Is this THE END?

Wow!  Can it really be the end of the semester?  I have learned so much in the past few months, and there is so much more I could do, but where do I find the time...



Here is an amusing Voki I created to highlight my end of semester summary.  It 'almost' works as I had planned, but I need a male Irish voice.  I think my grandma would be proud.

I'm Just a Proud Papa!!

Yup, I have to admit, I am a proud papa!  My son helped me complete this Literacy Project as an outgrowth of discussions he was having in school.  I decided to use this to my advantage and create the project (or have him create the project) based on what he could tell me about Digital Literacy.



What can I say but WOW!  I may be a bit biased, but I think this is excellent!

I asked for some presentation about the subject, which I felt appropriate for a 5th grade student (hoping I am on target here as I don't actually HAVE a 5th grade class!), giving him the option of any software of his choice.  Using Glogster, which I can highly recommend, he created the above.  Good job!

Another Web 2.0 Spectacular!

Okay, so there is nothing actually spectacular about this, but I love a good hook!  I have killed two birds with one stone by creating a Prezi to introduce you all to the joys of Evernote.

 For those who don't know, Evernote is a note-taking, web-clipping, life-organizing son-of-a-gun software that can be accessed on a computer (PC and Mac), tablet, or Smartphone, giving you access to your information 24/7 in any location that has internet access.

You can use Evernote to clip web pages such as recipe sites; create notebooks to house your class notes; save web pages to be read at a later date; save and then search web-based data for a research project; and much more.

I find it to be an excellent tool.  Have a look, it's for free (with the option for a paid upgrade) and let me know what you think.  It's right here.

A Simple Website

Well, I've done it!  A simple website, created on Google Sites, devoted to one of my all-time passions, gardening.  If I wanted to bore you all to death, I could make this a 100-page site with ease, but I think I'll keep my enthusiasm in check for your benefit!  Take a look and I hope you enjoy the view.

Web 2.0 Tools

Just fiddling about with some web 2.0 tools, and here I have created my first Tagxedo.  Tagxedo works like Wordle, but you can attach blog posts, web pages, and any number of other written items to turn into beautiful word clouds.  I see this as primarily of interest in the lower grades, but I suppose it could have its uses in the higher grades as well.  Here is my first effort, based off of my Diigo library page.

Diigo Done! (just for class, that is!)

Ha!  Finally!  My Diigo Universe is complete!

Well, not really...
I have grown quite fond of Diigo as a bookmark tool.  It is fast, easy, well-designed, and a boon to a budding educator.  I have some organizing to do, but as my basement still looks like a post-tsunami picture from Japan, perhaps that can wait.

Take a look here, and see if any of these pages are of interest.

Enjoy!

Reflections on my Digital Story

I wanted to thank all my kind blog readers for their comments regarding my digital story on Harriet Tubman. It was a fun project, which was quite a bit more involved than I would have anticipated.  All things considered, I think it went well, and I look forward to creating more such stories when I finish my teaching certificate (and master's degree) a year from now.  The following is my personal reflection, which I entered in our assessments page, in a somewhat abridged state.

Reflecting upon my digital story, I have come to one certain conclusion:  I have an even greater respect for the work of Ken Burns than I had previously!  In only a scant 4-5 minute session, I had to think of proper use of images, including an order that would move the story forward; the pacing of my narration and what I would say that would illuminate the image on the screen while still pertaining to the overall story; the inclusion of music, which in my case took me over a week to locate; and the overall mood of the piece, which is as important to the narrative as the information being presented.

The value of correct image acquisition can’t be overstated.  I spent considerable time culling through

innumerable images to come up with the few that I selected for my project.  It seems that Harriet Tubman is a more popular historical person than I had realized, and the amount of ink and image dedicated to her memory is immense.  I imagine there are subjects that lend themselves to greater economy due to the dearth of available data, but in a case like this, the author must be prepared to devote time and effort into the selection process.

Further,  the actual placement of images in an order that moves the story forward was critical to the cohesiveness of this piece, as Ms. Tubman lived a very interesting life that intersected the lives of many other important historical figures.  Clearly there was not enough time to address all of these possible avenues, so I had to whittle down my narrative and image selection to show a thumbnail sketch of Ms. Tubman’s life, hopefully leaving students with a desire to know more.  

Also, the importance of good narration should be apparent to all.  I must have redone my narration 50 times in order to get my cadence to an acceptable level.

I personally felt my narration was a bit dry and boring, but the class seemed to enjoy it, so I’ll take their word over mine!

Finally, the music selection was one I thought of paramount importance to the mood and flavor of my  piece.  There are countless spirituals and hymns I could have selected, many of which have been recorded over and over during the course of time, but this particular song really hit the mark in my opinion.  I spent over a week reviewing mp3 files I had found online in order to come up with this, and it was the one piece I of which I was most proud.