Instagram and Vine are great photo and video apps that be a classroom resource. Last year, I had my students do a science project at home and I had them use Instagram to show me their experimental set up, materials, and results. I told them to take "selfies" of their project.
In 8 ways you can use vine, Betsie Jonas has some great ideas like teaching phonics to children because the Vine video loop. She also mentions reenacting a favorite book scene. I would use Vine as an EOC review. I would give my students a vocabulary word and they would have to act it out and tape a Vine video (similar to charades). Then the other students would need to guess the term.
Vine
These vines are of my crazy pups!
Instagram Follow me!!
This photo is of my husband and brother kayaking
This is my sweet nephew and he loves ranch!
I'm enjoying a cup of coffee!
Friday, April 25, 2014
Friday, April 18, 2014
Information Curation
Happy Easter!
This week's assignment was to look into information curation, which is a site where new articles are a collected and sorted. I did not know about what information curations, but it is very interesting. One can look through topics and save articles to a your personal curation.
When searching through the sites, I liked Flipboard the most. The layout is very similar to reading an actual magazine because it feel like you're flipping the pages. I also liked that saving an article is easy because the buttons are located at the bottom of the page. Google Currents is easy to use as well. You can look for magazines and save them to your lifestyle section. When looking through Paper.li, I felt it fell short in comparison to the curation Apps. Once you have created a paper, you cannot add another topic to it or follow on twitter. I found that I wanted to have all the articles on one page instead of creating different newspapers for each topic. I do not think I could see myself using this website.
This week's assignment was to look into information curation, which is a site where new articles are a collected and sorted. I did not know about what information curations, but it is very interesting. One can look through topics and save articles to a your personal curation.
When searching through the sites, I liked Flipboard the most. The layout is very similar to reading an actual magazine because it feel like you're flipping the pages. I also liked that saving an article is easy because the buttons are located at the bottom of the page. Google Currents is easy to use as well. You can look for magazines and save them to your lifestyle section. When looking through Paper.li, I felt it fell short in comparison to the curation Apps. Once you have created a paper, you cannot add another topic to it or follow on twitter. I found that I wanted to have all the articles on one page instead of creating different newspapers for each topic. I do not think I could see myself using this website.
Friday, April 11, 2014
Screencast
Hello.
Using screen shots are very useful when someone is presenting a tutorial or a how to. ScreenCast-o-matic was a very simple program. I did not have to download any new software. It was basically point, record, and finish! I really liked the different options to download the file, embed or share the link. I would use this website repeatedly, because it is so easy!
I could not use Screenr for the life of me. I downloaded Java fifty time on the computer, my laptop and even my husband's work laptop. It did not work! So, I gave up and downloaded Jing. Jing is very similar to ScreenCast except it is an program. I did not like the save or send to ScreenCast options. I had to redo my tutorial several times because I save the recording and I could not open it. When I uploaded the recording to ScreenCast, it took a long time. This is my link to my video and a photo of the Tagxedo I've made. http://screencast.com/t/MTWwuTVe
My favorite would obviously be ScreenCast-o-matic hands down! It was easy, free, and user friendly.
Using screen shots are very useful when someone is presenting a tutorial or a how to. ScreenCast-o-matic was a very simple program. I did not have to download any new software. It was basically point, record, and finish! I really liked the different options to download the file, embed or share the link. I would use this website repeatedly, because it is so easy!
I could not use Screenr for the life of me. I downloaded Java fifty time on the computer, my laptop and even my husband's work laptop. It did not work! So, I gave up and downloaded Jing. Jing is very similar to ScreenCast except it is an program. I did not like the save or send to ScreenCast options. I had to redo my tutorial several times because I save the recording and I could not open it. When I uploaded the recording to ScreenCast, it took a long time. This is my link to my video and a photo of the Tagxedo I've made. http://screencast.com/t/MTWwuTVe
My favorite would obviously be ScreenCast-o-matic hands down! It was easy, free, and user friendly.
Friday, April 4, 2014
Playing with Words
Hello again. This week's activity is displaying words with different web sites.
Word Clouds
Quipio & ReciteThis
These two sites are so cool! I love creating these images! It was simple and fast. My students would love to create these images.
As a STAAR EOC teacher, I am constantly looking for new ways for students to understand a topic. I would use any of these websites to enhance their understanding. In my district we have a TLI Grant (Texas Literacy Initiative) and one of the objectives is to increase understanding of text or stories. The TLI specialist gave me a short story of small poxes and Word Clouds would be an excellent way of showing student understanding. In Tagxedo, they could type in key terms or write a summary about the reading. Once they are finished, they could email me the image.
Word Clouds
Word clouds are a tools to assess your students' understanding on a topic or reading. According to the article from Teaching Tactics, Scott Hamm states students can use word clouds to reflect on the reading and organize their thoughts. With the revision of the TEKS and CCRS, rigor and higher order thinking is stressed.
I liked that the student can type in their own thoughts and see them in a different way. I preferred using Tagxedo and Tagul because there were a variety of font style and color options. I also liked that you could save, share and print the image. I felt Wordle was limited on the font color. When I was trying to save the image I could only embed or print the image out. I didn't like that.
Quipio & ReciteThis
As a STAAR EOC teacher, I am constantly looking for new ways for students to understand a topic. I would use any of these websites to enhance their understanding. In my district we have a TLI Grant (Texas Literacy Initiative) and one of the objectives is to increase understanding of text or stories. The TLI specialist gave me a short story of small poxes and Word Clouds would be an excellent way of showing student understanding. In Tagxedo, they could type in key terms or write a summary about the reading. Once they are finished, they could email me the image.
