Recommendations for class website?

Hi. I know we've discussed this topic several times before, but I'd love some thoughts on a few particular issues.

I responded to the "What are you doing now?" post about our letters about Mo Willem's book. I have finally scanned all my students' pictures and am working on recording the audio of my students reading their own letters. The plan is to create a webpage to share this project. I started with the Google site I created at the beginning of the year, but I can't host audio files on it. Then I spent time on a Wikispaces site. I can upload my pictures and audio. However, I'd also like a convenient way for people to comment on student work, yet I want to be able to filter them for inappropriate content. From what I can tell on Wikispaces, I can recieve notice when someone has posted on the discussion page, but I thought some sites allowed managers to okay posts before they appear on the site. Also, I was having a hard time putting a hit map on the site and I know many people say a hit map is an exciting widgit for students. It doesn't look like Blogger hosts audio files.

So here is my question for you. Is there a site that can host our pictures and audio files, can allow me to monitor/grant permission for comments, and let me easily use a hit map? Or perhaps, you all have not had issues with inappropriate comments and permission is not a necessary factor. What are your thoughts?
Thanks.
Lisa

live blogging is so cool!

Hi all. Yesterday my AP biology students had the opportunity to collaborate with Todd Mayville's Theory of Knowledge class in a live blogging session.

This was my first time using cover it live and it is really cool!. Kind of like instant messaging simultaneously between 30+ people! The topic was "How do filters affect our Knowledge" which as a prompt took the discussion in many different directions. An archive of the dialogue can be accessed here.

This was a new experience for almost all of my students and the feedback was very positive. I observed students engaged, enjoying the activity and realizing the power of such a tool.

Access was easy and immediate due to Todd placing the link on his blog and me emailing the link to my students,

So, check out http://www.coveritlive.com/.

It has lots of possibilities.

Thanks Todd (aka Mr. Live Blog!)

Probability Bar Graph Voicethread

This is a voicethread my students have been commenting on. The process was as follows:

• Together, we filled out a 6 x 6 table showing all the possible combinations that can be rolled with two dice. We then created a bar graph showing the probability of rolling a 2, 3, 4 etc. all the way to 12. They discovered that the probability of rolling a 7 was much greater than rolling a 2 or a 12.
• Students worked in pairs to roll two dice 50 times and tally the results.
• They used the laptops to visit National Library of Virtual Manipulatives and created a bar graph showing their results.
• I screencaptured their graphs using the PrtSc/SysReq button on the computers because their wasn't a screencapture program installed on all the computers.
• I uploaded the pictures to box.net which now has a feature where you can easily edit the pictures using picnik I cropped the screenshots down to show just the graphs.
• I imported the pictures to Voicethread along with instructions on how students should comment.
• Here's the SIOP lesson plan.
  

Students are choosing to comment using voice and text. I instructed them on how to choose their own "identity" icon before commenting although sometimes they are forgetting to do so. We began this process before spring break and before the blizzard so unfortunately we didn't finish then like I had planned. After the break, we worked on it again and honestly, I am disappointed with the results. I thought my instructions were explicit enough, but my students' comments seemed really surface-level and didn't reflect the deep level of understanding I was looking for. Other comments are very stilted and are read right from their worksheet without much thought to the meaning of the words they were saying.

Finally, I had major technical problems with Voicethread. First, my mics weren't working on any of my desktops. I tested them through the control panel and they worked fine. Then in Voicethread they didn't work. Then I did a test comment as a demonstration for my class and it worked on my laptop. When we went to the desktop later to listen to it on VT, it wasn't there. Other students have reported disappearing comments. It was so frustrating and brought everything to a standstill. I would like kids to go in and continue commenting, but I am bagging it at this point. Has anyone else experienced problems with VT? Voicethread is a tool with great potential and I was excited about using it, but I am really disappointed. We have another project happening next week where students will be publishing their work as a VoiceThread. I will publish it here and let you know how it turns out.

