Finially I've Made Some Progress

Today was booked to be for technology professional development. Shane Hipwell and I were to work together on implementing my project and teaching me how to make a presentation for May 8th. Unfortunately, things didn't quite go as planned. There wasn't a TOC available for Shane but we were able to get internal coverage for up to recess. Now my head is spinning with information on how to set up a Keynote presentation and how to add a podcast to the presentation. He had me taking pictures for the presentation and for our web site. After several hours of work, I have more than a framework done for my keynote presentation.

As of today, we also have 3 stories on the Dormick Park Digital Audio part of the web site that the students can listen to. The site is password protected so that only our students have access to it and that protects the copy write issues. We got a lot done!

It's been an information overload day and my brain is tired!

This is my third attempt to post this blog. It took four tries to post the last one, including having Gary re-invite me. If it turns up on TLN, I have finally figured out the problem. "Isn't technology for 'old brains' wonderful!!!"

Post #3

My project was web site development to facilitate the home-school connection for ESL families at Dormick Park.  The web site includes multi-lingual links: Korean, German and Punjabi to help new families to feel welcome as well as to  share important school information and updates. An audio/video gallery shares school special events and student oral presentations with family not living in Canada (especially good for international student families).  The web site also has learning links to the web for language development and English fun.  Recently, we added a blog to encourage written communication.  It seems to be going well judging by informal student and parent feedback as well as the number of hits on the site.  Next year, we would like to work more with ipods.

Kathleen Weinkam

Dormick Park ESL Teacher

Technology Project Summary

April 4, 2008

Question:

• If the cassette stories were put on line on the school website, would the students access them?
This question was then revised to:
• If the cassette stories were put onto CD’s, would the students sign the book and CD out of the library?
Now – putting them on the school website is a possibility and I’m back to the first question.

Of course, this also prompted other questions, such as:
How many of our families have computers and internet access?
What impact would this ability to listen to stories at home have on our ESL students and our struggling readers?
What about stories that have AR quizzes?
Should I try to buy audio versions of our Punjabi stories and make them available?
What about copy write concerns?

Summary:

My ESL partner, my principal and I were talking about ESL and oral language at the Rojas workshop. I brought up about the large number of stories that we have that also have a cassette tape version of them. Since cassette players are not readily available, and the tapes usually look like spaghetti after the students have used them a few times, we came up with this idea - transferring the cassette stories to the computer so that we can make them available in the classroom and at home, without needing to play the cassette. Having the stories, especially some of the dual language books, available to the students at home, should help with their home reading. They can sign out the book and then have the computer read to them instead of needing to rely on someone in their home to read it aloud. If the stories have an AR quiz, the students can check the box that indicates that they have had the story read to them. I would need to create a list that shows the students the stories that have an AR quiz.

This is the thought process / learning curve that I went through:

1. The issue of copy write was discussed. Marilyn Tamblyn submitted input on this topic and we decided that it would be best if I went to the CD format to avoid potential difficulties. Shelley also said that she was looking into the copy write issue.

2. Using the circulation computer, I found out that there were at least 70 kits to work with. This project is going to require a lot of TIME in order to record all of these cassettes onto the computer.

3. For my November Pro-D, Shane Hipwell showed me how to record the stories using GarageBand. I felt really successful when I came back the next week, read my notes and was able to record another story. Doing this means that I need to stay close to the computer, as the stories are recorded in real time. For 70 plus stories, that’s a lot of minutes!

4. At Christmas, I bought my husband an USB turntable that captures audio from vinyl or cassettes and keeps it in an MP3 format. It includes the software so that I don’t have to use GarageBand etc. but can go directly to the MP3 format.

5. For the February Pro-D, Shane gave a group of us a workshop on iPhoto and answered any digital or audio questions that we had. I’ve been hearing a lot about the uses of ipods and find myself distracted and wanting to explore them as well.

6. On April 7th, Gary is offering a Digital Audio workshop for any of the Dormick Park staff who are interested, besides me.

7. The newest word is that there will be a Digital Audio link to Dormick web site so that only our students will be able to access this area and that the stories will be available there. This is possible through having a password website for our school community that is hosted and stored on Gary’s server.

My biggest difficulty in following through with this project has been TIME. Adjusting to being in 2 new schools after 18 years of being at Bakerview has taken its share of my time. The amount of time needed to transfer the stories to the computer has been daunting and I’ve not done very many of them. At first, I needed to do the work in the lab, as that was where I had access to an eMac, which I needed in order to be able to do this work. I also had to choose times when I wouldn’t interfere with the classes, since the recording levels were muted but could still be heard. Once I got my own eMac in January, I was able to do the recording in the privacy of my office.

When I get all of the stories recorded, I will need to organize how they are presented, either CD or web site and what information is needed for the students to best utilize this resource.

I’ve learned that mantralingua.com has CD’s that have a story that is told in several different languages and I can purchase them through sainbooks.com. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many that offer Punjabi as a choice and that is the one that I need the most.

I am also thinking of surveying the families to see how many have computers and internet access. In order to check on the impact my project has had on the ESL students and struggling readers, I could learn how to do a podcast interview.

