Today the very apologetic man came and took away the video conferencing satellite dish .

It’s the last day of our term break holidays and I’m planning our unit on Personal Experience Writing. I really would like my student’s writing to be meaningful and authentic this time (because I’ve been inspired by reading Bruce Schauble’s blog, and the Reflective Teacher’s blog about their student’s writing) – heck I’d really like my students to improve their writing and go from “telling me” to “showing me”!

So I began this afternoon by googling “ideas for personal experience writing”. I knew I would walk away with some pretty good ideas for a unit but I never thought I would find this site: WritingFix

“WritingFix is purposely organized around the 6 traits of writing. The 6-Trait model is an analytic way of thinking about writing skills. It helps give developing writers a vocabulary so they can identify and talk about their personal strengths as writers. It also helps them develop a vocabulary for talking about where their writing might benefit from some further rethinking and revision. The WritingFix website is dedicated to giving students and teachers a better ability to use 6-Trait language in the classroom.”

WOW! This website is just jam-packed with resourses and awesome ideas for encouraging students, not to just write, but to write better. It is also interactive for students too – if you want to use that feature.

I made a google notebook (another cool tool) for my Personal Experience Writing Unit while I was surfing this site. You can look at it incase you haven’t got time to navigate all around WritingFix and believe me, you will need some time to look around this site.
Now, I’ve just got to go write up type up my unit plan ……………………..

I’ve just been playing around with a cool tool that was promoted on WOW2 chat today.  (Great show too, with Dr Cheri T. and her “students” from ETIP – Ed Tech Immersion Plus at Illinois State University).

Anyhow, back to the new cool tool – I’ve just spent a bit of time looking around VoiceThread.  This tool has so many potential avenues for use in the classroom. 

Basically its a place to capture voices (I’m thinking very similar to podcasting but more collaborative and visual at the same time).  You can create a VoiceThread and capture the stories behind an image.  VoiceThread allows you to capture the voices of an entire group on a single page.  

You can put your VoiceThread on any webpage or blog too!  You can even turn a photo-album into a VoiceThread.  It has links with flickr or just browse so that you can upload your images.  One thing I really liked was you could make your VoiceThread private (only friends can view it) or public – viewable without comments being able to be added or viewable with comments able to be added. 

One thought of how to use this tool in the classroom that came to mind almost instantly was Oral Histories.  Imagine an old photo from your family and your Grandma or Granddad recording their thoughts and feelings or story behind the image.  Then I had another thought.  Imagine using Voicethread for those students who have the stories in their heads but find it really difficult to get their words down on paper.  Here’s a motivational way to get their stories heard.  Images could inspire very rich and relevant stories.  Feedback and comments – both written and recorded, can be given on the voicethread as well.  I particularly liked this idea and can’t wait to try out VoiceThread when my class and I begin our poetry unit in Term 3.

Watch this VoiceThread that gives you a really good idea of what VoiceThread can do.  The VoiceThread website is very clean and easy to navigate and there is a good collection of examples of how to use VoiceThread. 

Then I decided to see just how easy it was to use this tool.  I spent about 5-7 minutes making this VoiceThread from start to finish and I would love you to stop by and say hi.  I’m sure we will be using this tool with our collaborative projects with classes around the world.

So, thanks again to the Wonderful ladies at WOW2 for yet another fantastic show (that I could finally hear and take part in the chat – now that I have my timezones sorted!!).  Thoughts to Jen W at this time and to those affected by the terrible tragedy at Virgina Tech.

Just had to share this (thanks Cliotech for bringing it to my attention)

This video from the folks over at T4 Jordan District is one that I’d really like to share with my colleagues. Check out their website too. It has a wealth of resources and information to motivate teachers to more effectively use technology in their teaching.

That awesome man Jeff Lebrow over at Worldbridges has just sent me this link to a video of my question to Dr Kathy King about good podcasting examples for my students to listen to. (Check out the other very good videos of interviews too!)
Thank goodness I always scroll through my Akismet Spam catcher (but it is mighty fine spam catcher!) because I found this comment from Dr Kathy King in there (only because she has very generously added a whole lot of links for me to look at). It’s full of information so I just had to share it with you all.

_{Hi
It was great talking to you via the webcast from Podcamp NYC (www.podcampnyc.org) and I am pleased that the information was helpful.
Here are the names of the teachers and their student produced podcasts which I suggested
(AND a few others) of course I do not mean to exclude other student podcasts.. these were off the top of my head across various subject areas…}

_{Jeff Bradley at IPS: http://ipsbradley.blogspot.com/ (science)}

_{Another great one SMASHcast http://www.smashcast.org (tech, science, and more)}

_{Dr. Joselyn Todd with her students at Carey Academy (science) http://web1.caryacademy.org/facultywebs/joselyn_todd/podcasts/default.htm}

_{MUSIC (music created by students) podcasts by students
Greenwich High School’s Electronic Music Classes! http://167.206.79.135/staff/bfreedman/ghs/podcasts/Emusic/Emusic.html}

_{a History podcast (not with students BUT great content) ERIC Langhorst
http://www.speakingofhistory.blogspot.com/}

_{I also author About.com column about Podcasting in Education- http://podcasting.about.com/od/podcastingineducation}

_{Here are the Podcast for Teachers (teacher learning, teacher professional development)
home page: http://podcastforteachers.org/}

_{archive of past episodes: http://podcastforteachers.org/TechpodArchives.html}

_{and archive of ALL resources and links mentioned:
http://podcastforteachers.org/ResourcesbyPodcast.html}

_{Here is something very different— We have converged the concept of Internet radio with learning related podcasts so if you go to iLearn Radio http://www.ilearnradio.org you will find an radio station that “broadcasts” podcasts.
It is NOT a podcast directory. It is a different experience.}

