Final Flat Stanley Video

This is the combined video footages that we took through the Flat Stanley Project:
ENJOY!

Flat Stanley Videos

This is a video clip of students writing their journal entries
of the things they did with their flat friend:



URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udeGvO3guOs


This is a video clip of the students with their flat friend at the
Peace builder ceremony at San Antonio Elementary:



URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt6UE0JaXM8

* Check back for more video clips of this project

Flat Stanley Photos

Hi everyone,
These are photos that we took of our 3rd grade students of San Antonio Elementary School doing the Flat Stanley Project.

If the slideshow doesn't work try this link:
http://s226.photobucket.com/albums/dd146/franoraliah/?action=view¤t=3b4de3bf.pbw

Flat Stanley Project!

For the Flat Stanley Project I worked with Corin and Jing. We were able to collaborate with Mrs. Catherine Acera's 3rd Grade Class at San Antonio Elementary School.


- Our lesson plan was based on a series of activities that they needed to complete before we finally sent off the student's Flat Friends. Throughout the whole week the students created their Flat Friend, gave them a name and bring them around wherever they went. They were also keeping journal entries about their adventures with their friend, that they would send to their friends from the other side of the world. The students were able to browse through the Flat Stanley website to look at the different schools that participated in the project and showed them pictures of Flat Stanley's tour around the world. We had the kids use Google earth to view Saipan and other places in the world. We were also able to get video clips of them with their flat friends during the Peace Builder ceremony.

- The experience I gained from working with these 3rd grade students was something that I would never forget. I was able to get to know these kids and I've also learned a lot through them. They were willing to work with our group to make this project a successful one.

- The only down fall of this project was that we haven't gotten any response from the school that we sent the children's flat friends to. Up until this day when the kids see me they'll ask if their package has arrived, so I'm hoping that they'll eventually get a response. The other goods news that the teacher shared with me was that her class received Flat Stanley letters from a 3rd grade class in California, at least this would keep their hopes high as we wait for the one's we sent. The next time I decide to do this, it will be good if I communicate with the school or teacher first before we sent out the package to them, that way we'll guarantee that we will get a response.

- This project was a great learning experience for me. It gave me ideas on how I would do it again when I get into the classroom. This project really gets the students interested because they get a chance to work with other children from different parts of the world and the fact that they will have a treasure that has traveled the different parts of the world. For children, receiving something of any value really gets them excited and eager to see what they've gotten.

My Professional Portfolio

Hi everyone,

Check out my Professional Portfolio at www.noraed480.weebly.com

Photo Bucket Teach Back

My teachback is on "How to use Photobucket"

You can access it from the following link: http://www.slideshare.net/secret/y7iD7nennojlac

In doing this project i've learned to use three different teaching tools that you can integrate into some of your lessons. For my slides I used Power Point, this office tools is beneficial when you are going to present or teach a concept visually. With the Slide Share this online tool makes you keep your slides or pdf files and enables you to share it with friends, families or publishing it out for other peoples use. And lastly, the photo bucket online tool, this tool has alot of creative things that you can do with your images and your created photo albums. Once you upload your photos from your PC into your photobucket account it will always be there and you can do so many things with them, like creating slideshows, adding graphics, borders, and moving objects to them. When you complete it you can share it to your friends and families through email, forums, blogs, and message boards. The site also has millions of images and videos that you can browse through to use and watch.

This thing that I would do differently is to use these tools to do other concept teachings, use it as a tool to show or present some family photos, and also add more pictures, text effects, and sounds. The three tools are useful to integrate into your lesson planning, they liven up your teachings.

You can do so many creative activities with these tools (power point and slideshare). You can have students do country presentations, advertising a product, a family phot0 slide show, displaying charts and graphs, etc. There's so many others and it all depends on how a teacher plans it out to make it a meaningful task.

Journal Writing Rubric

I created my journal-writing rubric at http://www.teach-nology.com/. Part of our lesson plan for the Flat Stanley project is for students to write journal entries on the things that they have done with their flat friend. I like this website because not only does it automatically create the rubric for you, but it also offers activity ideas on different subject areas and subjects. The tool also gives you the option to add an image and also gives you options to choose on how you want to design your expectations. Rubrics are helpful for evaluating student’s work by measuring the product to real life criteria. The expectations vary for each child’s level of expertise. It also helps you plan for instructions on the needed areas that the child is having problems and it gives you an idea of whether the child had grasp the topic or objective of the task.

Crossword Puzzle

1.Using Excel as a teaching tool can teach children different skills and content subjects. An example of this is we use Excel to create a puzzle, with this children can learn to create a crossword puzzle and also learn some vocabulary words that are from the topic they are learning. They can also use it to create word search puzzles and at the same time be able to know how to spell the words by searching for it. Another activity, is students can create charts and graphs and still learn different math skills like numbers, population, differences, etc. The software will be very useful in the classroom as long as it is used properly and in a meaningful way.