Future goals:

• How to take any story from the library and be able to read it aloud and show the pictures so that it can be accessed through our web site?
• Using what I learned above to make my ESL materials (stories, poems etc.) available to the students when they are away from the school by creating my own web site?
• To get some ipods for my own use so that I can explore with my ESL and LA students all of the ideas that I have heard about from the TLN blog and from others.

Project launch

I have just received my mobile Mac lab - YAY!! - and will be launching my French 9 and 10 projects this week.  I have set up a simple 5-question survey to gauge how students feel about using technology that may be new to them, as well as to see how capable they think they are of expressing themselves in French.

My French 9 class will be creating a music video about peace, using Garage Band and iMovie.  My French 10's will be creating visual magazine ads for a product of their choice as well as a radio ad using Garage Band.

Technology to the Masses

My project is both over and ongoing. It is over in that I am not actively collecting information about it any more but ongoing in that I am still trying to encourage the staff to try new technology ideas. Generally speaking, in my school there seems to be an overall acceptance of technology and most staff seem to agree that it can be extremely beneficial to kids both in and out of the classroom. I myself have had lots of fun with various games, video and other internet sites. The students tend to be very visual and as long as the video bite is quite short, they really tune in.

On the other hand, most staff also seem to feel that in the classroom, just keeping on top of the multitude of things either prescribed by the ministry or handed down from the various regions of administration is more than enough and anything else is too much. Although they would like to do more with technology, they have simply not got the time. And I suppose, even more importantly, many just do not have the technology available. It's like when you used to have to sign out a TV/VCR cart. Many people did it but it required planning and compromise and so sometimes if you just had a little clip of something, and the VCR was booked, the kids just didn't see it. It is the same with newer technologies. Those of us with the projectors, etc. readily to hand seem to use them more and more. Those without either make a special effort to get one or don't bother and quite frankly don't miss them. It is sad, really, that there can't be some standardization in the technology acquisition and use across all schools in the district. It is sometimes hard to swallow that while some schools have new technologies in every classroom and/or for every teacher, others don't. Some schools have some new technology assigned to teachers but it is squirrelled away in a cupboard and never used while those who would use it can't because they are not the "ONE" to whom it was given.

This project has reinforced the my notion that those who would like to learn about and use technology should be encouraged to do so and supported at all levels. Those who don't want to use it should not be forced to. The district pro-d currently available for teachers is excellent, if they can get to it and if they then have access to the technology to use it later.

What have I done? I have been trying to lead by example and so far have sort of become the "go to" person for some people for some (minor) computer/technology problems. I have tried to encourage people to try to use technologies that we all do have access to. I have made inroads into the heart of "techiedom" in that the computer guys will now talk to me and although I still can't speak DOS etc. they understand that some of us do want to use the technology in different but equally valid ways. They don't always agree but at least are now willing to listen. I have made several wiki pages that I am continuing to add to and although I feel like a community of one most of the time, they are there and can be used as a resource at any time. My students have this term experimented with publishing stories on the wiki and we are going to review them as a class. They have also created web posters instead of paper posters from which they will create a timeline and connections project. Others are currently working on an online research project from a web worksheet I created. I make new review games using both the software I purchased and my department paid for and we continue to press slowly on. I can't help feeling that I should be doing more, but like the rest of the staff, sometimes there just isn't time.

In conclusion, project success or failure? Both really. I learned something though, so I guess that's what it is all about.

Creative Kids

It's gone well.  First of all, we did a lot of Ginny's artworks lessons, and I added a little slideshow of what each child thought was their best work to the class webpage.  I then surveyed them to see how they felt about creating art on the computer, and they were overwhelmingly positive about the experience, as you can see from the graph. 

We then moved into doing some great songs on garageband, and making Keynote presentations.  They loved garageband.  We're going to make a class CD of their compositions, and are in the process of gathering their songs using the class hand-in folder in the lab.  A few experimented with adding voices to their songs.  I'd like to, someday, have the really musical kids have the option of adding music using a midi, but that's going to have to come later.  I'm researching inexpensive keyboards.  I've seen some reviews that some don't work with the new OS,  so I'm still looking into that.  Any ideas?

As far as audio goes, we were successful at adding audio using the ipod to Keynote presentations.  I wasn't as successful at adding it to my Rapidweaver webpage.  I'm still working the bugs out on that one.  Also, I'm learning to double check that the ipod is picking up the audio properly, as it happened  a couple times that I'd thought I'd been recording a chapter from the novel we're reading aloud, only to find it hadn't worked.  But, working out the glitches is part of the learning!

 The most exciting thing we've done is a large number of kids have made their own movies about what they've learned in science.  They wrote scripts, storyboarded their ideas, cast their characters, filmed it, and did the editing, transitions, etc. themselves.  They worked cooperatively and helped their peers throughout.  They included the rest of the class as actors in their movies.  Logistically, it was pretty tricky having as many projects as we did, as we were working with one computer and one video camera,  since the lab's  computers have a really old version of iMovie and making movies using it has so many compatibility problems that it's really not feasible.  We're all really looking forward to the new computers that are just getting set up for our school.  It's going to be great!

