My son Charlie created a claymation video yesterday. You can visit his blog to leave a comment about his project. I think it’s pretty good for a first time go at claymation; so, let him know what you think.
Charlie’s Blog: http://chokanson.wordpress.com
My son Charlie and his good friend Wyatt!!!
Carnegie Mellon University offers a FREE programming language along with teaching tools called Alice:
“Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience.”
“Alice is a teaching tool designed as a revolutionary approach to teaching and learning introductory programming concepts. The Alice team has developed instructional materials to support students and teachers in using this new approach. Resources include textbooks, lessons, sample syllabuses, test banks, and more. Other authors have generously joined our efforts, creating additional textbooks.”
There are separate programs geared toward college, high school, and middle school students and can be downloaded for your use today! Another FREE good programming opportunity for younger students can be found via MIT’s Scratch. With these offerings combined a school district can offer programming opportunities K-12 at minimal cost!!!
I had four wonderful middle schoolers create a digital story in my presence the past few days. If the video below is blocked: click here to download and view!
Enjoy!!!
Also, the awesome first graders finished their slideshows!!! See the previous post for the updates!!!
Kidspiration is a wonderful program that boosts kids creativity! Here are some resources that can help you get started once you have the program (You can download a free trial from the Kidspiration site)!
Atomic Learning Tutorials
Mac
Windows
Adams Middle School Christmas Concert (6th Grade Band)
I have been involved in a “cornucopia” of events, tasks, meetings, trainings, and decisions over the past few days. Monday consisted of virtual mentor training with administrators in the district and CPS clicker system training for staff at one of our middle schools. I have been piecing together technology “equipment” orders in between solving multimedia issues, and we trained for deploying parent portal access to our web-based student management system to be done next week during the middle and elementary schools’ parent teacher conferences. I visited a second grade classroom and observed a lesson that was facilitated with clickers. I “fixed” a SMART Board today, and had many wonderful, thoughtful, and vital discussions about the future of education and technology’s role in the process. There are so many things that happen during each week and it is exciting to be a part of it all. Tomorrow I have the pleasure of travelling with two fourth grade classes on a field trip as their podcaster. I plan to use Gcast, iTalk devices with iPods, and of course we will piece together video clips for a future final product. Maybe a “cornucopia” isn’t the proper term to use for all of this, but hey, ’tis the season, and I am thankful for all of these opportunities. Peace!
Here are some bloggers from my district. Each in their own way are using blogging as a tool to help their students. Enjoy!
This has been a busy and exciting week for me. I had the opportunity to teach another SMART Board mini class on Tuesday. We had parent teacher conferences last night and this morning and deployed the parent portal portion of our student information system. Many parents stopped by our display to gain their access code that allows them to view their children’s grades online. Special thanks to Connie, and it was a pleasure to work alongside her!!!
This afternoon I took part in a professional development with the staff from one of the middle schools in our district, and we learned about RSS and everyone left with a brand new blog added to their arsenal of teaching tools. I look forward to following up and supporting these great teachers in their pursuits of blogging, and I hope that it becomes a useful tool for many of them and their students.
This middle school staff is great, and I have to admit each time I am with them or in their building I wish I was teaching with them, sharing their students, and being a part of what is very special. Their instructional leader is superior and a person that I am honored to work with. They may not even recognize the excellent situation they all have, and if they do I hope they cherish it, nurture it, and hang on to it with all their beings. Madison Middle School, I am completely impressed with you all. Thanks for letting me be a small part of all you do!!! Peace!
I keep coming back to Sir Ken Robinson’s speech “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” I watched it again and share it here:
Open source typing and math programs (FREE)!!!
Plus, find loads more educational open source software at School Forge!!!
Teachers and Parents read the following CNET articles:
Savvy teachers use the Net to engage students (Reuters Article)
Summer’s here, the Web surfing’s fine
When digital kids rule the classroom
Developing safe and smart Internet citizens
Digital Citizenship and Safety sites:
The Skinny on a Good Media Diet for Your Kids
Sites for Kids:
The Rethinking Schools web site has a fun map game to help students review North Africa and Southwest Asia (The Middle East). Give it a try and test your geography knowledge!
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