Flat Stanley Does Haiti Relief

Flat Stanley Does Haiti Relief is an inspirational video by Carol Claypool that she made after her last trip to Haiti. Carol, who is a first grade teacher at my school, created this video so that her students could gain a better understanding of the needs and lives of the Haitians she has come to love. From watching the video her students also see pictures of the actual families their teacher and friends are helping. All of our K-5 students now see where the school's donations go and more importantly, how desperately help is still needed. This six (6) minute video is ready to translate into other languages on dotSUB. dotSUB is a web based system used to upload and view videos, create subtitles, translate into other languages and share on websites. It is easy to translate the subtitles from the video transcriptions. Flat Stanley Does Haiti Relief - now on dotSUB is ready to share, view, translate and even embed on your site. Please consider translating the subtitles and forwarding this request so that more students, educators and parents can see for themselves too. For those unfamiliar with Flat Stanley, here is a synopsis of Flat Stanley's original story and projects at Dale Hubert's The Official Flat Stanley Project .

The BEST Reason to Skype

Today I told my favorite teacher about using Skype in our classroom. Since she has been out of the classroom for many years, she was really astonished that our computers are used to talk to someone outside of our building - especially for the reason I was telling her. Everyone needs to be doing this - she insisted - you need to tell them. Although I know of others who indeed do, I promised that I would give it a try.

We have many classroom conversations on the web using Skype. In the past years my technology classes have had many good reasons to hold conversations on the web: Native American studies, water conservation, weather, goals for the future, insects, our state, other states, another country, our schools, field trips, animals, poems, and a variety of books. With kindergarten through fifth grades we have had many ideas to share, and plenty of questions to ask.

This year is different. We have a goal of connecting all of our classes through technology. To integrate technology such as web conferences, videos, podcasting, wikis and blogs - I have busied myself with finding contacts, comparing topics, researching standards, adjusting plans, and scheduling conversations with other educators. But this year is different.

It started being different last month. A fellow teacher came to me with a request from a parent. They wanted to know if we could use Skype to keep one of our students connected to school. The family had set up Skype at home for their child. This precious student will be at home much of this year. He will be in the hospital too. With cancer treatments some days are better than others. For now he cannot physically come to school. But this year is different - he can come to school virtually - thanks to a little bit of technology and encouraging classmates.

We immediately set up the best reason for Skype for his classroom teacher. A few students in our school use Skype at home and others have been in our Technology class video conference sessions. This was our first time to use video conferencing with a classmate who is at home. Everyone was excited.

During his first classroom session, our virtual student learned from his classmates and with his classmates. New and old friends warmly greeted him and then two students gave him a tour of the classroom. They explained the routines of the day and described the special learning areas in the room. Others showed close-up environment models on camera for all to learn about a new social studies project. With his supportive mother by his side, our virtual student shared his time and his smiles with us.

When it was over, we all agreed it was a success and made plans for more. His guidance counselor and I are also ready for more sessions so he can join our class times, and learn with more of his friends. Our virtual student has the option of joining us by video and/or audio. He can turn his camera and sound on and off as needed. Although it was fun for the star of the day, his image can also be on a computer monitor in our room instead of the huge SMARTBoard display.

We are always learning more about teaching with technology. 1) Take turns. Since schools need to be concerned about bandwidth, we all understand that we must keep informed about each other's web conferences. 2) Be nice. Talk with all of the stakeholders about safety, privacy, and etiquette on and off of the web. 3) Be flexible - you may be pleasantly surprised. Sometimes the best laid plans must change, so plan for change. We also found out that our document camera and sound system work very well as a webcam (surprise!). 4) Be clear. Video conferences help us all practice better communication skills.

Students and teachers are still learning together...wherever they are.

PS: Here's to our first favorite teachers - our moms.

