Because It's Fluffy!

This morning I was scanning my Twitter feed and came across this tweet from @eol (Encyclopedia of Life):

I checked out the website http://www.flickr.com/groups/encyclopedia_of_life/discuss/72157630109103478/ in order to find out what it was about. The Encyclopedia of Life has a contest for people to send in pictures of fluffy things. This got me to thinking about how this would be a fun activity to do in the classroom!

Here are some ideas that I thought of:

• The idea above for something fluffy, something furry, something smooth, something sharp would reinforce those words with images.  
• Have students take pictures of things that look like the alphabet, shapes, numbers, specific colors, etc.
   
• Take several images to reinforce the concept of beginning, middle, end; for example, taking a picture of a piece of wrapped candy as the beginning, starting to unwrap the candy as the middle, the unwrapped candy as the end.


• Taking pictures and then showing to the class and have students write what they think happened right before the image was taken or what happened next.


• Take pictures of angles or other math concepts.

What are some ideas that you come up with?

I must admit the first thing that came to my mind about a fluffy contest was a line from one of my favorite movies, "Despicable Me". Do you remember it?

http://youtu.be/SNLJDR-XbVY 
From Despicable Me: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1323594/

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Making Stories Talk

Have you been testing this week? It's a pretty straight-forward format - teachers read directions, students are quiet, read the questions silently and mark their responses. When they are finished for the day, both teachers and students are looking for exciting ways to express their ideas and things they are learning and have learned throughout the year. So why not put some sound in the mix and make your stories talk!

Below are a few of the tools I like to help the teachers incorporate into their lessons and students request them as a favorite and fun way to share their ideas (and even do a homework assignment).

Blabberize is a fun way to take a photo and make it look like it's talking. Your creation can be done in just a few minutes by uploading a photo, mark the moving points for the "mouth", and record your voice/message. It can then be shared on a blog or website.

Voki allows you to add your voice to a talking avatar that you've created or use one provided. It is a great way to present an idea and can be shared on a website or blog. The Voki website has free lesson plans for all grade levels and subject areas.

Voicethread is a easy way to create an audio presentation and allow others to comment through phone, text, microphone, webcam, or upload a file. You can even draw on the page while recording your comment.

Here are some of the ideas we used for our "talking stories."

• "All About Me" story
• Events from a field trip
• Book Talk
• Movie Trailer
• Demonstrate a Concept, Rule, etc.
• Explain a topic (Cyberbullying)
• Present an "Oral Test"
• Recreate an historical event

Whenever you get ready to have the students create a story, demonstrate a mathematical process, review for a test (and the list could go on forever), maybe one of these tools will bring a little "vocalization" into your classroom. Feel free to share your ideas for a talking story. I'll help spread the word.

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Create a Comic Strip or a Comic Book

Comic strips are a good activity for students. They allow teachers to see if students understand the concepts taught in class. They also allow the students to show their creative side while having fun at the same time. The sites allow you to drag and drop characters, backgrounds, dialog boxes and add your text. They are very easy to manipulate. Here are 4 comic strip sites that are free and school friendly.

http://superherosquad.marvel.com/create_your_own_comic

http://www.pikikids.com/

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/

http://www.pixton.com/

Superherosquad.marvel.com allows you to drag and drop super heroes (as the site name implies). This site also gives you the option to create a comic book. Pikikids.com gives you the option to upload your own photographs. The students could use their phones to take the pictures. The photography teacher in me advises you to teach your students about composition and lighting before you send your students out on their photo excursion. Makebeliefscomix.com allows the user to write the comic strip in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Latin. Pixton.com has a link for schools.

No matter what subject you teach, these comic strip sites give you the opportunity to assign a fun activity to your students.

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Spark Creativity with Kerpoof!

After attending Simple K12's webinar, Spark Creativity and Innovation from @timeoutdad, I became a big fan of Kerpoof. Kerpoof is a free webtool that is kid friendly and allows students to create original works of art in a safe environment. Students can create pictures, animated movies, stories and more! Teachers can showcase student work by downloading their art as a JPEG file and embedding it into their website. Teacher accounts are free and anyone who is interested can sign up here. Teachers who register can arrange their students into classes and create class discussion boards (moderated by the teacher). There is a chat feature available that can be activated/deactivated by the teacher. Also, students can collaborate on a project in real-time from different computers.

Why do teachers love Kerpoof?

• It inspires creativity

• Students are in control of their own learning

• Various activities and creative tools enables students to produce a quality work product

• "A happy child = a happy learner" - @timeoutdad

What can students create?

Spell a Picture (K-3): Students can spell out objects to make them appear in their picture. If they wish to animate their objects/characters, spell out verbs like "jump" and students can watch as their objects come to life!

Make a Picture (K-3): Students choose a background, select images/characters or create their own with the drawing tool.

Make a Drawing (K-8): Students start with a blank slate and use the drawing tools to create their own masterpiece from scratch.

Make a Movie (K-8): Students can select a scene and drag objects/characters into their movie. Characters and objects can be animated or carry on a dialogue with a mouse click.

Not sure where to start? Kerpoof offers teachers a list of ideas for using Kerpoof in the classroom and a variety of downloadable lesson plans .For more information on using Kerpoof in the classroom, check out Kerpoof Scholastics.

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Using Digital Video to Engage Students

Digital media are buzz words you often hear in education today. Thankfully, research is showing us that using digital media to create digital videos is paying off in the classroom. I recently read an article in the Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE) journal about three beginning English Language Arts (ELA) teachers and how they used digital videos to engage their students.

