Google Earth

I viewed Michelle Chavez and Caitlyn Smith's virtual tour.  They did it on the oceans of the world.  I really liked this idea and that they had so many interesting facts for each ocean.  I also looked at Karissa Dodd's virtual tour on tornadoes.  This opened my eyes to the idea that you can make tours of things that do not at all relate to geographical features or buildings.  I also enjoyed Rebeckah Handley's tour of some of the wonders of the world.  I really liked how she used image overlays.

google earth virtual tour

Today I learned that there are so many uses for Google Earth and so many things you can do with it. I learned that you can do a virtual tour that includes pictures, links to websites, information, activities, etc. There are so many options that can be done with virtual tours as well. Geograpy, places in history, setting in books, animals, plants, cities, etc. all can be studied and viewed. It is great to me that children can see their world and make connections in a visual, hands on way. I can use this tool in my teaching context by creating one myself for the kids to view as a class, to have a world scavenger hunt that the kids can view and complete activities individually or in groups. Also, students themselves can create virtual tours to present things they learned.

The following link is to a .kmz file that shows a Google Earth virtual tour of various things in American History. There is the Trail of Tears, Railroads, the Oregon Trail, and the Gold Rush. I can use this link to introduce a topic or as a review. The students can also use this as a model to create their own virtual tours of these topics by adding additional information and pictures to the tour. A fun idea would be to split the class into groups and have each group be in charge of a certain stop on the trail. The students can then put all their work together and view their class trail.

The link to the .kmz file:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/placemarks/cl-05-08-08-238110882.kmz

Digital Storytelling Reflection

I viewed Caitlyn Smith and Michelle Chavez's digital story about a trip to the zoo. I viewed Juliet Lewis and Stacy Wilson's digital song entitled Battle Hymn of the Repulsive. I viewed Jamie Jensen's digital story of a poem about bugs.

I learned from viewing these three digital stories that there are so many options in digital storytelling! you can do a fractured fairytale with pictures of themselves, like my group did, you can tell a story with pictures off the internet, you can sing a song, or put pictures to a poem. There are so many options available that really lets the creativity shine! I loved looking at everone's digital stories!

I am interested in teaching third grade. Third graders can use digital stories in Literacy. Instead of writing book reports they can create digital stories about book they have read. Also, fluency can be assessed by having them read aloud on their digital story. They could also write their own poetry and turn it into a digital story. I am so excited to use digital stories in my classroom!!

Digital Story: Rapunzel's Rap

Here is the digital story Lexee, Jerri, and I did to Rapunzel's Rap!

Digital Storytelling!!!

Digital Storytelling is so cool! I did not realize how much you could do with technology. With photostory, students can make a variety of projects based on literature! They can make ABC books, fractured fairy tales, book reviews, circle stories, adventure stories, public service announcements, documentaries, etc. etc. This is a fun way to get children immersed in reading and writing. There are so many resources out there to make learning fun!

Below is the storyboard for Jerri, Lexee, and my digital storytelling project. We decided to do a fractured fairy tale on Rapunzel's Rap! It is a cute and funny rendition of the classic Rapunzel fairy tale.