Carpet Routine

Organizational Tools Post #5

Well this was a fun tool, creating an avatar! I feel like I was actually able to create something that I will use in my classroom within the first week of school.
I created an avatar that helps to teach a beginning of the year routine for lining up. I think the kiddos will enjoy having the opportunity to learn this routine in such a unique way. I also love the idea that I will be able to go back to this specific avatar and replay it throughout the year when the class needs reminders.
I think I will make a couple of routines to teach using the same avatar, that I have named Ms Rich-atar. However, I think it is important to keep in mind that it would be easy to overdo it. I am hoping that by doing just a few important routines I can make using an avatar in this way both fun and valuable.

Classroom Poster

About Me Glogstar Poster

Avatar - class line order

Hello kiddos,
Are you ready to learn something new? I hope so. You will need to listen carefully to Ms Richatar, or you will never be able to leave the classroom.

Organizational Tools Post #4

This time I explored creating rubrics, so I set up an account on Rubistar. This tool is free, and I thought interesting, as it is developed and maintained specifically for teachers, in fact it has some government funding to keep it going.
The site was very easy to use. I played around with it and created two rubrics I can use in my class. They have two main areas. In "find a rubric" you can type in key words and look for rubrics that other teachers may have created. In "create a rubric" you can look in one of the ten sections for a rubric outline and then use the outline to create your rubric, or you can create one completely on your own. It lays out the grid and then has drop down menus in each category where you can choose specifics to insert into your rubric. For example, if you were creating a rubric on Letter Writing, it has categories in formatting, neatness, grammar, capitalization, paragraphs, ideas, etc. Once you click on the category it inserts the criteria for obtaining the score. If you would like, you may make changes directly in each criteria box.
I made a rubric for a Rocks and Minerals Workbook I have my students complete as part of a science unit. There were no project rubrics that fit what I wanted, but I easily took bits and pieces out of other ones and copied them into the one I was making.
I think this can be a great tool for teachers. The project titles they currently have on the site seem to be geared more towards middle or high school students, but it really doesn't take long to create one of your own. It's also a great place to look for ideas of what other teachers have already created. I plan on using this tool.

Organizational Tool Post #3

           For this tool I chose to do "sharing images" so I set up an account on Glogster. I played around on this site for hours and had a good time making a poster about myself to share with my class. Navigating around the site and creating the poster was actually pretty easy, but part of what took extra time was waiting for things to load.

Glogster calls itself a 'visual social network' and you can sign up via Facebook or start a new account. They also had a connection to "Glogster Edu" which is where I went to sign on. They had a free trial or for $30 you could get a classroom account for up to 50 students. I went with the free trial, however when I was navigating around the site there were some applications that I could not use without paying.

I often start the year with my students creating poems and riddles about themselves and connect these to some self-portraits. I was thinking that using this idea students might be able to do one of these assignments on the computer, integrating their poem with photos and creating a poster.

Creating a poster (or a Glog) was really pretty simple. You have several choices to start - graphics, text, images, video, sound, draw and wall. I uploaded photos in 'images' then added frames, adjusted the size and moved them around the page. Next I added text in the form of titles, bubbles and stickers. I could easily change the font, size or color. Then I added graphics.

My concern with doing this for students is how to upload photos of them to use. I believe I could easily link the beginning of year photos I always take of each student, but it would be nice if they have more than one photo to use and I am not sure how to do that at school.

Another thought is to have each student make a classroom poster with some of the typical reminders we usually post around the room: ie: “The SUM is the answer to an addition problem." or "Remember to indent at the start of every new paragraph." In this case it would be fun for them to add their photo, and one photo would be plenty. They could then add graphics to make the rest of the poster exciting.

Response to Standards #3

4.  Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making

Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. 

Students: 

B - Plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project.

I am thinking about the way I have been playing around with the Edmodo site. Setting myself up as a teacher has allowed me to create a whole little unit around a topic. I can see using this site as a way to help students reach the above standard. My vision would be to create a mini unit and then post all of the assignments through the Edmodo site. I would assign a little reading along with a couple of questions that they must answer in the microblog format. I would also add a couple of websites I want them to visit with specific tasks they must do at the site. Finally, I would have them post back to me each day a sentence or two about what they worked on that day.

Once I have set this up I would allow for several days in the computer lap for students to independently work on the unit. They would know that they had to write an end of work-time sentence each day, but other than that they would have a choice of which assignment to work on each day. Of course I would be reminding them and helping with timekeeping; ie: "Ten minutes left, you should be writing your 'What I Did Today' sentence. Remember you have 6 visits to the lab and 4 assignments to complete."

Now, the way I see this working specifically to this standard is that I am asking the student to manage their own work and keep track of their time in order to complete the entire unit assignment. Students are researching a specific topic via teacher guidance, but they are 'in charge' of both the process and the end result. I would specifically put in one website that is more 'fun', perhaps with a game to play. This means a student will need to make decisions about the use of their time weighing what they need to accomplish compared to what might be the most fun. 

Response to Standards #2

2.  Communication and Collaboration

Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, across the global community, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.  Students: 

D. Contribute to project teams.  Produce original works or solve problems in a team setting.

I am now looking at the standards through a different lens. As I read them for this response I am specifically thinking about the new tools I have been investigating and wondering how I might use one of them to help my students experience the skills outlined in the standard.

Looking at this standard of working with a variety of media with a focus on communication while working as part of a team gave me this idea: I am thinking about having small groups of students create a newspaper or a blog page. Goodness, as I am thinking about this my idea is changing. Over the years I have had many ways of communicating with parents, I am now thinking I would like to try a Room 210 Blog. It would be a place where I could post those things I need to share, but be published each week by a different group of students. The group could add their own post- a story about something, add some photos and/or change the icons. 

At this point I am not sure which direction I want to go, but the great thing is that by creating either a blog or a newspaper,  I still work on the standard. I am giving the students an opportunity to work collaboratively within a team, making decisions to produce a product they can share with others in both our classroom and the wider community- parents, extended family, school and possibly the internet. (I think I am going to need to learn the policy of PPS/my school on blogs and putting up photos and/or student names.)

Organizational Tool Post #2

Our group project is from Chapter 13 Microblogging.  The group includes Diane, Diana and myself. It was a rough start, but they were very nice and worked with me. We worked through the Edmodo site, setting up two of us as teachers (although we didn't realize that at first) and the other as a student. One teacher invited us into the group and gave us an assignment. We then explored posting, answering and grading assignments along with adding comments. Both teachers were able to post, grade and comment on assignments. We were also able to post links and add comments related to the links.
I could see using this with the class in the computer lab. I would post a link to something specific I wanted them to explore or read and then assign them the task of writing a short response. I think they would enjoy the uniqueness of giving their answer on the computer over writing it up on paper. I like the idea of having them do some 'microblogging' for their answers. With as little as I know right now about how to use this site, I feel comfortable in trying to do this small assignment/experiment with my class.