2. It is important that teachers and administration of the school inform parents of what is going on in the classroom and at school so that parents will know that there is some learning that is happening and maybe by looking at what their learning objective are in class, they as parents can be knowledgeable of how they can help their child with their homeworks, studying for tests, and helping them with projects. As dor school news it is important that they know whats going on so they can feel content that they're sending their child/children to a safe school and a good learning environment.

3. Yes, I think this Excel project would be an additional help for students to learn vocabulary words. Because it engages them and makes them think of which word fits to the definition thats given. It is also helpful for them to use Excel so that they can also make one for themselves with other vocabulary words from other content subjects.

4. The thing that I would do differently next time is also incorporate the use of online crossword puzzle makers, it is alot easier and less time consuming. All it needs is for you to add in the words and definitions and ta da! your crossword is created.

Online Grading

I was not able to try out Engrade, but I was able to use another site called Edit Grid. Edit Grid works just like Microsoft Excel. The difference between the two is that with Edit Grid you can share it with other people, you can publish so only your selected people would view it or you can publicize it. Other features that Edit Grid has is others can work on the same document that you are working on, which is good when you are collaborating with other teachers or when you're having students work on a specific tasks like creating graphs or charts, averaging scores, or using it for any other means of using a spreadsheet or when you are having students work in groups they can set up one user name and password and all work on it at the same time. This tool would be helpful for teachers to keep track of student activities and grades for each activity. It also has formulas that can total up grades, add numbers, create charts or graphs to show data, etc. As I was doing my project I encountered a problem, when I try to manipulate it, it gets a late response. I don't know if it was just my connection or it's how the tool is. One has to try it out to know if it best fits their own expection.

Ocean Life Webquest

Discover the Ocean Life

This project is intended for the students to learn more about the ocean and marine life. This is a way to help islanders become aware and educated about the ocean that surrounds them and how it all relates to our own survival.
Curriculum: English / Language Arts, Science, Technology
Grade Level(s): 6-8
Language: English
Author: Ocean Life
Other Author(s): Nora Fujihira, Jocelyn Itibus, Eluene Baza, Corin Rengiil

Webquest URL:http://instantprojects.org/webquest/webquest.php?AuthorID=12487

This webquest project was specially created by me, Corin, Jocelyn, and Eluene. In our sessions we talked about what should be a good topic that we can create that would meet the standards of the CNMI children. We decided to focus our web quest on having students discover what the ocean has to offer. We felt that as islanders it's very important that our students be aware of the ocean and the life that exist in it. It's also crucial that they learn about how we can protect and preserve our marine resources.

The most important lesson that i've learned is how you can use the web quest as a part of teaching a lesson that can meet student learning of a concept. It's my first time to see this kind of teaching tool, it was a great opportunity to try it out and experience how I can use this when i'm in the classroom.

I like this web-based tool, because it actually is user friendly, for each part that you work on there are directions and examples of how you can design and input information for each step of the the quest.

The next time I use this tool, I would try other features that it could do to make the quest grab the students attention and really interesting that they can't resist from going through it.

Mind Mapping Project

Link to my mind mapping project: http://www.gliffy.com/pubdoc/1279935/L.jpg

1. Introduction
My theme for this month is Colors of Life and my unit will focus on Families. I will be doing this at the beginning of the year so that students will understand that in the classroom and around school we are all part of a family. Families come in many different ways with many factors affecting them. In this unit, students will discover that all types of families love and care for each other. It will let them realize that each and every one of them is a unique and special part of their family. It will also let the kids see that there are a lot of similarities and differences between individuals and that they’ll learn about different family histories, backgrounds, traditions and values of themselves and their peers. These activities will help children be more respectful and accepting of others.

Objectives: Students will be able to:
-learn that there are different kinds of families and no one structure is better than another.
-build a strong and confident self-identity as well as an informed and proud group identity.
-become familiar with the family diversity of their peers and others in the world.

Focus Questions:
-Who is a part of a family?
-What makes a family important?
-What are the similarities and differences in families around the world?

Culminating Event:
- Students will celebrate “Family Day” at school. Student will brainstorm how are they going to do it and what will they be showcasing for this day. They will also bring a special family dish to share with other families. Students will be displaying al the work that they have done throughout the month long of activities.

Unit Hook:
- The unit hook is to do a family puppet show that would give them the idea of who is in a family and what families do together.

2. I've learned alot especially in using the program, it has so many different tools that you can use to create mind maps, like making it really colorful, they come in different shapes, and how you can publish your work on the blog, on the net, or collaborate it with people you want, etc. I've also learned how to transfer it to jpeg format, getting the html code for the doc. and the URL's for different sizes of publication that you want.

3. I like the Gliffy Online tool that I used. It has so many different tools that makes your finished work a great work of art. The only thing is that for the free trial you can only do five publishes. You have to pay a fee to get all the advantages of the program.

4. The only thing that I would do differently next time is to explore more of the other tools and features that it has to offer to create other mind maps for visuals in the classroom

About Meeh

Hi Everyone,

My name is Nora, I am an NMC student currently enrolled in ED 480: Educational Technology. I will be using this blog to post different projects that i'll be doing to fulfill this class. So be checking back for updates. Looking forward to a great semester.