Resources

The first thing I did was purchase a book from Chapters. The book is called the, "Missing Manual For Ipods." This book taught me all I need to know about ipods. It was an excellent resource. I also went on this webstite http://www.apple.com/startpage/. I went to Tom's workshop on creating webpages. This is place that I might post my podcasts. I have been surfing on the net for information. I have been playing around with an ipod and using its features.

Resouces

UPDATE, UPDATE, READ ALL ABOUT IT....WHO'S YOUR DADDY?

In my last post, I said I was going to work on collecting data and setting up a survey over the Christmas holidays. Well, I lied.....I couldn't wait for the Christmas holidays so I set one up on Friday (Dec 21st). I just had to create a survey before the 2 week break because I know I would have been miserable had I not.

Anyhooooo, it was 4:30 am. My husband was getting ready for work and I couldn't sleep anymore. I decided right there and then that I had to attempt this survey business before going to work. I went to PollDaddy as Gary had suggested and attempted to create a survey. In my haste, I created a poll. When I posted the link, it didn't work. Actually, it did work but the poll did not appear on my site. I wanted something on my site so I went back to PollDaddy and this time gave the survey a try.

Between testing the survey and tweaking things on the site I realize it is now 6:45. I'm still in my pjs. I have to get ready for work....but the survey is almost ready. My husband is long gone but I'm sure he's thinking that he left a 'nutso' behind who kept cheerfully squeaking at her computer "woohoo,who's your daddy POLLDADDY?" (HEY GARY...WHERE DO YOU COME UP WITH ALL THESE FUNNY NAMES...POLLDADDY, DELICIOUS, ETC...?)I'm just so excited that I figured out how this thing works that I am determined to finalize things before I get ready for work.

It's 7:10 and now I'm in a total panic....I have to be at work before 8:00 and it takes me more than 45 minutes to get ready. My kids are screaming at me from upstairs to get off the computer which I do reluctantly. I upload my website one last time and rush to get ready. I have no idea if the survey looks good. All I know is that it works. It's now 7:45....I finally leave for work.

Last day of school, the students are excited. My teaching partner (Tanis Veldhoen) is away today but she did the most amazing and smart thing the day before...SHE BOOKED THE COMPUTER LAB FOR THE ENTIRE DAY. Here was my perfect opportunity to tell the kids to fill out my survey and so they did. It's my first collection of data but not my last. I look forward to posting more surveys.

WHO'S YOUR DADDY? www.polldaddy.com

Cheers everyone!

Louise Jenkins
CDGMS
http://frenchaudio.net/ljenkins/Welcome.html
louise_jenkins@sd34.bc.ca

Time to check in again.....official posting #2

"IT TAKES A COMMUNITY TO RAISE A CHILD....EVEN AN ONLINE ONE"

Ok, so my classroom website is pretty much setup the way I want it to be. There are just a few more things that I would like to add, but I think these changes can wait until the Christmas Holidays when I'll have more time on my hands.

So what have I done so far and what is the purpose of all the stuff on my site?

Page 1 - The welcome page: why talk about this page, right? Well I thought it would be important to mention that if you want people to really check out your site, put very little info on the initial page. I treat this page as my title page with an abstract for an essay. I recommend that you give just enough info to tease the mind of the user. The page has a welcome message, the school address and my contact info, and a picture of the school. I am thinking about adding music to it....perhaps an instrumental version of "Crank that" by Soulja Boy....I'm sure that will attract the kids' attention 'cause it's the 'IT' song of the year. What has stopped me from adding music to my site is that I personally hate going to sites that have music....especially ones where you cannot shut the thing off. I think that if I add music, I will have to add a feature that allows the user to turn the music off.

Page 2 - LFI & Curriculum page: Here I wanted to make sure that parents had access to info about the program and what is being taught. One major problem in French Immersion is that parents don't know what to expect from the program as far as the process that a student goes through in a second language acquisition environment. On this page I have copied and pasted (and cited of course) information from Canadian Parents for French. The document that is posted talks about the Late French Immersion program (what it is, how the child will progress, etc...). While the CPF is a National organization with Provincial affiliates, it seems that very few parents are aware this little gem of an organization exists. The CPF is a support unit that has tons of good info about the French Immersion program.

The other piece of info listed on that page are the IRPs for the Late Immersion Program. I don't know how useful this document will be as it is only available in French. I put it there anyway because I wanted to show that LFI teachers do have a curriculum to follow. I am thinking about changing the title of this page to "Late French Immersion", as I also want to add research articles about the program.

page 3: About me: I really don't have issues with people knowing who I am which is why I have added this page. I am aware this is a hot topic, but my view is that people feel a connection when they see you as a human being. When I see students outside school hours in a mall or some other public location, I want them to feel comfortable enough to say hello and to talk to me as if I were their neighbour and not a stranger. I don't want them or their parents to feel that I am an unaccessible person. I am part of the community just like anyone else. Of course, my private life is my private life and I don't need to tell the kids and their parents my whole life story, but I think a glimpse or snippet of my life won't hurt. I believe it is important that people know who they are dealing with. On this page, I talk about my education and professional goals. I also talk a bit about myself, my family and my travels. I try to give my students and parents a glimpse of my personality (sense of humour). I plan on adding some pictures of my family....and my students have requested that I add a video of me doing the "Crank That" dance. I'll think hard and long on that request.

page 4: BLOG: I have always been an advocate of communication between the home and the school. In the past, I used to send hard copies of newsletters and I would do so on a monthly basis. On some months I felt I had very little to say and so my newsletters looked pretty drab. If there is something I'm totally pumped and grateful about on my website is this feature. Because of the BLOG, I no longer send monthly updates home. Instead, I post whatever comes to mind here and I don't have to wait a whole month before it is sent home. A blog is like having a continuous conversation. If I have something to say, I say it right away. As I am getting older, I tend to forget things. Having a BLOG feature on my site helps me with getting the info out there immediately. In the past, I would always forget to put stuff in my monthly newsletters and getting upset over it.....a BLOG has solved this problem. If I forget to say something today, I can always post it tomorrow.

