To Animoto & Beyond!

At the end of the school year, I always like to send my students off with a little gift. Memories and experiences are priceless.  I want my students to look back on their first grade experience with a sense of love, belonging, and accomplishment.  Each school year, I have created a video documenting our experiences with learning and celebrating. I also include big events like field trips and field days.  The videos were mostly photographs with text and music and some video recording mixed in.

In the past, I used software called Muvee which came on my former laptop. I later upgraded to a better version once the trial period ran out.  Another year, I used a program made by Microsoft, but at this point I don't even remember what it was. I believe it was part of Microsoft Office Suite, but I'm not 100% sure.

Well, I was finally able to play around with an awesome program for creating videos, slideshows, and digital stories!  I've been exploring with Animoto to create slideshows of my engagement photos.  I could have created a free account with the capability of creating 30-second videos, but making these types of videos for seven years in the classroom, I knew 30 seconds wasn't enough for me. Fortunately, the pricing was reasonable for creating longer videos ($30 a year), and I'm happy to say I've found the slideshow program I'm going to utilize in the classroom!  Check out this 60 second video telling you about Animoto.  Then, read on to see what the educator perks are!

The great news I *JUST* discovered is unlimited videos for educators!  You will need your school email address and class website/blog. Animoto will process your application and send you an educators code for the free account. On the educator page, Animoto is described in this way:

"Enhance your digital classroom with Animoto, an ideal tool for creating videos and presentations.  It takes just minutes to create a video which can bring your lessons to life."

It really is very simple to use. You just choose one of their songs or upload your own.  Choose your photos and video.  Add some text and off you go!  When deciding how you want to share your Animoto, you can email it, embed it (as I have at the end of this post), post it to Facebook, or upload to YouTube.  When I clicked on, "Sharing" and "More Options", I have the option to post to MySpace, Twitter, Blogger, Posterous, WordPress, and Tumblr.  When I click on "More Services..." over 300 options were available!  Some examples were Yoolink, Throwpile, Kaboodle, and iGoogle.  Incorporating Animoto into your classroom is bound to open the door to even more ways to get digitally connected and share knowledge. What a great way to incorporate those National Educational Technology Standards (NETS)!

Below, you can see my first Animoto for my engagement photo shoot as well as some education examples of hatching chickens in a third grade classroom and a digital story about the Texas Oil Boom.  Thanks for visiting, and I wish you the best in your educational endeavors! It was a pleasure learning, blogging, and commenting with you!  :-)

You can view the Animoto page here with more information about the photos.

A Child Can Teach

iPad lessons from two kids...

There’s something about a kid teaching the teacher a thing or two.  Everyone has something to contribute. Everyone is good at something.  In the classroom, I have found that kids love teaching others, especially the teacher.  The kids who struggle academically are the ones who usually light up the most when they are asked for help or guidance.  Teaching also helps kids organize and verbalize their thoughts. They are improving their speaking skills and patience with others.  I try to utilize this principle of having kids teach often.  We all know that we can internalize concepts and show mastery of a skill when we teach it to others. Everyone wins!

The reason I bring this up this week is because I wanted to learn how to use an iPad.  I don’t own one, but all I had to do was look no further than the two kids who I help take care of.  One is 13 and the other is 10.  Both students are on IEPs, and I knew teaching me would be beneficial to them too. Again, everyone wins!

Kristen, the 13 year old, seemed a bit skeptical when I told her I wanted her to give me iPad lessons. I wonder if she was wondering, “What would I teach the kid-sitter?” When I told her I wanted to know how to use iPads because they are being used in schools, she seemed to trust my genuine intentions.  I explained that I wanted to start with the basics:  powering on/off, volume control, opening apps, surfing the internet, using the keyboard, and closing windows.  I reminded her about the time when an inappropriate window popped up on her brother’s iPad, and I didn’t know how to close it.  We were in the kitchen and, not knowing what to do, I looked away and handed it over to their mother like a hot potato! It was a little traumatic not knowing how to close that window! That was the final motivator for me to hurry up and get some iPad lessons. 

Even with my explanation of goals, Kristen didn’t seem enthusiastic.  When I assured her 10-15 minute sessions would be sufficient, she was up for it.  I let her choose the time and place.  I even called her Miss (last name) just like if I addressed a real teacher. She smiled, and I felt she truly trusted me at this point. I really DID want to learn from her!  She was a natural teacher and did a great job giving me time to practice on my own.  iPad Lesson 1 complete!  

