KNey

During this technology course, I set out to learn VoiceThread more independently. Already, in just a few short months I feel like I have accomplished so much more than I expected. The Letters to Dr. Martin Luther King were a huge classroom success that Cathy helped with early on. After students wrote these by hand, they recorded their voices into the microphones for us to then share with their parents via the classroom website.

One of my yearlong/action research goals has been to analyze the impact that Image Making has on student writing. My students worked diligently to create their artistic collage books accompanied by writing to tell their fictional stories. After we shared and celebrated these within our class and at conferences, I decided to tackle putting them on VoiceThread as well. This was my chance to show myself that I could do it independently. The thought of recording all 19 stories overwhelmed me greatly, so I took Kim’s suggestion of just recording the leads or openings to their writing. This made sense because it still allowed the children to see that they had a real audience for their stories and that their writing and voices mattered. The self evaluation and feedback that occurred by using VoiceThread was priceless, especially as the children worked to read more fluently or expressive after an initial taping.

This link will take you to my teacher webpage which houses the two VoiceThread projects we accomplished. http://yes.yarmouth.k12.me.us/Pages/YSD_YESTeachers/Teacher/YSD_YESKaFe/index

Even though I am a huge advocate of VoiceThread, I did have a few roadblocks or hurdles that crept up. Unfortunately, distinguishing between a teacher site and a class or student site often confused me. I felt comfortable recording students and editing their comments, but the steps in sharing the product with others left me entirely frustrated. I think one aspect of teaching that I love is to read and learn at my own speed and pace about a particular area that interests me. VoiceThread was a hook right from the beginning, but I definitely think that I have only just tapped into all of the possibilities that exist.

Overall, despite these minor setbacks and difficulties, I am excited about what I accomplished with my students and for my own teaching goals. I am thrilled with this technology tool and am eager to incorporate it into more aspects of my teaching.

I listened to “If All My Classes Did This” by Wendy Wolfe for my online conference session. This presentation highlighted a number of engaging technology strategies, including VoiceThread, ToonDoo, Comic Creator, Gliffy, Zoho, and Gcast. I was most intrigued by Comic Creator since you can use it with students to have them explain a story or share their learning. Comic Creator seemed to stem from a Read-Write-Think site that had an endless amount of options to experiment with. The possibilities outlined appeared to be more appropriate for older students, but I can envision using this with my third graders as I try to hook certain writers in telling stories, describing settings, or illustrating vocabulary. I am eager to try this with my class and help them explore their creativity with graphics, art, language, and story telling. The Aha moment I had while listening to Wolfe’s presentation is that sometimes the most engaging strategies for students are ones that we may overlook and not view as learning. Comic strips may just be the motivation force for some! Garfield, Snoopy, and Calvin and Hobbes were onto something after all. 

I read through Terry Freedman’s article and can identify particular areas where I feel like I am meeting five of the criteria. In addtion, some points he raised made me think more deeply about my role as an educator and the function of our schools.

#10 Is the whole school or learning experience not merely enjoyable, but self-actualizing? When I read this one, I instantly thought of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and how the ultimate goal for most is to reach the self-actualizing pinnacle where you have become everything you are capable of becoming. I thought about our school’s quote: “Empowering All students To Create Fufilling Lives in a Changing World.” I see third graders for a small portion of their learning, when you consider all of the schooling and classes they will take throughout their lives. Still, I feel that I am helping them to see that school is a place where if you put your best effort in, you will see positive change. That said, our classroom is one tiny microcosm of society and each of us may have those days in which we wish to erase; the days where nothing seems to turn out right. I believe that this too is part of a self-actualizing environment. I do think that they recognize it as more than just an enjoyable environment.

#3 Do students know where they are in relation to the standard, and how to get closer? Yes, they do. Students are aware of district-wide goals relating to the Writing Prompt and other common assessment (reading responses, math facts, general math continua). I use exemplars regularly with my students as a way of helping them see the target and what they could do to improve.

#8 Are students able to work at their optimum time…? I think the use of the continua proves this point that students are working towards secure skills at their individual/grade levels. I also think that I could be better about slowing down myself and really checking in with my students to see how they feel about a particular lesson or study.

#9 Is the student able to review his own work, and for peer review to take place, in a meaningful manner? Yes, I think this happens regulary. Students are constantly giving constructive feedback to one another, especially in writing.

#1 Are students able to determine what they learn? While our math curriculum seems more rigid, students make many choices about their learning. Biography studies, country research projects, writing choices, book selections, and even math games are just a few examples of the choices students in my class make.

In regards to #7, I think that as I figure out exactly which resources are most beneficial to particular students in the future, the more effective this will be. The “right time” component seems to make this one more difficult for me, but I’m finding that the collaboration in our building makes modifications and differentiation much easier.