_{People just come to the site and then hear podcasts playing one after the other. Only those podcasts we have previewed are included- so they meet quality standards.
People who have educational podcasts – across a broad range of topics can be included for free. Podcasters can email us for information info@bxradio.net}

_{Hope this info helps.
Feel free to contact me for more info and catch us on Podcast for Teachers (teacher education for grade school) (www.podcastforteachers.org) and adult learning Adventures in Transformative Learning (www.podcastforteachers.org/atl)}

_{Virtually yours,
Dr. Kathleen P. King
http://www.bxmedia.net/kathleen-p-king.html}

I am so glad I dragged myself out of bed at 5.30am to take part in this. I am so glad that I read my emails before I go to bed. I am so glad that Edtechtalk sends out informative emails! I am so glad that people like Jeff at Worldbridges and Dr Kathy King take time to talk to people like me.

Now all I’ve got to do is get my timezones right (no thanks to Daylight Saving) and I can finally connect again with the wonderful ladies at WOW2.0 on Tuesday Night at 9.00pm EST. (But that is another story for a later post!)

Yesterday there was an email in my inbox from EdTechTalk about NYC Podcast Camp. It included some links to a skypecast. After checking out the time difference between New Zealand and New York, I discovered that the skypecast was do-able my end albeit 5.30am Sunday morning – 1.30pm Saturday afternoon NYC. I’m so glad I set my alarm.

Doug at Worldbridges is such a helpful man! I was able to skype in and even ask Dr. Kathy King in New York at the Podcast camp a question! WOW! I asked what would you recommend my students listen to, to get a really good idea about what makes a good podcast? I tried writing them down as fast as possible! Here’s what I got:- Try
Jeff (?) (Missed the last name – sorry & no luck on google)
Eric (?)
Arvind Grover from 21st Century Learning and
Podcasts for Teachers
Podcasts for Teachers has a huge archive section apparently and every single podcast has been screened so they are safe to share with students.
(If I’ve got anyone’s name wrong or you can share some more excellent student podcasters to listen to, please leave a comment).

Dr Kathy also suggest that Oral Histories was a really neat way to get students started with podcasting. It’s very authentic, yet simple. Students interview older members of their family to record their “stories”. In the States – very cheap audio recording equipment is available for about US$30. I’m not sure if we have anything that inexpensive here in NZ – I’ll definitely be checking that out. I’d be interested in hearing from any New Zealand schools that are podcasting – how they are doing it.

There were also some very interesting people in the chatroom too. It was awesome making contact with JoseR whose class blog – we’re going to see if we can do some SkypeTalkandWrite with Jose’s class in California as his class is younger than mine. Jose also let me know about podsafe audio and achive.org. It was also awesome to make contact with Nellie in Israel. That was really cool chatting to her and I hope do something collaborative there too.

I did google Educational Podcasting and go the following helpful links:
Educational Podcasting – there’s heaps of links about podcasting and how to do it here!
Podcast Directory for Educators, schools and colleges – this is a UK directory but looks full of examples.
Educational Podcasting - Middle Tennessee State University – very imformative site with links!

Was it worth getting up so early? You bet ya! I’m off to have another cup of coffee and then to email Carter at Crowdabout to ask for educator space!

What a simple but very effective tool to use! Check it out here. You can group together various items such as videos, audio, images, docs etc all in one place to show. Extremely advantageous for the classroom teacher. Just imagine the possibilities!
I’ve started a channel called Stop Cyberbullying (inspired by Quentin’s post). From now on I’ll be using SplashCast to group stuff mainly from YouTube that I want to show my class. (Maybe this is another way to get round blocking too).

SplashCast was so easy to sign up for and in less that 5 minutes I had found 4 items on YouTube that I wanted to use on Cyberbullying. The search YouTube tool was fantastic! Now I don’t need to hunt around for YouTube videos or wait for them to be blogged about – I can find stuff that I need really quickly – and the preview for the videos is an excellent tool! (There doesn’t seem to be a link for TeacherTube yet – now wouldn’t that just make this tool even better!)

Now I’m off to learn how to stream my channel into blog!

Yesterday my students and I were at school at 6.50am.  Yes, 6.50am.  Some parents got out of bed early to come to school too!  Why?  Because we had a “date” with a school in Huntsville, Alabama, US.  It was awesome to have 20 of my 33 students be in class to meet and compare school worlds with some students half way round the world.  There were some noticable differences in accents, national sports, wearing or not wearing of uniforms – but essentially the discovery was

“Hey Miss, they’re just like us!”  

Yes they are and it was so cool that you got the opportunity to discover that.  Our heartfelt thanks must go to the very generous people at SONY NZ – especially Geremy in the Business Division  for lending us the video conferencing equipment.  (Please don’t be in too much of a hurry to take it all back!)

We’re going to do some more follow up work with Alabama. 
You will be able to follow our journey through our class portal blog (it will have any extra links to follow if necessary). 

Thank goodness it’s the end of the term holidays so I can catch up on my ITwork (it’s no longer called paperwork!)

We discussed it. We brainstormed it. We wrote about. Here’s what the students in my class think about Cyberbullying.

We should help stop cyberbullying because:-

“It doesn’t feel good to be on the receiving end of it.”
“It can have a depressing effect on some people.”
“It can make people feel afraid.”
“We may end up missing out on the good things on the internet.”

and my favourite ……..

“It’s just plain wrong.”

I was really proud of my class today and the sensible discussions they were having with one another.
On Monday we will watch this video.

Afterwards our discussion will be “What can WE do about cyberbullying?”

Get your anti-cyberbullying badge here.