Inspired by Inspiration

In today's classroom we face many challenges that reflect the shift in education from blackboards to a digital age. In an effort to inspire students' learning, introducing and supplying supplementary visuals and organizers provides the students with additional ways to be involved in the learning and understanding of the lesson.

One of the tools available to us today is called Inspiration. One can download a free 30-day trial of this tool online at  http://www.inspiration.com/! This tool provides a format that allows one to create a graphic organizer about any topic of interest. For this particular project I chose a seventh grade SPI: 7.1.spi.22.-identify similes, metaphors, personification, and hyperbole within context. I would use my Inspiration project as a supplementary tool to introduce figurative language. I will had it out to the students as a resource to use throughout the year and as we build onto our knowledge and understanding. 

Although I enjoy using Inspiration in TPTE 486, I doubt that  I will purchase the tool. Through searching on Delicious.com, as I previously spoke of in an earlier blog, I have found many other free resources online that provide the same kind of format and capabilities. Although the program probably has many more options and applications, for my particular use as a middle grades teacher, I feel that I could find adequate resources elsewhere.

Gone Photo Huntin' with Legendary Picassa

In class, Rachel and I completed a digital photo scavenger hunt. Our scavenger hunt focused on middle grades language arts. We searched for words that are verbs or nouns to photographing dictionaries. The most challenging treasure to find was a misspelled word, but we did it! Following our completion of the activity, we then transferred the photos onto our computer and imported them into Picassa. Picassa is a free Web Album tool that is great for photo sharing! You can now view our Scavenger Hunt right above! This would be great for classroom collaboration. I then downloaded my powerpoint into my google docs. I arrived at Google Docs by logging into my gmail. Upon uploading it here, Goggle Docs gave me the option to copy and paste the embedding code in order to include it above in my Blog. Yay!

This activity would work well in the classroom for doing a hunt like the one we completed in language arts, or having the students create one of their own. The student could also make a web album for a pen pal. The students might use photos to create a magazine or newspaper article for a book project. Another great project would be synchronizing a song with various pictures within a web album by creating a slideshow. The students would choose specific photos for specific meanings within their chosen song. This would facilitate the skill of figurative language identification.

However, all of these types of activities take for granted that my students will have access to digital cameras, or that their school will provide them. In theory, this activity is beneficial, but the actuality of its probability may be unlikely. The last example of use listed above, however, could be completed in the computer lab.

Smile! It's Smilebox!

Make your own free digital scrapbook

For Spring Break, I stayed in lower Mahattan and worked with an after-school program called St. Ann's in the Bronx. My classmates introduced me to the Web 2.0 tool called Smilebox. I decided to discover the tool by creating my own scrapbook that documents my travels in The Big Apple.

As teachers, we can use this tool in many different ways. We could create a classroom newspaper, use the scrapbook for a virtual feidtrip or study abroad, or even for a digital scavenger hunt. There are many options! Check out my scrap book and see what you think!