Today I found a great little tool that is so easy to use. Thanks to Amanda S she introduced me to a very catchy little tune the Bazooka Bubblegum Song. We chose to use this in our syndicate assembly and I needed to download the youtube music to MP3 format.
I used ListenToYouTube.com. I copied the youtube URL and entered it on this website, applied High Quality. It then converts the youtube to a MP3. You are then asked to download and I saved this into "My Music" - super easy. By the way the kids love this song especially the little dance.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Literacy Programming
Following on from my post on classroom programming, this week and the purposeful integration of ICT in my classroom programme and time restraints I decided to create an individual plan for one of my reading groups. I broke down the two days that I am in the classroom into 20-25 minute blocks and planned a variety of literacy activities with specific learning intentions that required the students to self-evaluate their learning. During the morning I would pull this group back to work with me during guided reading time and written language time.
The main focus for me this week with this group was to support these students so that they were able to follow this contract system independently. I did not ask my children to reflect/self-evaluate their ability to "self manage" their learning tasks. Next week I will add this to my planning.
Am very keen to hear how other teachers manage their classroom rotations and integration of ICT in a more effective and manageable manner. We had a quick discussion at our lead teachers day at Elm Park today about different ways to integrate ICT and plan literacy. Am very keen to continue along the lines of having individual contracts for each group, however, realise the importance of making sure learning is purposeful, students are aware of what they are learning e.g. WALTs and WILFs
The main focus for me this week with this group was to support these students so that they were able to follow this contract system independently. I did not ask my children to reflect/self-evaluate their ability to "self manage" their learning tasks. Next week I will add this to my planning.
Am very keen to hear how other teachers manage their classroom rotations and integration of ICT in a more effective and manageable manner. We had a quick discussion at our lead teachers day at Elm Park today about different ways to integrate ICT and plan literacy. Am very keen to continue along the lines of having individual contracts for each group, however, realise the importance of making sure learning is purposeful, students are aware of what they are learning e.g. WALTs and WILFs
Classroom Programming
Having only 2 consecutive days in my class is proving a challenge. Today I decided I would focus totally on completing or getting further ahead with a variety of ICT activities that I have started. I trained 2 experts to assist students to add pages onto their knet and then link these to their "learning" page and this job was then passed onto 4 different students later in the day. Took just over an hour but the job was done. Having real problems with vocaroo.com recording clearly and then when linked playing back - need a more reliable source. At the moment have decided with going with downloading video into voicethread and then children can comment using just one programme.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Delicious Bookmarking
Thanks Victoria for making me join up to Delicious, have been aware of this tool for a while but never really thought I would benefit from using it. Alas I was wrong already tonight I have saved 4 different websites and I love the idea of tagging them. After a couple of times realised what I thought was a longwinded procedure was not. Can see it will not take long to build up my library, plus the good thing about this Victoria has already shared all her websites with me. Will spread the disease with the rest of my team at our pod meeting tomorrow. Thanks Vic.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
School Holiday Power Blogging - Post No. 7
Yesterday was our whole school professional development day "Saving Your Sanity" was presented by Colleen Deveyrac - "I am deeply committed to helping people formulate innovative and dynamic plans to reduce stress and to help children and youth recognise their full potential."
Colleen provided us with proactive ideas and strategies to help teachers effectively teach children with autism, ADHD and Oppositional Defiance Disorder. In her interactive lecture she provide many opportunities for teachers/professional to share their thoughts/ideas about a variety of concerns e.g. role of the teacher has changed in the past 20 years, students are not passive learners, ADHD brain v's a neuro-typical. Different scenarios were provided and strategies were given, Proactive v's Reactive, what sort of teacher are we? We unpacked the meaning behind Discipline/Punishment and the possible effects this has on our learners.
Throughout the day Colleen constantly referred to her love of the website youtube and the profound effect it has on our students who struggle to communicate and the ability it gives to create powerful messages to share to create greater awareness within our society - no to mention support one another.
As teachers it is our responsibility to ensure that every opportunity is provided for all our students to share their thoughts and ideas - to give them a voice, to help nurture creative and innovative thinkers. Using our ever changing technology to break free from the classroom walls - I need to make this happen more !!!
It was a great day and as Colleen summed up at the end of the day the most important thing is "You!!!!" - so have just come back from 2 hour walk, thanks Edwina - you're in charge of the route next week.
Colleen provided us with proactive ideas and strategies to help teachers effectively teach children with autism, ADHD and Oppositional Defiance Disorder. In her interactive lecture she provide many opportunities for teachers/professional to share their thoughts/ideas about a variety of concerns e.g. role of the teacher has changed in the past 20 years, students are not passive learners, ADHD brain v's a neuro-typical. Different scenarios were provided and strategies were given, Proactive v's Reactive, what sort of teacher are we? We unpacked the meaning behind Discipline/Punishment and the possible effects this has on our learners.
Throughout the day Colleen constantly referred to her love of the website youtube and the profound effect it has on our students who struggle to communicate and the ability it gives to create powerful messages to share to create greater awareness within our society - no to mention support one another.
As teachers it is our responsibility to ensure that every opportunity is provided for all our students to share their thoughts and ideas - to give them a voice, to help nurture creative and innovative thinkers. Using our ever changing technology to break free from the classroom walls - I need to make this happen more !!!
It was a great day and as Colleen summed up at the end of the day the most important thing is "You!!!!" - so have just come back from 2 hour walk, thanks Edwina - you're in charge of the route next week.
School Holiday Power Blogging - Post No. 6
I have recently downloaded this iPhone application "BC Reader" ($4.99) thanks to a recent post from Manaiakalani . Sadly I don't have an iPhone but I do own a husband who does and he happens to be one of those ones that is constantly losing business cards and then blaming those near and dear to him for throwing them out. Now all our treasure hunts will be over ....
Just one more iPhone gadget that is really cool and is a goody, Debbie you will like this - it's called "Shazam". Hold your iPhone in the direction of where the music is playing the phone will listen for a small period of time, scan for the song, name the song and then ask if you would like to down from itunes to your iPhone - how simple is that, I love it, only problem is I don't have an iPhone - there's another hint Mother's Day is coming up???
Just one more iPhone gadget that is really cool and is a goody, Debbie you will like this - it's called "Shazam". Hold your iPhone in the direction of where the music is playing the phone will listen for a small period of time, scan for the song, name the song and then ask if you would like to down from itunes to your iPhone - how simple is that, I love it, only problem is I don't have an iPhone - there's another hint Mother's Day is coming up???
School Holiday Power Blogging - Post No. 5
After visiting Amanda's blog a few weeks ago I read her post on Apimac Timer that she downloaded and uses for a variety of reasons but most importantly in her class rotations. I loved that idea, as am always looking for new innovative ways to manage my classroom. After further investigating I realised this was an apple device, so promptly went searching for a pc version and I originally downloaded one from Download 3K but had to convert music to wav files and then when I did this I found it wasn't that straight forward to work.
So since then have been reading Victoria's blog and have now downloaded Prime Time Freeware so watch this space and I will let you know how we go in the classroom.
So since then have been reading Victoria's blog and have now downloaded Prime Time Freeware so watch this space and I will let you know how we go in the classroom.
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