Podcast creation

I created my first podcast. It is a short 3 minute chat of my reaction to reading Brian Benzinger's article Back To School with the Class of Web 2.0: Part 3. I can't believe how well I understood the jargon after completing this class. I can truly say that I have built a strong foundation for using these technologies with my students. This is my last official post. I hope I feel confident to return and continue blogging about other things in my life and educational pursuits. Now on to trying to find a teaching position.

The Environment Report: Study: Ethanol Sucking Up Water

The Environment Report: Study: Ethanol Sucking Up Water

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I like the idea of discussing this in my class. It talks about the idea of "trading off" is it better to ween ourselves off foreign oil or is the use of water too great in local ethanol production. I would play this for my kids and ask them to decide on the spot which they thought was the better choice. I would then divide the class according to their answers. The students would work together to research information on their choice, prepare a statement of facts and present their findings to the other group. This could be something that the class could do as a way to present topics to each other as well as create informative poster boards or presentations that could be displayed to the rest of the school as well.

Elluminate as a global collaboration

To me using Elluminate for global collaboration makes sense. It is designed to just that. Elluminate allows users from every corner of the Earth to come together for a specific purpose. The sessions can either be live feed or taped and viewed at a later date if so desired. Presentations can be presented on the blackboard space while others watch/listen, the presentation can be collaborative with each member being able to edit the presentation. This space has so many features that allow for global collaboration it made the most sense for me to write about it here.

ePaLs

This site is a great idea. I cannot believe it is already as old as it is! The number of languages you can interact with make this site an invaluable tool for foreign language classes. The on site translator allows students to communicate with one another on a more comfortable level with the language barrier taken away. I also like that you can either specifically design a project with students in another school/country OR join in on already designed projects. This website is truly designed for the classroom user. The added benefits to working with students from another continent, culture, etc create an even deeper value than just simply working with students in your own classroom.
Being a Living Environment certified teacher, I would want to concentrate on the science aspect of what this site has to offer. Students could work cooperatively with students in another country to complete a lab exercise. Students might also work together to present a project on a topic the two created to both classes via web cam. This site would really allow for some great cross over teaching between my science class and a history or foreign language class.

Videos in the classroom

I was thinking that I could use the video for how the immune system responds to a pathogen in my class. I would start by making an introduction to the topic. Ask students to identify a time when they had an infection, how they knew they had an infection (signs or symptoms), and how their body fought that infection. I would expect that kids would be able to identify crudely that your body can rise in temperature, swell around the area, etc. in an effect to fight/contain the infection. Kids may also talk about glands being swollen, cuts being inflamed and hot feeling. I would ask kids to identify the types of cells involved in this process. There may be some answers that involve the words pathogen, white blood cells, or T cells depending on the ages. After the class talked about this, I would give a brief introduction to what they were going to see in the video, making sure to not be too specific. I would then play the video and ask the students to try to identify different cells present and to come up with an explanation for what was occurring in the video.
After the students shared their ideas and observations I would then start talking about the different cells involved and their functions when responding in immune defense. The purpose of having the kids see the video first is two-fold; they can make their own connections and I can test previous knowledge while at the same time allowing my students to have a picture in their head of what is occurring while I am talking through the steps of the immune response. Afterwards, I would then show the video for a second time asking the students to reapply what we discussed in class to the events in the video. I might then play the video a third time and allow for students to identify out loud the events in the video to make sure that every student was making a connection at the appropriate parts in the video.

Check out the Bio Alive website for cool videos about everything Biological! The Harvard recreation of the inner workings of a cell is absolutely breath-taking. I did show this to my students when I was in a long-term position on what the Science Department called Cell Day. The kids loved it, it sparked so many questions, the kids asked to watch it again because they liked it so much.

Flickr

http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/?id=18553
Okay, so what you're thinking is how can this be useful in my class? I actually have a section that teaches about the different capabilities of the brain and I thought that it would be a fun idea to have kids use pictures found on flickr and create a fun comic strip stating something about the abilities of the brain. This one could be shown as an example. Kids would then be able to search the web for pictures to use and we could share them with the class. This could be something fun that allows the kids to put their new knowledge about the brain to use.

Evolution

As an example I would probably use this picture to relate the idea of evolution building on previous "models." Kids know how cell phones have evolved over the years so I would use this as an example to cement the idea.

How I would use Flickr in my classroom!
I could definitely use this to save a lot of room on my schools hard drive. I could transfer all of my pictures I use in notes and on slides to Flickr and be able to share these easier with others as well as find them a little easier.