Change of mind...

Originally I thought that I wanted to do my digital storytelling project on electricity.  I thought it would be a great way for the students to learn about electricity, and then teach it to each other at the same time.  Although I am not going to do my digital storytelling project on electricity anymore, it is definitely something that I would consider doing on my own with the students when the time comes.

I have decided to do my project on Greek mythology since it seems to be a big hit with the students.  They really enjoy learning about it, and they stay engaged during the stories the whole time.  I asked a small group of 3 students to help me with the project.  I chose these students because they are ahead of everyone in the class with their work, so I told them that I am giving them this assignment as a "challenge project."  They were actually VERY excited when I also told them it was for my graduate class.  I might even have some other students join in on the fun!  Ultimately these students are going to be writing an explanation of what Greek mythology is.  Then, they are going to choose some of their favorite Greek myths and give a short summary on them.  In their summary they have to explain if the myth was written to explain the beginning of the world, natural phenomena, or human behavior.  Finally, I will record the students as they read their summaries and I will also find pictures of the different Greek Gods and Goddesses described in the myths.  I can't wait to see how the final product will turn out!

Mythology and the Fourth Grade

This past week has been a crazy one.  From teaching the students about fractions, to having them take the SBAC math ad reading tests on the laptops, it all became a lot to handle.  With all of the crazyness going on, one of the best moments came when I  introduced mythology to my class.  Believe it or not, this allowed for some comic relief between the kids and I, and we all needed it.  This is my second year teaching mythology, but last year was kind of a whirlwind because of all the changes with the Common Core.  This year we acquired some really great mentor texts!  The book that I selected to read to the class first was great because it talked about the purpose of mythology, and began with the story of how the mythological world was created with the Greek gods and goddesses.  The comic relief came when I began to read the story about Gaea, who was mother Earth and the goddess of the early Greek gods,  and Uranus, the god of the sky.  Gaea and Uranus had some children, and some of them turned out to by cyclopes and monsters with 50 arms and 50 legs.  Uranus banished those children to the underworld, but Gaea was not happy about that.  Gaea encouraged her other son Cronus to rescue his brothers, but he left his brothers down in the underworld and took over his dad, Uranus, and banished him from Earth.  Now the part that gets interesting is that Cronus ends up marrying one of his sisters.  My students were very confused and disgusted by this, but after reassuring them that this is a fictional story, they were able to laugh about it.  I was new to this story, so I did not see that one coming.  Then, the story goes on to say that Cronus ate his children because he did not want them to overpower him, like what he did to his dad.  In the end Cronus's children ended up living, and they defeated their father in a battle.  I think my students were relieved by this! I can't wait until the next Greek myth!

Getting the Ball Rolling

I am getting closer to starting up my classroom blog. I decided a while ago that I wanted to use it for math, but with everything that we have going on in school, it has been difficult to find the time to get started.  The thing is, I know this blog will be a great learning experience for all of the students, so I really need to get it going. I created an account with Kidblog the other day. This seems to be the most secure sight to use.  I like that I will be able to approve the students' posts before they get published.  Right now I am in the process of making a permission slip to sent out to parents.  I think I am going to use the backwards approach and ask the parents to contact me if they do not agree with blogging, instead of having them let me know if it is okay for their child to blog.  Once I have my permission slip approved by my administrator, I will send it out and then get the blog started.  I am predicting that it may take a while for the students to get use to the format of the blog. I am sure I will have to review it a couple of times, however, they are like sponges so they might be able to understand it faster than I could! Wish us luck!

Twitter

Today I got help from some of my awesome classmates in #584! They showed me how to put Twitter on my blog. Viewers of my blog can now see the posts I have made on Twitter, and they can also click a button to follow me. In order to do this I had to Twitter first and get the embed code under settings. I had to create a widget to get the embed code. Then, I had to copy and paste the code to a gadget on my blog. I clicked the "Java Script" option under the gadget and just like magic my Twitter account was connected to my blog! About a month ago the words widget, gadget, and blog weren't even in my vocabulary. Thanks everyone!

Embedded My First Video!

Trying to Start a Classroom Blog

I have been doing some research on how to get started with blogging.  I am getting a lot of great information from Kathy Cassidy's book, which is definitely helping, but I need to make sure that my school will allow me to even blog.  I attempted to talk to my administrator the other day, but I did not get a final answer from her.  She briefly mentioned that I could maybe use a word document and save it on our shared drive as a blog versus using the internet.  This could definitely be an option, but I would love for my students to have the ability to get feedback from the world outside of their school.  Yes, I will be the person who is primarily reading and responding to their blog, but I would love for their parents to be able to see and comment on their posts.  Judy Artz, along with several other people, suggested that I look at using Kidblog.  It will allow me to approve the students' posts before they are officially submitted.  Before anything else though, if I am allowed to have a classroom blog, I have to get the parents' permission.

My First Animoto

Watch my first animoto!

http://animoto.com/play/09cFuwg2p2xvsXvMrAWxYw

I am starting to get an idea of what I want to blog about. During the Ed Cafe in class I had the opportunity to talk about integrating blogging with math. With regards to the common core, it is important to have students explain and write about how they found their answers to math problems. I believe that blogging might be a good way to get students excited about this aspect of math. I have noticed that writing about math is a frustration for my students, so I am hoping that blogging about math problems with allow them to have a different point-of-view. At the very least, I would like to try this with my students who need to be challenged in math. I could set this up as a math center!

This is my first time blogging, so this is very foreign to me! I am very excited to learn all about it, and to learn how to incorporate blogging and other technologies in my classroom. I am a fourth grade teacher in Manchester, and most of my students do not have access to computers at home. The most experience they get with computers and technology is in the classroom. I feel as though this will open many doors for my students and give them new experiences, such as the one I am having!