LIBS 602 Portfolio Presentation

Oh, the Places You’ll Go with Web 2.0!

Come explore and learn about six free online tools that you can use to increase your student engagement and motivation.  Students will love these Web 2.0 tools and so will you because they are easy to use and best of all, FREE!

http://www.slideshare.net/mhendrix80/hendrix-portfolio-presentation

LIBS 602 Reflection

Wow!  It seems like we just started on this journey and as I look back at all of the new tools I have learned about I feel like I wish there were more time to delve into the possibilities.  I'm sure that in the coming classes there will be more opportunities to put these exciting tools to use as well as in our schools and classrooms.  I have always felt comfortable with technology and I tend to catch on pretty quickly just playing around with the tools.  I was talking to a colleague of mine the other day and told her I have so many ideas for the higher grade levels but need to figure out a way to make a lot of these tools work for my first graders.  I have already contacted the librarian at my school about collaborating with her this year with some of the new tools I have learned about.

I had heard of podcasting before and have even listened to a couple in some of my other classes when I was taking classes for my licensure.  I hadn't really explored the web to see what was out there in terms of educational podcasts for ideas to use when teaching.  I thought the list we were given to explore had a lot of great ideas and I hope to have some time to be able to listen to more.  The ones I found most valuable were the TedTalks and the ones I found at: http://www.shelleducation.com/podcasts/.

I have definitely become a fan of PowToon.  When we were given the assignment to explore those sites I didn't really see all of the possibilities with that program.  I really enjoyed seeing more ideas come to life with the on-site group presentations that were created when one of the groups used PowToon's to create their presentation.

I am really interested in using combinations of QR codes and audio messages together in the classroom library.  I think this is a great way to help those struggling readers with books that they can't necessarily read on their own.  I haven't fully grasped the concept of Augmented Reality but got some great ideas and hope to have some time to develop the ideas and learn more about the programs.

Staying Current

Websites...

Wow!  I could spend hours going through all of these websites watching the videos on how to use them it took me a while to narrow it down to my top 4 choices.  I mainly focused on the ones that are usable with elementary age students since I teach in elementary and hope to be a librarian in an elementary school.

Meograph - http://www.meograph.com/ - is a digital storytelling tool that can be used for presentations or telling stories.  Meograph uses pictures and videos together with narration and music to create a presentation.  I am going to talk with my librarian this year about a collaboration between the classroom and library when we are working on our Holidays Around the World unit.  I would like to have the librarian work with the students on researching certain holidays and in class we will learn about them and have activities dealing with each holiday.  We can take pictures while we are creating crafts, eating foods, etc and put the things they learned in the library together with the things we have done in class to create a Meograph about their experience. Grades K-12

eduCanon - http://www.educanon.com/ -  is a tool where teachers can add multiple choice questions throughout a video they are showing to the class.  The students can select their choice and then it will tell them whether their choice is correct or not and give a justification (if the teacher provides that).  Questions can be added throughout the video and videos can be shortened to just show portions of the video (if the whole video doesn't need to be shown).  This would be a great tool to use as an introduction to the Library at the beginning of the year.  The librarian can video herself giving a tour of the library and the video could stop at certain points to ask questions about what they have learned so far.

Kahoot! - https://getkahoot.com/ - is a game-based classroom response system.  This tool is different than many classroom response systems because the students do not need special equipment.  Any device that can access the internet will work.  Students do not need an account, they will just join the "room" the teacher has created using their personal (or school provided) device.  I really like this because a lot of times there is not a full set of electronic devices so you could gather a couple of iPads, some laptops, desktops, etc. and all students could participate or if your district participates in bring your own technology the students can use their own device.  I would use this in the classroom for creating games/quizes to use as review or as an assessment of student's prior knowledge.

Stoodle - http://stoodle.ck12.org/ - lets you collaborate online with a white board page where you can draw, type, add pictures, videos, etc.  It also has a microphone so participants can talk to one another.  It offers the capability of video conferencing as well.  I think this would actually be a great tool to set up a "homework helper" club with students.  Students in 4th or 5th grade could sign up to be "homework helpers" and they could stay after school to be available online at a certain time for others to ask questions or get help with their homework.  

Blogs and Such...

This week gave me an opportunity to reflect on all we have learned in this course and how I plan to stay current.

We have used this blog a couple times throughout this course and prior to being tasked to think about how I would stay current I was already planning to continue following this blog - http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ - this site is a great resource for compiling free technology resources for teachers/librarians.  I plan to share this website with my coworkers when school starts back.

Another blog that I enjoyed reading was "The Library Voice" by Shannon Miller.  She offers lots of information and online copies of presentations she has done in the past.  A collection of library and technology resources and she is big on helping children have a "global voice" via blogging.

