Voice Thread Review

I liked seeing all of the different scenes from Alaska. When the state is so large and so hard to get to so that we normally would miss a lot, it is nice to get a short view from our classmates. I liked the one from http://ed329melissa.blogspot.com/2008/11/voice-thread.html that shows Kodiak. It makes me really want to go visit there. Perhaps we will move there after I finish getting my teaching degree and be teachers there! I also enjoyed the pictures from http://ed329becca.blogspot.com/2008/11/walking-my-dogs-in-valdez-ak.html about Valdez. I have been there before so liked seeing some pictures when it wasn't raining. I really should upload a picture to show me because as an iron, I feel like I am playing Monopoly! I even saw the roadster as one of my classmates. I also enjoyed the fact that we could leave comments on each other's presentations. Way more fun than always typing.

Voice Thread Project

This was not a difficult project but it would be nice to use different pictures for the next project. I now feel like am on the board of the local Chamber of Commerce and doing a commercial for our village.
Any age group could easily learn to use this software. Most of my three year-old preschoolers are using X-Box or Nintendo. I just might try scanning pictures that they have done and then let them tell their own stories.

Panraven Storybook

It is a lot of fun to make a book in Panraven. I think that this is a format that only the older students will be able to use. It would be a good way to introduce them to illustrating their own stories. They could then share them with the younger students.

Flickr Slide Show

I love living in Levelock and am happy to share it with you!


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

This would be good for any type of project that you need to do instruction on or that you want the student to explain something to you. I think this would be great for the high school students to use to master their technology standards (we use standards based system). They can share their pictures from sporting events and the money making projects we do as a student government. This would be a good way to share the trip we are going to take in April as the entire high school class. Most of the families have internet, and the school could share and even share with extended families outside of our village. A student could do a report on something and then they could share it with their entire class by putting it in Flickr.

I was really comfortable with this project. It was easy and went very fast. I LOVE THIS CLASS!

We have so many friends everywhere else that this would make a good way to share our travels with all of them and make it easy for them all to see any or all of the pictures. It is quicker to view than trying to look at a lot of pictures in an email.

Comic Life Poster

I like the idea of using the posters as a way to "make" weekly memories of your classroom. I don't work with the students older than preschool except for reading but it would work well just to have them make a poster about each book as we get done reading it. In one reading group we learn about real animals or insects and then we read stories about the same animals but in a make believe setting. The students could really use their imaginations for those situations.

In my preschool room I take pictures all the time so I could make legal size posters and put them up and then give them out to the families at the end of the school year. I would still have the electronic folder and could get them printed during the summer and bring them back to line the hallways or to decorate my classroom.

Our highschool students compile, print and bind our yearbook right here at the school (keeps costs down) and I think pages like these could make for an interesting change in the setup of some pages. Especially to show sports or activities that we have had at the school.

I really enjoyed making the poster. It took longer than would be normal because I had trouble deciding on the layout and the pictures to use. I worked too hard to make it 'just' right. My cooperating teachers says we should get it made into post cards!

Digital Video

This takes a bit of time to create but it is much nicer if you really want to show something. I do not think it is as easily used for a teaching tool as PowerPoint. I don't think that I would use this in the classroom as a normal teaching tool but it might be great for teaching a hands-on project. I liked it and think it would be great for showing the rest of the school pictures from our trip (our high school is going to California for 10 days) this next spring.

Teaching

Teaching MUST be one of the most rewarding careers there is and at the same time it must be one of the most frustrating and heartbreaking. Of course, getting there is just a pain in the gluteus maximus!
I think that my favorite time of the day is at 11:00am. Preschool is over, and don't get me wrong, I think they are cute and a couple of them are making visible progress every day. But I have come to realize, that is not where my heart is. At 11:00am I get to start my first reading group. These small groups are the thing that I really enjoy. Of course, it doesn't hurt that I am doing reading with them which is one of my life's joys.
I start with a group that has a third grader, a fifth grader, a sixth grader and a seventh grader. They are all reading at a third grade level! That is sad for the older ones but truly exciting for the third grader. What an opportunity for this student to interact with the older students in a classroom setting where he can truly understand what they are doing and discussing. The really sad part is that the sixth grader is the lowest in the group! What I like to see at this school is that we will not let them sit in the back of the classroom and vegetate. They are required to participate and to really try. In the small group setting that is much easy to monitor.
My second group has a sixth grader, a seventh grader, an eighth grader and a ninth grader. Unfortunately for all of them, the group is only reading at a fifth grade level. We have just finished reading the Wizard of Oz. Although they did not enjoy taking a Saturday night movie night for the entire school to watch it, I do think the four of them enjoyed reading the original story. What a lot of great discussions happened during those weeks of reading. It was a long enough story to get the students involved and to get their imaginations going.
My third 'group' is a seventh grader. That he is reading at a sixth grade level shows that he is not too far behind. Hopefully, by working with this student so closely now, he will get up to snuff in reading and that will help in all subjects.Our school is getting a third teacher soon that will be taking over the middle school instead of having those students split between the elementary and high school classes. I am not sure what my tasks as a classroom aide will be at that point, but I think that I will get to go back to being a one-on-one tutor in the classrooms. That is the position that I have found that I like the most. It doesn't even matter how low or how high the student’s abilities are, I really like working with them one-on-one.
How do you pick which grade level you want to teach and then how do you find the perfect teaching job? Or is there such a thing?