It was really impressive to see how proficient they are at problem-solving glitches that come along.  They also were quite amazing at performing multiple steps at one time, and using a variety of programs at once, transferring their knowledge from one program to another.  

So, as far as does the use of computers promote creativity, I'd say it's unequivocably yes!  Not only in what they produce, but also in how they creatively problem-solve to solve the inevitable technological glitches that come along.  They very competently would add Keynote episodes to their movies to illustrate an  idea they had (first nonchalantly converting them to iPhoto), and use steps to do so that I hadn't yet taught them.  It's exciting to see how confident they have become, and how intuitive some of the programs are.  The photo above is one that kids took using Photobooth to add to a movie.  As each project finishes, I'm adding it to a compiled class movie project so everyone can have a souvenir copy.  Each director team has made a DVD  right away, though, for a home showing to their families.  It's been fun!

#3

#3: Taught Studio Photography students iphoto slideshows, photoshop, lifepics and Advanced Placement students iphoto and Adobe Photoshop and an adult photo class an intro to several features in Photoshop as well as iPhoto and iBook. Four students registered in BC Skills Competition for first time in graphic Arts and pre-press production. The beginner in technology won Bronze in the regional competition. All AP students also created brochures for the post-secondary program trade-ex (hundreds published) as well as three students created an agenda cover design for the school (almost a thousand will be published). Two students in Fine Arts Assistant 11 created posters for the artist-in-residence using photoshop. Looking forward to accrediataton presentations and district scholarship presentations where we'll see students using the technology skills they have acquired. Had many successes with the integration of technology with the fine arts. Some stumbling blocks were that the time during class to teach these programs definitely took away from other activities. Also, the computers are in one room and most of the students in the art classes were in another, hard to be in two places at the same time and some off-task behaviors ensue with both the photoshop/art students and the art students. I found the AP students much more focussed on acquiring new skills than the FAA students. Art students were somewhat all over the map re: saving data and locating files. Found iphoto great for one user but somewhat problematic for several users. A lot of extra time was spent managing files and downloading pictures when using the digital cameras as well as communicating via e-mail in order for students to print images and/or upload them to their ipods. Dates on different cameras were inconsistent in the iphoto library. Being consistent, logical and sequential is something that I would definitely spend more time on at the beginning with students. Found this to be a real challenge for arty types. The limited access to technology was problematic with only two computers most of the instruction was one-to-one. There were memory issues, back-up issues and printing issues that were for the most part solved during the process of creating the projects. Tom and Gary were both great in assisting at various times in the process and the learning curve incorporated software, hardware, peripherials and operating systems. I purchased a back-up drive that will be used with the new laptop in the future that along with time machine will solve some of the backing up issues we've had. The new version of photoshop has at last been installed in the new laptop and now the students will have an opportunity to access the program with another, better computer. With the page crash of my website and the new issue of limits to webmail accounts I was somewhat frustrated with the time that is being used in coping with district initiatives and unreliable servers. I'm hopeful with a new webpage construction program that I can solve the issues with abbynet HPK that I was unaware existed. Teaching three to five different classes during one block does not lend itself to the integration of technology, felt like I was juggling one more thing on an already over loaded plate. Would like to find the time to organize, consolidate skills and reflect on the process of being involved in the technology learning network and using technology with students but too much to deal with first: TLITE presentations, field trips, district art shows, AP portfolios, district scholarships, Artist-in-Residence,... look forward to seeing everyone's presentations in May.

imovie, Rubrics, and Grade Twoers

After attending our last TLN meeting where we learned about making rubrics that involved student input, I found myself inspired to try it all out. First, my grade 2 students and I made a rubric that addressed all the reading outcomes/goals that we discuss during guided reading. We put oral reading fluency (smooth or bumpy), reading comprehension (reading power), making connections, predictions, guessing, telling their favorite parts, and retelling the story in their own words into the rubric where students would give themselves 1, 2, 3 or 4 petals on the flower.

After the rubric was made, students read their story into imovie and then retold the story in their own words as well as tell any connections they may have to the story, give the setting, characters and beginning, middle and end. Students then watched and listened to themself reading and retelling the story as they followed along with their book. Then, they used the rubric to assess themselves. This was big. Students loved to see themself reading and talking about the story and most of the students wanted to give up their recess and lunch and read another story into the computer (this coming from a class that really loves its playground).

Overall, I’m just so thrilled to have been a part of the TLN because it’s given me the opportunity to have support and talk with all the members on ways to develop my technology use in the classroom. I have so many more ideas to try out and am really looking forward to giving each student their own DVD at the end of the year wtih their classroom memories (video from my camcorder of the year’s celebrations and events), slideshow of all the photos during the year, and individual samples of each student reading stories and retelling them. Big thanks to everyone at START learning for the enouragement and inspiration. You’ve really added some excitement to our grade 2 class!

Arghhh! Cont'd

Okay so I had the students research information on Alternate Energies for a Science Project.  For the most part this was done well.   I then asked them to present the project one of two ways.  They could use a presentation program like Power Point or Keynote or the good old paper and pencil on a presentation board.  I had James Klassen come in and teach my classes a Keynote Lesson.  They appeared to love the program.  There assignments did not mirror this excitement.  I was surprised at the poor job many of them did with this presentation.  In fact the ones that were done on poster board were much better.  I think I need to try again and show them some samples of some really great ones and then some that are not so great.  I want to try again because I know I should have seen different results.  Until Next Time.....