For my second tool from the “101 Tools and Resources” document, I decided to play around with Mapwing. http://mapwing.com/. I found this site on the list and it really intrigued me, especially since we are focusing on world geography in class. I can’t remember anyone specifically recommending this site before, but it seemed worth checking out. On first glance I liked how easy the steps seemed to be. I literally sat with my computer for 1.5 hours just mapping points and trying to create a helpful visual for my students. Thanks Cathy and Alice for providing the link to the site and getting me started. I basically decided to plot the countries that my students are researching on the world map. From there, I uploaded pictures relating to each country (yes, even the silly picture of me and Brian looking very patriotic). I love how you can plot an endless number of points in various locations and even write a caption or description below them.

http://www.mapwing.com/explore/view_tour.php?t=l0v8AbS0P8vD880 

I shared this site with my students and my plan is to have them help me upload more photos to truly capture the beauty and uniqueness of the countries. A short video is shown once all of the pictures and captions are included.

Although I didn’t know which tool to try, I am more excited than ever that I figured this out independently. I certainly have much more to learn about Mapwing, but I am excited about this starting point. We may even plot the countries from our heritage projects as well. I look forward to experimenting with other tools and resources from this engaging list.

Last year Cathy taught me how to use Ezedia QTI with my students and we worked on mini powerpoints of people who lived during the Underground Railroad time period. I decided to try this out with my third graders this year as they were reading biographies. They impressed me with their knowledge and comfortability with this new program. After success with them, I took time during one lunch period to share what I’ve learned with Kim and Steph. This collaboration felt easy and effortless and hopefully helped them feel a bit more at ease with the program.

During last month’s class, Kim took Voicethread by storm and seemed to master the art of doing it independently. I am motivated to tackle the Image Making stories (even if it’s one page) with my students and try another Voicethread project. It was so energizing to work with Kim and troubleshoot and clear hurdles as we navigated this program together!

My students recently wrote Thank you letters to Dr. Martin Luther King as a way of remembering and honoring him. After the final drafts were complete, I talked with Cathy about using VoiceThread to record the third graders’ powerful voices. I never imagined how smooth this process could be. Cathy worked on recording each student and then with the pictures of MLK Jr. that I had selected, the student voices were shared. From the moment we started this project, I sensed the high level of interest and ownership that each child demonstrated. Somehow, the letters to MLK Jr. took on a life of their own, especially once voices were attached. I notified parents that the VoiceThread link would be up and running, and I received very positive feedback from many individuals who listened to the samples. I achieved my goal of giving a more “real world” audience to the class, as they soon realized that their letters could be heard around the world. Hearing a third grader acknowledge the profound influence that MLK Jr. had on our world is absolutely moving.

While I have not tackled my more challenging goal of using VoiceThread to record each Image Making story, I am excited about the energy that surrounded the letter project. My immediate goal is to become more independent with VoiceThread. Hopefully over the next few weeks, I will record students’ stories and use this engaging tool to enrich the classroom and outside world for my students. They have amazing things to say and certainly deserve to be heard. VoiceThread gives them this opportunity.

What will I do to prepare my students for the future? This question is one that keeps me up at night, yet also one that makes me realize the endless and exciting possibilities that exist. For one, I will continue to collaborate with other colleagues and seek fresh new ideas to approach my instruction. As I attempt to learn more about VoiceThread, Cathy has been a remarkable support and teacher to me. Somehow, regardless of how overwhelming a project may seem, she synthesizes the necessary components and explains a skill in a manageable way so that I feel successful by the end. I rely on her insight and support as I embark on new technology projects with my students. I hope to continue this collaboration and discover new ideas from Cathy that may help promote deeper learning and discovery for my students.I feel fortunate to be able to collaborate with Kim and Steph this year as well. The sharing and openness seems natural and fluid. However, I think what makes this collaboration work so well is that we all want to learn more and depend on one another for ideas and inspiration. After today’s computer class where my students worked on their Ezedia biography slideshows, I am excited about sharing this with my team.Finally, I will remind myself of the incredible involvement that Joyce and Kara have in my classroom. Brainstorming, muddling, and learning with them has taught me more about differentiation and modifications than I ever thought possible. Having a second set of eyes sheds new light on situations and keeps me rejuvenated. 

My goals for this technology class are focused around successfully using VoiceThread http://voicethread.com/ to allow a medium in which parents and outside visitors can respond to student work. More specifically, as my students complete their Image Making stories, I hope to display them by using VoiceThread. This will ultimately raise the expectations for them when they realize that their peers, parents, and teachers may make positive comments on their writing and artwork. These VoiceThread presentations will then be viewable on my class website.