After reading other class member's blogs, I have decided that I would like to conduct more research on Storybird. In Rachel's blog, she explained how she would use this in her classroom and created a sample story. I think that this would work well with both of my NETS goals. Not only can it help me customize my lessons, but after collaborating with teachers in other states and countries, my students can create stories about all they have learned to share with the other classes. The other classes can do the same and the students can blog about their experience with each other telling what they liked and didn't like about the learning experience. I think that Storybird would be a good way to help my struggling writers. Creating an online story with illustrations could be just the motivating tool they need to get them excited about writing.
So far, all is going well and I am excited to put these new ideas in place when we start back to school in August. I think that my students are really going to enjoy these new ways to learn and it will prepare them for the future as well. I will continue my learning over the summer as well. I want to be as up-to-date with the new technologies as I can so that I can share them with my students. It is also important that I am familiar with all of the tools I want to use so I can adequately explain them if my students run into any problems.
References:
ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) (2008). The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS-T) and PErformance Indicatiors forTEachers. retrieved fromhttp://www.iste.o-Trg/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf
Posts
Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteI feel as you do in the sense of I can't put my GAME plan into action until the new school year start in August. However, I have lots of time to do research. That seems to be both good and bad for me. Good because I am finding lots of really good ideas and things I would like to use. Bad because I am afraid I am going to get into too much and be overwhelmed. I had never heard of Storybird before until I read your posting. I looked it up and I REALLY like it! I have just begun to explore. I would like to try making one myself to see how easy it is. It looks like something my creative writers would enjoy doing. How do you plan to use it?
Susan,
ReplyDeleteI was introduced to Storybird by Rachel in this class. I plan to use it as an incentive for writing. I am hoping that my students who are not interested in writing might change their mind after seeing this program. Many of my students don't understand the concept of writing a "story" no matter how many times we discuss it. I think that this might help them understand. I could see using this program in all subject areas as well. The students could create stories to explain what we have been learning in class.
Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteI had not heard of Storybird either, so I will definitely have to check it out!
I know how you feel about not really being able to do much with your GAME plan right now since school is out. It's hard to really put it into action during summer. I think you have the right idea just to keep researching & staying in the know so you'll be ready to go in August!
Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteI think you have the right idea. The summer is a good time to organize electronic files and to plan how we are going to use these tools. I will be creating flip charts with our active inspire for my first two themes in reading. These will range from phonic, vocabulary, high-frequency words, and comprehension concepts. The only obstacle I find is that I wont know if certain cites are blocked or not until I try them when school begins again. When you are keeping your list of resources maybe it would be a good idea to have a table with a place to put a check mark. Category could read available at school. Storybird sounds great. I am going to play with that this summer too.
Stephanie and Kristin,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. Kristin, you make a good point about not knowing what sites are blocked until you get to school. I could see this causing possible problems when creating flipcharts. Hopefully they will all work out.
I really want to know about Storybird. Guess I have another GAME plan to develop! Let me know what you find.
ReplyDelete