Voice Thread Comments

Let me start by saying that I loved everyone's Voice Thread projects. This was really fun. I do, however, wish we had some male classmates because men and women have such different perspectives. It would be a fresh new change. Most of my classes are lacking a male point of view. Anyway, I really enjoyed the sense of history you get from Alice's story about Levelock. Cheryl's story, taken from her dog's point of view, is of course a favorite of mine. I love the creativity Melissa puts into her story about a day at the beach, not just identifying slides, but actually telling a story (not that identifying slides doesn't tell a story). Great work this semester guys!

Voice Thread Project

I love this tool because it is so easy to use and so versatile! Students can use this for a variety or ages and levels. While thumbing through a few of the public projects I came across a few that were done by students. One was of course about dogs and how that student thought that they should be cared for. The teacher then left a voice comment about the project. How fun!
You could use this for a social studies project on Greece. The student could do fun facts etc. in sort of a "Pop-up Video" format like they had on MTV years ago. Or they could create their own "Pop-up Video." My brother's class once had to do a project in which they researched the lines in "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel...they could do the same project, but this time use Voice Thread! The song could play in the background and little text bubbles could pop up with explanations and facts. Students could use this for story telling, science, music, geography, the list is endless.

I feel pretty comfortable using Voice Thread. It is pretty straight forward and can be used in any area of teaching. I was having problems embedding it into my blog at first but I just closed out of it and came back to it a few days later and it worked fine. My internet connection must have been too slow. I would definitely use this in a classroom, but I would probably pay for the K12 edition so my students work would be private.

Online Storybook

Flickr Slide Show

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I like this tool because I think it could be successfully used in classrooms of all ages. For the younger kids you could have them take the photos and you could set everything up. Or you could have them help you organize the "story" by using Elmo to project the program to the entire class. Then you could play your slide show for the whole class to see. The older students could use this program on their own (with some instruction) to tell a story, explain steps in a science experiment, or even just be creative with in art class.

I feel very comfortable with this project as it is pretty much self explanatory. I really like that it is so easy to organize your photos within the set so they are all in order for the slide show when you are finish. The only thing I can see going wrong with this project is that students might go overboard (like I did) with too many pictures.

Comic Life Poster

So I just finished my comic life poster and I have to say that this isn't one of my favorite programs. I found myself constantly locking things so I couldn't accidentally bump them and move them or accidentally delete them. Unfortunately for me it took me a while to figure out that you can lock stuff into place so the project took me WAY longer than it should have.

While I don't particularly like this program, I can see it's potential in the classroom setting. I think that this would have been a great way for the fourth graders in our school to recap their recent trip to the fish hatchery. They could show the different stages of dissecting a fish or simply arrange photos from the trip and use it as a tool for a presentation. One of the major advantages to this program is that it will appeal to kids because of its "comic-like" nature. Plus, who doesn't love funky colors and fonts?

Digital Video

I really enjoyed doing this project. I still don't quite know the ins and outs as far as editing music is concerned, but I feel fairly comfortable using the movie maker program. We will be sending out a digital video along with our Christmas cards.

Like the PowerPoint project, I can come up with endless possibilities for the classroom. I don't think I would want to use it with students any younger than fifth grade though. The only downfall I can foresee is that students won't want to move on to the next assignment once this one is complete.

College Life

I honestly don’t know what to talk about that doesn’t have something to do with my dogs or my boyfriend, and I am sure you have all heard enough about them. It just seems that I spend all of my time on work and school. Any time I have left is spent with Chris and the dogs. I do sleep…occasionally, but probably not more than four hours or so a night. I have been told time and time again that that is just the life of a college student. I can’t help but wonder why.
I believe a lot of it has to do with money, or at least in my case it does. I have to work so I can afford t live and go to school. Though I work full time I still have to borrow some money to pay for tuition and books. So because I need to work, and need to go to school to pursue my chosen profession, I go without sleep. To top it all off, when I am done with my degree and actually teaching, I will be making even less money than I am now and will have to start paying on my student loans. Thankfully they are not too high or I would really be in trouble.
Scholarships seem harder and harder to come by as I get further into my college career but school seems to get more and more expensive. Books, tuition, all of it keeps on going up, the only thing that doesn’t grow with it is my pocket book.
I know that student loans are there for a reason, and that a lot of people have them. I just don’t believe in living in debt forever!
Does anybody know how to become independently wealthy? I don’t want to be independently wealthy forever, just long enough to make it through college and then I would pass it on to someone else. I know that other people are going through the same things I am but I know that it has to be taking a few years, if not a dozen or so off of our lifespan.