Comments4Kids

Do you have a classroom blog? Are your students blogging? Are you having trouble getting parents and/or students to comment on your blog or your student's blogs? Trying to find an authentic audience outside of your classroom walls or school? Then this is the site for you! Comments4Kids allows you to add your class blog to its list of blogs. (You can add yourself as a participant even if you do not have a blog of your own!) The list of blogs are created by teachers just like you who are looking for an authentic audience. Each blog in the list has a short description of the location, grade level, and subjects covered. Make sure you follow "The Rule of Return." For every comment you receive, give one back to someone in the community. Teach your students how to write quality comments in order to make a positive contribution. (Use the links on the site and connect with Christine for resources.)

Even if you do not blog, consider leaving a comment for a teacher and/or student. Take time to explore how teachers are using blogs as a communication tool with parents and/or with their students. Just imagine how great they will feel to receive a comment from a teacher. What a great motivation for them to create more posts! 

This week visit three blogs from Comments4Kids and leave a comment on each. Come back and share which blogs you visited and what you liked about them.

Blogging with Students Using Kidblog

Last week I talked about the Edublog Nominees for 2011. Looking at the list of nominees is a great way to see how teachers are using blogs. There are a few teachers in our district who have classroom blogs and use them as a "window into the classroom" to keep parents informed. They post about new learning, units of study, field trips, school events, etc. Several teachers have taken blogging a step further and are blogging with their students. Many students are using their blogs to post about their reading, similar to a reading response journal. Students then comment on each other's posts to encourage further thinking and provide positive feedback.

Kidblog (our preferred student blogging tool) is a popular site designed for elementary and middle school teachers. It is kid friendly and can be set to private. Here is a link to a LiveBinder about Blogging with Students. (Visit Kimberly's Secondary Learn and Earn Blog to learn more about LiveBinder.) Under the Setting Up a Blog tab there is a sub tab with a tutorial to get you started with Kidblog. Also, there is a sub tab called Learning to Blog Using Paper. If you are planning to start blogging with your students, I recommend that you do this lesson with them first. It will give your students a better understanding of blogging. I also recommend visiting the Leaving Comments tab. This will allow you to have a conversation with your students about how to write a quality comment.

If you would like to start blogging with your students, please take a look at these helpful hints, guidelines and other policies through Sharepoint (Intranet, Teaching and Learning, Technology, Teacher Technology Resources, Blogging) and contact Christine for support. You will want to send home the AUG for Student Blogging (Kidblog version) as well as a Parent Letter.  

This week, tell us how you might use Kidblog with your students. Tell us how your colleagues are using it with their students. Who would you connect with to plan the management and use of Kidblog?

The Best Blogs-2011 Edublog Nominees

Hello Bloggers!

Some of you may be wondering either a) what are the benefits of setting up a classroom blog or b) how you can improve the classroom blog you already have in place. Edublogs.com is a website designed specifically for educators who are interested in using technology as a tool to communicate with students and parents. Each year they choose the top blogs for several different categories such as Best Student Blog, Best Teacher Blog, and Best Class Blog.

For those wanting to know more about the benefits of blogging, you should check out the Top 10 Ways to Use Blogs to Teach. Technically, this link will lead you to the top reasons to use “edublogs” to teach, but they are applicable to any blog you may create from any site. Many of our staff members use Blogger. (This is our prefered bloging tool.) After looking over these reasons, check out the Nominees for the 2011 Edublog Awards by clicking on the various categories and scrolling down to see all the nominees.

By the way, you don't have to search far and wide to find good blogs; just take a look at what our very own Melissa Morlock has created for her fourth grade class at Lake Wilderness! You can also view my classroom blog from 2009 to see a first grade example. (Click through the Blog Archive on the right to view older posts.)

For the post this week, please tell us about which blog you found to be your favorite and why. In your post, please include the link to that blog.

Although the discussion for this class takes place on a blog, the primary focus for this class, ironically, is not blogging; we are merely using this blog to foster discussion and unearth new technologies that may be useful in your classroom. If you currently have or are planning to create a classroom blog, please take a look at these helpful hints, guidelines and other policies through Sharepoint (Intranet, Teaching and Learning, Technology, Teacher Technology Resources, Blogging) and contact Christine for support. 

iPod/Cell Phone Flash Cards

One day Kimberly and I were talking and somehow the idea of creating flash cards came up. She suggested creating flash cards for students to access using their iPods. While searching online she came across Mr. Coley's website. (Unfortunately Mr. Coley moved into an administrative position and will no longer be updating his website. But lucky for us all his wonderful work and ideas will live online forever!) Mr. Coley has been kind enough to give us directions on how to create flash cards for our students using PowerPoint. It's so easy that you could have your students create them! He also has a library of flash cards that he has created. I was eager to try it myself and realized that in addition to parents/students putting the flash cards on an iPod, I could e-mail the PowerPoint presentation or JPEGs to parents and they could then open the attachments on their cell phone and allow their child to practice their vocabulary, math facts, and/or spelling words in the car or grocery store. They could also access them on their home computer. There are so many ways to help our students succeed!