page 5 & 6: PODCAST: I am truly proud of this page. Finally, there's a way to show parents concrete evidence of their children's progress in a second language environment. The PODCAST page is meant to showcase students' oral abilities. Currently, I only have podcasts of Div 4 & Div 5 singing some songs. My plan is to post individual podcasts of students reading (that's what I teach). Of course, since I do not have my site password protected, I cannot upload individual audio files yet. However, I think I may have figured out a way to get around the privacy issued by concealing the students' identity by using a numbering system. My plans for this site include posting audio/visual files. I'm also thinking of changing the name of this page to something more original. Any ideas out there?

page 7: NAPOLEON AUDIO FILES: The Napoleon series contains 12 booklets of the life story of a cat living in France. The booklets are easy readers and are used at the grade 6 LFI level (also useful for grades k- 2 EFI). Each book focuses on a grammar aspect and the level of difficulty is graduated. I have posted a recording of my voice reading each story as to provide a model. This is the only feature where I've had direct comments made to me by parents. All I can say is THEY LOVE IT! One major complaint I hear from French Immersion parents is that they don't understand French and because of that they fear they cannot help out with homework. By listening to my voice, parents can compare how well their children are doing. Parents don't need to understand the stories....all they need to know is differentiate sounds....something they can easily do. As far as changes to this page, well, I'm looking at adding a short lesson on the grammar aspect that each booklet introduces.

page 8 & 9: EDUCATIONAL WEBLINKS 1 & 2: A few years ago when I decided to use a classroom website as a means to communicate with students and parents, I always felt that it was necessary to add links to other sites that would be useful and educational. Since computers and the Internet are a way of life and that kids use them on a regular basis, I figured I would tap into this worldwide phenom and provide something authentic...something the kids could use all the time. The sites that I have found are either educational resources or games with an educational focus. My links are also organized by subject. Of all the pages I have on my website, these are the 2 pages that I want to see if they are being used. Starting Janaury, I will require students to keep a log/journal of the sites they visit and I will ask the students to write a brief summary of the things they have done on the site. Hopefully, I will be able to collect meaningful data on the usage of these pages.

page 10 & 11: Calendar & Homework/classroom page: the entire school year calendar is posted and I add a few items/events as they come up. As far as the purpose of the homework page, well that is quite simple and a given.....it serves as a secondary planner. It is, as I call it, the 'no excuse' page of my site. I know for a fact that all my students have access to a computer and the Internet. Students are told that if they forget their planners, they are to check the website for info on work to be done. This page used to be by far the one that I had to update on a regular basis. I found it difficult to keep the page updated on a daily basis therefore this year I decided to indicate what was expected from them on a weekly basis. I am contemplating posting bi-weekly info...perhaps starting next year (i.e. what needs to be done one week, and what is upcoming the following week.

So there you have it....my classroom website. Everything that is there serves a purpose. Now what I need to do is find out if people are using the info in a meaningful way. I will try to collect data starting January and report on my findings asap.

I don't think I will be posting a blog again until the new year (but then again who knows....when you're having fun, anything can happen). In that case, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Cheers!

Louise Jenkins
Grade 6 & 7 Late French Immersion
Chief Dan George Middle School
http://frenchaudio.net/ljenkins/Welcome.html

Web site

Harry Sayers web site is up and running! I've had very positive feedback from both staff and students. What is missing from this equation? The parents. The site has been advertised in our weekly school newsletter and hopefully the students will encourage the parents to have a look.

The resources that I have found extremely useful in my project are: Gary's workshops on Making A School Web Site and his most recent one on Making A Survey. I have added a survey to the web site and we'll see how many people respond. I also have a counter on the site to give me some indication of how many visitors we've had.

Gary came to our school and presented a mini workshop on Making a Class Web Site. He has now broken the world's record for the number of web sites produced in a one hour period! The staff is very keen and have realized how easy it is to make a web site. ( the hard part is maintaining it!) Anyway, I have now linked a number of classroom web sites to the main school site.

I'm looking forward to Gary's next visit to Sayers ( hey, Gary, you could be on staff here!) on using the iPod. Pod-casting!!!!

I enjoyed the audio session that Gary presented not long ago. It got me thinking about when I read novels aloud to kids how it might come in handy to have a recording of it, so if kids are away they can easily catch up, or if someone wants to reread or read along they can.

We already have an ipod Nano with the Griffin microphone, but I wanted something more unobtrusive. I'd seen an SFU presenter once record his session with a lapel microphone and an ipod, and a trip to the local Mac store later and we're set. In case you're looking for a lapel microphone, this one did work with the nano and the black Griffin microphone (like the ones that are in the nano kits through the media centre.)

here's the website for the lapel microphone

One cool offshoot of using the microphone was boy, were the kids ever quiet and attentive while I read! They wanted good clear sound for the recording. I plan to insert the chapters on the class website soon, and I also put the mp3 of the chapters I've done so far on the hand-out folder on the school network so kids can access it easily. I wish I'd thought of it earlier--we're already a few chapters into the book so I'll need to add record those chapters later.

Also to do with the novel, we're taking turns creating a comiclife book summarizing the novel. At the end of each chapter we draw a name from a hat and that child gets to do the comiclife plot summary for the class communal book. They're having fun doing it, and bonus!--they listen well so they're prepared in case it's their turn to do the comic. Last year, the kids did a keynote summary of a particularly convoluted read-aloud book in the same manner, but they added a voice recording of themselves reading the chapter title. They had a blast doing it, and it was lots of fun checking it over before heading off to the next adventure in the novel. They got really creative, and enjoyed one-upping each other for who could have the most interesting builds and transitions on the page.

An interesting site you might enjoy has a clip of a keynote address that talks about schools and creativity. The presenter has some really interesting ideas and a dry wit. If you're interested in thinking about how schools affect creativity, check this one out. It seems to me that we're all interested in creativity, and have chosen to look at that through technology.
Click here to view the video.

Check this out....

I have been working on a classroom website.....

check it out at:

www.menagh.notlong.com



now I'm wondering how to find out if and how parents/kids are accessing the site....