I was ready for my next lesson with her 10 year old brother when Kristen gently told me, “When I took dance, my teacher told us to take breaks between routines to help us learn better. You should wait a little bit before doing your next lesson. It will help you learn better.” I felt so proud of this sweet girl when she told me that!  I took her advice by waiting to meet with her brother.

When I was getting ready for my second iPad lesson with Tyler, the 10 year old, I let him pick the time and place.  He told me 5:40 up in his room at his desk. He even told me to bring my own little stool to sit on. (He was referring to my vanity chair.)  I called him Mr. (last name) to make it official. I even brought him an apple post-it note and beamed as I proudly told him, “An apple for the teacher.”  He smiled, took the apple, and put it in the trash! Funny, but Ouch! This reminded me to be careful of how I treat my students’ “presents” (specifically, if I'm going to throw something away, don't do it in front of them!). 

My lesson with Tyler was a little different. He hesitated and wasn’t sure how to “teach” me. His instinct was to just do it.  This reminded me that sometimes as teachers, we end up just doing instead of allowing the students to learn on their own or through scaffolding.  Since he was not sure what to do, I told him that I needed to learn how to go through the apps screens and select apps. I even played a couple of the apps to practice touching the screen to select and getting used to the interface.  He seemed to like "quizzing" me by directing me to choose certain apps and then monitoring my progress. iPad lesson 2 complete!

I plan to continue iPad lessons a few more times with my new teachers. In reflecting on this experience, I would say that it reminded me just how important exploration is.  Allowing students time to just “explore” the technology and "play around" with it truly is beneficial.  I hope that from this post you will see that letting your kids or students take the lead is something we should be doing from time-to-time. It’s great for confidence and skills.  It lets them see adults don’t know everything, and we believe in them. It assures them they have value and can contribute.  Everyone really does win.

Check out the following video of second grade students teaching to learn math. Also, please leave a comment and let me know ways you give your children or students opportunities to teach each other and you! Thanks!

Checking Out New Programs to Create a Sample Digital Story for a First Grade Classroom

From my wiki page, you can view a sample digital story designed for use in a first grade classroom.  Since I am moving to Georgia, the sample is geared towards a Georgia class with the subject being gray squirrels (which are abundant in Georgia).  This project would be part of a unit on Living Things.  In first grade, we teach living and nonliving characteristics.  Then, we teach about what plants and animals need to live.  The standards go more in-depth, but these are just the basics and we'll focus on the basic characteristics for this beginning project.

Georgia 1st Grade Life Science Standard
S1L1 - Students will investigate the characteristics and basic needs of plants and animals.

The requirements for this particular project would be:

• Tell about living things in general OR tell about one specific living thing (e.g. daffodil, gecko, human, dog)
• Use pictures and sounds to enhance your story.
• The digital story should be about 1 minute long.

I decided to experiment with the programs available on YouTube, because I want to be able to upload and share resources with other educators and students this way. There is a section specifically for educators and the first grade digital stories could be shared here for other students and teachers as well. I also had to make sure the program was suited for first grade (i.e. appropriate, easy to add photos and text, etc).

Some of the challenges I experienced with this sample story were keeping it within 1 minute and sound quality with the voice recording.  I used a free program called MP3MyMP3.  Once I use it a bit more I can figure out if the quality issues were caused by the program, the mic on my laptop, or a combination of the two.  I also am trying to figure out how to remove the "related" videos at the end of the YouTube video. I would not use this program in a classroom with the related videos. Online research shows me how to change the embed code to remove the videos from showing up at the end of my video, but I tried their recommendations and it hasn't worked! I would appreciate it if you had any recommendations for removing the "related" videos or improved audio recording, in addition to any other ideas you might have. 

The purpose of this sample digital story is to excite first graders about creativity, literacy, technology, and science!

Curriculum Integration and Digital Storytelling in My Classroom

This week I was told to “Dream a bit…” about curriculum integration and my classroom.  We have been researching and discussing digital storytelling (see my Prezi on digital storytelling here).  It’s exciting to think about how I can and will integrate technology, and specifically, how I will use digital storytelling with my students.

I am not teaching this year, because I am going to school full-time to finish my Master of Education in Elementary Education at UCF.  In less than two months, I will be moving to the Atlanta area and hopefully will be teaching again this fall!  My teaching experience in Brevard County, Florida was mostly in first grade so, for the purposes of this assignment, I will be “dreaming” about curriculum integration in a first grade classroom in Georgia.

