My experience with digital stories...

At first I have to admit that I was unsure about digital stories. I think they are a great idea, but actually creating one myself was making me a little uneasy. We were given a task in our GMU technology class to create a digital story to share with our class on ANYTHING. I think that is why I was so unsure of making my digital story, with the option of doing it on ANYTHING. It was hard for me to figure out a topic that would be appealing to the class as well as meet the requirements for the course. I came up with several ideas, but when it came down to it I decided to do a simple story on my little brother. I had tons of pictures to choose from and he is a cutie so I thought the class would enjoy watching a 3-5 minute story on him rather than seeing pictures of me.

The program we used was Photostory3. It is a simple story maker with everything you need for the requirements of our project. The program was easy to use which made the process of doing the digital story enjoyable. The program did have a few down sides to it. You could not talk all the way through the story. You had to record for each picture so you would either have to break up your thoughts into 3 to 5 second intervals or not have your voice on some pictures. In some presentations you can actually hear the microphone going on and off during each photo which can take away from the story itself.

The other problem I came across was adding the music to the story. The program comes with simple music to play in the background. Our professor gave us a free mp3 website to use.  At first I had trouble figuring out how to download the music from this site, but after a classmate helped me out I thought it added so much more to my digital story. Luckily my digital story was as long as the song so I did not have to worry about finding another one. I could not think of how I could add a second song and have it flow as well as just using one song.

Overall, I really enjoyed using this program and creating a digital story. I can see myself using them in my classroom as a teacher to get to know the parents in beginning of the year they could create a digital story to introduce themselves as a class. It also can be used as a culminating project at the end of a unit for either individual or small groups. It is also something that once it is done we can post them on our class blog or wiki to share with others. I think parents would enjoy having a CD of a digital story that there child had created. It is another way to get technology in the classroom.

3 things I can take away from my internship so far....

PLAN PLAN PLAN.... I have learned many things from my internship but the most important thing I have taken away from it so far is to plan in advance. Planning cuts down on "winging it" and will give the students structure in the classroom. I have noticed, especially with the class that I am in, if you pause for a second it shows them you do not know what you need to do next, and you loose control of the entire classroom. What my students really need is a schedule laid out for them with what they are doing that day. This will give them an idea of what the day is going to look like, which might get rid of some of the behaviors in the classroom. In observing my teacher I have noticed that most behavior problems stem from open-ended time that does not have structure or expectations for the students. I believe that if a schedule is posted and talked about in the morning meetings and the expectations are set for the day this class would loose a lot of its behavior issues.

Another thing that I have noticed in my class is that being CONSISTENT         with the student's behavior is necessary. In my class there have been a lot of behavior issues due to the inconsistency of consequences. One reason for this might be that the rules were not set up in the beginning of the year. To me guiding the students in creating the rules during the first few days of school builds relationships with your students and sets the tone for the environment of the classroom. Sine the beginning of the year my teacher has reached out to administrators and specialist for help with the behaviors in her room. So in her defense a lot of the "severe" behavior issues have been ignored because she was told it would benefit the students. Meanwhile, other students have picked up on the "severe" behaviors and expect to be ignored, but are instead reprimanded which confuses them. So consistency among the behavior is necessary to keep the classroom management under control.

ENGAGE your students! Engaging your students is KEY...to classroom management. I know not all lessons can be the most exciting especially in my 1st grade there are a lot of basic lessons that need to be taught to build their fundamentals. But as a teacher you know when your students are not listening and need some other type of instruction. If I was teaching and noticed most students were disengaged. I would get the students up, do an energizer, and change the lesson to meet the needs of my students. As we are learning in our differentiation and assessment class we will have a classroom full of unique learners and we are expected as teachers to meet their needs. So, our instruction needs to be differentiated and if we are meeting their needs the students will be engaged:)

