NPR: Brains structure improves with intensive reading

Quote

“What if we viewed being smart as a goal that students could work toward rather than something they either are or are not?” — Ron Rittchardt

Tools for writing

No doubt that not much of that is new to many of you, however I hope that the next 10 alternative tools gives you further food for thought and something to explore for next terms’ writing units. It is an exciting time to be encouraging young children to enjoy writing as there are so many free tools that engage and take a different perspective on it all.

1 – Google Earth stories – the imagery presented to us in Google Earth provides a rich platform to inspire and develop stories. Work could be written into the placemarks or indeed media created elsewhere could be embedded within them like we have done. Information text located in the correct context would of course be ideal, for example an explanatory text about the features of a river system using the River Nile as it’s location or indeed the Valley of the Kings as the location for information in an Egyptian topic. Why not do a WW2 evacuee story and find a train station in a large city and then follow the line out into the countryside? Endless contexts for writing.

2 – Wordle – I thought this little tool would be great to analyse written stories in the same way Steve Kirkpatrick has done with his class. A Wordle could be a great way to introduce a text – exploring what is emphasised to help understand the type of writing it is taken from. Is it instruction, explanation – how can you tell? Another idea is that the children create a poem as a Wordle, it would certainly be challenging the form of conventional poetry.

3 – PicLit – this great creative writing tool allows you to drag vocabulary onto an image. Although you cannot upload your own images, the picture gallery is well stocked with inspiring pictures to explore. Children could try and tell the story within the picture or create some poetry in response to the image. PicLits can be saved, emailed and used elsewhere.

4 – Tag related search – using tag related searches can help children to understand the family of vocabulary that they could use. The relationships we generate between common words could be tapped into by a class to not only explore the images from Flickr, as in Tag Galaxy, but also broaden their vocabulary for written work. Don’t just focus on the images but explore the language too.

5 – Woices – place a recorded piece of a story audio on a map, combine the pieces into a route or journey. Woices will allow you to create a geotagged story or journey with audio being the main medium. Work could be narrative based or a simple recount of a recent class trip or journey into the local area. More informative tourist guide type outcomes could be scripted and added to the correct locations on a map.

6 – Cartoon strip – Tools such as Strip Generator and Make Beliefs Comix give children the opportunity to quickly generate short cartoon strips. The simplicity allows them to quickly explore aspects of narrative and speech as they take seconds to figure out how to use. I used Make Beliefs Comix today with my class to support their understanding of direct speech. Thanks to willie42 and MrKp for first suggesting these, we had a good lesson.

7 – Museum Box – Thanks to smilin7 for suggesting this one. Museum Box is a tool from the makers of the Myths and Legends resource above. It “provides the tools for you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box.” Children can add text, files, video, audio and images into the box and it looks like a really unique way to explore an event or historical figure. It would be good to help the children explore characterisation – what would we put in the box to help us understand Aunt Sponge? I look forward to exploring this more in the future.

8 – Textorizer – This is an online tool that allows you to upload an image, add text and then the image is recreated using the writing. It would be a good exploration of imagery and written text – perhaps a short poem created over series of lessons with a bold or distinctive image as a starting point. Then textorized as a final emalgamation of text and imagery. Thankyou to nzchrissy for pointing out this one.

9 – Bookr - I have always liked the pimpampum applications and in fact one of the very first blog posts I wrote was using Bubblr their comic strip tool. Bookr is from the same family and it is very easy to create a simple book using Flickr images, add some text and then publish.

10 – Adventure Island – Another resource that I discovered through Twitter, the thanks going this time to helenrf, Adventure Island provides a platform to write a reader defined adventure story. “Pupils create challenges and puzzles for the visitor to solve. As the visitor travels around a created Island, descriptive writing for each area encourages them to explore further. Will they be able to survive, and leave the Island, or will they remain forever … trapped?” This resource is based around a Y6/7 transition unit on Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo but could be used detached from that context – there is plenty of supporting ideas and tips on how to use it with a class.

From http://edte.ch/blog/2008/12/12/10-digital-writing-opportunities-you-probably-know-and-10-you-probably-dont/

Update

The first report card's gone out. The first parent conferences have been held. Our new programs introduced, AND I'm actually caught up on grading--which only happens once in a blue moon. Dare I say that I am feeling organized?

Please check out the new sites recommended by friends of mine:
Live Binder is a place to organize papers, websites, or in my case have a class e-book.
Rasterbator is a site where you can upload an image and print it out huge.
Mixbook is a great site where students can complete online books--they can also be printed.