First thing is…I need to familiarize myself with the Georgia standards as well as the Common Core Standards (adopted by Georgia in 2010).  I was looking at a first grade teacher’s website at one of the schools I plan to apply. I wanted to see what was happening in her class to get a feel for the first grade curriculum and expectations at this prospective school.  She provided a link to the Georgia standards.  I found that the major concepts and skills taught to first graders regarding Life Science included the characteristics and basic needs of living things.

Students could create digital stories describing the characteristics and basic needs of living things in general or they could choose a specific organism (e.g. grasshopper, deer, human, bacteria, Georgia’s state flower – Cherokee Rose). I can integrate other content areas and standards depending on my requirements for the digital stories.  For example, if I wanted to incorporate the math standards regarding comparing sets of numbers, students who chose to do their digital story on characteristics and basic needs of the Cherokee Rose plant could show that the Cherokee Rose has less petals (5-9) than Maryland’s state flower, the black-eyed Susan (21 petals). Students would also be incorporating Social Studies skills by identifying these states on a map.  A student researching deer could show math comparison by sharing how newborn fawns could weigh 8 pounds and adult males can weigh as much as 250 lbs.

The class would work with photos, text, sound, and music.  I would make sure students are choosing appropriate photos with attribution by using a resource such as Wylio.  In first grade (and especially for their first digital story), I won’t need to go into all the details about copyright issues for photos and images.  However, I do think it’s important to teach them that the photos belong to someone, and it is not okay to just copy and paste any image to their work.  This is part of what the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) refers to as promoting and modeling digital citizenship and responsibility.

We would talk about my expectations for the project and view sample projects to give them ideas.  However, I would stress my acceptance of their individualized projects so as to encourage their creativity (as opposed to conforming their own stories to match the samples). For the first few digital story projects, I would have students work with partners.  Students would research facts for their stories using our Life Science curriculum books, supplemental videos, and online resources. I would also check out books from our library on each topic. Concerning online research, I would find the sources for each group and have them search within specific sites to ensure safety and time constraints are maximized.  Storyboarding our ideas on paper would be one of the steps before actually using programs like Prezi, PowerPoint, Animoto, PhotoStory, SlideShare, MovieMaker….I’m still learning the list goes on and on.   Many teachers have been incorporating digital stories into their classrooms for years.  For those of you who have not, it's not too late to start. The possibilities are endless and the potential for engaged, motivated students is a sure thing! 

Check out these digital stories created by Kindergarten and 1st grade students.  Please leave a comment and share any resources you recommend for digital storytelling (graphics, programs, sounds, etc).  I'd love to hear from you.

What is Digital Storytelling?

There's a lot of buzz about digital storytelling. Some educators may not know what it is but are already incorporating it into their teaching. Check out this Prezi I created on digital storytelling.

Forgot Your Flash Drive? Who Cares? You've Got Dropbox!

Setting aside time to get work done is not something that just happens for everyone. Some need to make it a priority. Those working full-time, going to school, and raising children know exactly what I’m talking about. So when the environment and time are conducive to being highly productive, it's very frustrating when technical issues are what's keeping you from getting your work done.

So imagine how I feel in this scenario-

I’ve followed through with my scheduling priorities and have just pulled into the local coffee shop. I’ve got my laptop with me and I’m looking forward to a 20 oz. caramel macchiato, free Wi-Fi, and a few hours of uninterrupted “zone” time to get my work done (I actually look forward to these types of study dates with myself!). I gently and oh-so-slowly enjoy my first sip of coffee while taking out and turning on my laptop, only to find out that the file I needed was on my flash drive which I left at home!!!! 

Never work at coffee shops?  Well, imagine you’re teaching at school and you remembered your flash drive because you will be using a poetry presentation on “The Raven” with supplemental notes you’ve typed up in Word. Well, guess what?  When you stick in your flash drive you realize that your last save was done on your home computer! Yikes! There goes that lesson plan!

No matter what field we’re in or what scenario you can think of, EVERYONE has in some way or another had to deal with needed files. It’s inevitable. We’re all using a multitude of devices and we’ve got files saved all over the place. Enter Dropbox.

Dropbox just might be the solution for me. I need to simplify! (Turns out, Dropbox’s motto is “Simplify your life” but I didn’t know that when I typed this.) Dropbox is a free service that securely stores your files and and allows you access via multiple devices (computers, laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc) anywhere.  If you download Dropbox onto all your work/school/home computers and cell phones, when you update a file on your phone, it’s automatically updated on all your other devices and on the Dropbox website too.  Having duplicate files and parts here, there, and everywhere does add some level of stress in my life.  The prospect of not having to email myself files so I can access them on all my devices is very appealing!

