I read “Kids Owning the Learning” via Weblogg-ed by Will Richardson.

The blog was about students learning in one school in Australia.  This school was called Wooranna Park Primary School.  The education in this school is inquiry based and student led.  Students who go to Wooranna Park receive an adequate academic and creative education which incorporates art, music, and dance.  The students designed the interior and exterior of the school as well.  They take classes in an environment completely developed by them.

The school’s website can be found HERE.

After browsing the school’s site a bit, I read another article about Wooranna Park elementary school that focused almost entirely on its architectural design, and student participation in its development.  The aricle is entitled Woranna Park Primary, and can be found on Achitecturemedia.com. It focused on some more specific elements of school design, such as natural light and ventilation.  The article explains that educational pedagogy sincerely came first in building the school.

After reading about Wooranna Park Primary School, I began to wonder if other schools (especially in the United States) had adopted the same view of allowing students to participate in the development of school design.

On my search, I found this video of a the Denver School of Science and Technology.  This school outlines the structure of a school designed to be conductive to student learning.

Schools Designed for Learning

This school looks so neat.  I can see why students are better able to learn in this type of environment.  There are open spaces and outdoor courtyards.  There are colors on the walls.  As the video states, the building “…doesn’t cost anymore but is better adapted to teaching and to kids.”  All schools should be like this!

Maybe, one day they will.  The following is a video from the UK.  Here, professionals are joining with students to design school buildings.  Students play a truly significant role in the layout and design of the school building.

Click here to view!

The original article I read, “Kids Owning the Learning” via Weblogg-ed by Will Richardson, opened my eyes up to several new possiblities for reasearch.  I am glad to know schools actualyl designed for students by students exist.  I think this is an exciting and logical process.

I hope the “trend” keeps growing!

I am really enjoying VOICETHREAD.COM.

Voicethread.com would be a wonderful site for educators to use in the classroom.  Students in art class could use the program to compare critiques on a specific work.  Students could also use voicethread to offer compliments and comment on each others’ projects.  The possibilities for media-driven discussion and sharing are huge.

I enjoyed watching the tutorial on this program too.  The tutorial explains the program well, and simply shows the details of how to use it.

My favorite example shown on the tutorial was the child’s drawing of a dragon.  The artist, Jack, informs us the creature’s name is “Sord dragin man”.  He also explains the creature was, “one of the first monsters or reptiles with blade hands”.  I think this is an adorable example of the many uses of Voicethread.com!

I haven’t signed-up for the program yet, but it sounds interesting and entertaining enough.  I think I might as well give it a go…

I just wanted to note 2 activities (so I don’t forget them!) the Externalizing Emotional Impairments group did in our Special Ed. for Elementary Educators course today.

- A “You’ve Been Caught Red-Handed” chart: Take photos of students as they do “good deeds”.  Put the photos of students doing these “good deeds” on a poster board or bulletin board somewhere in the room where it can be seen, and students can be recognized.

- The “Challenges” activity: Come up with a list of “challenges” (i.e. Has anyone ever made fun of you for wearing braces or glasses?  Has anyone ever called you names because of your body shape?  Has anyone ever called you names because of your gender? etc.)  Then, have students move to one side of the room if they have, and to the opposite side of the room if they haven’t.  The face-off effect here can be really powerful, especially when those committing the crimes are visually pitted against their “victims”.

Thanks group

It seems many of my classmates are learning as much about technology from ED483 as I am.

Crissy wrote about Google Docs in her blog.  She mentioned some of Google Docs benefits, including how the program allows one to share and collaborate on documents.  I was skeptical about Google Docs at first, but when Stephanie and I used it in Dr. Reissner’s class to collaborate on an in-class assignment, my entire opinion of Google Docs changed.  Stephanie and I were able to co-write and share ideas without ever having to leave our own personal computers.  We got so much work done in so little time!

Shea wrote about WikiSpaces in her entry entitled “Discoveries in Technology”.  She talks about how her WikiSpace allows her to keep everything in one organized spot, and could be a great interview tool to help her obtain a job in the future.  I think these are wonderful points.  My WikiSpace lacks some decorative lovin’ – - but I plan to get to work on it very soon.

Haleigh wrote about the sites http://blip.fm/and cooltoolsforschool.com.  I have been using both sites regularly since we discovered them in class.  I have especially been using Bip to discover tunes by some of my favorite artists.  Lately, I have been doing my homework to the tune of Bob Dylan, Lily Allen, Ingrid Michaelson, and Ani DiFranco.   I think Blip would be a cool site to use as an instructor if you were in serach of a specific educationally appropriate song for classroom use.  This site would be great to use with kids, however, (as Haleigh expressed) there is the issue of censorship.   I am not sure how you could keep students from looking up other inappropriate tunes.  In any event, I’m enjoying it.

A technology tool from class that I have been using is bookmarking and tagging from DELICIOUS.  I had never tagged or bookmarked anything before exploring the technology in class.  I always relied on my short-term memory or a hastily written word document to help me remember where I had been on the web, and where I would like to go again.  This seemed to suffice for quite a while, despite the extra time and effort it required.  I had never heard of DELICIOUS.  I had never even considered tagging.

\”Tagging in Plain English\”

After being taught how to tag and about the organizational benefits tagging provides for computer users, I was already beginning to see how useful DELICIOUS was.  Then, we were taught how tags can be shared with other computer users.  This got me even more excited about the program.  What better way to learn about new things and to teach and share with others, than to give them direct links that illustrate your point?

