I was excited when I heard that Glogster had an education edition. I immediately signed up my class. When Glogster sent the passwords, which were a series of letters and numbers, I knew these needed to be changed. My initial thought was I’ll teach the kids. They can do it! With enough time and some small group work it could have been done, however we did not have that much time (and I was excited to get the kids going) so I changed the passwords myself. I will teach them that lesson another day.
Before we entered the lab for the children’s first time on Glogster, I showed it to them in the classroom on the big screen. I have a class of 2/3 boys who are very chatty, wiggly and easily distracted (as all 2nd graders are.) The lesson was during the last hour of the day, not usually a time that they are most attentive. I realized as I was demonstrating Glogster, they were SILENT! How many times are your students SILENT when you are explaining or demonstrating a new concept? I am usually interrupted a few times, and need to give at least a couple “looks.” But not this time. Their eyes were glued to the screen and they were taking it all in. Wow!

In the Lab everyone got right to work and loved playing with Glogster. They had an assignment to complete. Each child had written a short poem about Spring. These were edited and ready for the kids to turn into a Glogster page. I made it a rule that as these were spring poems, I did not want any of the skulls or crawling cockroaches on their glog. This was a personal preference, but I also know my boys, and if one can do it, the rest will do it and I just didn’t want to go there. They created some wonderful glogs. I also showed them how to add sound. Using our beautiful new Macs with the integrated Webcam and microphone, the children were able to do it all themselves sitting at their computer. We have filmed children reading in the room and they knew what to do when they hear “Quiet on the Set!” They were very cooperative! I was amazed at how quickly the children figured it out, and they were great at helping their neighbors. This meant I did not hear my name called as many times as usual and that everyone was able to use our lab time productively. We had a second lab session that week, and many of the children finished the spring glog, so I showed them how to embed it on a new wiki page. Again they picked it up quickly! You can see the finished glogs on the Spring Glogs page of our wiki.

This year I found a request for a Michigan School in the http://50statesproject.wikispaces.com/ I volunteered my second graders right away – even though I didn’t know what was expected and nor had I ever Skpye chatted with another school before.
We prepared at least 10 facts about our state and the children practiced reading them. We did a practice Skype with the school in Alabama the day before to make sure the connection worked (it did!) The following day we went to the computer lab (we have new iMacs and iSight cameras) and gathered around the camera/computer. The children did a great job reading their facts and listening to the Alabama school tell us their facts. I did learn a few things I will do differently the next time (and we will do it again!) We used an external iSight camera instead of the one on the iMac and we ended up a bit sideways. I also would have the children arranged differently. But all in all it was a great experience. Here is the link to our Skype chat. (The volume on our end is louder than theirs. Also the next time I will talk less!)

As it was Michigan week, and I had been given a Video/Green Screen assignment from my PLC group, I decided we would take our facts and illustrate them in front of the camera using the green screen (I needed at least 4 of the screens hanging behind the kids and on the ground so they could appear to be walking on the bridge.) We have done many green screen videos before so the kids were thrilled to do it. Each group would stand with their fact and we would decide the best way to show it. They pointed to the green screen imagining a map behind them, picked cherries from the green wall, swam with brook trout, and walked across the bridge. As it took a few takes to film each scene (and the rest of the class was quietly reading around the room at the time) we heard each fact repeated many times. The value of this is that the children can recite most of the facts from the video with little prompting. We have watched the video over and over and they repeat the lines along with the speakers. Yesterday we were playing a game, and the question asked if Lake Erie was one of the Great Lakes. We all laughed and repeated the lines from the video – naming all of the great lakes! ( We do know how to pronounce Ontario – even though the gals in the video kept saying Ontari-er!)

The movie was a great creative exercise. The children had many great ideas and their ideas made the video better. We covered a bookshelf in green screen and David climbed on that as if he were climbing a tree (his idea!) It is an experience I will repeat. This video will be shown to future classes as an introduction to Michigan Week. We already showed the video at our All School Student Film Festival. Video will be used in other content areas as well. I am already jotting down ideas for next year.