Pods, Touch, Phones and Spyglasses

I was just in another web meeting with educators who use many of THE latest technologies in classrooms. Main topics of the session were mobile technologies: ipods, itouch, iphones or other brands of mobile devices. Concerns of cell phones and cyberbullying naturally came into the chats too. And then there were the spyglasses - yes, spyglasses.


We talked about using mobile phones in education. The cons to mobile devices in the classroom usually stem from control. How do we control behaviors on mobile devices - how to stop the negative? Have you seen all of the shows about mean-girl uses of email, texting and the internet? Much was communicated about cyberbullying: we all need educating and need to educate others more- and more often.
Bullying has been around longer than we have, so our jobs still must include teaching manners, etiquette and the Golden Rule to all ages. Whether with pencil and paper, face-to-face, or electronic means, students need guidance and guided practice. Let's get together and figure it out before it is too late.

Cellphones in the classroom? Scary to us, but we need to jump in where our children are spending their time. I remember the scary feeling before I used a computer for the first time. That first computer experience in the early 1980's took me by surprise and I have been hooked ever since. Now I am trying to overcome the fear (concerns) of mobile technologies and I'm learning to look before I leap.

I was reminded about a new ISTE book Toys to Tools, by Liz Kolb http://www.cellphonesinlearning.com/ and her website. Liz was featured in a WOW (Women of the Web) webmeeting recently. She shared many ideas for practical uses for mobile phones in classrooms. You can learn so much in webmeetings like this one http://edtechtalk.com/node/3502
listen to the show and check out the chat for great resources and links.

Now for the spyglasses - spyglasses in education. NEWS to me. Your kids ages eight through eighty-eight will get a kick out of this. Spyglasses are showing up in classes!They look like sunglasses and are used for - well a little computer that you happen to wear. Need convincing? Go here and see for yourself and then click this picture to find more details.

Another resource that needs to be included here is iTouch in education from Tony Vincent. He is the same one whose resources helped me learn how-to and create class lessons for podcasting.
See Learning in Hand and lets learn more together.

Elementary Projects- Google Maps and More

If you were to offer 3rd-5th grade students a ticket to anywhere in the virtual world, where would you guess their overall favorite place would be?(*answer below) We have been going all over the map with the help of the updated tools in Google Maps. Driving directions have been the most popular use of Google Maps, but please take a look at what you can find now.

Students wanted to get a close-up look at the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower, and Niagara Falls. Students who have lived in other places got a glimpse of their former hometown, and some even saw their actual home.

These trips took us to Ohio, Tennessee, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, Virginia, Nevada, California, North Carolina, and many more. We also got to see far away places like Rome,Tokyo, Berlin, and Lithuania. Travelers shared vacation spots from San Francisco to Washington, DC. Zooming in on South Carolina in Terrain View helped students in their understanding of our state’s geographical layout.

Explore more at Google Maps Tours Video clips, and detailed tutorials will help your family plan trips, avoid traffic, and help children feel more comfortable before riding unfamiliar public transit systems.

First and Second grade Technology classes joined online projects with classes
nation-wide. Students enjoyed checking the map that shows the schools that
are participating in the Winter Wonderland Project. Students shared their knowledge of places, and they learned many new locations too. See
Google Map of participants

Please click here to see some of our Winter projects listed by class:
1st grade: http://winterwonderland.wikispaces.com/gardner1
2nd grade: http://winterwonderland.wikispaces.com/gardner2

More collaborative projects are coming our way for new Technology
classes this semester!
See other items about our classes:
Foreign Languages on Voicethread and Microscopes in the Technology class.

I wonder if the favorite place of the new semester’s classes will also be their *own home?

Wordle and the Presidents

What is a Wordle? My elementary technology students are learning to create and format lots of them. For our purposes, a Wordle is a word cloud that shows main ideas and details of your selected text. We chose inauguration speeches for a hallway display titled Guess the President.