Wikis in the Classroom

     When we first started learning about Wikis all I could remember is that in school I was always told Wikipedia is an unreliable source. So, I was clueless to how it could be used in a classroom setting or introduced to students as a source at all.  In my technology class at GMU my teacher had us create a class wiki, since then we have been adding to it and reading articles about how to use it in the classroom.
     After reading the chapter by Will Richardson on Wikis, my opinions were changed on how to use wikis in the classroom. I like how he said that use of wikis should not be discouraged it should be told to students that it should not be your only source. Also, his idea of using a wiki as a culminating project, he says to have students post there findings on something they researched on a wiki and watch to see how it gets changed by others or if it stays the same. This lets the students value their work because they are putting it out on the internet for anyone to view.
     My favorite idea from his chapter was starting your own class wiki. It would be like having your own class website with information. It also is a great way to post a link to your class blog and integrate both technologies in your own classroom. I really like the ides of wikis and blogs in the classroom I think it is a great way to build home to school and school to community relationships. And let’s face it in our world today, technology is everywhere! So if we as teachers are trying to prepare our students for the real world and the use of technology, introducing and using blogs and wikis in your classroom is a good first step.

Using Blogs to Enhance Literacy

In Diane Penrod’s book Using Blogs to Enhance Literacy she talks about four points that intersect pedagogy and digital technology in her second chapter called, “Blogging and New Literacies.” Out of the four, I agree with number one, “Blogging encourages fluency in writing.” She talks about having two distinct reasons why blogging encourages fluency in writing. One reason is that blogging is a pleasurable activity. I believe in this, at first when I started this blog I was very hesitant to the idea because all I thought was that blogs were personal diaries and I was not up for putting my life online for everyone to see. As I started exploring and learning more about them I realized it is much more than that. Instead of having to hand in writing assignments we were to create blogs to answer what we read in a chapter. It is very informal and less stressful. Which lead to Penrod’s second reason that students frequently spend more time on their blogging tasks than other school-based writing assignments. I agree, after creating my blog I now find myself spending more time on my blog then other tasks. I am coming around on my initial feelings on blogs because I am finding more ways to use it and it is helping me find a love for writing that I never had. So, I do agree with Diane Penrod when she says blogging encourages fluency in writing because it is happening with me in the assignments for this class.

The First Two Weeks of School

I have never seen the first days of elementary school since I was the student. Seeing them through the eyes of a teacher has been a huge eye opener. I did not realize how much time it took to get procedures and rules of the classroom in place. I am in a first grade classroom and for the first two weeks we have been going over the procedures of morning meeting, calendar, transitions, hallway, bathroom, lunch, recess, and the list goes on. Everyday the teacher reminds the rules and procedures before we do anything. It takes a lot of modeling and took more time and effort than I thought it would. Even though it is the first two weeks of school I do see progress, but like we have been told in our classes it is looking like it will take 6-8 weeks to get them down.

My school follows the responsive classroom approach. I am learning more about this approach by borrowing a book that my teacher was told to follow. I do like how with this approach the classroom is set up with the students. For example, the centers and classroom library all are covered with “coming soon” signs until the teacher can model and go through exploration of the centers with the students. This will set up procedures and expectations of using the center to prevent misuse. Most people that don’t know that this school uses this approach will find the room to be very bare at orientation and back to school night, but the positive to the room not being set up on the first day is that it gives the students a chance to create their classroom environment with the teacher to form a community.

I also got to be a part of my classrooms back to school night. This was an eye opener to me as well because I was expecting every parent to come with questions and concerns about the school year and not having enough time for those personal one on one conversation with each family. What realistically happened was 9 out of 17 families showed up and when asked if there was any questions or concerns there were none. I should explain that my school is a Title I school, which consists of low income families. The student population is a majority of Hispanic students, followed by Vietnamese students. Most parents could not communicate because they spoke broken English. My teacher expressed her appreciation for them coming and showing interest in their child’s school experience and reassured them that she would be bringing translators to her home visits and conferences. After back to school night talking with other first grade teachers it was low numbers of family turn out across all the classes.

I am enjoying my experience at this school and in my classroom and I am learning a lot about Title I schools and the responsive classroom approach. I am looking forward to the rest of my time in this class. Stay tuned for updates and my findingsJ

First Day of Class

This is my first blog EVER...I am excited to learn more about blogging. Stay tuned:)