Solar System Wiki is out of this World! April 13, 2009
Posted by Dottie Black in : Blogging, Events, GPS, Lakewood Elementary School, Uncategorized , comments closedI have had several teachers use wiki’s as a collaborative tool over the past three years. This year one of my PepsiCo mentees used a wiki to collaborate between classes. They did a great job and the extra competition really motivated the students to do their best work.
Take a look at Ms. Chesnut’s students’ wiki about the Solar System
Changes in Ms. Thomas’s Classroom November 5, 2008
Posted by Dottie Black in : George Watts Montessori Magnet, Morehead Montessori, Video , add a commentWhat I learned about Tadpoles from Ms. Bethea’s Kindergarteners. August 13, 2008
Posted by Dottie Black in : George Watts Montessori Magnet, Projects, Technology, Video , add a commentI spent three days working with Ms. Bethea’s Kindergartener’s creating Pixie 2 slide shows about the Life Cycle of the Frog. First I brought the laptops into the class so they could play with Pixie2.
The second day we created the slides with the 5 stages and the third day we added words, background colors, music and narration. The students decided what they wanted to say in the narration and then we wrote it on a white board for them to read into a microphone. They did a fantastic job as you can see below and I learned a lot about tadpoles and frogs. (and how much fun it is to work with kindergarteners)
Internet Safety for all of us August 6, 2008
Posted by Dottie Black in : Teacher Resources, Technology , add a commentI had the pleasure of attending a presentation on Internet Safety at the McKimmon Center at North Carolina State University on August 5th. The presenter was Linda Criddle, an expert on Cyber Crimes and Internet Safety. I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about the presentation. I was concerned that it would be more about controlling what our students have access to instead of teaching them responsible behaviors. I was thoroughly fascinated with her presentation. Ms. Criddle put herself in the role of a criminal to illustrate how easy it is to glean information from seemingly safe Internet activities. I was taken aback at how much I did not know about the subject. Until yesterday I considered myself to be somewhat “web savvy”, now I know better. There is way too much information to relay here so I suggest you check out her website. It is chock full of good information including and her book and a course for educators.
NECC 2008 July 14, 2008
Posted by Dottie Black in : Teacher Resources, Technology , add a commentI attended NECC 2008 in San Antonio. It has been two weeks and I am still learning and processing what I experienced. Here are several highlights:
There is a new version of Hyperstudio that will be released soon for both PC and Macs.
I was very impressed with the demonstration of IspireData by Inspiration Software,Inc.
Ed.voicethread is the coolest Web 2.0 program I have seen so far. Check out the MathCast wiki with all kinds of examples of using this program for math lessons.
www.jott.com is a great way to send yourself emails using your regular cellphone. Just set up the account and call the jott number and speak your email. You can also send a text message with voice recognition.
The new Classmate PC by Intel is very impressive. There were several vendor booths representing this product and they were crowded every time I went by. You can buy the consumer version on Amazon for 399.00.
I purchased Volume 1 of copyright/royalty-free music from Soundzabound Music Library. You can buy it on CD,CD and online, or just online downloads.
Schooltube.com is another video upload site for teachers and students. Video’s are screened by approved educators before they are approved.
