Jing-a-Ling in the Library

Thank you to those of you that attended the Jing-a-Ling in the Library workshop. As promised, everything you could ever want to know about Jing and more is below. Jing is a great tool that allows you to quickly and easily take a picture or make a short video of what you see on your computer screen. You can then share it via the web, email, IM, or your blog. The best part is it's free! You can download Jing, find tutorials and more information online at http://www.jingproject.com. PDFs with step by step instructions on how to embed video, including how to change the size of the video, and how to capture your first screen shot can be found on the School Library Symposium Wiki. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions! Happy Jinging!

New Year, New Blog!

As 2011 begins, I have begun reflecting upon the things I would like to accomplish this year. One of those things is to keep my blog up-to-date with information that is useful to other educators. So here it is...my first post of the new year. Please feel free to send me any feedback, ask any questions, or let me know if you are interested in doing a collaborative project. 

Here are three great resources I use in my classroom.

Xtranormal  is a great site that allows you to create animated videos. This program really could be used in every subject from math to science to the ESL classroom. Students can select characters, change camera angles, and even change the physical posture of their characters. Plus, it's really fun to use!

Storybird  Everyone loves a good story! Get reluctant writers publishing with this interactive software. Storybird is a website that allows students to select different artists' work and then use that artwork in their own stories. The best part is that you can create accounts for your students so that they can save their work. My third graders LOVE this site. 

Reading/Writing Resources  Finally, need some additional ideas for your Reader's or Writer's Workshop? Check out these great resources arranged by subject and content area.

Keep It Simple Silly!

The key to simplifying ePortfolios? A good scanner and a document camera! I have been working with a flatbed scanner that takes forever to scan and upload documents. What you need is a good scanner that can scan multiple, two-sided documents at once. I even found out yesterday that these new scanners can be programmed to recognize a field on the paper, such as "student name", and will then send your scans to the appropriate student folder automatically. Talk about a time saver! You now have the ability to literally save every piece of work a student turns in.

Another important tool is a document camera. Document cameras can be used to take photos or videos of student work, or the students themselves, and even record lessons to send to students for later reference. The files can then be uploaded to an eportfolio.

Notes from the CUE conference

I am just about to begin Day 2 of the 2010 CUE Conference in Palm Springs, California. Here are some great, FREE resources that have been shared so far!

• WebRangers - National Park Service's Online Junior Ranger program

• Prezi - Presentation tool similar to Glogster, but geared towards adults! Easy to use, share and publish to the web.

• MixBook - A great way for students to make digital storybooks. 

I will update this post with more ideas later this weekend.

New Jersey Middle School customizes learning using ePortfolios and more!

As I mentioned below, when you become the owner of each child's Google Site, not only can you access the ePortfolios more easily, but you can also choose to receive emails each time a child updates. Here is an interesting article about ePortfolios from the New York Times.

Managing ePortfolios Made Easy!

I recently discovered that I can make myself an owner of each one of the childrens' sites. This made my life much easier because now I can go in and have access to all the portfolios in one place rather than having to sign on as each child. What a big difference that has made! I also just found out that you can create a site and save it as a template. I haven't experimented with this yet, but I definitely will use that feature next year!

I have given more control of the ePortfolios to my fourth grade students and they have been doing an amazing job! I have been so impressed. I was really concerned about showing them how to do everything, however I have several students who have already figured it all out. Those students are now training other students. It has been great!

Managing ePortfolios Using Google Sites

I recently implemented ePortfolios in my Grade 4 classroom using Google Sites. Since my students are in elementary school, I have been uploading all of the pictures and assignments to their websites myself. No small feat for a whole room full of children. I was beginning to get frustrated with having to go into each child’s account separately to upload and make changes. However, today I discovered that if I make myself an (co)owner of the site under “site settings”/”sharing,” I end up with a list of all the students’ sites with the ability to easily go in and out of each site to make changes --all while logged in as myself. What a relief! Next week students will be going through work during class and selecting pieces to put into their portfolios from the month of October. The students will be selecting work based on a rubric which asks them to reflect of the reason for choosing the assignment, what they learned from it, and why they liked that particular piece so much.