French websites

Well, first off I'd like to say that the website is going over well. I've had positive feedback from the parents on how much it helps them and their child, especially for studying spelling. I try my best to get everything up and update on the site although, as you are probably aware, technology doesn't always go smoothly!
Now, on to the resources:
I mainly use my own voice and images from Google. Other than that, I have created a links page on my website. Feel free to check them out and copy any link you want. Or, link your website to my links page if you'd like. I don't mind sharing! Some of the links I've found are:
Reading A-Z (For French and English stories - the parents will have to subscribe to be able to print them all off.)
French Audio Dictionary
French Vocabulary (for adults and kids)

Those are just a few. I have others on my website too. Check them out!

TLN Update

Greetings!

I hope things are going well as you navigate this busy season. With the Christmas break just 2 weeks away, I want to bring you up to date on a couple of things.

Wednesday's workshops were very well attended. I had many people leave the Audio Workshop excited about using digital audio as part of their instructional practice. It sure was great to have people there from the French Audio group to verify the power of using Digital Audio with their students. If you are interested in seeing a good example of this, head on over to Loius Jenkins' website. http://frenchaudio.net/ljenkins. James Klassen also had a large group of teachers at his workshop (Easy Classroom Websites with FirstClass 8.3) and a great deal of enthusiasm around starting to use this resource with their students and school community.

Here are the things we should have accomplished by the end of December:

1. The Second Blog Post finished

Your first official blog post was a description of your project and the research question you are pursuing. The Second Blog Post should be centered around the useful resources related to your project that you have discovered so far. This will be a critical blog post because it will allow us as a group to pool a
huge wealth of information into one place. Many of you will have found web-based resources. You can list these in the blog post. May I suggest learning how to to make a link in blogger? Click here to learn how. However, if some of the resources you found were anecdotal in nature, or print-based, simply jot these down (names of books, authors, etc) in your blog.

2. Some Baseline Data Established

When looking at a research question, you are usually looking at something changing over time. Learning gained. Student achievement increased. Your understanding expanded. In order to report this out, a good understanding of where you were before you implemented some changes is crucial.

If your reseach question is centered around student achievement, then some baseline data on where the students were prior to implementing the change will be important to gather. Samples of student work, audio/video interviews, surveys of parents and students, journal entries reflecting on your observations at the time all are great ways to gather this baseline data.

Remember: You want to be able to look back at "something" and compare what you see at the end of the project against that sample.

3. Plans made to attend the workshops being provided for the TLN

As part of the TLN we are expecting members to attend 2 workshops during the course of the project. Many of you have already attended one held this past Wednesday.

These are the workshops you can choose from:

1. Interactive School Websites or Easy Online Surveys ~ December 12, 3:30 - 5:00 Click here if you haven't registered yet.

2. Assessment and Data Mini Conference being held at Bakerview on January 16 3:30 - 6:30. Includes dinner.

THIS WORKSHOP IS REQUIRED AS IT WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH ESSENTIAL SKILLS NECESSARY TO REPORT ON YOUR FINDINGS Click here to register.

3. Multimedia In the Classroom ~ January 30, 3:30 - 5:00 Registration will be forthcoming. We are still working out some details as to the workshops we will offer on this day.

Over the next couple of weeks, the STaRT Ed staff are planning to drop by and visit with you at your school if we haven't done so already. If I don't see you before the holidays, have a Merry Christmas!



Gary Toews
STaRT Education Technology Trainer
Gary_Toews@sd34.bc.ca
Cell: 604-614-8308
Fax: 604-853-5281
_________________________
http://start-learning.ca

outdated technology in the library

November was an eventful month for me when it comes to technology and ideas.

When I submitted my proposal, I was considering how I could make library lessons and ideas more accessible to teachers, since K-5 librarians are going the way of the dinosaurs. That may happen in the future, but my thoughts have changed.

At the beginning of the month, our LA teacher was sharing her excitement - using ipods to have the students who have difficulty with writing output, record their story ideas and then play them back repeatedly until they were able to write their ideas down. I didn't know that you could record on an ipod. I began to think that there may be other technolgical ideas that I may wish to explore.

A few days later, my ESL partner and 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 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 classrom and at home, without needing to play a 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 it read to them without needing to rely on someone to read it to them. If the stories have an AR quiz, the students can check the box that indicates that they have had the story read to them.

For our last pro-d, I was shown how to record the stories onto the computer using Garageband.

NOW I need several things.
- since I don't know much about ipods etc., what else is out there that I might want to use? (i.e. What is a podcast?)
- how best to make the various stories available on the school web site
- what workshops would best serve my needs for this project
- how do I write this as a question?

My Project

Okay. I've got the web site for Sayers up and running. Now, for the survey part. Gary, I've signed up for your workshop on surveys so hopefully I'll be able to put the survey questions on the site. My question; do all the survey questions have to be yes or no or am I able to have some questions that involve more parental input? In other words, I'd like to have both types of questions.

Middle School honour roll and adapted ESL audio program

I've come across a new problem that I didn't anticipate. The Grade 6 ESL learners are using audio through their I-pod for most subjects now and experiencing success. Therein lies the problem. Some of them are "reading" grade level material and responding with A responses. (On a rubric getting 3 (fully meeting)). Even when I include reading assessment marks of 1 (minimally meeting) or include their STAR testing mark which is from 3.0 to 4.7, that isn't enough to overshadow the marks they are getting for responding to the big idea, or inferencing or for that matter, any of the reading strategies. While that doesn't create a problem for most subjects because I am going after understanding , it does in Language Arts. On the report card I indicate that they have received an "A" adapted, or a "B" adapted (because they are on audio) but when I figure out honour roll which is based on averages some of them are making the top Honour Roll category (which is calculated on %). These are students with good writing and speaking skills.

One way I've thought of to "solve" this for next term is to put their marks under the "Listening" category instead of the "Reading" category in Easy Grade Pro. Because Listening is only 30% of their mark and reading is 40-45% it should result in a lower grade which may be more indicative of their combined language arts level (they are mostly reading level 3.0 to 4.7). Another way, is that I could "weight" the marks so that the reading assessments are more valuable than their responses (I only do about 2 per term). The problem with this last idea is that I post their marks daily on the web and weighting sometimes takes hindsight.

