Wordle is a wonderful tool for generating ‘word clouds’ out of text. This online tool does not require a login and allows users to originally design artistic word artowork with the option to print out the colourful creations.
Grade 3 students created their annual fall ‘Introduce Yourself’ Wordle. Students began the project by creating a personalized list of meaningful words in Microsoft Word 2007. Next, students copied and pasted their word list into the Wordle tool where they could customize font style, colour and text layout.
More interesting ways to use Wordle in the classroom include: •Vocabulary words •Novel study •Highlighting key words •Summarizing •Writing prompts •Creating a learning poster
Welcome Mrs. Keiftenbeld to the blogosphere. She will be blogging for students, parents and staff while attending the Ottawa Teachers’ Institute on Canadian Parliamentary Democracy with 70 other teachers from across Canada. Please check out her blog, feel free to leave comments and celebrate in learning through the theme of the Institute, “Parliament in the Age of Social Media”.
Tech 7 students have entered the blogosphere as student bloggers. They are now web authors and collaborators by newly creating and maintaining individual public blogs. You can access the grade 7 student blogs on our main webpage titled Grade 7 @Camilla School. Please feel free to visit, read their postings and leave comments.
I decided to use kidblog.org as our blogging tool because it is simple, secure and presents straightforward formatting. Blogging is a great way to have an introduction to 21st century literacies, online participation and classroom sharing. Students will learn how to creatively design and edit blog posts, upload media files, and continue to grow as ethically responsible digital citizens.
There is a great article titled 20 Reasons Why Students Should Blog which outlines the power of student voice through this format. Blogging is a powerful learning community where sharing, learning, collaborating and responding is open 24/7. Students are engaged in writing meaningful posts and responding to blog comments, interacting not only with peers but potentially with a worldwide audience.
Take a little time to enjoy the view from our place in the blogosphere.
Last week Craig Krieger, Crown Prosecutor for Technology & Internet Crimes from the Government of Alberta, was invited in as a special speaker for grades 5-6 and 7-9 classes. Craig’s presentation titled Cybercrime: When Computers Go Bad gave students and teachers valuable information on cyber crimes, Internet safety, digital footprint awareness and identity theft. Some of the main points from his presentation include: • Computers are used as tools, but can also be used as targets • Keep your antivirus software up-to-date • Think before you type! • Carefully decided what information you give away online • Protect your email address • What you type to someone online is not private
Many of the Internet safety websites Craig referenced in his presentation can be found on this blog in an earlier posting under the Internet Safety tag.
We are all back and looking forward to another year of sharing, collaborating, creating, engaging and participating in new technology learning opportunities. The library computer lab has been updated and we are excited about having the addition of another mobile lab available for classrooms.
On August 31st and September 1st teachers attended workshops by David Warlick titled Leading & Learning in the 21st Century and Cracking the Code. Some of the key points from David’s presentations included: • Promoting life-long learning • Preparing students for an unpredictable future • Learning to live in a culture driven by hyper-connectedness • Redefining and reinventing what it is to be an educator • Teaching students ‘how to teach themselves’
VoiceThread is one our favourite Web 2.0 tools here at Camilla School. Teachers are using VoiceThread as a digital storytelling tool that can be shared in the classroom, school, and education community. This tool offers online collaboration, interaction, communication and participation from around the world.
4L students read Judy Blume’s book Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing as a novel study. Judy Blume is an award-winning author of children’s and young adult literature with over 80 million copies of books in print.
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing tells the story of fourth grader Peter Hatcher and his little toddler brother Farley Drexel ‘Fudge’ Hatcher. As a big brother, Peter always has to help his little brother Fudge, who seems to get all of the attention. This makes Peter feels neglected by his parents. Peter feel like a fourth grade nothing! This book is filled with more interesting characters such as Mr. Yarby, Sheila, Jimmy, Sam, Jennie, Dr. Brown, Mr. Vincent, Dr. Cone and of course Dribble, Peter’s pet turtle.
Judy first got the idea for the book when her children’s babysitter showed her a newspaper article about a toddler who swallowed a turtle. This quirky story inspired Judy to write the story as a picture book titled “Peter, Fudge and Dribble.” Many publishers rejected the idea until several years later when it caught the eye of an editor who wanted the story to be told as a chapter book, and the novel was written. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing is the first book in her Fudge series.
I came across an article last week titled “Hey Teachers: This is How I Learn.” from a blog titled TeachPaperless: Seeking social solution to the mysteries of 21st century teaching and learning. The philosophy behind the blog is to help educators create paperless classroom through integrated technology learning communities. The blog posting reflects on a classroom discussion between one teacher and a class of students.
Welcome to our school blog! Camilla School is a K-9 school located in the Hamlet of Riviere Qui Barre, Alberta, Canada (Sturgeon School Division).
Our "Catch the Dream...Build the Future" school motto recognizes our commitment to engaging and educating students in the 21st century.
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