Lip Dub: Collaborating World Wide

As some of you know, I've been participating in an online course, the Educational Technology Massive Open Online Course (known as ETMOOC). There are thousands of people in the course. We get a chance to participate in various ways, and we can select how and when we want to participate. One recent project was a Lip Dub, and I am sharing the final video to illustrate how people from around the world can collaborate online. Let me know what you think. Enjoy.

Do You Want to Share a Pinterest Board?

Sharing is caring, so if you have a Pinterest account where you have created boards with resources for learning, would you consider letting us know? Just post the URL in the comment section.

While reading through blog post responses, I came across a link to an excellent board with resources for teaching in the lower elementary grades. Here is a screen capture of that board.

It seems many of you already have a Pinterest account, and as teachers, let's assume you have considered pinning school resources.

Although I am  an avid Diigo fan, I also use Pinterest. I am also posting a link to my account. This account is used only for educational resources. I hope you find something there that you can use.

Click on the image to get to my boards. Happy pinning! If you don't use Pinterest, perhaps you can share why. And if you do, remember, sharing is caring. Post what you generously want to share in the comments by copying and pasting the URL for pertinent boards.  Thanks again.

Blogging in the Elementary School Classroom

I found a link to this great YouTube video on "Blogging in the Elementary Classroom" while reading Lesley's blog, Teaching in Heels, and just had to share it. I appreciate that Lesley posted this video. Check her blog for other valuable resources.

The video captures teachers and students speaking about the value of blogging. I like that the teachers also address how blogging promotes literacy skills. After all, we should be first figuring out our goals and not just implementing tech for the sake of tech. The real goal is to expand students' literacy skills.

Let me know if this video gives you ideas for expanding students' literacy skills. For those who teach young learners, who might be too young to blog, does the video give you other ideas for how you might promote students' engagement in the literacy process in other ways?

Additionally, today a principal I follow on Twitter put up a link to blog post that Karen Lirenman wrote in which she embedded a video about how she uses blogging in her first grade classroom: "Blogging in Grade One". Karen's blog, Sharing and Learning with Ms. Lirenman, is an excellent one to follow. I am embedding the video she posted here.

After viewing her video, share what ideas you gained from her presentation. As always, comments are welcomed. How are you feeling about blogging as a professional, as a teacher, or with students? What advantages are you seeing in students blogging?

Fun Way to Teach Spelling

Today when I was on Twitter, I came across a tweet from a Canadian school principal whom I follow that tweeted this:

I was curious about why George sent out this tweet, so clicked on the hyperlink in his tweet, and found this image, which I captured and annotated using the Awesome Screen Capture and Annotate feature I have attached to my toolbar. Take a look at what these 2nd graders are doing with the tweets of the NFL football players.

I retweeted George's tweet, and one of my followers, a college English professor, was concerned that the exercise might reinforce stereotypes about football players.

I tweeted back that this activity could be used in the classroom with tweets from others on Twitter.

In addition to building spelling skills, this activity can also build proofreading skills, and it might encourage students to proofread their writing, especially when it will go online. Now, I know we encourage young learners to use invented spelling to get their ideas "on paper," but still the misspellings these 2nd graders noted are easy enough for the average student that age to find.

What is your opinion on this teaching strategy? How do you encourage the development of spelling skills in your own teaching?

Now, if I have misspelled anything in this post, please feel free to so note it, and to use my post as a learning activity in your own classroom.