Any other ideas?

Hello! My name is Hildi Mitchell and I am working at Abbotsford Virtual School. This year I am working part-time as the learning assistance for K to 12 and part-time as the kindergarten to grade two teacher. Currently, I am taking courses in an SFU grad diploma program - Teaching to Diversity. In one of my field studies I am looking to find ways to use my website to increase communication with my students in order to enhance student learning. With Gary's help, I have incorporated a YellBox in my website as a vehicle for students to respond to questions that I have posted on the YellBox. I would like to find other technology tools that would provide more opportunities for student-teacher and student to student interactions to support student learning and to provide a greater sense of community for students.

PS. I can't find my previous posting. How long does a posting remain?

My research question

I am an ESL teacher at Dormick Park Elementary. My research question is: Can I increase home-school communication through a multi media web page? This with include digital audio screen casts, using ilife programs. Check out the website at abbynet.sd34.bc.ca/dormickpark/doresl

Kathleen Weinkam

THEY ARE SINGING LIVE....YAHOO!!!!!!!!!...oh, and my research question too

I cannot remember if I posted my research question yet. I think I did, but if not here goes.

"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?"

Actually, I also have this question too.

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

So there you are....my research questions!

These questions are no doubt very important, but what is preoccupying my mind these days is my website and what I posted last week. I am so thrilled that I successfully recorded and posted 2 mp3 files of my students singing in French. I've always wanted to do something like this because I always felt that parents were missing out on seeing/hearing for themselves concrete evidence of their children's progress. The kids were soooo excited when I told them they were singing live on the Internet. Most of them went home and checked it out for themselves. That's great news because I am feeling like my answers above are now being answered.

Hmmmmm! What else should I put on my website........?

My question

My question is: What can I add to my class website to entice parents who do not usually use it, to start signing in more often?

My field study will focus on furthering communication with the parents in my class. I have already made a website giving the parents an idea of what French sounds like by using audio. Even though I found it was an effective communication tool with the parents, I found that it had many problems.
1. The children who needed to use it, did not have parents at home that would take the time to sit with their child or sign their child in.
2. Some children did not have computers/internet at home.
3. Some lost interest and stopped using it by the middle of the year.I did find that I had more parents coming into my class, feeling comfortable enough to ask me questions or just talk about subjects that were not school related. Since I have done this project on websites, I would like to find other ways that I can use technology to communicate with the parents or simply to intice them to use the website more.
Some ideas I have are:
-adding photos to make parents want to sign in.
-Nanos to record their voice and play on the website.
-comic life to further writing skills.

A few questtions before I get started

I am hoping to record some stories in Punjabi from dual language books.
My Q?
Am I able to use stories in English from the web that already exist and translate them?? and then add some comprehension questions??
If yes, then how do I get permission ??
For example if I want to translate a story from
http://www.kindersite.org/Directory/DirectoryFrame.htm
(sorry I forgot how to make this an active link)
There is so much that already exists on the web with animated pictures and I am hoping not to reinvent the wheel!!

stories in Punjabi

My Question
Will stories and samples of comprehension questions, in Punjabi on the school website help improve the comfort level for caregivers of Punjabi speaking students?

My question

Finally came up with my question! Will the school web site help to improve communication between home and the school?

Finally-- the Question

I'm finally adding my big question--it's this:
How can implementing technology enhance student creativity and feelings of success?

It's been a great time since my last blog. The kids in my class are very keen on learning, and especially so when it relates to technology. We've been doing a fair amount of Ginny's artworks lessons lately. If you haven't done any of them, they're a lot of fun. The Mondrian one is a great place to start, and the Ted Harrison one is a lot of fun. The image here is one from Ginny's site.

Click here for a link to Ginny's artworks lessons

For some kids, it's really freeing to be creative and artistic when they may not have the manual skills that drawing entails. And, computer-wise, we're learning all that great vocabulary and techie skills that will let them soar in a little while. A couple of kids are working on making imovies right now, and they've recorded their voices reading stories they've written, created their own songs in garageband, and are about to add their imagery. I'm just starting off with a few kids as we are soon upgrading our computers at school, and I didn't want kids to get frustrated with technical glitches. The kids that complete this part will then be sort of like peer-tutors to help out the other kids soon. It's pretty cool getting kids to help kids, and it's pretty empowering for them to be able to do so. Right now, things are good!

I went to the iLife session presented by Gary, Tom and James today and it was great. I was wondering how others are doing with posting kids' podcasts. It'd be neat so see some cool things kids are doing.

Rick's Post

Hi! My name is Rick Dool and I teach at the beautiful New Abby Middle. I am a grade 6 teacher. I teach Math, Science, and PE. Our school is in its first year of the IBMYP . Partially because of this, and partially because I want to find a way to provide my students with more awareness of other cultures, I am becoming part of this blog community. My project is going to be to team with a classroom from a different culture to discuss their way of life. I would like this to be in blog format but I may need to start with email. My intention is to draw awareness (both ways) of different cultural struggles and differences within our world. I look forward to being a part of this.

TLN Workshops

Click here view the workshop descriptions and registration page.

November 14

There's just time for a quick check in before I head off to the iphoto workshop today. I have made a little headway in my project. I have managed to get on the staff meeting agenda and have permission to do a little tech presentation each time. Yesterday was my first one. I introduced (again) our social bookmarking site on Delicious to the staff and showed them some of what what already on it and gave an impassioned plea for them to start adding their own bookmarks. I had some positive feedback afterwards so that is encouraging. The problem is the same for most people. The staff does not think they have the time to try/do/use technology more than they already do. Any suggestions for how I can start changing minds? Please comment! I'd love to get some fresh suggestions.