Blog #3 - It's coming together.

At the time of my last post I was trying to use a website to connect with my students who aren't in school full time. Well, I've abandoned that for now as we are successfully using e-mail and chat.

I have however, narrowed my focus, refined my question and designed a project ... an experiment actually. Many of the students I support had a long list of missing assignments at the end of the term 2 and I think that using technology will help them increase the number of assignments handed. I realize that this will require teaching, support and easy access to a computer.

Originally, I was thinking specifically of students with a written output disorder, but I've expanded the trial group to include those who for a variety of reasons, are not getting much work handed in. In the group of 12, their learning disabilities include: written output disorder, attention problems, weak memory, poor organization, anxiety and low motivation.

As I am a non-enrolling support teacher, I've had to design my project so that the students can be pulled out of class for the teaching sessions and, when the training is over, have access to computers with as little disruption to the regular classroom and teacher as possible. After 6 training sessions, the students will get a laptop to use for three weeks (I've booked the mobile iBook lab). I'm hoping this will help motivate them to learn a useful system that will make the use of a laptop more effective than it is a distraction.

Using iGoogle, the students will set up a homepage that includes a Calendar, To Do List and a link to the Teacher's Homework Page. I'll teach them to use KeyNote to show their learning and how to hand in assignments electronically. I'd like them to learn to use Google Notebook, but I'm not sure how far I'll get. We'll keep a class blog for students to comment on the process.

I really think that for some of these kids, using a computer will make their school lives a lot better ... I'm curious if this will prove to be the case.

Changed Focus to PowerPoint in Classroom

My original query was how to make my website more meaningful to my students; however, as I began working with linking presentations to my website and using them in the classroom, I discovered how useful they were as a review tool in the classroom.
Below is a description of how PowerPoint has changed my daily lessons in Literature 12:
I begin each Literature 12 class with a review of the former day's poem that was taught. This review, in the form or a PowerPoint presentation, included review questions (from text) with answers, visual images (from google images; usually classical paintings related to the period and the piece I covered), and audio (iTunes used to copy from my CDs or buy music; music is based on period of poem or occasionally thematic with modern rock or pop music).
This 10 minute introduction engages students, provides me time to check homework and speak with some students individually, and broadens their perspective on the poem and the period of the writer and poem.
One student, Jill, said, "I love these presentations, for they made me reconnect with my musical past as I took piano lessons from childhood and the music, such as today's Messiah by Handel, renewed my interest in classical music.
As for statistical evidence of PowerPoint's effectiveness, I can use provincial exam results, at least loosely. If results are better than last year, it may be due, in part anyway, to the new technology.

Kiwanis e-read-to-me project Assessment:
Assessment Target Group 1 - Grade 6 students:
The following is a section of a speech one of the students in my class wrote that reflects the general feeling of the students about the use of the Kiwanis e-read-to-me program this year.
I Pods in the Classroom by Vishal
Technology is having a huge impact on how we navigate the world. In the first month of school our teacher told us that we will be using I-pods in the class for Science, Socials, and Math stations and novel study.......We download the material off the class podcast and listen to it when we are doing the work. ..... The way it helped us was that we listened to the instructions while we were reading the material. That helped us to understand what we were supposed to be doing with the stations. It helped us with vocabulary because sometimes we didn't know the word and hearing it helped us to know what it meant, and it helped us with comprehension because sometimes we didn't know what something meant but when we listened to it on the I-pod it made sense. That way we didn't have to go to the help centre so much. .... I think I-pods in the classroom are the way of the future.
Assessment Target Group 2 - Kiwanis
The inclusion of the Kiwanis as readers has been slow to get off the ground. I've had to continue to do the majority of the readings while the Kiwanis group gets organized. A group of five readers was trained in November and a facilitator was chosen to be the liason between the teacher and the Kiwanis readers. Although they are enthusiastic, only 3 readings have been forwarded to me to date. Time will tell whether they can produce enough to warrant their inclusion in the read-to-me program.
Assessment Target Group 3 - Teacher
For the first year, the plan was to be the pilot teacher for the project. This took considerable time when planning lessons, mainly because of the accountability of having others reading them, as well as the need to produce original material so that copyright wasn't breached. Decisions as to reading speed, how much to include in a chunk, and how many directions to give on the recording took several trials until the students indicated that it was to their liking (consensus). Contrary to what I thought, the less capable students didn't like the slower reading speed while the more able students chose to have the MP4 format for novel study turned to a higher speed.

Summary
Once the issue of copyright on podcast is firmly established for our district, I can see that more teachers would be able to undertake a read-to-me program. There is no doubt that audio helps students process print. With teacher as reader, this program is useful both to struggling readers and E.S.L. students. The dependence on an outside body such as Kiwanis for the reading is the unknown. If they are willing to get behind this program and "drive it" then there is no limit to the influence that it will have on our struggling readers.