For this weeks post:

Explain how you could see yourself using/creating flash cards for your students. How would you provide access to your cards for parents/students? Give it a try using his directions/tutorials and let us know your successes and challenges.

Why Reinvent the Wheel?

Hello Bloggers,

There are times when I come to a lesson and think one of two things: 1) How can I make this lesson more relevant for this year's group of students or 2) I have taught this lesson roughly five million times and I want to change it up a little. In an attempt to remedy one, or both, of these dilemmas, I often get on the web and open up Google. I always think I can quickly search the web for a simple addition to a lesson plan, but more often than not this consumes much more time than originally planned. This leads us to the focus for this week.

Teachers First is a teacher resource site that can eliminate the pain and agony of investing a great deal of time trying to figure out how to spice up a lesson. The resources found on this site are endless; from entire grade and subject-specific lesson plans to the "Featured Sites" section. This is a website that should be on your favorites list.


Your assignment for this week is to check out the website and post about a tool, lesson plan, or idea from the site you found useful or that you could possibly use in the future.

Discovery Education Streaming

Discovery Education Streaming (or as you may remember it United Streaming) is a great resource for integrating media into our curriculum. DE is not just videos. There are images, songs, sound effects, presentations. The list just goes on and on!

The first step is logging in to the site. If you do not remember your username, click on forgot username and try entering your old wednet.edu e-mail address IF your current e-mail address is not recognized. If you have never used DE before, there are directions here. Click on the Discovery Streaming new account setup document.

Once you log in to the site , click on SEARCH without even putting anything into the search bar. On the left you will see multiple ways to refine your search. Not only can you search by subject and grade level, but you can refine it even more by selecting the media type.

Once you begin to find media you would like to use, save it to "My DE" for future use. I created folders for reading, math and integrated units. Within integrated units I created three seperate folders for each unit full of age appropriate resources! Teachers can download these resources and insert them into PowerPoint presenations or other software/Web 2.0 tools. You can allow your students to access DE from home by requesting usernames and passwords. Students can download resources and use them for presentations as well. (Please Note: Teachers and students may NOT post any of DE's media resources online such as on blogs or websites. DE's resources are for classroom use.)

When sharing DE videos in the classroom, you will want to make sure you have your Ethernet cord plugged in or that you have downloaded the video to a CD, DVD or external drive to play the video from your computer. Otherwise your video may not buffer properly. (For instance, your audio and video may not align.) View the video in segments instead of full video so that the video will stop and allow you to discuss information with your students. We all know how important it is to stop and process information.

For this weeks post, tell us how you use or plan to use DE in your classroom. Explore the site first and search for various subjects and/or integrated unit topics. Ask your colleagues how they use DE and share their ideas with us as well!

Using Your Teacher Website to Provide Information and Resources

Every teacher in our district has the ability to create a teacher website. Teacher websites can be used to communicate information to parents and students, provide information and resources as documents or links, and to create discussion through a discussion board. Also, photos and videos of students can be added for families to view. (Check with your building secretary to make sure that your students have the electronic permission form on file. Never label a photo with the student's name.) Events can be added to the calendar, practice quizes can be created, and grades can be shared as well.

Did you know that there is a SWIFT user guide online? It is located under Programs & Services, TSD Staff Access. (Check with your BTS to see if there is a printed copy of the guide in the lab.)

The great thing about SWIFT is that you can decide what you want on your website. When you first login, you see your Profile. On the right you have the option to turn on or off each tab/section. Once you click save changes you will have the tabs at the top of your screen. (Be sure to update your e-mail address to @tahomasd.us.)

Did you know that you can lock a document? Any file that is uploaded to the documents section can be locked by clicking on the padlock to the right. You will be prompted to create a password. This password can be shared with individual parents so only they can access the file (audio, video, word document etc.). When someone clicks on the file, they must enter the password in order for the file to open. Remember, when uploading files it is a good idea to change them to a PDF so that parents can open them without needing Word, PowerPoint etc.

For this weeks post: Look at how other teachers in the district are using their SWIFT site. Look at other teachers in your grade level/specialty. Report back how you currently use your site and what you would like to add to enhance your site. (Consider adding links to the sites you explored from the Technology Resources for Tahoma Elementary Teachers website and to the new Tahoma Parent-School Partnership website!)

Visit a few SWIFT sites to see a variety of uses:
Glacier Park

Rock Creek

Lake Wilderness

Shadow Lake