I thought I hated MACs

I think I'm in love with MAC computers again. In the past 12 hours, I was able to create a lovely website on iWeb (I actually transferred lots from my old site into my new one and added some neat features). Creating websites is not new to me, as I've always been able to create simple websites using FirstClass. However this time around, I've created ones where people can click on and hear my voice on MP3 files. I'm sooooo excited because my students now have an excellent tool they can use in the comfort of their own homes. They now have the ability to read along with me after hours. I also added a blog feature, but am confused as to how students and/or parents can respond to it. I did include a comment feature but for some reason when I go to my website, it is not working. I must have missed a step in setting up that feature. Hey Gary....if you are reading this message, I need your help...please, pretty please...with many thanks :-).

I'm enjoying using my MAC computer again. If I can figure out how to iron out the bugs, I'll be happier.

Ok, my goal for the next few days is to figure out how to include a game in my site (i.e. memory game).

Until next time.....

Louise
CDGMS

iLife in Studio Arts Photography Class

Technology Learning Network Project Proposal:
Studio Arts Photography 11 at Bateman has students who will be completing College Accreditation/ High School Articulation programs, competing in District Scholarships and completing Advanced Placement courses. I plan to use iLife (iTunes, iPod, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, Garage Band) to creating projects for presentations and teach Studio Arts: Photo 12 students these programs for presentations of their portfolios to Open Houses, organizing for the American College Board Studio Art Design portfolio exam, UCFV college instructors portfolio reviews and district scholarship adjudicators. These programs are all measures of student achievements in dual equivalency, advanced placement courses, and district scholarship competitions.

Apple Ipod has great sites for art history lessons from itunes podcasts, have a bunch downloaded will see how/ if the students learn from them

Listened to interesting podcast on virtual and embodied persona Cyberpunk Counterculture by Greg Niemeyer
found on http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/story.php?itemID=11435 great site for university-level lectures

Photos and Video on Nanos

Does anyone know why certain photos won't show on an iPod Nano? They are saved as jpg's, just like all the rest of my photos, but they won't show on the screen.

Also, does anyone know how to convert video into a format that iPod will recognize? For instance, a movie made on a PC in Movie Maker? I can't get my Nano to recognize the type of file for import.

Any suggestions would be most welcome, as I have not found the Apple help site to be helpful at all!! ;-)

Description of my project

Last year I began the first stage in my project, which included creating a classroom website to maintain contact with students and parents at home. This year, I would like to work on expanding my website to include interactive components, such as audio-visual tutorials for different reading and writing strategies. This would allow for parents to help students at home and for students to have online support when doing work at home. Since the strategies are based on reading and writing skills, the students can apply the tutorials to not only their English work, but to other academic areas as well. My hope is to take sme of the stress off the students, and provide them with additional home support when it may not be available due to the variety of students I teach.

Subscribing to this blog

Daily checking for new information on a blog is not easy to remember to do. I would suggest letting your computer do the following for you! How does this work??
RSS is built into EVERY blog. You can have your computer notify you each time there is a new post. Click on the link below to view the RSS feed for the Technology Learning Network
feed://technologylearningnetwork.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
If you are using Safari 2 or higher (requires OS X 10.4) you will see a simplified list of blog entries.

To save this feed you can do the following:

Safari 2 or higher

Now you can drag the icon of the website to your bookmarks toolbar (if you
use Safari 2 OSX 10.4 or higher) and it will place a number next to the
bookmark everytime something new is posted.

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Firefox (works with OSX 10.3 and up as well as Windows XP)
If you use Firefox, when you visit a blog, you will see the icon for RSS at the end of the web address

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When you click on the icon, you will be prompted to save the RSS feed as a bookmark. Click on Add

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Firefox will add the RSS feed bookmark to the end of the list of
bookmarks on the Bookmarks Toolbar. If you have many bookmarks here
already, then you will need to click on the double arrow to view the
feed (way down at the bottom of the list)

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To move this bookmark back where you can see it, go to the Bookmarks menu and click on Organize Bookmarks.

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Click and drag the RSS bookmark up to a point where it will be viewable on your Bookmarks Toolbar.

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Here it is on my toolbar. By clicking on it you will see all the latest entries on the blog!

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There are numerous other ways to track an RSS feed, but these are just two that I would recommend.
Here are some more sites to help with tracking a blog or news site with different browsers:
Safari
Internet Explorer 7 (Windows only)

Mozilla Firefox: RSS and Live Bookmarks
Firefox howto video:
Click here to see a list of RSS readers for Mac OS X
Click here to see a list of RSS readers for Windows XP

Copyright information for podcasting or audio tape production

1. There is a pdf that outlines what you can and cannot do in Canada
(type in search words in google: podcasting legal guide canada pdf )

2. what you can do: (my interpretation so I'm not guaranteeing its accuracy)
a)- use your own material (however if you create it while you are under SD 34 employ they are technically the owner).
b) record works that are in the public domain. You need to record the public domain material yourself unless you have permission e.g. librivox ("LibriVox recordings are in the public domain, which means people can do anything they like with them. Mostly this just means people can listen to them for free. But it also means they can: sell them (for instance on ebay), broadcast them,..")
c) use creative commons - this is material you can use on podcasts (don't need to ask permission)
http://search.creativecommons.org/

building a school web site

My project is to build a web site for Harry Sayers Elementary. I attended Gary's workshop last Thursday and I now have a start on this project. Many thanks Gary for your patience and expertise. I was on overload at the end of the workshop, so I know I'll have questions.

Classroom website (English Language Arts)

What I hope to do is use my website to engage and educate my senior English students. So far, I have failed as few, if any, students visit my site.
If you have any tips, I'd gladly listen--my site is on the Robert Bateman Secondary Homepage under Staff and Staff websites (Bruce Fisher).

Using Technology to Show Learning & Improve Output

I work as a support teacher for students with challenging behaviours; several of them also have a learning disability and two of them do not yet have the self-control or motivation needed to attend school.

I'm teaching students to use various programs to produce their assignments (ex. Kenote, Inspiration), am looking for ways that students can complete paper and pencil assignments on the computer (ex. using a template to produce a title page) and am exploring ways to communicate with students off campus. Also, I am looking for websites that include activities that will support a student's progress towards an IEP objective or ILO.

