Thing 21 Reflection

After viewing videos I chose a few that I plan on using in my classroom. The first video was about the rock cycle. We are currently learning this in science and it would be great to show the students. Sometimes it is hard for them to fully understand all the parts of the cycle. This would be great for aditory and visual learners. That is definatly a plus! The second video would go great with our slavery chapter in social studies. I would like my students to hear some African American songs. The students may be surprised that they may know some of these songs. It would be something neat and different to add to the lesson to enhance it.
There could be some risks however to using online video's. You would definately have to pre-view what you are going to show to make sure it is appropriate for your students to view. Also you have to make sure that it is age level appropriate as well. It could be the topic you are looking for but it may be too young or old for your students.
The rewards however are again that it appeals to visual and auditory learners. With the majority of learners being one of these two I don't think that you could go wrong with online video!

Thing 21

Thing 20

Podcasting is a tool that could enhance any lesson in your classroom. I would love the students to create poetry in which thy could create podcasts of themselves. Also my class always participates in the young author's contest at the ISD and it would be a great way for them to share their stories. I would post them to my wiki page and that way parents or other classes could listen to their story being read. Podcasting would also be great to use for reports such as state reports or saint reports. Students would love to present their information in this way and I think they would enjoy it more then presenting infront of the class. I think that students would also enjoy using podcasting as a way of connecting with other classes. They could share their work this way. It would really help to connect their learning with others learning. Students would love to listen to podcasts. They are always so intune and listening when it is something that is new and deals with technology. If we you think about it, face it, their growing up with so many different technologies and they are very eager to use them. They would love the podcasts I visited about science and history. They would also love the NASA podcast since we just took a field trip recently to see the Hubble telescope on the Imax. I know that a lot of the staff memebers are also enjoying this tool. A teacher at our school used it to tape some poetry her class was doing. She posted them to her wiki and the students were so excited to hear thier podcast. She shared this idea with the staff and it is a great way to share ideas. Viewing the podcasts have been a huge help to me professionally. I have gotten and found some great podcasts that I will be using in my classroom. It will surely enhance my lessons and keep the students intersted in the subject! A great, easy, free tool! So amazing you can use your phone to create!

Thing 19

After viewing several podcasts I viewed many that I know the students would love to see. First, I went to Earth and Sky for Kids and was watched a pod cast on surface tension. What I thought was funny was that they were using cherrios to show this. I could easily use this in science and connect them with our weekly experiments. I also was viewing the NASA podcasts. I really like how they were broken down by age. They had a large selection to choose from and they would connect well with my space chapter. Also with the recent landing of the shuttle it would be neat to view the podcast of "NASA thing week" and see what people had to say about this exciting time at NASA. The final podcasts I took a look at were Colonial Williamsberg. They had many podcasts that the students could listen to or view. I liked the podcast titled "Freedom Bound." We talked about the underground railroad and this would fit into our chapter. It is something that the students could all view at computer class.
After viewing and exploring podcasts I definately feel that the students would prefer to watch them rather than to listen to them. It is easier for them to stay focused if they are watching rather than listening. I could post some of these podcasts on my classroom wiki page to make the students aware of podcasts. The students could also view them at computer class on the smartboard. Just by sharing podcasts with the students it will help their interest to grow and explore and seek more podcasts. The only isssue is that you have to be careful of what podcasts are out their and if they are approprate for thier age. You could manage this by always pre-viewing the podcast before showing and sharing.

Thing 18 Discussion

After looking at the educational widgets here are a few that I really would like to add to my wiki. I think the students would really like the Word of the Day, and This Day in History. This would be great to connect with english and social studies. I also really liked the daily Bible Verse becuase this would fit into our regilion cirriculum. We often look at the the readings for the week before we attend mass and this would be something else that the students would be interested in. I would use it as like a bellwork type reflection time to get my lesson started.
Using widgets is something that the students in my class really like to do. With their young age, it is hard for the students to type in a web address without getting some of this wrong. Using widgets allows the students to just click. It is fast and easy and creates less frustration between the teacher and students.
Students could use a map widget for social studies and math assignment. They could track the places where people are visiting from and they create some type of graph to record the results. This could be a bar graph, pie graph etc. I know that the students would find it really interesting when someone from another country visits our site!