The teachers wanted to find a way to get students to look beyond the literal meaning of a piece of text and believed digital video was the right strategy for helping students to achieve this objective. Students were to explore a piece of literature, poem, etc. and capture the human experience from it in a digital video. The teachers were thrilled with the profound ways the students were able to share their opinions, thoughts, and feelings through images, sound, and minimal print text. All three teachers shared a common opinion; a traditional teaching tool (writing a paper) would not have produced the same creative result.

What was the result? By having students create digital videos, their literacy skills (storytelling, plot development, personal voice, etc.) and writing skills (researching, storyboarding, drafting, revising, and adding/deleting content) had improved. Students were challenged because they really had to think about what they saw before they could start the project. Considering most students engage regularly with a variety of digital media outside of school, we should build on that exposure in the classroom. Giving students the right tools for creative expression will engage students and promote higher thinking skills.

Image from: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=659

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Ever "Wonder" about Digitial Storytelling?

This past week the Department of Instructional Technology provided a series of summer workshops on a variety of great topics ranging from Edmodo to Thinkfinity to digital storytelling. Digital storytelling has always been an area of interest for me so I decided to seek out some resources and ideas on how teachers can use it in their classrooms. Thanks to the great team of people I work with at DIT, I came across Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano's "How to Guide: Digital Storytelling Tools for Educators." Silvia's guide offered many great tools for integrating digital storytelling in the classroom. Silvia's guide provides teachers with step by step instructions and visuals on how to use tools like Audacity, VoiceThread, and many others.

After reading Silvia's guide I was inspired to make a presentation for our summer workshop, "Tell Me a Story." Below is the presentation Melissa and I shared with teachers at our workshop:

As a former classroom teacher, I know sometimes generating a idea, or finding a starting point for a project can be the most difficult part. After last weeks workshop I decided to look for even more ways teachers could use digital stories in the classroom and I came across Wonderopolis. I've heard my colleagues talk about it so I was curious to see if this was something that would go hand in hand with digital storytelling. Needless to say, I was very excited by the possibilities!

Each day Wonderopolis offers a new "Wonder of the Day" by posing different questions about the world around us. In their 60+ list of categories, you can find a Wonder that fits your content area (Social Studies, Math, Language Arts, Technology, Science, etc.) or suits an area of interest. Regardless of what content or grade level you teach, there is a Wonder that would feed a students curiosity and yours! Ever wonder what causes freckles? (I actually had a student ask me this while on a field trip.) Do you know how perennials and annuals are different? What's so special about Broadway? These are all great questions! You can find answers to over 260 questions like these at Wonderopolis on their Wonders page.

What does any of this have to do with digital storytelling? Well...why not have your students illustrate and narrate a story on VoiceThread that explains how a species becomes endangered?
If you are planning a unit on explorers, students could create a timeline (timetoast is a great timeline maker) highlighting what the Lewis and Clark expedition is about. Why not have students create a public service announcement stressing the importance of why we need to wash our hands? As students create their projects, don't forget to remind them to cite their sources. Growing your students creativity and imagination just got easier thanks to Wonderopolis!

Need more information about Wonderopolis? Check out our blog posts!

For more ideas and information on digital storytelling, check out our LiveBinder:

Tell Me a Story

image from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2125

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Storytelling and Writing

How do you get students to write? If you settle for paper and pencil, it might be a bit of a struggle. Why not try using some storytelling tools that you can find online? I follow a blog by Ozge Karaoglue (she is @ozge on Twitter) and her June 13th blog was about "Telling Your Stories Through Writing". Her blog had some web sites listed that I had not heard of before and I wanted to share them with you here. Be sure to visit Ozge's blog to find more web tools to use for writing.

The first web site that I would like to share with you is Myths and Legends Story Creator. This web site looks really interesting. First, teachers would need to register their school (which is free), and then students can create their own login information and find their school to join. Teachers can leave messages for students to view about their stories. There is a wide variety of backgrounds for students to select from, a lot of different pictures, text bubbles, etc. to choose from. Students can upload their own images and record sound effects for a particular frame of the story. As the web site name indicates, there are images with castles, knights, dragons, and other mythical items to choose from. This was quick and easy to get started with. I would suggest giving students time to view the images before actually starting their stories. When students are finished, they can submit their story to their teacher. 

Another web site that I liked from Ozge's blog was "What-if questions for stories". A lot of time students don't know what to write about. By going to this web site, students can click on the Genie to find a story starter that might get the ideas flowing for students. If the student doesn't like one story starter, they just click for another. I was clicking through and saw this one: "What if a bandit captured a vampire?". I believe that students would really have a lot to write about with this story starter.

Here is my Diigo list of other websites for digital storytelling: http://www.diigo.com/user/dorenebates/digitalstorytelling.

Another great site for student interactives that have to do with digital stories is ReadWriteThink (a partner site of Thinkfinity): http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/.

Come on, let's write!

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Put on your thinking cap!

Have you ever been told to put on your thinking cap?

Have you ever said that to someone?

I remember saying that to my 4th grade students, but I am not really sure what that even means. I found this great Storybird Creation which provides a brief explanation of de Bono's six thinking hats. Each color represents a different level and/or kind of thinking.

The Thinking Hats by janeh271 on Storybird

This is another lovely creation from janeh271 (I have written about her creations before ). I found this one after seeing a message about a resource wiki (inquiry, creativity, and thinking) on twitter from @surreallyno. This is an example of a great digital storytelling that can be done using Storybird.

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