Merry Christmas Everyone!

D.A.R.E.

Cliff and Officer King

D.A.R.E. Graduation Celebration!

Our D.A.R.E. graduation was on Thursday, December 13. There were many guests and speakers for the ceremony, but the favorite of the students was "Cliff the K9" from the Blue Island Police Department.

Watch the Movie Clip of Officer King, Officer Miller, and Cliff

Multiple Intelligences and Autism

Google for Educators wrote an excellent article on the importance of visual and spatial learning for children with Autism, SketchUp, and Project Spectrum. In fact, Project Spectrum grew out of the idea that children with autism were using SketchUp.

Cyberbullying Study!

This is an excellent study by Winter and Leneway on Cyberbullying and what parents can do about it. Parents, it is worth your time to read it.
http://www.schoolcio.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604866

World War II Oklahoma

More on Podomatic

Podomatic is a great Website to use to store your podcasts. This makes them available wherever you go.

I have been experimenting with uploading podcasts and trying out podomatic. So far, it has been very easy. My students are especially excited that their voices will be heard. Podomatic is a Website that is usually blocked at school, so we will need to work around this by working at night to upload files that we have made during the school hours. I really want to thank my students for working hard at night on the many blog activities and a special thank you to all the parents who have supported blogging, podcasting, and wikis.

Thank you so much for all that you do to make this happen.

As the weather changes!

As the weather changes, we need to remember to bring gloves and hats to school. Many times the weather changes as the day goes by. There are times when I leave an extra sweater or light jacket at school. In this way, I have it when I need it. You can bring an extra garment to school and leave it so that you can have something to put on when days get rather cold.

Tomorrow the weather will change several times. Let's track this storm by watching the weather channel.

See you at school!

Screencasts

What are screencast? Click here and find out???


Here is an example of a Screencast I made for my class to show the students how to log in and work in Class Blogmeister. This was one way I worked around blocked sites at our school. I can make a screencast then download it onto my jump drive or laptop then take it to school http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/watch/ciXUbqMn

Class Blogmeister

Podcasts, Screencasts, and Avatars are part of the new Web 2.0 tools that are used in my classroom. The students are so excited now that they have a real audience to write to and they can use the Avatars and podcasts to record their stories.

Friday, I brought a lamp into my classroom to use with the Webcam camera because we didn't have enough light. It worked. The avatar started moving with every word the student spoke. The student stated that, "I was a wonderful teacher because I brought the lamp." What am I saying???? My students loved the Avatar and podcasting.

My students are excited because they can use a Webcam camera and they can use digital audio to record their voices. THEY ARE EXCITED AND WILLING TO WORK ON CREATIVE WRITING AND MORE!

Is it worth it to find ways around the blocked pictures, movies, slideshows, podcasts, and more? Yes, because when you get kids excited they will go home and try out what they are shown at school.

1. We use audacity to record podcasts!
2. We use podomatic to house our podcasts!
3. We use an Avatar!
4. I use Screencast-o-matic to prerecord blocked sites so I can show my students Web 2.0 tools.



Check this out On Class Blogmeister, I have made two screencasts and submitted two podcasts that the students have made.


In addition, you might have seen the dinosaur avatar that the students use while reading their creative stories.

Our newest Blog Website

Besides working and posting on http://parentsteachersstudents.blogspot.com and http://pritchardspress.blogspot.com, we now have a new student blog that is wonderful.

Class Blogmeister


Class Blogmeister was created by David Warlick. By the way, teachers must send an email to him to get approval to join Class Blogmeister.


What I know so far about Class Blogmeister....

1. It is completely safe because everything has to have the approval of the teacher before it can be posted.

2. Once approved the teacher will publish the posts to the blog.

3. Comments made by students to students also go through an approval process and are published by the teacher.

4. No emails for students to use.


5. Emails are sent to the teacher in-charge as soon as a student has submitted a post for publishing. Using feeds or netvibes, the teacher can easily keep up with posts. In addition, you can read and approve student posts from your email account. Truly Awesome!

6. The students love it.

Difficulties that we address everyday:

1. Our Main blog page is unblocked; however, the students' blogs are not unblocked so they can not work on them at school. In other words, we can not post at school and when needing to discuss the relevant information on our blogs we cannot.


Going around the difficulties:

As I mention, I have made a screencast using screencast-o-matic which is blocked at school, but can be downloaded to my laptop or flashdrive then taken to school.


Sad but true Podomatic and Screencasts are blocked. Students must go to Class Blogmeister at home to take advantage of the latest Web 2.0 tools.