Here’s the lesson:

Find more videos like this on MACUL Space

I set up the SMARTboard with 3 large rectangles and a couple of object options. I asked a student, Katie to come up to the board and show us how to multiply 3 times 3. As Katie made her way to the SMARTboard, I said, “Why don’t we film it and we can add it to our Mathcasts?” It took a minute to set up the camera. When the children saw I was ready and Katie was about to begin, they QUIETED RIGHT DOWN. The room was SILENT! I had not given any directions as to use of unifx cubes during Katie’s demonstration, however I did not hear one child playing with unifix cubes. Katie stated the problem, and began to drag apples into the rectangles. EVERY EYE WAS ON HER and all were QUIET. It was amazing! Not just amazing that they were quiet, but that they were pin-drop quiet on an exciting day, near the end of the school year, in a class that was not known for being pin-drop quiet, or even somewhat quiet. I just sat back in wonder. What had so engaged them? It wasn’t me – I wasn’t talking or doing anything. They were watching a classmate use the SMARTboard and they knew it was being filmed. It was the tech that grabbed them and the tech that kept them engaged. They will also watch this Mathcast, and the others we filmed over and over – reinforcing the idea and making connections. It was just so amazing. Wow.

You can see the rest of the videos by visiting our class wiki.

Every year I read “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” by Judi Barrett aloud as part of our weather study. After the reading we discuss the wacky weather and brainstorm weather words and food words. (We get very hungry doing this!) The children are given a weather forecast template and fill in their own Wacky Weather Forecast with the food and weather words. They love to write about a shower of orange juice, a drizzle of chocolate, cotton candy clouds, or a tomato tornado. After the rough drafts are written, the children edit their writing and write a good copy. They also are given the opportunity to illustrate the wacky weather forecast. The children create pictures using crayon, followed by a water color layer. We usually display the writing and picture together in the hallway. They are placed in the hall for a week or two and then sent home. Until this year…..

This year we decided to “tech” it up a bit! The children are excited to write their report as before and illustrate it, but we will share it differently. They are going to practice reading their weather forecast out loud, and then each child will be filmed reading it sitting at a desk in front of green screen. We will then scan the pictures into the computer and use them as the background for their weather forecast. The children were very excited about the project today. (Today’s classroom blog reporters chose to write about it today and they called it a fun project!) We have already filmed a few students reading their forecast and we are going to look at these and learn from them. I hope I can get the kids to read with more expression, and they will learn they need to practice reading their forecast a few more times before the filming. We will film more tomorrow and should have the pictures finished as well.

Stay tuned….the first Wacky Weather Forecast video will be posted soon!

My 2nd graders have used Voice Thread to read and comment on Langston Hughes poems, and share what they know about geometric shapes. Parents have enjoyed these posts as well and now I look at every lesson as a possible Voice Thread opportunity! My friends on Twitter are also creating Voice Threads and we get ideas from each other. I decided to use the drawing feature with our Geometry Voice Thread after viewing the Matter Voice Thread by Mrs. Patterson’s Class.
Our Langston Hughes Voice Thread was inspired by many of the other Voice Threads I have found on Mrs. Patterson’s blog, as well as Mrs. Wojtera’s Famous American’s VT, An Abe Lincoln VT by Mrs. Diaz’s class, and Mrs. Shulman’s Many VT’s, here is a link to The Somebody Loves You Mr. Hatch VT.
I needed to first give credit to the Voice Threads and teachers mentioned above, as they have inspired and challenged me to use this tool with my class and to find a way to share it and use it as a collaborative tool. ( I also wanted to have links to all of their wonderful VT’s in one place for easier access!)

There are many benefits to use VT. I know I have only scratched the surface. Here is what I have found thus far.
While one student is commenting, the other students are listening closely (they have work they should be doing, but can’t help pay attention to what is going on in the front of the room.)
The students will play the VT over and over at home, reinforcing the concept or material.
In order for a student to make a comment, they must somehow connect with the material. VT encourages the children to think differently and make those connections.
One student referenced a Langston Hughes poem at recess – he said the Rain kissed his cheek!
The students are proud of their work and share it with family and friends, again reinforcing the concepts.
The children are learning from each other! Even though we are not collaborating with another class, it is collaborative learning at the classroom level.

Here are the two Voice Threads created by my second graders. Enjoy!