Maintain Focus

THIS is what I want to remember right now at the beginning of the school year--the heart-wrenching good-byes at the end. I want to remember that I WILL get to know the kids, that I WILL fall in love with each and every one of them, and that they WILL learn.

Writing Recommendations for Students

How Writers Work by Ralph Fletcher
This book is a must-read for budding writers and writing teachers alike. Fletcher's premise is that everybody needs a writing process that works for them.
He walks us through a number of processes for where to write, finding ideas, brainstorming, getting started - going from idea in the head to idea on the paper, revising, editing, and publishing.
I find two chapters particularly useful: the one on rereading your work and revision as radical surgery. We often forget that students need to be explicitly taught how and when to reread their work.
I am going to pick up more copies of this book and use it as a guided reading book for my students who love to write. I also plan to strip mine the book for mini-lesson ideas as I move toward a more open writing workshop next year.

Writing Across the Curriculum

Writing to Learn by William Zinsser
I literally could not put this book down until I'd finished it. I carried it upstairs and downstairs at my brother-in-law's house--taking my life in my hands as I read while ascending and descending. It's chock full of writing models in all academic disciplines.
"Maybe, in fact, it's time to redefine the 3 R's --they should be reading, 'riting and reasoning. Together they add up to learning. It's by writing about a subject we're trying to learn that we reason our way to what it means. Reasoning is a lost skill of the children of the TV generation, with their famously short attention span. Writing can help them get it back.
Writing "can't be taught in a vacuum. We must say to students in every area of knowledge: 'This is how other people have written about this subject. Read it; study it; think about it. You can do it too."

"One of my principles is that there is no typical anybody; every reader is different. I edit for myself and I write for myself."

p. 29 - rhythm is suggested as a theme for interdisciplinary study.

"Writing teachers are lucky if 10 percent of what they said in class is remembered and applied. The bad habits are just too habitual. They can be cured only by that most painful of surgical procedures: operating on what the writer has actually written."

One reason I believe in writing-across-the curriculum programs is that they encourage students to write about subjects that interest them, thus bringing them the surprising news that writing can be useful in their lives. . . . Motivation clears the head faster than nasal spray."

Suggestion for test writing: correct answers don't receive credit until they're written in good English. Students have one week to rewrite answers. Incorrect answers do not have second chance, just the writing portion does.

Smartboard for "Pennies"

Another oft forgotten fact: how to make my computer speak Spanish

Alt 160 á

Alt 130 é

Alt 161 í

Alt 162 ó

Alt 163 ú

Alt 164 ñ

Alt 165 Ñ

Note to self

To collaborate on tech or voice threads wiki, just sign in using google account. Voila!

How to convert documents into PDF form

Word - File - Print - Bullzip PDF - Printer - OK

Change file name

Save

I always forget how to synchronize!

Daniela Silva IT Coordinator FILES SYNCHRONIZATION

1) On your desktop, look for the following ICON: Shortcut to My Files

2) A window will show up, and it must be the same as below.

3) Look for the “Update all button” , Click it.

4) Another window will pop up, Click “Update”

5) This window is showing you the synchronization progress. All your computer files within the Profiles folder, has been copied to the server as a backup.

IT IS DONE! Please remind yourself to synchronize your files every week to avoid missing all the work you have done in your personal computer. * Files must be named using numeric and/or alphabetical characters; otherwise you will have synchronization problemsand may not recover all the information. The only special character authorized is (_).

What to do when the table breaks at the bottom of the page on a unit plan

You have to select the table you want to fix, then go to Table Properties - Option - then you have to make sure that the option "Automatically resize to fit contents" is unchecked.

Tech Tips - Putting PowerPoint in Voice Threads

1. Create a Voicethread account. I think they only charge a few dollars to enroll and then never charge you again.

2. Save your powerpoint in a new way. Normally you would just save your Powerpoint as a presentation. Not for this. When you click "Save As" and the box to save comes up, click the arrow to the right of "Save as Type". Scroll through the choices until you get to JPEG File Interchange Format. Select this.

3. Your computer will ask your permission to save a picture of each page in a new folder. Agree to this.

4. Now, your powerpoint slides have been saved as images and you can upload them to Voicethread.

5. Go to Voicethread, sign in and select "Create". You can upload your images and you should be all set.

Benefits:Pretty easy once you get the hang of it.You can add your recorded voice, songs, sounds and videos.A nice presentation screen.

Downsides:There is a small one time fee.You can't edit your slides in the same way as PowerPoint. It's possible but I tend to use this feature when I know it's all complete. I also keep a back-up version of my presentation in ppt format on my hard drive in case I want to change it and re-upload the pictures of the slides.