Schools
Skype, iMovie and Blabberize Keep Students Connected
Patch's Technology in the Classroom Series: Memorial Middle School.
Classrooms are changing. Pencils and blackboards have been replaced by iPads and Smart Boards. Throughout Regional School District 13, teachers and students have embraced the change. This week, Patch asks teachers in Durham and Middlefield to share their stories about the impact technology has had in the classroom.
Teacher: Anne Doyle
School: Memorial Middle School (Grades 5-6)
Technology: We are currently using Skype, Blabberize, iMovie, iPod touches and the iPad at the moment.
How have students benefited from the technology?
Skype: We are beginning a collaboration project with the elementary school kindergarteners. On a regular basis a group of 6th graders are getting together and reading books via Skype to the kindergarten classrooms. It’s a wonderful opportunity to share “globally” within our own community! The 6th grade students absolutely love it and more and more of them want to participate in this read-a-long activity.
iMovie: In 6th grade, the students are making book trailers on iMovie about their favorite books. They spend a week creating and editing their work. With the finished trailers, some are chosen as the link that is attached to a “QR” code (those strange boxes with funny symbols you see on many of the print ads). The QR codes are then scanned with an iPod touch which leads to the book trailer. It’s a wonderful opportunity for the students to get a better understanding of the story.The 5th grade does a similar project but the class reads a book together and all the trailers are about the same book. We’ve done The Universe of the Fair by Leslie Bullion and The Odyssey by Mary Pope Osborne. Our next project will be on myths.
Blabberize.com: Creating notes and putting them into one’s own words is a challenge at this grade level. For the Encyclopedia unit, the students researched a person, switched to first person point of view then wrote up a brief biography. The students then went to Blabberize.com where they took their person’s preselected picture and configured the mouth so that it moved as the student recorded the biographical paragraph. The end result was not only entertaining but also allowed the students to create research without copying out of the book!
iPad: How can one make the Dewey Decimal categories more interesting? Why not make commercials! The 6th grade classes were divided into 10 categories. Each “team” is sold their category by making a commercial and then the ads were recorded using the iPad video tool. One group even brought in cupcakes to sell the cooking section of the 600’s! Needless to say this is becoming a favorite unit with this group!
Memorable moment: There are so many wonderful moments. When the students view their peers book trailers and shower each other with praise and “I want to read that book,” I get goosebumps!
Technology is changing daily and it is so difficult to keep up but as educators we need to embrace the change because it’s how the students are learning and communicating.
Check back Wednesday for more from Patch's Technology in the Classroom Series or click below for previous stories
Online Bulletin Board Helps Latin Students
Teacher: Anne Doyle
School: Memorial Middle School (Grades 5-6)
Technology: We are currently using Skype, Blabberize, iMovie, iPod touches and the iPad at the moment.
How have students benefited from the technology?
Skype: We are beginning a collaboration project with the elementary school kindergarteners. On a regular basis a group of 6th graders are getting together and reading books via Skype to the kindergarten classrooms. It’s a wonderful opportunity to share “globally” within our own community! The 6th grade students absolutely love it and more and more of them want to participate in this read-a-long activity.
iMovie: In 6th grade, the students are making book trailers on iMovie about their favorite books. They spend a week creating and editing their work. With the finished trailers, some are chosen as the link that is attached to a “QR” code (those strange boxes with funny symbols you see on many of the print ads). The QR codes are then scanned with an iPod touch which leads to the book trailer. It’s a wonderful opportunity for the students to get a better understanding of the story.The 5th grade does a similar project but the class reads a book together and all the trailers are about the same book. We’ve done The Universe of the Fair by Leslie Bullion and The Odyssey by Mary Pope Osborne. Our next project will be on myths.
Blabberize.com: Creating notes and putting them into one’s own words is a challenge at this grade level. For the Encyclopedia unit, the students researched a person, switched to first person point of view then wrote up a brief biography. The students then went to Blabberize.com where they took their person’s preselected picture and configured the mouth so that it moved as the student recorded the biographical paragraph. The end result was not only entertaining but also allowed the students to create research without copying out of the book!
iPad: How can one make the Dewey Decimal categories more interesting? Why not make commercials! The 6th grade classes were divided into 10 categories. Each “team” is sold their category by making a commercial and then the ads were recorded using the iPad video tool. One group even brought in cupcakes to sell the cooking section of the 600’s! Needless to say this is becoming a favorite unit with this group!
Memorable moment: There are so many wonderful moments. When the students view their peers book trailers and shower each other with praise and “I want to read that book,” I get goosebumps!
Technology is changing daily and it is so difficult to keep up but as educators we need to embrace the change because it’s how the students are learning and communicating.
Check back Wednesday for more from Patch's Technology in the Classroom Series or click below for previous stories
Online Bulletin Board Helps Latin Students
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