It is becoming a big hit - especially after Mrs. L Smith, a 4th grade teacher, who correctly guessed one of Lilli's (her student) Wordle as Abraham Lincoln's speech. She explained the clues that she used to make her great guess! Her students were delighted that she joined in the fun in their technology class and came up with more ways to use Wordle to improve their writing. Other teachers are also brainstorming ways to use Wordle in their classes.

Today - unexpected music to my ears from a new student who asked, "Can I do this at home too?"

The Wordle above is not from Abraham Lincoln's speech. Can you make a good guess? What are some more ways to use Wordle in your classroom?

Setting Goals for Technology

Goal setting is the topic of the new year. In response to a blog in elementarytechteachers I came up with mine, so I need to document them here in my web log.

Before I do I have to mention a refreshing new blog I read today. Penny's take on the SEVEN THINGS meme was to include what I will call simply images with captions. We teach students how to understand more information by reading captions. What a better idea for our goal setting writing assignments she has inspired. Search for images that reflect your goals and write captions. Many web tools are available to learn and apply here. Just pick one...or two.

Last year was the year of wikis, blogs, podcasts, and voicethread to name a few. Twitter got a third try from me over the holiday and I have now realized the value in its use. I even unblocked messages on this blog - I can handle that now. I have tip-toed around Google docs and played with Google Earth. It is time to move on now.

So here are my technology goals for 2009:

1.Google Docs - For collaborating- I need to find those who know and encourage others to go along with me too.
2. Google Earth - I want to build and use more meaningful lessons. Right now I am working it in on two projects.
3. Collaborative Projects - I love to join other classes whether down the street or across the globe. Now it is time to MAKE them happen too. Working on that and crossing my fingers.
4. Maintain & Repair - Take tools and projects that I started, finished or dropped last year to their next level.
5. SMART Board - Build spectacular :) lessons with every tool for every subject and every level for every teacher... (You all get that way too - don't you?)

There they are. How about you?

Great Finds for Microscope Minds

FREE access to a scanning electron microscope!! What former-science-teacher-now-technology-specialist could resist? While looking for more ideas for our Digital Blue microscopes I found a fabulous website called Bugscope. The "project provides free interactive access to a scanning electron microscope (SEM) so that students anywhere in the world can explore the microscopic world of insects. This educational outreach program from the Beckman Institute's Imaging Technology Group at the University of Illinois supports K-16 classrooms worldwide."

Students mail insects to them, teachers schedule a time for viewing your specimens online, and you all get to have an online chat with members of their team. They provide tutorials and more resources for teachers, so go take a look! By the time classes are ready for insect lessons in the spring, we will have plans and schedules in place. We can't wait to compare the pictures from the different microscopes - and hopefully tiny critters from different regions. Plan ahead and collaborate with us at elementarytechteachers .

Don't forget - microscope projects work great on interactive whiteboards too.

Another great find for microscopes - check these awesome activities, resources, time lines and much more at
http://www.microscopy.fsu.edu/optics/activities/students/index.html

See more reviews and prices for the microscope.

Trade- a-Trick With Technology Teachers

Elementary Technology Teachers teach various hardware, software, and interactive devices and integrate technologies. We spend time teaching how to use technology so that students can apply these skills in other areas. ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) are designed for students, teachers and administrators. With these standards as guides for educators, tech teachers support all of these groups in their efforts to use and integrate technologies in their own lessons, classes and schools.

In our school we have found it beneficial for students in the lab to learn about and interact with the SMARTBoard, Airliner Tablet/wireless mouse, Senteo (student voters) and the document camera. Other devices are used in the lab too – cameras, probes, video camera, and computer microscopes. Students learn how to use interactive devices and apply tech skills in their classroom without the "regular teacher" spending as much time teaching tech skills. With the different tech skill levels of teachers and students, both groups have enjoyed teaching each other.

Fortunately, SmartBoard and Promethean lessons for curriculum topics are springing up everyday. In our quest of encouraging everyone to integrate technologies, we find that we do not have many of the tech How-To... lessons for interactive whiteboards. We technology teachers are joining together to create and share lessons in support of our schools’ technology needs.

