E-Learning

Check out Soupy Sounds for a sample of some creative and fun songs to teach Early Stage 1 students in the classroom. I have used some songs in practicum and they work superbly.

I have a friend who is a singer, songwriter and Primary School teacher who has produced some clever songs that help children learn sounds through songs. I would recommend you have a listen to Soupy Sounds and give them a try in the classroom. I taught some to Kindergarten and they are an affective link to the English syllabus.

I have just watched a news report posted on Stephen’s blog. I have previously heard Michael Cowling talking about using technology with his students and though I have some reservations, it is very encouraging to see male students engaged in literacy learning. I know from a personal point of view that if such technology was available when I was at school I would have been engaged and motivated to learn.

I have just watched a short YouTube video on Emma’s blog page that sends a powerful message about the need for teachers to use technology with their students. The video contains a range of research based statistics as a rationale for providing a range of learning experiences for students that incorporate such technologies as podcasting, using mobile phones, wiki’s etc. The video and accompanying comments are worth us considering as future teachers, thanks Emma.

The connected learning awards are held annually to encourage the integration of ICT’s in the classroom. Children can enter into a variety of categories such as; digital stories, greeting card design, short film, digital art, web design and learning resource. I recommend you have a look at some past winners of the web site section. There is some high quality sites created by K-6 students and may be inspiration for trying something similar in our future teaching placements.

I have been watching a few videos on teacher tube, looking at the possibilities for creating a claymation project with primary students. This brief video gives a run down of what is required to get started as well as looking at the animation styles you may like to use. I hope to look further into the use of claymation with children and would be interested to know if anyone has any success stories they could share

Download Video: Posted by ddaniel at TeacherTube.com.

For our first assignment in our E-Learning subject, Linda and I created a LAMS unit on the media. In the unit, students were to create a news story in the format of either a blog, a podcast or an Imovie. Michelle has found a resource that would certainly enhance our LAMS lesson. It is a newspaper clipping generator that allows you to write a news story like the one below. I would recommend you read Michelle’s newspaper story as well as having a look at Linda’s effort also.I know I would of loved this when I was at school. Well, actually, I would have to say I love it even now! Click on the thumbnail below to read my article.