Ipods In The Classroom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Third Blog!!!!
I have found that using ipods in the classroom have motivated my children to read and write with excitement. They love using the ipod to write and read. They have created class and self assessment. When they read into the ipod, they will self assess! For instance, Was my reading smooth or bumby? Did I read with feelings or like a robot?
They have used the ipods to store ideas. They have used it during math problem solving.
I record the students and listen to them cooperating and generating ideas. I have put them into groups and created a writing train. I divided the children into groups of five. We read fairytales. The children worked on retell. The groups all had a focus. One group did the begining, the second group did the middle and the third group worked on the ending. The children worked on the story, "Three Little Pigs!" We took the three parts of the retell and created a story with three parts.I put an ipod in each group. The children were recorded. They self assessed (how did we work as a group, what was our voice like etc.) My students that struggled with writing used the ipod ,as a tool
to write. I have really enjoyed using the ipods. My class is motivated to write and
read!!!!!!! I did a survey that displayed the increased level of student interest towards reading and writing.
Survey

Ipods

End of a journey Part 1 Post 3

Well my mini-cam (which also takes pictures) came back in one piece from the BC Winter Games in Kimberley/Cranbrook. Thank goodness from that because I was suffering from separation anxiety for awhile.

As all mamas should do, I am proud to report that my daughter Emily (middle) won a bronze medal in team kata (it is like synchronized karate movements). My other daughter Sarah is sitting on the left judging an athlete in the second ring. Sarah was the youngest karate judge at the event. Aren't I a proud mama!!!!!!

Anyhooooooo! I cannot believe that it is time to post our 3rd and final post already. Gee, time flies when you are having fun! Ok, so perhaps I should reiterate my research questions for the French Audio Project before I tell you how it went. Here goes....

1) "Are classroom websites an effective tool for French Immersion students to help maintain and/or expand second language skills by offering extended possibilities to use the French language after school hours?"

2) Are classroom websites an effective communication tool between the school and the home?"

I have always believed that it is important to have good communication with my students' parents. As a parent of school-aged kids, I always wondered how my daughters were doing or I wanted to know what they are doing. From time to time I got to communicate with their teachers but with my busy schedule, I did not always had the time to drop by and really have a good chat with them. As for their school work, I only knew what they had to do if they brought something home. I trusted my daughters to do their job....to be a good student (yeah I know I sound naive LOL). Other then verifying my kids' planners, there was no way for me to find out what my kids were doing right there and then (well I could have emailed their teachers 24/7 but I'm sure the cozy relationship I had would them would have lasted). Of course, just because I am a teacher, it doesn't mean that my kids are angelic......we've had our fair share of forgotten this and forgotten that.

My experience as a parent has made me think a lot about my own professional practice as a teacher. I know people have busy schedules and that they don't always have the time to communicate with me regarding their child's education. In creating my website it was my goal to solve a common communication problem with the education system.....access to the teacher or visa versa...access with the parents when we want to have access to them. In creating my website, I essentially created a tool where parents, students and I can communicate 24/7. On my website, it was important that the parents and students knew who I was; that they had accurate information about the education program (French Immersion); that they had access to video/audio learning resources; that they received regular updates from me on various matter and, that information about assignments was clearly detailed. I wanted everyone to be on the same page.

I sincerely felt that my website provided everything that a parent or a student would need. But of course that is only my perception. In order to find out what parents and students thought of my website, I created a simple survey on http://www.polldaddy.com/ that would help answer my questions. If you want to see the results, try this link http://www.polldaddy.com/Feeds/Surveys/24588qriymxpsncdejsdstxwg.xml

Some parents and some students have voted. All 90ish students will fill out the survey at school tomorrow. Parents will fill out the survey from home. Hopefully I will get lots of valuable data.

As you have noticed this post is actually not my last. I plan on posting my FINAL POST some time next week after the parents have had the chance to answer my survey.

I really enjoyed this project. It was hard at times to make sure that my site was always up to date because I was often busy with other teaching activities. I'll give more details about my view of the project in my next post.

Wishing you a very restful Spring Break :-)

Louise Jenkins

CDG Middle School

http://frenchaudio.net/ljenkins/welcome.html

louise_jenkins@sd34.bc.ca

The official "3rd Blog"

I couldn't remember if I've done my third blog, but I figured probably not, so here it is.
Well, I decided to gather data using the wonderful online survey tool. Like others who have posted, I too had difficulty getting my parents to the site to take the survey. I had to re-open the survey for another couple of weeks after only a handful of parents had taken it. Even then, only just more than half ended up taking it. The results were mainly positive in saying that since the inception of the website their child had used it a few times and they felt it useful in helping to improve their French language. I also asked parents what they liked the best on the site, or used the most, and what else they'd like to see. Many parents were very pleased with the oral reading of the French spelling words with pictures posted to go along. The parents had great ideas for what else I could add to the website, which I'm trying my best to fulfill. (I'd love to have the kids record themselves reading a story and hope to do so before the end of the year.)
For the most part, the parents are pleased with the website and how it is allowing them to help their child study in French at home. The students seem to really enjoy the site, especially the links I have up to games in French or the Barbie and Hot Wheels French sites. I have seen an improvement in spelling marks for those students who use the site to study most nights.
I plan on doing another survey towards the end of the year/project to see what the parents say then. Hopefully more of them and the students will be using the site by then and finding it increasingly useful. (I also get them to explore the site during some computer times, or show them new links or things I've added to get their interest up.)
Feel free to check out my site and "steal" some of the links or whatever for your site. Good luck with yours and a Happy Spring Break to all!

