The Tiger Den

Yesterday you viewed the movie version of the novel The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Take a moment to reflect on the movie. What did you think about the movie? How does it compare to the book? Explain your response.

Bubbl.us is a great tool for creating mind maps online. Teachers andstudents are able to create accounts and save their mind maps. You can embed the mind maps into blogs or websites. Bubbl.us also allows you to email your mind map and collaborate with others online on a mind map. I worked with a teacher who had her students to create mind maps about important events in their lives. She was able to save all of her students’ mind maps to her account so that she could assess their progress without having to print copies of each mind map. Go Green! The students loved Bubbl.us This Web 2.0 application allows for creativity with color and design. It is amazing how well they utilize new technological applications with little instruction.I also used Bubbl.us with a group of special education students to create a mind map about the story Guji Guji. We read Guji Guji using an incredible website Storyline Online which is sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). Actors and actresses that are members of SAG read the stories as the pages flip. It works really well with the Smartboard. Many of the students in the special education class are nonverbal and some are functioning on  a Pre-K through 3rd grade level. They really enjoyed Guji Guji. One student who I’ve never heard speak responded to my questions about the story . We collaborated to create the mind map using Bubbl.us  Click on the links below to access Storyline Online or Bubbl.us

http://www.storylineonline.net

Bubbl.us

This has been a very busy school year. I can’t believe it’s October. Linda has a very good point. You have to make time to blog. I feel that blogging is a great reflective tool for educators, as well as, documentation for all that we do. I need to make the tme to blog daily or atl least weekly. You can create a post in about 5 minutes. This is time that we need to reserve for ourselves as educators to think and share. I’ve had several people to utilize the Web 2.0 applications that I have mentioned on my blog. My thoughts and reflections have the possibility to impact student achievement globally. I actually had a comment from someone in the UK.

I’ve been very busy this year. Students have been in the media center since the first day and teachers have brought their classes in to work research, work on projects, and and participate in activities,such as, a Library Scavenger Hunt I created to familiarize our students with library resources. I have collaborated with teachers to integrate Web 2.0 applications into their curriculum. Several teachers have expressed interest in using Wordle. One neat suggestion was to use it to create a word wall for a unit. Another teacher brought her students to the media center to create mind maps using bubbl.us The students were able to get very create with the colors and arrangement of the mindmaps. Bubbl.us has great features. Teachers can create an account and have all of their students save their mindmaps to the one account as their name. Students can also create their own accounts and colloborate on the same mind map. Everyone who saw the students using bubbl.us was impressed including the students.

The first day of school went really well. It was great to see all of the Manassas crew. The school, teachers, and students looked great. Several nice pieces of art were installed in the school over the weekend. The main hallway is incredible. I met the artist and he used graphics to create art that is really tied in to the history and spirit of Manassas. Four framed pieces of art were installed in the library. I’m thrilled. The art ties into the themes of literacy and technology. Several teachers have created blogs. I conducted a training session last Wednesday and they are up and running. They are encouraging their students to post comments. We are going to work on creating student blogs for journaling. They have been just as excited about the new technology that I’ve shared as I was during Tech Camp. Web 2.0 applications are addictive.

Click below to see pictures from the training session.

Innovation in Action!

I just tried Wordle. This is really neat. I can see students creating collages of words about themselves as a “getting to know you” activity during the first week of school. Teachers could create them as well. There are numerous educational possibilities for this application. Below you will see a wordle I created about my wonderful school. This is a great way to integrate technology into a lesson.

I am working to create a blog that is functional, informative, current, and fun. I want teachers and students to be able to access the information and make comments. I just added the Voki today. It is incredible. I could not find a character that truly represented me but she’ll do. We just completed Freshman Orientation. I used the blog to allow students to comment on their experiences during orientation. I also created an Animoto video. It was neat and the students enjoyed it. I plan to use Flickr to post additional pictures from the orientation. I’m having fun using the wonderful tools I learned about at Tech Camp 2008.

I was introducted to Facebook at the Tech Camp and now I am addicted. I was able to locate numerous former students and classmates. It is really cool. Also I love JibJab. If you haven’t tried it-look at it now. I’m getting ready to go out of town again. My last trip before my summer is officially over.

I shared my Animoto with several colleagues. They loved it! One colleague, a fifth grade teacher, wants to know ways she can implement this in her classroom. This first Animoto is just for practice. I plan to post it to advertise all of the activities that take place in the library. My daughter is fascinated with the Jing icon on my desktop. I hope I will have time to explore that more tomorrow.

This camp has been an incredible learning experience. I am going to spend the next month trying out all of this new information. I really need to decide what programs will work best for our students and teachers. We are going to keep working together over the course of the 2008-2009 school year. I hope to earn my certification. I am looking forward to submitting projects for the Academy Awards. I know that I will be able to share this information with numerous educators. I’ve got to decide what to present at the Technology Conference. I guess I’ll see what I’m using and enjoying around the time of the presentations.