This Thursday is our last class, we have all shared many new ideas, tools, plans and reflections. Our main class site is posted on Diipo... you cannot enter this class, but you can join the Diipo collaborative network. Go to http://diipo.net/ and create an Educator  or Student account. Then you can find my entries under frdarlin. We have some class information and resources posted here.

We also spent a lot of time collaborating among class instructors. Paula and Kim and I posted and contributed to many Google documents and presentations throughout the organizing and teaching process. We even started with a technology Survey using Google forms. It was very successfull in getting a baseline of experiences of our participants. We will revisit the actual data collected from the survey in the google spreadsheet in the View a Summary of Responses. This is another web version of the final data collected and analyzed.

Other favorites were:  Read, Write, Think  http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/;  Voki http://www.voki.com/Voki_for_education.php, Wordle http://wordle.net , and Webquests from www.zunal.com and other webquest searches.

It was not easy setting aside the time to organize and support the teachers in this journey through the writing tools, especially since the class lasted for 3 hrs and 15 min for each of four evenings. But all the response and enthusiasm from teachers made it all worth while.

Here is my Personal Web Presence  -- make your own on http://www.voki.com

Save the Dates!!!  

A Technology-Infused 4-wk Class based on:

Because Digital Writing Matters,

DeVoss, Eidman-Aadahl, and Hicks 

...from the National Writing Project

 When: Thursdays, May 5, 12, 19, and 26&  Where: Graveraet Main Floor Tech Lab& What time: from 5:30 - 8:45

Journey North - K- 9 grades --  How do the seasonal changes you observe locally relate to changes around the globe? You can explore this question by sharing observations with people around the world. 

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/ 

Check out the Journey North for Kids - http://www.learner.org/jnorth/KidsJourneyNorth.html

 Wolfram Alpha … 4 – 12 grades http://www.wolframalpha.com/  Computational Knowledge Engine… Click the Examples link to see the vast informational range of this amazing site…  http://www.wolframalpha.com/examples/

  Here is another way to find videos directly related to Michigan curriculum content in United Streaming….MI curriculum content is organized in United Streaming videos in this Michigan Model collection.     Go to www.unitedstreaming.com        Log in with username: mi_model, password: mi_model.

Find lots more on the MAPS Teacher Resource Page at: http://teachers.mapsnet.org/MAPSTechnologyLinks/TeacherResourcesLinks.aspx

Statement 2 - NETS Relevance: Using a web site meets NETs-T : 3C, 4a, and 4c by providing digital-age tools useful for classroom work and learning. Teachers also are able to communicate to parents and staff through this online medium.

Statement 3 & 4 - Evaluate assignment & What was learned: One of the  plusses of using a website is that it can be uniquely tailored to your content, as well as your audiences both in the classroom and out. It can be creative, engaging and easily updated to provide the most current information. Learning how to use the website as a tool to communicate through awareness of the audience’s needs is an important step toward creating a successful web presence. Providing information that is in-depth, interesting and written for your audience is the key.

Statement 5: Future growth/direction: Using the web as a tool to further expand the learning horizon by exploring and updating information from various experts in the field can only add to the dynamic capabilities of the tool itself. How you use it to promote information and resources is a goal to strive for. Communicating this presence to others through e-mails, newsletters and interactions with parents is helpful.

Poetry About Snow...

Students in Mrs. Flores' third grade have completed a writing project to create poems about snow. They took their final drafts to the computer lab and opened a poetry template loaded on the desktop and typed their poems. They updated the formatting (to change text color, font and align the lines of the poem). They then inserted Marquette snow pictures which were also located in a desktop folder, and resized and moved the picture below or under the poem... here are some of the final products posted in the hall at Cherry Creek

(download)

Click here to download:

untitled-hnCymkbGkbgjrrowFBEq.zip (6 MB)

This is a wonderful technology activity for your students. Students develop a list of questions, and answers that they enter into separate PowerPoint slides – questions on slides 2 - 6 and answers on slides 8 - 12. The first and seventh slide is for the Name/Topic info. The PowerPoint file is printed as a two page six-slide handout. the first page slide boxes are cut out on three sides. The two pages are then taped or stapled with cut slides flipped open to reveal the answers. For these instructions and more go to: Vicki Blackwell's Guide for Teachers at: http://www.vickiblackwell.com/ppttemplates.html

More Fact Flippers from the 3rd Grade at Sandy Knoll -- Mrs. Wiseley's class created these on the Michigan Indian Tribes. 

(download)

Click here to download:

powerpoint-fact-flipper-hHblsrDwtnugftrtEwxy.zip (11.53 MB)