Our Class Wiki

http://chelseaschoolspace102013.wikispaces.com/

A place for the children to share their work in an authentic environment. David Kinane helped us all to set up a class wikis so children could have their own page as place to record their learning. Only 2 classes have seen the light and the benefits of  it at the moment.
I set the students in my class a holiday task - record using text and photos - something you did in the holidays -so far 6 children have added to their page. It's great - I have set it up so that I am emailed every time the wiki is changed. By monitoring it this way I can easily see who has worked on their wiki - one of the advantages of a wiki over a blog - you can also rescue anything that is deleted.
I encourage the children by commenting on their wiki post - a commitment you have to buy into when you start a wiki or blog - it's a 24 hour job - I couldn't just leave commenting on the work they had done till after the holidays!

2013 - A New Year

Wallwisher becomes.....Padlet (a new, fresh look.)
A new year and lots of changes afoot. David Kinane, an e-learning consultant is working with us to get e-learning integrated into the classrooms. He suggested everyone becoming familiar with Wallwisher, an old friend for me. So it's easy to go with this but with a difference this time. The iPad and new laptop mean we can add a photo to our walls. We make all sorts of walls and embed them on our blog and our class wiki and on our own wiki pages.

Smilebox and Christmas

An awesome website for the end of the year and parents love it when they get this cute e-card from their child.
 Its free with a limited range to choose from or relatively cheap if you join for a short period.
Take a Christmas photo of each child in the class - Christmas hat, reindeer ears etc by the Christmas tree, do some group ones as well with friends - upload these to Smilebox too.
Just upload a selection of people photos from throughout the year - include individuals, groups, special days, learning events etc
Students take it in turns to choose a Christmas card template, they add their own words and photos and choose the music - the final product is very cute - then they upload and email it to their parents.

Embedding Slideshows

Then early this year I became really clever and taught myself how to embed a slide show into my blog - so easy really. I then discovered how to change the size of embedded fotobabbles and Storybirds - more by good luck than good management!



 Click this link to watch a video slide show of the Trip to the Zoo in March 2012 and sing along to the zoo song
or
Zoo Trip March 2012 - watch a slide show of photos

 

Click this link to watch a video slide show of the Trip to the Zoo in March 2012 and sing along to the zoo song or

Zoo Trip March 2012 - watch a slide show of photos

TVs in the Classroom - A Great Teaching Tool

Superstorm Sandy link to the TV One

We couldn't have asked for more perfect timing for our latest C.O.T. topic - "Keeping Ourselves Safe".
We have been following the happenings of the latest superstorm to hit New York. Our TVs have given us wonderful videos and the latest news. Children today are so lucky!
Gone are the days of showing them newspaper pictures - now they can watch and discuss and interpret what is happening in real time.
Below is our latest brainstorm where we are thinking about after the storm - who are the people who will help and what will have to be done to clean up and try to get the homes   
back to before the disaster.

Glogster - Our Latest Glog

I love this web tool! It is so motivating and an instant winner with the children. It's a great collaborative tool - I get the children to work on a shared glog together. It means I have a whole reading group of 8 children working at a writing task - it works well as an activity on our Reading Tumble each day. So every child gets 15 - 20 minutes with a buddy every day. No one else in the school gets this much time - I'm lucky - I have 4 computers!

Our latest glog was a class collaborative effort. We used it as a medium to publish our holiday highlight stories drafted on the Monday back after the Term 3 holidays.

We also used it as a way to practise and extend our video interviewing skills. With a buddy the children wrote a script using text from their drafted stories and added connecting questions and comments. We practised reading them aloud and then Shana and Emi recorded them with the digital camera. We added them to our class glog along with extra trimmings to make it look inviting to read.
I think everyone in the class agreed that we had improved our front of camera image. The feedback from parents was very encouraging too.
(Read more about Glogster on the Glogster page on the right hand side bar.)

Twitter in the Classroom

Follow me - @jennielesueur

I have already written a post about the benefits of teachers using Twitter to keep up to date with new information. This post will deal with the benefits of using Twitter in the classroom.

WHY and WHO benefits? - Mainly the parents at present.
This is where my iPhone becomes another useful tool in the classroom. I take a photo of a learning moment and tweet it with a caption. I have a number of parents who follow me on Twitter so they get an instant update on what is happening with their child in the class.


 My aims for the future use of Twitter in the classroom:

- to tweet a photo/ caption each day, sometimes more
- to tweet a photo with a child of one of the parents who follows me
- to tweet information about what is happening daily in the classroom/ syndicate/ school
- to tweet information about what is going to happen in the classroom/ syndicate/ school - eg sports events, spelling tests, reminders
- to get the children involved so they are able to choose the "tweetable" moment

A sample - view these tweets -
Carnivore or Herbivore
Stars of the Week 
Kelly Sports on the Field