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Showing posts from 2016

Chrome Activity and Reflection

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Chrome / FOSS Lesson Activity Assignment: Explore the Chrome App Store (be sure to use the Chrome browser if not using a Chromebook). Produce a lesson which was created with an App (not an extension) from the Chrome Store. This artifact may be a student-oriented project, a resource to be used with your students or a tool to be utilized among you and your colleagues. Be sure to thoroughly explore the Chrome Store, you just might find something new and engaging. Post your artifact via your Blog (be sure it has been shared properly). I had a great time exploring various and interesting Chrome applications . Conn ected Mind - is a super fun graphic organizer . C lassroom assi gn ments could included asking the students to d iagram the families in Romeo and Juliet , to mind map the types of figurative language and their definition s, or to sket ch the neighborhood in To Kill a Mockingbird. B rowsealou d r ead s t he web out loud and simplifies websi tes so the reader can c

Wiki Activity and Reflection - An Ongoing Project

Lesson: How can you use a wiki to facilitate 21st Century learning opportunities in your classroom? Reflection: Brainstorm ideas for how you might use a wiki in your classroom to create a meaningful project for collaboration and learning. 7/23/16 I am beginning this post as I prepare for this lesson instead of after I complete the process. I want to document my process as I go. I think I'm going to use the Wiki to create an online glossary for students to add history, vocabulary, recipes, pictures, encyclopedia entries, maps, etc. to aid their reading of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird . That was my original idea. But I think I might enhance it by mimicking the Writing Process with wikis. I mean I will make one wiki, maybe with a mind mapping program like Padlet? that represents the Brainstorming step. Then I could do an organizing wiki? And an outlining wiki using Diigo? Let's see. 8/1/16 Here is the link to my Google Sites wiki . I am very grateful to Sa

Let's Make a Podcast! Reflection on the Process

I experienced a few challenges making my first podcast this week, but I must admit, although the project was as complex as my Digital Storytelling work, I feel like I hit less bumps in the road this time around. I got my idea to work with poetry performance pretty quickly and I made a sample poetry reading using the same techniques from my Digital Storytelling Youtube video. This time around, however, I used a Quicktime video as my audio source so I could avoid iMovie to put the sound and picture together. Yay! Loading the audio track to Youtube, adding a few pics with transitions and adjusting the timing only took about half an hour! I would assign this kind of project to my students in a heartbeat! But this poem video was just the topic of my podcast. I needed now to record a discussion/lecture about the poem itself. I considered using Quicktime again but discarded this idea almost immediately. It's a very blunt tool and there are no editing capabilities. Much of the material

Podcast: Emily Dickinson's "I heard a Fly buzz - when I died - (591)"

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My first podcast is about performing poetry, using an Emily Dickinson poem as a specific example. My performance of the poem can be heard in the Youtube video above. The podcast and corresponding show notes are below. Thanks for listening! Here is the link to hear the podcast: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3cZLpi86bWDbGZfM3VJVXNJWUk/view?usp=sharing Show Notes Poetry Out Loud recitation contest website: http://www.poetryoutloud.org/ "I heard a Fly buzz - when I died - (591)" http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/45703 A fantastic example of poetry recitation, "Danse Russe" by William Carlos Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pFW7etciz0  The Tone Map and other lesson plans: http://www.poetryoutloud.org/teaching-resources/lesson-plans Script: Today we're going to be discussing of one my favorite poems, Emily Dickinson's "I heard a Fly buzz - when I died - (591)" and tips for performing

Digital Storytelling - An Epic Task!

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Digital Storytelling Lesson Reflection Blog Post: Weigh the benefits and challenges that you anticipate from integrating video into your classroom. How can you best leverage this original content to provide your students with enhanced learning opportunities? How can you integrate these resources into your curriculum in a meaningful way for your students? Well, I spent so many hours this week working on the Digital Storytelling unit, reading up on resources and making my video project and hitting the wall with tech problems and trouble-shooting and on and on, but (hopefully) ta-da! Here it is! Or here: Introduction to Archetypes I'd like to share my process of creating this project with you so I can document and learn from what worked well and more importantly, WHAT DID NOT! I knew I wanted to work with the topic of archetypes because many English teachers of freshmen structure their year through study of the thematic archetypes of The Golden Age, The God-T