I have have invited elementary tech teachers in my district to old fashioned face-to-face-make-and-take sessions to create and share Technology How-To... lessons with the new SMART Notebook version 10 tools and the interactive toolkit. Kind of like a Treat-Trade at holiday time - we will Trade-some-Tricks for our technology classes.

We would like some more input and share ideas with you too. Consider the Elementary Technology Teachers ning and join a conversation. Hope to see you there - or share your comments here!

Calling for Collaborative projects for SCRATCH Posts

Technology classes are preparing projects to post on our pages at wikispaces. At least one section will be favorite projects created in Scratch. Since the conference at MIT, a group of us who met there are planning collaborative projects. Our classes are in states from each US coastline and a few in between.

Consider using Scratch in your classes and sharing Scratch news, ideas, and projects too. Contact me - JoNelle Gardner, Technology Specialist at gardnerj@fort-mill.k12.sc or watch us grow at:
http://isurffer-friends.wikispaces.com/SCRATCHposts

Scratch@MIT Conference

We just returned from presenting at the Scratch@MIT conference at MIT in Boson. If you are not familiar with Scratch, it is a new programming tool developed at MIT. Students imagine, create, and share games, animations and more. This past year we used the software in my fifth grade elementary technology classes. Also, students formed a club to continue to learn more ways to program using Scratch. I did not realize how important Scratch has become and what a huge impact Scratch has had world wide until this conference.

Participants all over the world ( US, UK, Australia, Russia, Korea, Taiwan, Poland.....) shared ways we incorporate Scratch in schools and groups in elementary through high school levels. Great things happened each hour including new ideas, resources, research partnerships, and collaborative plans for the new school year.

Four students from various countries were featured during Mitchel Resnick’s Opening Keynote (see video). My students will be surprised when I come back with videos and photos of famous Scratchers. More than once these students heard that they were like rock stars of the Scratch community.

The organization of the conference had other choices that were new for me. One way that worked very well was to have three presenters in a room. In one hour, each presenter gave a 10 minute talk. The rest of the hour was a Q&A session with the audience.

My first session choice began with Tracy Ho sharing her case study of student performance using Scratch. I was most interested in her findings of the patterns of events in which students learn, transfer, and apply Scratch. Tracy is a professor in the music department at Taipei Municipal University of Education, Taiwan. Jeanene Bluhm de Carvajal, founder of the Thomas Jefferson Institute, shared how they implement Scratch to help develop student creativity in their schools in Mexico. Krystof Haber, who has spent eleven years teaching Indigenous students with the last eight years at Antarringinya Centre in Australia, shared his unique teaching experiences with the audience. We were incredulous to learn how he uses Scratch to keep students engaged in having fun learning. His Australia Aboriginal students come and go, so Scratch offers the tools of engagement that he needs and that they love.

Friday at 9:30 am, we (JoNelle Gardner and Audrey Cageao) presented with a professor originally from Spain and another presenter from Russia. With three presentations for the hour, the audience got to hear and talk to:
• Teachers who use Scratch in their technology classes. Audrey shared how she introduces, guides, and supports students in their Scratch experiences. I (JoNelle) added how I integrate Scratch with science, math, language arts and technology via student wiki websites http://isurffer-friends.wikispaces.com/Scratch
• Creator (Juan Carlos Olabe) of a supportive website that has and extensive lists of Scratch video tutorials http://learnscratch.org/
• Head of a laboratory and coordinator of www.letopisi.ru (Yevgeny Patarakin) and learn how young programmers in Russia are using Scratch

Other conference sessions were also incredible. It was great listening to educators of all levels and regions of the world who are ready to lend a hand and work together.

