Portfolio Update

I just finished my final portfolio using a site called Weebly. This is something that I think that I will continue to update and use past this class not only because it is so simple to use and keep up with and provides and easy place for future professional employers to see, but it also will keep an up-to-date tab of my sample lesson plans, my teacher's philosophy and any other material that I find would be useful for my future employer to see. This is such a great tool because before I didn't have one professional place to "display" myself.

Here is a link to my personal portfolio page.



I think that in the future as an educator I could see my students using this if they were in the older grades, possibly to display their work more so for themselves, the teacher, and their parents. It obviously wouldn't be used as a professional website to seek a job. It would be privatized so students are able to know who exactly is looking at their site. I think that it is a good reminder and show of how much work the student has done over the year and is a good thing for the parents to see as well.

Wiki Spaces

I find that Wiki Spaces are an easy tool to use and could be very helpful in the classroom. I specifically like that many people can work on the same website and collaboratively work to make it better. Starting this class, I really thought that wiki spaces were hard to create and keep up. I often saw many of my teachers using it (including this class) and thought that it would be something extremely complicated to try to figure out. Along with several of the other things that I found out this semester, it actually wasn't hard at all to create, work, and use. I think that using this in a classroom in several different ways could be beneficial. I saw one of my group mates used it as an update station for parents and students. It served as a home base for assignments, events, and study guides. I know that while I was growing up in school, my parents were often disconnected from what was going on in my classroom other then what I would bring home for them to look at and the occasional conference. I think by having a class wiki it would create an open environment for students, parents, and the teacher. It also can serve as a tool for class projects and a reference tool.

Wiki: Digital Cameras in the Classroom

Here is a link to my new Wiki that discusses the benefits of using digital cameras in the classroom.

Wiki Space

Digital Storytelling

I think that digital storytelling is such a useful tool to be used in the classroom. I think that this could be used as a personal tool in the classroom. When students are asked to create stories or write narratives there is a lot more expression if you can actually hear them read their story and hear their expression instead of just asking someone else to read it. Students can add to their stories by adding in pictures they have drawn or that relate to the story. This allows students to directly visualize what is happening in the story.

This tool is so important and useful if used in an effective manner and although it might be difficult for younger students to "work" and figure out the logistics, that can be easily solved with a teacher's help.

Since this site can make the threads private it allows only certain people to view the digital story keeping student's work to the private.

Digital Story

Jing

Although Jing was hard for me to understand how to use at first, simply because it was...too simple? There was only three buttons on the top corner of my screen, to perform the multiple steps of recording a video or screenshot, editing it, recording, saving, and sharing. Surprisingly once I watched to tutorial on it, it became very easy to use. Since I have watched several videos in this class of people creating and teaching lessons using just their computer screen I was naturally curious to find out how they did that. Well now I know! I think that this tool is so useful and could be used in many ways in a classroom. One obvious choice is when you are teaching an online course. This course has used this technique several times already and I have found it extremely useful when trying to understand things. However, I think in a classroom it could be used as a supplement to normal lessons.


I created a lesson that would be used in an everyday fifth grade classroom and to give students an overview (or possibly other staff members) I created an overview of my lesson which you can see at the gallery.

Here is the link to the homepage where you can see tutorials or download a free version to get started.

BBP with audio

Here is my presentation with audio on prime factorization for 5th graders.