I finally have a system to record and organize my research of websites; I'm using Google Notebook and del.icio.us --- neither with great proficiency. I feel like I've wasted so much time because I wasn't making notes about the web pages and then would forget what was so good about them or I would lose track of good sites going between different computers I was using and I have spent way too much time wandering off on interesting tangents.

I'm not sure about the best way to send assignments, receive completed assignments and communicate with students off campus. I'd like to be able to send an assignment, have the student and I looking at the same screen (showing the assignment) and talk with each other about the assignment and am not sure how to go about that. I'm checking out Google Docs, Skype and Elluminate Live.

reading speed for audio

Wait for Me!
Reader Control of Narration Rate in Talking Books
http://www.readingonline.org/articles/bergman/wait.html Interesting article about speed of audio tapes. If you want to do what they say do the following:
--To convert MP3 to M4a go into I-tunes advanced and select convert to AAA. m4a needs to be changed to m4b (for older i-pods). The i-pod can now recognize it as an audiobook. To change I-pod speed go into Settings then down to Audiobooks then select slow, normal, or faster. There may be some distortion on some recordings at the slower speed. Or, you can adjust the speed in Audacity by recording, selecting all, then go into effects, click on change tempo (not speed as it will also change the pitch), and then play with the slide switch until you are happy. If you want to figure out the wpm exactly you'll have to calculate the wpm by dividing the length of time by the number of words (check word count of text in Word).

Another article relating to auditory processing talked about normal reading speed as 150 wpm. They recommended slowing down to 110 wpm (for middle school ESL or struggling readers) to assist their comprehension. Also recommended using pauses after ideas to give students processing time.

ipods/confidence

My question is the following; " How does the oral presentation (using ipods) change/affect the children's attitudes towards writing?

Plan
My class will write stories and we will use a criteria. This will come from the school goal and we will focus on form. We use the plo's and performance standards as our guides. We will do individual written journals on how we feel about writing. We could do a survey using facial expressions as pictures cues to circle yes, no happy, sad etc. The children will record their stories and share with one another. As we share our oral presentations, I will observe their audience skills. I want to observe if their is a change in listening skills with the use of ipods and the children reading out loud. My class will teach the 3/4 class and they will share stories and teach one another on how to use the ipods. I want to see how both classes build a community within my class on its own and both classes together. I will take pictures of this journey. I will take the podcasts and the pictures to create an imovie that can be shared with the entire school at an assembly.

What do you think?
Does this sound a little simpler?

While shopping for a new iPod Nano, I was surfing the Apple website and found this link to Nanos in education. I thought it might interest some of you....there are some good ideas for how to use Nanos in the classroom: http://www.apple.com/education/products/ipod/

Enjoy!

ipods in the classroom

I have done some thinking and I have revised my question.

My action research question is the following; "How can the use

of ipods in the classroom be used to create an authentic voice?"

and " How can an authentic voice create or contribute a class

community?

What do you think about this question?
How can I alter or make my question simple?

social studies heritage moments

My name is Stephanie Dobui. I teach Grade 5 at John Maclure Community School.
My project is centered around the following social studies outcomes: assessing why immigrants came to Canada, and the contributions significant individuals made to the development of Canada's identity.

Groups of students will research characters, create scripts, and develop their own "heritage moment." They will be digitally recording their performances, and using the iLife suite, they will be editing and posting(?not sure yet) their assignments on the classroom webpage.

My research question centers around whether students can successfully implement media in an educational and purposeful way.

I am only on a temporary contract in this class until December, so will be fast-tracking this project, and hope to have a second test case with a new class after December, with data that can be somehow compared and analysed between the two classes.

Welcome to the TLN

The STaRT Education team is very excited to have the opportunity to work with you to use technology with your students. We admire you commitment to learning and will support you on this journey. I will look forward to reading about your projects and hearing about how they assist students to improve their achievement. Good luck with your journey and remember to share your experiences on the blog along the way.

Using Nano's&italk to improve oral and reading fluency with Gr.2s

Using the italk accessory for the ipod nanos, I'd like to have student recordings of themselves reading books together and individually as a way to track, celebrate and motivate student reading.   I'd also like to have the students interview each other and have candid discussions together as a way to track oral language progress. For production, I'd like to turn the sound files into a DVD for the end of the year that has digital photos and video that celebrate their year so that every student can take home a DVD at the end of the school year.

electronic read to me for struggling or ESL learners

Action research question: Is it possible to implement an electronic read-to-me program between two target groups: grade 6 middle school students and the service organization Kiwanas, which results in a significance increase in the Star reading assessment of each student as recorded between September and June.

Background: The Kiwanas service organization has a well established read-to-me program in many elementary schools which involves a one-on-one relationship between the reader and the student. This middle school model plans on using MP3 transcripts so that the reader would have a reading/listening connection with many students. The service organization members would tape "scripts" which have been e-mailed to them by the teacher directly into a podcast for subsequent downloading by the students. The students in the pilot classroom have brought their own I-pods or MP3 players to school and have been introduced to the technological requirements of using the devices. Seven-eights of the students use a language other than English in their homes. Two students have identified learning difficulties.

Cindy's Classroom Website

I want to continue to develop our classroom website... letting parents and students read and listen to French at home... I would like to add pages that the children create this year. v

Punjabi Sat sri akal

I am looking for ways to use technology in the classroom to assist students who are not meeting expectations. I also hope to use it as an enrichment tool for students meeting and exceeding expectations.

My Big Idea

I'm Kirsten Janzen and I am in my first year of TLITE. I am looking forward to getting some experience with action research before I start my second year of the programme.

I am looking to enhance the listening and speaking skills of my French students. I teach French 9,10 and 11 at Abby Collegiate and it seems that all of my students have either an iPod, or other MP3 device!! I'd like to explore ways kids can use these for French learning as well as listening to music! (There are some great French recording artists out there too!!). I'd also like to use a program like Garage Band (our school only has PC's, so this will be a challenge!!).

Using Nano recordings to improve French oral skills.