I met educators and high school students from Arizona who are involved with Kimberly Scott’s wonderful program called COMPUGIRLS. http://compugirls.asu.edu/home.php These girls use Scratch with themes of social justice – very inspiring. We exchanged contact information to video conference with my computer club this year.

During Karen Bennen’s (from MIT Scratch Team) Scratch-Ed session, she brilliantly led the group in sharing, learning and supporting professional development for an upcoming new website for the community of Scratch educators.

I’ll describe more sessions in the next blog entry. Until then you can see more about the conference at http://scratch.mit.edu/conference/index.html
Conference Program: http://scratch.mit.edu/conference/Scratch_Final_Program.pdf

A HUGE THANK YOU to the Scratch@MIT TEAM!! Mitch and his team are marvelous. They all are an enthusiastic bunch and show a genuine joy for what they are doing and sharing with us.
And ooooh my… to the fabulous caterers too - you are the best!!

Collaboration Projects with Voice Thread

Collaborative projects outside of our classroom walls has been a goal this year. This week we added more to our growing list. Some classes are collaborating with other elementary technology classes. Other technology classes are collaborating with Lou Anne Cornwell and her high school marketing class in our community. View the Voice Thread below and you will agree that this is an idea for all ages. Consider projects for your classes. Voice Thread has updated and now includes video and more! Give it a try!

When Donkeys Fly

Look- she emailed us. It's Ginger Hodge! Yeah!!!

She sent us pictures. Whoa!!!!

Will she videoconference with us? Whoooooo Hoooooo!!!!!!!

These remarks along with many excited squeels were heard in the 3rd grade technology class over the author and her book called When Donkeys Fly. It is a new inspirational book for all to enjoy - along with absolutely beautiful illustrations. Our students love the story, it is great for a read-aloud read to one or to a big crowd. The message at the end reels the children in even more.

We are fortunate enough to be in on some of the production and pre-printing processes. Ginger Hodge and C.B Markham, the author and the illustrator, have let us in on some of the steps of writing and editing a book. Some of my classes have received messages from the author and pictures from the illustrator. The curious students come up with quite a range of questions and comments. Ginger answers them through email and has even visited the school.

Students are impressed that we are using a paperback book stamped with SAMPLE COPY - Final Printing will be hardcover with spine. They feel special- they get a sneak preview of a book that will be out this June - and they are seeing it weeeeeks ahead. We are using C.B.'s illustration examples and they are allowing students to do animation projects with the digital images. How cool - using a real illustrator's pictures in class projects! We can't wait for finished products - the book and our projects.

Toward the end of today's class period, the students asked if Ginger will have a videoconference with our class. I had just told them that she lives near our school, but this class has not met her yet. What fun it would be. A videoconference - students will see the real author in her real place where she writes real books.

"How authentic can you get?" thinks the teacher in me. "How saaa-weeet!!!!" scream the children.


http://whendonkeysflybook.com/

GHESchool Tour Video

Digital storytelling comes in many forms. In our technology lab we focus on how technology helps us learn and digital stories fit the bill. Technology students have been roaming the hallways with a digital camera and inquiring minds. Students took photos inside and out, and then narrated each one. If their picture was a person, they asked about their job. We discussed choices that did not include a person, such as the purpose of the teacher's workroom. We found people and places that we had never seen before -our school is huge!

Back in the technology lab, students practiced their lines with expression and enthusiasm. The challenge was to construct sentences that began with words other than, "Here is...." or "This is..." We combined narrations with the photos and chose music to fit the mood. Some students even directed the video transitions, effects and text. These steps can take 2-4 class periods depending on the teacher's purpose and preferences of integration.

Each class now has a video of different sections of the school. By combining parts of each video, we also have a video overview of our school.

This project included second and third graders. I have found that older elementary students enjoy the video creating process and are quite creative on their own when given ample time. We have more video projects in the works. One of our next projects will include posting videos on dotsub.com and translating subtitles. Students are creating vodcasts on several topics, so stay tuned for more (or subscribe to this feed).