I'm so glad the folder on Keeping Track was included in this weeks assignment because I hadn't thought about how I would keep track of the amazing resources we have learned about this semester.  I will probably use Pinterest to keep track of all of the sites we have explored since I already have a Pinterest account and I am familiar with using it.  The other tool that I am considering is Symbaloo because I like how it just shows a small symbol for that website and it is a quick reference to gather all of the sites we have learned about.

Layered Reality

I am so excited about the possibilities with using these tools we have explored this week.  I have a million different ideas running through my mind and I can't wait to write up a Donor's Choose project to get some iPad's in my classroom to use with these tools.  I created 3 different QR codes: one with each of the programs and it was SUPER EASY!  I couldn't believe how easy it was.  I have never worked with QR codes before and thought it would be a lot of work...boy was I wrong!  The first QR code I made using QR Code Monkey - I linked a Youtube video (an interview with an author) to this code and I have two ideas of ways to use it.  It could be put in/on books written by this author so that the students/teachers/parents could learn more about this author before or after reading the book or there could be an "Author's Corner" which could be a bulletin board or even just a poster board with featured authors of the month and you could have a picture of the author or their books with the QR code beside it.

The next QR code I made using QR Voice - since I did this on the Fourth of July, I just put a "Happy 4th of July" message on it.  Again, very simple to use and I think this option would be best for short/simple instructions as you are limited to 100 characters.

The third program I worked with was I-Nigma.  Very simple to use, it only took me a few seconds to link the website and with this one I linked my "Library" website.  The idea I had for the library website was to put the QR code on a beginning of the year welcome back letter to students and parents and they can scan the code to take them to the library website.  Hopefully, this would draw more students and parents into using the resources on the library website right from the beginning of the year.

Exploring video tools

This week we were tasked with exploring different video tools availabe on computers or phones/tablets.  I was able to explore animoto, pixiclip, wideo, and powtoon.  Unfortunatly, the only app available on my phone was tellagami and it wouldn't download correctly. 

The tool that I found most user friendly and least time consuming was Animoto.  I created a short video using pictures of some of my daughters school/art work from this past school year.  I can definitely see using Animoto during a presentation to parents to show off student work as well as having older students use the tool to create a portfolio of their work throughout the year.  Animoto would also be a good for a display of student work on a school/library/teacher webpage.  As a teacher, it would be great to take pictures throughout the year and then at the end of the year put them into an animoto video to show to the students on one of the last days of school and/or share with the parents.

http://animoto.com/play/exAFB08zgAIjNLEaBwCt8Q

I played around with Pixiclip for a little while but didn't do to much on that site.  I found it hard to draw and make it look like something versus a bunch of squiggly lines.  I can see how it would be useful for creating tutorials and art teachers would be able to use pixiclip to pre-draw something and they can stop the video at certain points to let the kids take it step by step.

Wideo looked really interesting, there were a lot of templates that would be fun to manipulate but I had a hard time getting the site to work.  It kept telling me that I needed get Adobe Flashplayer but I already have the latest version of flashplayer.  Then when I was able to see the templates and I would click edit, it would take me to a preview screen that wanted me to download the mp4 version of the video or share it on social networking sites.  I hadn't made any of the edits to the original template nor could I figure out how, so I did not download or share. 

I really enjoyed Powtoon and think the students would have the most fun with this tool.  There are so many options for templates and icons/pictures to use within the templates.  I do wish there were more pictures to pull from without purchasing a subscription but some really cute things can be done with what is available.  Using powtoon the students can create cards, give facts about a presentation/topic, create their own student resume, or create a video to use for a student "election" like SCA.  One of the templates "Give Advice" would be fun to use at the end of the year for students to come up with advice for next years class.  The students could work together to come up with ideas and it could be something for me to show the next class at the beginning of the following school year.  The facts template could also be used to create a project for almost any of the content areas where students have to present facts. 

http://www.powtoon.com/p/bphgbL5Ew7q/

I can't wait to play around with these tools a little more and hope to include 1-2 of these on my "library website" assignment.

Websites

This week we were tasked with searching different library websites to figure out which things we liked and didn't like and to link two websites that we liked and discuss why we like them.  I tried to search for Elementary School websites since I want to work as an elementary school librarian.  The first website I found that I really like was Salisbury Elementary School Library.  I love the clean layout of this website.  The creator of this website does a good job designing this website with a lot of principles discussed in the textbook.  The website is is not "cluttered" like most of the websites I found.  Everything is streamlined, aesthetically pleasing, and harmonious.  The creator of this website only used a couple different font types and colors.  I like how the type on the page is done in blue but on the side scrollbar the bar is blue and the type is white, these compliment each other very well.

The 2nd site that liked was Elementary School Library.  I think this site is part of a student assignment because it does not specify a school name.  This site has a lot of the same design elements of the first.  It has plenty of white space to keep the website uncluttered.  The colors go well together and the creator of the website does not use too many types of font.  There are a few more colors on this site than the first and at times I don't think the change in color is necessary but I don't feel it distracts too much from the website.

I am going to play around with the weebly website as well as google sites to see which one I would prefer to use but based on the websites I found online, I like the designs of the weebly websites better.