My name is Nisha Ganchar. I teach Kindergarten and Grade One French Immersion at Clearbrook Elementary. My question for the project is: Will using Nano recordings of my students' voices, help them to develop their French oral skills? I am also hoping to put the student's recorded voices on the class audio website. You can check out the website so far at division17.notlong.com.

I am hoping that the parents will be more inclined to use the website when they can hear their child's voice. I hope this project improves student oral development and parent participation in our classroom.

Has anyone out there used Nano's in their classroom for the same purpose as me and how did it turn out? How did you assess the changes that followed from your project?

My project is FI Audio (better website)

Hi,
My name is Huguette Proulx. I am a grade one/two French Immersion teacher at Margaret Stenersen and I would like to redo my website and to make it more user friendly and more interesting to parents and students as well. Any suggestions?

Punjabi Stories

I am looking forward to recording stories in Punjabi to enhance and support oral language fluency.

My Project

Hi, my name is Sarah Kirkland and I teach Grade 3 French Immersion at Clearbrook Elementary. I'm part of the French Audio Group this year, and I will be using my website to provide extra opportunities for my students to practice their French at home. I will be posting word lists and short texts for students and parents to practice. I'm also hoping that parents will use the audio to practice their own French pronunciation so that they can use proper word sounds when practicing phonetic word lists with their children. I'm excited for my kids to use this as another learning tool!

Sarah

LET'S GO STREAKING!

Gary says that journaling in public is very liberating... almost like streaking! Okay, maybe he didn't say that exactly, but...I'll try this, then the streaking, and I'll let you know - stay tuned for the next BC Lions game!!!!

Blending Ideas

I teach grade four and five, and I'm interested in how I can use technology to help kids express their ideas, and create meaning. I hope to introduce them to lots of programs that they can morph together to showcase their ideas into one project. I'm also interested in giving them opportunities to teach each other how to use the various intricacies of the programs.

Global Blogging with IB Students

Greeting colleagues! My name is Kelly Grant and I teach Gr. 6 at the new Abbotsford Middle School. I teach Language Arts, Social Studies, French, and Personal Planning. This is the first year of implementation for Gr.6 for MYPIB (Middle Years Program International Baccalaureate).
Integrating technology with the curriculum is a major component of the IB program.

My project will be to introduce the students to blogging so they can communicate with other students at international IB schools. My goal is for the students to be able to increase global awareness and understanding through an authentic writing experience using technology. I also hope this writing experience will help improve the sutdents written output.

I teach grade three at South Poplar Traditional School. The project I am interested in doing involves using an iPod in my classroom to play educational music to augment my instruction. I was at a math workshop in Victoria this summer, and the presenter had an iPod with speakers attached to her belt. When she wanted to access a math song to use as part of her lesson, she simply found it in her menu system and pressed play. This would be SO much simpler than running across the classroom to flip through a selection of CDs, finding the right one, putting it in the player, finding the right song, and finally pressing play. Not only that, but when I acquired new songs this summer, they were in MP3 format, which could not be "read" by my ancient CD player. The iPod will solve all of those problems. I might even be able to take it further and be able to synchronize music to visual images that will even further enhance lessons. This could be displayed on a projector (if one is available), or simply on my laptop's screen. So that's my idea! Stay tuned to see how it works!

Description

Sandy Lane , Abbotsford Traditional Secondary , I teach Tech 9 to 12, Socials 9 and Foods.
At a one to one laptop school, the challenge is to use the computers each student has in an efficient and effective manner. I have the advantage that all students entering Grade 9 will take a technology 9 class where I can implement with my collegues new programs. The goal of my project is to identify software to assist students in being more efficient in their work. The steps will be as follows:
a) doing an informal class survey, I will identify what Grade 10 students are already using on their laptops
b) Identify programs for assessment ( ie Onenote, Microsoft Essentials, etc.) ( any ideas for software choice would be greatly appreciated)
c) identify three potential programs and have them loaded onto grade 10 student computers
d) measure through informal or formal class survey how the programs were used and their relative effectiveness
d) introduce the most effective programs into the Grade 9 technology classes in late Spring

My French Immersion Project

Hello,

My name is Madeleine Gravel. I teach Grade 4 at Sandy Hill Elementary. I have done my T-LITE a few years ago and learned a lot about computers. I now have a website for my class. The last two years, I have been a member of the French Immersion Audio group. I have learned how to add an audio part to my website where the students can listen to me reading the "dictée" words. The parents really like that since it get harder and harder in Grade 4. I am looking for ways to improve my website, specially the audio component. I am also working with a Grade 4/5 teacher. I am teaching her computer periods and I would like to introduce her students to some audio programs so we could add a French element to my computer lesson.

Blogging With an IB School

Hello, most esteemed colleagues! My name is Brandi Kamiya from Abby Middle School. I teacher grade 6 Language Arts, Social Studies, French, and Personal Planning. This year we are implementing the Middle Year's International Baccelaureate Program (MYP-IB). Part of this program involve integrating technology with learning.
I am interested in using blogging to increase written output and encourage discovery of other cultures. I am hoping to contact other IBO schools throughout the year and have students communicate through blogs. If time permits, I would like to create oral biographies on iPods to send on-line.

Audio on Classroom Website for FSL

My project for this year is: Will adding audio clips of French vocabulary to my classroom website help improve the level of oral French to students learning French as a Second Language? I teach Gr. 8 FSL and am faced with the same obstacle as most second language teachers: while students are learning new vocabulary in class, they have a model for correct pronunciation, but when they are not in class, they often struggle with remembering the correct sounds. My hope is that by creating easily accessible audio on my class website, overall student pronunciation will improve (to be measured orally).

Use Of Technology To Improve Student Achievement

I would like to investigate the use of technology to improve achievement of ESL students especially their Speaking and Writing.

I will look at both websites which offer online learning and at software to improve student achievement. I also want to look at the hardware that both I and the students will need. This will mean that students will have access to technology at home.

I want to get familiar with digital audio production, use of ipods and podcasting.

