Glypho, I Don't Think So!

Let me say, I like the idea of Glypho. I think if I were an actual writer I might even use it. I like how you write the story and other people can help you edit, get character ideas and development along with plot starters.

In my perfect Glypho world I would be able to set up my own account where my class were the only members so that they could write down story ideas and then post character and plot ideas. I'd love them to get ideas from each other on revising their creative ideas. In perfect Glypho world this would make revising so much fun whereas right now so many students see it as a chore. In Glypho nirvana I would also add the control that we could invite others to give us help; either our fellow classmates at Manor Woods or even in different schools. It would even be cool to have pen pals with my friend in Switzerland to see how ideas might be different.

Sadly, this is not a perfect Glypho world. Here Glypho looks like it is a lot of adults sharing their writing ideas and collaborating with other would be writers. And that's great but I can't in good conscience have my students reading adults writing and not knowing what they would come across or having adults give input on the students' writing not knowing what might come up.

Actually I think perfect Glypho world is called my own wiki-space or Class Blogmeister http://classblogmeister.com/, that is a blog site specifically for educators and their students (I do love me some blogger, though). It has a lot of great safety controls. So the good news is Glypho helped me realized another way to utilize my own wiki-space or blog.

I Dream of Geenie. KERPOOF!

At first I was going to pass on this site because I saw that to sign up the students had to use emails and I just don't like that BUT then I scrolled down a little further and saw that teacher's can create their own accounts, which I made a "mock" class because I'm not with the students that I want to do the following lesson with yet. It is very teacher friendly, even providing lesson plans. In the beginning another reason I was going to give it the heave ho was that it looked like a lot of animation but not a lot of substance.

And yet, I found a way I might use it. I do a Cinderella unit with 3rd graders where they rewrite Cinderella with a cultural twist from a country they have researched. One of the lessons leading to this project is allowing the students to get familiar to the characteristics of a Cinderella and come up with an idea for an alternate Cinderella (RoboCinderella, GatorCinderella, Space Cinderella,etc.). They love this lesson because they truly get to be creative and we often time breeze through it. Kerpoof would be an excellent avenue to allow them to let their creativity flow and keep a running storyline using the movie format.

Let's go to the movies!

P.S. I also do a Writer's Guild with either second graders or third graders and it would be awesome to use the collaborative part of Kerpoof for them to write a story jointly.

Art Is My Life!

Not really. But I'm lovin' the imagination cubed. It is the closest thing to Kid Picks I've seen. I went though mourning the day my computer was updated and Kid Picks was taken from me forever. Several pluses on this one. One: Students' artwork looks like students' artwork. I have a feeling the students will produce more amazing work than I can even dream of doing on my own. Two: You can SAVE the work. Thank goodness, finally a place you can save your work and not have to start all over. Three: You can share.

I'd love to use this with my visualization lessons. I usually read a piece of text, like a passage from Charlotte's Web (the description of the barn is my favorite) and I have students quick sketch the picture that forms in their minds. This lesson is great for teaching them how words make a picture for the reader to see what you want them to see. I think a nice addition to this would be to quick sketch using imagination cubed. The broad stroke of the pen makes a great "crayon". I could also have them draw a picture and then others could write a description for it.

Doug said this was more elementary based, well, thank you, thank you! Us elementary folks appreciate it!

Taking Out The Trash! Disposable Webpages

I was so excited to see the disposable web pages. There are several different times I have students make PowerPoint's or reports in some way and I've been wanting to use web pages instead as a new venue. I thought specifically that in my Politics of Persuasion unit I have the students take a colonists newsletter and have them rewrite it in the British point of view. I think it would be great if they did a "Wonder if they had the Web in 1776?" and have them do their revised articles as a web page. The pluses of the disposable web pages are that it is EASY to use and would be easy to give a quick tutorial to 5th graders on how to use it. I also liked that they could only put in 5 pictures and limited font choices so they don't get bogged down with the "pretty" stuff and get to the meat of it. Two downsides: one is when I bookmarked my site and then bring it up, it always splits the screen with another site, whether it be google or something else I had up. The other downside is the 90 day window. If I have them do a website earlier in the year then it doesn't save until May when I have my Enrichment Fair. Any one know how to fix my downsides?

It's Electric! Electric Slideshare That Is

Oooo! I'm diggin' this tool. I'm sure there are going to be many ways for me to use this but what I'm thinking right now is what a fantastic collaborative tool for GT resource teachers. I know this doesn't relate directly to a lesson that I will be doing but it is even bigger than that and infinitely more helpful.

Right now I am part of an e-mail group that consists of GT resource teachers who want to share ideas or who want to get in touch when they are looking for some ideas. Sadly it is clunky. We need something more streamlined and I think because of that we don't use it very often (unless we are desperate).

Now I'm in this nice little GT mafia family where several of us are linked because we were past partners. We have been sharing newsletters, study guides, jeopardy games, lesson plans, etc but once again by email. I think it would be so great if we had accounts in slideshare. That way all ideas and materials can be posted and then you can go and get it when you need it. It feels like a personalized document repository with benefits. As several of this mafia are also my friends on facebook, I like that you can use slideshare via facebook. I really hope we can make this happen!

Boogy woogy woogy.

He Made Me An Offer I Couldn't Refuse. Blabberize

I mean seriously, what a fun site. I immediately knew what I would use it for. In my 4th grade math class, one of their projects is to do a mathematician report. They dress up, I tape them, I make an iMovie and it turns out great but it is SOOOOOO long. When I show it at Enrichment Night, the movie is so daggone long that usually parents don't get to see their kids and who am I kidding, seeing 25 students give reports in costume is a little dry, to say the least. I would love to blabberize instead. This way they download a picture of a famous mathematician (which I believe you can use Life photos for free) and then they can give little biographies.

I also like the idea of downloading a picture, having them writing a description from the point of view of something or someone in the picture and then have them record their writing with blabberize. Great way to get a voice or word choice grade.

Now my only problem is should I have them sign in under my account and save there? Or should I have them make their own accounts, just use my email? Then my only other problem I couldn't figure out it how to I show this at the enrichment fair? I couldn't find a way to download the finished product, I could only send it to someone. Any help out there?

Who Knew. Dim-Dim?

I thought Dim-Dim was beyond me. And although it is still beyond my antiquated school computer, I gave it a spin. I'm very interested. This is how I want to try it. I do a Zam's Quest curriculum extension unit which is a multi-disciplinary unit based on conservation issues showcasing role play. I am also very fortunate this year to have a great new GT partner who used to work at Lisbon and Northfield. So I have this nice little extended GT family to share ideas and do some collaborative things with.

I want to use the Dim-Dim in a couple different ways. I think it would be great to video conference several of the lessons. I have a PowerPoint that I made to introduce the unit that acts as a way to get the students fired up. Instead of my colleagues making one of their own I can share the presentation with all three groups and at the same time I can give them an orientation of the website. (I am really digging that you can show your computer screen, share websites, and presentations to a group). I think it also offers an opportunity for all of our students to share their own PowerPoint presentations about different animal groups to the other school. We can even split the work and get triple the animals researched between the three schools.

Yet what I most want to do is use the video conferencing during our role play. Usually we'd split the kids into groups based on different stakeholders (conservationist, tribe elder, farmer, zoologist, etc.) but I think we could have our stakeholders split between the schools allowing each school delve deeper into each stakeholders role and then video conference/role play the community meeting where they are trying to solve the conservation issue (cheetah's being killed for hunting cattle, seahorses being over harvested, etc.). It is so authentic!