Notebooking, Teaching, and Technology

Our school district recently purchased SAM animation software and pushed it out to all our student computers. It is a very easy program designed to make stop motion animation videos. Right now our kids are "playing" with it to learn the software but I can see some very practical applications using it in science. In this video you will see the kids "playing" and then it actually being used as part of an experiment. I was in the room helping with the video taping with the children and it was very easy for the kids to set up. Today one of our first grade teachers were talking about some eggs they are hatching in the classroom and I immediately thought that would be a great use for the software. You can program it to take pictures (using a web cam) on a specific time schedule around the day the eggs are suppose to hatch. We had a lively debate about plants moving in my classroom. The kids could use the program to set up an experiment to see if plants move. The free demo...

Here is a video of the game being played.

Here is a video of one of the children explaining the game.

I went to high school last week in our district that has computer center that is pretty cool. One of the things that they had the visitors do is play a game called "Dance to Advance". On the floor were dance mats like "Dance Dance Revolution". You stood in the middle and looked at the interactive white board. A question popped up in the center and you had to jump/touch the square with the correct answer. It was automated for two minutes with questions coming up and the mats - which were connected to the interactive white board - recording who touched the right answer first. It was a lot of fun and I definitely want them for my classroom. Sadly four mats plus a site license cost $947 (which isn't a lot considering but in our budget crunch most likely would not be approved). I told a friend of mine about the game and we put together a "red neck" version of it to play with her extended learning math class (extended learning is offered to students during...

We have just started Spring Break here in Beaufort, South Carolina. Sadly our weather is not cooperating with rain and cooler then normal temperatures forecasted for the week (no beach on this break! In fact I have been wearing a sweater for the last couple of days.). I know this doesn't quite fit into the science, education, and notebooking theme I have going here on this blog but I thought I would share anyway :) About two weeks prior to the break I call the local cosmotology and massage schools in the area. They give reduced rates for the services with pedicures running $10, facials $15, and massages $35. I book what I can during the week that I am off. Typically they offer their services during the school day so the only time I can take advantage is when we do go on break. They book up EXTREMELY fast in our area, hence why I have to call at least 2 weeks out in order to get any services done. They rarely run services during the summer and holiday months (when they are on break...

There has been a problem recently with the YouTube Downloader that I use and recommend . Someone told me about another site for downloading YouTube vidoes ( http://www.mediacoverter.org/ ) and I decided to give it a try. I have started using it with success and thought I would pass on a tutorial (pictures above) on how to use. To see any of the pictures in a larger format simply click on it.

Last year I did an invertebrate poetry unit and students created paper versions of their invertebrates for a giant wall display. This year two groups of fourth grade teachers took it further and had their students create three dimensional models of invertebrates for display in our front display cases (the display cases are rotated among grade levels throughout the year and fourth grade has April). They also had to choose their favorite invertebrate poetry and make a good "clean" copy for the case. I thought this was very brave of the two teachers involved :) They did it on the Friday before Spring Break and it asked parents for supplies from paint to clay to recycled goods. Students were encouraged to be as creative as possible. I popped in their classroom during the day and took some pictures of the action and put together a little video (above) of their work ( I used animoto.com ). The students did an excellent job. My favorite were the snail, stick bug, and squid (toward t...