Goal #2 of Student Blogger sites

To follow up my first post tonight on setting up the Gmail and Blogger accounts, there is a second reason that I am having students set these up. The first use will be to post journal entries in French about their weekends, read other students posts and write comments and questions to each other in French about each others posts/weekends. The second goal is to begin playing with the document reader applications and to take some tiny steps forward toward their "French music research projects".

I am imagining that they could share with their own groups via the google reader accounts/blogging and also they could share information that they find along the way with other groups and help each other?? Please let me know if you have ideas on other ways that I can best use this technology and the blogging to improve their overall learning during the unit where we will research some small aspect of French rock music.

Check out my web page...its evolving beautifully!

I love the idea of a teacher web page for my use, student use and parent use. However, it has proved to be time consuming and in the long run I would be quite frustrated if I were a parent in Mpls b/c there is not a minimum standard for what every teacher is required to post on their website. This is frustrating for both parents and teachers, because teachers don't know exactly where to start when they are not given a basic framework to begin with. I was lucky to have taken several classes with the wonderful tech guys at 807, usually John Mc and Todd P, who taught me the basics.

One bummer about our mpls web pages is that they don't "travel" with you. So when I started a new position at Washburn this year, i had to completely start over my web page. The good news is that I was able to go to another "help session" last week at Washburn w/ John McCreary and got my web page looking a bit more professional. I have been using it all of second qtr on MOndays in the computer lab with my students, but they had to scroll way down to the bottom of my page, or to pg. 3 of my web page, and now I have all the links on the rt side. Check it out if you have a chance. Click on "My assignments to see what I have attempted to do over the past month to begin the Blogger/REader/Gmail process.
My web page is at: http://washburn.mpls.k12.mn.us/Lynch.html

Signing up 140 kids on Gmail & a Blogger site

After 4 trips to the computer lab I now have 95% of my students successfully signed up for a Gmail account and who have created a Blog web site. In addition they have all "Blogged" or posted comments about 3 French music videos, in which they were suppose to use "Accountable Talk". I think that maybe 10% understood or put forth the effort to defend their comments with examples from what they saw in the videos or from quotes from a part of a song, all songs were sung in French with an English translation below each line.

My ultimate goal of this assignment is for students to accomplish two things. First they will begin to use "Google Reader" and import the URL blog sites of all of their classmates. They will use this to Post their weekly French "journals" where they write about their weekends, etc. in French. Prior to using Blogger they just handed them in to me and some kids shared theirs orally with the whole class and others shared with a couple kids around them. Now, students will have the opportunity to read all of their classmates weekend journal blogs and will be asked to comment on them and ask questions in French to get more details. Therefore they will be working on improving their "storytelling techniques" and working on their writing skills, which will hopefully help improve their writing in French and English.

I have learned a lot through this process of getting "set up". Mainly that it takes a lot more time than I would have guessed, but in the long run the students are learning a lifelong skill and enjoying learning about this new technology/web 2000 tool. In addition, I think it is going to make our Monday computer lab days more interesting...once they are all on board.

?mpls student emails & student Blogs

Where can we look up student email addresses for signing all of our students up for a blog or wiki?
Do we get a list from our media person or is it a formula or ?? I did it ? last yr at Anwatin and John McCreary helped me and he printed out a list for me.
Please give me any other advice you might have on having students Blog for the first time, directions, ideas, etc.
Merci,
Katy

Thing 5, Libraries online,etc.

I wasn't aware that there was such a thing as "ibrary cards". I am going to get one myself and learn about them. I like the idea of inviting a local librarian into my classroom to speak, and to "to sign up students for ibrary cards, talk about pubic library resources, and/or role play ways to approach a librarian and ask for help." What a great idea for the launching of my research project 3rd qtr. I also like the idea of adding a library link to my Teacher Web Page for easy student access to reliable resources.

I hope the MNLInk will be helpful to students in trying to access more resources and information for their project via online sources.

My frustrations with the libraries in my area are the short hours that they are open. I have gone to different libraries near my house several times over the last year and found them closed. I hope to see some more money going into our libraries in order to increase their hours of operation, especially more late night and wkend hrs for those who can't go during the day.

I want to find out which libraries have the biggest supply of French childrens books and was not successful in searching this information on MNLink. I have heard that the public library in Edina serves the French immersion school there and has a lot of titles, but I will have to contact them directly.

I have not used MNLink before but assume it will be helpful when I am searching for specific information /info on a specific topic.
Its always great to learn one more reliable resource outside of a regular "Google search".

Thing 4, Posting/linking daily lessons to my webpage

Which customizable homepage did you choose? Why did that one appeal to you? Will you make it your permanent home page?
I am going to use the mpls webpage b/c it is there and kinda set up, not b/c it is the best out there. I currently can't remember my username and password and until ?mon when i can email someone at mpls i can't work on my webpage.
The advantages to using this website are: 1.I have already been trained on how to use it, 2. I have my autobiography done in French and English, some pictures and some links available. The disadvantage is simply that I have not figured out how to keep the formatting when I import formatted documents to my website, this makes the quality of my site less than desirable as a finished piece.

