Tool #3 Generating of Fun

These two images above use personal photos but I see how they could be used to enhance the curriculum. I use the mosaic maker and the pop art generator for these photos. I also use the image mash up for the images in my right side bar. I also made a video using Animoto and am waiting for it to generate. I will post this later.

I see all of these programs as helping students enhance the visual part of their projects. I really just see the pop art as enhancing. With the mosaic maker in a history classroom, students could make a mosaic of important figures, places, or events related to a selected topic. Students could also take the mosaic a step further and put the photos in a spefic order, chronological or thematical.

With the image mash up, students could use this as a creative way to post questions or thoughts in general where the bachground must be related to the post.

With animoto, well, students could use animoto for an presentation instead of a powerpoint or poster. AND it can be posted on a blog. I am pretty convinced now that I am going to create a blog for each of my classes.

This was really a lot of fun.

Tool #2 PLNs for Brain Stimulation

1. As I created a PLN by commenting on other blogs, I started to think. For some reason, I had this scary image of using blogs as part of the high school classroom. I think this in part came from my fears of releasing control and letting the students take control. But having the students take control of their learning is one of my main goals in the classroom so why not go beyond my four walls into the world with blogs. It’s crazy that I would see bloggings as a little scary considering that I recently finished by masters and a major part of all my classes was participating in a PLN. Completing Tool #2 made me remember how much I love being part of a PLN, commenting, and responding to comments. Blogging engages my brain in a way that is different from when I am in the classroom. It helps me process my thoughts and others’ thoughts as well as explain myself clearly and succinctly (I am still working on the succinctly part). And if it helps me, it will for sure help my students especially those students that due to whatever circumstances have trouble clearly expressing their thoughts in the classroom.
   
2. Most importantly I think that it is important for post comments that allow for discussion either by asking open-ended questions or by showing humility. With showing humility, I think that this allows more people to relate to you and therefore invites more comments. In “10 Techniques to Get More Comments on Your Blog,” the author said that promoting controversy is something that she does not do. However, when I participated in PLNs as part of graduate school promoting controversy made a lot of the PLNs interesting. I am not saying that a person should disagree just to disagree. But if a person has a really good argument with strong supports for the opposite side of a discussion, they should post it because it makes people think, promotes brain activity, and may make others back up their opinions with more evidence or logic. I also think that when you are commenting, if you agree with a post it is still okay to disagree with it in your comment if you think the argument is flawed. In my opinion, part of commenting in a PLN that is fun and challenging for students is that others do not know their true opinions about a topic. Students can post opinions about a topic, regardless of whether they truly believe in them, as long as they support their opinions with evidence.
   
3. I commented on:
   vrhTechStudent
   Blithe Blog
   Anya's Annotations
   The Tech-Teacher Experiment
   Bloogers

Tool #1 Post

Creating this blog was suprisingly easier than I thought it would be. I had fun picking a background that suits my personality. I also thought creating the avatar was interesting. It was the first time that I had ever done anything like this and I had fun.
I can see this blog being useful in many situations such as when students need to discuss points of view on various historical events. They can create the avatar to represent their point of view or the time period.
I also see blogs being used for the following activity. Students choose or are assigned a theme in history. Then they need to write about that theme using the historical events that we are discussing in class.