3rd Blog-Social Studies Catalogue Project

My project was supposed to be fairly basic, because I had changed it from the original, after my contract changed just after Christmas break, so I then had a new school, grade, and class. However, I now realize that my plan was not well-laid out. I had a vision in my mind of what I wanted to see created, but I had a difficult time communicating that vision.

Preceding the computer aspect of the project, my students attended a presentation by the Aboriginal Education Center regarding traditional Aboriginal uses of cedar (clothing, tools, baskets, etc). Then they worked in partners to make a chart showing each type of cedar product, how it was made, what it was used for, etc. I then showed them advertisements from magazines, showing what information should be included in a catalogue write-up. Then students were required to make mock-ups of 4 different cedar product advertisements. The final project was supposed to be a catlogue-type Keynote project which they could also present orally. A very detailed project when I look at it now :)

So far I have learnt many different, peripheral things, to be able to do the project with my students. First, I learnt how to create my own classroom website for students to access to get pictures for a project, so that they were not spending their computer lab time searching for pictures. Second, I learnt that just because we assume students use computers on a daily or at least weekly basis, they do not intuitively understand how to work in different application programs. Finally, I learnt that it is hard for my students to transfer their thinking and planning from paper onto the computer, because they were more interested in fancy animation than the content, so I would start the project differently next time, emphasizing content and maybe having them type it into a word processing program before making it into a presentation in Keynote.

James Klassen from START has been a huge help, as he has made many trips out to work with my class during the past months, teaching them how to use Keynote, and teaching me in the process.

I have only partially gathered data, because they have not completed their projects yet, but I hope to complete them shortly after spring break and then update you all.

I'm FINALLY getting going

Well, I am definitely a slow starter with my TLN project, but I am happy to say that things are now well on their way. I changed my mind MANY times about what I would do - mostly because our school has no Mac lab and old PC's.

When I read about the mobile mac lab, I jumped on it and reserved one for two weeks so that my students can create a meaningful multimedia presentation in their second language. My grade 9 class will be creating an iMovie project about music and peace. My grade 10's will be creating radio broadcasts. All groups will get to use iMovie HD and Garage Band.

At the end of the project, I will have the students fill out an online survey to see what they thought of this experience, if they feel that it enhanced their second language learning experience. My hope is that they will feel that they are competent enough in their second language to complete a project like this, and that they will be proud of their work.

Blog #3 School Web Site

Observations

My question was how to improve parent communication with use of a school web site.

My biggest concern, after building the web site, was to get the parents to actually use the site. In the first 4 months after setting up the site, I had registered less than 50 hits on the site. ( some of those could have been students too) I had put little articles in our weekly newsletter "advertising" that we now had a site and included the URL. Still little improvement in hits.

Last month, we decided to have our PAC meeting focus on technology. We usually have a very good turnout at PAC meetings and figured that this would be one way to introduce the school site to the parents. That night we had 28 parents in attendance. After a brief "business" meeting, all the parents were brought down to the lab to view the site. This was a learning experience for everyone. I quickly found out that our parents have little or no experience with computers, although their children are quite literate in that field. I had placed cards at each computer with the school's URL on it, thinking that they would log into the computer, go to the brower and promptly end up at the site. Wrong! About 5 parents were able to get to the site with little or no difficulty. The remaining parents, many of whom did not know how to use a mouse, needed a lot of assistance. Thankfully there were 2 administrators, a translator, as well as 2 teachers to help the parents. I used the projector in the lab to show a "big picture" of the various aspects of our site. Many of the parents were now frustrated enough to just watch me show them how they could order uniform clothing, visit class web sites that are linked, view pictures of special events and their comments were very positive.

I also showed the parents an example of a class web sit ( mine ) and they were most impressed with being able to access their child's class site to view student work and class pictures.

At the end of the presentation, I wanted the parents to complete the on-line survey, giving me some feedback of the usefulness of the site. Unfortunately, when all 28 parents logged into the survey, the system jammed up and they were unable to complete the questions. I did notice that a number of parents logged in to the site at home and completed it from there.

We have also introduced the web site to our grade 3 - 5 students and hopefully they are showing their parents the site at home. The students' comments have been very positive. One teacher even had her students introduce the site to their parents as a homework assignment.

One of the links on the school site is to the Kindergarten Punjabi site where students and parents are able to listen to a story being read both in English and Punjabi. The cross communication in both languages is a crucial issue at Sayers.

I will continue to monitor the school web site survey and hopefully increase parent participation. The real problem seems to be that our parents have great difficulty using a computer and this could be another goal for a PAC meeting.

Enticing Parents to Sign into The Class Website with Audio Recordings

Summary of Findings:
Nisha Ganchar


Inquiry Questions Pursued:
- What can I do to encourage parents to sign into the website more in a Grade One classroom?
-Which types of technology will be most effective in reaching the above goal?