Educational Podcast

The podcast I chose came from the website www.teachercreatedmaterials.com/podcasts/.  It was listed under the Shell Education Podcasts and is titled "Using Poems for Word Study".  I chose this podcast by Dr. Timothy Rasinski because it was interesting to me as a first grade teacher.  In first grade, my main focus is on teaching children to read and I am always looking for ways to help struggling readers.  I have used poetry in the past to help students with concept of word but had never thought about using it with word study.  I am going to check out the collection of poems to use with word study that he referenced in the podcast, I think it will be helpful in my weekly planning.

http://www.shelleducation.com/podcasts/using_poems_for_word_study_podcast.mp3

Audio Messages

This week in Production of Instructional Materials we were tasked with checking out 3 different audio sites that would allow us to add audio to our blogs.  These materials can also be used in the classroom and be added to presentations.  I think students would love these tools when creating a presentation.  A lot of students don't like to speak in front of the classroom so this could be a first step in them presenting to their classmates.  They could create a presentation and use one of these audio tools to "do the talking".  The first tool I checked out was Vocaroo, it seemed really easy to use because you didn't have to sign up for anything but I could not get the microphone on my computer to pick up/record my voice...it was broken sounding and cracking.  After trying to attach my husbands gaming headset with microphone attached and that not working either, I gave up and moved on to the next audio tool.  The 2nd website I went to was AudioPal, I really liked that because it gave me the option to record on the phone.  I quickly recorded a message on the phone, had AudioPal send me the link and uploaded the message to my blog.  I was also able to set how often the message plays (I chose once per visit).  After figuring out AudioPal, I went to the Voki website because I was curious as to how the audio and avatar would work together.  I really liked this option because it gives the "audience" something to look at as well as listen to.  I really think students would enjoy this option the best because they would have fun playing with the avatar options.

Adventures in Infographics!

This week we learned about infographic designs.  It has definitely been an adventure.  After spending hours looking through different infographics online and reading about displaying data in our textbook, I feel like I know a "little" bit about what a good infographic should look like (at least at a quick glance).  After looking through different infographics and reading about how to properly display data I tried my hand at a couple of different infographic template sites.  The first one I tried was whatabout.me.  I could not get that one to work, I could not even get past the 2nd page...much less look at templates. This was disappointing because I was excited about trying that one out.  I then moved on to piktochart.com.  On piktochart I found a couple different templates but the one that caught my eye was the Father's Day infographic.  I decided to create a simple infographic in memory of my Dad for Father's Day.  While using the template I found it hard to manipulate some of the text boxes to move them and/or resize them, some of them would move fine but others did not.  Another thing that I would have liked to have done was add one extra box to the flow chart in the 2nd section of the infographic but was not sure how or if I could do that.  I'm sure if I spend more time playing with the templates I will be able to figure more out.  One think I will remember when teaching students about infographics is to keep the information clear and concise, less is more.  Also, prior to choosing to create the infographic on my Dad I had tried a couple other topics but they were not as easy, so it's better to create an infographic on something you are interested in.

For some reason I am unable to get this to show up as my avatar.  It says the file is too small.  I used pickaface.net to create my avatar.  I have been trying to get this to save as my profile picture/avatar for a week now but it doesn't seem to want to work.  I have another gmail address and it uploaded as my avatar fine but it will not do it on this account.

Image Editing Assignment

I used the bighugelabs.com website to create a trading card to show how students could use this template to create a book review or character summary. I used Easybib.com to create the citation as well as using Google advanced search to find a picture with a creative commons license.
 
Citation for image: 2011bookscopy. Digital image. Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May 2014.



 Students could use the "Make Visual Poetry" option on www.imagechef.com when writing their own poem during a poetry unit.




I also used the breaking news feature on www.tuxpi.com to create an image that could go along with a report during a Famous Americans unit. Students could also use the postage stamp feature for the same type of unit. 

Image Citation: George Washington Feigned Oval Portrait by Rembrandt Peale.jpg. Digital image. Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Sept. 2012. Web. 31 May 2014.

Hello everyone! I am excited and nervous at the same time about this new journey we are going on. I had been trying to decide between Librarian and Reading Specialist and after some prayer and lots of talking/thinking, a friend brought me the information on this course and I decided to go for it! I can't believe that I am adding "one more thing" to my plate but I know it will be worth it in the end. I am a mom to an amazing 7-year-old daughter and I have been married for 11 years in June. I grew up in Newport News and have lived here my entire life. I went to CNU and Radford for my undergraduate degrees. I have a Bachelors degree in Business Administration, after a few years of working in business I decided that I wanted to teach. Teaching had always been something I wanted to do but I let myself get talked out of it when I began college. I began teaching Kindergarten in 2008 and then moved to First Grade in 2010. I am looking forward to this new journey although I know it is going to be hard juggling work, family, and school. I am embracing the challenge!

Wordle