Thing #21

This past spring, my class made vodcasts of stories they wrote. Here's a sample. This was made with Windows Movie Maker, then uploaded to TeacherTube (so the size could be reduced), then downloaded back down to be put into the class wiki. (Then uploaded to this blog!)


The kids got the hang of it quickly and enjoyed doing it. The time-consuming part for me was scanning the pages of 21 student books and then processing 21 vodcasts through TeacherTube. Needless to say, this wasn't something we did on a regular basis. Photos are much easier to download than scanned papers. Maybe next year, we'll put vodcasts on a blog instead. Blogs seem to hold bigger files.

Here is a video I just made to show how some of the ideas from this Library2Play program can be used with the younger children.

Thing #16

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE WIKIS!!! I used one for the first time this past spring for our bird study and quickly got a case of wiki-fever! The kids loved it, too!

We used our 2nd grade wiki primarily as a way to display student work (written, drawn, recorded, and videotaped), to promote student discussion, and to set up links to kid-friendly research sites. Since only the kids are invited to join the wiki, it is a very secure site.

Here are some pictures that show how it was set up. This is an example of one of the research link pages:

This is one of the discussion pages. Granted, this particular discussion about hummingbirds was not very deep, but it shows how it worked:

This is a page that shows how student work can be displayed.

The kids asked me to never delete their wiki. They have even been contributing to it over the summer! I am hoping that my team can put together one or two special grade level wikis this year (homework, book talks, etc.)