Friday, March 28, 2014
Cartoons & Comics
Hi there!
Pixton
http://Pixton.com/ic:vss2mr3i
When creating the comics and cartoons, I immediately remembered a training I recently had. The presenter suggested we incorporate create ways for teaching curriculum. Cartoons and comics are the prefect outlet for students to express their creativity and understanding of a topic. I can implement comics to check for understanding. I've created three cartoons that have content that most students have difficulty on.
The site was relatively easy to use, but on the free version you could only make two cartoon characters. I liked that you could edit the size of the character and edit the facial expression. Pixton cartoons were easy to save; in one click the site gave me options to share my cartoon. I was having difficulty embedding the image.
ToonDoo
I felt ToonDoo was a bit more complicated to use. There were too many choices in characters and backgrounds. It took a while to navigate through the images. The site was user friendly but the save button wasn't clearly displayed. It took me a while to find the button.
MakeBeliefComix!
First of all, I felt the website was the easiest out of the three. I liked that this site did not need a log in. The students could create a comic and email it to themselves. I've noticed a lot of the time my students do not have email addresses. I thought the images of the characters and backgrounds were a bit limiting. I feel students would like this site because it's so easy to create and save a comic.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Online Book Communities
Hello, hello!
Online book communities are great sites that keep track of the books that you have read or to see what your friends have read.
Booklikes.com
The images show my blog shelf pages. Booklikes is a site that book lovers can make a page or blog to share their thoughts about books. I thought the pages was easy to maneuver. Also, finding and adding books to the shelf easy as well. I thought it was interesting that when you're adding a book, a button can connect you to the Amazon website. Booklikes is neat because there are blogs people write about books that they have read and it is interesting to get another person's perspective on a book. I felt the site offered more features than what I needed.
LibraryThing.com
I felt LibraryThing's appearance was very basic. The color and font style was plain and boring. To be honest, I did not like this website. I found the site to be difficult to search for books and to find reader comments. One of the things that bothered me was the location of the search site bar. The link was on the upper right hand corner and not in the center. I did not like the 'Add books' tab. If you searched for a book and clicked on the title, it automatically added that book your shelf.
Shelfari.com
Shelfari is sponsored by Amazon.com and I feel that student would be comfortable using this site. I liked to format of the pages and how the tabs were set up. It was easy to find books and read their summaries. For example, a student can search for a book, click on the cover, and read the summary with a synopsis.
When I was creating my shelf, I found it time consuming to add books because it prompted you to comment on the book and add tags to it. Overall, I liked the site because you can connect to what other people are saying out the books.
Online book communities are great sites that keep track of the books that you have read or to see what your friends have read.
Booklikes.com
The images show my blog shelf pages. Booklikes is a site that book lovers can make a page or blog to share their thoughts about books. I thought the pages was easy to maneuver. Also, finding and adding books to the shelf easy as well. I thought it was interesting that when you're adding a book, a button can connect you to the Amazon website. Booklikes is neat because there are blogs people write about books that they have read and it is interesting to get another person's perspective on a book. I felt the site offered more features than what I needed.
LibraryThing.com
I felt LibraryThing's appearance was very basic. The color and font style was plain and boring. To be honest, I did not like this website. I found the site to be difficult to search for books and to find reader comments. One of the things that bothered me was the location of the search site bar. The link was on the upper right hand corner and not in the center. I did not like the 'Add books' tab. If you searched for a book and clicked on the title, it automatically added that book your shelf.
Shelfari.com
Shelfari is sponsored by Amazon.com and I feel that student would be comfortable using this site. I liked to format of the pages and how the tabs were set up. It was easy to find books and read their summaries. For example, a student can search for a book, click on the cover, and read the summary with a synopsis.
When I was creating my shelf, I found it time consuming to add books because it prompted you to comment on the book and add tags to it. Overall, I liked the site because you can connect to what other people are saying out the books.
Goodreads.com
Goodreads reminds me of a social networking site because the home screen has updates your friends have posted. The site is easy to use and searching for a book it easy as well. When searching for books, I found adding them to shelves is in one click. I liked that it recommends books based on my searches and shelves. It is just easy to use!
Each online book community site is unique and can fit the needs of any teachers and students. For me, I want a website that is easy to use, where I can add my books with a couple of clicks, and find new books to read. Throughout this assignment, I was thinking about my students and how they want things right now. With that in mind, I feel Goodreads.com is convenient when searching for books and familiar to my students. I actually have a Kindle and my Goodreaders account is synchronized, so it makes it easy to post my thoughts on books.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Podcast
Hello.
To be honest, I did not know what podcasts
were until this assignment. I had heard of them but never really bother
to use them. Podcasts are a series of audio recordings. They are a great
tool to use when discussing a topic or commenting on a current event.
Their uses in the classroom are copious. For example, students or teachers
can create a podcast to explain a difficult topic or create verbal presentations.
When creating my podcast, I thought of my homebound
student. He is missing both the lecture and
lab sections of my class and podcasts are great way of me communicating that
missing information. So I decided to
create a podcast in hopes to post to my classroom's weebly page. The podcast is
a review on how to set up and solve a dihybrid cross problem.
Podcast Link: https://soundcloud.com/jmt047/sets/dihybrid-crosses-review
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