My Glog/Holiday Card

http://www.glogster.com/bstaci/my-holiday-glog/g-6lsmdlnm070qtfvt8rgsca0?s=nameglog

Glogster uses and affordances

Uses of Glogster in for ELA Instruction

Book Reports	Photos, graphics, text, and audio can be inserted into a glog for a creative book report.
Presentation of creative writing	The student can record him/herself reading the story aloud and attach the recording to the glog.
Creating comic strips	Various types of dialogue bubbles are available for text to be inserted.

Affordances for using Glogster for ELA instruction

Features                                                                 Affordances

Multimedia “all in one” feature	Students are able to import images, text, music and their own audio/video recordings onto their glogs. Everything they need for a versatile presentation in one place.
Export/Embedding	The glogster user can export the glog for collaboration and networking purposes.
Ease of use	Students from elementary through high school can navigate this well-structured  Web 2.0 activity.

My Youtube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQwuvzK_wC4&utm_source=trigger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=you_tube_ready

Week 5 article and questions

http://www.ldonline.org/article/35792

My article discusses using technology for literacy instruction for students with learning disabilities.
1. Have you ever used technology to implement differentiated instruction?
2. Are there any technology tools mentioned in the article that you would consider trying with your students?

Ways to use Second Life in for ELA instruction.

Collaboration: You can contact people of the same field of interest from around the world.
Interactivity:  You can use videos, presentations, images and weblinks at the same time in one place.

On an elementary level, students can explore the virtual worlds in Second Life and use the experience as a writing prompt.  On the secondary level, students can explore different genre (Shakespeare, poetry, etc) and interact within those "islands".

Multimodal Article

I found this article to be quite interesting and incredibly pertinent to my present teaching and field work experience.  I am a picture book lover and collector.  In early childhood education, I think that a great picture book collection is a teacher's most vital possession.  I loved this quote:  "if the children are not allowed to speak or interact during a book's reading, then they are less able to pick up all the different elements of the story."  When I read to my preschool class, my students are encouraged to interact with me and with the book.

The discussion about font was also very interesting.  I recently helped my 12 year old daughter as she put together a power point presentation for a class.  We were choosing a font, I suggested Comic Sans and my daughter responded, " Are you kidding me, Mom?  That font is so babyish."  The fact that she correlated a font to a maturity level was quite eye opening.

The "new" roles of the teacher were especially interesting...particularly:

Teacher as co constructor of knowledge—

Teacher and students explore and learn together

because the teacher acknowledges that

students sometimes know as much, if not more

about certain things

So true!   I'm off to amazon.com to purchase the Doughnut book.

 

My Book

http://bookbuilder.cast.org/view.php?op=view&book=50399&page=1

My book was not just a pleasure to create, but also a gift to my son.  My son, Andrew, has an auditory processing problem or possibly ADD.  Cognitively and academically, he thrives in school, but he has issues with focus and attention.  After meeting with his speech therapist and classroom teacher, we have decided to let him use an FM system in the classroom.  We are hoping this helps him.  When we presented this idea to my son, he decided that he wanted to explain his FM system to his class prior to starting to use the system in the classroom.
This was my a-ha moment.  I decided to create a book that Andrew could present to his class to explain why he would be using this device.  As a technology nut, Andrew is thrilled to be able to share his book with his classmates, via the smartboard.

The story I created is a Social story.  The following is an explanation of Social Stories and how they are used with students on the autism spectrum:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjlIYYbVIrI.  Social stories can also be used with typical students.

I shared my story with my son's teacher as well as an elementary special education teacher.  Both loved the book building website and added it to their bookmarks.  The ease of use as well as different options offered (insertion of photos and audio, coaches, several page formats ) makes it a great tool for both teachers and students.