Last Thoughts

This class truly surprised me! If I am honest, I will admit that I was not looking forward to this class at all. I thought I would not be able to use much of the material in my teaching and remained skeptical for a few weeks. Now that the class is almost over, I have to admit that I truly enjoyed it. I learned many new tools such as Animoto, Voki, VoiceThread, blogger, Kidblog, and Wordle. I enjoyed blogging every week and would like to keep it up going forward. I think it would be a great way for collaboration and research among teachers. I would also like to set up Kidblog in my classroom next year to get my students blogging. I think they would benefit from this context of writing. I would also like to use more Animoto with the students. When we finish a text set or unit, I believe the students would enjoy and benefit from being involved in the planning and producing of more videos.
Here is a Wordle I created with some words that reflect what I took away from Technology and Literacy.

 

Classroom Rules and Expectations Digital Story

I started creating a digital story about my classroom rules and expectations to fulfill a requirement for my grad class, but quickly realized it was a great way to connect with parents, intrigue students, show student work, and use as a tool for instruction. I decided it would be really neat to use current students to make a video for my incoming students in the fall. I had students assist me in brainstorming different rules and/or expectations in my class to begin. I then took their list and used the students to model different positive actions in my classroom. I complied all the pictures and videos and added commentary to finish it off. Here's what I created.



I used a new tool called VoiceThread to compile all my pictures and instructions.I found VoiceThread to be straightforward and easy to use. Below I've listed a few of the ways I think VoiceThread could be used.

- Student documentation of his/her own story
- Read aloud of a book for a listening station
- Lesson introductions with pictures of a concept (i.e. intro to shapes create a short digital story displaying different shapes you see around the house and school)
- Practicing math facts, sight words, letters, numbers, etc.
- Introduction of classmates and/or teacher
- Classroom rules and expectations

Let me know if you use VoiceThread and how you use it in your classroom!