Now that I've had success with one picture being added, I'm going to try another.

Here's a cute picture from when we did volcanoes.

Here's one on cause and effect.
http://voicethread.com/#q+reading.b49875

I found another vodcast that a I liked and could be used with third graders. This one is about making predictions and inferences.
http://voicethread.com/#q+reading.b44299

http://voicethread.com/#q+reading.b128425.i669266
We found a vodcast that had a retelling and pictures about the Titanic disaster. I liked this video vodcast because in our nonfiction unit in third grade, we learn about the Titanic. This has young students pointing out different features of the various Titanic slides, and I think that my third graders would really relate to them.

http://delicious.com/lbejian

Here is a link to my delicious web site. This was actually easier than I thought it would be. It helps to remember that little icons, like the globe, help you create the link. Thanks Nicole! I can see how I would use this site to find more interesting topics for third grade. I think that I would more likely use the site for myself, and with my colleagues, rather than with my class. Again, it feel like a little too much freedom for elementary students. Back to finding more topics for third grade. When I began to search the delicious site, I ended up finding a lot of interesting information. Icould see how I could lose several hours following different topics. That's the problem with searching, you can become completely distracted.
On a different topic, we had a meeting about the new Ditson web site yesterday, and I recognized some things that we learned in this class. There is one site where you go to write the article, and then a publisher checks the article on the site, makes any changes necessary, and publishes the article. The Commmon Craft guy would have been happy, no more messy emails.

I like the idea of being able to share documents between many people. Starting a story, and letting each person add a line to the story is a lot of fun. You could do that in third grade by letting the students take turns using the computers available in the room. I think I would still be a bit afraid to have students add to a story from home. It feels like you don't have enough control. Another way I could use google docs in my classroom would be for expanding sentences. I could enter a very simple sentence, and ask the students to add adjectives and adverbs to make the sentence more complex and exciting.

Hi, It's now about 8:00 on Wed. night, and I've been playing with videos since class. So, here's one of the things that you need to watch out for - playing with videos, web sites, and blogs can take more time than you realize. In class, I was working with Animoto (or whatever it's called)and I made a video of my class erupting volcanoes (volcanoes are part of the third grade curriculum). I found that if you tried to download more than one picture at a time, the system froze, and the dreaded "little man" showed up. This caused me to have to exit out of the program, force the system to "end the task", and start all over again. With that particular program, adding one picture at a time works much better. Also, with that program, I liked the music selection better. I was able to finish a video (with 12 pictures) that I wanted to post on my blog, but I couldn't seem to remember how to post it. If I had had more time, I probably would have figured it out, but I got totally frustrated.
Then, when I came home I decided to try windows movie maker. That seemed like a much more user friendly system. I was able to make a video, with probably at least 20 pictures, add music to it, publish it, and add it to my wiki site (fun in third grade). I was pretty pleased with myself for being able to do all of that. However, I truly didn't like the music that windows movie maker had. How can I get a better choice of music on windows movie maker? I think that my kids (not the students in my class, but my own 21 year old daughter and almost 19 year old son) would laugh at me because I don't know how to download i-tunes or whatever, but I don't know how. So, how do you get better music to be added to windows movie maker? Also, I wasn't sure how to end the windows video. My pictures ended, but the song continued, as did a blank black video. How do you stop the video when you are done adding pictures? Anyway, it was definitley an educational process, and I would give it another try.

Here's a video on states and capitals:

Wikis

Well, I found it interesting to watch the video and learn more about Wikis. After watching, I know that we could use a Wiki to organize our family camping trips, although I would want change the format so that we knew who was going to bring what. That thought led me to think of one way that I could use a Wiki in my third grade classroom. It might be helpful to use a Wiki when organizing a party during the holidays. I have room parents who take a list of what I want, and then call parents to coordinate what each parent should contribute. A Wiki would make that much easier, but you would have to go with the understanding that all the parents have computers and know how to edit and save things on the Wiki. My guess is that many would not know how to do it.
After reading the articles, I had more ideas about how a Wiki could be used with the students. However, I get nervous thinking about giving students free reign to edit other student's writing. I think that it could create a problem letting students write things without anyone knowing who wrote them. What if a student writes something mean or hurtful. There would be know way to follow through with consequences. I liked the idea of a continuing story, but again was worried about a student writing something in appropriate. I guess elementary teachers like to have a bit more control.
One other way that I think would be fun to use a Wiki, would be to create a class recipe book during the holidays, such as Thanksgiving. Each parent could add a recipe that they like to make at Thanksgiving, and then you could publish it for the whole class. I assume that it is possible to print what's on a Wiki. Is that right?

http://adifference.blogspot.com/

Please remember to bring snacks on March 25.

Before I start commenting on the articles I want to say that I think it's funny that I have been blogging for a long time and I just didn't know what it was called. Years ago I had a friend with cancer and her family set up a web site where we could write comments to let the patient know we were thinking about her. You could read all the comments that everyone wrote to the patient, and her family said she loved getting the messages. That was my first experience with blogging and I think it was great for the patient and all of us who were concerned about her. Now, back to the articles. I thought the articles were helpful in showing ways that blogs can be used in classrooms. I still think that the they are easier to use in classrooms with older students. I liked the idea that the teacher viewed the entries before they were posted so that if anything wasn't appropriate it wouldn't be put on the web site. I also like knowing that the students have a larger audience for their writing, but I still think that some parents are going to be very nervous about this. The safety issues are still a concern. Another concern that I thought about with younger students is that they are not very proficient with typing yet.
February 4, 2009 8:58 AM

Here is a new blog. Let's see if I can post it.