How I created my voicethread

I found a creation on you tube and followed the instructions. It took several attempts to creat it and then upload it to my blog post. I still do not know if I did this right, for some reason it does not look correct. I think I will go look at others to see what they have done. Till then bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I

My Voice Thread

Pass Test

My first attempt at creating a digital story for our class--Pardon all imperfections

Google Docs Sets Class on Fire

Today, I took my two of my classes into the lab to have them respond to a journal question I had earlier assigned from the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. The students created their own Google Docs accounts earlier in the week-during class and at home. When we arrived at the lab, and everyone finally settled down to do the assigt, they had a blast. Each student invited me and at least one other person in the class onto their account. Students responded to the journal, to each other, and chattedd to each other while online. They were really excited to see what each other had written, and they gave some very interesting comments to each other. They stayed on task and were focused, ready to respond to each journal entry. I was relieved to see they were truly enjoying online writing and when it was time to leave, they were actually disappointed. One student asked if we could do this everyday. To actually put into practice, not only what I learned in this class, but what our books have been advocating, was extremely rewarding.

Student's Essay

Blogs and the Pass Test

After reading Troy Hick's Chapter 3, I re-examined my feelings toward face to face conferences with students about their writing. This week we are all writing and teaching the various types of writing modes in preparation for the TEST. I am thinking yes, we will peer edit and teacher conferene, but would it be a better to blog with each other as we write and respond to the various types of writing which will take place this week. This would certainly save time for the teacher and the student. Some students are actually embarrassed if a teacher speaks to them in clas about their work. I have not done a survery or created a poll, but it appears boys in particular do not like having their work discussed while thier friends are near. Having a blog may help them feel less conspicuous in the classroom. It would be better to respond to students's writing on a class blog site because they often do not even read your comments on their paper, unless you read it with them. But, I feel I really do not spend enough time conferencing with students on an individual basis. Sometimes, I feel very torn between promoting digitial writing verses gettingt students prepared to write an essay using paper and pencil. Our students will soon be graded on how well they can write an essay-given a prompt they have never seen before. We were told, that yes neatness does count-that these readers spend aproximately 4 minutes per paper. You can imagine for those students whose handwriting is well frankly, bad to illegible, their paper may not even be read. And, perhaps more importantly, what relevance does this have to do with them. Won't their job, career, even academic career revolve around writing digitally? Anyway, I still will continue to introdue more digital writing. Wordle is one way I have asked my students to respond to and look at their own writing.

Social Bookmarking and the dreaded "Research Paper"

After reading Troy Hick's chapter about SSR and Social Bookmarking I felt like this was really a new way to attack the researach paper. A way that would truly involve students and foster critical thinking. Coming up with a topic based on their interest and then re-fining that topic to produce a true research paper, would prove to be creative and fun for students, rather than dull, and boring--just another assignment. However, what was posted on another blog, explains this as a problem because our district creates the way a researach paper should be taught and what sites are blocked by the district. So the question becomes, how do we convince our district to help teachers instruct taking full advantage of the sources at hand while serving the needs of our students for 21st century thinking? Olga, if you respond to this blog, please give some advice.