I have used bookmarks and tags to mark and share many of the sites we have explored throughout methods thus far.  For example, from http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/ I have come across several tag-worthy sites.  These include: JitterBug, Blip, ToonDoo, AniMasher, and PhotoShow.  I like these sites, because not only did they capture my personal attention, but I think they could easily be used with children to improve the quality of their education.  JitterBug and Blip could be used to collect music for gym class, or to accompany a lesson plan in virtually any subject.  ToonDoo could be used to make projects.  AniMasher and PhotoShow could be used to design video-like animation projects too.  The possibilities are endless.

Some other educational sites I’ve bookmarked are favorite blogs from our in-class Edu.Blog blog roll, APA style formatting, BrainPop’s multi-purpose education site, and other sites discussed within our methods courses.  Knowing these sites are bookmarked and tagged on my DELICIOUS account is reassuring.  I know I will never “lose” them, and that they are just one convenient click away from a task bar or folder on my computer at any time.

I love that DELICIOUS also gives me the opportunity to share and receive links from others.  As I am “new” to the education seen, (merely planning to embark, and not yet haven “hit-the-scene” so to speak), I do not have a large network of friend and colleagues to share with.  However, as time progresses and I become part of a larger, more experienced teaching society, I can certainly see DELICIOUS playing a larger role as far as sharing and professional communication are concerned.   Social bookmarking could be a fabulous tool, all made possible by DELICIOUS.  If you haven’t already, watch the following video.  Can you imagine the possibilities for teachers and students?

\”Social Bookmarking in Plain English\”

Imagine putting together a list for the prom committee.  Who could volunteer to bring what?  Picture setting up a props list for a theatrical production at school.  Which parents could borrow the school which props?  Think about holding a bake sale for a cheer leading/football/soccer/baseball team fundraiser.  Whose bringing what baked items when, and who can work the booth from 10AM-11AM/12PM-1PM/etc.?  The possibilities are endless!

I want to remember DELICIOUS when I get out in the field, so I can use it as an educational resource.

I recently enjoyed watching 3 videos recommended on TED Talks.

This first was a commentary about Twitter, given my Twitter’s founding man Evan Williams.  The movie can be viewed at TED.com.  This video considered the “unexpected” uses of Twitter.  These “unexpected” uses include business and news (personal, non-personal, national, etc.).  These were uses of Twitter I had never considered.  It just makes me wonder what other types of “unexpected” uses we might find in other technologies, and how they might be applied to our use in a classroom setting.

The second video I viewed was about creativity.  Sir Ken Robinson asks the question: “Do schools kill creativity?”.  The video addressed several wonderful points.  A few of my favorites were illustrated by Sir Ken Robinson’s story about the choreographer for Cats.  The comment he made about medicating students who may have ADHD, but who only need to be learning in another style, made me think.  I wonder how many students there are that don’t succeed in school simply because they need to be taught and nutured in creative subjects.  Sir Ken Robinson also spoke about the world’s public school systems being devloped to meet the needs of industrialism, stating that schools focus mainly on science and languages.  He questions why we don’t have schools for other subjects in the arts.  I agree with Sir Ken Robinson’s perspective that we should have schools for dance, drama, painting, music, and all the other arts as well.  Math and English are not the only areas of life that are of importance.  If we don’t give people the chance to develop and flourish in other areas of study, how are we (as a society) ever to reach our full individual and collective potentials?

The final video I viewed was that of a talk given by Bill Gates.  I was interested in watching this video because I had honestly never seen an interview with the man before.  I was surprised by many of the things Bill Gates had to say.  I liked the first half of the video in which he called for support in eradicating malaria.  The way Gates described it, it seems as though it will need to be a big movement with several different individuals involved, but that it is not anywhere near impossible to eradicate malaria.  As Bill Gates opened up the cap on a bottle of live mosquitos, I told myself I would have to keep an eye on the development of this issue.  The second half of this video was about teachers and education.  Bill Gates gave some startling statistics in this half.  He said students from low income households are more likely to go to jail than graduate with a 4-year degree.  He also stated that after 3 years of teaching, teachers don’t seem to change too much.  Additionally, Gates stated that more “good” teachers quit the “high turnover” profession than do worse teachers.  It makes me consider my role as a future teacher.  Everyone should be provided with the opportunity for an education, no matter what their socio-economic status.  Also, teachers need to be appreciated and provided good working conditions.  We need to respect teachers and give them some educational freedom when working with students.  We need to keep the “good” teachers in the field so ALL our children recieve the best possible education.

As previously stated, I really enjoyed the videos on TED.  When I get a free moment (ha.ha.) I want to browse some of the other videos the site has to offer.  It seems like an interesting resource.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid is aziamng. Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr teh ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht tehe frist and lsat ltteer be in teh rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

I just finished reading an assignment for ED 311/316, and I’m so GLAD I did.  This PDF file is packed FULL of WONDERFUL ideas for keeping students engaged in literacy activities.  The focus is on occupying students during the long summer break, but the activities described could be used at any time.  The activities described are so simple, and require few tools.  Most any of the activities could be done very cost effectively, and (perhaps most importantly) they sound really fun!

In case you haven’t already, check out the site at:

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/1st_Grade_Literacy_Activities_66526_7.pdf

I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Hey folks.

Made you a video…

jing_trial

Yay?!

I am completely geeked-out!

Jing is pretty neat!

Here’s a picture of a site I encourage everyone to check out:

BRAIN POP!

HAPPY CLICKING!