Marvel, Novelist & Wiki Progress

Since I can't log into the moodle site tonight, I'm winging my post, but here's a recap of my progress in the past week or so:

I have added more information to my Study Skills Wiki.  I now have 7 pages and a google calendar widget, as well as a chart for my students to complete after they visit the Multiple Intelligence Quiz links I provided.  I found an article tonight (NPR) that talks about how traditional methods of studying have been proven to be less effective than studying in shorter bursts, varied locations, etc.  Interesting! 

I spent a while on Marvel last week.  Frankly, I had no idea that there was such a rich resource of scholarly material available in one location.  Did everyone else know this?  Or were they like me, thinking that if it was "out there" you could find it on google?  In any case, I feel much more comfortable navigating on that site and I will certainly encourage students to use it.  I will recommend they access it directly through the Mahoney page to avoid overwhelming them with resource choices on the main Marvel page.  I remember many of our conversations at the start of this course, when we were concerned about the quality of the information our students were finding.  The Marvel sites certainly limit students' searches to more "respectable" sites, which should reassure teachers.  I do think that Marvel could spend some time re-designing the site to make it more user friendly, as I have heard several kids say they don't use it because it's confusing, and frankly, I found it confusing as well.

My other discovery was Novelist.  I found a list of about 20 authors I "need" to read for myself (I love historical fiction and British mysteries) and compiled a list of books to help me with my Halloween/ghost story unit.  I found the site to be easy to use, very informative, and well explained by the tutorials.

Have a great week!

And now for something completely different...

I realized yesterday morning that I had been dreaming about creating websites.  Hmm.  Too much time on the computer, perhaps?


I find, as a result of this course, that I am looking at many tasks, both educational and personal. differently.  I'm thinking of ways to work "smarter," not "harder"; to improve communication with friends, family, students, parents, and co-workers; to use technology to improve my teaching methods at school and in my private calligraphy practice (I'm the president of the Casco Bay Scribes, and often teach workshops); and to organize myself more effectively.

It's quite exciting!

I read this article on Edutopia today, which introduced yet another technique that was new to me -- Prezi's.

Take a look and see what you think -- very visual, with movement and the "webbing" connection.
Here's a tutorial.

Consider the possibilities!

M.

Congratulations... it's a Wiki!

This week brought another new challenge, and despite my initial trepidation, I started a Wiki -- you can take a look at it here. Since I often work with students who need ideas and strategies to help them have a successful school year, this is what I decided to focus on as my "test drive."  My primary concern was about security, but once I discovered that I could modify the security settings, I felt much happier.  At the moment, I have locked some pages so they cannot be changed (so my students don't add interesting information to my biography!) and the entire site is open by invitation for editing, although anyone can view it.

I do find that the wikispaces formatting is a bit awkward at times.  If you want to go back and change the size of the lettering, for instance, you are right back at square one -- and you must also change the font and color from the default.  Trying to center things is also occasionally awkward, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.  I have been able to add pictures and make links to new pages and external sources quite easily.  I even added a widget!  The result is fairly professional looking, if simple.

This week, if all goes well, I will have some of my students take a Learning Style Quiz and post some of their results on the wiki.  I'll keep you posted!

Trying to add a video

Let's see if this works.  I'd like to be able to add videos to the classroom blog...

School House Rock -- Adjectives

Progress

Despite being sick as a dog for over a week, I've made some progress:  I added a bunch of new sites to my PortaPortal, which the kids in my classroom use on a regular basis.  I also discovered how to change the settings to "click and drag" so I could reorganize the contents of my folders, with the newest links on top.  The kids are currently learning their Spanish numbers, Canadian provinces and capitals, and latitude/longitude.  Studying through these games is fun for them, and they love to compete and compare scores.  If my portaportal gets much bigger I may re-think its organization, but for now, we are all enjoying it!

I have started designing a googlesite, based on my thoughts from last week.  I talked with my head teacher about it, and we also discussed the difference between a site and a blog.  Since our class is a small resource room for kids with academic needs, we want to be sure any site is very easily accessed and navigated.  I'm starting small and trying to keep it well organized, cheerful and easy to read.  We think we will use this as a way to keep in touch with parents instead of through the parent portal "newsletter" function, which seems a bit "clunky" compared to these two applications.

I have yet to use googledocs with students except to send the 8th graders a format for earthweek and a brief note, which they then saved on their desktops.  Some of my students get confused by technology and need time to practice before using it for important tasks, so I am thinking of ways to do that in the coming weeks, with study guides, etc.  The 7th graders do not yet have gmail accounts, and I want to check with SK to see how to go about setting them up (do we do it as a class, get parent permissons, and give you their passwords?)  I know that once gmail and docs get going they will be very useful.  For example, in the 7th grade, three times (that I know of) students who had the bulk of their South Portland History Project on their computers were out of class, and their teammates were struggling to work without their scripts.  If it had been on googledocs, we would have all had access.  This project is already so massive, though, I can understand why we didn't attempt to add another layer of complexity at this time!

Now I'm learning about wiki's, which, from what I can tell, are almost like a "group" website.  I particularly liked the Discover Utopia Project, which I think might interest the 8th grade LA teachers when they teach "The Giver" later in the year.  Their Code of Conduct for blogging was very well thought out.

I must say, I truly appreciate the opportunity to learn all these new applications, and it is very exciting to think of ways to use them with my students.  Even though my 6th graders don't have laptops, I plan to get them on either our teacher computers or into the computer lab frequently to have them practice skills, increase background knowledge for books we are reading, take assessments, improve keyboarding skills, read "Tumblebooks" and hopefully, start writing on our blog.  The computer keeps them interested and engaged, and since fine motor skills are a challenge for many of them, I hope that typing their work will make it easier for them to share their ideas.

Have a great week!  Maggie

Biting the Bullet

photo from www.soxfirst.com

Well, it's time to make a website.  I debated for quite a while, liking the informal, "chatty" feel of a blog, but when I made my list of items I would like to include, I realized a blog just wouldn't do it.  My list:

General information about our Resource Room, our philosophy, etc.
Study Tips, links to flashcard makers, etc.
Study guides for particular classes (with the permission of the teacher)
Links to videos or sites that are directly connected to a particular mainstream unit, to help them understand the topic (multiple intelligences)
Helpful information for students  (similar to some of the resources in their planner, or maybe a link to my Portaportal or delicious site?)
Calendar/Information about events  (I have a student who asks me daily when flu-shots are!)
Newsletter -- what the kids have been up to, examples of work, "bragging!"  This might be a link to blog?  (My favorite blog is still Teacher Tom, and if you haven't checked it out, you will enjoy his enthusiasm and obvious love for his students!)
Links to Homework now (particular mainstream teachers that our kids work with this year, to make it easier for parents to find homework info)
Videos or pictures of student work

As you can see, my list keeps growing, so I expect completing my site will take a while. I have started it in google sites after watching all the videos I could.  I'm currently trying to make it colorful, neatly organized, and very easily accessible for parents AND children.

Hope to link to it shortly.  I've been sick for about 10 days now, so I'm a little behind schedule, and very thankful for an extra week!

Maggie