Slideshare for Classroom Wiki

Over the years, I've wanted a method to gather student works for display on the Internet. The reasons are three-fold: to share the work with parents, to cut down on printing costs, and to give the students a more permanent record of their work with me.

PowerPoint/ JPEG Combination
Most of the programs I use in class can generate JPEG images. I've recently been placing classroom PowerPoint and Activstudio flip charts in Slideshare to help explain my work on my blog.

I decided to bring many examples of my third grade student's work home and try to create PowerPoint slides. It worked well. I have 22 students. They have worked in Word, KidPix, and Kidspiration on various projects.

How I Will Use the Content
Over the years, I have sent home letters to the parents to show the work we complete in computer class. It can be a waste of paper and photocopying supplies when students forget to pass papers on from their backpack to their parents.

This year, the school included a spot for parents to share their email address if they wished to receive information from the school. I decided to collect the email address and create an online newsletter. As of April 9th, I am still tweaking the newsletters. I hope to send a link to them by the end of Easter break on April 20th.

Basic Logistics
Many pieces of work are stored on our school file server. The files are stored by class (e.g., 3A, 4A, 4B, and so on). KidPix and Kidspiration are stored on local drives. It took about a half hour yesterday to create an EasterBreak folder on the server, create subfolders for each grade, and slide the files from the local drive to the hard drive.

For the KidPix projects, I was already saving the files as JPEGs in the Documents folder. The Kidspiration files end up in the Documents folder by default. When I returned home last night, I opened the Kidspiration files and Exported them as JPEGs.

It didn't take too long to create the PowerPoint file, slide each JPEG to a Title Only slide from the folder on the desktop, resize or crop the image, and upload the finished PowerPoint to Slideshare.

Tweaking Slideshare
My only hesitation about the whole process came after loading a few sample Slideshares to the wiki and viewing them. At the end of the series of slides, it shows "related" slide shows. I searched their FAQ to see if they could be removed and then decided to take a closer look at the individual screen for a slide show. I noticed a tiny link labeled Custom underneath the embed code. I was so happy to see there was a second embed code titled "Without related presentations". Now I have all 22 presentations embedded on the wiki.

I will be able to save the wiki page to the school delicious account. The students can view each other's work when they finish the planned project when we return to school. They will be linked to via the online newsletter.

It's great when a plan comes together.

Make Way For Ducklings - A Year Later

What a difference a year makes! Last year, I found a Make Way for Ducklings Google Earth Tour at the Google Lit Trips web site. I used it with the first grade students during our modified class schedule during Terra Nova testing week. I've given the lesson an upgrade.

New Year/ New Tools
This year, I have an Activboard, Activotes, and Discovery Streaming thanks to the CDWG/ Discovery Win a Wireless Lab sweepstakes. Enter NOW! Go ahead, I'll wait. You can enter once per day from January 3 to May 1, 2009.

I decided that for our modified schedule, I'll like to find something interactive for all the grades. I'm going to try this lesson with Kindergarten to third grade. Since I couldn't find anything at Promethean Planet, I decided to write my own flip chart. It's a great experience. I have one photo that I am waiting to receive permission to use and then I'll upload these charts as a resource.

Discovery Streaming
I signed on to Discovery Streaming and typed Make Way for Ducklings. I was happily surprised to find a 1969 movie version of the book. This is going to be a big improvement on last year's class when I had a student hold the book while I read from a copy.

As are most streaming clips, this eleven minute movie is broken into four smaller segments. I downloaded them to the hard drive. I don't want to have buffering issues and I don't want to have a failed lesson because the Internet is unavailable as it was after a wind storm a few weeks ago.

Activstudio/ Activotes
Next, I wanted to build a set of Activote questions that would lead us into the story, the movie clips, and the Google Earth tour. I've exported the flip charts into PowerPoint slides which I've placed on Slideshare. I'll link to the flip charts on Promethean Planet when I place them there.

I have questions asking about the use of Google Earth at home, the Caldecott symbol on the cover of the book, and which part of the Earth the students believe they would find Boston.

I have slides to introduce each video clip. Those slides are followed by a few comprehension questions about the story, and then a slide to transition to Google Earth.

Part 1 of the presentation:

Make Way for Ducklings Part 1

View more presentations from njtechteacher. (tags: discovery streaming make way for ducklings)

Part 2 of the presentation:

Make Way for Ducklings Part 2

View more presentations from njtechteacher. (tags: google earth activstudio)

To Be Presented
I will be working with these flip charts next week. I only have 30 minutes with the students. Some of the students have not used the Activotes yet. As I have more insight into how the project idea works, I'll report it back on this blog.

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Image Citation:
"Make Way for Ducklings." Mr. Ducke's photostream. 2008 Jan 6. 2009 Feb 28.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2363/2173283522_657b7ac45a.jpg?v=0