Prezi Presentation: Noun Town

Prezi Presentation

My presentation: http://prezi.com/x_f1rvojhr0z/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy (Links to an external site.) 

I was excited to give Prezi a try because I’ve always been a fan of PowerPoint despite the fact that it doesn’t include animation. I love how Prezi allows you to combine all the good things: pictures, music, animation, videos, fun text, and what appears to be a surprise around every corner. I can imagine that Prezi videos will become hugely popular in the classroom. I have already begun making a list of ways that I can use Prezi in my language arts classroom.

I chose to do my first Prezi presentation on nouns because that is what we are currently studying in my language class. Nouns are a lot of fun, but there are so many different types and ways to use them, that I felt like a Prezi presentation may help to bring the information “home” for my students. I chose to include all the types of nouns along with examples and even a noun song from YouTube that my students enjoy every year. Compiling it all into one place was what I loved most about Prezi. The ease of putting it together was a close second. Prezi is very user-friendly which I think will encourage teachers to continue its use. Teachers are limited on time (always), so when we find a great way to present material that is engaging, fun, and unique AND it’s easy to use, we run with it! I look forward to making more Prezi presentations in the near future for my class, and I also hope to show my students how to use Prezi. I think it would be a wonderful way for them to present information back to their peers and to the teacher to show understanding of the content. I love that Prezi allows you to use fun backgrounds, images, transitions, and text to help it all come together. 

We are reading a nonfiction book about toys beginning next week. We use this book as a vehicle to teach text structures and main idea. I’d love for my students to use Prezi to present material about toys using text structures. With the help of our computer teacher, this just might be possible!

I have really enjoyed viewing everyone’s presentations—there is such a wide variety among our classmates. Great job, everyone!

Digital Video Project

I love videos. I love viewing them and using them in class as part of my instructional method, but making a video of myself is always nerve-wracking. I had a great teacher/friend video me, and we had to start over several times. I joked that I was going to add a blooper reel to the end of my video. I must say after having completed this project, it is something I would like to use again, and as with most things, I think I would get better with time and practice. Using videos in the classroom definitely takes more time and preparation than most methods, but I also feel like it will be highly effective, therefore worth the extra effort.

I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to make my video about for this project. I decided to use it as a homework challenge/reading response for my 4th grade reading students. We've been reading the most wonderful book titled The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. The main character, Edward, is undergoing great physical and internal changes throughout the book. He's like the Grinch--his heart is growing, and so we've enjoyed discussing Edward's heart transformation in class. Because the point of view of the book is third person omniscient, we know how many of the characters feel throughout. However, we don't know much about how their lives have been impacted by Edward. You will see in the video that I ask my students to write a paragraph from the other characters' point of view on how Edward has changed their lives. Because we have discussed this at great length in class already, I feel like my students wouldn't have any trouble completing this prompt/assignment. I think the video would enhance this assignment and get them excited about completing the task and presenting it in class the following day.

Now that I have one video completed, I'm excitedly preparing other ways that I can create and use videos in my language arts classes. I continue to learn a lot in this course, and I appreciate all the ideas that the other students share weekly.

Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bb-mN1N9xw (Links to an external site.)

My Family!

I'd like you to meet the people who make my world go 'round. 

Blog Reflection

While creating this blog for my Technology in Education class, all the feelings I had from blogging years ago came flooding back. It's exciting to think of the opportunities that blogging can bring from using it as a communication tool for the classroom. I think about how my students could use this blog to participate in a reading response topic for a novel we are reading in class, how parents can come to this blog for a quick grammar tutorial, or how other teachers might be able to use this blog as a classroom resource--a place to find ideas and share their own. It's also very overwhelming in a sense. I blogged for years, almost daily, and I always felt the need to keep the readers updated with new information and happenings. After all, I would also visit favorite blogs and be disappointed if there weren't any new updates. Eventually, the need to keep my personal blog updated (even weekly) was too much to continue, and so I let it kind of fade away. It's still on the Internet for all to see, but it's been years since I attempted a post. {The same goes for my small business blog and this blog. Clearly, I've tried again and again. Persistent much? :)}

I want this blog to work for me and for the reasons I've listed above. I know that it can be a wonderful resource for myself, my students and their parents, and for fellow educators. After following many teaching and classroom blogs over the years, I have decided to cut myself some slack. I have noticed that often teachers do not update their blogs daily (phew!). They save their posts for the really good stuff...not posting about the mundane daily tasks. I have also decided that blogging is like many new adventures--you set a goal and then make a plan to reach those goals. That's exactly my plan of action. I'm going to set blogging goals--plan ahead and what I'd like to post each month, possibly each week, make a goal to post at least a couple times per week, plan posts around what I know students, parents, and teachers will find interesting and helpful, and then go from there. I love that posts can be scheduled in advance and set to publish at certain days and times. This is very helpful, as I can be more ambitious in one day and get ahead, yet save the posting for a future date. This wasn't an option "back in the day", so I love that this feature is offered now. 

I certainly see the value of a blog in education, and I'm sure along the way, I will realize even more the potential of its usefulness. I will continue to be enthusiastic yet cautious about using a blog in my classroom, and I won't know the benefit of it until I try it out! I'm positive it will be trial and error as with most new ventures, but I'm excited for the task ahead. I hope you'll visit my blog often to watch it change and grow!