Tool 8: streaming knowledge

Videos are a great way to stream knowledge into the classroom - whether it be new knowledge (as an introduction to a new unit) or gained knowledge (a review at the middle or end of a unit or lesson).  Through videos' visual input, students develop a better perception of what they are learning and the world around them, while concepts they know are being reinforced.  Besides, kids just enjoy them!  :)

I started off looking for videos on TeacherTube and SchoolTube.  It was difficult to find results because my searches all involved reading intervention skills (reading strategies, word work, critical thinking).  I ended up using Blinkx which showed results from the 2 "Tube" sites, and a few more, but still nothing I could use with my students.  So I changed the topics I was searching.

I found this cute site by Scholastic called StudyJams.  It has math and science videos and interactive step-by-step tutorials.  I could use these for math intervention or to support a science article read in small group.  Here are some of the videos I previewed:

Fractions would be a great as an intro or review for 4th and 5th graders.

This one is called Aquatic Ecosystems and explains well the differences between freshwater and saltwater ecosystems.


Finally, I thought I would give YouTube a try, so I ran the same searches to see what I'd get.  To my surprise, I found several phonics videos that I can show my emergent readers!  YAY!!







The one below was cute but moved a bit too fast to show students - I would probably show a snippet each day I taught a new reading strategy for the kids to see it in action.

Reading Strategies: First Grade (first found on SchoolTube)

Tool 7: storytelling to learn

I used Photostory to make a movie called, "Where do WORDS come from?"  I was very excited to make this movie, considering the results I've seen from fellow bloggers.  Its content is very important and useful in teaching reading intervention strategies, especially when it comes to working with younger students.  I thought it would be easy to drop several pictures into a frame, but again I found myself struggling.  I ended up making each multiple-picture frame in Powerpoint first, saving it as a jpg so I could import it later on Photostory.  Long story short, I was a bit disheartened after working so hard because I felt that I was basically making a powerpoint slide.  Here's the result...

I would use this in the classroom for any presentation or project, whether individual or group work, where students can digitally display what they've learned.  It would be great for a simple video on American symbols, insects, or plants.

Tool 5: digging diigo!

Hi again,

I've spent last night and this morning exploring delicious and diigo.  I think I spent so much time trying to understand these sites because I feel I don't know much about technology, and I want to take full advantage of these tools.  Here are my conclusions:

I joined both sites (I had actually joined delicious because I was trying to send my comic strip from Tool 4 to a safe place - hehe, I didn't want to loose it).  I tried a few different tags, but wanted to try 2 that were the same on both sites to see what results they would come up with.  I tried the tags "reading strategies" and "word families."

Delicious was easy to navigate and manage, but didn't show as many results for my searches.  I bookmarked these sites:

Reading Rockets: Classroom Strategies

Arcademic Skill Builders: Online Educational Games

Diigo's layout was even more user friendly.  The links were cleaner and easier to read.  They definitely had more matches result from my searches.  I joined a group called LearningwithComputers, and bookmarked these sites I liked:

Word Way

FreeReading

I look forward to trying the highlight and post-it tools on diigo for my personal use, and also with my older students.  It will be a great way to learn, practice and work together on their reading skills.