Another Digital Story

Below is a link to another digital story I did with Kindergarten students.  We completed an author's study on Eric Carle and then the students choose their favorite book of his to share.  Students worked in pairs for this project.  My main goal was to work on reading comprehension and fluency.  Let me know what you think!
Eric Carle

Pre-K Digital Storytelling Book Example

I really enjoyed this resource.  The students were some cute!  It is great to see, as a first grade teacher, that Preschool teachers are working on sight words.  You can tell that a lot of time was put into this as the students are singing fluently and know how to spell Kindergarten words along with some popular songs.  It was very creative of this teacher to use something most Preschool know, the songs, to teach students the words!  Wonderful resource that I will share with the Preschool Coordinator in my building.  

Google Reader

I love using Google Reader! I have been using Google Reader for two years now and have about 40 subscriptions that I follow.  I view my reader on a daily basis like a newspaper.  I log-on everyone morning to see what is happening, what others are posting.  This is an easy access to other's blogs and posting.  I follow many other blogs.  Below is a list of some blogs I follow.  My recommendations are in bold.  


BLOGCEA
Educdemic
Edutopia RSS
entertainment zone
Free Technology for Teachers
iLearn Technology
Larry Felazzo's Websites of the day
LD OnLine Daily News
RSD6 Elementary Technology Showcase
Saint Joseph College Campus News and Current Events
sites4primary.com
Stump The Teacher
Teacher Reboot Camp
Teaching 2 and 3 year olds
Dairy of a First Grade Teacher
Kindergarten Hoppenings
Ladybug's Teacher Files
RSD6 Math Blog
Tales From a K-1 Classroom
The First Grade Parade

Weebly

I was not aware of Weebly before this course and I am disappointed that I missed the class discussion on this tool.      Since I missed the class, I created a log-in on the website and began exploring examples of websites and the benefits.  Our school offers us websites for us to much like this site offers, however, I found the Weebly site easier to use as it is user friendly and easy to assess for students.  This would be another great place to post information to parents and offer students a place to access work they missed or games and activities they enjoy using in the classroom.  I am hoping to create my own Weebly in the near future to replace my current website.  

Skyping with Mike G. and Students

When skyping with Mike and his students it was interesting to see how important collaboration is.   I have not done much skyping prior to this course so being about to talk with five different people through this site was amazing to me but very educational.  I was great to hear from high school students, getting ready for college, on how they use technology in their lives including the restrictions, boundaries, and problems they are facing in this 21st century world.  This made me wish that I had the same opportunities when I was in high school because I think if I did, I would have a deeper grasp on them now and have more experience under my belt to share with my own students.

Literacy Project

My literacy project is underway and almost complete.  I have one student left to record and then I will have it up to share.  I brought together a Science unit and Literacy unit through this project.  Students were working on animal research projects, where they chose an animal, conducted research by exploring the internet and reading books, and then shared their learning though a VoiceThread.  I focused on reading skills, fluency when recording and comprehension when reading research and in science focused on animal habitats and adaptions, just to name a few.  I have used VoiceThread before and struggled a little with getting my students to speak clearly but I am hoping this time, since they have grown as reader and in their vocabulary, they will be able to present their information successfully.

Digital Story Project

 This digital story fits into my district first grade reading curriculum where we study nonfiction stories for content and exploration of their difference from fiction stories.  This story also fits well in our non-fiction writing unit where students explore, read, and then write their own non-fiction books on a topic of their choice.  

      I have shown my students this story when beginning and have asked my students input along the way to completion.  I will use this project numerous time to enhance student learning of nonfiction books.  This enhances the curriculum because rather than always having students read nonfiction books from the classroom or school library I now have a digital story to share.  I am also hoping that students will use and view this not only in whole group setting to enhance my reading and writing lessons but also during center time when in the i-pad center exploring and reading digital books.   I will also use this to spark students interest to creating their own digital story rather than 'paper' copy of their story for their nonfiction writing piece.  I would like to use this as a guide to exploring other digital story tools, not only in writing but all content areas, to spark student interest on trying some on their own.  My hope is that students will take the initiative to completing one on their own, of course with my guidance!  

Dalmatians

Diigo

I have been using my Diigo account a lot.  I am exploring resources at home for my classroom and putting the links up on Diigo and then going back and accessing them easily at school!  I have found this very useful reversed as well, I find resources at school that I want to revisit later and then access it at home later to spend more time exploring.
Here is a link to my Diigo account. Enjoy!

Diigo- R.Field