Integrating the Curriculum

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Student Podcasts

The fifth grade students are working on their podcasts to embedd in their Wiki about volcanoes, earthquakes and plate techtonics. Getting enough microphones and having them be considerate of the noise level so that everyone can record is the next challenge. They are enthusiastic about the newly learned skill and completely engaged in the process and subject matter.

Podcasts

Podcasts are an easy way to engage the students with that can bring book reports alive, explain a math problem, present a science project, or interview a famous person.
I created a podcast of my students explaining the use of Wikis as alternatives for textbooks. Visit totalcurriculum.pbwiki.com and click the podcast.

Teacher Leadership

Taking an initiative, cultivating allies and implementing a positive plan is a part of teacher leadership. It is important to think about how and why things should work in creating a change for the better.

web2pointo.blogspot.com

Continuing Wikis

The fourth grade Virginia History and fifth grade science wikis are extremely successful with the students. They are working at home over week-ends and while they are sick. The only problems that have risen are ownership of pages and using the comments section as a form of instant messaging. Just a few students are dominating the time. Others have lost/forgotten their passwords. It should be interesting when the novelty of the medium wears off and they are confronted with getting the facts completed.

Cyber Blog

Thanks to a reference from Dr. Norton, I am beginning a blog about Cyber Bullying.  The plan is to have it available to our students for discussions about what they think it is.

Wikis

I created two wiki's for my 4th and 5th grade computer classes. They are also a means for the classroom teachers to implement science and Virginia History in their classrooms. The students are enjoying the communication aspects and the mechanics of uploading images and linking sites. They are very engaged in using this tool and are frequently accessing it outside of school. I have made the sites accessible only to students, teachers and administrators. If you would like to view the 5th Grade Science or 4th Grade Virginia History wikis please click on the link and send me an e-mail.

Editing

I changed my template and lost a few things such as my title across my picture. The entry under Introduction is not visible. I am finding my way through this blog and spending way too much time playing.

I figured out the simple solution of changing the font color.  It usually is the simplest.

What is Web 2.0?

A definition of Web 2.0 can be found in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
It basically describes the ability to access and utilize the Internet in a more expansive manner than originally created. The ability to create a website, and an interactive communication tool is available to anyone.

Introduction

The purpose of this blog is to express information and experiences with Web 2.0.