internationally is through this weather blog I found. Its a blog that people can post what the weather is like where ever they are. If at first though, if your just looking for a student friendly site that they can explore all sorts of weather and find information they want very easy. The website is step up to make it easy to navigate through dividing information up by grade level, categories, games and hands on learning exercises. For weather I thought it would important for the students to actually see what all the types of weather storms and cycles look like. I found a website with tons of videos of all sorts of crazy weather episodes from all around the world. Once the students have had time to learn some information that you’ve provided them with by these websites, you could maybe have them fill out a survery or questionnaire about how they feel about the weather in their area. This is a great homework project idea,  it helps the students revisit what we’ve done and show what they know. Here is a list of all the websites I found that can make your lessons fun and enjoyable!