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

I came across a very comprehensive resource for all things Web 2.0. It contains information about everything from blogs to podcasts to wikis to digital storytelling to resources like Animoto and Jing and Photo Story and on and on… It also provides resources on digital citizenship issues like copyright and cybersafety. Another link that shows a creative way one district encouraged their staff to enter this Web 2.0 world can be found here. It contains a detailed plan including weekly tasks and incentives provided throughout the year.

 I learned about it through listening to the Ed Tech Weekly podcast from Ed Tech Talk. It still amazes me how much information is out there and how great is it to be able to access it through listening to podcasts and reading blogs. The idea of these “digital subscriptions” coming right to my computer still blows me away. 

We recently obtained parent permission to post a sample student Reader’s Theatre project. The following is a sample third grade project where students created backgrounds in Max Paint , used Photoshop Elements to superimpose photographs on top, and then imported them into Photo story where they added narration. The sample is called “Jessica.” Check out this link: http://www.gtps.k12.nj.us/technology/jessica_movie_for_web.wmv

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

 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