Did you find a tool that has some uses for you at school or home? Which tool(s) would you recommend to others?
A personalized start page or "homepage" is something that I have never set up on my computers. It does make sense and I am going to try it. I use the computer more and more to check in on things- work, school, kids school activities, etc. I like the idea of having my daily interests all on one page in order to simplify and organize my searching and my updates.

How can the online calendars be useful to you?
I am trying to use the online calandar to help communication b/t my husband and I regarding our schedules for work, kids, activities, social engagements, etc. and my personal work mtgs, etc.
We have liked the calandars online especially b/c they can be accessed from anywhere and i like the color coding, etc. that makes it easier to read.


How would you compare and contrast the use of paper-based assignments and assigment notebooks to the potential use of online assignment calculators and to do lists for students?
This is an area that I really am interested in. I think it has huge potential for our students. My students need a place where they can check their work daily and where I can put up notes, etc. that were handed out when a student was absent/daily. What a great resource. My wonderings/questions are: how can I access a scanner that I can easily use on a daily basis to scan handouts that are not made on the computer- from a book or from an old lesson.
How do I manage a website that has everything I do daily in the classroom on it? It would be easier if I had more training and good ideas from teachers who have been doing this. Where can I start to list things for students? Is there one good website where i can find online templates that I can link to my school teacher page/my website? What is the easiest way to enter daily work, handouts, assignments and then link all of this to my current website??

teaching Google searching for teens, a game for teaching it

I found a great tool to use with my students to teach them how to better use the Google search engine.  This mini presentation goes over the general directions for narrowing a topic search and then gives students an activity to do in order to practice these new topic search skills.  Perfect for a prep activity to do with students before beginning a research project!!  check it out.

First go to http://google.com/educators/6_12.html.   Then Go to "General" and download the pdf file  for "Success in Teaching Teens to Search the Internet: Playing a New Google Game.   

Thing 3, Dribbling Lessons & info sites

I plan to use the research planning calculator with my music research project next quarter.  I am wondering if I can change dates for steps in the project that will probably be altered during the quarter.??

I enjoyed checking out the new information sites suggested, Driven to Discover from the University of MN and Fact Monster.  Both of these sites were new to me.

The U of MN research site has information on current reserach going on in every college at the U today.  I am going to share with my students a research study on Girls and excercise, which goes into details on how they have proved that healthy exercise not only makes for a healthy body but also for a healthy mind and better academic scores/grades and success in school and jobs.

The Fact Monster I like because there are links to facts written for all subject areas and specifically for kids, teens, etc.   This will be a good suggestion for teens with lower reading skills who are trying to do research that they can read.

Information literacy, accuracy, truths, & Mili training.

I am trying to begin to paste together in my mind how all of these online resources fit together.  I hope to use these tools to help my students link my subject matter, French, to their world that embraces every aspect of technology that has been a part of their lives from day one.  I want students to see my class and learning another world language as things that are connected and meaningful, verses an add on.   

I welcome the idea of Web 2.0 as a way of putting all of my students on an equal playing field, no longer will it be so much about what school, teacher or household has a certain product, rather who has the ability to best utilize the basic tools of every product available.  I see web 2.0 as an online "free store" of tools for accessing and manipulating resources.  I love that all of my students will be able to work together just by accessing a computer.

In the immediate future I see many challenges for myself as an educator to find the time to keep up with all of these amazing tools.  I want to spend a week playing with the "web 2.0 sandbox of tools" in order to get my mind thinking about how to introduce them to my students in my classroom and in our computer labs and through take home assignments.  I see the possibilities as endless, however, I feel challenged at finding the best way to start.

I use Google to search for information.   I use book reference materials less and less myself.  I use my email to organize a lot of business/teaching information, and Documents stored in folders on a computer, I have not stored information online, except for some online photo spots and my teacher web page.

I think that Information literacy is correctly defined.  I think that students need to know more than just how to access information, they need to be taught to question the information they find and to judge the validity and strength of their sources.

I knew nothing about web 2.o before my first mili training.  I am impressed and challenged to bring myself up to speed in the area of online resources.  I am excited to be a part of this year long training and know that I will need and appreciate the support along the way.

Truthfulness of our online resources??

Regarding the article on the truth from online sources- teaching students to slow down and think more when they are reading information online is very important.  I share the author's frustration in watching students find information online and refuse to read an entire article.  They skim articles for a piece of information and move to the next resource in order to find the facts they need and nothing more.

I also see the students perspective of feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information available from the online resources.  It can be very difficult to know if a source is trust worthy or reliable, this is something that I never had to question when I used the Encyclopedia Britannica to do my research.  

I wonder if it is o.k. to limit the students sources that they are allowed to use for their research.  I may pick 5-10 online sources that I think are good and reliable and give my students the links and let them choose from within a limited number in order to help them better manage their time, because time is always an issue for a research project that will be done during school hours.

Signing up for the computer lab online??

I am worried about getting my name on our school computer lab sign up. We still have a paper sign up, are there suggestions on how to help our library get a template for the online sign up schedule, we had it at Anwatin and it was really slick!
I am excited about starting my project, hopefully second quarter.??