Data collection will be:
anecdotal
written output
oral output
written assessment
oral assessment

My Project

I'm part of the French Immersion Audio Group. So, I'm looking at using digital audio to help students learning and comprehension as well as to help their parents! I'm looking at creating a website that parents and students can use to find audio recordings of spelling words, pronounciations of certain sounds/words, etc. I have colleagues that have created similar sites and they seem to have gone off great. I'm really excited in creating one myself and seeing how it positively impacts my students learning.
Megan

First project

I am interested in creating a project that allows students to improve their French listening skills. I am currently involved in TLITE and am creating audio files through Garage Band-just had to wait for the new computer to make its way down to my classroom. I am creating vocabulary lists on-line for students and parents to access at home.( I have a website-the access would be throught it) I also want to create a master list to then create a CD for students in the future years.

I am also interested in finding various audio evaluation tools on-line.

For this project, would like to expand the audio files on Garage Band and create larger projects-dialogues, skits etc.

My project

Hi my name is Anna Morris. I teach Kindergarten French Immersion at Centennial Park & Clearbrook. For my project I am looking at how audio on my website will help improve French oral skills of my students. I will be posting the Alphabet rap book, numbers, letters, sight words, songs etc... in French for my students to listen to at home. I am also hoping to create some interactive games to make learning more fun!

Bonjour mes amis! Bonjour!

My name is Louise Jenkins and I am a Late French Immersion teacher at Chief Dan George Middle.I am a member of the FI audio group. I currently use my website as a communication tool with students and parents. I would love to learn more about imovies, iphotos, how to post grades online (if that is possible), maybe including a blogging feature, podcast, etc... Generally, I want my website to become an awesome and fun learning tool that connects home and school.

Aurevoir!

Louise
_______________

Louise Jenkins, B.G.S, M.Ed (SFU)
6/7 Late French Immersion
Chief Dan George Middle School
32877 Old Riverside Road
Abbotsford, BC V2S 8K2
604-852-9616
604-850-7653 (fax)
louise_jenkins@sd34.bc.ca
http://abbynet.sd34.bc.ca/~louise_jenkins/

"Be the change you want to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi

My Project

I am going to learn about using blogs with kids in Middle School

photos and art

Test

Testing

Using 'Scratch' to Improve Problem Solving

I teach grade 6, music, and technology at ASIA-Sumas Mountain. I have started TLITE this year. I am hoping to get some experience in action research before I have to delve into a second year AR project for TLITE.
Last year, Gary Toews emailed me a program called 'Scratch.' It is a program developed by students at MIT that allows students as young as 8 to create animations, interactive programs, and games. These projects can then be uploaded onto the Scratch website for the world to see. Students can download each other's projects and take them apart to see how they work. It is a very easy to learn, easy to use, powerful medium...and it's free. Click to go to the website.
Scratch forces you to problem solve through the nature of the program. You write a script, start the program, and see what it does. Inevitably, something will go wrong. Then you go back and view the problem, decide on a solution, implement a change, and view the result. Because the Scratch program forces the user into the problem solving cycle when creating projects, I would like to see if it will improve student's problem solving skills in other subject areas.
Good luck everyone.

-Clayton

If you would like to see a few of the projects that I worked on this summer click the links below.

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/CousinAvi/33114
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/CousinAvi/31360

Looking for an International connection

Does anyone know of a teacher teaching a class over seas that might be interested in communicating with a class over here?

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://weblogs.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/blog/Charlie%2520tree%2520blog.jpg&imgrefurl=http://weblogs.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/blog/christmas_tube/&h=2274&w=3000&sz=229&hl=en&start=7&tbnid=ogxCXTtNeCugNM:&tbnh=114&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcharlie%2Bbrown%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DG

Okay. Now I'm getting fancy. I'm a Charlie Brown fan!

in only because...

I am sitting beside a master of tech :)

"I am so smart, I am so smart, s-m-r-t....I mean s-m-A-r-t."
- Homer Simpson

Hello? Hello?

Anyone out there? This is my first post on a blog ever! Yahoo!

....and Tom and James are the Bossman's little helpers.....

Greetings

I am on Safari, so there are few tools to use, but I will post a "Hello" to all; look forward to getting to know you, even if only on-line.
Cheers,
Bruce

My Project

Here is where you type. You have to check out this website.

YellBox

I am learning to use a YellBox on my website as another vehicle to increase interaction with my students in order to facilitate their learning.

new pic ... edit practice

Yahoo. Free education. Thanks STaRT.

Gary

Gary is so smart!

He is the Blog Boss!

Checking in

I am in! Success

Okay, here goes. I really don't know what I'm doing.

my first try

This is my first time blogging, so I am just testing how it works. Very boring entry, I know :)

Now I will see if this works for me. If so, I 've already learned one new thing today!

Just looking around

Hi all. Just looking around here and trying to figure what I'll be doing with the blog.

I'm considering using a blog to let students and parents know what happened in class (like Kristi is doing in her class - Way to go, Kristi!)

Mike

Trying this out

I am all set up. I hope I remember to blog more this year :)!

Me, too!

Chad can do it and so can I! Yippee!

Adding a picture

Just adding a picture

using laptops to promote creative writing

The technology focus will be to learn how to use the laptops to improve creative writing with grade fours. Writing is one of our school goals. Writing is also a skill that is difficult or unappealing for many of us.

Phases of inquiry:
• Identification of problem area: student writing is lacking creativity (main ideas, supporting details, conventions)
• Collection and organization of data: journal writing, using writing prompts, reflective writing, writing about their choice, school wide write

October 23

Hi Everyone. I'm excited to be on board!

Time flies from classroom this am to ITC this pm. My project was to be leadership based. I want to try to encourage more of our staff to use technology and in turn share their experiences and expertise with me so I can improve my educational practice. I plan to focus on building an internet resource list via Delicious, a type of virtual PLC via our wiki, and to do short tech demo's and workshops (should anyone want one) in school.


For myself, I would also like to experiment with Scratch and other online learning opportunities for myself and the students to share their learning and ideas. Our problem is, as usual, access to technology. I know the answer is out there and I hope this year to find out some more interesting options, variations and experiences.