Atomiclearning.com

Hey fellow GL'ers. As we move into the next phase of our training and professional development, I'd like to quickly give a "thumbs up" to atomic learning which I have been investigating to help me improve my excel 2007 skills. Lots of tutorials for many of the applications that we use everyday. Lots more features such as curriki that Dave Tarwater (aka Mr. Mayor) can share with you.

Thanks,

Doug

KenKen Math: Engaging Operations

I love to teach math to my 4th graders; they really excel with numbers. Plotting coordinates, finding the circumference of a circle, multiplying decimals- they love it all. Still, when I test my students I can still find cracks in their fundamental number sense. They can still slip up with their
basic operations. What is an engaging activity that builds this core skill?

Remember Sudoku? Well, KenKen is a math puzzle that uses the framework of Sudoku but involves the four basic math operations. Rather than decipher which of 9 digits to put in a row, column, or box, in KenKen you are given an answer to a problem, such as 2-. This means that the two numbers in the box need to have a difference of two. Other boxes could hold three or more digits, and have an answer like 24x, meaning that the three digits multiplied euqal 24. However, like Sudoku, the row and column of the grid can only have one of each digit- but the gird can vary form a 4x4, 5x5, or higher.

I had my students solve a few puzzles, but the real thinking began when they had to create their own. They start by filling in a gird with a pattern of numbers, where they do not repeat in each column and row, and then they box off the digits and create problems using the four operations.
The students quizzed each other, and generally had an totally engaed computaton fest.

Try a few KenKen websites:

KenKen creator site (may not work from district computers- not sure why!)

New York Times KenKen and learning website

Here are some student-created examples, as well as a Smartboard template we used.

creating a google site to deconstruct a website...

Hi all. Hope your spring break was enjoyable...Anyway back to work...

As some of you know, Todd M and I are blending 9th grade English and Science curriculum to investigate problems facing the earth and possible solutions to those problems. To that end we are using Plan B 3.0 as a primary reference. Todd has begun to use ning as well as coveritlive to support classroom activities and I am learning from those experiences. (Thanks Mr. Live Blog!)

To that end, I have started to create a google site titled Is oil in your future? that deconstructs the website Life after the Oil Crash

By this I mean that I have taken various portions of the website, inserted them into google pages and then embedded assignments as well as alternative points of view for comparison since some of the author's claims are controversial.

I think that this approach takes a somewhat technical website and makes it more accessible by breaking it down into sections. Hopefully it will be more engaging to the students.

BTW, Is Oil in your future? IS NOT complete but does show you how I will be using the site. It is cross-referenced on the 9th grade blog

Anyway, I welcome your criticism of this strategy.

Thanks,

Doug

PS : this activity supports the IB Learner Profile

Storytown Resources Site

Better late than never, right?
I created a google site that all the second grade teachers in the district could use to share resources they found or created to go with Storytown, the new reading program. It's been up since January, and I've been meaning to post about it. Honestly, I have not updated it much. When I first started, I gathered many of the files from a Second Grade Teachers Club on NING. There was not a central place for them and I wanted an easy way to share them with other teachers in our district. Now, there are a few comprehensive sites that host most of the files created by the teachers in the Second Grade Teachers Club. So it became less important for me post them all on one site.
Also, I was really hoping that other ACSD 14 teachers would upload some of their files to the site. I know many teachers have made them and when we share we all have to do less work. In order to upload to the site, you must a Google account and I realized that many teachers do not and would not be willing to create one simply for this site. So I created a Google account that everyone can use and shared the password. All of this was supposed to be shared with all the second grade teachers through an email. While I think some teachers are using the files on the site, so far no one has added any files. I know I need to give it more time.
I have been meaning to upload the latest files from my second grade team and post the files from the Second Grade Teachers Club for the later themes, but it is still on my to-do list. Anyway, here it is http://sites.google.com/site/storytownsecondgrade/Home.
I would love any suggestions for the site or for encouraging teachers to upload files.
Lisa