Week 7 assignment

[Christy]

Hi,
Throughout this course I have discovered many new ideas that I hope to
incorporate into my classroom. I just want to make sure I take it
slow and don't try to do too much. The first thing I would like to
start using with my students is VoiceThread. Many of my students have
trouble writing their ideas down but are great at speaking about what
they think. This would give the students an alternate way of
expressing themselves and to be successful in the classroom.

Another idea that I would like to try is the site kidblog.org to
create an online literature circles. By doing this the students would
be able to express their ideas on books without having to wait to be
called on or try to jump into a large groups discussion when they may
be shy or uncertain of what to say.

I highly recommend watching the link for this last idea. The last
idea I had was to have my students create something like the person
did on this link: http://yeli.us/Flash/Fire.html. This is great for
all you history people out there!!! Take a look - its very enjoyable
and a neat video to watch. A 8th grade teacher had students do this
for assigned decades. The projects turned out pretty neat There are
many ways students could create similar projects for all types of
subject areas. I really want to try to do something like this with my
students.

Have a good one.

Christy

[Mary]

Christy,

Like you, I look forward to trying Voicethreads with my students. On
the one hand I was thinking that I could use Voicethreads to introduce
students to themes before reading by asking them to respond via
comments to statements and images that I've posted-- almost like a
visual anticipation guide. On the other hand, I would like students
to process their own thinking about themes or concepts by creating
their own Voicethreads after a unit. I think asking students to
create their own threads really amps us the critical thinking!

Mary