Findings:
This semester I was able to answer all the questions I had initially asked (in both semesters). I finished making an audio website. I wanted to upload a lot of photos and document my student’s days in hope that the parents would log in to keep up to date. This did not prove to be effective.
Using Garage Band, I then recorded the children’ voices reading their PM benchmark books (books used to evaluate reading proficiency in Grade One). I had the parents come to the school for a small workshop outlining the website and answer any questions. I found that the parents were very excited to hear their kid’s voices and the progress they have made in reading. Through surveys, website counter, and recording/journaling of parent comments, I saw that....
-there was a 300% increase in regular usage from 4 parents (in October) to 17 parents (in February).
-14 of those parents use it between 3-4 times per week.
-the children were excited about their parents being involved in their school reading.
-parents are up to date on their children’s growth and reading level.
-increased parent/teacher communication.

Summary of Learning:
Some insight I gained this semester is that technology is a very powerful tool, especially when it contains items of personal interest. Now that the parents had a place to listen to specifically their child’s voice, they were much more willing to sign into the collective class website. Due to the parents signing in more, they were also up to date on any class changes, newsletters etc. This has helped to eliminate the gap between home and school even more.
My initial question in first semester was, “is it worth it to put in all the time preparing a website?” A class website is definitely worth it, if you find ways to make it appealing to the parents. When parents are using a website regularly, the extra work put in is worth it. I have found that the only down side is the time spent making the site. The positives far outweigh the negatives when one looks at the way that parents feel comfortable talking to me and are up to date on all new school activities. I have even seen an improvement in reading scores with the kids in my class. They work harder knowing that their parents are interested/involved in their reading.

I believe this experience has changed my teaching style because I can see the positive aspects to putting in the extra work. I am more willing to put in the extra work in order to have a good relationship with the parents, and a diminishing gap between home and school. When I can partner with parents through reading, it benefits everyone, especially the children.

Clarifying Disk Quota Restrictions

There has been confusion created around the new quotas related to FirstClass accounts. We will continue to support all teacher development of web sites. Larger sites will be placed on the main server rather than in personal accounts so that your disk quota is not affected.

Your personal email should be located in your account but resources for courses and the courses themselves that are created as web sites need to reside on the main server. There is no change for the people using your web sites except if you want to email directly to the conference. In this case, you would release a new address so that mail related to courses goes to that conference rather than your personal email.

Again we are not trying to stifle creativity but rather we are trying to manage resources more effectively. We are very happy with the tremendous work being done by teachers to support their students through a variety of digital mediums. We will continue to provide support to the learning community and find ways to facilitate your needs. We are now working on ways to store large video and audio files so that teachers can access them for your students. When our new server arrives, we will have greater capacity for expansion.

In the meantime, please contact our office if you need assistance with your web site or an extension to enable you to complete this process. I will look forward to viewing your projects soon. Please call me if you have any concerns.

Regards
Shelley and the Start Ed Team

new allotments on Abbynet

Am I the only one who is worried about the allotment changes on abbynet?

As a person who has spent the last couple of years following the district initiatives and the support for intergrating technology into teaching, I was saddened with the new down grading of Abbynet space for teachers our district. After feeling encouraged through the last two years in the technology learning community to create technologies for classroom use (for example, many of us have webpages on Abbynet), we are now being told that the maximum space we get on abbynet is 200M (double of the average teacher). My abbynet account with my webpage is 2.8GB of our current 3GB capacity. The current allotment does not take into consideration the importance of the item,s like websites, in maintaining contact with parents and enabling students to have a connection to the classroom outside of confines of the school buidling.

I guess I am concerned for the future of my project, and others like it, if it can't be moved in the next 10 days. I can't go for even a day without my school email, or I will have parents angry about not being able to reach me, so leaving it isn't an option. A colleague and I were talking about this, this morning. On his account, with no website and a recent cleanse of what he considered on essential emails he had 192M of info. To maintain my email I would have to get rid of my entire webpage in under 10 days, since the earliest I can go to get help is Tuesday.

February 18

I spent most of the Pro-d day on Friday trying to finish my project, but it didn't quite happen. I tried to export my survey data into Excel but I found it was way too hard to figure out how to make simple charts in Excel that basically looked like the ones in the survey. Soo, I am going to rethink my presentation/analysis of the data I collected and figure out a different way to interpret/present it. I have had some success in getting a few more colleagues to do some online activities but equipment appears to be a major stumbling block. However, I'll keep trying.

Website for Classroom use

I've been negligent on my blogs of late, but I have been busy with T-LITE, including classroom website work. My web page is hardly flashy, but I have begun to work on a Literature 12 page. Last semester, all I did for my classes was take pictures in class and place them on my website. I made slideshows, too, and shared these with the kids, but I did not put the slideshow on the website. This is probably easy to do?
As I mentioned, I am working on Literature 12 resources, and I made diagrams for all 46 poems and placed these in a side bar called Diagrams. I split the diagrams into the four units.
Also, I've begun making review quizzes for each of the 46 poems, but so far I'm only finished unit 1.
I have to work with a million other things on the website, but now that semester one (with no spare) is over, I can begin to focus more on my website again....

