Read an interesting blog today...

Here is the link:http://whatedsaid.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/10-ways-school-has-changed/

It talks about how classrooms are changing & the way in which we teach is changing.  One point that really grabbed my attention (as I am thinking about doing my next field study on the topic of genius hour) was:"We used to teach everything we wanted students to know… Now we know learning can take place through student centred inquiry"

This is what I want to do next term.  Give the students an hour a week to research their own inquiry project, and let their imaginations and interests guide their learning (instead of me).

We had our last class for the Fall term yesterday...it went really well.  We all shared our field studies and talked about what we have learned this term.  I really enjoy just sitting around with colleagues and talking about teaching...wish there was more time during the week to do this.  

I am thankful that Marlowe gives us time with our cohort to talk....collaboration really is so wonderful.  I learn so much from my fellow teachers.

During the evening I shared what I plan on doing for my next field study:
genius hour and e-portfolios

As I was talking about genius hour and explaining what it is to my group, I got a tweet from a teacher in Massachusetts about how she plans on doing genius hour with her grade 4s..it was such perfect timing as I was in the middle of talking about it myself...twitter is an incredible tool for collaboration too!  

I can't wait to start genius hour with my class next term (in January)

:D

From my journal some time in October 2011...

Last class we learned about media literacy...I was blown away by all the things the director did in the movie that I did not even notice...I guess I am not that media literate :( need to start paying way more attn!!!

And if I need to start paying more attention, then so do my students!!!  Time to review my CAPP program and make some changes!!!!

Had to present my growth to my class today
As Barbara Walters often asks, "If you were a tree what kind of tree would you be?"
I am trying to think of how to show my growth... I don't have any clever quilt colour pattern to show it and I feel like I should. I think that stresses me out more than learning technology...and in thinking that I realize something wonderful. I am a medium sized tree. I am partially grown. I understand a lot and pick up technology quickly (show me once, and I will usually get it right away) & so I don't have any huge growth to show cus I came into this already a medium sized tree & we are only a couple months in. In May 2013 I plan on being a full grown tree.
_

_Well...I am just thrilled with how many online programs there are that are useful to teachers...here are some more:

• Glogster
  Great way to share posters and images you’ve made with friends
• Edmodo
  Social learning environment and one of the best ways to teach with tech
• Bubbl.us
  Free application to brainstorm online
• Twitter
  The micro blogging service that many love or hate.
• WordPress
  Content publishing system. It’s gone way beyond just blogging.
• Prezi
  Innovative way to share presentations without PowerPoint
• Wallwisher
  An online notice board maker (or bulletin board if you choose)
• Animoto
  Make beautiful videos from images in a snap
• Blabberize
  Make your images talk…that’s right.
• Weebly
  Create your own website or blog, very easy to use (LOVE wee
  
• Flickr
  Popular photo-sharing site now lets you print
• Slideshare
  Don’t waste your presentation after it’s over, share it with millions!
• Audioboo
  Easily record and share audio
• VoiceThread
• GoogleDocs
  The top real-time document creating and editing cloud-based system/ tends to slow down A LOT if a whole class is logged on
  
• GoogleSites
  Make your own website while knowing nothing about websites!
• Diigo
  Popular social bookmarking site
• GoogleEarth
  View anywhere in the world anytime
• Wordle
  Create a beautiful aggregation of any amount of text
• Wikis
  Crowdsourcing at its finest. Like Wikipedia, Wikispaces is very helpful
• Wix
  Easily make your own flash-based website
• Primarypad
  Web-based word processor
• Spicy Nodes
  Innovative way to organize your web visits
• Delicious
  One of the top social bookmarking sites on the web
• Myebook
  Virtually publish your book and sell it
• Voki
  Get your own avatar and even have it talk with your voice
• DoInk
  Create animations using this simple website
• Warning Sign Generator
  Make your own caution and warning signs in a flash!
• Scratch
  Create and share stories, games, art, etc.
• Kerpoof
  Cool way to make a movie, card, picture, and share it all
• Tagxedo
  Like Wordle but a step farther as text can be used to build bigger images (a better wordle I think)
  
• SmartKiddies
  Creative math and other educational problems to help everyone learn
• Bitstrips
  Make and share your own comic strips with thousands of others
• Popplet
  An easy way to share visual ideas/ can slow down if too many kids are on at one time
  
• Storyjumper
  Easy way to create your own stories for kids and bring them to life
• Aviary Myna
  Make your own music or remix just about anything else
• TimeToast
  Fantastic timeline visualization tool to understand history
• GoAnimate for schools
  State of the art animation tools for schools
• PBWorks
  Thousands of educational wikis and workspaces (build your own!)
• Schoology
  Learning management, online education tools, and much more
• Google Timeline
  A unique way to view the news
• Online-Convert
  Convert anything to anything (audio, video, text, etc.)
• ReadWriteThink
  Tons of classroom resources and PD goodies
• Storybird
  Build your own stories (with images) and share them with others
• Word Magnets
  Phonics reinforcement and sentence building exercise
• Museum Box
  Innovative way to understand history/ great for projects!
  
• Atmosphir
  A build-your-own video game
• Empressr
  Rich media presentation tool
• Zoho
  A great alternative to Google Apps
• EasyBib
  The free automatic bibliography and citation maker
• ToonDooSpaces
  Easily publish custom comic strips
• Crocodoc
  Annotate and edit PDFs

My Favourites are in red
Thank you to whoever started this list...I had it saved to my computer and I am not even sure where it has come from!!!
So thank you mystery person!!!

Have been thinking a lot about prezi and powerpoint lately and which one I like better....I taught prezi to a colleague's grade 7 class the other day and they really enjoyed it, and so do I...but powerpoint is a little more user friendly (in my opinion). 

I like what my colleague, Mr. McDonald, did though...he gave the students the choice.  He taught them about ppt and I taught them about prezi and he is going to let the students decide which program they want to use for their presentations.  

Giving students choice..always a great thing :)

On a side note, I am still thinking about Museum Box and it can be used in the 5/6 classroom in a useful way.