New Tech Stuff

This weekend, I decided to take a little "me" time. For the first time since school started, I spent my weekend doing exactly what I wanted to do and nothing else. On Saturday, I drug my husband to the organic food market and the Asian grocery store (a new find that I LOVE!!). Then on Sunday, after church, I perused the Internet and checked out two great tools that I have been hearing a lot of buzz about.

The first site is http://www.goanimate.com/. It's an incredible site that allows you to create cartoons using a bank of characters, scenes, music, and props that are all setup for you. All you have to do is point and click. The site also allows you to upload your own photos to use as characters, scenes, etc. I was really amazed at how simple it all was. Below you can see the short cartoon that I created for out NCETA presentation next month. I can see a multitude of ways that you could use this in the classroom. Why have students draw a comic strip when they can create one online with moving characters and music? It may not be interesting to all students, but I definitely see some students loving it.

The second site is http://www.snap.com/. I really haven't figured this one out yet, but I think that the premise is that you can create a scrolling "slide show" of photos to embed in a website and/or blog. This could be useful because sometimes pictures take up so much space and can become visually unattractive. Keep an eye out for a "snapshot" coming to the Lefanim blog.


Posted By: Amanda Spence

Our Pledge Wall

I forgot to mention that we had a personal pledge for each of our students to sign so that we could celebrate and put them on our "Pledge Wall." This will stay up to remind our GPE students that they have committed to striving for excellence in every step of their GPE journey.

Empowering versus Overwhelming

Don't you love it when wisdom comes right out of the mouths of our loved ones? Dave's right. So, let's go with your idea about setting up sessions for tutorials and help. Hey, we can put them on the google calendar that I'm going to figure out this weekend if it kills me. :) That way we can definitely differentiate and spend the time they're going to need one-on-one. Some of the papers on shared drive are good; some, not. I like your idea about contacting other systems and seeing if they would share their papers. How about you e-mail them and see if they're game. I'm wondering how they go about having their students set up their papers in terms of organization and framework. Come to think of it: I was on the senior project listserv last year (the national one) and occassionally got e-mails from that organization. I'll contact them and inquire about mentor texts as well. You're absolutely right about having mentor texts/models that are written by students close in age. It is more meaningful. I'll also post the inquirey on our talkie listserv. Tell Dave that we also have hidden motives/agendas for doing an outstanding job with our kids in this block. :)

I know how easily I can get overwhelmed with technology and the biggest contributing factor to that is not having the TIME to really try it out with one-on-one help. Now, the learning curve for me is a lot bigger than I suspect it will be for our students. But, you're right: we need to keep in mind our goal of empowering students versus overwhelming them. Hey, notice I have added tags to our blog posts? Yes, I think I have the hang of it. Now to figure out the details about google calendar and how to get the photos on my mac onto wikis and blogs not to mention e-mailing them. Remind me to take photos during our gp block this Thursday. I want to be able to put some on the wiki. I'm keeping my camera with me at school. We also need to have someone take our picture so that we can put it on this blog.

posted by Valerie

Graduation Project Conversation Continued

Today I was able to set up about ten of our advisees' accounts for delicious and gmail. The entire process took about 45 minutes. I think that it will be well worth the effort. While I was setting everything up, I had a few thoughts about more possibilities:

1. On the students delicious accounts, we could have them place tags for research resources that we have used in the past and we know are credible (e.g. Purdue University's Online Writing Lab).
2. We can have students set up a "?" tag for sources that they are unsure about the credibility of the information.
3. They can look at each others "?" tags and help one another determine source reliability.

One random comment in response to Valerie's post earlier. I think that the pledge wall needs to be tactile. For some reason, I think that it would really help build and maintain a positive spirit around the graduation project experience. There is something powerful about setting a tangible goal that you can see on a daily basis.

Here is another random thought. At the school I was at last year, Northeastern High, the graduation project class is called the "Graduation Project Experience." I always loved that title and think that I am going to adopt it here at Currituck. I love how it emphasizes that this project is not another thing to check off your list before graduation; it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to grow and learn through hands on study.