Blog entry 2- update of project

I have been quite busy, and with the start of semester 2 and finally a spare, I have finally had time to spend doing more updates on my webpage project. Currently, I have been working on adding on a Social Studies section to my mainly English dominated webpage. I have created pieces, but have not activated them quite yet (I need to get the bugs out beofreI let parents and kids view them).

I have started to develop a secondary focus, as I am working on moving my webpage off of first class to a seperate domain. I recently found out that I will be moving to a city next year, and want to have my website usable for the new location. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a free website building domain as easy to use as first class, which I finally feel very proficient in. I forgot how frustrating the intial learning curve is.

The second semester students are really enjoyiong the current page and are frequenting the homework blog. I am working on setting up a second Blog for my honors English class, who love to feed off of each other. We have some fabulous creative writers in there, so I was thinking of having them do blog entries to share their creative writing, or even have a running blog story where everyone can contribute. I am keeping my eyes peeled for PRo-D related to this to see how others have used it.

My next step is to start adding in Audio to the webpages, but I would like to see about getting a new page established first, so that I don't do a whole load of work to have to leave it in June a mere 5 months away. If anyone uses webpage builders otuside of first class and have any recommendations for a user friendly free web builder please let me know. I will blog agai after Spring Break!
Kristi

Second Blog -- Nanos to play educational music

It's been awhile since I blogged, but I have been exploring my original question, which was: "Can iPods be used effectively to play educational music in the classroom?"

I use a lot of songs to teach math in my grade three classroom, and managing CDs can be tricky (changing the CD between songs, etc.). I wanted to find out if using an iPod would be easier. Having seen a Kim Sutton math workshop this summer where she used an iPod to arrange her songs into categories, and could access them quickly and easily, I was excited to give it a try. I bought my own iPod, and an iTrip to broadcast songs through my existing CD player/radio.

What I have discovered so far is that the iTrip has its limitations. I'm in a country school where even cell phone signals are not the greatest, and I've found that it affects my iTrip's "broadcastability." The songs are useable, but staticy. I would now like to try using a set of portable speakers, which could be set up at the front of the classroom on my teaching table, and see if the sound quality is better. The kids need to be able to hear the songs clearly and loudly enough to be able to participate fully (obviously). I must say that so far, I haven't been as happy with the results as I thought I'd be, and the thought of spending my own money to buy portable speakers doesn't thrill me. It would only take one "oops," and they'd be toast.

So that's where I'm at.....moving along slowly towards an answer as to whether this is feasible in the classroom or not....still wanting it to work, but limited by a couple of factors and not sure where to go with it next.....Has anyone seen cheap, used portable speakers anywhere?

Suzanne Gravel
Grade 3 Teacher,
South Poplar Traditional

My question

I know I am late but better late than never.
I want my students to be able to practice their spelling words on their own as parents often don't know how pronounce words. I would like for my students to listen to and read poems on the web and memorize them on their own. Eventually I would like the students to record their reading and song on the web.
I would like parents to be able to refer to the web to check the notices, what their child is suppose to read at home, the schedule for parent helpers and different websites offered to them in French.
So my question is:
How does my website can:

• help the students who use it have better results in their spelling tests
• help students to learn poems on their own
• get students more interested in their learning
  
• help parents to be better informed about what is going on in the classroom
• help parents to share in the special events through pictures
• help parents to use different French site

Voilà

Adding a pod-cast

I'm using the ipods with my class. Now, I want to put their recordings on the website. I need help!

Pat F.

Second Blog Post

I have been able to (with help from Gary), record a few bilingual stories in Punjabi and English.
I have scanned the pages of a story book and then used keynote, done the recording and then exported to garageband to edit and add music in the background. Then exported to my webpage. I am not sure about copyright issues, yet. Does anyone, have any info on copyright?? My next step is to record a mixed version with Punjabi and English along with some comprehension questions.

Update and Questions

I've had some success using the computer with a couple of my students who are only in school part time. Google Notebook is working well with one girl and with another student we are using e-mail and MSN. It has enabled the kids to address personal issues in a less threatening environment and some good progress has been made with each student.

I started an AbbyNet webpage, but have gone to Piczo.com which is sooooo easy and familiar to my students. I can set the privacy settings so that only my students can access it or I can make it password protected. (I've made it open to the world for now if you want to have a look at it here.) For a divergent thinker like me (some would say ADD) the Internet is a major time sucker and if it takes as long to make the website as it has for me to figure out its use and format, it'll be up and running 4 years from now.

I feel quite apprehensive about using MSN and teen social networking sites. Talking on MSN seems to go so fast and feels so not like being a teacher and, while I've not said anything inappropriate (yet), I wonder:

• are there ethical and liability issues of which I should be aware?
• should I have parent consent to use MSN?
• do I have to allow parents access to the site?
• what about providing links to teen health sites that may link to information others may not think appropriate for Middle School students?
  
• am I being paranoid, or is this a common reaction for a digital immigrant?

Thanks if you made the time to read and respond. g2g ... jan