Storytelling part 2

I watched:

Robin Shaw- The Marvelous Homework and Housework Machine

Kate Smith- Scarlet Pimpernel Book Trailor

Sam Webster- I Bought A New Tank For My Goldfish

Keri Wooten- The Ancient Treasure

Julie Chatfield- Corbin and the Etch a Sketch

Nancy Taylor- Franklin D. Roosevelt

It was really fun to watch other people's projects and seeing their ideas. I was surprised by the range of different storytelling projects. I have some creative classmates!

I think the most challenging aspect of this challenge for students would be figuring out the technological part of it. I had some problems with Windows Movie Maker that were really frustrating, and I don't know if I could help 30 kids try to figure out what is going wrong with their software. This project would have to be highly scaffolded and planned out, but it could be really fun if it went correctly.

Creativity definitely wouldn't be a challenge with the students. This project has the potential to bring out so much personality and creative juices in every student! It would definitely be an adventure.

My Digital Storytelling Project

My project was on the poem "Let Me Out of the Classroom" by Kenn Nesbitt. I thought it was a really cute poem, and my cousin was kind enough to be the kid in the story. I used Windows Movie Maker for my project, which I liked while making my project, but saving turned into a nightmare.

Luckily it all worked out in the end and I think my finished project turned out pretty good! For some reason the sound went a little off when I uploaded it to YouTube, but that's ok!

TPAK

The What

TPACK stands for Technological Pedagogical And Content Knowledge. From what I understood, TPACK is a combination of all the smarts a good teacher should have. It combines teaching strategies, technological understanding, and content knowledge. Teachers know the material they are teaching, know how to teach the material, and how to throw in technology to make things more interesting, but still adding to their learning.

The Why

Clearly this concept is super important. There is no way a teacher can be totally effective without a combination of good content knowledge and pedagogical skills. The technology part to me is a newer idea that can add a great deal. If a teacher can use technology properly, their effectiveness will go way up.

Storyboard plus TPACK

For my digital storytelling project, I am doing a poem by Kenn Nesbitt called "Let Me Out of the Classroom"

Here is my storyboard:

(if you can't read the side note I put on there, I will not be drawing the pictures for my project. Lucky for everyone, I am using photographs :)

Alli the Website Maker

I thought this past week was totally awesome! Not only did I have an intramural soccer game and we got a day off of school, I learned a TON of useful information.

The MOST useful thing I learned was how and where to make these free websites. I have never heard of pbworks.com before, but it really is a great tool. It has a ton of capabilities, and it is free, which I am all about. It is also fairly easy, which let me know that I do have the ability to make a website and be able to keep it up without giving myself a ton of stress and extra work. I also realized the many useful tools that can be posted on the site. I loved the discussion board idea, and I incorporated that into my pbworks site. I think kids would have fun taking polls on there and writing their ideas where other classmates can see them and reply.

The website I made can be found here. (allisonwhitezell.pbworks.com) It was a lot of work to make, but I am proud of the finished result.

I was talking to my younger sister, who is in 5th grade, and her class has a website. It uses webs.com rather than pbworks. I thought her website was really cool because it can be customized in a bunch of different ways.

Video Chatting

My synchronous video tool. I had never used Skype before, and it is totally awesome! And free, which makes it that much cooler. (Yes I was looking away when I took the screen shot. Oops)

My asynchronous tool. I hope this doesn't creep you out Robin, but I practiced leaving you a video message on your Facebook. Haha. Luckily it wasn't too hard.


The hardest part about doing this part of the project was figuring out how to do a Print Screen on a Mac! I am an avid PC user and Macs make no sense to me. But I came and conquered.

My Technology Background

I would say that I have had a good amount of experience with technology. I always had a computer in my house growing up and I loved playing games on it. My parents would buy me 'educational games' and they were awesome. In high school we were required to take a computer class, and I learned a lot about the Internet and Microsoft programs through that. I currently work for the church doing computer support. For some reason I can never fix my own computer, but I am pretty good at fixing other people's computers.