BP11_2010013_Minute MessageStorybird

BP10_2010013_Comments

sjharkness said...

Michael, 

I really liked the audio behind your video and the examples you showed from the 2.0 tool. However, it would have been a little more beneficial to hear your voice as a narration to know what was actually being cast up on screeb. Overall thanks for the info! Good job.

January 25, 2010 6:49 PM 

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sjharkness said...

Joe, I'm so happy I am your follower sherita say. Find great knowledge and wealth when read your blog I do. Inspire students I teach I can with tool show you to us on your blog. Use it I will in my class. Find way to be like obiwan, I must. (Gong crash) you I thank and good night.

BP8_2010013_Web2.0T3Storybird

I wonder at times like this, when I find amazing tools to teach reading, why I did not become an elementary school teacher.  Then I remember one hyphenated word...Germ-X! Storybird is the coolest 2.0 tool I think I've seen.  I spent some time really looking for something geared towards storytelling.  I love to write and I love to read my students writing, at least when it's not a load of plagiarized research papers.  They are still learning.  Nevertheless, there are so many times, students feel they lack creativity or the "jump off"point they need to write creatively.  Storybird is absolutely amazing and gives anyone the right amount of juice they need to get their story off the ground.  The stories do not have to make sense, and they do not have to be for any particular purpose, they are simply there for inspiration or to allow your personal story to be of inspiration.

I made a story myself and found it difficult to start with a particular concept.  I began "shopping" through the amazing plethora of pictures the site has to offer.  The coolest thing about the site is the art work.  The artwork is taken from a collection of artists who create art specifically for Storybird and for reproduction.  Storybird is like an online Etsy for artists looking to make a name for themselves.  The art is everything from oil paint drawings, to charcoal, to textual media art.  The artist range from America to India and every piece is an original.  I love it!

I chose to create my book based off of one artist's work, but you can choose from several and began creating your book based from a specific theme, a specific artist, or a hodgepodge of ideas.  When your story bird is finished you can save and publish to the web, you can publish and purchase it online as an order, you can email the story link to a friend, or you leave it for the public to be inspired.  It's a great gifting idea for parents.   Allowing students to create artwork, uploading it, and then having students to use their artwork and the artwork of their fellow classmates to tell a story of their own imagination.  Not only would you as a teacher have met reading and writing content standards, but you would have also incorporated technology on a relevant and social level, and art education, all at the same time.  And it's family friendly with rules and tips for parents and kids on how to keep it a safe place! How amazing is that!!!!!

Storybird is easy to navigate and has help buttons, an about us page and an online tutorial for how to get started, publish and post for others to see.  Storybird allows students the ability to create meaning for themselves, a tool for the constructivist teacher.  I think it could be used at any grade level, especially when teaching the basics of literary narrative, but elementary school students may be less reluctant to tell a story online.  I plan to use this as gift ideas, but I may try it out on my high school students and see where our imagination takes us.  So try it out, because in the words of Lavar Burton, "you don't have to take my word for it!"
www.storybird.com

BP2_2010011_EduUses4Blogs

People say time flies when you're having fun, but I think technology flies even faster, especially when you've just learned how to use it.  I remember being a junior in college, technically speaking, and it seemed like every girl in my sorority had a live "journal- web log".  They connected to each other, posted comments to each other, started fights with one another, and the list goes on.  I never really got involved for simple thought that I could just call them if I needed them.  I didn't see the big deal.  Just like I didn't see the big deal with text message, I thought phones were for speaking, not typing.  How I wish sometimes I could go back and get those last two years of college "Intro to the Digital Age: The Real World".  

I look at those devices now as tools to reach the minds of my students.  Technology is the world, and though I know how to wade in the waters and speak the lingo, I still often times feel like I don't belong.  I try so hard to be a “techy”, to be "in", to find ways to allow them use to tools that hinder critical thinking in ways that will actually expand their minds.  At times I fail, and then there are other times I succeed on a million dollar scale.  I live for the moments they can connect the content in my classroom with their everyday lives.  

I used blogs last semester to aid students in understanding how to examine and character, theme and other elements of fiction while reading the epic novel Beowulf. Students had to choose a character to follow in the novel, and then create 4 different blog posts in the point of view of the chosen character.  They had to not only summarize events that took place in each chapter assigned, but they also had to post several pictures, a video, a quote, and one other widget on their blog that represented or symbolized the character from the novel. I modified this assignment from the original assignment I retrieved from PBS.org.  I really loved the way the students were able to learn in their own space, on their own time and make meaning for themselves of the work that was assigned in class.  They really had fun with the assignment and I had a chance to sneak in writing while they got to something fun.  I followed Rena's footsteps of asking to be a follower and then I could make comments and that made it easier to grade each blog.  

I'm sure in a few years there will be so much more for students to do in the classroom with technology, if they're not taking classes online; an entirely different discussion of itself.  To that I say "Hakunnah Matatah"...this time I won't let time pass me by! 

...and the clouds opened up and God said, "Let there be light, and there was."                                                                    

BP7_2010012_Minute Message Dopple ME

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