Betty’s Instructional Technology Blog

I will be giving a series of workshops in the next few weeks along with computer lab teachers in my district that focus on integrating technology into various subject areas. The first will focus on language arts literacy. We will cover various ways to use digital storytelling. We will also use del.icio.us, a social bookmarking site, as a means of collecting various web site resources that can be retrieved from any site that has Internet access.

The following is a link to my presentation: http://www.gtps.k12.nj.us/technology/Tech_LAL/_Tech%20LAL_files/frame.htm. Participants should comment on this blog entry for their exit ticket. Please answer the following questions:

1. Name 1 thing you learned
2. Name something you will try with your students
3. Write a question/concern/comment you may have

We have been working on different ways to share our student’s stories digitally. An exciting project was completed by third grade students this year. It involved using Photostory. The goal was to improve students’ reading fluency through a Reader’s Theatre project. We used the following steps:

1. Students selected stories to illustrate and read aloud
2. Students used Max Paint ( a program that is part of Tom Snyder’s Scholastic Keys) to design background images for different parts of the story
3. Digital pictures were taken of the students
4. The digital pictures were superimposed on their backgrounds  using Photoshop Elements
5. The images were saved as jpegs and uploaded to Photostory
6. Students recorded their voices into Photostory
7. Video files were created.

I’ll try to add a sample if I can get parent permission to include student pictures. For now, I’ll attach a sample of the backgrounds without the pictures and audio.

readers-theatre

I am going to attempt my first blogging project with students. I will be working with a wonderful 5th grade teacher. Our goal is to have the kids blog about the books they are reading. Each group will read a different book. As they read each chapter, students will assume different roles and respond accordingly. Two of the roles, the illustrator and the literary luminary will respond using Voicethread. The other two, the connector and the discussion director, will write a more traditional blog post. Students will change roles after each chapter.

 The students will be rotated through the 5 computers in their room as follows:

They will get to their blogs using the following web site: www.gtps.k12.nj.us/technology/litcircles5th .

Directions on how to create posts, comments, and embed Voicethreads are included.

This morning is our first attempt. I’ll describe more as the project unfolds…

With state testing around the corner, we are always looking for new resources to help our students learn various skills.

Thanks to one of Galloway’s third grade teachers, Terry Dougherty, for sharing a wonderful site that helps students in grades K-3 with reading.

Other literacy sites for grades K-8 can be found on Galloway’s student home page under literacy.

Thanks to Kevin Jarrett from Northfield schools for this one. The following site gives lots of great resources for LAL – many sample questions are given: http://rozauer.tripod.com/testprepla.htm

The following is the corresponding site for math: http://rozauer.tripod.com/testprepmath.htm

 Various Writing Links
Great Site with lots of resources for various types of writing
http://www.usd267.com/TL%20Student%20Pages/4th5thgradelinks/45writinglinks.html

 Digital Storytelling
Wonderful resources and examples of digital stories
www.digitales.us  

Persuasive Writing Interactive Site
Contains a story map – good to use as a prewriting activity
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=56

 Writing Website – designed by Joe Hughes – Smithville Grade 5
http://www.gtps.k12.nj.us/CURRIC/writing/index.htm

Teaching Similies
from Songs4teachers
here

Spelling Site
I came across a cool spelling web site thanks to Kevin Jarrett from Northfield schools: www.spellingcity.com . The site allows you to type your own spelling words then have the computer quiz you and will allow you to play games with the words online.

 Math Project with Google Earth
Thanks to my wonderful new aggregator, I found an interesting project that uses Google Earth and mathematics from Mathlinics. They are asking people to take pictures, video, and/or audio clips of landmarks and to create a measurement question related to the landmark. Then the students will create a Google Earth tour of the landmarks. The site is:  http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dgzsrf4n_25fb89hvhf