Week 3 Blogs

Larry Ferlazzo- Upon looking at this site one might not think it’s exactly educational, and used in the incorrect way it wouldn’t be, but I see the potential lurking there. He blogged about a company called Anmish that allows you to choose a caricature of a World Leader and then you can create a 30 second audio clip recording and mesh the two together. Not only does the world leader say what you did, you’re allowed to change facial expressions as well! Being in the classroom I could see this used especially in a Civics Class or Social Studies, but it would also work for something like Speech where students learn to recognize unspoken communication.

Larry Ferlazzo (again)- I teach Communication Arts, and one thing that my students struggle with is journal writing. You always have a few that will write no matter what or create a story, but for the most parts my students complain, “I have nothing to write about”. I’ve tried giving examples or a question of the day, but have come to realize that students need a visual sometimes. I’m always on the lookout for interesting photos, and Mr.Ferlazzo has provided a who list of “Photo Galleries of the Week” on June 22nd. A few of the sites have to be sort through for content, but the majority are ones that I definitely plan on using next year.

Free Technology for Teachers- I’ve been hearing about Social Bookmarking and web based bookmarking a lot lately, but have never bothered to find out much more about it. I’ve used ikeepbookmarks.com, but I used it in college and didn’t find it to be all that spectacular. However, on this website they do an easy to follow 9 slide power point presentation on how to use and get Google Bookmarking. What gets me excited about this is because I work with a lot of older teachers who aren’t familiar with new technology. This will probably be something that I share with my ‘Teacher Mom’ at school.

Pixelated- Using the Ipad on the Gale demonstrated by a student. I think this is a great clip because it shows how simple it is to use Gale as a resource. I think it probably scares off a lot of students just because they’re not familiar with it. However, within this 55 second video it shows how to start at point 0, and go all the way through to finding your resources.

School Library Monthly- I am constantly fighting the Facebook battle in my classroom. Students and Parents are constantly requesting me to be their friends, even though on multiple occasions I’ve told both that, my FB is for my personal life. However, this does little to stop them. During school I’m fighting the issue of cyber bullying through FB. I guess, though, one good way to look at it is that they are becoming familiar with not only technology, but the use of free programs available to them. This week on School Library Monthly they ran an article on Fakewall. Basically what students do is create a fake FB wall for a historical figure. Even though at first I thought it was encouraging them, I know think it’s a pretty neat idea. The walls are all privately set, and ran on a safe program. It would be a great learning assignment for them to not only create the wall, but act as though they are the actual historical figure, respond like them request the same friends as them, and even learn about some of their famous quotes and post them as they’re post of the day!