The program is free for 2 GB. You can upgrade to 50 GB for $9.99 a month and 100 GB for $19.99 a month. The process of downloading and getting started was very easy and user friendly. After I signed in they had all the steps outlined for me, including the ones I had already completed. I was able to add the program to my mini-laptop and right away I could see the files I had added from my other laptop. The first thing I added into my Dropbox folder was my wedding planning folder. I had folders and multiple files on 2 laptops and a flash drive and it was refreshing to have it all in one place. I thought, “Now my fiancé can have access to these files too!” (not that he wants to!)

Next, I’ll be simplifying my life by putting all my college class folders and teacher files onto Dropbox. I’ll play around on it a little more so that I can start sharing with family, friends, colleagues, and classmates.  When I share a folder with someone through Dropbox, it appears inside their Dropbox and syncs to their computers automatically.  Groups can collaborate on projects together easily.  Another great perk is if my computer crashes, all is not lost if my files are on Dropbox!

Dropbox is going to be one of those technologies that helps me see technology is not making life more complicated, but is helping make my life easier. Now that's refreshing!

Sitting is Hard on the Body

I don’t know about you, but being a grad student is a pain in the bottom-literally. I sit for hours at the computer without realizing the time passing by! I’ll look at the clock and it astonishes me that two hours have just vanished. Did I move at all during this time?  I am a living statue at my desk.  My bottom is sore, my shoulders are sore, my right arm is sore, my knees are sore.  Exercising regularly is not enough, I need to take more breaks from sitting. Prolonged immobility and restricted blood flow have led to harmful conditions such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or eThrombosis, a variant form of venous thromboembolism (VTE).  Mixing this risk with the news that sitting long periods shaves years off life (CNN.com) and you’ve got a recipe for disaster if you’re not careful. We learn about viruses and harmful material on the Internet. We need to be aware of the potential harm that exists for our bodies with living in a techno-savvy environment.

DVT was first attributed to problems during the air-raids of WWII when Londoners would sleep upright in deck chairs in the shelters. The inactivity led to a blood clot forming in the legs. This could be fatal if the clot lodged in the lungs (pulmonary embolism).  Sitting for prolonged periods contributes to life threatening VTE¹.This is why people traveling for extensive periods are at risk too (See Dying to Fly). There are other factors that contribute to likelihood of blood clotting but most people don’t know if they are at risk.  Monitoring your movement is key and easy for anyone to do.

When I was teaching in the classroom, I hardly sat at my desk. Now that I’m the student, I feel empathy for those who work on computers all day. Different strokes for different folks, but let me just say I don’t envy them. It can really drain a person and sometimes I feel as though the last thing I want to do in my spare time is sit and look at a computer, phone, or TV screen.  Most of us are sitting for long periods of time when we work or play on computers. There are extreme cases of these immobile hazards, including two that involved technology. I will say veteran techies and serious gamers seem to get very defensive when you hear about such cases. I’m not saying that computers are the problem. Experts are telling us move around and take breaks, exercise, eat healthy, and be sensible. Although these are extreme (and real) scenarios, it is likely that some people are working at their computers ten, twelve, or even more hours a day.

• Korea- 24 year old male dies from “eThrombosis” after playing an online computer game for almost 80 hours. Minimal sleep and instant noodles.

• Britain-20 year old marathon gaming male dies from blood clot (DVT) 

• NBC journalist David Bloom, 39, dies from DVT after riding in army tanks while reporting from Iraq. 

The more we know about these health risks, the more likely we are to change our lifestyles so that we are living sensibly and healthy even in the realm of technology. According to the Coalition to Prevent Deep-Vein Thrombosis, the number of pulmonary embolism (a complication from DVT) deaths per year in the U.S. is more than the number of AIDS and breast cancer fatalities combined. I think it’s worthwhile we take note of this to remind ourselves, our students, friends, and family to take those short breaks to move around a bit. It just could save a life.

How are you making sure you’re not sitting in one position too long, whether it’s traveling or working on the computer?  Leave a comment and share your ideas.

1. Lee, H. (2004). A new case of fatalpulmonary thromboembolism associated with prolonged sitting at computer in Korea.  YonseiMedical Journal, 45(2), 349-351.